Chapter 23 - Cyprus

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  Ordan was not an easy place to visit. The entire surface of the planet was covered with tall and narrow stone structures, like needles bristling on every square kilometer. The spires were a natural defense against intruders, and it was almost impossible to land a star ship anywhere on the surface.

  Almost.

  Like every other planet apart of the Dromedar Union there were dedicated space ports made specifically for the importation and exportation of resources. It was a narrow landing zone, but Cyprus managed to lower the ship down to the clearing. She only struck a spire once, hopefully not hard enough to leave a dent.

  She powered everything down and took a moment to collect her thoughts. She could barely see anything through the viewport as the needle-like spires blocked everything from view. She could feel Recli’s presence in the cargo hold like the ominous breeze before a storm.

  Stick to the plan, and you’ll be fine.

  She mentally prepared for what she was about to do and activated the ship’s exiting sequence. She stopped in front of the mirror, adjusted her collared shirt, and smoothed out the wrinkles on her trousered thighs.

  She was ready.

  The view from the surface was even more breathtaking than the view from her descent. The massive stone spires created a forest of needles. Their height and density reminded her of the great cities on Lappo.

  Night was just starting to settle here, and the resulting darkness engulfed the jungle of stone needles. Goosebumps pimpled her skin as she stared out at the eerie shadows. She knew the Ordanians were already watching her, their little stone bodies were perfect camouflage.

  “Ah Cyprus, It’s good to see you again! Welcome to my home world. A high-toned voice said behind her.

  Cyprus jumped at the sound and whirled around to face the voice, heart racing from the scare. An Ordanian flew at eye level behind her. His long, membraned wings fapped silently to keep his small body airborne. His head reminded her of the armadillos that burrowed beneath the trees on Gasaan, and like those armored mammals, his body was encased in a stone-like exoskeleton.

  Just like any other Ordanian, he looked like a boulder with wings.

  “I’m sorry I did I frighten you? It’s Shilf.” He flew into the light cast by her ship’s exterior LEDs and his Union uniform became visible.

  Cyprus lifted her chin to salvage her dignity, she knew the Ordanian had purposely tried to scare her, even one as decorous as Shilf. Damn mischievous imps.

  “I could never be frightened by you Shilf, you’re so non-threatening.” Cyprus said with a sweet smile.

  The Ordanians devilish grin melted into an impudent frown, “It’s good to see you, I hope things are well on Terminus-14 .”

  Cyrpus felt a twinge of guilt. Shilf wasn’t necessarily her friend, but they had always been on good terms. Regardless, she was here to start a war and possibly get him killed. It would be better if she had no friends.

  She managed a smile, “Forgive my irritation, I haven’t been sleeping well.”

  There was a knowing look in the alien’s red eyes, “The outer layers can be intimidating if you’re not used to it.”

  You don’t know the half of it, pal.

  “So should we get this meeting started?” She asked.

  Shilf pulled out a data tab from the small satchel strapped to his side, “The Hokkonian representative should be arriving any minute.”

  The alien settled on the ground and tucked his wings into a crevice on his back. Cyprus tried to be patient, but it was impossible to ignore the concoction of dread and anxiety that stewed inside of her.

  Shilf noticed the anxious bouncing of her leg and he smirked, “first time meeting a Hokkonian?”

  She tried her best nonchalant shrug, “I… met one before, on Terminus-14.”

  His crimson eyes widened, “That must have been very exciting!”

  “It was something.”

  “Were they piloting a HWND?” Shilf asked with unmistakable giddiness.

  “No, he was flying a ship, but he did claim to be a HWND pilot.

  “A Novawolf M-42 class! That’s a HWND transport, those are marvelous vessels.”

  She frowned at the alien’s awe-filled grin, “Why do you like them so much?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “The Hokkonians,” She waved at the air, “The HWNDs, the Sovereignty, everything.”

  The Ordanian blinked, “Why would I not?”

  She almost laughed out loud, “Seriously Shilf? Have you ever listened to thing I’ve said at the meetings.”

  The Senator was starting to look equal parts uncomfortable and confused. But she didn’t care, not anymore.

  “They’re slave-owners, doesn’t that seem wrong to you?” She clenched her fists.

