The Broken Kingdom (62 page)

Within the streets of Astar chaos ruled.
Flames, ruined buildings and bits of broken planes littered the
once orderly city. But the Astarians fought. Tanks, RAWs and MEWs
filled the streets. No civilians were in sight. The human soldiers
operated the weapons, while the Astarian gemengs fought alongside,
hiding behind debris and fighting with PEWs.

The King was nearly impossible to hit with a
SIGPEW. But he could only look so many ways at once. And so the
foot soldiers fought and hit. And he could not evade the RAWs. He
tried to take them out first. He’d decimate one street, using only
his claws, or sometimes the street would just explode with a
terrible light. But then he’d come upon another street, filled with
more weapons.

The air was filled with flashing lights,
smoke and heat, and screams. The King had to fight for every inch
of the city he took, and the Astarians never stopped fighting.

Chapter 75

‘
H
ow long do you think
we’ll be down here?’

Keili shot him a frigid stare, as if to say
be quiet!

Razra decided to turn his attention to the
other people huddled in the shelter with them. The shelter was at
full capacity. People sat quietly on the floor. The elderly woman
in charge of the shelter, a doctor, had a radio and was answering
the questions of a young family. At the back of the shelter were
cupboards full of blankets, food and water.

Razra hoped they wouldn’t be down here long
enough to need any of that. The last time he’d been in a shelter
was when Garrondin was attacked. He tried not to think about
that.

‘So, what do you have planned for next
Restday?’ he asked Keili.

Keili shot him another glare.

‘I don’t have any plans.’ Razra sighed.
‘Maybe I’ll head to the CTA.’

‘
Shhh!
’

‘I’m allowed to talk!’ he replied, offended.
He didn’t see how sitting in tense silence was any better!

‘Razra!’

‘Fine, I won’t talk to you!’ he said
huffily. He immediately regretted it as he didn’t know what else to
do. It was dreadfully boring down here, and there was nothing to do
but worry. Surely talking was better than that? It’s not as if he
was the only person talking either!

Everyone suddenly fell silent as the room
shook, and dust fell from the ceiling.

‘R-razra…?’ Keili squeaked, reaching for
him. ‘What was that?’

‘I-I’m not sure…’ he trailed off, taking her
hand.

The room shook again.

It was nice to have a SIGPEW in her hands
again.

Jillia resolutely ignored the other members
of her unit, her eyes fixed on the lone ehlkrid above the city. She
wasn’t worried as the dark speck flew over the shield. Ehlkrid came
and sniffed around the city all the time, she wasn’t worried about
just
one
of them.

The rest of her unit apparently agreed, as
they talked amongst themselves about inconsequential things, paying
little attention to the creature above.

Jillia’s eyes went to the wall, and the
forest peeking over the top. She was glad she’d been stationed
here. The last month had been unbearable. She’d been forced to keep
her excitement concealed when she heard the news.
She’s
alive!
Her friends and family guessed her feelings though, and
whenever they looked at her she could see pleading in their eyes,
don’t do anything stupid.

And she didn’t do anything stupid. She
didn’t complain when soldiers followed her around, when she wasn’t
allowed a weapon during training, or when she found out her SIGPEW
was only loaded with a low grade charge when she was on duty with
the Internal Defence Force.
Low grade.
I
still
only get a low grade charge.
It didn’t really matter, she
never actually
fought
anyone, but it stung. If she
was
attacked, the best she could do was maybe stun someone.
She was surprised they didn’t lock her up or throw her out of the
military.

Jillia could barely contain herself. Just
over that wall, gemengs from the Plains were fighting. She was sure
Astar had a plan to deal with them after the ehlkrid were defeated,
and desperately hoped her old friend had a plan too. A plan that
included getting Jillia out of Astar.

I wonder if she even remembers me.

‘Hey, what’s it doing?’ Captain Telis
exclaimed.

Jillia looked up, startled by the tone of
alarm in his voice.

Jillia’s mouth opened in surprise as she saw
the dark speck hover above the shield and then… bright light arced
across the shield, and then… then it shattered!

Jillia heard a scream of fear and panicked
cries. She heard Captain Telis on his radio trying to figure out
how… how could that happen?! Suddenly light flashed in the air
again as smaller shields sprung up all around the city. Jillia
barely registered that.
The shield… it broke the shield…

The sound of distant fighting reached her
ears as Predators and Cavachi Worms unleashed an assault on the
ehlkrid.

It broke the shield!

‘Jillia?’

Jillia looked down at the plaintive voice,
and saw an older man standing in the doorway of one of the
dormitories.

‘What’s happening?’ the man asked, his voice
weak. Jillia knew he was ill, too ill to fight. Gemeng children too
young to join the military were allowed in the shelters, but every
other gemeng was expected to fight.

