Chapter 44 #2
“Fuck,” Task swears under his breath, dodging a stream of laser-gun fire as he unsheathes his surge-saber and jumps into the fray, plunging his weapon into the back of one of the men who fights with his second, Pero, an Enchanter.
The Rev drops to the ground with a shout of agony.
Task steps over his body, beckoning to Pero and another of his men, Demis.
In the commotion, they manage to dodge the two other Revs trying to stop the advance of the boarding party.
There’s a stairwell at the end of the hallway, and Task pushes the door open, stepping through it. One of the Revs sees them, turning from the fight and rushing towards them. “Go, go, go!” Task shouts to Demis and Pero, who scramble up the stairwell.
The Rev is on Task before he can shut the door, follow his men up the stairs.
There’s a flash of light as the Rev comes at him with a surge-saber, but he’s inexperienced compared to Task, unsure how to wield the weapon effectively.
Task swings at him with his own surge-saber, the energy pulsing through the Rev’s chest until he falls to the ground, shouting in agony.
Task drops to his knees, placing his hands on the man to finish him off with the pain echo, ingesting and then refracting the pain until the man has stilled.
Task glances back down the hallway, seeing that his men have subdued the final Rev.
They wait for orders. “With me,” Task says, pushing open the door again and taking the steps two and a time, surge-saber held aloft.
He counts two floors, and then he’s out in the hallway on the main level.
There are more Revs here, three guarding the door to the bridge deck, and he looks to Pero. “Enchant them.”
Pero nods once, closes his eyes briefly before he reopens them, his skin glowing a bit as his power sweeps into the minds of the Revs, commanding them to move away from the door.
They walk down the hallway, as if they have no care in the world.
Sometimes, Task is still amazed at what the Eight Great can do.
He approaches the door to the bridge deck, swearing when he sees it’s protected by a glowing biopad.
He should have considered that they’d have reconfigured the security systems aboard, and that the bridge deck would only be accessible to a subset of Rev forces.
He needs Caelinus to undo this, quickly.
Task’s comms system blinks back on for a minute, and he manages to patch into Voss. “We need Castor at the bridge of the Lightcraft we’re on. Now.”
“On it,” Voss says, panting. “He’ll be there in five.”
Task lingers outside the door with Pero and Demis, weapons still held aloft. Pero’s nose has started to bleed with the effort of holding off the three Rev guards, and Task hopes that Caelinus gets here soon.
Almost as if he’d thought him into existence, Caelinus bangs through the doorway, surge-saber in his right hand.
He grins when he sees Task and his men in the hallway.
“Easy,” Caelinus says as he examines the biopad on the door.
“I need one of you to come with me to engineering room. I should be able to disable this in two minutes.”
“Demis, go,” Task commands, and the Guardian falls into step beside Caelinus as they retreat down the hallway, ostensibly to the lower level where the Lightcraft’s engineering room should be.
“Pero, let it go for now,” Task says, seeing the blood pouring from the Guardian’s nose. “We can take them when they return.”
Pero releases, wiping the blood from his nose on his sleeve.
Task’s heart is pounding as he waits for the biopad to turn green and allow them access.
He doesn’t know what he’ll be walking into when the door finally opens, but he beckons to the rest of his Guardians, settling on a strategy for when they enter.
As promised, less than two minutes later, the biopad blinks green and the door slides open. Seven Revs stand in the bridge, two flanking the one Task assumes is the leader. One of them shouts orders, stopping short when he sees Task and the Guardians looming in the doorway.
Task can’t help but smile, a sinister sneer that travels across his lips. They’ve got them trapped. Maybe not outnumbered, but the deck is small, and the Revs don’t have what the Guardians do. “So sorry to meet like this,” Task says, though he’s not at all.
He can see Caelinus out of the corner of his eye, and he wants to tell him to go, get back to his ship so he can be on deck for repairs, but he’s also fought with Caelinus more times than he can count, and he’s almost as in tune with him as he is with Voss.
He could use him right now. He inclines his head slightly, and then the two of them are sweeping into the room, Demis, Pero, and the other Guardians on their heels.
A flurry of sabers and light and gunfire as Task engages two Revs in front of him, stabbing one in the neck and swinging his saber across the other’s abdomen, blood pouring from his wound as he drops to the ground.
Caelinus takes out two others quickly, his lumi-dagger flying into the neck of one as he slides his surge-saber through the backs of the other’s legs.
It’s a bloodbath. The Revs had no chance, not against four of the Eight Great.
Demis has a lumi-dagger to the neck of the remaining Rev, stopping him from defending the leader they’ve been sent to retrieve. A nod from Task and Demis slices through his throat, dropping his body with a thump.
