On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (17 page)

“Oh?” Nero prompted.

“Yes, and you see, there was talk about a similar person around Section 24 just before the explosion. It seemed a bit of a coincidence to me, and you know, I put two and two together. I found that man again, one day, and I found out a bit more about that object I had given him. See, it was important for him. Crucial to his plans.”

“For the explosion?”

“It turned out, the cube had powers. Special powers.” Nero looked down at the small object in his hands. Nate continued talking. “It allowed the bearer to do things they couldn’t normally do.”

“What sort of things?” Nero asked.

“The bearer of the cube, with the right knowledge, could turn invisible!” A grin spread across the man’s face.

Nero looked up at Nate, and rolled his eyes. “Nate. You had me going there. Turn invisible, right! You’ve never seen anything like this before in your life, have you?”

Nate laughed. “Can’t say as I have, man. But you should’ve seen the look on your face! Priceless!” He turned, still chuckling and headed out of the room, tossing the little carbon cube back onto the table as he did so. He was probably right, Nero reflected. It was just a curiosity. He left it on the table, and turned to leave as well.

It was only then, giving the room a final glance, he noticed a small cupboard. It was under one of the disused tables by the wall, and he could have sworn he saw a tiny movement from between the metal doors. Curiosity roused, he went over to the cupboard, and pulled one of the doors open. Immediately, something small and dirty burst out of the cupboard, almost knocking Nero over, and headed towards the door.

“Onon!” Nero yelled, spotting the woman near the door. “Stop it!” Onon leapt forward, her agility astounding Nero, and managed to grab the small person before they reached the door. Nero ran over to them, grabbing hold of their captive himself, and roughly span it round to face him.

‘It’ turned out to be a ‘she’. A young ‘she’ by the looks of things. It was a human girl, probably only eight years old, or so, and so dirty she almost wasn’t recognisable as a girl. She was struggling furiously in their grasp, fighting to get away.

“Hold it!” Nero yelled at the girl. His voice seemed to scare her, since she lessened her efforts to escape, even if she didn’t cease altogether. “We’re not going to hurt you. I just want to know your name,” Nero said, in an effort to calm the frightened creature down.

She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. He noted that she kept looking at his mechanical arms. He supposed he must be quite an intimidating figure. “Why are you here, girl?”

Eventually, she answered him. “Sevi. My name is Sevi.”

“Okay, good. My name is Nero. And this,” he said, indicating the woman still holding her, “is Onon. Why are you here, Sevi? You’re obviously not with these guys.” He gestured to the dead men around the table.

“No, I... I was hiding from them. They didn’t know I was there. I... I broke in to this place. I thought it might have some food in, but...”

“But?” Nero prompted.

“But, after I was in, I heard voices coming to the door. And then these guys entered. I ran upstairs, but they followed. I found this space to hide in,” she said, pointing towards the cupboard. “They came in the same room. They’ve been here for hours now. Until you guys came. And killed them.”

“You were lucky we arrived, then, weren’t you girl?” Onon said, releasing her grip on her.

The girl looked up at her, with wide open eyes. “I guess so,” she said.

“Do you have a home?” Nero asked, already guessing the answer.

“No, I live on the streets. Find what I can for myself.” She managed a slightly superior look that Nero found quite amusing.

“Of course you do. I know that life well,” Nero said, thinking back on his, and Talyah’s, early lives. “Listen, I always have need of new recruits. Able bodies. I can give you food, shelter. Drink. I can give you a life, if you want to come and work for me.”

He saw the hunger in the girl’s eyes when he mentioned food. “You’ll give me food?” the girl asked, bluntly.

“Yes. And more. What do you say? Interested?”

The girl looked at him, and at Onon, hesitantly, but the decision was almost inevitable. “Yes.”

“Great. I have a job to finish at the moment, but I’m going to ask Onon to take you back to my ship - the newly acquired one, Onon,” Nero said, looking up at the woman, before turning back to Sevi, “I’d like you to wait there for me, until I get back. Is that okay with you?”

“Okay,” the young girl responded.

“Great.” Nero stood up again. “Well, I shall look forward to seeing you soon. Onon?”

