Star Rebellion (25 page)

I crashed on my bed and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

“WATER!”

“What?!” I jerked upright out of bed, my hand searching for the knife beneath my pillow.

“Sorry, you weren’t waking up the normal way.” Firestar was standing above me with a water bottle. I lightly touched my hair and realized it was soaked through.

“Gee, thanks. Has Arctic sent a messenger yet? What time is it?” I scooted off my bed and grabbed the towel I normally used for after showers. I flipped my hair upside down as I bent over and tried to get as much water out of it was possible. No one likes walking around with a damp head, not even a will-be master of water.

“Yea, he just left. It’s about ten minutes away from six,” Dark informed me from the other side of the room where he was buttoning up one of his many crisp, black shirts.

“Any verdict? Or is it just for a meeting?” I stood back up and placed the towel on its hanger so that it could dry.

“Just a meeting,” Fire said as he opened the door, taking the lead. I grabbed my crutches and followed him, putting a bit more weight on my foot than before. It was solid enough that I could walk decently, and possibly even run if necessary.

Arctic was still in the room from the previous day. If it was even possible, there were more sticky notes on the map; the new additions were in a different color.

“Thank you for coming,” Arctic said. He was sitting at the head of the table with Vatican to his right. Forest was leaning against the wall behind him, his green hair looking normal now. “Take a seat, or stand if you prefer.” The commander’s eyes flickered to Forest with humor.

I sat next to Vatican while Fire and Dark took the seats opposite from us. Foreststar stayed standing, of course.

“First off, your next destination will be to go back to the NOPCW HQ for weapons. We’re going through ammunition like wildfire, something that hasn’t happened since way before any of our times. We’ll need as much as you can take back from their building, along with explosives and handhelds.

“Also, speaking of explosives, Icestar woke up about half an hour ago. I have given special permission for you all to visit him before you go. Please don’t tell him that alterations have been made to Cerberus.”

“You altered it?!” Fire asked, surprised.

“Yes, we’ve added a streamline barrier around it, similar to what Forest did on your way back yesterday. There’s a storage compartment directly below the roof where you can store everything you can carry, along with add strap seats to the sides for snipers to keep demons away from the vehicle this time. It won’t go as fast anymore, but all of the changes are removable.”

“Least it isn’t permanent, Ice might leave Star if it was,” Dark said. We all chuckled at this because he probably would. Cerberus was like a child to him.

“Where’s Vlad?” I had just realized that he was missing.

“He is working on a special assignment that also involves Vatican, who has taken the time off to explain some things to you. I’ll let him take over now.”

Vatican stood and pulled down a second map by a string from the ceiling. It was a bunch of oval type shapes layered over each other.

“I take it that you all are familiar with religions, correct?” We nodded. Religion was an Earth thing, something that Calshians couldn’t afford to believe in. It was a dog eat dog world down here, as the Earth guys would say.

“Well, they sort of have the right idea going on, if by theory only. This is Earth,” he pointed at the second oval from the top, “this is Calsh,” the one connected beneath it, “and this is the surrounding universe. Calsh and Earth are connected by a wormhole, what you call portals, which create a shortcut through the realm, but you are still within the same realm. These two,” he pointed to the top and bottom circles, which were separated from Earth and Calsh, “are completely separate universes, but there are still wormholes that connect them. The bottom one is the Underworld, which is connect to Calsh through Vladimir’s Shadowlands. Then the top one is connect to the Divine through another Shadowland, which is in the northern part of the Mediterranean on an island near Greece.

“I am from the Divine, an angel by the name of Ares, whom the Greek worshiped as the God of War.”

Chapter 14: Close Only Counts in Nuclear Warfare and Hand Grenades

FIRESTAR

“You’re an angel? Of war? Aren’t angels supposed to be peaceful or something?!’’ I felt my eyebrow raise. Well… that would explain the wings I saw yesterday.

“Want me to prove it?”

“By all means, go ahead,” Dark said. His eyes were scrunched up thoughtfully.

Vatican walked back over to his seat after letting his map roll back up, revealing the array of sticky notes once more. “If you would please, Water, let me see your injured leg?”

Water scooted her chair out, sending a wary glance over to Dark and I. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just sprout wings instead of whatever he was now planning?

He swiftly removed her brace and Waterstar didn’t even cringe. Either her leg was a hell of a lot better, or the guy knew how to remove a brace quite well; when the medics had been putting it on her, Water had sworn more than I had ever heard in two minutes.

Vatican- or well, Ares, put his hands on either side of her knee and a faint yellow light appeared around it. He stepped back a few moments later. “Try standing on it.”

Water stood up and gingerly put her weight on the leg, then jumped up and down on it. “Good as new,” she said, her voice a bit breathy.

“How does that prove that you’re a god of war? Shouldn’t war gods kill people, not heal? I mean, I’m not arguing that she’s alive, but still.” I didn’t make eye contact with the dark haired man.

“A warrior must know how to heal the men who fight for him. And I’m an angel, not a god. The angels do not dictate life on Earth, as the god humans believe in would, if he exists.” Ares sat back down and Water leaned against the wall next to Forest. They were muttering about something, but I couldn’t hear them from where I was.

