Page 54 of Heir of Draga

This time Sirus knew what to expect, he knew what to do. Sirus knew he couldn’t be forced to do anything with that Neprijat persuasion while he had his helmet on and that made him nearly invincible. He ripped the head off one monster and cut through the next. Then he spun and beheaded two more.

Sirus was a whirling dance of death as they made their way through the city streets. So few of his people remained, most had retreated to starships or the seat where the shield could protect them, but Sirus didn’t know what kind of tech the Neprijat had.

Who knew if the shields could even keep them at bay?

This would be the test. The shield had worked before, but that was generations ago. Advancement in tech happened every day.

Sirus grunted as a monster managed to pounce on him before he could get his weapon up. His back slammed into the ground and the snarling snout snapped at his helmet but he managed to grab it by the jaws as the spidersilk armor held up under the claws and weight.

With a roar he thrust his plasma blade up and into the beast’s chest. Its yelp told him he’d hit his mark as it slumped over.

The closer they got to the seat the more of the monsters there were. They were thick among the streets and it was slow going.

“I need air support,” Sirus called out as he took a step back to protect the rear with Peter. “There are too many of them. We need someone to clear a path.”

“I am on my way, Sirus,” Veri said over the fleet-cast. “I’m coming down to the surface with a squadron of fighters. We’ll clear the way and then mop up the remaining creatures once you get to the seat on foot.”

Veri had suited up to help his planet herself. She was bloodthirsty and aching to fight. He grinned as he looked up to see her fly overhead, raining fire on the monsters. His squad took cover and they waited it out as screeches wailed and rose through the smoke.

“Get down there Veri, I’m right behind you with another legion,” Asher said over the fleet-cast. “We need to make sure none are left while Scyria finishes the evacuations.”

Sirus and his men moved forward, taking out those who still survived. Some were twitching or crawling as they burned alive. It was a mercy to put them out of their misery. Then they double-timed it to the seat, taking the cleared, direct path even if it was longer than some of the shortcuts he knew.

What worried him more than anything was the shield around the seat hadn’t been activated and no one was picking up the cast he kept sending out. Anatoly, Elena, and his mother could be too busy to answer, but the silence made his mouth dry as ash.

“Sirus,” Peter said over the fleet-cast. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

He didn’t reply, but he agreed with his brother. Something was wrong. Sirus rested his blaster over his arm, his plasma sword across his forearm as a shield. The mechas clomped along, the pistons making too much noise in Sirus’s opinion, but the destruction they wrought was invaluable.

His squad was silent the rest of the way to the family seat. The gates were sealed, but not shielded. Sirus tapped his wrist and his glove slid back to reveal his hand. He pressed his palm against the gate and the moment it recognized his prints and DNA the gate creaked open, revealing the empty inner courtyard.

Not even one of the Neprijat beasts was there, only bodies littered the floor. Some were the creatures and some his people. Sirus recognized a few, but when he noticed one of the guardsmen he stopped looking. They needed to find the last starship and get it off the ground with the remaining survivors.

“Keep your eyes peeled. We don’t want to run into an ambush,” Sirus murmured over the cast.

Peter stayed close as they entered the aboveground seat meant for business and events. Snow fell through the crack in the domes and the silence was eerie. The creatures had gone to ground. Only the occasional screech and snarl as other legions hunted them down and ended them.

The screech of fighters overhead canvassing the area broke through, startling a few of the warriors. Sirus ignored the mistake and stepped inside his family seat.

Claws tried to rip the helmet from his face and he dodged just in time. Sirus fired as it seemed like thousands of the creatures poured from the dark hallways. It was all he could do to keep from drowning in them as one of his warriors screamed, disappearing under a pile of them.

“Peter, use whatever you have to but tear them to shreds! We have no air support here.” Sirus sliced through three different heads in one swing, keeping his back to the mecha his brother controlled.

Flames burst from one mecha arm and cannon fire from the other. It made a dent, but the creatures seemed to come from everywhere.

“We need back up!” Sirus yelled, kicking one away and slicing through another, firing as rapidly as possible. He killed three more while he reloaded his blaster and ended up pressed up against Peter’s mecha.

Warriors died right and left, but at least the two other mechas were still standing.

Then a familiar war cry came from farther in the seat. One Sirus recognized. His mother was a flurry of plasma swords. She jumped over snarling fangs and claws, tossing small grenades into the thickest grouping of beasts.

They burst like an infection and still more came from the shadows.

Behind her Anatoly raged and fired his automatic blaster, the energy pulses about the size of an average male’s head. Other Scyrian warriors came from the halls, converging on the massive foyer and Sirus still didn’t know how they would last until the fleet warriors came to assist.

He spun and sliced and fired and kept the creatures off his brother’s mecha and it became a rhythm as he worked. The killing silence took over him and he bared his teeth as he ripped one from his back and tossed it against the wall, firing twice in that oblong head, already stabbing a second.

Then his heart stopped when he saw Elena in her own mecha, pushing through more of the monsters. Sirus snarled and leapt onto his brother’s back. “Protect her; get her to the ship if you can.”

“Sirus, we’re about to land. Just hold on a little longer,” Veri said over the cast.

“Get her out of here!” Sirus roared, his protective instincts turning everything red and he killed five more without even blinking. He leapt from the mecha and let out a pulse wave of raw energy. The twenty around him flattened instantly, dying when they were crushed against the stone like the oversized bugs they were.

Peter made a run for Elena the same moment Anatoly saw her. Their eldest brother went white as a sheet and then his back arched, claws poking through his chest, but he sliced through the arm and kept fighting.

Hundreds more of the monsters poured into the seat. Sirus breathed hard and sent another request for backup. He would take them all down with him if he had to. None would be left alive after he was through.

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