The Exiled Earthborn (49 page)

Alpha was growing frustrated with the door controls, which were proving more difficult to override than he had anticipated. Lucas surveyed the carnage of the room in a daze; his ears were still ringing from the gunfire, and the alarm wouldn’t cease its constant wailing. Finally he located the source of the sound and fired a shot that made the speaker explode in a shower of sparks. The alarm still sounded elsewhere in the facility, but was mercifully no longer echoing throughout the chamber.

Asha had her hands on her knees and was trying to catch her breath. Despite the physicality the suits allowed them, combat was exhausting, and Lucas felt similarly winded. Adrenaline flowed through his veins, warding off true fatigue.

“That was only the beginning,” Asha said, and she was likely right. “The whole planet will be here soon.”

It was true. They couldn’t kill everyone that was about to come for them. It wasn’t possible. Sora seemed exceptionally far away now. Lucas wondered if the Xalan fleet had been engaged yet. It was entirely possible that millions were dying worlds away from them at that very moment.

Alpha finally sprang the door open and quickly ushered Zeta inside. Lucas and Asha followed while Kiati, Reyes, and Kovaks remained outside as sentries.

The inside of the comms relay was like nothing Lucas had ever seen before. He could only see parts of it from outside, but within it was a stunning array of light and metal. Alpha had described the general contents of the room to him on their way to Xala, but failed to mention that it was actually quite beautiful. As they reached the center, Lucas saw a series of crystalline conductors symmetrically arranged in a column that extended far past where the ceiling should be. Rather, there was no roof in the chamber. The Xalan sky was a tiny of speck of light at least a mile up. The entrance was ray shielded, so they couldn’t have dropped in that way without being reduced to ash, but it allowed the relay to broadcast across the galaxy without being overly exposed on the surface of the planet.

Green and purple electric charges jumped from crystal to crystal while light from the machinery was refracted into multicolored prisms all around them. The effect was awe-inspiring, and the room felt like the inner sanctum of some ethereal church, not merely some communication tool. Zeta had designed all this, back before she’d turned traitor, and it showed she had a penchant for artistry, not just technology.

Zeta was already hard at work on the central console of the room. Surrounding her was a complete circle of floating code that she was frantically trying to slice through to achieve the ability to broadcast simultaneously on every piece of Xalan technology with a screen. Just when she finished one section, another would appear. Alpha was trying to help share the load, but she was moving at three times his pace, well-versed in what was being displayed. It was clear that anyone else attempting the same feat probably couldn’t do it given months, while she was trying to get it done within minutes.

Though Lucas was enraptured by the scene in front of him, he was jolted out of his trance by gunfire coming from the other room. He and Asha dashed back through the relay to find the Guardians unloading at a fresh collection of troops trying to pry their way through doors on either side of the room. Grenades blew apart the tightly packed soldiers in the entryway, but they were starting to run low on that sort of ordinance.

And then, silence. The Xalans suddenly stopped trying to enter the room over the mangled corpses of their fellow soldiers. Had they been scared into submission after witnessing the complete devastation in the room? That didn’t seem likely. Unless it wasn’t them the Xalans were frightened of.

There was a loud crash as debris rained down from the ceiling far overhead. A blur fell from the rafters and landed in front of them with such force it nearly bowled all of them over.

It was him.

26

The Desecrator slowly rose from the ground, a dozen feet tall with a wingspan even wider. His wings retracted into his back. His eyes darted across theirs, and no one dared to fire the first shot.

His chest plating had a large circular dent hammered into it by the explosive round he’d taken from Zeta’s prison ship back on Makari. Around his neck was one of Alpha’s translator collars, damaged, but still intact, it seemed.

“You invade the homeworld,” he mused, his deep voice echoing around the chamber. “Same as me.”

Everyone was silent, speechless. Reyes and Kovaks wore looks of astonishment, having only seen the creature in video feeds. He was much larger and more nightmarish in person.

