Relias: Uprising (31 page)

 “Better get back into that log, good-lookin’.” He said gruffly.

 Sable didn’t listen. She kept firing, polishing off the last of her bullets and loading in another clip.

 “Get back there.” She said as she opened fire on the approaching squads.

 “…Wait a min…” Kristik replied. “You just-“

 “Go!” She exclaimed.

 “Sable!” Hendrick yelled. “They’re coming up on all sides! Get in here now!”

 Sable took a quick look around and realized just how lucky she was that she wasn’t dead yet. Legionnaires were everywhere, running along the fallen trees, hopping over logs, and flooding towards their crude, poorly defended position. Sable took off towards the cover and hopped inside just as Hendrick reached forward, grabbed  an angered Kristik by the back and pulled him back into the log.

 The log was dark and musty. With Kristik in tow Hendrick fell in onto his side. He landed in a damp mess of wood. Kristik landed on top of him and knocked the wind from him. Hendrick regained his breath and rolled to his stomach.

 “…mother of all…”

 He climbed to his knee and was faced with a young woman, around eighteen, with perfect features, a slender and athletic body and long dark hair that grew down to her mid back. In both gloved hands she held pistols and resting loosely around her elbows were chrome bracelets that normally rested around her wrists. With dirt smeared across her face she looked at Hendrick, her eyes going wide and hopeful. Hendrick gave a wry smile and got to his feet.

 “Look at this... Serenity’s all growed up now.” He said.

 Looking down Hendrick could see that the entire log was hollow and large enough for him to walk down it crouching only slightly. The opening that he had fallen into was no more than seven feet long and both Tess and the ex-Monolith were laying down covering fire. Further down the wooden tunnel hugging her knees tightly to her chest was the girl, the Durant name Seraphine.  Hendrick whistled to himself seeing that she was a lot younger than he had anticipated; she wasn’t any older than fifteen. She shook and trembled as the battle raged on and looked at Hendrick through big, watery eyes. Hendrick went to give her a few choice words of reassurance but stopped himself. They didn’t have time.

 They had to move fast and Hendrick wasn’t even sure if his plan was going to work. What he
did
know was that the Legionnaire would be on them in less than a minute and they’d be bloody chunks of meat if they didn’t move. With that Hendrick found Kristik climbing clumsily up the inside of the log towards the surface where he would undoubtedly rejoin the fight. With Kristik’s equipment belt at eye level, Hendrick plucked three miniaturized particle charges from his belt. The only hand Kristik held to the wall with flew back to his belt, causing him to fall back to the bottom of the log.

 “Hey!” He shouted, reaching out towards Hendrick from the ground. “What ya think you’re doin’!”

 Hendrick ignored the remark and armed both charges for detonation, turning them over in his hands and making sure everything was in place. “Kristik, Big Guy, keep up the cover fire while the rest of us get down here. Come down when I tell you to.”

 It seemed like the two wanted to give a harsh retort but neither could afford the time it took to issue one. Tess hopped down from her perch on the inside of the log and gave Hendrick a disapproving look.

 “But Hendrick, you know that I-“

 “Tess, shut up and get down here.” Hendrick said. There was no joking in his voice. Tess set her jaw and joined alongside him. Hendrick looked back towards Serenity and snapped his fingers for her attention. “Hey, grab the girl and follow me and do exactly what I-“

 “COMIN’ IN!” Came a deep, breathless voice. Hendrick turned around and saw a shadow come over the hole in the log. As the shadow sharpened a large, sprawling shape came into view. The defenders on the inside of the log jumped out of the way in just enough time to dodge Morlo’s massive form. He belly flopped on the floor of the log with a resounding ‘oomph’ with his chain gun across his back, sending dust and wood into the air. Immediately following him was Vyvyr and Pontious who both landed on his back just as he was getting to his knees. He fell back to his stomach with a bang and a curse and shook the other two off of him. Near hyperventilation, Morlo pointed towards the outside of the log.

 “You all know there’s like a thousand guys out there!”

 There was no reply. From the expressions on everybody’s faces it looked as if they didn’t feel a response

 “Nice timing.” Kristik said. “Yo buddy over there was ‘bout to go use two of muh three particle charges on lord knows what.”