We all considered this for a moment in silence. So, religion wasn’t completely off base. I mean, there were still plenty of unanswered questions that philosophers and prophets had spouted out in the past few millennia, but it was a start.

“So, does this mean that the angels are going to enter the human and demon war? How many angels are there?” Dark was the one to break the silence.

“Not necessarily. So far only two have pledged to help, the doctor who’s treating demon wounds, his name is Simon, and myself. Simon is a Class One angel, those who heal. He was here at the beginning of the Calshian evolution, when you humans first started to mutate and gain powers. This is how you are partially knowledgeable of the Divine and Underworld, while the Earthlings are still debating it greatly. Not all angels would be as generous and kind as Simon, though. There are many angels who think differently, which is why we have the class system. Though we are diverse, both humans and demons out number us. The Class Two angels, those who fight like myself, however, could easily take down many demons before even sustaining injury. The problem is convincing them to join sides with the humans. Not that they would fight with the demons,” Ares added quickly at our looks of panic. “Demons are our natural enemy, however, not all of the Divine believe that we should enter the fray. The fallen will be easiest to convince, but the rest are more or less indifferent to what happens to humanity. That is what young Vladimir and I will be working on while you fight them here.”

Another round of silence as we all digested this. “Would you like some help?” We were all surprised to hear the almost purr like voice of Forest. “Well, I am an ambassador, aren’t I? I know how to reason and persuade people.” He shrugged off our odd looks at him.

“I will discuss it with Vladimir; you may be useful as human advocate. I would like you to first assist the mystic team on their mission. Once you all get back safely, I will have an answer for you.”

Forest ducked his head once before reverting back to his normal silent self.

“Alright, the car is being prepared for you all as we speak, gather anything that you wish to take with you. The other members of your squad are waiting out there for you. Please be back within the six hour work shift.” Arctic dismissed us in this manner and we all head back to our room, with Forest following along instead of going to his.

WATERSTAR

I went around the room searching for my backpack full of deadly weapons that I had managed to convince Arctic to let me keep. I had to show the guys once more how to arrange various holsters for guns and knives, and yelled at Firestar for trying to position a rifle on his back. That could be disastrous in so many different ways with how rifles are made nowadays. There is a sensor on the handle which will detonate the weapon for the wielder to use if in a desperate situation without ammo. The rifle should promptly be thrown after pressing the sensor. Of course, this idea was invented by me recently, and a mechanic named Silentstar made it true. I had also convinced him to make multiple rifles like this, which now plagued the armories with distinct notices saying they explode, you know, just in case and idiot picks it up.

We finally left with each of us carry multiple weapons visibly and concealed. Fire had finally convinced me to at least let him strap a sword from the armory to his back; I had no clue what the appeal was to strapping something to his back, especially since he still had the two knives in their wrist sheaths.

I was carrying my two pistols along with a pair of nunchaku attached to my belt, which also held a short sword. I didn’t even want to know what Forest had hidden beneath the baggy hoodie that he had donned like Darkstar because he probably had a miss-match of weapons that would not be optimal to use together, and I did not have the time to lecture him in the proper way to choose multiple weapons. Darkstar, on the other hand, had spent years with me and my obsession and was probably okay with his choices.

We entered the mess hall where Arctic had said that Cerberus had been parked to keep the demons off of it. I raised my hand in greeting when I saw the four people surrounding the shiny new version of Cerberus. I couldn’t even see the actual glass, but more so the shadows of where the side seats were.

“Hello, Waterstar, right?” the guy in the lead asked. His skin was a dark tan and his dreadlocks held cloudy gray threads that seemed to change color depending on the angle of light.

I nodded my head, “The idiot with a sword on his back is Firestar, then the one with the green hair is Foreststar and the other guy is Darkstar,” I introduced my teammates.

“My pleasure,” the guy nodded to them in turn. “I’m Soulstar, the girl to my left is Tigerstar,” he motioned to the chick with black and orange striped hair. “Her twin is Bengalstar, he’s younger by about five minutes,” he had white and black striped hair. “Then the final person is Lightstar.” Her hair seemed to be so blond it was practically white, and it glimmered even in the dim lighting.

Dark and Lightstar held each other’s eye for a few moments before looking away. I heard Dark harrumph as he looked even moodier than usual. I should ask him about that later.

I grinned over at the one named Tigerstar. “Your hair, my friend, is brilliant. What exactly does a tiger look like? I have heard of them, but have never seen a picture.”

Tiger seemed more than happy to tell me about the source of her name. “They’re brilliant creatures really. The have black stripes on orange fur and are massive cats with really deadly fangs and claws. They live mostly in a place called Asia, and only attack those who have their backs turned. I think that is the most cunning way to fight.”

I nodded in approval. Sneak attacks were generally hard to pull off, and if Tigerstar could manage it like her name implied, then I believe that she would make a great ally on this mission. Before the conversation with the rest of Soulstar’s team progressed, I noticed that Fire and Tiger were checking each other out when the other wasn’t looking. I grinned to myself and made a mental note to talk to Tiger about this. Fire wasn’t the most cleanly of people, he left his boxers scattered around the room half the time.

