Relias: Uprising (55 page)

 The Mysto that the Ditrinity and Rush flew on was nearly clear of the shipyard. In the distance the roar of Striker engines became audible above the commotion. Then, only seconds after they could be heard, the fighters screamed overhead and launched a volley of missiles at the cruiser, exploding harmlessly on the ships shields in brilliant flashes of blue.

 Luke snatched an abandoned Infiltrator from the ground and aimed it with one hand. He spotted a Machbike coming just overhead, took aim and pulled the trigger.

 The pilot tumbled backwards off the seat and the Machbike went motionless, suspended in air as it fell to the ground. It took out several soldiers as it crashed, tumbling across the ground and coming to rest against a burning trolley. 

 Slicing through a few Legionnaires on his way, Luke got to the Machbike and found it in damaged but working condition. With steam rising off his arms, Luke flipped the bike upright and pulled it from the flames. He threw the strap of the Infiltrator over his shoulder and started the bike back up.

 He worked the throttle and it roared to life. The entire bike shook as the powerful engines gave a deep, grumbling hum. Luke wasted no time and hit the accelerator hard, going from zero to a hundred in less than a second and banking the bike up towards the battlecruiser. Keeping low across the bike’s gas tank, Luke drew his sword and aimed the bike towards the cruiser’s docking bay.

 The city had been transformed into a full blown warzone. With the Ditrinity and Rush on board their Mysto battlecruiser, they had made it further than any of the Legionnaires could have anticipated, prompting them to unleash the full power of their virtually bottomless arsenal. People ran screaming through the streets as soldiers wheeled in massive mobile anti-air cannons while others formed up on the rooftops to fire upon the escaping cruiser. Helios had organized blockades around the entire city, having been called from every area they occupied in order to put the hammer down on the Ditrinity’s head. And they were still coming.

 Ballistic cannon blasts echoed across the city as the anti-air cannons opened fire, sending glowing streaks of hot lead blazing across the darkened night sky. The smell of gunpowder draped over the city like wicked smoke in what was once fresh, clean night air. And the ground troops, having failed to apprehend or kill both the Ditrinity and Rush, were loading onto Battlecrafts and chasing after the escaping cruiser. But more importantly, every enemy of Luke Semprys knew that he was on that ship, and any chance they had to destroy him without having to fight him hand to hand was a chance that they’d never pass up.

 Legionnaire Strikers sent volley after volley of missiles into the ship’s sides, sending reverberations throughout its entire structure while Machbikes pounded away at the docking bay’s blast doors to make way for enemy boarding parties. And, on the ship’s roof, soldiers with explosive and heavy duty arc welders cut through the hull to allow passage inside.

  Merino was powerless. No matter how loud he yelled or how hard he ordered them, nobody listened to him. They panicked, yelled, and frenetically went about their tasks with only half a collected mind. The Ditrinity, not experienced with the operation of ships this size, tried to maintain order.

 The ship had gone through every maneuver the ship was capable of and the Legionnaires, their ships larger, more powerful, but ultimately slower in consequence, somehow met them every step of the way. Merino, who was upset in the first place, had now lost his cool completely.

 In the corner near the entrance to the bridge, Seraphine sat huddled in a corner, hugging her knees to her chest with her eyes large, petrified, and vacant. Sable, looking somehow paler, laid unconsciously at her feet. Hendrick knelt over Sable and had a hand on Seraphine’s shoulder.

 “Seraphine, listen,” He said, his voice quavering as it became harder and harder to stay calm. “She’s dying. Her body usually heals itself but it isn’t this time which is why I’m asking you.”

 Seraphine didn’t react in the slightest. She continued to rock herself, her lips pressed to her knees.

 “She’s paralyzed. She took a Berserker’s axe to the back and she’s bleeding out. I need you to do what you can, like what you did for my leg that one night, just heal it up. It doesn’t even have to be all the way, just enough to stop the bleeding. Can you do that?”

 Still no response. There was no indication that his words were even reaching her ears.

 “Seraphine, please!” Hendrick said, his voice switching from calm to an angry plea. “You can heal her! I know it takes a lot of your strength but she needs you and she can’t do it for herself!” Hendrick leveled his eyes with Seraphine’s, straining himself as he forced himself to relax.  “Seraphine, listen to me. You are the last chance she has at survival. If you don’t help her now then she will die. This isn’t some ‘might’ shit scenario I’m talking about, this is what
will
happen. If you do not help her then she will die.”