“You will die now,” he said calmly, flexing his mammoth claws, “like you should have in the jungle. You will answer for your crime.”

“For what?” Lucas called out. “Killing your father?”

The Desecrator paused.

“I’ve read his journals,” Lucas said. “I know what happened to you.”

“You know nothing,” the Desecrator scoffed.

“Your father was a warrior, like us. He died in battle, honorably. It was not murder, only war.”

“The two are one and the same,” the Desecrator said. “I have wanted no part in this war. The fight was not mine. A struggle between nations means nothing. Blood. Blood means everything.”

He took one step toward them and everyone raised their weapons another inch.

“There will be no honor here today,” he growled.

Lucas couldn’t even blink by the time the Desecrator drew a weapon from his back. He felt warm blood spray his face before he even knew where it was coming from. Next to him, Kovaks lay sprawled on the ground, his head completely blown apart by the Desecrator’s first shot.

The entire group shattered into every possible direction. Lucas rolled left and returned fire. The Desecrator dodged and fired again, this time his round taking a chunk out of Kiati’s shoulder, which flung her into the wall. Asha was firing fission shots from her Magnum, but the creature dodged them all with ease. Finally, one caught him in the chest, but it was obvious he had survived much worse. She had to dive out of the way from a shot that would have cut her in half.

Lucas had been waiting for this. After reading Omicron’s journals, he had had Alpha equip Natalie with one more special function. One he prayed would work now.

Natalie shot out a blinding beam of white light that caused the Desecrator’s fiery eyes to visibly shrink into pinpoints. He howled in agony, dropped his gun, and tried to shield himself from the light. Lucas walked slowly toward him, unloading carnage blasts from his gun that knocked the Desecrator back a few more feet with each burst. Asha and Reyes converged on him, blades drawn. Lucas felt a small smile creep across his lips as he got close enough to take aim at the creature’s head.

He missed.

The Desecrator ducked under the blast, almost going flat to the floor. In an instant, he lunged at Lucas and sank his claw directly into Natalie’s scope, killing the shining light instantly. Tearing his claw up, the Desecrator ripped the entire scope off the weapon altogether. With the metal plating shorn away, the gun’s power core was exposed. Lucas fired another blast, the weapon mercifully still working, but the Desecrator was already three feet to his left.

Reyes and Asha leapt at him from either side. He quickly caught Asha with a backhand that sent her flying into the wall and tumbling to the ground. Reyes was not so lucky and took all three of his claws directly to her chest. They pierced her armor and everything inside, and as he brought her around, Lucas could see the tips of his claws protruding out of her back. Her head rolled back, her eyes vacant. She was dead already, but that didn’t stop the Desecrator from burying his other claw inside her, and tearing her body completely in half right in front of Lucas.

This creature was pure power, pure evil. They hadn’t been ready for this. Not even with little tricks like the light scope. Lucas raised his rifle as the Desecrator leapt forward. He attempted to fire, but found the damaged gun had overheated and was sparking in his hands. He prepared to die.

But death did not come.

The Desecrator hung suspended in the air in front of him, one claw a mere eight inches from Lucas’s head. His face was frozen in a snarl, and Lucas could see the muscles tensing in his neck. He was six feet in the air, completely frozen.

Two figures floated down from an open portal in the ceiling, each with arms outstretched toward the creature. They were Shadows, hovering above the ground, suspended by their own psychic energy. Their black skin and blue eyes were visible, but they wore actual cloth garments, something Lucas had never seen on a Xalan before. One had a long, flowing green-and-white sash wrapped around him that encompassed most of his body. The other’s was red and gold. There were runic symbols on the garments Lucas couldn’t recognize. They weren’t Xalan in origin, or at least not the dialect he knew.

The two Shadows floated down on either side of the Desecrator, and Lucas turned to find a third Shadow behind him. This one was slightly taller and had a cloth that was pure white with gold symbols. His arms were not outstretched, and Lucas’s feet remained planted on the floor. Asha was slowly starting to rise, drifting back into consciousness, and her eyes widened when she saw the three figures before them, balancing on thin air. There was a soft moan from Kiati across the room, indicating she was still alive.

