Chapter 121 - Wounded little Lion...

The thralls are all leaving... Jade told Alyssa, craning her draconic head out of the shattered cockpit and sweeping her sharp-eyed gaze across the hangar.

Alyssa swung out of the breached canopy and crouched on the Raptor’s roof. Quick, Dana ... the runes!

Okay... the redhead agreed, her telepathic voice aching with grief.

As much as Alyssa felt the same way, she couldn’t give in to despair now ... everything was at stake. Dana dismissed the Progenitor runes she’d inscribed on the gunship’s hull and the glyphs dissipated in a golden swirl. Activating flight mode, Alyssa leaped backwards off the Raptor, then gripped the armour plating with two huge telekinetic hands. She made a tearing gesture and the hull buckled outwards, as she ripped the roof open like a sardine tin.

Alyssa glanced over her shoulder and saw the hangar doors starting to close, the edges like the serrated jaws of a massive beast clamping shut. Move! she yelled at the Nymph in alarm.

Jade wriggled and squirmed, pulling her ungainly bulk out of the cockpit. The sight would have been amusing if the situation hadn’t been so desperate. Jade’s draconic form was much smaller than normal, except for her distended abdomen, which rippled with the movement of half-a-dozen writhing shapes. As soon as she was clear of the cockpit, the Nymph shimmered again, growing huge and correcting the imbalance in her proportions.

I’m going to be having nightmares about this for months... Calara muttered, pressed together with the rest of the girls inside the quick-thinking shapeshifter’s belly.

Alyssa increased the power to her suit’s thruster to maximum and rocketed towards the black dreadnought. She summoned several more glowing telekinetic hands and their huge fingers wrapped around Jade’s reptilian limbs, then dragged the Nymph after her. Watching the closing doorway with alarm, Alyssa quickened the pull of her telekinetic projections to try to get the girls through in time. Racing inside, she arched her back and banked out of the way, clearing the path for Jade.

The Nymph tucked herself in as small as she could and dived through the jagged gap, but the serrated edges caught one of her wings and ripped a long rent along the leathery membrane. She grimaced with pain as she veered towards the deck, artificial gravity reasserting itself on her enormous draconic form. Alyssa made a sharp gesture and her glowing hands moved to support the Nymph’s bulk, helping her make a reasonably graceful landing considering the circumstances.

Jade skidded across the deck, her claws grating for purchase as she scrabbled to a halt. She paused, her draconic body obscured by a green haze and her passengers were dumped unceremoniously on the deck as the Nymph shrank down to normal size. Behind them, the massive doors sealed shut with a loud clang.

“I was worried which end we were coming out of for a minute...” Sakura said, her smile strained as she tried to lighten the mood.

The girls slumped on the deck, too devastated to laugh, their emotions vacillating between their fear for John and grief for their lost comrades aboard the Invictus.

Dana flung her arms around Jade, tears running freely down her cheeks. “Oh, Jade, I can’t believe they’re gone...”

The Nymph hugged her back, crystal tears filling her emerald cat-like eyes. “I know, Dana ... I know.”

Alyssa landed beside them, feeling the waves of heart-wrenching grief pouring from her friends. She swallowed around the lump in her throat, struggling not to burst into tears herself. Looking at each of them in turn, her gaze flicked from Dana embracing Jade, to the twins, then Rachel, Jessica, Calara, and finally Helene, the aquatic girl looking just as shell-shocked as the rest.

The blonde made eye-contact with Helene, then glanced pointedly at Jessica. Helene, please help her...

John’s mother was cowering on the floor, scared out of her mind. After narrowly escaping from the Invictus, she’d been wrapped in a mass of Jade’s tentacles to prevent her being battered by Larn’kelnar when he shook the Raptor, then enveloped in the Nymph’s body to protect her from asphyxiation in space. The rest of the girls were at least familiar with Jade’s shape-shifting capabilities, but to say that Jessica was terrified was putting it mildly.

Helene took a deep breath and wiped away her tears, then crouched beside Jessica and gave her a reassuring smile. “There’s no need to be afraid. We’re here to protect you ... and to rescue Rahn,” the aquatic girl said quietly, reaching out with her empathic abilities to soothe and calm the brunette.

Jessica’s shallow breathing relaxed, the wild look in her eyes fading. “Thank you,” she murmured, giving Helene a grateful smile.

Now, the rest of us please... Alyssa said, gently squeezing the aquatic girl’s shoulder.

Helene nodded, widening her empathic aura and pouring positivity into the unresisting girls. She managed to push back the worst of their fear and grief, letting them pull themselves together ... at least enough to think rationally again.

