Marauder Ramses (12 page)

I
re
-aim through the scope and fire. I see the bloody hole pop open against the Seraph’s chest, and he crumples down onto the ramp.

Two down.

I see Marauders and Seraphim rushing out of their tents. Some are armed and ready to go, but others are confused and naked. I shoot one of the armed Marauders – prioritizing the most threatening targets – and he falls dead.

I keep a mental count of my ammunition: seventeen shots left in this magazine. Plenty.

I hit another two Marauders before they manage to figure out what direction the shots are coming from and cower behind their tents.

And then, from the corner of my eye, I spot something teal moving down the ramp of the ship.

I swing my rifle around and sight through the scope, and I see the teal, armored legs stepping down the ramp.

My father, fully suited and ready to fight.

I put the crosshairs right on his legs, but I feel my chest tighten. I know it’s the plan, and I know the shots will barely even slow him...but it still feels wrong to fire at my own father.

And then his face becomes visible. I put the crosshairs right on his chest, and I summon the steel resolve needed to –

Without warning, my father raises his hand toward me. It’s already glowing.

“Shit,” I whisper.

He knows the terrain. He knows the kind of spots I like to snipe from. He knows exactly where I am.

I pull the rifle away and roll back behind the rock wall.

Just before I reach cover, I see the flash of purple on the edge of my vision.

The wall is thick, but it won’t hold forever against plasma fire. In a one-on-one battle, my father would need to conserve his energy. Using huge amounts of antimatter to melt rock is anything but efficient, but when he has an entire army that is likely fanning out to flank me and flush me out, melting rocks and destroying my cover suddenly becomes very efficient.

“At least I’ll die without shame debt,” I mutter to myself, holding the rifle across my chest as the beam slams into and melts the rock. “I finally acted on my convictions...disobeyed my father. I helped save an entire planet, that’s
got to
erase the shame debt of betraying family, right?”

The beam cuts off abruptly.

I risk a peek up, expecting another beam to blast out the moment my ears poke above the rock.

But instead, I see something that
really
pisses me off. My father is blasting a beam right toward where I told that asshole Ramses to go.

“Trying to one-up me?” I ask, adjusting my aim onto my father once again. I see charred bodies littering the ground and tents on fire. Ramses seems to have cleaned up a good portion of the pincer squad.

Now, instead of dying without shame debt, I might have to live with so much of it that it will take a lifetime to clear. “Fucking Ramses.”

I fire at my father’s chest, and the moment I pull the trigger, I see a shield materialize, blocking him from my view. The bullet hits the shield – doing almost nothing. I fire again, but with the same result.

I risk taking a look down, and I see men with rifles crawling out toward better cover. Ramses didn’t kill all of them, and they’re still coming for me.

My father is shielding himself and focusing on fighting Ramses rather than me – or so it seems.

I’ll have to get his attention again.

T
here’s a purple blast
, but the beam doesn’t erupt above us.

Before Ramses can stop me, I run in a low crouch toward the ridge.

“Elise!” he shouts, running after me.

I fall prone behind a boulder and look out to see Grius firing toward Kain once again. There are more bodies on the ground, but not melted ones.

“Kain is picking off more Darkstar soldiers,” I say. “Forcing Grius to deal with him.”

Ramses crawls up beside me. “Shit...he’s shooting from deep within the ship! I can’t even see him.”

“He knows we want the ship?” Elise asks.

“Guess so. We’ll need to move up on him while Kain is still buying us time.

“Stay close behind me.”

Ramses raises his arm, and his bioglove forms a large half-sphere in front of us. I move up behind him and clasp his shoulder.

“Closer,” Ramses says. “Wrap your legs around me and hold tight. Pretend that you’re holding on for your life.”

“
Am I
holding on for my life?”

There’s a pause, and then he says, “Yes.”

I wrap my legs tight around his waist, and wrap my arms around him, over his broad shoulders.

“Now don’t let go,” Ramses says.

I feel my stomach drop, and when I look down, I see the steep, rocky hill below us. But we’re not falling down the hill, we’re...floating above it.

When we’ve cleared the drop, the snow below starts coming up toward my feet, and I see several teal tendrils pressed deep through the snow.

The tendrils lower us down until Ramses’s feet are deep into the snow. He presses forward, and the half-sphere shield cuts a path. I feel almost no resistance from the snow, but I see water seeping below Ramses’s feet.

