Page 22 of Doom

“We have an emergency meeting with the Coalition,” Wrath continued in a somber tone. “The General played us well. While most of our troops came here to save Earth, he sent a massive armada to attack our homeworld. I don’t yet have the details of the damage extent and, so far, we are unable to get in touch with our father. The few of our brothers we left behind are fighting hard, as are our neighboring allies. But it doesn’t look good.”

My mind reeled at the thought our homeworld could be destroyed. Worse still, Dr. Xi—our creator—was there. The entire Xian Warriors research and embryos were also stored on Khepri along with the majority of our Shells. If the worst had come to pass, the Kryptid General might have finally delivered us a fatal blow we would never recover from.

“The Coalition meeting will have to wait,” I said reluctantly. “Doom needs our assistance in all haste before he gets obliterated and that damn Swamp breaks out. There’s nothing we can do for Khepri right now anyway.” I turned to the Hulanians sitting at the back of the shuttle. “Please broadcast the news to all unit leaders. We will take the names of volunteers that wish to return to Khepri to defend it. Each leader must assess their ability to spare Warriors and still complete our task here.”

The Hulanian females all nodded in response, their eyes going out of focus as they began mind-speaking the message to the leaders within reach of their psychic range, and then passing it on to other Hulanians aboard the motherships. They provided the Operator service, which was essentially relaying messages psychically to the various regions at war.

“We can’t spare anyone,” Chaos said grimly.

“I know,” I replied with just as grim an expression. “That’s why we must leave it to each of our brothers’ assessment.”

“No one will leave,” Rage said matter-of-factly. “Khepri will not fall. We might suffer major losses, but the planetwill notfall. Earth will if we depart now. These are our people. My dragon blood will not let me leave Earth until the humans are safe.”

We all nodded in agreement.

“Then let’s go fetch you a chaser,” Wrath said. “We’re not bombing that Swamp with this shuttle. We also need to resupply before heading there. Rest while you can. We still have a very long day ahead.”

My brothers and I wolfed down a few more energy bars during our trip to the Paragon: a support frigate cloaked above the city. I brushed minds with my Soulcatcher Joshin to inform her of my imminent arrival. She would have new shields and fully charged blasters ready for me. Leaning back against my seat, I closed my eyes for a minute while my brothers took turns in the particle shower of the shuttle. It felt like only two seconds had gone by when Chaos mind-spoke to me that it was my turn.

Physically and mentally weary, I made my way to the shower, not bothering to remove my weapons belt or attachments. Leaning my forearms against the wall of the small room, I rested my forehead on my arms while the ionized particles worked their magic in only a couple of minutes. For the first time in my life, I was feeling helpless, knowing that our father, our creator, was in danger, likely dying right now. The only place I had known as a home was under attack while most of our forces were much too far out of reach to do anything about it. Even if we sent men now, by the time they reached Khepri, whatever outcome awaited it would have already come to pass.

But worse still, my brothers had increasingly been turning to Chaos, Doom, and me for guidance. With less than seven hours of sleep over the past four days, I was beginning to question the quality of my judgment. What if I was leading them down the wrong path? What if one of those decisions caused the death of many more humans and the permanent one of my brothers? But there was no room for second guessing. I could only plow forward and do my best. Inhaling deeply, I pushed away from the wall and reached for the door of the shower.

“The Drone Swarm is on the move! Stran and I are moving in to delay them. Nuke this place!”

Doom’s voice resonating in my head startled the living daylights out of me. I should be used to this by now. I should have even expected it, and yet…

“Fuck! We’re just now on our way to the Paragon to get a chaser,”I said while returning to the main cabin of the shuttle.“Hold them as long as you can. We’ll be there in no more than fifteen minutes.”

For a second, I thought of sharing the terrible news about Khepri with him, but this was the last thing he needed right now.

“Victoria is on my hoverbike, heading back to that church Wrath evacuated the elderlies from,”Doom continued.

“We’ll make sure your mate is safe until you can return to her,”I answered.

I felt his psychic nudge of gratitude half a second before his mind disconnected from mine, no doubt to focus on the battle at hand. To my relief, the shuttle had reached the frigate during my shower and was about to land within the hangar when a violent explosion lit up the sky high above us. With the shuttle entering the frigate, I only got a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a mothership exploding.

“What the fuck was that?” Rage asked.

A sense of dread washed over me as my mind reached in vain to establish contact with the countless non-combatants that manned the Valiant—one of our motherships which would have been cloaked in that general location.

“Wrath, hail the Valiant!” I shouted as the shuttle settled inside the hangar.

Despite the confusion on his face, he didn’t argue.

“No…” Chaos whispered, a horrified expression on his face soon echoed by my other brothers.

“We’re receiving distress messages from multiple motherships,” Leija said, her eyes still out of focus as she remained psychically connected with an unknown interlocutor. “The Kryptids are performing suicide attacks targeting the motherships. They’ve destroyed one of the incubators. The Valiant is gone. Somehow, the Kryptids seem to have figured out a way to see through our cloaks.”

My innards twisted painfully at the realization of the massive loss we had just sustained in the destruction of the Valiant but also at the even greater blow General Khutu had dealt us. Besides the hundreds of Shells lost, countless Soulcatchers, personnel, and any Warrior that might have been onboard had also died.

“Broadcast for any spare Soulcatchers to capture the souls of the Warriors from the Valiant before they’ve all unraveled,” I asked, my throat constricted by sorrow.

“Yes, Legion,” Leija said with a tremor in her voice.

“Torment, grab a team and find out which Shells we’ve lost and who’s down there battling without a Soulcatcher,” Chaos said as we stepped out of the shuttle. “Pull anyone at risk from combat, and get everyone at least two backups Shells on chasers.”

“On it,” Torment said, his face becoming slack as he telepathically contacted the personnel and the Hulanians that would help him execute this task.

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