Part 2
I flashed him a small smile. Suddenly, the entire place shook, just as it had 50 years ago. I glanced up at the already unstable roof of the room as the small place filled with a cloud of disturbed dust. “It appears as if the empire has arrived.” I looked at the new will. “Get yourself ready.”
Seconds later, having scaled the elevator shaft, I examined the situation. 4 imperial fighters were strafing the ground around the Orion and us with laser fire. The rest of my team appeared besides me.
“Smith, fight your way to the Orion. Defend it.” He whooped and drew his gigantic blade, Night. “Lang and grey, with me. We’re going to hold this position.” I drew Honor and my XM29. Grey drew his sword, Time, and one of his pistols, and Lang drew his sword, Power, and the SAW, hefting the heavy machine gun in his left hand. Ships began landing and dropping off troops, and the real fun began.
Grey would appear out of the clouds of dirt and dust that had sprung up, assassinating random soldiers, then lang and I would massacre the confused remains. Honor expressed its glee at once again serving the purpose it had been made for as I easily cut and slashed through armor, sinew and bone. We destroyed all comers with our weapons, and when we finally ran out of ammo for our guns, my team conjured blades forged out of soul flame. My katana, arbiter, moved in tandem with honor. Suddenly, the imperial lines pulled back. Wary of a trick or a trap, the three of us drew back, also.
Breaking the moment of silence, a single boot stepped into the circle the soldiers had formed around the entrance, and an imperial officer stepped into view. He held a blade in his hands, and to my slight surprise, I realized that it was made of the rare metal Terralite, the second form of metalite, what my katana was made of. Although less strong, it could fight almost on par with one of the ancient blades. Lang and grey stepped forward, but I glanced at them and they shrank back. I sheathed arbiter, then held honor with two hands.
Neither of us moved for several seconds. I watched him carefully, looking for the twitch of a muscle or a slight shift in his stance to warn me of an impending attack. Subtly, his foot moved a half an inch, just enough to warn me. Our swords met with a loud CLANG! And he rebounded off, sliding to a stop around 10 feet away.
The metal of my sword vibrated slightly from the clash, sending out a low humming. Quickly, I said “vibration resonance.” I stuck out my left middle and index fingers, engulfed in soul flame, then ran them along Honor’s flat. The vibration increased in pitch and tempo, and the air itself rippled around the blade. I had taken the catalyst energy that the clash had stored in my blade, then combined it with soul energy and amplified it. Explosive force lay behind the honest enough vibrations, but I held it back, biding my time.
Seeing that I was not going to reengage, my opponent stabbed with his blade. I parried, then he launched into a series of attacks, attempting to circumvent my defenses. Easily enough, I held him off, but I didn’t try to strike back. Every time his blade made contact with mine, more energy was stored In Honor, and the vibrations increased.
I decided I had had enough. Suddenly, I knocked him away, then swung once. He raised his blade to block, and as our swords made contact, I released the energy.
The physical energy I had collected escaped in a violent, but directional, explosion, blowing my enemy back into his troops. He struck the ground twice before slamming a few inches into the earth 50 feet away. He shuddered, then went limp, a small trickle of blood flowing onto the dirt.
I spun my sword in my hand, then caught the grip and pointed it toward the ground. Soul flame licked down the edges, making the blade into a small pillar of flame.
The soldiers converged on their fallen officer, then charged again. This time, though, I was a little annoyed. I sheathed Honor, thrust my hands behind me and muttered “energy charge.”
Soul energy focused around my hands, forming small, concentrated balls of energy that hung in the air for a moment before collecting in the palm of one of my hands. The energy pulsed, shimmering and twisting, reflecting things like turquoise water. I brought my hands to my sides, casually examining the faintly luminescent energy. Veins of it flowed out of the sleeves of my armored trench coat, draining into the collection and make the already formidable amount of energy even bigger. Strings of it also flowed from the air and the earth, which meant that this version of earth was not yet dead. Soul energy still flowed beneath the surface, the life force of the planet. I smiled briefly, and then thrust both of my hands out in front of me, screaming “flame cannon!”
