ASSASSIN

From his perch high above the public square, Vale scanned the identifying features of Castillian faces as the people congregated and moved through the area. The android had still not been able to locate his Barudii target. It was unclear who these humans were. The city was reported abandoned. However, their presence here, and apparent aid to the governor’s target, made them accomplices and therefore expendable under the governor’s guidelines. However, firing upon them now would be tactically unsound, as it would alert his primary target to his presence. Patience was the key.

The carved stone balcony he crouched upon had been easy to access and provided a superior targeting position from which to shoot. Person after person, feature after feature was scanned and rejected as negative matches. But wait, now one face continued to match as the features blinked into place like puzzle pieces. One of the men walking below matched all parameters. Only the garment had been changed from the image on the data clips. Vale had to act.

The android hoisted the pulse cannon up so it would clear the stone balustrade. Vale quickly shifted into the best targeting approximation possible for such a cumbersome weapon. Fortunately, its dispersal pattern was complimentary to the inability to precisely aim the weapon. He tapped the arming switch, causing the weapon to hum.

☼

“Look out!” someone yelled.

Many in the square turned toward the direction where one woman pointed. Tiet also looked and found a familiar looking Barudii man, with a large weapon aiming into the city center. A wave of pulse laser fire showered down around them as Tiet turned to shield Dorian from harm. He caught her around the torso and pushed her toward the ground. Dorian’s electromagnetic shield pulsed several times intercepting laser blasts meant to take their lives. Rock sprayed away from the walls around them in great chunks.

As soon as Dorian was down, Tiet leaped away from her. If he was the target, then he wanted to draw the fire away from the girl. The strafing trail of pulse fire followed him as he evaded—leaping and twirling from object to ground to wall and away again.

Then the cannon fire ceased a moment as some of the Aolene men attempted to engage the culprit. Tiet saw the Aolene warriors firing blaster pistols at the balcony and hurling spicor discs toward the assailant. The android dodged the discs letting them explode on the walls nearby—each leaving behind a smooth semicircular cavity in the rock. Vale took several blasts to the torso and the arms as he repositioned the pulse cannon and began to spray the Aolene combatants with laser fire. Tiet used this brief respite to study their attacker. He had no explanation for the man’s appearance—he might be a clone.

Tiet saw an opportunity and quickly shattered what remained of the embattled stone balustrade with a concentrated blast of power from his mind. The heavy stone erupted upward against the man, catching his body between the large fragments of rock and the chamber ceiling. It all dropped down to the public square below becoming a heap of smoldering rubble.

The assassin tangled within the shattered stone like a discarded rag-doll. Tiet wondered why no blood could be seen on the body as it hung limply out of the rock. Orin appeared with Estall on the other side of the fountain. No one understood what had just happened.

“Tiet!” Dorian cried behind him. She pointed toward the heap of rubble. As he turned, Tiet heard the sound of stone tumbling. From beneath the heap of stones, Orin Vale’s doppelganger emerged. Orin saw it as well, but he couldn’t believe who he was seeing. Whatever this monster was, it was far too powerful to be human.

☼

Vale stood and quickly reassessed the situation. Tiet drew his blade as he ran toward the mysterious aggressor. Vale also drew a Barudii blade—part of his disguise as a Barudii warrior. The two engaged in fierce combat. Tiet tried to enhance his own speed and strength using the Way, but his opponent was still too strong.

Vale blocked a thrust from Tiet, quickly pushing his blade away. A deadly mechanical hand plowed toward Tiet’s chest. Tiet anticipated the move, drawing a pistol first with his free hand to take advantage of Vale’s exposure. Tiet thrust the pulse weapon into his opponent’s face and fired without hesitation. Vale tried to correct and block the pistol as it came into position, but was not quite fast enough. The blast caught him in the side of the head and sent him reeling backward.

After seeing this person climb out of a rocky grave, Tiet wasted no time following through with his blade. Vale, having only a fraction of a second to recover from the pulse shot, countered the blade strike and whirled around behind Tiet.

Vale smashed Tiet in the back with an adomen packed elbow sending the young man to the ground gasping for breath. The android brought his sword to bear on Tiet, planning to deliver the deathblow. Dorian intercepted, attacking the android in order to draw his blade away from Tiet. Several fast strikes were countered by the mechanical man as she furiously tried to defend him. Vale’s blast-exposed cranium glistened in the available light as he parried blow after blow from the young woman.

The android suddenly flew backwards away from Dorian, slamming into the wall, thrown by Orin’s mind. Orin raced to Tiet’s side to help him up. The boy had been dealt a fierce blow and needed assistance to stand.

The Aolene took the initiative now with the android in the clear. They laid down a barrage of laser fire on him . Vale got up under fire, retreating down a passageway.

“We have to go now and take the ship into the rift!” Orin shouted. “The Vorn obviously know we’re here. I don’t know what that thing was—some kind of robot—but there may be more of them.”