Thank you. Alyssa took a deep breath, then turned to the girls, looking at each of them in turn. “Listen ... I know you’re all hurting as much as me and it feels like my heart’s been ripped in two. But John’s counting on us and we can’t let him down. When all this is done, we’ll grieve for our friends ... but not now. The only thing we’re going to focus on is freeing him ... then we’ll get some payback.”

“I’m all for a nice serving of revenge...” Sakura growled, her almond-shaped eyes narrowing in fury.

With a heavy sigh, Irillith did her best to put her grief behind her. She glanced down at her jumpsuit and plucked at it with her slender blue fingers. “How are we supposed to rescue John when we’ve got no armour or weapons?”

“One size fits all...” Tashana said pointedly, locking eyes with Alyssa.

The blonde nodded her agreement. “The thrall armoury ... good thinking.”

“Do you know where it is?” Calara asked Dana, who slumped dejectedly on the deck.

Dana brushed the back of her hand across her red-rimmed eyes. “We explored the rear half of Rahn’s ship but we never saw an armoury...” she said, meeting Alyssa’s anxious gaze. “I’m guessing it must be somewhere amidships on the lower decks.”

Sakura gave them a grim smile. “Why don’t we sneak up on someone and ask for directions?”

Dana grimaced at the thought. “A stealth mission? Aren’t we in deep enough shit already?”

Alyssa shrugged and offered a hand to Dana, helping the redhead to her feet. “Well, things can’t exactly get any worse...”

John hung suspended in the air by a vice-like telekinetic grip, as he floated down a corridor. At least he suspected he was being moved down a corridor, as he had his eyes closed and didn’t dare risk taking a look. He was still reeling from the shocking disaster that had befallen them. John couldn’t believe how quickly he’d gone from feeling invincible in his massively upgraded battlecruiser, to enduring Larn’kelnar’s stark lesson in just how outmatched they were against a Progenitor dreadnought.

Far worse than that bitter pill, was how utterly heartbroken he felt at the loss of Faye and the Nymphs. He could still remember the look of shock and horror on the purple sprite’s face as she uttered his name for the last time. It was like she was pleading for him to help save her, Faye’s faith in him her final thought before the light in her luminous eyes was dimmed forever. Thinking of Faye and the Nymphs tumbling to their deaths was almost more than he could bear.

He’d had such high hopes for Neysa, Leylira, Betrixa, and Marika, nurturing the innocent young women along a path to self-awareness, just as he’d done for Jade before them. To have taken that final step and committed himself wholeheartedly to each of the Nymphs, only to have them torn away from him ... it made the pain infinitely worse. He could only imagine their fear and confusion as they plunged towards Arcadia’s surface, trapped aboard the ship that he’d encouraged them to make their home ... and was now going to be their tomb.

John stifled a sob at their loss, realising he had to keep it together or risk revealing he was conscious. He steeled himself and fearfully checked his network of connections, only narrowly preventing himself from sighing with relief when he saw that Alyssa and the girls were still alive. He’d had to put his faith in them to protect themselves and he thanked the stars that they’d survived being tossed out into space.

When the black ship had caught them in a tractor beam and John had seen the massive formation of troops Larn’kelnar had assembled to meet them, he knew he only had one course of action. He and Alyssa might have been wearing Paragon suits, but the rest of the girls had no gear and were outnumbered at least 100 to 1. Add to that fact, they’d been caught totally unprepared by the ambush and their morale had been crushed by the loss of their friends. Attempting to fight Larn’kelnar and his thrall army had never been an option.

Trusting his instincts that Larn’kelnar wanted to take him alive, John had prayed that the Progenitor would dismiss the girls as inconsequential. Even if Larn’kelnar had ordered his thralls to open fire on them, John had little choice but to hang onto the slim hope that the girls would be able to shield themselves inside the gunship for long enough to be assumed killed. Ignored and forgotten, they might then be able to mount a rescue or at least repair the Raptor and get to safety.

When his Progenitor adversary had violently shaken the gunship, Jade had wrapped John and the girls in rubbery tentacles, preventing them from being thrown around the cockpit. After the thralls shot out the crystal canopy, a telekinetic hand reached in for him ... and as much as it galled John to do it, he’d been forced to play possum. His final order to his trio of matriarchs had been to avoid contacting him via telepathy, in case Larn’kelnar might be able to detect the psychic activity.

Which left John in this perilous predicament; floating along helplessly, trapped and awaiting whatever fate his formidable opponent had planned for him.