The small woman led Sevi out of the door, down the stairs, and out to the shuttle. Nero watched them go, feeling a slightly strange mix of emotions. Quickly dismissing them, he turned back to the task in hand.

****

The entrance to the tunnels was from the ground floor. A crudely carved hole in the floor led down to the tunnel, a small set of makeshift steps taking them down into the darkness below. The rest of Nero’s team was already down there, waiting for him, all with their light strips in their clothes switched on. They looked up as Nero, and then Onon, descended.

“Okay guys, Talyah will be taking point down here. Move as silently as you can.”

They set off, Talyah in the lead. Unlike when Nero had known the tunnels, the floor was covered with water now. It smelt of damp, and the lighting obviously no longer worked. Or perhaps it had never worked in this tunnel. Nero had never been through all of them.

Slogging forwards, they continued straight for about a quarter of an hour, before they came across a junction. Talyah’s nav unit suggested they ignore the turnings, and continue straight. They also came across the occasional recessed staircase to the surface, though as Nero knew from prior recon work, most, if not all, were tightly boarded up.

At one stage, they came across a pair of aliens coming towards them. But Talyah already had her weapon ready, and she fired before the aliens could do anything. They left them where they fell.

After an almost indeterminate time, Talyah halted them. She was looking at the holodisplay of the nav unit, which displayed a schematic image of the surface world and a glowing blue pinprick. “We should be almost there, Nero,” she said.

“Good.” They crept forwards, making less noise now that the water had disappeared from the tunnels, and soon came upon a cavern. There was no lighting in it, but the light from their jackets provided a decent amount of illumination.

It looked like a storage area. Metal crates were piled up around the edges of the cavern, whilst towards the centre, there were tables with assorted weaponry laid out. It looked like the Nostra used it to store their goods, with food spilling from one crate, and what looked like medical supplies in another.

“Jackpot, Nero!” Nate whispered in his ear.

“Not why we’re here man.” Instead, Nero turned to face Abia. “Abia?”

“Very well, you know what to do men,” the beefy man said to his team. Five of them spread out through the cavern, each retrieving what looked like a small pistol from their utility belts. They aimed the devices at the ceiling, about ten metres above their heads, and fired. Translucent gelatinous balls, a deep red in colour, left the pistols, and stuck fast to the rocky ceiling above.

Nero addressed the others. “The rest of you, with me,” he said, leading them out of the far side of the cavern. Not far beyond was another set of steps - much like they’d seen as they walked through the tunnels - but from the lack of dust or grime, it looked as if these were more regularly used.

He started to climb. As he approached the surface, he slowed, listening intently for signs of movement above. So far, nothing. The area seemed deserted. Still, he proceeded quietly, until he reached a closed door at the top. Applying a small amount of pressure, the door stayed shut. Presumably it was locked. Nero took out a small laser cutter from his belt, and held it up steadily in front of the lock.

The metal melted almost instantly, and very quickly Nero was through, the door sliding open with little effort. Beyond, a dark room was visible. Cupboard, more like, Nero thought. The room was tiny, nothing more than a storage area, but completely empty.

“Tal,” Nero said, gesturing for Talyah to come up behind him. She did, and together, they squeezed into the small room. There was only just enough room for both of them to fit, and even so, there was hardly enough room for one to open the door, and another to aim a weapon through.

This door, thankfully, wasn’t locked, and started to slide open when Nero tried the handle. With light visible in the crack, he glanced at Talyah. She had her rifle up, and was aiming at the door, and Nero quickly opened the door the rest of the way. Talyah stepped out into the room, checking the corners, with Nero close behind her. There was no one around.

“Clear,” Nero said into his communicator. The others followed them through the doorway, emerging into the room. There was a window in one wall, looking out over a small alleyway, and another door opposite that. Much like the small room, it was almost empty.

“Abia?” Nero said into his communicator, once everyone was in the room. “How you doing down there?”

There was a momentary pause, and then Abia’s deep voice came through. “We’ve just finished. Heading up to you now.”

“Great,” Nero replied, walking over to where Nate was joking with some of the other men. Nero rolled his eyes. “It would help if that window were gone, Nate,” he said, inclining his head towards it.