 Not even a blink.

 Hendrick lost it. Grabbing both her shoulders, Hendrick raised her off the ground and slammed her against the wall.

 “SHE SAVED YOUR LIFE, GODDAMMIT, NOW SAVE HERS!”

 “Nate!” Came a deep, commanding voice.

 The bridge doors had opened. Striding powerfully through, showered in dark, drying blood, was Luke. Beneath his hefty shoulder pads and thick armor he looked intimidating, authoritative, and irrefutably dominant. His thick, toned arms bulged beneath layers of dirt, sweat, and blood as he stood tense and ready to do what had to be done.

 “Bring her here.” Luke said to Hendrick. Hendrick let Seraphine down slowly and carefully picked up Sable, then taking her over to Luke.

 “Whatever you do do it fast.”

 Hendrick set her down and Luke knelt down at her side. “What happened?”

 “A Berserker.” Hendrick replied. He looked fondly at Sable, proudly, his smile reflecting both those feelings and one of sorrow. “She took down an entire squad by herself after taking a Chainlance to the side. I almost made it in time but…” Hendrick stopped as a wave of guilt swept over him. “He had already put an axe in her back.

 Luke lifted up her side and took a look at her back. Seeing what he did scared him.

 “She’s not bleeding to death. Not from that wound.”

 “THEN WHAT THE HELL IS SHE-“

 “If she’s paralyzed then the axe damaged or severed her spinal cord. She’s not bleeding out, her body’s just shutting down.”

 This time there were no words. Hendrick was speechless. Looking down at Sable, he replied quietly. “Then what can you do?”

 “Close the wound.” Luke said without a trace of optimism. “But healing only speeds up the healing process, it doesn’t work miracles. Somebody like Seraphine could fix this with a couple more years practice and recall her actual cellular memory but…” Luke saw the expression on Hendrick’s face. It caught Luke off guard. “Listen, she’s going to make it, but we just have to pray that her body will do what it usually does and heals itself because it
can
work those kinds of miracles.”

 Not meeting Luke’s eyes, Hendrick nodded sullenly and slowly picked Sable back up in his arms. Luke put a hand on his shoulder before he went anywhere.

 “Head to the med lab. They’ve got things that’ll at least slow the process.”

 “How can I use any of that if I have no idea what I’m doing?”

 “Just use basic tools, simple meds, IV’s, antiseptics, anesthetics, you know how to set an IV, right?”

 Hendrick looked down at Sable knowing he had no choice but to try. “Yeah…” 

 “Her best chance is in the lab, Nate. Get her there.”

 Hendrick wanted to protest but he knew there was nothing else to do. With Sable hanging limp in his arms, he went through the doors and disappeared as they closed.

 “Everybody listen!” Luke said, moving towards the edge of the platform that was elevated above the rest of the bridge.

 Nobody heard him or cared to hear him. With the constant bombardment of Strikers, cannon rounds, and the approaching Helios, they were all but crazed with fear.

 “LISTEN!” Luke yelled.

 Everybody stopped and looked at him. The other members of the Ditrinity, who weren’t aware he was on board, turned and looked with relieved excitement.

 “Calm down.” Luke said, putting his hands on the railing and leaning against it. “We’ll die in minutes if we keep things up like this. Now I don’t know who if anybody was commanding you but I’m your new captain.”

 “What!” Merino cried, stomping to Luke’s side and shoving him in the arm. “You can’t just take over like that! No, I’m not letting you!”

 Unbothered, Luke glanced over to him. “Then let’s see what you’ve got.”

 Merino scowled. He clenched his fists and ground his teeth but did nothing.

 “I accept your resignation.” Luke grumbled as he looked back towards the crew. “Now, first things first. Tess?”

 Tess moved towards the central platform to the space between the control consoles. Luke nodded in approval. “And where is Shank?”

 There was a series of squeaky ‘excuse me’s as Shank appeared from beneath the platform on which Luke stood and moved to Tess’s side. With both of them standing next to each other, Luke reached satisfaction.