Jade shapeshifted into a tiger and took up a defensive crouch, lightning crackling around her claws as she watched the sealed entrances to the hangar for the first sign of thralls. She glanced back into the hangar, where the girls were quickly removing Alyssa’s paragon suit and helping Sakura into it.

“Are you really sure about this?” Dana asked, glancing down at the Tachyon rifle. “It’s the only gun we’ve got...”

“For the moment...” Tashana said, giving the redhead a reassuring smile.

Alyssa stepped out of the Paragon boots, then moved aside, letting the Asian girl put them on. “As soon as we start shooting up the place, they’ll know we’re here. We haven’t got any choice.”

“But ... turning a state-of-the-art gun into a pair of swords ... it’s just wrong!” Dana protested.

Ignoring the objections, Alyssa gestured at the Crystal Alyssium gunframe and projected her will, melting the psychically responsive metal into a roiling sphere. The redhead pouted as she was left holding a handful of spare parts and she sighed before reluctantly placing them on the deck. Alyssa kept her focus on the white orb, shaping it over and over again, to make it as strong as she possibly could. The metal started to resist her efforts as she neared the twentieth shaping, so she concentrated harder, pouring all her rage and grief into her work. Forming the familiar image of the assassin’s ninjato in her mind, she made one major modification, inscribing the only rune she knew into the blade as she shaped the metal one final time.

Sakura reached for the swords as soon as they were complete and twirled them around in her gauntleted fists. Her eager grin turned to a look of surprise as she examined the gleaming blades. “Did you do something special to them?”

“I added Progenitor magnification runes,” Alyssa said with a grim smile of satisfaction. “Be careful...”

The assassin nodded, then padded across the hangar to join the huge armoured tiger at the door. Jade checked that the girls had moved out of sight, then nudged a glyph on the control panel with her nose. The set of reinforced double-doors split apart, jagged edges peeling back as they opened, revealing a long black corridor illuminated by sinister blood-red lighting. Sakura had been hugging the doorframe on the opposite side to Jade and she peered around to check that it was safe. Seeing no sign of any thralls, the assassin activated her psychic speed and crept through, looking like a white blur to the rest of the girls.

Jade closed the door after her, then let out a rumbling sigh. Despite Helene’s best efforts, losing her four Nymph sisters was like a crushing weight on her heart. With her melancholy thoughts turning to the quartet of lovely catgirls, she was astonished to receive an onrush of sensations as she experienced their emotions. Confusion was pouring off all four of them, despite it being at least fifteen minutes since the crew abandoned ship ... more than long enough for the Invictus to have crashed.

Alyssa placed her hand on Jade’s flank. How’s that possible?!

Jade closed her eyes to look at the mosaics representing her sisters, still terrified of seeing gaping holes where the lovely catgirls should be. However, they were still present in her mind, the portraits now reflecting their new feline appearance. She could feel their potent psychic potential still at her fingertips, the connection just as strong as it had been after John enhanced the four Nymphs.

I have no idea... Jade replied, her voice elated. But they’re all definitely still alive!

“What the hell’s happening?!” Leylira hissed, crawling across the oval bed to rejoin her sisters. “And what are those two doing?”

The tiger-striped Nymph darted a furtive glance at the tiny cleaning robot and the hulking maintenance bot that hovered beside it. The two robots were standing beside an exposed wall panel, with the cleaning robot connected to the access ports by data jacks.

Marika looked bewildered. “This one was having such a lovely dream about kittens ... then there was a horrible roar and I started floating off the bed!”

“I think I caught that little one watching us ... do you reckon he’s a peeping tom?” Betrixa asked with a smirk. “Then the big guy floated in, grabbed the voyeur, and ripped the wall panel off!” She suddenly looked thoughtful. “If I start wrecking Master’s ship, do you think he’ll give me a spanking?”

“Something’s very wrong...” Neysa said quietly, ignoring her sister’s ribald commentary and glancing up at the Observatory ceiling. The armoured panels covering the crystal window were crushed and buckled, letting her see the white surface of the object that had just crashed into the ship. “Didn’t you hear how sad Jade was when she told us she loved us?”

Betrixa rolled her eyes. “Why don’t we just ask them what’s going on?” She leapt to her feet and bounced across the bed, her tail lashing playfully. She poked the big floating robot in the arm. “Hey! What’re you up to?”

The maintenance bot turned its rictus grin in her direction. [+++ polite redirection +++ [Open request] Please direct all queries to unit designated as “Little One”. [/Close request]]

The blonde catgirl looked at the automaton in confusion, then shrugged and tapped the cleaning robot on the shoulder. “Hey! What’re you up to?”

