The shock of finding themselves suddenly on another world – and there was no other reasonable explanation – momentarily stunned the Vanguard into silence. Even Artemis, who in her long life had met aliens, and even been to the moon once, felt completely out of her element.
It was Phantom Ace who broke the spell.
“I don’t think –” he began.
“No! Don’t say it!” Quanta interrupted him, rubbing his temples.
“Really, there’s hardly likely to be a more appropriate time for it,” Artemis sighed, shrugging. Scion just shook his head, staring around in amazement as he attempted, and failed, to get any sense from his translation software.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!” Despite his attempt at a grin, Phantom Ace’s voice quavered just bit as he said it…
The crowd in the large plaza had been steadily backing away from the aliens who had appeared in their midst, leaving the heroes in a wide circle of empty space. Behind them was a large circular pavillion, maybe five stories high, made of what looked like flawless white marble and blue crystal, surrounded by a park-like setting of grass and other-worldy trees.
Ahead of them the long plaza was dotted with huge holographic screens which, until the Vanguard’s arrival, had apparently been the focus of the large crowd. Talking heads appeared to be speaking very seriously, while images of what appeared to be a space battle played behind them. At its far end the plaza, just beyond a large fountain, came to a semicircular end, jutting out into a void beyond which lay a stunning vista.
The city was huge, sprawling to the horizon, while near at hand, on either side of the plaza, rose beautiful towers of glowing metal, glass and other, less recognizable, materials. Dividing the plaza from the nearest buildings on either side were two raised highways, on which a dazzling array of vehicles whizzed past at tremendous speeds – and in almost complete silentlce, except for the hiss of displaced air.
It was apparently dusk, given the activity (which seemed too… awake… for sunrise, Scion thought). The sun was gone, but the wrack of clouds in what he was going to think of as the “western” sky ahead of them still glowed with a golden light. Alien constellations were visible in the darkening sky overhead, however – as were dozens of moving, flickering lights, which occasionally flared to brilliance.
“I think whatever battle those screens are reporting on is actually going on in orbit here, right now,” Quanta said, trying to make sense of it all.
Before anyone could answer him, the anxious crowd on their right parted, with sounds of relief, as a squad of uniformed and heavily armed and armored figures pushed through. Once in the bubble of empty space surrounding the Vanguard the ten police officers? –soldiers? – spread out in a an arc, weapons aimed at the aliens. A tall woman, apparently the commander by her more elaborate uniform and confident manner, stepped forward.
“Ect tar yendo kan-ro. Aresh kun ta havel, duron set non veldakim!” she said commandingly, making an imperious gesture with her right hand. The gun in her left hand never wavered. “Sul!”
Scion made a “stand down” gesture to his teammates as he stepped forward. “I’m sorry, we don’t speak your language. We come in peace. Does anyone here speak –”
Unfortunately Jonny, either having missed Scion’s gesture or simply failing to understand it, chose that moment to flame on and rise into the air over the group. The commander stepped back several paces, eyes widening in surprise. Her gun tracked the flaming blue apparition… but she held her fire.
Unfortunately, not all of those under her command seemed to possess her iron nerve. One of the men in the ranks let loose a blast of searing red energy at the Blue Flame, who dodged it with a surprised bleat.
“Hey! Not cool, man!” he yelled, more confused than angry.
The commander barked out, in evident anger, “Set mesh, sul!” but it was too late. Two others of the squad pulled their own triggers, sending bolts of energy at Artemis and Quanta, and the fight was joined.
Scion, cursing furiously under his breath, unleashed a blackout pulse from his armor. Most of the alien soldiers (as he’d decided to think of them) were in his area-of-effect… if he could disable their weapons, even for a few seconds, they might yet recover from this misunderstanding.
But the alien’s technology seemed to be well shielded – only about half the weapons stopped working after the pulse. And, to his chagrin, one of those actually shorted out, spectacularly. Fortunately the woman wielding it was able to toss the blaster away before it exploded… just a small explosion, really…
One of the still-armed aliens fired another shot at Artemis, catching her a glancing blow, and Scion fired a round of armor-piercing slugs at the man. The body armor absorbed most of the impact, as he’d expected, but the soldier staggered back, dropping his blaster and clutching his no doubt painfully bruised chest.
Blue Flame hovered above the fray in dismay. He had some dim sense that his lighting up and taking to the air might have actually started this fight… so best to end it quickly, before anyone got hurt, or worse. He threw his hands wide, emitting a dazzling burst of blue-white light.
Half the soldiers, including their commander, were dazed by the sudden flare, despite the polarizing lenses of their helmets, and four others were stunned and blinded. The commander, in sheer reflex, fired off a shot at Scion, but with her dazzled vision missed by a country mile.
Phantom Ace had gone insubstantial the moment they’d arrived, and now he turned solid as he attempted to do a teleport attack on the leader. Blinking in behind her, he grabbed an arm – but the woman’s high-tech, alien armor was denser than he’d expected and, combined with some sort of electronic counter-measure, he was knocked away before he could teleport again.
His distraction did open the alien commander to Artemis‘ attack, however, and she managed to quickly get the officer into a partial headlock. Even with impaired vision, however, the alien’s reflexes and training were obviously first rate – she dropped straight down out of the hold and rolled away, sweeping her legs around to try and bring Artemis down in turn. The hero easily evaded, but the commander rolled to her feet in a firing stance, never having lost her weapon.
Chilz, who had being trying to pantomime Scion’s words for the aliens (freaking holy shit, actual aliens!), had quickly summoned his ice form when the shooting began. This cluster-fuck was clearly not what Scion had intended, but Chuck was deeply unsure what to do… attack, and risk maybe make it worse? Should he go defensive…make an ice wall… or something?
Totem, meanwhile, had been summoning up his Sleeping Mists. At first he had been worried… would his magic work away from the Earth it was so strongly tied to? But his concerns seemed unfounded as he felt the power rise within him… a different… flavor? smell?… something, anyway… but at its root the essence of the power seemed much the same.
