Relias: Uprising (28 page)

 “Tell us what’s going on!” Luke demanded, making his frustration clear. Alighieri reigned in his emotions, stopping himself immediately and cringing himself to a calm.

 “You remember Seraphine Leyen, don’t you?” Alighieri said in a deceptively calm voice. Luke straightened up and his breath became short. The rest of the Ditrinity saw his drastic change in behavior and hid their impatience at the break in the conversation.

 “You actually did it.” Luke said. Alighieri gave a small nod and bowed his head. Luke exhaled noisily and thought to himself. They had been trying to figure out a way to use Seraphine against the Commune but they hadn’t actually figured out a way to do it without significant danger to the girl. Obviously, though, that uncertain and lurking danger was still an issue. The desperation with the situation had changed significantly though and it was starting to seem as if the Darks didn’t have any other choice.

 “She’s just a girl.” Alighieri said as though in guilt. “I know. But her ability is one that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. She can take life away with her mind, Luke. She can simply look at somebody and decide that she doesn’t want them to live and they’ll drop dead. Hook her up to a Furo amplifier with enough power and she can connect with anybody on the planet and as many people as she wants.”

 Luke understood what Alighieri was saying about Seraphine. He knew more about Seraphine than Alighieri did; Luke had worked with Seraphine since she was only four. She had never meant to hurt anybody, a tragic reality that brought her to Luke’s attention in the first place. But the explanation was more than a simple explanation of Seraphine’s abilities; it was a full explanation of Alighieri’s intentions with her.

 “So what’s the mission?” Luke asked.

 Alighieri coughed, wiped some tired from his eyes and sat up straight. “Rush’s mission was to make their way through Legionnaire territory, use a battlecruiser that we have waiting for us in Leramato and infiltrate Pyre, link up with the Furo amplifier located on the bottom level of the city’s seven layers.”

 “The world’s largest Furo reactor.” Sable said.

 Alighieri pointed to Sable and nodded. “Precisely. Once Seraphine hooks up with that amplifier she can connect her mind with the minds of every Count, General, and Communal official in this hemisphere and kill them instantly.”

 The prospect of instant death triggered by one’s mind seemed especially intriguing to Hendrick, who leaned forward in his chair with renewed interest.

 “… so how exactly does this wonderful maneuver work?”

 “What happens is she connects with a person’s mind.” Luke said before Alighieri could respond. “When she makes that connection Seraphine can simply remove that person’s life from their body and make them a vegetable. It works the same as telepathy but she takes that extra step where she actually kills the person.”

 “Kind of like me.” Sable said. “Some Durants have abilities that nobody else has. Singularities. Like Luke can have super-strength, I can heal fast and Frenz can cut things with his mind. Seraphine can link up with another person and just kill them.”

 Hendrick was wide eyed, looking back at Alighieri with an awed expression and a slack jaw. “…That’s rad.”

 “So that’s the mission.” Alighieri said letting his hands fall into his lap and looking over the whole group. “Rush is escorting Seraphine to Pyre to link her up to the Furo amplifier in the Pyrian Furo power plant where she’ll connect with the minds of Communal leadership and kill them. They die and the Darks come in and pick up the pieces and bring back the Republican Union of Relias.”

 Luke went off into thought and went quiet. It was a plan. Not a very sound plan, but if they actually managed to get into Pyre and link up to that amplifier then the chances of the plan working were high. But the question that kept scratching at Luke’s ankles was why Rush had to go all the way to Pyre to hook up to a Furo amplifier; every Furo reactor manufactured within the last ten years had an amplifier to maximize energy output and every reactor made before that was in the process of being retrofitted with one. But the reactor in Pyre was the largest in the world, and with a larger reactor comes a larger amplifier. The more powerful the amplifier then the greater effect that Seraphine’s powers might have. As Luke thought harder he realized that Sam was trying to take down the entire Commune at once. With an amplifier like that Seraphine would be able to link up to tens if not hundreds of the Communal leadership. Luke liked it. It was risky, almost suicidal, but Luke felt comfortable with it.