The robot stayed perfectly still and replied, “Proceeding with operation: Save Invictus.”

A holographic projection appeared, displaying a long list of tasks:

Initiate data connection to subnode 38 – complete. Initiate emergency override – complete. Reroute power from PowerCore02 to forward hull section retro-thrusters – complete. Attempt to stabilise roll of forward hull section – complete. Attempt to reduce velocity of forward section freefall – complete. Initiate telemetry streaming from Sensor Array – complete. Locate rear hull section – complete. Commence realignment – complete. Reroute power to artificial gravity in forward hull section – complete. Reroute power to Inertia Negation Device in forward hull section – complete. Initiate docking manoeuvre with rear hull section – complete. Attempt to halt Invictus freefall – failure. [Mass exceeds lift capacity of active retro-thrusters] Attempt to reduce Invictus descent velocity – in progress...

Betrixa scanned down the list and looked even more bemused. “Err ... save the Invictus from what?”

Turning its domed head in her direction the cleaning robot stated solemnly, “We are about to crash into the planet Arcadia. Impact in 47 seconds ... Please seek shelter in the Lagoon to reduce collision damage.”

Neysa gasped in alarm and leapt to her feet. “I think it’s time for a swim!”

John heard the quiet rasp of a door opening, then he felt himself being turned and taken into a room. The telekinetic grip shifted and his arms were upraised, then his legs were moved too, until all four limbs were firmly clamped into position. He made no attempt to resist, letting his body hang in his restraints as if he were still unconscious. The runesword was removed from his back and he heard a clatter some distance away a few moments later.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t just kill him, my Lord...” a female voice said quietly, with an edge of frustration.

“Ah, Ailanthia ... so bloodthirsty,” a deeper baritone voice replied with a chuckle. “Of course I could’ve just killed him, but where’s the entertainment value? Besides, Blake is fascinating and it’s well past time we had a little chat...”

John knew this must be Larn’kelnar. He strained to listen to their conversation, desperate for any information that he could use. Suddenly, he felt a suffocating sensation descend over his mind, the debilitating aura clouding his thoughts. It was a deeply unpleasant feeling that he’d experienced once before, when Baledranax had disabled his psychic powers during the Battle of Terra.

“Come, my fierce little Matriarch,” Larn’kelnar said as he strolled out of the room. “I feel like celebrating...”

“I live to serve, my Lord...” Ailanthia purred, her voice fading away as she left at his side.

The door whirred closed behind them, leaving John suspended in the deathly silent room. He cracked one eye open and saw that it was deserted, confirming that he was alone. Looking around, he was startled by the size of the room, with similar restraints set up for prisoners much larger than him. Glancing up at his arms, he saw his wrists were encased in black metallic bands, each one holding a limb in place without any form of visible connection to the outer frame. The device vaguely reminded him of the magnetic bands that Dana had created for his sword, which suspended the weapon in a magnetic field across his back.

Thoughts of his runesword had him looking around for it and he immediately spotted the glowing weapon resting on a table off to his right. He knew it was a long shot, but he gestured to the weapon with his hand and attempted to use telekinesis to pull it over to him. Just as he expected, nothing happened, his powers obviously nullified by a psychic dampening field of some kind. He looked around the room and, sure enough, he spotted the dim purple light pouring from a black device that appeared to be identical to the one that the Kintark Emperor had used.

Unfortunately, knowing how he was being imprisoned didn’t bring him any closer to actually freeing himself. He tried asking his matriarchs to make telepathic contact now that he was alone, but just like on Terra, they seemed to be prevented from hearing his thoughts. He checked his psychic network and was cut off from that too, no longer able to directly tap any of the girls for psychic energy, even if he were able to use any powers.

Slumping in his restraints, John was left with no other option than to wait for either the girls to find some way of freeing him, or for Larn’kelnar to return for his chat. As much as John was desperate to escape captivity, he found himself intrigued to finally speak to his opponent and find out some much-needed answers to a whole host of questions.

Sakura padded along the corridor, her heightened senses attuned for the slightest sound or movement. She performed a cursory check for security cameras, searching the walls and ceiling for any protrusions or indentations that might conceal some form of hidden surveillance. Just like on Rahn’hagon’s ship, there seemed to be no internal security, a fact that had astounded her at first. Rachel then pointed out that Progenitors were so arrogant, they probably never anticipated anyone would dare to sneak aboard their ship.