The mists, more blue than green here, began to precipitate from the air, and three of the alien soldiers staggered back, their eyes struggling to stay open. A fourth dropped to his knees, wavered, and then toppled over in a deep sleep. The rest seemed unaffected, and Totem was preparing to send another wave over them, when he was hit by blaster fire. He barely had time to raise an only half-effective shield, and the impact sent him to one knee, clutching at his side.
With the alien commander distracted by Artemis, Scion managed to use his tangle-field to ensnare the woman, while Quanta stepped in to take her weapon away. Seeing their leader down didn’t seem to demoralize the troops still standing, unfortunately. Before they could renew the offensive, however, Scion played back a recording of the commander’s barked order to the soldier who’d fired the first shot – “Set mesh, sul!”
For a moment the command brought the soldiers up short, confused and uncertain. But the moment passed quickly, and their weapons rose –
“STOP!”
Artemis instantly recognized the telepathic nature of the command, although it took the others a moment to realize no one was actually speaking English out loud. A woman entered the plaza to their left, escorted by four men in uniforms notably different from the soldiers, with their sidearms holstered. The new arrival had light coppery skin, black hair that flowed from beneath a deep green skullcap, and a short cape of deep green, which fluttered in the evening breeze over her silvery robes. She approached the knot of suddenly frozen combatants with serene authority..
“Scion, the dark-haired woman just issued a mental command to stop,” Artemis said softly over the comm link. “I assume you didn’t hear it?”
“No,” her teammate replied, quickly lowering his arms and powering down his weapons. ‘Thanks for the heads-up. Keep me posted as this develops? I don’t think I want to lower my helmet just yet.”
“Of course,” Artemis agreed, and as the green-cloaked woman began to speak she provided a sotto voce translation to Scion.
“Lower your weapons,” the woman called to the alien troops. “I sense that these… strangers… are not connected to the arrival of the enemy above, and hold no hostile intent toward us.” She looked at Scion then, and a slight smile curved her lips. She obviously wasn’t too worried that she couldn’t read the thoughts of one of the strangers…
“And would you, esteemed visitors, be so kind as to release Captain Kan-Ro? I believe we are all on the same side here.” Scion didn’t hesitate, reaching down to release his tangle-field net, and Quanta handed the soldier back her blaster. The officer took it and holstered it, if not exactly with good grace, at least with a slight grimace of thanks.
“My name is Ella-Va,” the newcomer went on,” and I am a Mentat of the Confederated Union of Wolrds. Welcome, Vanguard of Earth, to Halicon, capital world of the Union, and to Torgan-Hal, our capital city.”
“They’re from Earth?” Captain Kan-Ro burst out, her face lighting up in apparent amazement. And… hope? “I had no idea! With everything going on…” she raised her hand in a salute towards the Terrans. “My sincere apologies for the, er, enthusiasm of my troops. I hope you will not hold it against us.”
“Have no fear of that, Captain,” Artemis said smoothly. “It’s obvious that your world is under attack, and I’ve no doubt nerves are stretched thin at the moment.”
“Indeed,” murmured Ella-Va. “And this is not the venue to discuss such things. I sensed from my scan of your surface thoughts that your advent here is as much a surprise to you as it is to us. May we prevail upon you to accompany us to Government House, where the High Chancellor has summoned the full Senate to address the current crisis?”
“Yes,” agreed Captain Kan-Ro enthusiastically. “Terrans have helped the Union during a crisis before, perhaps they can do it again!”
Although she hid it better, as much hope and anxiety radiated from the Mentat as from the Captain. In the face of that hope, no one in the Vanguard felt moved to ask about the possibility of being returned to Earth immediately, whatever danger Nemesis and Ebony Night posed to their own home. Perhaps, if they could aid the Union, they in turn could send aid to Earth…
Chilz and Blue Flame reverted to their human forms, and the Phantom Ace solidified himself, so that everyone could ride in the large shuttle that quickly dropped down into the plaza. In moments they were airborne, heading toward the seat of power of the Confederated Union of Worlds.
During the brief ride Ella-Va offered Scion a translation key for his armor’s computer. The Union had long ago developed the program for their interactions with Earth humans and, taking proper safeguards with his firewalls, Scion accepted. He quickly added the Indulas language to his translation suite, and was quickly able to follow the briefing on the current crisis that the Union mentat was giving the group.
“It was just over a day ago that a massive… phenomena… entered our system. It’s… I don’t know what it is. But it’s massive – planetary scale in area, if not in mass – and any ships that have come into actual contact with it… well, they just… die. All energy drained, electrical, atomic, organic…” she trailed off, a queasy look on her face. “Shortly after which the ships begin to crumble to dust.”
“But as bad as that is, the phenomena is attended by an immense fleet of spacecraft,” Kan-Ro said bleakly, taking up the story. “Individually, the ships are nothing much, certainly not compared to our own capital ships; but it’s their sheer numbers, and the chaos of our divided forces in the face of the… phenomena. The alien flotilla is being engaged by the Home Fleet, just inside the second asteroid belt – about six light seconds away. But a little over an hour ago a large enemy reconnaissance force was able to break through, and they began an assault on our orbital defenses.”
“In all my years of military service, I’ve never seen anything like this force. The Union Navy is arguably the best in the galaxy, and yet this ragged, half-assed enemy, under the aegis of that deadly cloud, has pushed us back steadily… in less than a day they’ve taken almost two-thirds of the system…”
She tapered off then, staring out the window and up into the night sky, watching the flickering lights of the orbital battle as if will alone could turn the tide.
♦ ♦ ♦
Government House was an impressive sight, covering a square mile of the city, Quanta estimated, with two towers, one greater and one lesser, soaring into the sky. The great Vellaris River swept around its eastern foundations, and it dwarfed the other buildings around it. Every light in the place seemed to be lit, and air traffic buzzed around the structure like maddened bees around a disrupted hive.
The shuttle carrying the Vanguard was given priority access after a brief word from Ella-Va, and in minutes it had come to rest on an isolated landing stage near the top of the larger tower.
“The High Chancellor’s own landing stage,” the mentat explained as the they disembarked. ‘The Senate Chamber is just a few floors below us.”