 As Pontious and Vyvyr got to their feet Morlo, still spread across the ground, looked up at Hendrick with an approving face. “Nice…”

 There was an explosion of cannon fire and Morlo was on his feet. Scrambling in a veritable panic he grabbed Kristik and Vyvyr and shoved them down the log.

 “Helio’s firin’! Run!”

 “Wait, wait, wait…” Said the Monolith with his eyes on the sky. “It’s firing at something else. It’s shooting at some small flying thing. It’s protected by somethin’ though”

 A Razor flail wrapped around the inside edge of the log just missing the side of Morlo’s face. Everybody jumped back and readied their weapons Morlo whirled around with his chain gun raised, aimed up through the hole and caught the Skirmisher in the chest just as he appeared.

 “Sable, go with them! Hendrick yelled as he shoved the girls further down the log. “Kristik, get some grenades and wait ‘til we’re all down the log!”

 Kristik was shocked at what he apparently thought was blatant stupidity.

 “Are you insane!” He yelled. “That’s a dead end down there! There’s no-“

 A cannon round blew a hole in the side of the log. Conversation halted abruptly as they realized that there were probably now a thousand Legionnaires ready to kill them or worse. Hendrick gave Kristik a wide-eyed, condescending look.

 “…You were saying something?” Hendrick said. “Morlo, Vyvyr, Pontious, help ‘em out.”

 “There’s no room up here!” Morlo complained.

 “Whose bloody fault is that!” Kristik answered.

 Legionnaires were spilling across the tumultuous clearing towards their position. The Monolith and Morlo peeked out and rested their cannons on the edge of the log. The Legionnaire had ceased most of their firing because, having surrounded Rush, other Legionnaires were now in the line of fire.

 The advancing soldiers were  closing fast and, with only two cannons, the two giants weren’t going to be able to hold the position for long.

 A Nightwolf landed on Morlo’s back. While still firing, Morlo slammed his back against the edge of the wall repeatedly. The Nightwolf realized his mistake and tried to wriggle free. Morlo was able to put down a raging Berserker just as he broke the wolf’s back on the edge of the log.

 “How’s it going down there!” Morlo yelled.

 There was a pause before Hendrick’s voice came back, echoing hollowly up through the log. “It’s done when it’s done!”

 The Monolith shook his head. “I can already tell I’m not gonna like that guy.”

 “I really wouldn’t say that to his face.” Morlo replied with a chuckle.

 The Monolith looked back at him with a challenged expression. “Yeah? And what’s he gonna-“

 A deep bass sound cut him off. It started quiet then began to grow until the log began to shake. The Legionnaires knew what was coming and became instantly more cautious. Morlo and the Monolith looked at each other in complete bemusement.

  There were rushed footsteps from inside the log and Hendrick  could be heard prompting the others on in an rapid and urgent voice.

 “It’s more than I thought! It’s more than I thought! Go, go, go, go, GO,GO!”

 The bass sound got louder and louder before quieting down and dissipating.

 Then, a deceptively peaceful silence.

 The silence cracked harshly. A massive explosion sent an ear-smashing blast across the open space and splintered the base of the log. Smoke, dust and earthy wreckage shot up through the log’s hollowed cavern and consumed everything inside. The entire clearing rumbled beneath the explosion. Legionnaires stumbled where they stood while some fell between the fallen trees and disappeared. They began to yell and take cover in the uncertainty of what Rush was actually doing.

 The ground cracked in several places while a few scattered crevasses crawled across the open space swallowing up several soldiers and plant life. As for the Legionnaire’s target, the log that Rush had taken refuge in, it had turned vertical and was disappearing down the newly created sinkhole.

 Yells came from inside the log, echoing outward in one chaotic rumpus. All across the clearing the Legionnaires halted where they were and watched in confusion as the log got shorter and shorter as it sank further into the ground. There was a tumbling in the log as whatever was inside could no longer hold itself in place and rolled down to whatever abyss it sank into.

 There was a deep thunderous boom as the log reached the bottom of the hole. It stopped and everything went quiet.

 Every objective that the Legionnaires had become immediately superfluous as their targets disappeared entirely. They stood there dumbfounded, looking around at one another while many searched for their commanding officers. Others radioed their commanders and waited for their next set of orders.

