Heaven Saga 1: The Lost Hero (8 page)

“What the hell are you doing!?”

“Training you,” she said as she locked his legs with
hers and pinned his arms. He struggled to get her off. “If you don’t figure it
out soon I’ll pin you for good.”

He struggled for a few minutes before laughing.
“You’ve got me Seles.” He looked at how she was contorted on his back. “Are you
double jointed?”

She twisted herself off of him. “Of course, all
Kalaidians are.”

“Well, just so you not all humans are,” he said,
shaking his head.

“That’s going to make things tricky,” she said. “I
guess if grappling won’t work, then I can show you a few strikes and blocks.”

“How is this going to help against pulse rifles?” he
asked.

She rolled her eyes with impatience. “Your reflexes
are slow, you have no combat training, and of course, no combat experience. One
needs to know the basics if they hope to learn the advanced.”

“Alright Seles, you win. We’ll do this your way.”

* * *

“What kind of weapons do they use?” Brian asked as he
chewed on a ration.

Seles was eating with him. “Their technology is
similar to ours. Since these Malcovin are mercenaries, they probably use pulse
rifles and wear shielding armor. Their commanders use a spear with similar
properties to a
rakna
blade. I think it’s called a
Keiker
pike.”

“How effective is their shielding armor?”

She finished eating. “It’s effective against my pulse
rifle. That’s why our strategy focuses on the
rakna
blade and pulse
grenades.”

“I’d prefer flying away safely without having to
fight,” he said after finishing his meal.

“I agree.” Seles picked up the scanner and checked the
weather. “But at the rate we’re going we’ll never finish repairs in time.”

He put his thermal cloak on. “I’ll work on the shuttle
right now. I know the weather’s bad, but I have to at least try.”

“Are you sure you can do it alone?” she asked.

He looked her in the eye and nodded. “Don’t worry;
I’ve learned a lot in the last few days.” He took the scanner and put the
rakna
blade on his belt. When he went to leave he turned to Seles one more time. “I
have you to thank. If I was stranded alone I would’ve gone mad. Because you
were here to show me the light I’m not lost in the darkness. I owe everything
to you Seles, and I’m going to make sure you get off this cold rock.”

Brian turned and walked out into a snow storm. Seles
stood at the mouth of the cave.
He looks similar to the description of the
Teacher, but different enough for me to not be sure.
She thought as he
disappeared into the snow.
Does that mean the Teacher was a Terran?

* * *

Brian closed the hatch behind him and went to the
front console to turn the systems on. Then he opened a panel near the rear
hatch and checked the wiring and circuitry. He replaced everything according to
the blueprints and systems requirements. As the day wore on he moved around the
shuttle and fixed the propulsion system. Exhausted after several hours of work,
he returned to the front of the shuttle. He squeezed into the front seat and
took the control stick to prep the shuttle for flight. He turned the shuttle’s
systems on and hovered off the ground, steering the craft towards the cave.

“I can’t believe how easy this is,” he said to
himself. He gazed out the front window as the blizzard and wind got worse.

* * *

Seles took the opportunity to bathe. After removing
her clothing she felt around the water for a good place to sit. She went into
the water and felt its warm, cleansing embrace. Sighing with pleasure she
looked up at the rocky ceiling and thought about what to do next. After a while
she got out of the water and put her clothes back on. She heard a loud sound
coming from outside.
That sounds like a shuttle landing.
She thought as
she put on her thermal cloak and ran outside. She saw the shuttle landed only a
few
vetres
from the cave entrance and ran to the back hatch. A second
later Brian opened it and collapsed from exhaustion.

She ran to him. “Brian, are you alright!?”

He turned his head and moaned. “Not really. I fixed
everything except for the launch engines,” he said before falling asleep.

With some effort Seles dragged him into the cave. She
sat next to him and ran her hand over his unshaven face. She lied down next to
him and held the human close.
I’ll keep you warm this time.

The Avoni entered orbit of the frozen moon and closed
rapidly on the Malcovin ship. Valis sat calmly in her chair on the bridge and
waited. As the Avoni closed, they saw a smaller craft emerge from the bottom of
the cube shaped ship and head towards the surface.

“Looks like a drop ship,” Zae reported. “They’re
charging pulse cannons and deploying shields.”

“Do likewise,” Valis commanded, turning to Kivi. “It
looks like diplomacy isn’t going to work this time.”

Kivi shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting much from them.
They tend to lose their senses when treasure is to be had.”

“So true,” Valis remarked, turning to Daes. “Have they
received any of our hails?”

Daes nodded. “Our communications system is at 100%.
Either their systems are down or they don’t care what we have to say.”

Valis frowned. “I really don’t like an enemy who
ignores me.” She stood up. “Deploy Novaguards and assume formation C-12.”

Kivi smiled. “You’re feeling aggressive today.”

 “Nearly getting destroyed by a vastly superior foe
does that to a captain.” Valis glanced at the monitor. “This is just the thing
to relieve some stress amongst the crew, not just myself.” Valis walked up to
Zae. “Are the Malcovin doing anything?”

“They’re launching a few smaller attack vessels.”
Zae’s eyes widened. “I’m picking up five of the new models captain.”

“The Talons we’ve been hearing about?” Kivi asked. “I
didn’t think they’d be mass produced for couple of years.”

Valis turned to Baed. “Alert the Novas of the Talon’s
abilities. Adjust formation to C-9 and be ready to change on my command.”

* * *

Brian and Seles stood outside the cave and prepped the
shuttle for launch. The air had shifted to bitter cold, with the wind picking
up the freshly fallen snow and blowing it everywhere in waves of white. He
looked to the sky and saw lights flashing high in the air.