  The alien’s wings unfolded and started to twitch; she assumed it was a sign of discomfort. “We all do bad things.”

  Now she really did laugh out loud.

  Before the Ordanian could question her maniacal laughter, his eyes widened, and he propelled himself into the air with a violent flap of wings. An instant later, a HWND landed behind Cyprus.

  She never even heard it coming.

  The impact caused the ground to shake, and it sent a tremor up her legs. She fell to the ground and whirled around to see the machine. The formidable appearance of the HWND took her breath away.

  Up close she could see the Hokkonian resemblance, a robotic copy of its biological counterpart. It was massive, and it stood like a human as it surveyed the scene. The blue and gold armor plates shone from the hours spent in its upkeep. How many slaves polished the amor plates each day?

  Her stomach twisted into a knot of hatred and rage as it stared down at her. Her fear of Recli was consumed by the fires of her abhorrence. The thing inside might not have taken her sister, but it played a role in the dynasty that committed that atrocity.

  The HWND lowered itself to one knee, and it moved so fluently it was hard to imagine it was a machine at all. It was so much a copy of its pilot, that she could read the body language. This one, was gentler than most, the way it carefully leaned its massive head closer to hers.

  “Who are you,” Its deep robotic voice asked, “Where is Councilor Freth?”

  Cyprus lifted her chin and tried to still the tremble she felt in her throat, “I am Councilor Cyprus. I’m here to observe the meeting between Councilor Shilf, and Hokku’s ambassador.”

  The HWND was quiet for a moment, its head lifted to look at Shilf, “Is this true?”

  Cyprus bristled, but the Ordanian rushed in before she could snap, “Yes, she’s filling in for Freth, she’s the acting captain of Terminus-14.”

  The HWND seemed to stiffen— A trick of the shadows maybe. The giant mech nodded and straightened to two feet. Moments later she heard the unmistakable roar of break-thrusters. She turned to see a shuttle landing beside her ship. Its design was simple, a sleek, bone-white prism. Long and narrow, nothing like the Novawolf she had encountered earlier. This was a civilian ship.

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  A strange, scraping sound came from the shadows beyond the clearing. Cyprus froze and at the same time the HWND activated the plasma cannon built into its right arm. The hypnotizing hum of heating plasma filled her ears and purple glow began to envelop her peripheral vision. She shielded her eyes with a hand to see the oversized barrels of a plasma cannon. It was a weapon that could vaporize every molecule of her body, and it just might before the night was over.

  “Everyone please remain calm,” Shilf said, “I’m sure it’s just an oarsie, they grow quite big in this area.”

  It wasn’t an oarsie, it was Recli. He was out there, camouflaged in the stones. She could feel his murderous intensity. The Hokkonian sensed it to, and kept the canon leveled at the spire line.

  The sound came again, this time on the opposite end. The Hokkonian didn’t hesitate and its HWND fired a shot. The sound of condensed plasma ripping through the air was awful, like a symphony of breaking bones.

  Instead of an explosion, the plasma round passed through the spires as though they weren’t there, it left a massive gaping hole in its wake before it dissipated into nothing. A second later, the spires with their vaporized trunks came crashing down. Dust and debris filled the clearing.

  Shilf flew in front of the HWND’s face, waving his arms and begging him to stop. Cyprus waited for the inevitable swat, that would turn Shilf’s tiny body into a paste. Surprisingly the HWND seemed to obey.

  Then the HWND did something unthinkable and powered down. A loud hissing sound came from behind the machine, followed by the light thud of feet on dirt. The Pilot came strutting out from behind his rig, his clothing was made up of tight bandages that covered him from his ankles to his neck. His skin was faded, more white than grey and his eyes were a bright blue. He would have been handsome if thousands of spines didn’t cover his bald head and stick through his strange clothes.

  He gave Cyprus a smile, revealing sharp teeth. “Hope I didn’t frighten you.”

  She wanted to scowl and spit at his feet, but she couldn’t resist his magnetizing aura. She was drawn to him in ways she couldn’t explain, and an animalistic part of her wanted to stroke his muscle-laden arm and feel the prickle of his spines against her palm.

