Izikiel (25 page)

Izikiel stared at the view screen unable to comprehend what he was seeing. A moment ago
, it had shown a futuristic metropolis, its metal and glass structures gleaming in the light of
Tellus’
sun. There had been thousands of ships and people moving throughout the city and air above. The city had stood as a true testament to the golden age of humanity.

Now
, the view screen showed a bleak and desolate landscape. The skeletal remains of buildings, with blackened and cracked support beams, clawed at the sky. There was no sign of people or vehicles of any kind. It was also dark as if the sun had been eclipsed by a veil. This was a dead world, one which was unlikely to support any life.

‘Where are we?
’ he whispered.

‘It looks like
Tellus
but...’ Vorn began just as the ship lurched violently. The few remaining icons began to glow red as the alarms screamed throughout the ship.

‘Status?’
he asked.

‘Not good. We’ve lost about
ninety percent of our thrusters and the quantum-helix drive is damaged,’ Cassandra said as she read the display. ‘We’ve also got a dozen holes in the outer hull.’

‘Damn it! We’re dropping like a rock. Find me a place to set down.’

‘I’m having difficulty scanning the surface. For some reason the sensors are unable to get an accurate reading.’

The ship dropped sharply again as the view screen showed them getting closer to the devastated remains of a
twin tower. Gigantic support beams loomed dangerously close to them.

‘Vorn!’ Izikiel shouted.

‘I’m working on it!’ the captain yelled back as he fought desperately to stabilise the ship. ‘Cassandra, give me something.’

‘I’m sorry, the sensors are useless.’

‘Alright, we’ll have to land blind then,’ Vorn said. ‘Everyone, grab onto something as this is going to be
very
rough!’

Izikiel lay back on
his acceleration couch as the ship again dropped sharply. This time it continued to fall as the view screen showed a series of blackened building remains directly in front of them. Izikiel felt his stomach rise up as the world spun before his eyes. Forcing himself to concentrate, he reached out with his mind.

Nothing happened.
Frowning, he attempted to reach out again. This time, he felt the faintest spark of light at the edge of his expanded awareness. He held onto it, focusing his entire attention on it. The ship continued to shake violently around him but Izikiel didn’t even feel it as he brought his entire being to bear on that tiny ray of hope. As he concentrated, Izikiel felt the familiar touch of the Eternal Flame within him. It was faint, a barely perceptible increase in temperature. He was having great difficulty holding onto it. He realised that something was very wrong.

Finally, the heat expanded
and he found himself floating outside the ship. Looking around, Izikiel was stunned by what he saw. The incredible metropolis that he had witnessed in the past had been reduced to ashes. The blackened and charred remains of buildings, parks and vehicles were scattered as far as he could see. A dense veil of darkness hovered over everything. Looking up, he could not find the sun. All that remained was a faint sliver of light seeping through the darkness.

Turning his attention back to
wards the ship, he saw that it was barely holding in the air. It continued its destabilised dive towards the ground. Plumes of white gas vented from a dozen points around the hull as the engines sputtered intermittently. With a sinking feeling, Izikiel realised that they had run out of time.

He expanded his will further. Ag
ain, he felt only the faintest hint of warmth. It was like a whisper carried on a gale force wind. Concentrating even harder, he felt something reaching out
towards
him in turn.

(
‘Who are you?’) a hollow voice spoke directly into his mind. It too was faint, barely perceptible. Yet there was something strangely familiar about it.

(
‘I am Izikiel, disciple of the Eternal Flame.’)

(
‘Izikiel? You are here? Then there is still hope.’)

Looking out across the landscape, there was only one question on Izikiel’s mind.

(‘What happened here?’)

(
‘The Void Lords returned to
Tellus
. They defeated the true believers and destroyed what was left of humanity. Their victory complete, the Void eclipsed the Galaxy. But there is no time. You must use the power Izikiel, save yourself and those with you. Then there may still be hope.’)
Izikiel felt the warmth increasing within him to a level where he knew there was enough
for him to do what he had to. Looking back at the ship, he thought for a moment. Recalling all the times that he had used the power of the Eternal Flame, he realised this was going to be the hardest. Pointing at the building remains in front of him, he unleashed the power.

(
‘
Aduro
’)
Blue sheets of flame exploded against the blacke
ned remains melting them down. Within seconds, a pool of black metal had formed. It bubbled and flowed across the scarred ground. Thinking back to his time on the glacial world of
Aurora
, Izikiel transformed the heat into a chilling cold.

(
‘
Algor
’)
White sheets of ice erupted from his outstretched hands and enveloped the lake of molten metal. Clouds of steam billowed upwards as the metal cooled rapidly, melting the ice in the process. Pulling back
, Izikiel felt his strength waver as his connection to the Eternal Flame grew weaker. Forcing himself through it, he uttered a final word.

(
‘
Aquilo
’)
Taking control of the air and steam, Izikiel moulded it around the ship. As the
Valiant Crusader
continued its rapid descent, the air around it became thicker. Then it hardened. Izikiel felt a blinding flash of pain explode across his vision as he exerted himself to breaking point. Holding onto the rapidly fading warmth, Izikiel lowered the ship to the frozen lake of metal. The moment the metallic hull touched the ice, he let go.

The world spun before his eyes as he fell off the acceleration couch. He landed
face first on the floor. He could taste blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth as patches of black colour swam before his eyes.

‘Izikiel!’ Te’Anne
cried out.

He felt a
pair of hands turning him over. Looking up, all he could see were a series of swirling shapes of different colours.

‘Are you alright?’ Vorn asked.

Slowly, the shapes stopped moving and solidified into the faces of Te’Anne and Vorn looking down at him in concern.

