Bane of the Dead (Seraphim Revival Book 1) (22 page)

No, I’m missing something here. Something doesn’t feel right.

The question lingered in the back of her mind, but she took a moment to link with the
Resolute
’s computer and call up Seth’s position. He was near his seraph, as he often was when something got under his skin.

Quennin took a lift down to the seraph bays, working the questions through her mind. The more she thought, the more she found threads linking seraphs and the Bane. First there was Jack Donolon, hero and traitor in equal parts, allied with the Bane. Second was the Bane in battle: fighting them from within a seraph, defended by an impervious barrier, but still fighting very much like another pilot.

The Bane inside of a seraph… the Bane can pilot a seraph…

Oh no.

That train of thought was almost too horrible to comprehend. When the lift opened, Quennin burst into a run down the row of dormant seraphs. She rushed across the bay shelves, thankful that no one was around to see her, and spotted Seth donning his i-suit.

“Seth!” she called out, running towards him. “Seth!”

Her beloved looked up, surprise and confusion written on his face. She came to a stop next to him.

“What’s the matter, Quennin?”

“Seth, I think I know why Jack—”

“All pilots to your seraphs! All pilots to your seraphs! Aktenzek is under attack!”
The booming voice echoed in the cavernous bays.

Quennin and Seth exchanged looks.

“What is it, Quennin?” Seth asked. He must have seen her unease.

“I’ll…” she paused, not wanting to burden Seth before the battle. “I’ll tell you when we get back.”

There was nothing more to do but prepare for battle.

Chapter 14

Return of the Bane

In full control of his seraph with vast fleets arrayed about him, Jack retreated to his inner thoughts, back to where he’d set all of this in motion seventeen years ago. In the three years after merging with his seraph, before abandoning Earth and his friends, a slow horror had begun to settle in. He’d suspected what he was, or rather what he was becoming, and had begun a search for something to prove himself wrong.

That search began with Aktenzek’s mammoth but restricted archives. He used to spend hours sifting through those ancient digital tomes in a quest for answers, but they were few and far between. Even though the Choir undoubtedly knew a great deal about the Bane, the Gate, the destruction of Imayirot, the Exile, and other subjects, the archives held little of value.

The Choir hid the detailed technical data on those subjects. After all, how could the Choir know seraph pilots were immune to the Bane’s attacks without such information? No, there was a great store of knowledge being denied to the seraph pilots, and perhaps even to the majority of the Choir.

But despite these attempts at censorship, small gems of information fell through the cracks, allowing Jack to choose a course of action. Most of this seemingly useless knowledge pertained to the Gate and its strange physical manifestation within this universe.

The Gate was a dimensional disruption, not unlike those a seraph pilot created when drawing chaotic energies into this universe. However, the Gate operated on a much higher power scale and far more precise organizational structure. It created a field effect around itself, nullifying other dimensional disruptions in close proximity.

And so, Jack surmised, as one approached the Gate, a seraph pilot would lose many of his or
her
abilities.

Jack turned his head to the right and let his wings flex outward slightly. Vierj’s shadowed seraph hovered in space, ready and eager for battle. He wondered if he would succeed in the end.

But first I must find the Gate, wherever the Choir has hidden it, and to do that, we must assault Aktenzek and force its location from them.

“First wave has secured our entry,” Dominic said, monitoring the battle from over a hundred light-years away. “We’ll be sending the second wave through momentarily.”

Thousands of warships floated serenely about him, waiting their turn to assault Aktenzek. In the cold calculations of war, every machine in this fleet was expendable if the Grendeni could wrest control of the Gate and hold it. To the Grendeni, the Gate was a means to an end, not the quasi-religious artifact the Aktenai held it to be.

If the Grendeni secured the Gate, they could force Aktenzek to stop the war. Even if the Grendeni could not physically destroy the dimensional rupture, they could theoretically move it to the heart of a star or throw it into a black hole.

The Aktenai would obey any demand to keep that from happening.

“How’s the assault going?” Jack asked.

“It’s a bloody massacre right now,” Dominic said. “They had more ships in position than we anticipated. Plus their seraph squadrons were on high alert. First wave has taken heavy losses, but we have a breach in Aktenzek’s fleet defenses. Losses are within acceptable parameters. We’re sending the second wave through now.”