 Killing the First Legionnaire on a scale that Luke could only dream of. Within an hour they could wipe out thousands of Legionnaires after they had already taken out President Lynch, the Counts, and every Legionnaire commander in the world. But Frenz would live. Luke wouldn’t let Seraphine take that kill; the death of Frenz belonged to Luke.

 The fantasy began to dissipate when the realization set in that Tess was a part of that suicidal group. It frustrated Luke that he had even taken his mind off of Tess. This wasn’t about killing the Legionnaire; this was about saving the only child he had left and keeping her safe. This wasn’t a time to figure out revenge. Luke had to save Tess.

 “Luke,” Alighieri said with his eyes hardened. “This is the last chance we have to survive. Not a single one of those people out there are Durants. Which leaves you. You, Tess, and Seraphine as the last good Durants on Havok. If this doesn’t work… there’s nothing else that we can do. We’re in the red as it is and this is the last thing we have to hold onto. We’re reaching out from the grave with this one. That’s why I’m asking you… no, begging you, for forgiveness and for your help. The Legionnaire are closing in on them and anybody else I send will get it handed to them… the Dark soldiers don’t… They’re scared of you. The Legionnaire’s scared of you. They’re scared because you aren’t like the other Darks. You can hurt them. You were right with what you told me and I should’ve listened. And now there are over a hundred thousand corpses scattered across Praemon and that count’ll only get bigger. You know how to handle the Legionnaires. We need you to protect Rush, to get them to Pyre alive. They’re our last hope and they’ll die without you.”

 They understood. It didn’t take Alighieri’s reiterations to make them realize how important this kind of operation was. Up until this point they were convinced that there was nothing left, especially since Rush left without Thompson and Ranjak who were currently MIA. And the Darks were no longer available for an effective counterstrike. Hell, they couldn’t stage a counterstrike at all. They had nothing anymore. They were the furthest they’ve ever been from victory yet here they were with a possibility of taking down the entire Commune in a single shot. So, strangely, this is the closest they’ve ever been to such a spectacular and decisive victory. But Luke couldn’t let himself get obsessed with this operation.

 “General!”Came the frightened voice of one of the other communications operators. Everybody in the Battlecraft looked towards the door. Alighieri got to his feet with a concerned expression, looking towards the rest of the group as though he wondered if they had heard it too.

 The cry came again, louder this time. “General! General!”

 The door to the Battlecraft flew open. Alighieri was the first one out. He hit the ground with his head spinning. All Darks within hearing distance were moving towards a Battlecraft located near the front of the fleet. They crowded around the side of the Battlecraft and stuck their heads in the open door. Inside, sitting in front of several video monitors, a radio operator sat away from the video with a face of horror. The group forced their way through the tightly packed crowd and got an angle on the inside of the craft.

 There were several screens along the control console, all showing the same transmission.

 After struggling to each other’s sides the Ditrinity watched the screens, curious as to what the operator was so concerned about.

 The transmission suffered a good amount of interference. Between the static lines that crawled from the tops of the screens they could see what looked like a Legionnaire commander standing in front the smoking ashes of a home. He held a bloodied, broken man aloft while another laid shaking and beaten on the ground at his feet.

 “Is this what you got up about?” Came the voice through a surge of radio static.

 The Dark immigrants knew that voice as the one they heard in their nightmares: It was Frenz.

 “This is seriously the best you have?” Frenz said with a yell.

 The Darks were quiet, some children and women whimpered. They saw the two people that Frenz spoke of. Luke could feel his heart speed up.

 Laying on the ground, his armor broken, torn and bloodied head to toe, was Thompson. He was pinned there, a large cutlass thrust through his arm and embedded in the ground. His other arm dangled at the elbow as Thompson tried to remove the blade from his arm. With the arm having been snapped, he couldn’t muster the strength to so much as grip the blade. His blood-crusted hand shook as it brushed against the hilt of the cutlass while his face was exhausted and dazed from sheer pain.

 Then there was Ranjak. Frenz held him in the air by a section of his chest plate. He dangled there, his arms and legs swinging freely, almost like they were made of rubber. Blood gushed from the gaps in his armor and ran in streams down his legs and onto the ground. Frenz huffed, as though offended by their inability to hurt him.