As the doors slid open to that august chamber, a brabble of several hundred voices washed over the group. The Union Senate Chamber was large, although not nearly as large as Jonny had been expecting, for the seat of a galactic government. But what it lacked in size it more than made up for in high-tech elegance and an understated sense of real power.
To their left three tiers of seating rose up in a flattened horseshoe shape, while to the right was a black stone dais that held a large desk and a modest seat. Between the dais and the seating tiers, directly ahead of them, a large holoprojector showed a stylized image of the planet and the battle raging above it. Behind the dias an expanse of windows looked out over the nighttime cityscape, with various monitors and computer consoles occupying the floorspace beneath them. Overhead a translucent crystalline half-dome glowed faintly, its pastel colors shifting slowly up and down the spectrum.
Almost all of the seats were occupied, by the most amazing collection of beings any of the Vanguard had ever seen. Most were humanoid, with differences ranging from unusual skin and hair tones to antennae, wings, gills and extra limbs; but several senators where truly alien, and utterly non-humanoid. Almost as many people occupied the floor of the chamber – clearly aides and government functionaries, rushing about in controlled chaos, all of it centered around the man seated on the dais.
Ram-Lev, the High Chancellor of the Union, was a tall, very human-looking man with dark coppery skin, silver hair and eyes of deep amber. He leaned forward, listening to some report an underling was delivering, a long, ornate ceremonial staff grasped in his right hand. His head turned as the Vanguard and their escort entered the chamber, and as others slowly realized his attention had been diverted, the room slowly grew almost silent.
The Chancellor’s eyes met Ella-Va’s for a moment, and Artemis was sure a great deal of information passed between their two minds in those seconds. By the time he spoke, all eyes in the Senate were on the Terrans.
“Welcome! I understand that you are visitors from the planet Earth. The Union has long considered others from your world to be valued allies and friends. We hope you will prove to be the same. Sadly, you have chosen an inauspicious moment for your visit, and I regret the circumstances of your arrival. I greatly fear that none of us may survive the threat we now face… and that you have come only to share our fate.”
At his words the assembly gasped and a low rumble of voices threatened to grow once more into chaos. But the Chancellor stopped it in its tracks with several thumps of his staff on the stone of his dais. The platform rose into the air as he stood, placing him just above the level of the highest tier of senatorial seats.
“Enough! I have delayed as long as I can, hoping for better news from the high orbitals. But now hope runs out, unless these strange visitors from another planet should prove our salvation… for salvation is what we are in need of, I’m afraid.
“Many of the peoples of our Union have legends that star-gods came from the deeps of space to bring forth life on their home worlds. That they taught our various peoples the arts and industries of civilization: agriculture, architecture, mathematics, engineering, and more.
“Legends also say that these star-gods chose to create and nurture life as a bulwark against a terrible, death-bringing force – a force which they found even they, with all their power, could not themselves destroy. It was an evil which could devour whole worlds, and extinguish stars. It is said that the star-gods, although they could not destroy it, did eventually find a way to bind this terrible force, exiling it to an emptiness beyond the stars.
“Although we left such quaint myths behind millennia ago, our travels out amongst the stars have taught us much. We have learned of an ancient race known by many names, but most commonly as the Seekers – and of a terrible force of death and destruction, which they bound, an aeon ago, in a dimension beyond our physical reality. Its simple name is spoken in fearful whispers throughout the cosmos, by those who know of it: Entropy, the End of All Things..
“Our scholars and scientists have long known the Entropy entity was real, not least by the ancient evidence if has left behind – the dust of shattered worlds, and the ashes of extinguished stars. We have believed it safely a thing of the distant past… but of late, word has reached us that this force is once again moving through the galaxy, leaving devastation in its wake.
“A harbinger of its coming is a rag-tag fleet of past survivors of it destruction – a handful of ships from each world destroyed, banded together in mutual aid… and mutual piracy. They seek to ravage what resources they can from the next victim in the hours before Entropy claims it.
“Entropy is not only real, it is on our doorstep… and I can only pray that the star-gods are real as well… and that they have not entirely forsaken us.”
At his words the chamber burst into a fearful, angry roar, and it took the Chancellor several moments to quell his colleagues again. When relative calm again returned to the chamber, he continued, his strong features suddenly sunken and his eyes sad.
“The latest reports confirm that the Home Fleet has been utterly destroyed, to the last ship, in the past hour. While the orbital defenses are keeping many of the harbinger ships at bay, some have made planetfall and are now looting at will. Entropy itself is now moving towards Halicon; the orbital observatories estimate it will arrive in just over six hours.
“I gave the order to evacuate the planet a short time ago, quietly, to the commanders of every star-worthy vessel still on-planet. A general public announcement would only serve to cause panic and almost certainly overwhelm the space ports; as there is no chance of evacuating any but the smallest fraction of our people, even had we a year and a hundred-fold more ships, I have ordered the ports to gather everyone within reach onto the ships, regardless of class, occupation, education – Fate must now decide what of Halicon survives this sad day.
“But though our capital world may die, the Union will not, must not perish as well. To that end… it is my command that every Senator must also evacuate the planet. Now.
“And though it galls me, violating every instinct I posess… I, too, will… flee.” That last word seemed almost to choke him. “Continuity of the governent is the only thing that may – may, I say – prevent our enemies, especially the Dramorg Concensus and the Stellar Protectorate, from taking advantage of this disaster to overrun and dismember our civilization. More than a thousand worlds depend on us, and we must not fail them.
“Three vessels await us just outside the –”
At that moment Quanta’s eyes’s widened as he saw one of the crowd of milling aides reach into his chest – and withdraw a slim blaster, aiming it at the Chancellor’s back. Acting on pure instinct, he summoned matter from the quantum foam, and encased the would-be assassin in bands of silvery material.
“Assassin!” he yelled at the same instant, actually taking flight to soar over the milling crowd and put himself between the Chancellor and – whatever the hell that thing was.
“A Dramorg spy!” Ella-Va cried out, even as the same word rose all around the chamber. The fear that had permeated the Senate crystalized suddenly into rage, and there was a rush of Senators to place themselves between their leader and the would-be killer. At the same time the spy confirmed his – its– nature by suddenly morphing into a liquid-like form and flowing away from Quanta’s imprisoning bands.
