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 Aolen
e 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