 “
This
is who you send me!” Frenz yelled. “These two pathetic, prepubescent pinpricks! They are nothing! If these are the strongest you have then the Commune was wrong to give you the respect they have been. If these are the two you’ve been looking to as your heroes then you will all die quicker than I could have ever hoped.”

 The crowd was taken back, petrified, hopeless. Seeing Ranjak bleeding out and Thompson going into shock was more than most of them could bear. But they couldn’t look away. They were stoic, frozen, mesmerized by desperation and fear. Seeing their two champions so weak and helpless at the hands of Vladmir Frenz stole what little courage they had left; Thompson and Ranjak, the men who had fended off so many Commune invasions, the men who had so effortlessly killed so many soldiers of the IA and the First Legionnaire, who were now powerless and doomed at the hands of the devil. There was no hope for them now. They had nothing and nobody to whom they could turn. Many people in the group began to whimper and cry, sobbing quietly to themselves and turning to each other for comfort.

 “Turn it off!” Alighieri shouted, breaking from his own discouraged trance. The operator threw his hands in the air and pounded the keys as if to show that it wasn’t working.

 “I can’t!” He answered. “I can’t!”

 “Give me a challenge!” Frenz started to yell, becoming almost fanatic. “Give me a fight! Give me Luke Semprys!”

 The cries and whimpers ceased momentarily as all heads turned to the man in white standing at their front. Luke didn’t notice. His eyes were on the screen.

 “Give me the man I
want
to kill!” Frenz exclaimed fiercely. “Not these pathetic rats!”

 Frenz drew his hand across Ranjak’s stomach hard. The armor split entirely and there was a burst of dark blood from the opening. Ranjak convulsed and his eyes went wide. Thompson was drowsy, his hand merely bumping the hilt of the sword while his eyes were half closed. Frenz looked Ranjak in the face and said something quiet enough so that the camera couldn’t pick it up. Frenz gave an evil grin. Through the sweat and pain Ranjak shook his head, his mouth barely able to mutter words of begging. Frenz shook his head and Ranjak’s mouth could be seen saying the same words over and over.

 
No... Please… No

 
Frenz gritted his teeth and thrust his hand into the gap in the armor. Ranjak’s face went white and his eyes bulged as Frenz’s arm was almost elbow deep in Ranjak’s belly. Frenz made several jerking motions. Ranjak’s entire body quivered with every wrench.  After a violent twist of Frenz’s arm there was a loud wet crack and Ranjak went still. Frenz withdrew his blood-soaked arm and tossed the limp body to the ground. The gory corpse hit the ground like a wet rag.

 “You’ve fought this for too long!” Frenz said back to the camera, wiping his arm off on Thompson’s ragged cloak. “You will all bleed and die like these two brats right here. The Darks are scattered and broken and I am the one that will be hunting you all down. And you can believe that I will have fun with it. As for you, Luke, your death will be my favorite. You can’t understand how much I look forward to our first meeting in a long time. We’re going to have a hell of a time!”

 Everybody looked at Luke, their eyes watery, red, yet hopeful. Seeing Frenz’s threats and jeers and watching Luke’s response was the encouragement they needed.

 But Luke was oblivious to them. Frenz’s big-headed taunts and idol threats got his blood going. It made his breath heavy. The sole act of seeing Frenz was more powerful and more potent than a quart sized shot of adrenaline. And here Frenz was, explaining how excited he was to face Luke after all this time. But Frenz was a show-off. Luke knew Frenz better than Frenz knew himself. And Frenz was wrong; Luke was the one who was thrilled about their first meeting.

 But seeing Frenz standing there ankle deep in the smoking cinders of Praemon gave Luke new resolve; it made him more determined. Worse though, it intensified Luke’s already blinding desire for revenge. Luke furrowed his brows and gritted his teeth.
You can have me, Frenz. Just wait. I’m coming.

 Luke spun on his heel and broke back through the crowd. They parted immediately. Their heads were no longer bowed, their eyes no longer teary. Luke strode furiously through the crowd trailed by his white Razorback skin long coat. The Ditrinity needed no invitation. They turned around an followed in twos. Alighieri scrambled after them and made his way to Luke’s side.

 “We need supplies.” Luke said shortly.

 Alighieri struggled to keep pace. Luke went on.