Spotting the assassination attempt almost as quickly as his teammate, Totem hurled a spell of Baleful Bindings at the shapeshifter as it resumed its humanoid form and dove into the crowd. The would-be assassin evaded the glowing mystical bands, however – only to run head-first into Scion’s tangle-field.
That slowed the alien infiltrator down only momentarily, and it fired a blaster shot at Artemis as she moved in with her shadow batons. The shot missed, but created enough panic in the people nearby that the infiltrator was again able to slip away in the confusion.
It was obvious to Quanta that the Dramorg was making for the elevator near the tall windows, and he slammed a dome of silvery quantum matter down over the kiosk, blocking that route of escape. The shapeshifter pulled up short, snarling in fury, and cast about for another avenue of escape.
Taking advantage of its hesitation, Artemis lashed out with her new Shadow Whip. The black tendril wrapped around the creature’s neck and unleashed a jolt of dark energy into its form, causing its shape to shift uncontrollably for a moment. As it fell to its “knees” Ella-Va hurled a mental bolt of psionic energy into it, stunning the Dramorg and Captain Kan-Ro’s round-house punch put it down. Soldiers immediately rushed forward with Dramorg-effective restraints.
“That was Gul-Sar,” the shaken Chancellor said, pushing past his cordon of protective Senators. “My private secretary for many years! Could he possibly have been a Consensus agent all this time?”
“Impossible, sir,” Ella-Va assured him, as the soldiers prepared the restraints. “Standard detection sweeps would have revealed the ruse quickly, at this level. With its mind stunned, I can get past its mental shields… a bit… yes, it replaced the real – watch out! It’s faking—!”
The shapeshifter must have recovered quickly, for now it lashed out, escaping the restraining soldiers before they could engage their power-dampening bindings. Scion’s stun-rounds thunked into the creature, to little effect, and it dodged Chilz‘ ice blast, snatching away a hand weapon from one of it’s would-be captors. It fired a desperate shot at random, and Captain Kan-Ro went down, clutching her shoulder.
Before the Dramorg could get off another shot, Phantom Ace was on it, phasing his hand into the creature’s chest and partially solidifying it. The spy went down, truly unconscious this time, and the soldiers had the power-dampening restraints on it in seconds.
Waving off the hovering med-techs, Captain Kan-Ro took her place at the side of her High Chancellor, looking pale, but determined. After some quick reassurances of her ability to carry on, Ram-Lev commanded her to oversee the evacuation of the Senate to the waiting starships. As the captain began organizing her charges, the Chancellor turned to the Terran heroes.
“Once again it seems the heroes of Earth arrive in the nick of time… I owe you my life,” he said gravely. “And perhaps the very future of the Union. You live up to your peoples reputation among us! Thank you, my friends.
“But I fear not even your powers are enough to stop what is coming. Will you come with us? We cannot retreat all the way to Earth, but once we have evacuated all those we can, and have regrouped on one of the other worlds of the Union, we will be able to spare a ship to return you to your home –”
He stopped in mid-sentence as the lights in the chamber flickered and went out. Above them the crystalline half-dome began to glow a deep red, and cracks appeared in it. Before anyone could react the glow became white hot and the roof suddenly exploded into a millions droplets of molten material, disintegrating into nothingness as they fell.
The night sky over Halicon was visible behind the silhouetted figure of a tall, slim humanoid floating slowly down through the opening. Its gray form was surrounded by a glowing aura of reddish light, making it look like nothing so much as an ember drifting on the breeze.
Over 10 feet tall, he could almost be taken for a statue, his skin ash-gray, as smooth as marble and as hairless. Thick ridged brows were drawn down over the glowing red pits of his eyes, and there was a slowly pulsing black gem on his brow, seemingly embedded in his very flesh and bone – it radiated an eerie anti-light. A white toga-like garment wrapped his torso and draped across one shoulder, leaving the other bare. In his left hand he carried a long rod of unadorned black metal, curved at the top into an arc reminiscent a shepard’s crook. A glowing point of actinic blue-white light floated, unconnected, in the center of the arc.
Only a few dozen people were left in the chamber, but all eyes were on this sudden apparition as he descended to hover above the Chancellor‘s Dais. When he spoke, it was in a low, firm voice that nonetheless cut through the murmur of fear and anger like a knife, easily heard by all.
“People of Halicon! I am Zybon, Herald of the Dispossessed. Your world is at an end, its doom sealed as inevitably as those of so many worlds before it. But rejoice! For prior to its death your world shall provide sustenance for the Harbinger Fleet. In death you will grant life to the deserving survivors of a dozen worlds; and should any of your people survive the coming of Entropy this day, it may be that they shall join with us…”
Stepping forward, Chancellor Ram-Lev looked up without obvious fear at the so-called herald. “If you truly speak for this Harbinger Fleet, can you not intercede on behalf of the ten billion lives now threatened? Why do you not evacuate as many as possible, save as many lives as you can? Add your fleet’s capacity to ours, help us to save as many innocent lives as possible!”
“Do not be a fool,” Zybon laughged derisively. “The Dispossessed cannot afford charity to those already doomed. As it was with us, so shall it be with you — the strong and the lucky will survive today, the weak and luckless will die. It is a simple calculus, and it will be as Fate decrees. Then the best of yours, now as dispossessed as we, shall join the Fleet, and move on with us to the next doomed world… and thus the cycle continues, world after world, until the great Day of Reckoning at last arrives, when the Great Enemy is destroyed.”
“So you know that the true enemy is this Entropy entity… and yet still you pillage the worlds threatened by it, rather then lending your strength to save them?” The distain in the High Chancellor’s voice was clear. ”You clearly have some power yourself, Zybon… have you no compassion, no mercy in your soul? Will you not, even at this late hour, aid us?”
”Indeed, I am a Nightwraith now, an honor recently bestowed upon me by one who knows the truths of this bitter universe, our harsh reality, all too well. I am here only at his behest, to offer you the chance to save the very best of your world. In the past, we of the Fleet let Fate decide, taking into our fold only those who remained once Entropy had passed. But today I offer you a new choice: select the strongest of your people, those most skilled or talented, the greatest minds, the strongest bodies, whatever you deem worthy of salvaging… and you may lead them into the Harbinger Fleet, becoming yourself a voice in our counsels.”
