Heir of Shandara (Book 4) (12 page)

Thraw closed in on the remaining Zekaran soldier and dispatched him as quickly as he had the first.

Thraw skidded to a halt in front of Aaron.

“You must flee, human. It’s not safe for your kind here.”

The Forsaken were circling around the barrier.

“Fight with us,” Aaron said.

Thraw’s green eyes flashed, and the skin along his body rippled.

“Come with us, Thraw. You saved my life. Allow me to repay the debt I owe you.”

Thraw narrowed his gaze at him. “Hythariam fight at your side.”
 

“Yes. They fight the Zekara just as you do.”

Verona called after him from the trees.

“I will come with you, human,” Thraw said.

Aaron severed the tethers that kept the barrier in place and darted away from the advancing Forsaken. Thraw matched his speed, running on all fours. Aaron took in more energy and went faster. Sounds of pursuit eventually faded into the distance. He needed answers. How had the Zekara known they were coming? Where had they got so many Forsaken from? They must have been rounding up people from the smaller northern towns, but how had they missed it? They needed to evacuate the towns and farms between here and Rexel. Otherwise, those people would be doomed.
 

Then Aaron recalled that the Forsaken had been drawn to him upon the battlefield. It was almost as if they had known to look for him. What was it about him that drew the Forsaken to him like moths to a flame? Could General Halcylon have that kind of control where he could have the Forsaken focus on a specific person?

Aaron slowed, joining Verona and the few remaining FNA soldiers waiting to go through the portal opened with the keystone accelerator. None noticed Thraw, whose skin easily adapted to his surroundings. He could sense Thraw through his connection to the energy. Bayen glanced at him before going through the portal. Perhaps Aaron wasn’t the only one to know of Thraw’s presence. Aaron nodded to Verona and went through the portal, with Thraw going through at the last moment.
 

C
HAPTER
11

THREAT

The mobile command center was essentially a hovering fortress. Halcylon remembered when they had hundreds of these vehicles. Equipped with multilayer attack and defense capabilities. His engineers had migrated the cyber warfare suite to the vehicle’s main systems. He could have used several more command centers, but most had been destroyed on Hytharia.
 

There was nothing left of the Hythariam home planet. After they dealt with the human menace, they would set their efforts at rebuilding Safanar to Hytharia’s former glory. Those were the reasons he gave to the Zekara he had left behind, much to their disappointment. They would have followed him even with their families in tow, but in truth he didn’t need them. The few hundred nonessential Hythariam would only slow them down.

“An effective test, sir,” Chinta said.

“Indeed it was,” Halcylon answered. “Has there been any sign of the Safanarions since their attack?”

“None. They’ve retreated into the woods. The Forsaken have performed better than I expected,” Chinta said.

Chinta, like his other commanders, had expressed serious doubts about infecting the humans with the Ryakul virus, even with Ronin’s modification of the original strain. Ronin was a miracle worker. The commanders had cited risks, such as a lack of control, as their numbers grew. They had several hundred from the crop of humans they had taken from the smaller towns, and that number would continue to grow.

“They performed their task well. They fulfilled their purpose better than expected. It was embedded into the strain to spread itself. Once the humans are infected, they are easily controlled. This is a powerful weapon we have, and all we have to do is point it in the right direction,” Halcylon said.

Ronin joined them, leaving his lab for the first time in days. His gray science officer’s uniform was impeccable as ever. His calculating golden-eyed gaze swept each of them in turn.

“I’ve reviewed the feeds from our drones. The infected humans reacted to one particular human with more focus than all the others. I think you can guess who that is,” Ronin said.

“
Him?
” Halcylon asked, and Ronin nodded.
 

Halcylon still didn’t know how Aaron Jace had escaped Hytharia before the planet was destroyed. He’d sentenced the human to death by leaving him on their dying planet, thinking it a fitting end, but now he regretted not killing the human when he had the chance.

“Is this some type of glitch, or is this a problem?” Halcylon asked.

“The behavior is indicative of when two natural enemies meet. We’ve seen the pattern before with the Dragons. Once they become a Ryakul, the virus is ever working to spread itself. Dragons, hating what is happening to their species, work to eradicate the Ryakuls. The oddity here is that the virus reacts with even more intensity with this particular human,” Ronin said.

Chinta rapped his armored fist upon the table. “What difference does this make? He’s a human and therefore susceptible to the virus.”

“The difference is— ” Ronin began, barely hiding his irritation with the commander, and brought up the holo display showing the events the drone captured before it was destroyed. “The difference is that this isn’t just a few Forsaken reacting to a nearby human. This affected all the Forsaken in the immediate area. They focused in on him like a beacon. We need to understand why that is.”

Halcylon watched the video feed and nodded. “I see your point, Ronin. It’s hard to tell if the Forsaken were out of control during this time.”

“It is hard to tell. As soon as the humans retreated and there was some distance between the Forsaken and Aaron, their behavior returned to normal,” Ronin said.

“I have no doubts we will see Aaron and this Free Nations Army of his before long. We can’t halt our efforts because of some peculiarities with the Ryakul virus. Would I like to understand this better? Of course, but we have a tight time line. If the Forsaken want to concentrate on this one human, then that’s fine with me. It will mean more of their side will get caught in the crosshairs as they try to protect Aaron. This could actually serve our cause well. Remember, the Forsaken just need to do some of the heavy lifting so we can conserve our troops for the real fight,” Halcylon said.

