Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (18 page)

“We have to get out of here now,” Kanti
demanded. “We've come too far to get caught now.”

“I'm trying to find a way Kanti,” Falcone
assured her. “Just give me a minute.”

“I'm not seeing a way out of this one”
Nimesha said. “If we try anything, they’ll blow us away.”

Anlon got up from his seat. “They should let
us travel peacefully after the Queen's message. We don’t have
anything to worry about.”

“Don't count it,” Falcone replied, searching
for ways out. “We're the only ship up here. It’s pretty obvious
we’re up to something.”

Before any of them could utter another word,
a transmission came through their comline.

“Surrender yourselves immediately, or be
shot down,” the voice ordered.

“Do it now,” Camillus demanded. “We have too
much at stake now to try to escape.”

“Camillus, we can't,” Kanti replied. “Who
knows what they'll do to us if we surrender.”

“I know what they'll do to us if we don't,”
Falcone said. “I see no other way but to surrender.”

The voice came back on. “You are about to be
shot down. Surrender now. This is your last warning.”

Nimesha responded to the voice. “We're
surrendering. What do you want us to do?”

Kanti shot a look to Nimesha. “We can't give
ourselves up!”

“There’s no other choice,” Anlon put his
hand on her shoulder. “We'll still get out of this. Just a
different way than planned.”

“Wait for a convoy of our ships to surround
yours,” the voice said. “They’ll take you to the Colchian.”

“I'm guessing that's the big ship right
there,” Falcone pointed. “Must be where their General is.”

“Great,” Kanti crossed her arms. “Now we're
going to be prisoners.”

A convoy of small bombers surrounded
Drakos Mavros
and led them to the Colchian. They escorted
Falcone into the hangar of the massive ship and he set it down in
the middle of several enemy ships. The entire bay was filled with
warships and crodillians were busy at work with repairs or moving
equipment. It appeared as if none were surprised to see them, as
none stopped what they were doing to look their way.

“Don't reveal Kanti's identity,” Camillus
ordered. “They don't know the Queen has a daughter yet, and though
that could save us, I only think it'll cause more problems.”

“There's no getting off of this ship alive,”
Anlon looked around. “We were probably better off trying to escape
when we had the chance. We’ll have to do whatever we’re told
here.”

“At least here we won't be dead,” Camillus
said.

Falcone got up from his seat. “Yeah, you
hope we won’t be killed. But now how are we going to tell the
Council and everyone else how to defeat the crodillians?”

“Nimesha!” Kanti grabbed her arm. “Hide
somewhere in the ship!”

“You want her to what?” Camillus asked. “Are
you trying to get us killed?”

“No,” she replied. “If we’re going to have
any chance of escaping, it’s with Nimesha’s skills.”

“No way,” Camillus said. “We’re not taking
any risks here.”

“She’s right,” Nimesha said. “I’ve been
doing stuff like this my entire life. High risk missions where I
keep to the shadows are my specialty. I won’t get caught.”

“Do it,” Kanti said. “There should be
compartments or something you can hide in while they search the
ship.”

“There’s ducts you can fit in,” Falcone told
her. “They won’t think of looking in those.”

“Lower your ramp and exit your ship now,” a
voice ordered. “Don’t delay or we’ll force our way in.”

“Lowering the ramp now,” Anlon replied. “We
don’t want any trouble.”

“I’ll meet up with you guys soon,” Nimesha
dashed to the rear of the ship.

Anlon lowered the ramp and was the first one
to exit, with Kanti close behind grasping his hand. There was a
squad of crodillians at the base of the ship with their weapons
pointed directly at them. The two of them waited for the others to
come down, fearing what could happen to them.

“You’ll follow me,” a crodillian in black
ordered them. “I’ll take you to the one in charge. She’s the one
who requested to see you.”

They all nodded and walked slowly through
the hangar. Anlon tried to absorb the surroundings as best he
could, looking for any possible ways out later. He looked to Kanti
and she grabbed his hand tighter. He gave her a look to reassure
her that everything was going to be okay. The crodillian led them
up a flight of stairs and into the dark corridors.

The alloy the ship was made out of was like
nothing Anlon had ever seen. It was a dark grey, almost black, and
it seemed to emit a pulsing green light underneath the dark outer
layer. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but to him, the ship
itself seemed to be almost alive. It was like a breathing creature
that took on a life of its own. They all walked quietly behind the
crodillian down several more similar looking hallways and stopped
at a giant door. The crodillian pressed some buttons on a pad and
the door hissed open, revealing an overly large room that was
over-looking Ovrea.

“Bring them over here,” a voice came from a
corner in the room. “I want to see them for myself.”

The crodillian started leading them towards
the window, where a female human figure came into view. She still
wasn't facing them, but instead had her hands behind her back and
was looking out of the window.

“They’ll be fine there,” she turned around.
“I believe they’ll cause me no trouble.”

The crodillian who’d led them in the room
turned around and left them alone with the woman. Anlon couldn't
figure out why she’d want to lead crodillians, she wasn't one of
them. Her jet black hair, dark skin, and green eyes had to look as
alien to those monsters as they looked to him. This woman was just
a normal human, who’d betrayed her own kind to lead these
monsters.

“So you're Jahdiel,” Kanti said, getting a
hushing look from the others.

The woman chuckled. “Yes. That’s me. And who
are you?”

“I'm Kanti and these are my friends,” she
held out her arms.

“So, Kanti,” Jahdiel said. “Why are you and
your friends trying to escape me?”

“We weren't,” she lied. “We saw the Queen's
message and thought that we could move freely without harm. That's
why we came here peacefully to speak with you. We aren’t afraid of
you.”