“You truly are mad, if you think I would ever make such a devil’s deal! We will take our chances with our own strength, and the strength of our friends,” Ram-Lev gestured toward the Union soldiers who were pouring into the chamber, and the Vanguard.
Zybon started to make some reply, but stopped suddenly when his glowing eyes fell on Jonny, who had flared into his plasma form as soon as the ceiling disintegrated. His gaze then flicked to Chuck, who had also shifted into his metahuman form. The herald’s lips twisted in a sneer as he laughed out loud.
“Ah, these must be the vaunted champions of that backward world, Earth, of whom we have heard so much in recent days. Rumor says the people of your world possess vast powers, unique in all the cosmos. Do you really think your powers, however great, can stand against Entropy itself? If so, your hubris is even greater than I had been led to believe!”
”I don’t know about this Entropy thing,” Chilz growled. ”But I think we’ve heard just about enough from you, buddy!” He unleashed a fusillade of ice javelins and a simultaneous Arctic blast at the hovering alien, as his teammates moved into battle positions around him.
With surprising speed Zybon gestured with his staff toward Chilz, and a beam of inky black force lanced out, taking the hero in the chest. Chilz was hurled backwards into a wall, and collapsed to the ground, a web of cracks spread across his torso… unconscious or dead, his friends couldn’t tell.
With a roar of anger, Quanta made a gesture of his own and a block of dense quantum matter materialized directly over Zybon. But before it could crush him a contemptuous wave of the herald’s hand unleashed a fan of dark energy which turned the block to silvery dust, which drifted harmlessly down around him.
At the same time Artemis hurled her shadow shock sticks at Zybon’s head, while Ella-Va’s mental blast converged with them on the same spot – the result barely seemed to register with the alien. The blaster fire of the High Guard was just as ineffective, and even more contemptuously ignored.
The Blue Flame sent a less-easy-to-ignore blast of searing plasma into the herald’s face, and as the giant alien reeled back Scion grabbed Kan-Ro by the arm and pulled her aside. “Get the Chancellor and the rest of these people to those ships! Your first priority has to be getting them safely away – we’ll hold back this Zybon character as long as we can. Go!”
With a driven glance at the on-going fight, the captain nodded, and began to herd her charges toward the nearest exit. Scion turned back to the battle in time to see Paragon leaping up to land a round-house blow to Zybon’s jaw, only to be batted across the chamber and into one of the great stone hand sculptures at the foot of the senatorial risers. The blue stone shattered under the impact, and the holographic globe it had supported flickered, sparked and went out.
Paragon’s distraction was enough that Blue Flame was able to dodge a blast of the black light beam, while Totem’s Bitter Lash, taking the giant around the knees, seemed to actually cause Zybon some discomfort. Scion hurled his tangle-field net around the herald’s head, and then the alien actually screamed, as the bioelectric discharge pulsed through him. More in surprise than any great injury Scion suspected regretfully.
As the last of the Senators and their aides followed the Chancellor out of the chamber, Phantom Ace appeared in the air behind Zybon, incorporeal and grim. He reached out, his wraith-like hands passing into their enemy’s neck, only to scream himself when he attempted to teleport them both away. A flare of ebony energy knocked him back twenty feet, his insubstantial form passing through a large vid-screen and a bank of electronics before collapsing to the floor – solid again, and unconscious.
Zybon had barely acknowledged the young Vanguardian’s attack, but his contemptuous attitude now shifted to one of growing anger. With a snarl he turned his attention fully on the one who had actually managed to inflict pain, however fleeting, on his sacrosanct form — Scion only narrowly avoided the bands of black energy that shot out from the alien’s staff like twin snakes, attempting to ensnare him. Unfortunately, the move left him unable to entirely evade the black beam that almost simultaneously erupted from the gem in the alien’s forehead.
It was only a glancing blow, along his left side, but where the beam touched it Scion’s armor evaporated like water dropped on a hot griddle. With a grunt he dropped to the floor, rolling behind a bank of computer equipment for cover. Even as he scrambled to assess the damage, the orichalcum nanites of his armor were healing the breach… but approximately six ounces of his miracle metal was simply… gone, according to his sensors.
Meanwhile, Artemis‘ shadow whip, Quanta’s blocks and domes and encasements of conjured matter, Blue Flame’s plasma bolts, katanas and flame walls, and Ella-Va’s mental bolts, were barely slowing down Zybon. Chilz, back on his feet and now only a little cracked about the edges, hurled ice spears at the herald, only to have them shatter against his stone-like skin. Totem’s Bitter Lash no longer seemed to even annoy the alien.
Scion, rejoining the fray, used his blackout burst at maximum power, with the idea that perhaps Zybon was actually an artificial construct, and so susceptible to a good EMP… but if he was artificial, he was too well shielded. So far, the only thing that had appeared to knock the alien out of his smug superiority had been Scion’s bioelectric energy, and he prepared to launch another tangle-field net. This time he’d let loose with every erg he had in him…
Unfortunately, at that same moment, Zybon suddenly seemed to decide that it was time to stop toying with his prey. He raised his staff and a blinding flare of black light enveloped everyone in the chamber, utterly incapacitating those still standing.
Completely paralyzed, those of the Vanguard still conscious could do nothing but watch as the tall alien floated toward the floor, touching down amidst their fallen bodies. His face was again calm, and he even smiled a bit as he gestured at them… tendrils of dark energy lifted them each up, and arranged them all in a row, shoulder-to-shoulder, facing him at his own head height.
“You fascinate me, little children of the Seekers,” he said a short time later, having made sure that Phantom Ace and Paragon were once again conscious, and that everyone was in their human form. “You have been sent here to witness just how unprepared your insignificant world is, in the face of Entropy. Do you see that now? Even the power of the pathetic, useless Paladins, and their feeble masters, the Keepers, cannot withstand Entropy. And it is itself but one of myriad such threats in the cosmos, against which your world cannot hope to stand.