Chinta agreed almost immediately, but Ronin was still concerned about this new development, which gave Halcylon some pause.

“I don’t think they will try another surprise attack again and will more than likely consolidate their defense for the city of Rexel. We should be ready for another attack regardless,” Halcylon said.

“We’ve found the bodies of three of our soldiers that I think you need to see,” Ronin said.
 

Halcylon nodded, and they left their mobile command center. Their march was halted for now, but they would resume within the hour. Ronin led them toward the edge of the forest.

“I had the bodies cordoned off after I reviewed the feeds from the drones,” Ronin said.

A pair of soldiers remained focused on the forest away from their temporary camp. No doubt the feeds in their helmets had already alerted them to their approach. Upon the ground were three shock troops with their powered armor gashed open.

Halcylon frowned. “Claw marks?” he asked.

Chinta squatted down, running his fingers along the gashes on the back of one of the soldiers’ legs. “This is something new. Could this be a beast the Free Nations Army brought with them?”

Halcylon studied the wounds, his mind rebuilding the demise of his soldiers with forensic detail. “No, I’ve seen this before. This is the work of a hunter from Hytharia.”

“Project Thorn?” Ronin asked.

“I’m not familiar with Project Thorn,” Chinta said, looking up from the dead soldiers.

“Genetic modification to our soldiers,” Halcylon said. “Cross-species modification to be exact. At least that was the start of it. Once the project yielded results, we stepped up the enhancements. One of things the project achieved was merging our species with that of a maul-cat.”

Chinta’s eyebrows raised in alarm. “I thought the maul-cats were too vicious to be controlled.”

“Not when you add certain genes from the Hythariam, particularly those for intelligence,” Halcylon said.

“The only reason it worked is because we have a common ancestor,” Ronin said.

“We used them for covert operations. The maul-cat’s ability for blending in with its environment is unparalleled. I haven’t seen claw marks like this in a very long time,” Halcylon said.

“No ordinary claws, even from a maul-cat, could cut through our armor, especially the armor of the shock troops,” Chinta said.

Ronin gave a single nod. “Their skeletal structure was reinforced to make up for their inferior size.”

“Inferior size?” Chinta asked.

“They’re only four or five feet in length, but don’t let their size fool you. Their strength rivals that of any Hythariam, even in powered armor or with Nanite enhancement. Maul-cats were picked because of their durability, but the project was abandoned,” Ronin answered.

“All true,” Halcylon said. “However, we kept a few in cryostasis.”

“Why was the project abandoned? By the sound of it, they made lethal killing machines,” Chinta said.

“Intelligence,” Ronin said. “The maul-cat’s intelligence grew by leaps and bounds when crossed with our species.”

Chinta smirked. “I bet they wondered why they had to take orders.”

“It’s worse than that. We’re their natural enemies, and no amount of genetic modification could change that,” Ronin said.

“We tried,” Halcylon said. “But it made them much less effective in combat. What we were able to do is focus them on particular targets. Once the targets were taken out, we lured them to a place so they could be recaptured. The real question is how a maul-cat is here on Safanar in the first place.”

“You said before that a few were kept in cryostasis. Were they brought here along with everything else we were able to scavenge?” Chinta asked.

Halcylon shook his head. “No. They were deemed nonessential.”

“Could this be the work of the traitors? Perhaps something they had kept here on Safanar to be used if the barrier between worlds went down?” Ronin asked.

Halcylon glanced at the bodies again. “They wouldn’t have the stomach to create one. It was a black ops project. None would have had access, which can only mean one thing.”

“What’s that?” Chinta asked.

“That we have some traitors within our midst. How else would a maul-cat suddenly appear?” Halcylon said.

Chinta frowned. “Are you sure? It’s possible, but highly unlikely. What good would one maul-cat be? How much damage could it actually do?”

Halcylon signaled to the other soldiers to fall in and led the others back to camp, his mind racing with the implications of the appearance of the maul-cat.
Who would be the target? Me?

“I want guard details put on all commanders around the clock. They don’t get a moment alone. I want all our equipment checked and rechecked with a sporadic schedule,” Halcylon said to the soldiers, who nodded and spoke into their comms devices. “These creatures were designed to strike from the shadows. Any of us could be the target. They were designed to be able to overcome hardened military assets. They’re equipped to evade our means to detect them.”

Chinta’s deadpan expression became grim as his military-trained mind worked the details and came to grips with what he was being told.

“There are protocols to be followed so that we can detect them,” Ronin said. “Sir, with your permission I would like clearance to review the specifics of Project Thorn. Perhaps there is something there that I can use to help protect our leadership.”

“Granted,” Halcylon said, and he watched Ronin’s back as he headed off to do his work. He started a mental list of who would have had access to release a maul-cat. It wouldn’t be that simple. The traitor would have needed to know how to bring the creature out of cryostasis and imprint a target. The list grew shorter, and his head science officer was at the top.
 

There
were
other means he could employ through the use of the Nanites to ensure compliance among his more questionable subordinates, which he had avoided so far. Using the Nanites for widespread control came at a price, with initiative being primary among them. It was a subtle thing to retrain someone’s mind, and there was always the risk of a breakdown. He knew Ronin had been among the traitors living on Safanar who had come back to Hytharia. The scientist had changed sides, and it was with his talents that they had been able to modify the Ryakul virus to affect humans.