…
Princess Arteria
She returned to her light cruiser, looking for it.
The box.
The box she’d seen the assassin holding.
It was not hard for Arteria to walk freely around the ship. It was an Arterian war cruiser, and she was an Arterian princess.
The crew were suitably subservient, bowing and generally getting out of her way.
Arteria tucked her long purple robes in her hands, pulled them from around her knees, and walked up the ramp into her cruiser.
“It has to be here somewhere. She wouldn’t have moved it onto the ship… not yet,” Arteria whispered to herself.
There was no need to modify her tone – she had already ordered every crewmember she’d come across to get out of her way. She’d emptied the secondary docking bay of every engineer, and every witness.
She knew the assassin would be busy putting into action her ridiculous plan.
Cortina was, by all reports, an extremely talented warrior.
She also worked for the enemy.
The Arterian Royal Family was more split apart and divided than a segmented orange.
The family was split asunder by intrigue and infighting. Everybody wanted to scrounge the power and technology of everyone else.
Some divisions of the family were more powerful than most – Xarin, for instance, held more importance than she ever would.
Or should.
Arteria suddenly pushed down to her knee, seeing something metal sparkling out from underneath a seat.
She clenched her teeth, expectant tingles rushing through her gut.
She spread her hands wide, locking her fingers on the seat.
She scanned it with her implants.
Implants she shouldn’t have, but implants she’d acquired specifically so she could discover Xarin’s true power and bend it to her will.
Cortina was wrong. Xarin was not better off dead. Yes, he had broken several sacred traditions by tracking down Illuminate technology. Though the fool thought no one knew what he was doing, rumors had spread.
But he did not deserve to die. Die, and all his power and influence would die with him.
There was another way.
And finally Arteria snatched hold of it.
She pushed her fingers into a barely visible gap underneath the seat.
The hull plating here was reinforced, strengthened by invisible shielding.
Her fingers pressed right through them, crackles discharging up her skin.
She yanked the metal clean off.
Then she pushed her hand in and snatched whatever was inside before she even had a chance to figure out what it was.
… A box.
A secure Arterian safety box.
Within would be what she needed.
She briefly closed her eyes and took a relieved breath that pushed her chest against her royal robe.
In order to access Xarin’s true power and bend him to her will, there was only one thing she could do.
Become his betrothed.
Arteria wrapped her arms securely around the box and left the cruiser.
Just as she did, the yellow alert blaring through the ship changed. Its pitch became more insistent, and as she strode toward the doors, red strips of lighting suddenly blinked into life all around her.
A red alert.
Cortina was about to implement her plan.
She would try to kill Xarin.
She would fail.
Cortina herself would die. And once she was out of the way, there would be nothing stopping Arteria.
She would clutch hold of greatness and lead the galaxy forward.
…
Cortina, the Arterian Assassin
Her heart pounded now. Drove through her chest with a pleasant beat. She loved it when adrenaline pounded through her veins, when anticipation rose in her throat.
Anticipation of the kill.
The Arterians were not naturally violent people, but they were not peaceful, either. With their superior strength and their ability to manipulate others, they often got what they wanted without resorting to violence.
As she strode forward, she curled both her hands into fists, and enjoyed the stiff sensation that locked hard into her shoulders.
She chose to resort to violence. It was quicker and more pleasurable.
The first thing she had to do was kill the destroyer.
Slowly, preferably, so she could appreciate every single moment of pain that would flow through that wretched monster’s body.
To do that, Cortina would have to lure the destroyer into a certain part of the ship.
It wouldn’t be enough to simply kill the woman – Cortina had to strip the woman of any evidence of her betrothal.
Then, oh God, then she could move on to Xarin.
Then Cortina would be able to wrap her hands around his neck and watch the life drain from his gaze.
She kept patting her lips as she strode confidently through the corridors and entered the room she’d chosen for her final attack.
It was well-placed and located in a blind spot the ship’s onboard scanners would not be able to penetrate properly.
In the unlikely event, that was, that the crew were able to reset them in time.
Cortina herself had placed phantoms in the system. Phantoms that would distract the crew, and hopefully Xarin, while she went about her sacred task.
With her heels clicking on the floor, Cortina finally reached the right room.
Though the room was some kind of secure Arterian weapons storage facility – and would be locked to all but Prince Xarin himself – Cortina walked in, with nothing more than a wave at the door.
Her implants sent out an invisible, coded signal that overrode the door’s sophisticated security.
She walked right into the center of the expansive room, then spun on the spot, pushing her arms out wide in a circle.