All the energy I had collected bubbled over and exploded outward in a huge beam of energy that vaporized all before it. The sheer power of it was enough to level cities. If I had been given a few hours, it would have been enough to rip the planet to shreds. As it was, though, it was adequate for my use. Suddenly, the energy flared, plateaued, and then reduced down to nothing. A few bits of stray energy, freed just as the attack was set off, floated in the air, hesitant, before sinking back into the earth or evaporated into the air.
I was breathing a little heavier than I had been before, as my body hurriedly turned biological energy into soul energy to refill the depleted stocks. After a moment, I drew up and surveyed the damage I had done.
A blackened strip of land extended a few football fields away. Anything in its immediate path, along with a few soldiers outside of it, had been vaporized, and the remainder was making a hasty retreat to their ships. One was dragging their commander.
I did the only thing I could; I threw honor. The sword cut through the air easily, and landed right in the middle of the soldier’s chest, sliding through him with a small ‘shhhk’. The soldier let his commander fall. His hand went up to the sword embedded in his chest, and then he collapsed. I walked over to him and pulled my blade out, wiping it on his armor before sheathing it at my side. Then, I knelt besides my enemy and touched his armor, making a connection with it’s internal electronic systems, then examining and learning everything I could about the armor. I realized, with a small smile, that this was the same model of imperial officer armor used during the empire wars more than 50 year before. Quickly, I stood up and addressed Grey.
“Grey, take this officer to the Orion and put him in the statis pod. When he is healed enough, take him out, and then you and Smith question him. Don’t be too rough, though, I want him conscious when I get there.” Grey saluted me, and then ran off towards the Orion. I watched him run for a second, then turned to Lang. “search the bodies for wounded but still alive soldiers, do what you can for them then deliver them to the Orion. After you finish, come back to the compound.” He nodded, then moved off, eyes scanning the field of corpses for any sign of life. I watched him for a second as well, then moved towards the compound entrance.
As I entered, I noticed a distinct difference in the atmosphere. A slight humming saturated the air, and some of the dust was gone. The air was cleaner. I approached the elevator and realized that it was active. I pressed the button and, after a second, the doors quietly slid open, revealing the elevator interior, dimly lit by the single working fluorescent. I stepped inside and pressed the button for the bottom floor. The doors slid shut, and then the elevator began moving. The ride was much smoother and faster than the first ride down because the systems were now active on their own. A result of MacDougal tinkering around in the lower levels and power systems, I supposed.
The elevator arrived at its destination, and the doors slid open a second time. I stepped out nto the corridor and looked to my left. MacDougal stood there, a tool belt around his waist and his sleeves rolled up, elbow deep into some sort of electrical system. Suddenly, he yanked. A small explosion of sparks erupted from the mess of wires, and the internal lights flickered, and then came on. He glanced up and smiled, then pulled out his hands. He held a wire cutter and screwdriver in his hands, and he tucked them back into their places in the belt before picking up a panel lying on the floor and a bolt gun and bolting the panel back in place. Then he turned to me. “that does it for the lighting systems. Next I need to fix the hanger door controls so you can park your ship in the hanger.” He hesitated for a second, frowning. “you are going to stay, aren’t you?”
“of course. We won’t leave until we’ve freed this version of earth don’t worry.” I said, with utter conviction.
After much thought and many stones skipped across the mirror surface of the water, watching the ripples fade away into the crystal water, I had a realization. I was neither the stone on the shore nor the stone skipping across the water. Instead, I was the skipper, the person who wanders along, then picks up a flat stone that he finds and sends it skipping across the water. I am neither the inactive or the active, but the activator, the initiator. I caused things to happen. And, happy with this conclusion, I returned home happier and with a better understanding.