“Indeed, our own Fleet could take your world in a day…” the stone-skinned alien paused, looking suddenly calculating. “In truth, your Earth does sound rich… perhaps the Harbinger Fleet should visit it, even before the day when Entropy finds you, yes? Our benefactor has not told us where your little world lies, but let us see what I might pry from your feeble minds…
“Ah, your mentat friend attempts to shield your minds from my probes… she does have a formidable mind, for a lower life form, but in the end… I will… get… what I… DESIRE!”
Ella-Va moaned as she strove to keep the alien out of her mind and the minds of her allies as well. And despite Zybon’s blithe words, he seemed to be having trouble breaking down her defenses. He frowned in concentration, and his eyes glowed a brighter red… the Union mentat screamed.
“Yes, her shields begin… to crack… I see… your world… yes, so beautiful… so lush and rich… but where…”
At that moment there was a crack like thunder, a blinding flash of light, and the disorienting elevator-drop-like sensation the Vanguard had felt when they were transported to Halicon. As the nausea overwhelmed them, Artemis made a supreme effort and reached out her right hand to grasp Ella-Va’s left… the alien woman returned the grasp, feebly. But even as the nausea began to fade, one last vertiginous wave ripped them apart…
♦ ♦ ♦
Much like their advent on Halicon several hours earlier, the Vanguard’s return to Earth left them momentarily disoriented. It took a minute for everyone to realize that, while they were home, they were not where they had started out that morning…
It appeared to be late afternoon, and they were standing on a large grassy lawn. A hundred feet to the left the Lewis & Clark Interstate Bridge soared overhead, while an equal distance ahead of them the waters of the Columbia River rolled by… which must mean they were in Cathedral Park, on Desdemona Island. Directly before them, a dozen yards away, a 15-foot tall armored figure hovered in the air, its black metal shell seeming to absorb all light that touched it. The only color visible was the deep red of its eye lenses, which glowed with a hellish intensity.
On the ground below lay the massive crystalline shard that Ebony Night had pulled from the ocean several days earlier. A pulsing ball of jet black energy, limned in a rainbow coruscation, floated between the outstretched hands of the armored figure. A tail of that dark energy writhed and twisted down to connect to the shard, and the crystal’s own rainbow sheen pulsed and glittered as its matter seemed to be drawn away. The matrix shard was slowly shrinking as the whirling ball of black energy grew larger, its many-hued halo growing stronger.
Scattered on the ground in an arc before the shard were a score of Changelings, both heroes and villains – and by the silvery sheen of their eyes, once more firmly under the control of Nemesis. Hanging even more ominously overhead, some 500 feet above the armored figure, was Ebony Night’s sleek starship, the alien himself hovering nearby.
While Ebony Night gazed down at the heroes, arms crossed, the armored being appeared to be ignoring the Vanguard, focused entirely on the disintegrating crystal and the growing ball of energy between its hands. The silence stretched as the heroes tried to regain their balance and figure out a next move… and the energy sphere was beginning to spin as it grew larger, the rainbow halo beginning to obscure the dark energy at its core…
Even Artemis was startled by the sudden, diffident cough behind them. As one the heroes turned to see Álvaro de la Vega standing about 15 feet away, on what looked like a roughly circular section of flooring from his Vault. Both the man and the structure looked rather the worse for wear.
“Good to have you back,” Álvaro croaked, his usually polished voice hoarse, his hair disheveled, his suit stained and rumpled. His was face pale and haggard looking, and dark circles under his eyes made his attempt at a grin more ghastly than insouciant. “It’s been a long couple of days.”
“Álvaro!,” Quanta cried. “What happened? Why –”
“I thought for sure that Zybon creatue was going to kill you all,” de la Vega groaned. “We had to give in… we couldn’t… I couldn’t let you all die…”
“You know what happened to us on Halicon?” Artemis asked, trying to divide her attention between their sponsor and the threat looming behind them. “And what do you mean days?”
“Yes. Nemesis, damn him to hell, made sure we saw the whole thing, from start to finish. It was Ebony Night who portaled you away, using this damn new power of his to piggy-back on the stargate network, apparently. It might’ve seemed instantaneous to you, but it actually took a couple hours for you to reach… well, anyway, once you arrived on Halicon, he kept some sort of wormhole viewing portal open. We watched it all… Nemesis wanted us to see what would happen to Earth if we didn’t give in to his demands…and not only us – the world was forced to watch. He’s hijacked all the airwaves, it seems, and the entire planet has been watching.
“An hour or so after you all vanished – vaporized for all I or the world knew at the time – Ebony Night’s ship appeared over the ruins of the Vault. At that range the tractor beam tore up a whole section of the flooring, a section that included me and the matrix shard. I was trying to finish the neural frequency realignment array, and we were already too high for me to jump by the time I realized what was happening…”
“Once Ebony Night dumped me and the crystal here, he spent some time trying to talk me around before Nemesis finally showed up in this new armored look of his. Copy cat.” A hint of his usual humor peeked through the exhaustion.
“Anyway, he demanded that Nimrod “download” himself into my crystal fragment, as a hostage to make sure he couldn’t interfere. He knew that simply killing me would not have stopped Nimrod, who would have simply ended up back in the Bastion, with all its resources to hand.
“We refused, of course, and Nemesis then took his turn to sweet-talk us, reiterating his certainty that if we stood in his way, the Earth itself was eventually doomed. At first I thought he was making threats… but then he pulled up that little outer space drama he had orchestrated for your– for our– education, and we began to understand the stakes. We resisted for as long as we could, but when you lives were in real danger… well, that seemed a believable time to give up. He made the transfer just a few minutes ago.”
“A believable time?” Artemis whispered. “I take it Nimrod has a plan, then?”
Álvaro put a finger to his lip and just nodded, smiling. “But listen,” he went on, lowering his voice even more. “In a stroke of good luck, the neural frequency realignment array came along for the ride… its over there, on that workbench… Nemesis has been so focused on us, and the action on Halicon was so riviting, that I haven’t been able to finish it. But maybe now, with his attention split, we can pull it off together…”
Álvaro’s whispered explanation to Quanta and Scion about where he stood in the process was interrupted when Nemesis suddenly spoke, his amplified voice echoing across the park.