“My people will take the transports we have and engage the main complex as you suggested!” Estall shouted over the din.

☼

Some of the Aolene pursued the android, but no word had come back yet concerning its whereabouts. Estall gathered with his key warriors and noticed Dorian was not among them. He turned to find her at Tiet’s side helping to support the young man as the three of them walked down the passage leading to the hangar.

Estall started to call out to Dorian then thought better of it—He knew what few did about his younger sister. She had long been infatuated with the young prince on the archive video files. Now, he was here alive. “Farewell, Sister,” he whispered as Dorian and the Barudii warriors disappeared down the corridor.

☼

Vale watched, from a hidden position, as his primary target disappeared down a passageway. The android squeezed his hand until bone cracked beneath his fingers. One of the Aolene had been foolish enough to follow him into the half lit corridors. Unfortunately, for the Aolene man, he had also found the robot. Vale released the Aolene warrior’s neck, dropping the lifeless body to the ground.

His auditory sensors picked up on their destination and their plan to leave in a ship from the hangar bay within the mountain. It was imperative he acquire his target before the boy escaped. The direct way would only draw more resistance from the Aolene preparing for battle below.

Vale’s database lacked schematics of the city’s interior, but data on the mountain of Vaseer was available. There was only one place to launch a ship from the mountain and Vale realized he was not far from it. The android hurriedly retraced his path out of the mountain and headed back across the slope toward the lower western face. The terrain didn’t slow him at all. Now, he just had to cover the half mile distance in time to intercept the Barudii rebel before he escaped.

☼

A warm breeze funneled through the passageway as Orin, Tiet and Dorian approached the hangar bay. They heard the low hum of large engines engaged in a warm up cycle. Tiet walked without assistance now.

As the trio came through the entrance to the hangar, Tiet got his first look at a Barudii space vessel. The ship was very large, filling a huge space in the hangar bay. The vessel consisted of a central bulky fuselage with forward arching wings and a series of large engines to the rear.

No one was visible in the area outside the ship, but the loading ramp was lowered to the ground. The trio hurried up the platform into the belly of the ship. Once they got inside, Tiet found several levels were accessible by stairs. Dorian and Tiet followed Orin up to the bridge level where Ranul and the Aolene warrior, Millo, were busy at the control panels prepping the ship for liftoff.

“Welcome aboard the Saberhawk!” Ranul said.

“What happened up there?” Millo asked. “We heard gunfire.”

“Apparently, the Vorn have built a robot that looks like me. It attacked Tiet.”

“So, that’s what they wanted with it,” Ranul said to himself.

“What do you mean? Did you know about this thing?” Tiet asked.

“Yes, yes. I built it.”

“What?”

“I thought I could mass produce an android army to combat the Vorn. With the Barudii all presumed dead and our people enslaved to the Vorn, we needed a way to fight back. Except, the Vorn seized the plans first. They took my wife Ellai and my daughter Mirah and imprisoned them. I had to build it for them, or risk the lives of my family.” To Tiet he said, “I understand you found my daughter, Mirah, imprisoned with some other children. You released her?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“I thank you for that, young man,” Ranul said. “Anyway, the android was completed just days ago. Governor Kisch K’ta sent it to the cloning facility just before you arrived at my apartment. They must have sent it to track you down after you killed those men in the cloning complex.

“Can you tell us how to stop it?” Orin asked.

“The best thing would be for me to try and stop it,” Ranul said. “It might not harm me. But just in case, I can tell you the main control system is in the head and duplicated in the chest. If you can get a direct strike at those two points with a Barudii blade then you’ll bring it down for sure. Call me sentimental, but I didn’t shield the CPU electromagnetically. The armor is tough, but an adomen blade would work.”

“My people put so much fire on it that it retreated into the passages somewhere,” Dorian said.

“It may have retreated, but its programming will force it to acquire its target again. It will feel compelled to try. We need to get you into space. Then the android won’t have a target to chase,” Ranul said.

“How soon can we lift off?” Dorian asked.

Tiet raised an eyebrow at her question. Was she planning on coming along? Secretly, he hoped she would.

“The ship is ready and Millo has volunteered to help you pilot the Saberhawk through the rift,” Ranul said.

“Aren’t you coming, Ranul?” Tiet asked.

“No, I’m not. My daughter needs me. I’m going to go with Estall and the Aolene to attack the remaining Vorn forces in the capital. Perhaps, when Kisch K’ta is defeated, I will be able to get information on my wife’s whereabouts. ”

“We’re ready to go,” Millo said, looking up from his flight console.

“Tiet, Dorian, you two strap in over there for lift off,” Orin said , pointing to a small group of flight chairs. Orin walked Ranul down the ramp as he disembarked from the ship to join Estall and the Aolene warriors.

“Goodbye, old friend.”

“Goodbye. I hope you make it back safely.