‘Stay inside!’ Jillia snapped, trying to
keep her panic from her voice. She wasn’t excited anymore. ‘Stay
inside, don’t come out until someone comes and gets you.’

The man disappeared from the doorway and the
door banged shut.

‘What’s our task?’ she demanded of her
captain, who’d finished speaking on the radio.

He was pale, his eyes wide with fear. ‘We’re
to move further into the city we-’

He was cut off as the sky exploded with
light and a thunderous boom rolled through the air. Jillia pressed
her hands over her ears and closed her eyes tightly. When she
opened her eyes again she looked up and saw an altered skyline.

‘N-no… what…’

‘Did that… where are? What happened to the
Shield Tower!’

Jillia looked towards the Shield Tower, and
saw the top third of it
simply wasn’t there anymore.

She felt sick with fear, her legs were weak.
How are we supposed to fight that?!

‘Everyone!’ Captain Telis yelled, ‘We’re to
move into the centre, and assist in the fight against the ehlkrid!
Move!’

Jillia followed the rest of her unit
mindlessly. Horrible explosions ripped through the city, shaking
the earth. She heard screams of fear and pain, and sudden flashes
of fire. Her mind erratically jumped from her friends and family in
the military, to the children in the shelters.

They saw a team of soldiers handling a
MEW.

‘We’re to protect the MEW!’ Captain Teilis
roared above the sounds of fighting.

‘What is that?!’

‘What?’

She looked up as she heard screaming, and
saw a dark shape swooping down.

Captain Telis skidded to a halt. ‘FIRE!’ he
ordered, and a stream of golden light burst from his SIGPEW at the
winged man in front of them.

There was a brilliant flash, and a deep
thrumming noise as the MEW let out a burst of light. The flash of
the SIGPEW paled in comparison.

The man laughed as the light hit him and
faded.

His horrible laugh bounced off the
buildings, echoing through the city.

Jillia didn’t know why she did it, whether
it was because her SIGPEW only had low grade, or because she sensed
something, or maybe just because she was a coward. But she threw
herself into a doorway, her heart hammering painfully against her
chest.

Just as she got the door closed, the street
erupted in light. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming. The
light faded. She sat perfectly still, tears rolling down her
face.

She didn’t hear anything for a few
moments.

She slowly eased the door open and looked
out. She saw the sides of the buildings were scorched and cracking.
She briefly noticed her hand was red, as if it had been burnt. She
didn’t see anything else in the street.

She looked around. Where was her unit? Where
was the MEW? Where was the creature? There was nothing here.

She bit back a sob. She heard a crack and
looked up at the damaged buildings above. Without another thought
she fled from the street. She didn’t know where she was going or
what to do. She just ran.

Chapter 76

‘
H
e’s been down there a
long time.’ Riley said.

why do you not fight with
the people of the city?
the Dragon asked.

‘Because I need them to fear me. I’m aiming
for something more than just the death of the King. But I will
fight, if Astar falls I will fight. But even more than that… they
are the only people with any chance of killing him, Dragon. I
wouldn’t even be able to get near him. Neither would any of my
warriors.’

They waited in a heavy silence. They heard
the dull booms, saw flashes of light. But they couldn’t tell what
was happening.

Minutes ticked by.

And then a tower, its top broken, just
toppled slowly down into the city. A few seconds later they heard a
terrible crash.

Riley bent over low with a moan. Vann
quickly grabbed her. Her hands were on her knees, her skin sweaty
and pale.

After a moment she stood up straight again.
Vann didn’t say anything, but he held her tightly.

And then they saw the King rise above the
city. He perched on the side of a shattered building as he sent
blasts of power down into the streets below.

And the dragon suddenly lifted off into the
air.

He roared at the ehlkrid.

And Riley heard him.

I DEMAND YOU COME. THE
SLAUGHTERER OF ANDALLA DEMANDS IT. THE KING IS WEAK, WEAKER THAN
US. LET US FINISH HIM. LET ONE OF US CLAIM HIS CROWN! COME!
And the Dragon flew off towards the city.

Riley’s head was pounding so hard she almost
didn’t see those of the ehlkrid that could fly take off after the
Dragon.

Soon the skies above Astar were filled with
an assortment of flying monsters. Some of the ground troops fired
on the ehlkrid, but they soon realised they were attacking the
King, and stopped.

The King turned his attention to his
subjects, blasting them out of the sky one by one while others came
in and attacked him. Suddenly the Dragon was flying straight up.
And the sky exploded in light again. Somehow, it didn’t seem as
strong as before. The Dragon avoided it. The sky was empty of the
other ehlkrid. The Dragon flew down, fire exploding from his
mouth.

And Riley heard it, like a scream from far
away.