“Welcome home, would-be protectors of Earth,” Ebony Night’s deep, slightly sibilant voice boomed out sudddenly. “Having seen doomed Halicon, do you now realize how much we have in common? Like you, we seek to protect this world and its peoples from such a doom as Entropy the All Consuming would bring.”
At a gesture from Scion, Artemis led the others away from the workbench and the device that might yet save them all, appearing to give her full attention to what the alien was saying. Quanta, Álvaro and Scion stealthily resumed working on the NFRA…
With a gesture Nemesis caused the growing sphere between its hands to spin in ever-faster streams of rainbow energy, and the crystal below him was absorbed at an ever-accelerating rate. Meanwhile, Ebony Night opened a shimmering black portal in the air above them. Within the portal an image appeared – a world seen from space. It was beautiful, an Earth-like world of blue, green and white, and on the night side of the globe the lights of great cities limned the continents.
“You see before you Halicon, the world from which we have just plucked you,” the alien continued. “The capital planet of the mighty Confederated Union of Worlds, one of the greatest powers in this sector of the galaxy. Now witness how little that greatness and power means, in the face of the Devourer!”
In the image, over the curve of the planet’s horizon, a dark cloud, tinged with red at the edges, began to spread, blotting out the stars as it grew. The cloud parted and numerous arms snaked out, wreathing the planet. Clouds began to wisp away as the atmosphere was rent by violent storms. Then the colors of the planet, the greens, the blues, the rich browns, all began to turn gray and ash-like. In moments the monstrous cloud of blackness enveloped the world, and for agonizing minutes nothing more could be seen of its surface.
Eventually the cloud began to pull away from the planet, and the horror left in its wake was laid bare. Where life and civilization had been was now only a gray, barren husk of a world, utterly dead. Its oceans were gone, its atmosphere no more, all its life crumbled to a fine, gray dust. They knew somehow that its surface was now as cold as the void of space. The inky cloud, still visible against the stars only as an emptiness outlined in occasional flickers of sullen red, moved on, toward the system’s sun.
With the destruction of Halicon complete, Nemeis gave a nod to Ebony Night, who allowed his portal to close and the vision to fade. The matrix shard was almost gone now, and the sphere of rainbow energy spinning between Nemisis’ armored hands completely obscured the dark energy at its core. As it grew, the ancient AI finally spoke.
“The mindless entity Entropy has sucked every erg of energy from Halicon, and now it moves on to the star that once gave that world life; there it will drain that sun as well, leaving nothing, not even enough energy for a nova, to at least spread elements out to birth new systems. No, it will eat the star and use its power to open a gate to take it to the next system, the next world… and so the cycle of utter destruction goes on. It’s movements around the galaxy are random, true, but one day it will find the Earth. It, or some other cosmic horror of equally insurmountable power.
“The Creators, long eons ago, managed to bind this particular horror, imprisoning it in a dimension far removed from our own space-time. For ages this facet of Death slept. But on a distant world, 1,137.47 of your years ago, a scientist discovered an anomaly, one he was sure would reveal the ultimate secrets of the universe to him. Despite the warnings of his peers, he sought out this anomaly… and in finding it, he awoke Entropy from its long sleep, freeing it to stalk the galaxy once more..
“In awakening the ancient Hunger the scientist’s world quickly paid the ultimate price of his folly, perishing to feed the endless hunger of the Devourer – but the scientist himself survived. Along with a handful of his species he escaped his planet, and led his rag-tag fleet of survivors in pursuit of the destroyer of their home, seeking vengeance.
“They followed it through the great wormhole it created, and tried to warn the next world in time to stop the horror. But they could not, and almost perished themselves in the fall of that alien world. In the wake of their planet’s death the few survivors of that second world joined with the older survivors, and so was born the Harbinger Fleet. Now they travel with the hated destroyer from system to system, pillaging the next doomed world in the hours before is destruction, and absorbing the handful of survivors into their Fleet.
“And someday, perhaps soon, Earth will face such a doom. But there is hope – now, after far too long, it is time for my Creators’ great purpose to be fulfilled. My technology will spread out across this world, activating the latent potential they found within humanity’s ancient ancestors—potential still there to this day, as my recent test in this city has confirmed.
“Today, just as those in Astoria were transformed, so will the rest of humanity be transformed – becoming the living weapon which I will wield against both the Great Fleet and the horror to which they have become parasites. We will end the threat of the Entropy entity forever, and open the way for humanity to lead the galaxy into that bright future the Creators foresaw!
“You have proven capable and courageous protectors, given your own slight abilities,” Nemesis went on. “You would be useful allies, were you willing to join my cause. Convince the Hunter as well, and with the Master Matrix back in my control I can use my technology to augment your existing abilities, to make you better, stronger, more capable – more than you are now, in every possible way. What is your response, mortals?”
“Nemesis, if all that you say is true, you’ve given us much to think about,” Artemis said, moving slowly away from the others. She didn’t dare use the comm link, and could only hope that the tech guys were close.
“Give us some time,” she went on. “Delay this second Incident you’re brewing. Indeed, let the people of Earth hear your arguments… make your case to them directly and maybe you’ll have an army of volunteers.”
“There is no time for debate,” the AI said, emotionlessly but with absolute conviction. “Zybon and his armada now know of the existence of Earth, if not its precise location. They have grown large enough, and strong enough, that they may well forsake their pursuit of Entropy, at least for a time, to loot this system, perhaps even take it as a new home world for themselves. And even if they don’t, it is only a matter of time before this planet suffers the same fate as Halicon – if not at the hands of Entropy, than by some other threat, such as Chronos. And with Earth and humanity gone, so too will die the universe’s best hope to achieve a true apotheosis.”
“Yeah, and why exactly does Zybon and his Harbinger Fleet know about Earth?” Phantom Ace asked suddenly, pushing belligerently past Artemis to confront the towering armored figure. “Because you and your lizard lackey there put us in their path! If you hadn’t interfered it might have been decades, even centuries, before they found us – time we could have used to create a defense ourselves— without killing billions of people in the process!”
A long silence made the Vanguard hope that maybe this argument had made the AI think… and it had, just not in the way they’d hoped.