Ranul left the ship. Orin pressed the panel button to raise the platform. When he came back to the bridge section, he strapped in for the flight at the helm console next to Millo. “Let’s go.”

The engines of the Barudii vessel throttled up. The ship rose off of the landing platform. Orin keyed in commands to signal the mountainside hangar-bay doors to retract, allowing the vessel to exit. The massive doors awoke as the command was relayed to the cities technological control systems. Each side began to pull back into the rocky sidewalls of the hangar as the old warship hovered in preparation to exit the mountain city.

☼

Ranul heard the rising pitch of the old Saberhawk class vessel as he ran through the corridors back to where Estall and the Aolene warriors were preparing to launch the attack against the Vorn. Ranul retrieved his tracking device from a satchel. It searched for the wavelength signature of the android’s operating system. If Vale was within one mile, Ranul could track him . The device remained silent. The fact that Vale was not nearby was comforting, but the question remained—what had happened to the robot after its retreat from the Aolene warriors?

Ranul continued his ascent until he found Estall along with hundreds of Aolene warriors preparing for battle. They all wore the same black garment of the Barudii clan. Estall appeared puzzled to see Ranul as he made his way to him in the crowd.

“Has something happened, Dr. K’ore? I thought your group had departed for the rift by now.”

“The others have, but I want to go with you and your warriors to engage the Vorn in the capital. My daughter is there.”

“I see. Well, of course you’re welcome to join us, and any information you have about their strengths or weaknesses would be appreciated.”

“The Vorn have several battleships and multiple long and short range weapons at their disposal, but the element of surprise is on our side. It would be best to spread out your transports as we come into firing range, about five to seven miles from the city, so they won’t have any large targets to fire upon,” Ranul said.

“It might be good for us to encircle the city and come from all angles to converge on their cloning facility,” Estall offered.

“You should also know that the Vorn have a large number of Sentinel robots at their command—probably in the thousands. These aren’t like the android you saw earlier, but they’re still quite deadly. By spreading your forces and coming from all directions, they’ll be forced to spread their own ground forces to protect the city. It’s likely many gaps in that defense will present themselves.”

“We’ll be able to approach the city by dusk.”

The men headed for ground level where the transports were being loaded and prepped for the attack.

☼

It took a few moments to fully retract the mountain side hangar bay doors. Now, the ship could clear. Millo adjusted the landing thruster controls. The ship began to move forward through the opening in the mountain. Orin adjusted controls at his station, setting the weapons systems and making sure all automated systems were operating within normal parameters.

The Saberhawk class ships had operated with a crew of twenty persons, but most functions could be run by automation if necessary. The bulk of the ship held primary engine systems for long range missions and extra crew quarters with food and water storage, while the remaining quarter of the ship made up the bridge section, sub-light engine components and all primary controls for the vessel. Both men made last minute adjustments and prepared for the launch through Castai’s turbulent atmosphere.

☼

The distance Vale had calculated for his trek around the mountainside toward the hangar quickly diminished in his microprocessor. He approached the area on his internal map—the place which should house the hangar section of the city. Up ahead, a fair distance away, he saw the nose of a large ship emerging from the mountain. Vale instantly began internal calculations comparing his own foot speed with the distance yet to cover, properties of the terrain and the rate at which the ship was emerging from the hangar port.

The android realized he would not reach the vessel in time. Their velocity would increase dramatically once the ship completely cleared the mountain. As he ran toward the vessel he withdrew a hyper-magnetic grapple from one of the clips on his belt.

The last part of the Saberhawk cleared the opening in the mountain, increasing power to thrusters steadily to move the ship away from Mt. Vaseer. Vale aimed and fired his grapple just ahead of the ship’s nose. The wire line, with its heavy cylindrical head, arced out away from the mountainside about fifty yards and caught the lower hind end of the Saberhawk.

Vale made a strong jump into the air as he felt the slack line become taut and pull him away from the ground. He depressed the winch key on the grapple and held on tight as the mechanism drew him closer to the ship.

Main thrusters fired, sending the ship upwards toward the outer atmosphere. Vale rose to within twenty yards of the ship’s hull as it moved through a violent weather system. The turbulence and high wind pummeled the ship in its climb. Inside the Saberhawk, automatic stabilizers worked to keep up with all the jarring forces playing against the hull of the ship. The Saberhawk surged skyward. In a few moments, the ship cleared the weather. The ride smoothed out considerably.

Vale approached the hull and tried to find a place to anchor himself. He noticed how near he was to one of the landing skid alcoves. The android clamored for the hull wall activating the hyper-magnetic discs located in the palms of his cybernetic hands. Hand over hand, he approached the alcove and climbed inside, grabbing hold of the retracted landing skid, wedging himself in with his powerful arms and legs. As soon as the Saberhawk cleared the turbulence of Castai’s atmosphere, he could make his move against the Barudii.