Vierj opened a private channel. “I’m surprised by how anxious this waiting is making me.”

“I know, but be patient. Let the Grendeni pay the price for entering Aktenzek, not us.”

“Of course, Jack Donolon.”

Hundreds of Grendeni warships, thousands of exodrones, and dozens of archangel carriers all powered up their fold engines simultaneously. Space rippled as each ship punched a momentary hole through space-time and vanished. Vast distortion rings expanded outward, turning space into a violently disturbed black pool.

Thirty archangel carriers were in the second wave alone. Each massively armored craft held four full squadrons of archangels. That was almost fifteen hundred archangels in a single wave.

“We’ve got an opening for you,” Dominic said. “It’s not much, but it’s better than the hell the rest of the fleet is engaged in. Transmitting fold coordinates. Good hunting.”

“Thanks, Dominic. We won’t let you down.”

The hypercast link shifted, and Dominic spoke privately to Jack. Or so he thought, at least. “Make sure you keep her under control. We want the Gate, not genocide.”

“I understand, Dominic. And thank you.”

“Just get us that location. I’m trusting you here. Don’t prove me wrong.”

“Oh, have a little faith, will you?”

The countdown reached zero. Jack and Vierj folded space to Aktenzek.

Fleets in the thousands dueled in the black skies above the fortress planet. Thick clouds of exodrones buzzed about them, disgorging salvos of torpedoes and stinging with internal lasers. Even the Earth Nation fleet participated, approaching cautiously from Earth and adding its own fire to the storm of beams, explosions, and death.

Aktenzek itself stood out, almost totally eclipsing the pale white smile of Zu’Rashik at this angle. Massive barrages of fusion cannons fired up from its surface, lacerating the Grendeni fleet. The seraph’s scanners focused in, finding the closest entry portal and marking it with a digital nav beacon.

To Jack’s side was Earth, visible as a sideways blue and white crescent lit brightly on its night side with human civilization. Lights from the sixteen Orbital Republics and the countless factories, ships, and edifices in space orbited around the planet. Even further away, beyond Earth and the twin fortress planets, was the Moon, its surface illuminated almost as brilliantly as Earth’s.

Jack opened his chaos scanner to full gain, thankful once again that he could detect nothing through Vierj’s barrier. All across Aktenzek, Earth, and the intervening space, little fireballs appeared, each a chaos-adept human. For a moment, Jack wondered why in a galaxy filled with human life, Earth alone had produced seraph pilots.

But that was a question for another time. Three Aktenai dreadnoughts came about and headed towards his position.

Jack flared his six blade-wings. Their edges ignited with blue fire, and he shot down towards Aktenzek.

Despite his speed, Vierj rushed to his side with ease. She extended an open palm and released a thin black cord of energy, almost imperceptible against the starry black of space. The cord whipped out, went taut near an Aktenai dreadnought, and the end expanded into a huge triangle. The Aktenai dreadnought fell through the triangle, but only shattered debris blew out the other end.

“Impressive.” Jack focused his active scanners on the dreadnought’s debris. Every piece had a temperature close to absolute zero, having cooled for millions of years in a heartbeat.

“That was just a warm-up.” Vierj released two more black cords from her hands. They lashed across space and opened into triangles. Another two Aktenai dreadnoughts disintegrated from the ravages of time. “The Aktenai are such cowards to hide behind robots. And I sense something else from the planet below.”

“What is it?”

“There is a field engulfing much of Aktenzek. It feels similar to a seraph’s barrier, though much weaker and wider. Ah, Veketon. How clever of you.”

“Vierj?”

“I almost died destroying Ittenrashik. I think I would die if I tried the same here.”

Jack almost sighed in relief, but he caught himself.

“The Eleven planned for your return,” he said instead.

“As we knew they would.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing we’re not here to destroy Aktenzek.”

“Hmm. Yes…” Vierj sighed with indifference.

Jack spotted the group of Aktenai seraphs flying up from the fortress planet’s surface. “Six seraphs heading our way.”