“You are trying to distract me,” Nemesis said after a few seconds. “Why? Ah, I see – even while you pretend to listen to reason, you are plotting to interfere in what must be. Well, it is a pity, but I cannot allow that. Destroy them!”
At his Command all the mind-controlled Changelings began to rush forward. Chilz threw up a massive wall of ice between them and the frantically working trio on the dislocated fragment of the Vault, slowing them as the others prepared to face the onslaught…
The pulsing, spinning rainbow cloud between Nemesis’ outstretched hands had nearly filled the space, and an almost subliminal hum was growing… the ice wall cracked, while three Changelings flew over it and two more came around the sides… the hum grew to a shrill whine as the shimmering, spinning cloud began to glow brighter, pulsing faster… with a push Nemesis released the ball skyward. It rose up, accelerating quickly and spinning faster and faster, until it was a prismatic blur…
“Got it!” yelled Scion, holding up the jury-rigged neural frequency realignment array. He slammed his fist down on the large red activation button which Álvaro had insisted had to be part of the device. “A legacy of my days as a villain,” he’d said with a smile.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen.
Then, just as the the cloud of glittering rainbow crystal fragments passed above the level of the hovering starship, it seemed to implode in on itself – and then exploded outward like a shattered snow globe. There were none of the destructive energy effects associated with the original Astoria Incident, however, and the pulverized cloud of crystalline dust began to rain down, a gentle chromatic mist slowly dispersed by the winds.
At the same time, all of the mind-controlled Changelings suddenly stopped in their tracks, looking around in apparent confusion. About two-thirds of them (the more criminally inclined Artemis thought wryly) immediately turned and headed away from the heroes as fast as they could. The remaining Changelings, which included both Kid Singularity and Ghostlight, turned on their would-be overlord and attacked in a fury.
Somewhat to the Vanguard’s surprise Nemesis was apparently affected by the NRFA as well. The force screen around the matrix shard from the Vault vanished, and his armored form froze, plummeting to the ground to land awkwardly face down on the turf. The armor was tough, but the combined attacks of the Changelings and the Vanguard quickly began to cause visible damage… then the red glow returned to its eyes, and the battered Nemesis staggered up to his feet, defensive screens flaring around him. A blast of concussive energy erupted from his armor, knocking back the foes closest to him and leaving him momentarily free at the center of a circle of angry humans.
“You fools, what have you done?” he roared, his voice thick with rage. “I spent centuries gathering those crystals, finding that last great shard, and now…” He struggled for a moment to master his emotions.
”Well, all you’ve really done is doom yourselves, and countless other worlds,” he finally said, coldly. “But my purpose remains… to elevate your ungrateful race, as the Creators wished, to achieve their great purpose. There are other resources… and with this I can finally recover my true home…” he leaped forward and grabbed Àlvaro’s seed shard from the master matrix.
A blue actinic light flared out from the crystal, and Nemesis‘ armor froze, his hands seemingly fused to the crystal. After a moment the light faded, and the armor collapsed to the ground. With a last hissing “pop” the helmet fell away, revealing a solid mass of fused metal, slagged electronics – and no human occupant. The empty husk smoked as the Vanguard looked at one another in surprise.
After a moment it was obvious that, whatever had happened, it had forced Nemesis to abandon the field. With his disappearance, the starship hovering over the battlefield rose swiftly into the sky, vanishing in seconds. Ebony Night himself hovered a moment longer, glaring down at the heroes. Then, with a shrug and a shake of his massive head, he too turned and vanished toward space.
In the sudden silence that followed their sudden victory the distant sound of helicopters could be heard, growing louder as whatever force Nemesis had used to keep the authorities at bay vanished along with its master. Artemis, Paragon and Phantom Ace hurried over to check on the dazed Changelings, while Totem and Chilz approached the smoking form of Nemesis‘ armor. Quanta and Scion turned to Álvaro.
“What did you do?” Quanta asked, glancing at the shard of alien crystal laying next to the armored husk a few yards away. “How did you take down Nemesis? Is the Hunter still trapped in that shard?”
“I didn’t do anything,” de la Vega said. “It was a contingency trap the Hunter laid quite awhile ago, should Nemesis ever penetrate my lab. There was no way to fake the transfer of the Hunter into the shard, we really did give him up. But as soon as Nemesis touched the shard, it triggered the trap. It should have caused the two consciousnesses to swap places, trapping Nemesis in the shard and giving the Hunter control of his host body. But the bastard was never really here – the armor was remote operated all along… which is probably why the NRFA interfered with it, at least momentarily.
“And to answer your last question, the Hunter is back where he belongs,” he added, tapping his right temple. He smiled wistfully at the large piece of shimmering crystal at their feet. “A pity it was all for nothing. Not only did we not capture Nemesis, I doubt very much that our friends at SHADE are going to give this matrix shard back once they get their grubby little governmental hands on it.” He ran a hand lovingly along a smooth plane and sighed. “Neither of us is happy about that…”
“Well, they’re not here yet,” Quanta said. “If we move quickly, I don’t see why they ever have to know about it.” He gestured, and a quantum tunnel opened in the air next to them. “What do you think, JJ?”
Scion, who’d let his helmet meld back into his armor once Nemesis had vanished, smiled at the shocked look on Álvaro’s face – possibly the first uncontrolled, absolutely true expression he’d ever seen there.
“It belongs to you, Álvaro, and the Hunter,” Scion shrugged. “Frankly, I’m not sure I’d trust the government with this kind of tech. Of course, I’m confident that Quanta and I could handle having access to it, ourselves, from time to time… for our own research…”
Álvaro was back in control of his features again, and his sardonic grin was pure de la Vega. Bargaining was something he understood very well indeed.
“That does seem only fair,” he said, suddenly laughing. “Thank you Quanta, and I agree to your terms Captain. Now, as it happens, I might just know of a secure place where we might stash this little guy, until the Vault is rebuilt…”
When the SHADE, Army, Air Force, and APD helicopters touched a short time later, the only physical evidence of the Second Astoria Incident were the inert armor, a modest dent in the ground, and a dusting of sparkly gray powder everywhere…