“Alright, you all equipped pretty decently?” I asked, eyeing over their uniforms. Each person was carrying a shotgun in one hand and I could see the extra ammo packs secured on their waists, but it didn’t look like they had much more than that. They were all dressed in the same black clothing that had become standard for raiding missions, even though during the day time we stuck out like our vampire neighbors, ‘cause you know, they kind of burst into flames in daylight. Anywho, it was a little strange how Soulstar with his darker skin almost matched his uniform, but his dreadlocks still changed colors like peoples’ auras. It was a cool look that I wish I had at times. The dreadlocks do not make it ideal for stealth, but he looks awesome at our version of raves. The raves were a concept Forest and Snowstar had brought from Earth.

“We’re waiting for the machine guns to arrive; they’ll be in a side compartment next to our seats. We aren’t going into the building with you; our task is to secure Cerberus and make sure you get in and out in one piece. You get to deal with what’s on the inside,” Soulstar said.

I nodded. “We can do that. Just cover our backs. There’s a hole in the wall on the south side from where Ice and Forest blew up a staircase, that’s where we’ll enter. First off though, we’ll drive around the rest of the building and secure all the first floor doors. Make sure nothing gets in through the hole once we’re inside. Once in, we’ll only focus on the weapons. It can wait for another time to secure the full building.”

I turned to my team. “Our priority is ammo first, handhelds second. We’ll work in pairs: one group will transport the materials to Cerberus while the other gets the next load ready. One person in each group will be a sentry who picks off any demons who come at them.” They all nodded; it wasn’t rocket science, and it was one of the primary defense maneuvers that were taught in the training system.

“How long until you think the machine guns will be here?” I asked Soul as our groups mingled together. Or well, more so as Fire acted like an idiot while everyone just stared at him as he attempted to unsheathe his sword.

“There they are now,” Soul said while pointing behind me at the way we had come in. A few preteens were staggering into the mess hall under the weight of lines of ammo and the actual guns, which were a lot larger than I had ever imagined.

I whistled slightly. “Think I might get a chance at them?” I asked with a gleam in my eye.

Soulstar laughed. “Arctic gave me specific directions to keep you away from the guns, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He added a wink at the end of that before calling his group over to help the kids.

Soul’s team got situated in the car first. Their seats were fully covered on five sides with the glass; they entered from the inside of the car and pulled down a barrier from their seats so they wouldn’t fall backwards. The sixth side was the front of their glass seats, which had a wide gap to let them maneuver the guns around for aim, but was small enough so that they couldn’t fall or be pulled out.

“Ice’s team of engineers was able to pull this together in less than twelve hours?” I asked as I climbed into the car.

“Yea, he’s got them well trained,” Bengalstar said from one of the front seats. His sister was on the same side as him protecting the rear while Soul was in the front on the other side and Light taking the final seat.

Fire called driver’s seat once more and got it with little argument. He was the most experience with driving Cerberus, aside from Ice.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” I said as Fire revved up the engine. The preteens opened the double doors that led out of the mess hall. The rain had toned down to just a drizzle, but if it followed Calsh tradition, it’d be back up to a downpour by the next day.

Fire pressed lightly on the gas and we shot forward out of the building. Cerberus barely made it under the door frame with its new glass additions. This wasn’t your normal run of the mill, easily shattered glass though. This was tough stuff, and could endure heavy hits and still wouldn’t shatter. Icestar had proclaimed once that you could fire a bazooka at it and it wouldn’t crack, but I doubted that. I liked bazookas, and I don’t want them to become any less effective. The rain easily slid off the glass, not even sticking for a second or leaving streaks of droplets. We hurtled through the dark night; apparently the glass hadn’t weighed enough to make a severe difference in speed.

“Front right demon,” I heard Bengal say through the new headsets that we had been given. A few gunshots echoed from where he sat before all went quiet again. Well wasn’t that more convenient than Vlad hanging off the side of the car?

We encountered fewer demons on this run back to the NOPCW rather than when we had been fleeing from there, though their numbers did greatly increase as we got closer.

Soul’s voice came over the headset once we got in sight of the info building. “Wait until I signal before you leave to go secure the doors. We’ll use the shotguns to clear the area first.”

We all said our affirmative and Fire started slowing down, braking much better this time around. We had approached on the south side and could see that the demons were literally swarming the area, targeting mostly the lamps that were surrounding the building. A few demons were attempting to climb them, but would fall off before they got too high.

“What the hell is up with that?” Tiger’s lithe voice said.

“They like high places, the further from the Underworld the better,” I replied.

She hummed in response.

As we got closer, we heard multiple gunshots coming from the back left. “LIGHT!” Soul shouted.

The firing stopped. “Yes?” Her voice was chilled, almost like death crawling up your bones.

“You shoot only in defense. Don’t attack until they do, we don’t want to attract unnecessary demons.”

“Whatever.”

Soul twisted in his seat and looked at us people on the inside apologetically. Forest and I shrugged in response while Dark looked away moodily; Fire was focused on pulling the car up to the east side wall.