‘I’ll be ok,’ he replied.

Coughing several times, he wiped the blood away from his mouth. Sitting up with their help, he looked around. The control room appeared to be intact. There were a few small sparks here and there but no major damage. Then his gaze fell on Cassandra. The human-form Elemental stood motionless, staring at the view screen.

‘Ca
ssandra? What is it?’ he asked.

S
he didn’t reply. He was about to repeat his question when a cold chill passed through his entire body. The scene outside showed the blackened remains of several skyscrapers. Pieces of stone, metal and concrete rubble were scattered throughout the remains. But that was not what drew his attention.

Moving between the
remains of the once great city were dozens of shadowy figures. Izikiel could sense what they were without asking.

‘We’re surrounded,
’ he said.

The
Valiant Crusader
shuddered one final time before its systems shut down completely. The last few red icons stopped blinking and the air became stale. The ship was as dead as the world on which it had come to rest. No, not dead Izikiel thought with a bitter sense of irony. It was crawling with hundreds of void spawn. He could sense the dark creatures gravitating towards them. Watching the view screen, he realised that their luck had finally run out. They were stranded on what was now the domain of the Void.

‘What is it?’ Te’Anne asked.

Izikiel felt her arm on his shoulder as he continued to stare at the approaching void spawn. There were even more of them now, crawling over the remains of the ruined skyscrapers. Izikiel pointed at the view screen.

‘Beloved Serafine,’ Te’Anne whisper
ed.

Her hand closed tightly
around his. He reached over and put his arm around her shoulders. He felt the warmth flowing between them. It was a small comfort given their situation.

‘I don’t see anything,’ Vorn said.

Izikiel pointed once more.

‘I still can’t
...wait, I can
feel
them. There are hundreds of them!’

Izikiel was slightly surprised at Vorn’s ability to perceive the void spawn. His
powers as a true believer were increasing rapidly. It was a shame that he’d never get to develop them to their full potential. Izikiel turned towards the human-form Elemental.

‘Is there anything you can do?’ he asked in a solemn tone.

Cassandra slowly turned her head to look at him. Her eyes burned with an intermittent fire as she looked at him.

‘I can fight them,’ she replied. ‘Although
I fear that the power of the Eternal Flame grows fainter with every passing moment.’

‘I
’ve sensed it too. We will not last long against so many.’

‘No. But at least the power of the Flame will shine brightly
one last time before this world falls into the Void.’

‘Let’s get to it then,’ Jonas said.

The two ex-security officers stood at the rear of the control room. Both wore their full body armour and hefted double barrelled energy weapons.

‘Glad to see you two made it,’ Izikiel said.

‘Barely,’ Xavier replied. ‘That has got to be the
roughest
landing I’ve ever experienced.’

Izikiel nodded.

‘I hate to think of this ship becoming a derelict on this dark world,’ Vorn said. ‘It’s been my home for the past ten years and seen me through a lot. The thought of those
things
crawling all over it just doesn’t seem right.’

Xavier walked over and placed his armoured hand on the captain’s shoulder.

‘That won’t happen. Jonas and I have rigged the nuclear flare bombs to explode all at once. That should be powerful enough to destroy the ship and most of what remains of this city.’

‘Thank you,
’ Vorn said.

They moved silently out of the control room. Passing through the main chamber, Izikiel caught a glimpse of a void spawn through the aft view port. It reminded him of the fall of New Babylon. He had vowed to avenge the deaths of its citizens. Now it seemed that he would end his days on a strange planet far in the future.
Talk about the path less travelled
, he thought.

Reaching the rear hatch, Vorn
opened it. A blast of icy cold air blew across Izikiel’s skin. He barely felt it as he surveyed the devastated landscape. The frozen landing pad that he had created stretched out towards a series of support beams and broken pieces of concrete. Charred stumps, the remains of great trees, were arranged in neat rows were a park had once stood.

Dozens of black humanoid shapes were arrayed around the ship in a roughly circular pattern. Izikiel could sense their wills encroaching on
his. He could feel the dark veil materialising around them. He turned towards the others. There was nothing left to say. They all knew how this would end.

‘Ready?’
he asked.

Jonas and Xavier lowered their dark visors as their weapons glowed with pent up energy.
Te’Anne and Vorn both drew twin hand weapons as Cassandra’s eyes erupted in flame. The little girl stood behind them, watching with a strangely expectant look in her eyes.

‘Now!’

As one they moved out of the ship. Izikiel reached out towards the Eternal Flame just as the void spawn rushed towards them. He could feel Cassandra channelling its energy as sheets of orange flame peeled out from her body. Dozens of dark blue energy blasts struck the line of void spawn as the others opened fire. Izikiel raised his arms.

‘
Aduro
’

Waves of blue flame tore into the void spawn forcing them back. Then another wave appeared. And another. Hundreds upon hundreds of dark oily shapes clawed ac
ross each other to get to them.

They began to fall backwards towards the ship. Still the void spawn continued their advance. They began to rush forward. Izikiel could see their glowing red eyes and razor sharp teeth. Stepping back inside the ship, they continued firing. Their combined efforts were having little effect now as the mass of void spawn was so great.

Then the dark veil materialised around them. The energy blasts became ineffective and Izikiel was unable to maintain his connection to the Eternal Flame. Slowly, the blue flame died down as he turned to Xavier. The large man nodded as he pulled out a hand held device.

‘Do it.’

Xavier pressed the button. For an instant everything stood still. Then the nuclear flare bombs, the most powerful weapons ever created by mankind, exploded. Izikiel felt the extreme heat building all around him. He saw the little girl smile. Then a single word resonated in his mind and everything changed.

(
‘
Antequam
’)