 The radios erupted with panicked chatter. Powerful explosions rolled across the sky, one after the other in a chain of obliteration. In the sky only partially visible beyond the treetops the Helio had flames billowing violently in several places. The rear engines glowed abnormally bright, flashing with bolts of electricity and giving off a threatening roar. The entire Helio trembled. Bits and pieces of it broke loose and fell to the forest below. Emergency landing craft shot every which way while those left behind on the doomed vessel took the only chance they had and hurled themselves from it. The Legionnaires in the clearing didn’t need to be told what to do next. Yelling frantically in their disbelief, the Legionnaires forgot Rush entirely and made the Helio’s crash site their new objective. It was going to be a rescue mission, because none of them saw the sword-wielding man in white running along the Helio’s top.

Chapter 17

 Rush and the Ditrinity coughed up dust and regained their composure in complete darkness. There was no sounds from the surface anymore; no more guns, no more explosions, but most importantly there were no more Legionnaires.

 On his stomach Hendrick coughed, blowing dirt away from his face as he did. He chuckled quietly to himself. He couldn’t believe that it had actually worked.

 He put his hands down onto a cold, amazingly smooth surface and got to his knees. In the blackness he could hear the coughs and groans of everybody else in the group. Hendrick looked to his left and was face to face with a pair of glowing blue eyes.

 “So,” Sable asked him after a harsh cough. “What now?”

 Hendrick waved his hand in front of Sable’s glowing eyes as though testing her eyesight. A slap at his hand confirmed that she could see him. “First things first.” Hendrick replied before giving a sharp, loud clap. “Light!”

 Immediately there was a small flame that popped up behind them held in Tess’s hands. Hendrick nodded in satisfaction and looked the group over. “Good girl.”

 The sputtering orange flame illuminated eleven figures, some standing and others on the ground and cast long, quavering shadows along the floor and walls. They were in a long, smooth and cylindrical cavern that stretched into the darkness on both sides. Small holes freckled the walls while, if they had landed any further behind where they were they might have fallen into some of the larger, branching caverns.

 There was a quiet, timid cough before Seraphine got to her feet and looked around. “Where are we?”

 Hendrick folded his arms and smiled. He was still pretty satisfied with himself for pulling off that kind of an escape. The Legionnaires had no idea where they were and probably thought they were trapped in some water-filled sinkhole.

 “Popus trees can only grow in solid rock.” Hendrick said. “Granite a lot of times, like right here. So a healthy Popus can grow to be three, maybe four hundred feet tall and have a root system that stretches on for over a thousand yards.”

 Sable tried to hide her smile. “So we’re-“

 “In the caves carved out by rotted Popus roots.” Hendrick said. “I’d light up in celebration but you guys would wanna kill me.”

 “Too late for that.” Came an intimating voice at Hendrick’s back. Hendrick stood up straight and turned around, coming face to face with the Monolith. Though he had to crouch to fit inside the tunnel he still stood a solid ten feet and looked down on Hendrick with angry eyes.

 Hendrick hadn’t gotten a good look at the Monolith yet. Now standing face to face he got his chance to look at the bulging behemoth. Hendrick sized him up, as he did with everybody he felt might prove a threat, and figured that he at his full height the man was a good ten to eleven feet tall (short for a Monolith) but around thirteen hundred pounds of rippling, solid muscle; a shorter but stockier Monolith. Hendrick raised an eyebrow and craned his neck to see the man eye to eye.

 “…Somebody ate their spinach as a kid.”

 The Monolith growled and clenched his fists. Hendrick flashed his teeth in a smile and did the same.

 “That’s Muldoon.” Said a younger guy coming up from behind Hendrick. “Gets on those stimulant doses and sets off at the drop of a pin.”

 Hendrick hummed amusedly. “Or a kick to the crotch.”

 Muldoon growled again, louder this time and took a massive, lumbering step towards Hendrick.

 Hendrick held his arms out to welcome him. “What ya got, big fella?”

 “Muldoon…” Said Tess at Hendrick’s back. “Drop it.”

 Muldoon looked back and forth between Hendrick and Tess as though weighing the consequences of beating Hendrick’s face in or dealing with Tess’s anger. Hendrick stood his ground though. Watching Muldoon stand down was a strange thing that brought on a type of epiphany for Hendrick. He knew that Muldoon could crush his skull like a grape and laugh about it the next day. Maybe Hendrick was stupid and he just didn’t know it. He knew he should fear this man or at least feel some feelings of intimidation. But he didn’t. In fact Hendrick wanted to punch Muldoon in his brawny, squared face. Not that it would do much good though.