“We’re not gonna look around first? Pick up a souvenir?” He grinned when he saw Nero’s expression, and headed over to the window. It looked like it was a good few centimetres thick, so would be impossible to smash. Instead, Nate fished out a laser cutter from his belt, and set to work melting the window surround. It took a surprisingly long time. Evidently, the building’s owners didn’t want it to be easy for people to break in, or out.

When the window was finally cut out, a large hole provided easy access to the alleyway outside. Nate was the first out, followed in short order by the others - including Abia, who had finally come up from the tunnels. “You guys,” Nate said, referring to his original team. “We’re gonna cover the rear. I’m afraid the rest of you get stuck with Nero and Tal...” He walked off down the alley, grinning to himself.

Talyah took her original team, and went to the northern corner of the building’s front, which left Nero with the more southern front corner.

They walked in silence for a short while, before Onon interrupted the quiet. “Why did you rescue that kid, Nero?”

“Sevi? She was alone,” he said simply.

“Everyone is alone, Nero.”

He paused to look at her, seeing a hint of concern on her small features. “A few years ago, I was in the back alleys of the city. Looking for food, drugs, water; you know how it is. It was dark, and there was no one else around. Just me and the Scraper lighting to keep me company. I heard a scream then, a high-pitched shriek from an adjacent alley. I didn’t have any weapons, except for a small metal rod, so I was careful. I had a look around the corner, and there was this girl. She couldn’t have been much past six years old. And she was surrounded by these guys. Big guys, in long black coats. One of them was a vacso. They beat her, as I watched, for a long time. It felt like forever. They took the small amount of food she had, but they didn’t just leave her. One of them started to pull down his trousers. The others tried to stop him, at this point, but he just shot them. Right there in front of her. And then he started to pull off her clothes. I just stood there. I mean, I couldn’t do anything - he had a rifle, and I was small, and just had a piece of metal. And I couldn’t just run and leave her either. So I just stood and watched.” He paused for a moment, before continuing. “In the end, she struggled so much, I guess he just gave up. He shot her in the head, and left her there. He forgot to even take the food they’d stolen.” Nero finished with a slight shrug. “She was all alone there, at the end.”

“Nero...” Onon began, before he interrupted her.

“Anyway, that’s in the past. Right now, we’ve got a job to do,” he said, before turning to face Jerad. “You got the package, Jerad?”

“Uh, sure. Right here,” the other man said, retrieving a black bag, approximately thirty centimetres tall and vaguely egg-shaped, from his pack. He also pulled a small repulsor-catapult out of the pack, unfolding it to be able to slot in the black bag. “Ready.”

“Good, let’s send these guys a little message.”

Jerad emptied the contents of the bag into the catapult. There was a slight thump, as a head landed in the cradle of the catapult, dark blood still dripping from the severed neck. It was head of the alien they’d captured at the base, a horrified expression now permanently plastered over the alien’s features. Jerad fired the catapult, and the repulsor technology fired the head hard at the main entrance of the building. They heard a loud thump, accompanied by a crunching sound, as it hit the door.

It wasn’t long before that attracted some notice, and the door was flung open, to reveal a vacso looking out. It was a moment before it looked down at the doorstep, to see the head of its colleague. A strange, angry guttural sound came out of its mouth, and it grabbed the head, before looking for whoever had delivered it. Nero and the rest were well hidden, though, so it turned back inside with the head. A moment later, they heard a siren begin to sound in the building, and movement became obvious behind some of the windows.

“Brace yourselves,” Nero said into his comm unit. Then, turning to the large man beside him, he said “I think it’s time to give them the second part of the message, Abia.”

“With pleasure,” the older man said, pulling out a small electronic device from his belt. It had a small holodisplay on it. Abia swiped across the display a couple of times, there was a momentary delay, and then a huge explosion rocked the whole area. The shockwaves in the ground almost knocked them over, and plumes of dust rose up from under the building in front of them.

The effect on the building wasn’t immediately obvious, but then, slowly but surely, it began to disappear. It sank into the ground, collapsing in on itself, as it vanished into a vast hole. The dust plumes quickly rose up to obscure their view, but the rumbling and crashing sounds continued on for a long time. It was hard to see how anyone inside the building could have survived.