“You’re melting the snow with the shield?” I ask.

“We gotta move fast,” he says, as if that answers the question.

I hear a loud
pling
, and Ramses slows down--just a little.

“Are they shooting us?”

“Yes,” he says. “Just bullets though.”

I never thought I’d feel relieved that the people shooting me were
just
using bullets.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I say. “I can’t see anything.”

“I can’t either,” he says.

In front of us is the shield, and it’s a deep teal.

“You’re running blind?” I ask, suddenly terrified.

“The other side of the shield is white to match the snow. It’s why only one bullet has hit us. I can make the shield transparent, if you really want to see so badly.”

“Why not?” I ask. “They know we’re coming, and the bullets are
just bullets
.”

“When we get closer,” Ramses says, “The camo won’t do anything, just be patient.”

I clutch to his body, and pretend that I’m riding on his strong back for fun. I pretend that he’s taking me to a romantic picnic, and he’s shielding the path ahead because he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise for me. The weight from the submachine gun on my back is actually a basket full of delicious, crusty bread; a nice wheel of creamy brie, and jam made of freshly picked strawberries.

But after a few minutes, another bullet pings off the shield, and then another.

The shield suddenly becomes transparent, and I see Grius. He’s standing only about a dozen meters in front of us, with a twisted grin on his face. The ship is just behind him. We’re almost there.

Ramses digs his heels into the ground to stop us, but already I see tendrils launching from Grius’s biosuit. Straight toward us.

I let go of Ramses, drop to my feet, and reach for the submachine gun.

Ramses throws both arms forward, and the shield launches off of him. Grius’s tendrils begin to move around the shield, dodging it, and they snake back around toward him.

The tendrils reach right past Ramses, and they lunge for me.

The shield slams into Grius just as the first of the tendrils wraps around me, and he’s knocked backward.

Ramses squeezes the tendril with his gloved fist, and it melts apart, freeing me.

I point the gun at Grius as he falls and squeeze the trigger. The gun rattles off shot after shot, and the recoil is surprisingly minor. I see bullets cutting across the snow just in front of him, and I let go of the trigger and adjust my aim.

I fire again and see dozens of sparks erupt across Grius’s chest as he stands back up. The gun does nothing to him.

And then Ramses charges him. He runs full speed toward Grius, dozens of tendrils blasting out of his body as he runs.

The tendrils slam into Grius, and both Grius’s suit and Ramses’s tendrils liquify. They start to merge together, and Grius’s eyes widen.

“That’s a true Marauder trick, boy,” Grius rasps. “Not something a halfblood like you should--”

“Get back, Elise,” Ramses shouts back to me. “I’m neutralizing his suit--and mine. Fall back to safety.”

If he’s neutralizing the suit, then why the hell would I fall back?

I see strain on Grius’s face, and suddenly the biosuits of both warriors drop off into teal puddles. They shoot toward each other, slam together between Ramses and Grius, and they harden into a teal sphere.

Now Ramses and Grius are both naked, bodies tight and flexed.

“Ready for a real fight?” Ramses says. “Or are you too old?”

Grius scoffs. “I don’t care how young you are, my blood is pure, I’ll--Fire!”

Grius drops to the ground, and suddenly I see two Marauders pop out from behind the ship’s landing ramp.

Their muzzles flash, and Ramses goes down.

Blood rushes to my head, my ears burn, and my chest goes cold with fear.

One of the shooters falls--Kain--and the other dives behind one of the landing struts.

Grius leaps to his feet and rushes toward Ramses.

My hands are frozen cold against the grip of the gun, and even though time seems to be running in slow-motion, my body is even slower.

With agonizing slowness, I raise the gun toward Grius, pointing at his wide chest.

He’s almost on top of Ramses.

I pull the trigger, and adjust my aim as the gun fires.

The first several shots miss, but then I see blood.

Two, three, four bullets hit Grius in his gut, but then he dives and rolls.

He grabs the teal sphere, and the suit reforms across his body in less than a heartbeat. I fire more shots, but his suit hardens and deflects them.

I look down at Ramses, and I see blood pooling below him, but he’s breathing.

