In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (19 page)

A
sense of fear hits him. He looks around, looking for his team, they’re far off,
too far to do anything.

It
looks like it’s up to him.

This
is his fight.

He
pulls up his gun and aims it at the
faire
, staring
down the iron sight.

It
seems to slow down sensing his gaze. It doesn’t deter him, he has to do this,
it
is his duty as a chosen.

 “Aim...”
he speaks to himself, to calm his nerves. His gun shakes. The Faire moves in
and out of his sights.

“Aim,
breathe in, breathe out, hold and…fire.” He doesn’t fire, he just repeats what
the Astrons told him to do to steady the gun.

He
stares harder down his sight, he stares into certain death. The faire isn’t
close enough to fire. He tries to calm his breathing.

“Aim,
breathe in, breathe out, hold and…fire,” he says faster. Sweat drips into his
sight as—

The
faire flashes white, Noata blinks, it’s back to normal.

It
must just be in his head. He starts to breathe in steadily and calms down.

“Aim,
breathe in, breathe out, hold and fire,” he repeats.

He
can do this, he has to. The calmness runs down his entire body, like warm hands
kneading his muscles. The faire closes in, his finger grips the second trigger.

“Aim,
breathe in, breathe out, hold—“

He
slowly pulls the trigger and—

“Fire!”

An
angel thumps down in front of him as he fires. He stumbles back. Two of his
rounds shoot into the sky, completely missing the faire.

“No!”

The
angel rips from his chains and kicks Noata in the gut.

It
berserked
.

Why?

Noata
flies into the auditorium. The wall crashes down as he smashes in.

The
dust settles, Noata lies in a pile of rubble. He coughs and he raises his head.
He’s covered in dirt and debris. Dust clings to his sweat covered face.

He
struggles up to his feet. Behind him, the room is filled with civilians, black,
white, tall, short, men, women and everything in between, holding the only
belongings they have.

The
people he’s supposed to protect. They all stare at him in fear. The angel lands
in front of him and kicks him again. Hard.

He
crashes through the wall again and he hurtles out the building.

Outside
Noata lands face down on the street. He struggles to his knees.

He
has to protect them. He shakes but he’s not hurt. He has to protect them with
this power.

The
angel lands in front of him in a
poof
of dust.

It
screeches, getting ready for a kick.

“Run!”
One of his teammates runs and leaps on the beast. He hangs on for dear life.

“Go
to Serena!” He says as the angel kicks and buckles. The angel shoots off into the
sky. Maybe he isn’t alone in this after all. Noata jumps to his feet.

He
looks around, where to go?

What
to do next?

“The
ship!” he yells. He turns and runs toward the auditorium and—

An
explosion forces Noata back as flames consume him. A low thundering boom is
heard over head. The flames disperses and the smoke clears.

Noata
is curled up in a ball under his shield’s protection. He’s not that hurt, just
a few cuts and bruises. He has fast reflexes.

Why
should he be afraid of them if he has this kind of power?

He
asks himself this, there is something holding him back.

Maybe
it’s his anxiety or Lane’s death. His light is cut off, a huge shadow engulfs
him.

The
faire, the one he was going too, supposed to stop, flies over him.

 A
flourish of emotions hits him.

The
thing taunts him.

He
looks back at the remains of the auditorium. It’s a smoldering crater of
failure.

Serena
and Wilker fight on while he’s standing back, being a useless fifth wheel. He’s
never even gotten in real fight before, he’s never had to.

But
Jahum chose him for a reason, he’s barely injured after all he’s been through,
he can feel his bones and ribs shift back into place.

He
wants to fight.

There’s
something stopping him, stopping his motivation too. He doesn’t know what.
Something causing self-doubt and second guessing.

No.
He’s going to ignore his doubts and just fight, he’s not going to allow any
more people, people like Lane, die again. Noata’s thoughts go around in
circles, pushing him toward his skepticism.

Noata
gets to his knees, he can’t keep doing this, hesitating while other people die
around him. The angel lands in front of him, covered in what Noata assumes is
his teammate’s blood.

It
picks him up, he doesn’t struggle to fight it.

“I
don’t want to die,” he mutters.

He
can still see their faces, the people in the auditorium. Their tear studded
eyes begging for him to save them.

Save
us.

“I
don’t want to die,” he mutters again.

Save
us.

The
angel lights up.

Save
yourself.

“Not
like this!” he yells. Noata throws his arm into its mouth. He’s not going to
die a coward.

He
blows off its head.

The
angel drops like a bag of rocks. Noata lands on his feet. He looks at the faire
behind him. The faire in the blink of an eye it appears many miles away, facing
him.

It’s
far more nimble than it appears, damn near teleporting short distances.

Noata
stares at his hands, he can do this. A wave of emotions hits him again.

Anger,
happiness, frustration, sadness, fear and then, finally, calmness. He looks
back at the
faire
, it’s already covered half of the
distance to him.

It’s
the faire, it’s the one causing this, whenever he looks at the
faire
, he can feel the strongest of his emotions hit him.
He forgot that was one of its powers, but Noata believes it’s having a hard
time with his mind.

A
strange calmness continues to run through him. The faire approaches him. Noata
knows what he’s going to do next. He’s going to kill it. He finds his gun in
the rubble.

He
picks it up and wipes it off.