 “Perfect.” Luke stated, standing up straight and putting his hands behind his back. “Tess, kill Shank.” 

 Shank’s eyes went wide as Tess immediately drew her sword.

 “Wha- PLEASE WAI-“

 Her sword sliced effortlessly through Shank’s neck. His head spun off and rolled across the floor, off the platform and landing on the transparent steel dome below. Merino’s hand’s hung in front of him as the unbelievable had just happened.

 “Wha…” He stammered. His speechless shock persisted a moment longer. “Are you… are you mad! Why in the-“

 “Next time you bring a friend along, bring one who doesn’t accept bribes from the Commune.” Luke growled. He shoved Merino to the side and continued his address. “Alright, here’s the situation. You probably think that there’s a good three or four Helio armadas out there coming after us. I saw it all for myself. There’s a lot more with plenty on the way. There’s more than half a dozen Striker squadrons coming and coming fast and with that much firepower there’ll be more than enough to bust through our shields and take us down.”

 Any hope that remained in the room disappeared. Luke leaned on the railing and went on. “But we can make it. Not like this though. Not with everybody panicking and not thinking on their feet. You wanna survive? You do absolutely everything I say.”

 “Yeah?” Merino scoffed, folding his arms indignantly. “I’m sure you have an
expansive
knowledge of naval command and strategy and I’m sure you know absolutely everything there is to know about a ship this size.” 

 “I was a Dark Admiral during the Crusades and I’ve captained every cruiser in existence including Helios, Primals, and obsolete Mystos. Have anything else to say?” Luke glared at him, challenging him. Merino said nothing. “Then back the hell off.”

 Merino shrunk away. Luke turned back to the crew.

 “There’s good news though. Right now we’re flying through unstabilized air and I’ve already set up a barrier beneath the ship so we’re safe until we get close to a stabilizer-equipped Helio. Now everybody get to your stations and stay there!” He said, stepping the stairs on the sides of the platform and moving to the captain’s chair. “No talking unless I ask you something and keep calm. I don’t care what happens, stay calm. Ditrinity.”

 They were scattered around the room. Luke looked them all over.

 “We’ve got boarding parties that’ve cut through the outer hull and are flooding the upper decks. Take care of them and move to the starboard turrets.”

 They nodded and immediately went into a pained but determined trot. As a group they ascended the stairs and moved through the sliding doors into the halls outside.

 “Give me a status report. I want hull integrity, shield strength, and power levels.”

 There was a flurry of typed keys and clicks.

 “Hull integrity is satisfactory.”

 “Shield strength is resting at seventy five percent.”

 “Generator energy levels are at ninety five percent.”

 Luke took it all in. “Navigators! Give me a reading.”

 “We have five Helios, two Primals and a Mysto to the west-southwest-south, six Helios, two Primals coming north-northeast-east, another six Helios and a Mysto coming from West-Northwest-North, and eight Helios, five Primals and four Mystos coming from South-Southeast-East.”

 That was the direction of Pyre. They were completely surrounded. Every city that had any Navy at all was sending everything they had after them. But it wasn’t as much as Luke had originally thought. “Is that all the cruisers in the region?”

 “No sir, just the craft that are within two miles.”

 Silently Luke swore to himself.

 With that kind of opposition they weren’t getting to Pyre. If Shank had mentioned anything about the mission, which judging by the sheer size of the forces that had been sent after them, he had, then Pyre was locked down entirely. They wouldn’t make it within twenty miles before every anti-air missile battery on the city’s outer defenses were initiated. They’d die before they could even see the city, and they’d much less be able to get into the heart of the city to complete their mission on schedule.

 There were only a few more things Luke could try before they aborted. With the consequences of mission failure being what they were, he had to at least attempt those final options. Luke pressed the comm. switch. The first sound he was greeted with was muffled yells and gunfire.

 “Ditrinity.” Luke said.”Progress?”

 There was a bass grunt before a reply came from Morlo. “Working on the last squad right now, civ welders are up patching the hole and all decks will be secure.”

 “Copy that.” Luke replied. “Finish off the Firsts and move to the cannons fast. I’m going to need ya here in a minute.” Luke’s attention broke towards the crew as Morlo ended the transmission. “Navigators, how many ships are coming at us Northeast-North-Northwest?”