“Shall I deal with those malformed copies?”

“We’ll take them together.”

“As you wish. Lead the way.”

Jack fed power into his wings and flew down to meet the seraphs. Fusion cannons fired up, but the tight beams splashed off his barrier without effect. He ignited his primary blade and dove straight at the leader.

As with all Aktenai seraphs, each stood out with unique personality and flair. The lead seraph ignited its dagger, bright green against the angular green-and-white of its body. The Aktenai seraph slashed up, and Jack cut down.

Their blades met, but this opponent was no Seth, nor was it among the elite pilots onboard the
Resolute
. This pilot had not been tempered by combating swarms of archangels. Nor had it engaged in desperate duels with other seraph pilots, and its blade and barrier were weak.

The Aktenai seraph’s green dagger exploded apart from the force of their impact. Jack sliced through the torso in a single stroke, killing the pilot instantly. Two other seraphs were quickly at his sides.

Vierj crashed savagely into one, ripped its arms out of their sockets, then tore its chest open without even bothering to ignite a weapon. A shower of glowing red fluid sprayed over her.

Jack parried the third seraph’s attack, then skewered it with his sword.

Whatever training these Aktenai pilots had received, they had never met nor imagined foes like this. From the right and the left, two more seraphs rushed in. Jack spun in a tight circle, his sword lashing out, shield at the ready. He blocked their attacks and cleaved both at the waist.

The last seraph turned and fled.

“I think not.” Vierj lashed out with a black whip of energy and split the seraph in two.

Jack formed up with her. “We need to get down to the surface. Follow me.”

They descended towards Aktenzek. A barrage of fusion beams shot up from the surface. They wove through, rare hits splattering off their barriers. Seraph squadrons diverted from other battles and began to converge on their position.

“Dominic, we’re becoming awfully popular here.”

“Yes, I see that. Sending reinforcements.”

Eight Grendeni carriers folded in and released their archangels. Cannon fire from the Aktenai fleet and Aktenzek prioritized the new targets. They killed dozens, but the archangels were fast, nimble targets, and they swarmed over the Alliance seraphs as soon as the range dropped.

Ahead, four EN seraphs opened fire from the surface. Volley after volley from their rail-rifles slammed into the archangels, felling several of the skeletal machines. Jack flew past the archangels and dove at them.

The closest EN seraph didn’t have time to ready its dagger. Jack slashed through it diagonally, cleaving through its wings, torso, and rifle with equal ease. The other three EN seraphs backed away and fired at him, but their rail-rifle bolts ricocheted off his barrier. One of the EN pilots shouldered its weapon, ignited a bright orange dagger, and sped in.

Jack slapped the dagger upward with his shield, then slipped inside the EN seraph’s defenses and stabbed through its torso. The seraph’s orange vent-like shunts turned black, chaos influx dying with its pilot.

Without a barrier providing resistance, the seraph slumped off Jack’s blade. The broken remains clattered lifelessly against the pale armored surface of Aktenzek.

The two remaining EN seraphs backed away.

In a flash of dark motion, Vierj was behind them. She ignited her blade, gutted one from groin to head, pirouetted, then gutted the other from head to groin. Four seraph halves slumped to Aktenzek’s surface, each sputtering streams of conductor fluid.

“Such weaklings are fools to stand against us,” Vierj said.

Jack took off and gained some altitude from Aktenzek’s surface. He found the navigational beacon for the entry portal.

“This way.” Jack raced towards it.

Vierj fell in behind him. The Armor Shell of Aktenzek stretched out like a frozen sea of white metal. Vast pillars rose from it, forming a forest of towers kilometers high and tipped with dreadnought-caliber fusion cannons.

Jack and Vierj wove through the towers, dodging fusion beam volleys. The few lucky shots that hit only splashed against their barriers.

They sped out of the tower forest and through mountain ranges of white and silver domes, past mammoth drone control pyramids, until finally arriving at the entry portal. Even though the portal stood a full five kilometers square, it was dwarfed by the four drone control pyramids surrounding it and the fusion towers encircling those.

“Vierj, can you open it?”

“Yes. This field around Aktenzek should not interfere with a small display of my power.”