He
charges for the faire, the world around it disappears as he stares it down,
it’s just him and it. It approaches incredibly fast.

All
of his emotions tells him to stop, pushing, pulling, and tugging at the control
of his muscles and emotions to stop him.

But
he must continue on.

A
tear streaks down his cheek, he feels an emptiness inside him as they’re about
to collide.

Its
power gets stronger.

It
hurts him.

He’s
going to die, he can feel the emptiness beyond it all, the nothingness.

The
faire is only a few meters away.

“NOOO!”
he screams with all his might.

He
snaps.

Noata
jumps on to the wall of the building next to him and jumps into the air.

The
faire passes under him. He aims his gun at it and pulls the second trigger. His
last round
rips
into the ship and expands into a sphere
of light.

The
faire lets out the most horrendous screech. The round annihilates everything it
touches as it expands into a thirty foot radius. Part of the ship explodes and
launches Noata into the air.

He
lands on his feet on a rooftop and skids to a stop.

He
collapses to his knees. The ship crashes down exploding on impact. Letting out
one final scream.

Noata’s
void fills, his thoughts and emotions settle down. He can finally hear his
thoughts clearly. He feels nothing except a small hint of anger and excitement.

He
looks at his hands, this is who he is. He wipes away his tears. The young man
who had the courage to ask out Lane, to accept the Astrons offer for something
greater. He isn’t a coward.

“Noata!
Noata! Are you there?” Serena’s screams from Noata’s wrist. A display pops up
on top of his bracelet and shows Serena, sweat covers her face, guns and
explosions goes off behind her.

It’s
the same bracelet he was going to give to Lane. How did she figure out how to
do this? She seemed like she was a quick learner for everything Astron.

“I’m
coming,” He says to it. He’s not sure if she heard but she’s going to see him
coming, because he’s now a force to be reckoned with.

They’ve
touched his emotions and because of that he now knows how to block them.

He’s
not going to let them mess with his mind again.

He
has the power to understand.

He
turns to where he believes Serena is and walks into the battlefield.

Julio crashes across the airfield, gun in hand. A grunt lands on
top of him. The grunt rips the gun from his hand and throws it on the runway.

“Shit!” Julio yells.

The grunt lurches his rifle toward Julio. Julio swings up his left
hand up. His force field catches it. He struggles as the grunt drives down.

He never learned how to create a sword with his left hand.

He forces it back and sends the grunt into the air. This grunt is
tougher than the rest, he’s a higher rank, guessing by the different marks on
his shoulder.

This isn’t his first planetary invasion.

Julio runs for his gun. The grunt behind him gets up and charges
for him. Julio leaps for his weapon and swings it at the grunt. He pulls the
second trigger.

A red round shoots out and hits the grunt in the chest. He stops
and looks at his midsection. His mouth rips open to let out a scream as the
bullet immediately expands.

In an instant, the bullet expands into a 10 foot diameter sphere,
consuming everything in it. And then it was gone. Everything it touched was
wiped from this universe.

Julio stands there, contemplating on what just happen. “Holy shit
man,” Julio mumbles. Why didn’t he use this before? It’s only because he has
three bullets, two now.

He hears something.

What now?

An F-18 landing gear suddenly skirts the top of his head. He falls
to the ground.

“What the fuck?!” Julio yells. An F-18 skids to a landing only a
couple meters away.  

The F-18 refuels in front of a hanger. Crew members roll up with
armaments and bullets and restock the plane. A hiss comes from the front as the
cockpit opens.

“I can’t fucking take this anymore!” The navigator takes off his
helmet and throws it out. His starts to take off his belts and harnesses. A
crew member pushes a ladder against the side of the jet.

“I’m done,” He yells as he gets out.

The pilot takes off his helmet, sweat slicks back his brown hair.
It’s Reese, Reese from Julio and Cole’s old unit.

Not this shit again.

“Wait what!?” Reese screams. He tries to take off his harness.

“I need you!”

“No! Fuck that, I just seen half of my friends die up there! Those
motherfuckers are killing us, I have a wife and kid to think about,” The
navigator says. He goes toward the hanger.

Reese gives up taking off his harness, he has a mission to do but
so does Reese.

“So you’re just going to abandon me to die, too, I thought I was
your friend.”

The navigator stops in his tracks.

“I’ve already made my decision.” He continues into the hanger
doors, leaving Reese behind. So he’s going to abandon his planet just like that,
some kind of friend he is.

“Hey you
motherfuck
—“

Julio runs from behind the jet and up to the cockpit.

“Holy crap,” he mutters as he looks into the cockpit. “Reese?”

Reese looks down at him. What are the chances?

“Well-well-well, if it isn’t Julio Garcia. Long time no see, bud,”
Reese says.

“Small world,” Julio says, he leans against the ladder on the jet.

“So what have you been up to?”

“Not much you know, just killing aliens and shit,” Julio says with
a smile. “I see you finally got your pilot license.”

Reese laughs as he looks down at Julio’s uniform. A tight blue
jumpsuit, like he’s some kind of damned superhero. He’s a chosen. Reese is
somewhat surprised that he isn’t wearing his underwear outside his pants.

“Hmm.”

“What?” Julio asks. The crew members around him are hard at work,
refueling and rearming the jet. But there’s a strange attitude toward Julio.