It was obvious these were Chosen Shadows, but they were different than the one aboard the interceptor. Their power seemed to radiate from them like heat. It was something Lucas had never felt before. Finally coming to rest, their feet were still well above the floor. The two closest to them turned their wrists, and the Desecrator was slowly pulled upright and away from Lucas. Glancing behind him, Lucas could see that the third creature was furiously swirling through the door controls attempting to access the comms relay. Alpha had locked it up tight with a binding code only he could release, and the door was otherwise indestructible, even for Shadows, it seemed. The creature attempted to pry it open telekinetically, but it would not budge. He floated over toward Lucas. The creature’s voice boomed in his head.

“
Tell the traitors to open the door.
”

His tone was icy, and its pitch cut through Lucas like a needle.

“Or what?” Lucas said defiantly. He had been prepared to die a moment ago. He was still ready. Asha looked warily at him.

“
Or we’ll tear her apart in front of you,
” the creature said, turning his cold gaze toward Asha.

“We came here to die,” Asha said. “You can’t stop them now.”

There was a look in the Shadow’s eyes that said he believed them. He turned his attention toward the imprisoned Desecrator.

“
What are
you
doing here?
” he said. “
You have been banished from the homeworld for centuries now.
”

The Desecrator growled and his collar translated.

“To finish the mission. Your mission.”

The Shadow to his right snarled.

“
You failed on Makari.
”

The Shadow to his left sneered.

“
The Sorans nearly killed you.
”

“I came to end this,” the Desecrator said. “This was
your
task. It was meant to be my redemption!”

“
You murdered an entire battalion to get here. Of your own brethren,
” said the white-robed Xalan behind Lucas.

“They would not grant me access. And I have no brethren.”

“
That much is true,
” the red-robed Xalan said. “
We thought the fact that these insects killed your father would be motivation for you to exact vengeance, but we overestimated your devotion to him.
”

“Do not speak of my father,” growled the Desecrator. Lucas could see his muscles straining against their influence.

“
You are a mistake,
” said the green-robed Xalan. “
And the Council does not make mistakes. You should have been destroyed immediately after conversion.
”

The Ruling Council. It explained their immense power, their ornate robes.

“Look where you are!” the Desecrator shouted, his voice echoing around the room. “Your empire crumbles before you, brought crashing down by these … creatures.”

Suddenly, every screen in the room, small and large, began to play a video. Lucas’s heart soared in his chest as he recognized the face. Alpha’s father.

“Greetings, my son,”
it began.
“I do not wish to endanger your life with this message, more so than I already have by causing your exile to Earth campaign.”

“It’s starting,” Asha said. The Council members looked furious as they glanced from monitor to monitor.

“My only hope is that if I am killed, one of you may find a way to make the truth known to our people. The truth about the intertwined histories of Sora and Xala.”

Alpha broke through on Lucas’s armor comm.

“It is done. Every screen, every colony. Zeta is fighting off override procedures to ensure it remains broadcasting.”

The Shadows looked at each other. The white-clad one spoke urgently.

“
We must stop this,
” he said. “
Kill them all, and concentrate your energy to tear through that wall.
”

“
But it’s not possible, that material is—
” started the red-robed Xalan.

“
Do not question, obey!
” the white one snarled. “
Or all may be lost.
”

“You do not see,” said the Desecrator with a low growl. “You have already lost.”

“
Do not speak!
” the Shadow shot back. His anger hammered inside Lucas’s skull like a migraine. “
We would not
be
in this circumstance if not for your father’s failure! And your own!
”

He turned and floated quickly toward the door. The Desecrator spoke to his back as the Shadows on either side of him began twisting his limbs to unbearable angles. His deep voice was shaking as he spoke through the pain.