She chuckled, her light voice echoing around the walls.
Finally, however, she stopped.
She unclipped a device from her belt and waved her thumb over it.
Instantly, it activated the remote holographic transmitters she’d already placed throughout the corridors. Holographic emitters that would be able to produce holograms indistinguishable from reality.
This was true Illuminate technology that few outside of the central ring of the Arterian Royal Family possessed.
Cortina waited, dragging her tongue across her teeth.
Soon.
Soon.
…
Shar
It was when I was running through the corridors that I saw something. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel it.
Though I felt connected to the ship, maybe that connection had broken, because as I rounded a corner, I almost ran smack into a Zorv bot.
Rather than fight me, it zipped around and zoomed off before I could even clutch my blaster from my holster.
I screamed at it, frustration and terror ripping from my throat. But I didn’t hesitate – I threw myself forward.
It flew quickly through the corridors, leading me on a circuitous path, taking me deeper and deeper into the ship until finally it zipped into a room.
“I’ve got you now, you bastard,” I screamed.
I rolled and punched through the door… right into what looked like a secure Arterian weapon storage room.
A place I was categorically not meant to be in.
I swung my head from side-to-side, trying to detect where the bot had disappeared to.
There were neat stacks of crates in the center of the room, and around the sides were racks of Arterian weapons. Large, all adorned with purple, gold, or white symbols, and all categorically more powerful than the simple blaster I had clutched in my hands.
My armor was on, and theoretically it possessed proximity scanners, but as I switched them to full power and scanned the room, they came up with nothing.
No Zorv bots.
Som
ething… kindled in my gut.
A kind of fear I’d never felt before.
Not for my life, but something beyond my life. Some kind of connection that spread through time and space.
I suddenly clutched a hand to my chest.
That’s when a light chuckle filtered through the air.
The hair along the back of my neck stood on end, and my body seized with fear.
Suddenly, a figure appeared sitting atop the pile of crates in the center of the room.
She was wearing a purple and red cloak that cut across her mouth and furled down her shoulders. Her legs were crossed, her hands arranged neatly in her lap.
She tilted her head toward me, a few strands of hair peeking out from under the cloak.
… She just appeared. Right there. She couldn’t be a hologram – she was too perfect.
Though I was aware of cloaking technology, this—
I didn’t get the chance to finish my thought.
The woman leaped off the crates, even though she was a good 10 meters up.
She sailed down to the floor, and a light blue field flickered into place around her heels, absorbing the force of her fall.
I staggered back, blaster still clutched in my hands.
“Move, get out of here,” someone suddenly whispered in my ear.
The voice was familiar. The force of its words speaking right into my soul.
But there was no one there. Just me and this woman.
“Get out of here,” the voice insisted once more.
The woman in the purple cloak walked toward me, heavy on her hips, every move a sashay as she tucked her hair back behind her cloak.
“I have traveled many years to find you,” she said.
I jolted back again.
I could feel those arms around my back – stronger than ever. They were trying to pull me away, trying to push me through the door.
The woman continued to walk toward me, slowly, without a single care.
“… Who are you?” I managed.
She tipped her head to the side, then to the other. She brought up a hand and tapped it on her fat bottom lip. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re here. And this will be your final resting place.”
I didn’t need any more evidence this woman’s intentions were evil.
I jerked back and brought up my gun. I didn’t wait. Didn’t have to hear anything else.
I wasn’t one of those people who would stand there and let their enemy prattle on while they got the upper hand.
Not me.
I fired.
My aim was perfect, and my bullet should have slammed into her head, ripping off a chunk of her cheek and nose.
It didn’t.
It slammed right into another blue inertia field.
The woman tipped her head back and laughed. “Trust me, darling, you don’t have any weapons that could work against me. You have no recourse. No more options,” she said slowly as she continued to walk toward me, “All you have to do is die, and give up that sacred connection.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. That didn’t stop me from punching to the side and rolling, coming up behind her, and firing several more bullets her way. This time I didn’t waste ammo on trying to shoot her directly – I let the bullets sink into the floor below her feet, hoping they’d be strong enough to create some kind of hole big enough to drop her through it.
Without any apparent order from the woman, the flickering blue inertia fields spread over the floor and protected it, absorbing my blasts with ease.
I swore, spittle flying over my lips and chin.
The woman brought her hands forward and clapped.
Then she moved. Faster than anyone I’d ever seen.
With no warning, she was upon me, sinking a hand into my gut. Though I wore armor, it didn’t matter, as suddenly a charge of powerful blue energy shot from her fingertips and sank into me.