“Ahh,” her black hair bounced as she nodded.
“That would make sense, if you hadn't escaped me on Gaea and
destroyed several of my fighters.”

Kanti glanced at the others, who didn't know
how to respond.

“Last time was just bad timing,” Anlon said.
“We were leaving right when you came and our pilot kind of freaked
out. Your men shot at us first so we had no other choice but to
shoot back.”

Falcone glared at him. “Yes, Jahdiel. I
already had the ship in route and you all of a sudden attacked. I
ordered them to keep our ship in the air.”

“You took out several of my ships.”

“Your ships attacked us!” Kanti replied. “If
we hadn't defended ourselves we’d be dead.”

“My ships were ordered to attack threats,”
she pushed her hair back. “Obviously, you and your friends were
seen as a threat.”

“We don't want any trouble,” Camillus
intervened. “We’re sorry for taking out your ships, we acted out of
fear is all. We’re all on the same page now.”

“I would've done the same,” Jahdiel nodded.
“But I don't believe you were just traveling and
happened
to
run in to us twice. You were here for a reason and you were at Gaea
for a reason. What is it?”

“It was just coincidence,” Anlon answered.
“We travel to many planets.”

“I know when I'm being lied to. I’ve lived
with monsters who’ve tried to take my position for the past fifteen
years,” she replied. “You’re lying to me. If you don't want to tell
me what you were really doing here, then I'll hold you as prisoners
until I return to Hera.”

“You can't do that,” Kanti protested. “You
made a deal with the Queen.”

“And I'm upholding our deal,” Jahdiel
motioned for the crodillian to come back in the room. “I'm not
killing you. That was all the deal was.”

“How can you do this?” Kanti asked, as the
crodillian came in. “You're destroying your own home.”

“Hold them in a cell until we reach Hera,”
she told the crodillian. “I don't trust letting them go. They’re up
to something.”

The crodillian nodded and motioned for them
to follow him back down the hallways. Anlon pulled at Kanti to get
her to move and they followed the crodillian out. They walked down
the halls and came to another room with cells that had green force
fields instead of doors. The crodillian pushed them inside and
reactivated green force field on, locking them all inside.

Donnchadh got off of his glider, covering
his face from the smoke billowing from the engine. He had ridden it
until the engine finally gave out and now he was stranded in the
wasteland. There was no chance he’d followed this far, but he kept
going until there was no chance anyone could find him without
putting their own life at risk. The crodillians were merciless and
bloodthirsty monsters, he’d rather the grey desert take his life
than them.

It was only just now occurring to him that
maybe the wasteland would be just as merciless, in its own way.
He’d put so much focus into escaping the crodillians, that he’d
forgot to keep track of where he was going and how far he’d gone.
It was definitely far and there was no chance he’d make it back to
any city by foot. He had nothing on him that would help him
survive, and he'd have to try to live off of the land until he fell
upon a city or tribe.

Donnchadh looked around to see if there was
anything he could use as shelter until he gathered supplies for the
journey back, but all that surrounded him was grey dirt and rocks.
There was absolutely nothing here that he could use to live off of.
He did see a small canyon a little ways in the distance and decided
that he'd head there to see if there was any type of shelter or
food.

As he started making his way towards the
canyon, he felt the winds begin to pick up and looked to the sky.
Thick black clouds were moving in, and he knew he had to hurry if
he wanted to survive. Erebos' were notoriously brutal and anyone
caught outside during one without any protection would surely
die.

Donnchadh picked up his pace to a jog to
reach the canyon, hoping he could get there before the cackling
storm. By the time he reached the canyon the black clouds were
right on top of him and he had no choice but to keep going forward
without scouting the canyon for possible threats. He ran forward as
orange liquid started trickling down from the sky. It was a form of
lava, but it was harmless compared to the real thing. It was no
more than a form of water. Donnchadh saw a small hole that looked
like a cave and he sprinted towards it, but was knocked from his
feet before he could reach it.

He lifted his face from the dirt and saw a
huge creature hovering over top of him. It had eight legs with
razor sharp claws on the end and scaly black skin with six red eyes
fixated him. Donnchadh slowly reached down to his pants to grab his
pistol but grasped nothing but air. He cursed to himself and
grasped the blade on his belt before lunging up at the creature.
The reaction was to slow and the eight legged creature swiftly
moved out of the way. After regaining his balance, he decided to
wait for this strange creature to make a move. It wasn't long
before the creature shot straight forward and then shifted
direction to straight up, catching him completely off guard.
Instead of trying to strike the creature, he jumped out of the way,
unsure of what this thing was capable of.

He’d never faced a creature like this
before, so he wasn't completely sure how to kill it. The creature
came back down and spun in a circle, clawing at the spot he’d just
been standing. It turned back around and faced him again, coming
right at him with a high pitched squeal, but this time took a hard
right to circle around him. The grasp around his blade tightened as
he struck the creature the second it began to pounce on him. The
scaly creature shrieked and backed away from him with a hissing
noise.

Donnchadh grinned to himself, as he saw he’d
put a decent sized gash in the beasts chest. There wasn’t much time
to think about what to do next, as it came straight towards him
again fury in its eyes. Without a second thought, he lunged towards
the creature, blade extended before him. The creature tried to pull
up to avoid him, but he was too quick and struck the creature
again. Before it could back up and escape him, he jumped on its
back and dug his finger into the scaly skin. The creature squirmed
in pain and tried to throw him off, but was unsuccessful in every
attempt. Donnchadh pulled his blade up and pushed it into the
skull, yanking back with all his force once he was sure it was deep
enough. The head split open and the body slumped lifelessly down to
the ground as black liquid oozed from the fresh wound.