  He twisted open his hand and a ring on his forefinger glowed. A holographic portrait of a much uglier Hokkonian appeared. “Excuse me high lord, it’s not safe for you to come out yet. I need to check out the surroundings on foot, I’m afraid it’s too dense for my HWND.” He closed his fist and the image disappeared.

  His voice, like every other Hokkonian Cyprus had met, was like polished ice, deep and smooth. He winked at her and turned towards the chaos he had created along the spire long.

  Her feet were rooted to the dirt as she watched. The Hokkonian unsheathed a two-handed arc sword from the bandages on his back. Its blade was as long as Cyprus was tall and it hummed with energy.

  It hung limply at the alien’s side, its tip carving a shallow trench through the dirt. His languid strut demanded attention and boasted invincibility. He turned back to look at Cyprus and flashed her a smile so roguishly arrogant she would have bet all her credits that he was flirting with her. Heat rose in cheeks, and she wrestled against the absurd urge to warn him. He had no idea of the danger prowling in the shadows, but that was the whole point. She wasn’t here to save lives, but to take them.

  Cyprus held her breath, waiting for the inevitable strike from Recli.

  Nothing happened.

  The Hokkonian shrugged and started to walk back to Cyprus and Shilf. A nonchalant grin revealed tips of sharp teeth. “Must have been an oarsie, poor thing got vaporized- “

  His blue eyes went wide, and he completely froze. The sudden shift in his demeanor made her blood run cold. It was happening.

  Recli’s shadowy form launched from the spires, claws extended to rip the life from the Hokkonian in a single blow.

  For the first time, Cyprus recognized a flaw in the reptile’s impenetrable persona. It was slight, like a fracture in a castle’s stone walls, but it was there.

  He didn’t know everything. He was naive. A Hokkonian was not easy prey, and a HWND pilot wasn’t prey at all.

  Even taken completely by surprise the pilot had the reaction speed to dodge the initial blow. Instead of slicing through the Hokkonian’s neck, Recli’s claws scored deep furrows into the alien’s shoulder. The pilot howled in pain as the momentum of the strike sent him flipping forward, he landed on his back staring up at his attacker.

  Recli didn’t wait and he was on the Hokkonian instantly, this time slashing both claws downwards at the fabric covered belly. Somehow the Hokkonian managed to roll and twist into a kneeling position. He countered the attack, clubbing both of Recli's outstretched claws away from his stomach with his uninjured arm.

  The deflection saved his life, and Recli’s claws only managed a glancing blow, tearing out chunks of flesh from his torso. Simultaneously the Hokkonian used Recli’s momentum against him and exploded powerfully out of his crouched position, driving his knee hard into the reptile’s throat.

  Cyprus knew she should run and take cover, but the brutality of the fight was riveting, almost beautiful. The Hokkonian was shorter than Recli, but he moved agile grace that made up for his lithe physique and shorter frame. Recli might have been a death wreaking monster, but the Hokkonian was an instrument of crippling devastation.

  They were a match.

  It was Recli’s turn to let out a cry of pain, and he crashed into the ground. The Hokkonian pilot sprang back to avoid being pinned by Recli’s collapse. Cyprus watched in horror as the Hokkonian lurched around Recli, who lay thrashing on the ground clutching his throat and coughing.

  With every staggering Hokkonian step, Cyprus watched her revenge on the Sovereignty slip through her fingers. Part of her was relieved, she would be free from Recli’s torment and the guilt that wrapped its cold fingers around her heart.

  The other part, the piece of her that she feared the most, was filled with rage. Her heart was blackening with hatred. She wanted to obliterate the entire planet. She couldn’t let Recli die.

  The Pilot stood tall as blood wept from the wound on his side and the deep cuts in his shoulder. He stood by Recli’s head and unsheathed the arc sword on his back.

  He was just about to bring it down on Recli’s neck when Cyprus cried out, “No wait!”

  The Hokkonian hesitated and turned to look at her. For a moment he stared at her and time seemed to slow. Recli appeared behind him with supernatural speed. There was a crazed, predatory gleam in his eyes as his tongue lolled from jaws. He was a monster hungry to devour his prey.

  There wasn’t time for the Hokkonian to react, Recli was too fast.