It blasted me back, sending me slamming against the far wall.
Arterian weapons fell off the rack around me as my body crumpled.
Every muscle locked with pain, and I had to battle to draw in a single breath.
A breath that would be my last.
For the woman reached me again, crossing the room in half a second. Then she loomed above me, one of her sparking, crackling hands drawing close to my helmet.
…
Prince Xarin
I couldn’t… fight this.
The compulsion in my mind, in my hands.
Guided me forward.
I knew I should be with my crew, I should be trying to find out what was wrong with the scanners.
I wasn’t.
Instead, I was running through the corridors, headed to God knows where.
With every step more desperation powered through my gut.
My body shook underneath my armor, so much sweat clogging my brow my hair was stuck to my neck.
I began muttering, in a language I couldn’t even recognize. Low, quick, snapped, desperate words.
They – like the compulsion locked in my hands – came from somewhere beyond me.
A connection.
A connection that screamed at me to hurry.
Before I knew what I was doing, I reached one of my secure Arterian weapons lockers.
There was no reason to rush in here – no one could enter this room but me.
So why couldn’t I stop myself as I thrust out a hand and used my armor to override the security codes locking the door in place?
Why couldn’t I stop myself as I thrust forward through the doors before they barely had a chance to open?
Why?
Because she was in here.
Shar.
I ran in just as I saw a woman in a purple cloak leaning over Shar’s body.
The woman was an Arterian assassin. From the cloak, to the technology riddled through her body – there was no mistaking her.
She loomed over Shar, Shar’s helmet in her hand.
I caught sight of Shar’s face – caught sight of her fear, of her terror.
As I powered into the room, the assassin turned.
She arched her neck my way.
“What are you doing on my ship?” I boomed, voice punching through the room.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I went for my sword.
Which was a potentially treasonous move.
All Arterian assassins were members of the Royal Family. And it was forbidden to directly physically threaten royalty.
Oh, no, my family chose to undermine each other through fear, intrigue, and machinations instead.
But I couldn’t stop myself as I sent a charge of energy powering through the blade until it glowed a blistering purple-white.
The assassin took several slow, almost languid steps toward me, Shar’s helmet still held thoughtfully in her hands.
The woman tipped her head to the side and appeared to consider me, her cloak never tugging up higher than her lips. “Sheath your sword, Prince. You know I am a member of the Royal Family. You have no right to draw up a weapon in front of me.”
“Get away from her,” I said through clenched teeth.
Shar coughed, her body still slouched against the wall, several droplets of blood splashing out onto her chin and broken breastplate.
My stomach turned at that, felt as if it would tear from my body.
The assassin continued to walk toward me, though she briefly inclined her head toward Shar. “Prince, lower your sword. You have no right to lift your weapon against a member of your own family.”
“Put down her helmet and get on your knees,” I said, never dropping my sword.
Nothing mattered to me at that moment. Not reason, not tradition. Nor the fact that this could get me stripped of my title, my possessions, and my privileges.
All I wanted to do was tear through the assassin and get to Shar, check that she was okay….
Before I knew what was happening, I thrust forward and launche
d toward the assassin.
She was clearly surprised, but jumped back just in time, her lips jerking wide over her teeth.
I had not chosen to slash at her – my hands had.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Don’t you care for tradition?”
“Get away from her,” I screamed once more, voice so loud it could have taken the ceiling down.
The assassin darted back, quicker than any ordinary person could move. She flipped and sprinted until she stood atop the crates. She glared down at me, head tilted to the side. “How did you know we were in here?”
“I won’t let you hurt her,” I snapped back.
The assassin shifted her tongue over her teeth. “Perhaps I underestimated the connection. You should not be here, Xarin. You should have waited your turn. But no matter.”
Connection.
That word flooded my mind, sank into my consciousness like a knife trying to split it down the middle.
I almost fell to one knee.
But I didn’t get the opportunity.
For the assassin thrust toward me.
My armor could scan her body, and I’d already detected the numerous Illuminate implants grafted through her form.
She would be a formidable foe.
I didn’t shrink back.
I bellowed as I brought my shining blade around and sliced it toward her.
She was too quick, and dodged away, bringing a hand up and sending a charge of electricity punching from it. She had no gun, she simply used her furled-back fingers.
I wasn’t quick enough to dodge – as the blast sank into the shoulder plate of my armor.
Though my armor managed to disperse most of the energy, it couldn’t discharge it completely, and a few errant charges sank down to my body below.