The leader doesn’t flinch, even as she watches the brutality unfold before her.
She stands with her broadsword held out, as if daring Task and his men to come closer.
She must know what the broadsword can do against their shields, their weapons, and Task hesitates, trying to think through the best course of action.
There’s still more Guardians than Revs, and they should be able to subdue her easily.
At that moment, he sees it behind her — the jammer. If they can destroy it and get the comms system back up and running, they’ll be able to restore planetary and intra-Force communications. “Castor,” Task says, nodding at it.
Caelinus sees it, locks eyes with Task. They don’t speak, but Task knows that Caelinus will lunge for it in a second, that he’ll expect Task to cover him with the Rev leader as he does.
Sure enough, Caelinus takes a step to the right, trying to get around the Rev leader with her broadsword.
Task engages her, drawing her away from the jammer, his surge-saber whining as it makes contact with the broadsword.
The blue energy short-circuits, as he expected, and it cuts out, leaving the Rev off balance, lunging forward to try to catch herself.
She’s too late and she trips to her knees, losing her grip on the broadsword.
Task grabs her, ignoring the pain that flares through him as he pulls her arms behind her back, pulls a length of metal twine from his pocket, and ties her hands together.
“No!” she shouts. “I won’t go with you! Get your filthy hands off me, you fascist prick!”
He shoves her to Pero, who holds her roughly as she struggles against his grip.
Caelinus has made it to the jammer. He’s on his knees, fiddling with the cords and typing something into the keyboard he rests on his lap.
Task’s eyes are fixed on the screen, not paying attention to the surroundings, certain they’ve handled everyone here.
The sounds of battle on the rest of the ship still come through in muddled pieces, but it feels far away from here, only the momentary whine of sabers or explosion.
“Almost there,” Caelinus says as he enters a new command into the system.
The Rev seems to appear from nowhere. She has dark eyes and dark hair, though her face is covered mostly by a black mask.
Task is startled, fumbles for the lumi-dagger at his hip, but the woman is too fast, her surge-saber arcing through the air and finding purchase as it sinks through Caelinus’ shield, slicing through his back.
Task lunges for the woman, lumi-dagger extended, shouting for Pero and Demis to get a field healer, but he already knows it’s too late for Caelinus.
He’s curling into himself, the keyboard on his lap crashing to the floor.
He tries to brace himself with his hands, but his arms give out as the energy from her surge-saber radiates through the wound, frying him from the inside out, interfering with his magical signature and stopping him from accessing it.
“No!” Task shouts, watching as Caelinus grasps at his chest, blood pooling around him. Rage fills him as Caelinus struggles to breathe, tears in his eyes.
His friend is dying on the ground and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Something greater than anger drives him forward, a deep hatred churning in his gut for the Revs, for these people who have threatened his planet.
The woman is taking a step towards the doorway, but Task won’t let her get away.
There’s nothing he can do for Caelinus right now, but he can stop her.
Kill her. He commands Demis to stay with Caelinus as they wait for the healer, and he sets off after the woman, giving chase as she leaps over an overturned chair, going for Pero who still holds the Rev leader.
Task throws his lumi-dagger after her, and she grunts as it hits her in the shoulder, forcing her to drop her surge-saber.
She dodges to the right, squatting down behind a large metal table as a shield.
He can hear her breath as he stalks toward her, his gaze sweeping the room for other rebels that may have crept in.
He hears her fumbling, likely for a weapon, and he steps around the table to face her, surge-saber pointed at her heart before she can grab the dagger sheathed at her waist. She scrambles backwards, crashing into the table as she tries to get away from him.
“Don’t move.” His voice booms through the space, full of anger and hatred and resignation.
He won’t allow her to live, won’t allow the Revs anything.
They’ve killed his parents, killed Caelinus, and for what?
To keep a drop of power every year? It seems pointless, especially for the price they’ll all pay.
“Fuck you,” the woman says, pulling her mask away so she can spit at him. A wet glob of her saliva lands on his boot.
Task chuckles darkly, pressing the end of the surge-saber into her chest, feeling it thrum with energy in his hand as he prepares to release it, end her once and for all.
He’s blinded with rage, incapable of seeing anything except red.
It’s rare that he lets it so completely control him, but hearing Caelinus gasp behind him, knowing a healer won’t make it in time, has him on another plane entirely.
“Wouldn’t you like to,” Task spits back at her.
“You disgusting, filthy creature. You’ll all be punished for this.
You’ll never win.” He taps the edge of the pommel twice, the energy flowing through it as he presses it into her chest. She slumps to the side, her eyes open and staring at nothing as he steps back, pulling the blade from her.
He turns back to where Demis kneels next to Caelinus, and Demis gives him a slight shake of the head. Caelinus is gone.