  He still stared at Cyprus with a puzzled expression which flashed to astonishment as Recli’s tail punctured his back. The thorns on the end of his tail protruded from the Hokkonian’s chest like a blooming flower of bloodied razors.

  The pilot sputtered and the sword dropped to the ground, he stared down in shock and a cry of agony tore from his lips when Recli pulled back. The thorns ripped at the grey flesh like the barbed point of a fishhook, causing more blood to spray the ground. The Hokkonian staggered forewords, clutching the jagged hole in his chest. To his credit, he still turned to fight but his movements were sluggish as death settled in his joints.

  Recli’s tail shot out again, slipping past the Hokkonian’s lethargic attempt to parry. It skewered the Pilot’s stomach, eliciting another scream.

  “I honor your ssstrength” Recli hissed.

  The Hokkonian’s face was screwed up in pain and blood started to trickle out of the corners of his mouth, but his blue eyes were clear and icy. “You will die for this. You can’t kill a HWND Pilot.”

  “I just did.” Recli drove his fist into the Hokkonian’s face, burying his claws deep into the alien’s skull.

  The body went limp and crumpled to the ground. An earie silence filled the clearing as Recli stood panting over top of the corpse. He looked more monstrous than Cyprus had ever seen, as if the adrenaline from the fight had cured him of his sickness.

  She blinked a few times to clear the spectator daze that had entranced her. A quick scan of the area showed the Hokkonian cruiser had left, and Councilor Shilf was nowhere to be seen. The powered down HWND sat unscathed, like a mourning statue.

  “We need to leave,” Cyprus stammered, “The Ordanians will be bringing reinforcements.”

  Recli’s head snapped up and started to scan the night’s sky. The faint hum of HWND thrusters could be heard in the distance, like rolling thunder warning of the storm to come. Another mech was coming.

  A pit formed in her stomach, Recli barely managed to defeat a pilot outside of his HWND. They were doomed.

  She broke into a sprint, not wanting to waste anytime. If she could reach the spires, maybe the slight cover the stone-needles provided would be enough. She could hide there while the HWND killed Recli, but what about her ship? It wouldn’t take much to tie her to the crime scene.

  As she ran, she looked at Recli. The Shadari seemed to have the same idea. In that same moment, an ear-splitting screech filled the clearing, followed by the roar of engines. The HWND was screaming, and the wail of grief was translated so well through the machine’s vocal output that she could feel the sorrow like a knife through the heart.

  The mech was a giant blur as it flew at Recli. She watched in horror, waiting for the inevitable splat.

  It all happened so fast that Cyprus barely caught it. Recli didn’t dive for cover but leapt upwards. His momentum sent him hurtling toward the top end of a pillar, well above the height of the HWND. His talons drove into the stone with an audible crack and in the same breath he jumped again. This time directly back at the mech still flying towards him.

  He glided a few feet above the speeding machine, dodging the collision with calculated precision. At the same time, he punctured the HWND’s backplate with his tail.

  The mech collided with the stone pillars and Recli fell to the ground from his soaring leap. He sprang to his feet and charged the giant machine that was now lying against the spires, propped like a metal man peacefully observing his surroundings.

  Smoke rose from the hulking mass, escaping through the seams of its armor. Recli leapt onto the HWND’s upper body, he was only a third of its size but powerful enough rip the machine down. It fell face first in a cloud of dust.

  With a ferocious expression Recli pounced and pulled at the triangular metal plates. The muscles in his arm and back rippled as he forced the plates open with a grinding squeal of torn metal. He howled in triumph as he pulled the body of another Hokkonian from the cavity inside. He tossed the corpse in Cyprus and it landed in a heap of limbs at her feet. There was a jagged hole in the pilot’s chest where Recli had struck with his tail.

  Her brain worked to comprehend what had just happened, but it all seemed surreal. She tore her gaze from the corpses to see Recli’s monstrous figure towering over her. His face was shrouded by the night, but his eyes glowed with a ferocity that sent a chill down her spine.

  His overwhelming presence threatened to consume her. Despite their alliance, Cyprus shook with terror at the sight of him. He was the apex predator.

  “I got you what you wanted.” Recli growled, “Now give me what I want.”

  She swallowed, “anything.”

  “War.”

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