“We’ll get you a nice, full-blooded Marauder,” Grius says. There’s blood coming out of his mouth, and he’s walking in a slow daze. “It’s the least we could do for you.”

“Fuck you!” I shout, pointing the gun right at his face. I pull the trigger, but it clicks.

He laughs.

“I hit your gut,” I say. “You’ll bleed out internally.”

“My suit is already repairing the damage,” he says. “Though those were good shots.

The Marauder taking cover behind the landing struts peeks out, and Kain blasts his head off.

Grius shakes his head. “You turned my own son against me. You think I’d be angry about that, but I respect it. You used the resources available to you as best as you could. It shows strength and resolve…”

Grius grasps his chest and starts to keel over.

“Having a heart attack, old man?”

Ramses says. His voice is a rattling rasp, barely audible.

Grius opens his mouth, but blood spatters out onto the snow. He looks up with wide eyes, and then down at Ramses.

He takes a step toward Ramses, his fist clenched and ready to punch, but he grunts and  falls to his knees.

“Greedy bastard,” Ramses says. “I really didn’t think you were dumb enough to take the bait.”

Grius falls forward onto his elbows and wails. He tries to stand back up, but topples down onto the flat of his back. His body convulses, and I see his teal eyes roll back into his head, and after several agonizing moments, he stops moving entirely.

I fall down beside Ramses and put a hand on him. I look down at his chest. There are two bullet holes.

“Can you get the suit to repair the damage?” I ask.

“No,” Ramses says. “I used up the last of the energy to tear Grius up from the inside.”

I feel tears welling up in my eyes, and burning anger fills me. “You asshole! You can’t die on me!”

“I don’t plan to,” Ramses says. “And it looks like my cousin is here. Fashionably late.”

He points up to the sky, and I see several ships in the distance.

“You’ve got to tell her,” Ramses says. “Warn her about Harmony,” He coughs up blood. “And the antimatter.”

“I’m not leaving your side,” I say, squeezing his hand.

I
wake up feeling warm
. At first I think I’m underwater again, and that Gera will come in, but when I look around I see rusty bulkheads and shabby, utilitarian furniture.

And Elise. She’s in a chair next to me, and her head is dropping down. She’s asleep.

“Elise,” I say.

She snaps awake, and a wide smile fills her face. “Ramses.”

Then she starts to cry.

“Ah,” I say, “Come on, don’t cry.”

She squeezes me tight, and pain shoots across my ribs. But damn, the pain is worth it.

I hug her back, and she kisses me.

The door opens, and I see Sara walk inside. And just behind her, Kain.

“Little Ramses,” Sara says.

Her ears are much more humanlike than most Seraphim, and she’s tall and lanky from growing up on Mars.

“Ah,” I say, “Come on, don’t call me that.”

“Need your big cousin to save your ass?” She says, laughing.

“Elise saved me,” I say.

“You’ll deny the shame debt you owe me?” Kain asks, his voice incredulous.

“And Kain,” I say, “I guess he helped. Though he had a clear fucking shot--”

“I told you I wouldn't kill my own father,” Kain says. “Would you kill yours?”

“My father isn’t a genocidal asshole.”

“Fair point,” Kain says.

I suddenly remember the rest. “Shit!” I sit up, and my ribs hurt so bad that I nearly black out. “The antimatter--”

Elise, Sara, and Kain give each other solemn looks.

“Tell me--” I start to say, but Elise talks over me.

“We warned Harmony in time,” Elise says. “She intercepted the bomb.”

I laugh, but pain cuts across me. “Fuck,” I say, clutching my ribs. “Remind me not to laugh. Of all the places to get shot… the
ribs
?”

“Better than the liver--or the heart,” Kain says.

“So we won?” Ramses says. “What is Earth going to do about Harmony?”

“That’s the problem,” Sara says. “Harmony
intercepted
the antimatter. She controls it now, and said if she gets a hint that someone is going to pull the plug on her...she’ll use it.”

“Fuck,” I say. “Though if you think about it, she probably always had the same kind of idea. Antimatter or not, she’d never have allowed anyone to pull the plug.”

“It’s much worse now, though,” Kain says. “She could have crashed the economy, thrown Earth into a dark age, but now she can quite literally obliterate the planet itself.”

“Maybe,” I say, “This will scare the habitats into actually working with us.”

Elise scoffs. “Good luck with that.”