“Seles, do you see that?” he asked.

Seles shivered and looked up. “There’s a battle in
orbit between ships.”

“Do you think it’s the Avoni and the Malcovin ship?”

“Probably,” she said as her teeth chattered. “We
should get everything from inside the cave and lift off.” She opened the back
hatch of the shuttle.

“I’ll go get what’s left inside,” he said as he ran
into the cave.

Brian grabbed everything and looked over the room one
last time.
This was my first home away from Earth, even if it was only for
twelve days
. He thought as he ran back to the shuttle. He noticed an object
in the sky as ran in and closed the back hatch. Brian placed what he was
carrying in the back container and then went to the front.

 “Seles, there’s something descending from orbit,” he
said as he took the seat next to her.

“I’m going to launch and fly away from here as fast as
possible,” she said as she activated all systems.

“Is this ship fast enough?”

Seles shook her head. “I don’t know how fast their
drop ship is. Hopefully, we can hold out until the Avoni finishes the battle in
orbit.”

Seles steered them into the sky while keeping them
close to the ground. The Malcovin ship was much larger and closed on them.

“They’re faster than we hoped,” Brian said as he
activated the shuttle’s defense systems.

“They’ll overtake us in a half an hour or so,” she
said. Seles carefully flew the shuttle through a mountain range.

Brian activated the weapons system. “I fixed the
shields and pulse cannon. If they get too close we have a defense.”

“I’m glad to have you on my side. I wasn’t sure your
boast of fixing the shuttle was accurate. Now I know how industrious a Terran
is.”

He laughed. “It’s not industry that drove me, it was
survival. We’re survivors above all else.”

A message came from the drop ship: Kalaidian shuttle
stand down and surrender. If you don’t, we will shoot down your ship. You have
ten minutes to make your decision.

“It’s so nice of them to give us ten minutes,” he
said, sighing.

“Is the pulse cannon charged up?”

“It’s charged and ready to fire on your command,” he
answered as he pressed a sequence of buttons on the console.

Ten minutes passed before the drop ship opened up fire
on them, hitting the shuttle’s shields and shaking the ship. Seles masterfully
evaded and kept them from a direct hit.

“Here we go,” Brian said, firing the pulse cannon. A
red energy pulse slammed into the Malcovin ship, stopping it in its tracks.

Seles scanned them. “It looks like their shields are
down, but…” as she spoke a massive beam of energy came from the damaged ship
and drove the shuttle into the snowy plains below. Both Brian and Seles were
thrown to the floor. He rolled over bruised and dazed, but still conscious. He
sat up and saw Seles was bleeding.

“Seles!” he shouted, checking her wounds.

Brian found a spot in the shuttle to lie her down.
Then he took a dermal bandage from the emergency supplies and applied it to the
wound on her head. He placed a thermal cloak under her head and went to the
front console to turn on the visual scanner.
There are roughly thirty
Malcovin headed here on foot. Damn, they move fast.
He thought, looking at
the
rakna
blade on his hip.
I’ll try to buy her some time.
Brian
took a spare thermal cloak from the storage drawer and put it on. He then took
the three pulse grenades and placed them inside the cloak. A few minutes later,
wrapped in the thermal cloak, he walked out the back hatch and into a snow
storm. He saw the Malcovin approaching in the distance.
I’ll show these
birds what a human does when cornered.

* * *

Valis smiled as the last Talon was destroyed. “I’m
glad they didn’t have their special system installed yet.”

Kivi turned to Valis. “True, but we still lost twenty
of our Novas.”

Valis stared at the wreckage shown on the monitor. “It
means we’ll have to come up with a new weapon to fight them Kivi.”

“All Novaguards return to base,” Zae said over the
com.

“Thank you Zae,” Valis said. “Have you identified
their ship?”

“It’s the
Rigika
,” said Kivi.

Valis grinned. “That explains their boldness and the
Talons. Only a bird as resourceful as Captain Krigik would challenge me,” Valis
said. “Zae, try contacting them ship again. I’d like request their surrender.”

When Zae hailed the
Rigika
it wavered in space
and glowed. After a moment the ship vanished from the monitor.

“I thought their gravity drive was damaged,” Kivi
said.

Valis smiled again. “You know how crafty those birds
are Kivi. They must have had their real gravity drive hidden. The main ship may
have fled, but we still have a prize waiting for us on the surface.”

“You mean the drop ship?” Kivi asked.

“Yes. I only hope that Seles and Brian are holding
them off.” Valis turned to Zae. “Scan the surface for any combat activity. I’d
like to know what’s going on down there before we send a ship down.”

“Yes captain,” Zae answered as she scanned the moon’s
surface. “The shuttle’s been shot down without suffering serious damage. Seles
is unconscious, and the alien is headed towards the Malcovin drop ship, also
shot down.”

Valis stared at the image of the ice covered moon,
thinking.
Why would he go out on foot to attack them? A standard shuttle
only has a few pulse grenades, a rakna blade, and a pulse rifle for weapons.
What does he know that we don’t?
She turned to Kivi. “I’m taking our
drop ship down immediately.” She turned to Zae. “Prepare an attack squadron
Zae.”

“Valis, I must object,” Kivi said, standing up. “I
should be the one leading the assault, not you.”

“I hear you Kivi, but something’s tugging at me,”
Valis said.

“You mean the alien?” Kivi asked.

“Yes, the alien. Unless he’s completely foolish,
there’s no reason why he would be heading towards the Malcovin alone on the
ground. My question is why? He’s outnumbered and outgunned,” Valis said. She
headed to the elevator. “Take care of things here.”