The assassin was relentless. She attacked me with everything she had. Flipped and jumped, sprinted and with all the agility and speed of a superfast robot.
Though I tried to lock all my attention on her, my gaze kept shifting toward Shar.
It was clear she could barely move. But her eyes were still open, and that gave me enough hope to continue the fight.
For all it was worth.
The assassin was too well armed. She flung toward me with another deadly blow, sending a pulse of electricity sinking into my neck.
It jerked my head back, and I fell harshly to the side.
Before I knew what she was doing, the assassin loomed above me and locked something onto the back of my head.
My armor started to convulse, my limbs shifting around as my head jolted back and forth, slamming into the floor like a hammer against an anvil. It sent out great shuddering booms that echoed through the room.
“No,” I heard somebody call. It was a strangled, meek voice. A voice on the edge of death.
Shar.
Somehow I fought against the crippling energy snaking through my armor, and I shifted my head until my visor locked on her.
Shar was trying to get to her feet.
And somehow she managed it.
Though she had to lock a hand on the wall for support, soon she pushed off, and she somehow found the strength to throw herself into a sprint.
Her lips parted back from her teeth, and she shot toward the assassin.
The assassin didn’t even bother to turn around. With her head still turned to me, she thrust out a hand and grabbed Sha by the throat.
Instantly, I felt ghostly fingers lock around my own throat.
I began to splutter just as Shar did the same.
Eventually, the assassin tipped her head to the side and locked her attention on Shar. “Your turn.”
“No,” I screamed. Somehow I fought past whatever the assassin had done to my armor, and I punched to my feet, throwing myself at the assassin, wrapping my arms around her middle, and wrenching her grip from Sha’s throat.
Shar crumpled, and I threw the assassin to the ground.
That’s when she punched up, an energy sword forming in her hand.
A sword with the power to slice through my armor.
A sword with the power to kill me instantly.
… I’d underestimated her.
Somehow time stretched just long enough for me to lock my gaze on Shar once more.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, seven words echoed – in another lifetime, I will see you again.
The assassin thrust toward me.
But her sword barely dented my armor. For at that moment somebody thrust into the room. They activated some kind of grenade, and it pulsed through the air. It didn’t appear to affect me or Shar and instead concentrated all its deadly force on the assassin.
The woman screamed.
A directed energy field suddenly appeared over her body, and it tugged her into the air, yanking her arms and legs out and dragging her head back.
Finally, the cloak fell from her face, withering up and turning to ash as the assassin screamed and screamed.
The directed energy field appeared to be pulling her apart on the molecular level.
I staggered to my knees, then my feet. I saw who had thrown the grenade.
Arteria.
She was standing in the doorway, her chest pressing up and down as she panted, her hand still held out, her fingers spread in mid throw.
The assassin screamed one final time, and her head jerked to the side.
She was dead.
The inertia field cut out, and her bloodied form fell to the ground by my feet.
I barely noticed as Arteria threw herself forward and thrust toward me. She wrapped her arms around my middle. “Oh, my God, Xarin, are you okay?”
“How… what… how?” I couldn’t control my voice, let alone my thoughts as they thundered through my mind.
“I knew you were in trouble. I can’t explain it, but I was drawn here—” Arteria began.
Before she could finish, the assassin moved.
She was still alive.
Somehow.
She brought a hand down and activated something on her belt.
An explosive device.
This room abutted the outer hull. Though the exterior hull plating was so thick and reinforced it would be able to withstand most explosions, I instinctively knew this one would be too strong.
Shar was at my feet. Just in reach.
I didn’t have time, didn’t have time – the explosive device went off.
Rather than cascade out in a destructive ball of fire, it suddenly shot across the room and locked on the wall that led out to the outer hull.
And obliterated it.
Instantly, the atmosphere was sucked out of the room.
Arteria was ripped from my grip.
She was sucked toward the hole in the hull. Just as Shar was.
My armor was powerful enough to lock on the floor and hold me in place.
I pushed forward, thrusting toward them.
Both of them managed to clutch hold of a warped, torn section of the hull plating, their legs dangling behind them as the venting atmosphere tried to suck them into the void.
Both reached hands out toward me.
The compulsion tearing through my body, the tingling in my hands – every haunting sensation that had driven me insane over the past several weeks – they all told me to go for Sha. I didn’t.
I reached toward Arteria and managed to grab her just in time.
As Shar was sucked out into space.
The end of Shattered Destiny Episode One. Episode Two is currently available.
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