That had prompted several jokes from the girls about learning that lesson the hard way, when a certain someone had snuck aboard the Invictus and crashed Jade’s birthday party. Sakura smiled at the memory of the girls teasing her. There was no malice in their light-hearted banter. Calara, who had lost an arm in Shinatobe’s attack, had previously told her that she looked back on that day as a blessing, because it led to them finding and freeing Sakura. The Asian girl had never felt such a sense of total acceptance before, from friends or family ... and she considered the girls to be both.

Frowning at herself for getting distracted, Sakura focused on the intersection ahead. The stakes were incredibly high, with everyone she cared about counting on her to execute this mission flawlessly. She heard the sound of voices and froze, tilting her head slightly to get a better idea where they were coming from. The language was one she was unfamiliar with, but it sounded very similar to the quiet conversations the twins sometimes had in Maliri.

Sakura’s white armour was a hindrance, but not an insurmountable one. Stealth was as much about positioning as it was concealment; simply staying out of a target’s line of sight was always superior than attempting to fool the eye. Activating the anti-gravity generators in her vambraces and boots, Sakura hovered above the ground and pressed herself against the arched ceiling, hugging the left-hand wall. Seconds later, a pair of thralls appeared from the left tunnel and crossed the intersection. One even glanced down the corridor that Sakura had been standing in only moment earlier, but by that time, the thrall’s field of vision was limited to a tunnel eclipsing the upper right corner ... where the assassin was hiding.

The minutes ticked by as more thralls walked past in groups of twos or threes, with Sakura lurking like a spider, waiting for the right prey to fall into her clutches. As a group of oblivious thralls passed by, she heard lone footsteps approaching from the corridor directly ahead. The footsteps came to an abrupt halt and the faint rasp of a serrated door opening reached Sakura’s ears.

Risking a swift glance around the black arch she was hiding behind, Sakura saw a woman walking through an open door along the corridor opposite. Deactivating the anti-gravity systems in her Paragon suit, the assassin landed like a cat without making a sound, then sprinted across the intersection. She risked darting a look into the room and saw her target studying a holographic display, the thrall standing before impressive-looking machinery.

The door started to close, so Sakura slipped through, deciding to take the chance that the thrall technician was the only person in the room. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. There were two other thralls talking together by a console on the far left of the storage room, their melodic voices carrying clearly around the chamber. The technician joined in the conversation, speaking that same lilting language. Grimacing at her poor luck, Sakura made a split-second decision and tapped the same glyph she’d seen Jade use to open the doors.

Without checking to see if the portal had started opening again, she waited for the technician to stop speaking, then scuttled forward and thumped her on the back of her head with a ninjato’s pommel. The blow accelerated by Sakura’s speed made the thrall’s head snap forward, bruising her brain and instantly knocking her unconscious without so much as a startled cry. With her target moving in slow motion, Sakura had enough time to place both swords on the ground and deftly catch the falling woman. She picked up the blades and laid them across the thrall’s limp body, then scooped her up, weapons and all.

When one of the thralls manning the consoles spoke to the technician a few moments later, there was no answer. She turned to look and saw the door spiralling shut again, so she shrugged and returned to her work.

Sakura padded down the corridor back towards the intersection, then froze when she heard more voices coming from the left. Instead of backing away, she rushed up to the junction and made a swiping gesture with her fingers, creating an icy handful of hail that she flicked along the corridor. She aimed her frozen flurry along the wall, so that it didn’t strike any of the thralls and fortunately she heard no cries of pain.

The icy pellets made a skittering sound as they hit the metal decking, so she dared a swift glance down the corridor and smiled when she saw the trio of thralls had all turned to look. Rushing across the intersection, she ran swiftly and silently along the corridor to the door, which began to open as she approached. Diving through and spinning around to the side, she was already out of sight by the time the thralls passed the crossroads.

Sakura carefully placed the unconscious thrall on the deck in front of her friends. “There you go. I got you a chatty one...”

“She doesn’t look particularly talkative at the moment,” Calara said, raising an eyebrow.

Rachel glanced at Alyssa. “Do you want me to heal her?”

Alyssa shook her head. “We can’t risk it. If she starts feeling fear or anxiety, it might tip off Larn’kelnar’s matriarch.” She turned to Sakura and looked at her questioningly.

The Asian girl gave her a wry smile. “She never knew what hit her ... instant knockout.”

“Well done,” the blonde said with an appreciative nod, before kneeling down beside the unconscious young woman.

Alyssa placed a hand on the black decking as she knelt, then snatched it back, a shiver of revulsion running down her spine. Focusing on the thrall, her cerulean eyes started to glow and she began her assault on the alien woman’s mind.

Rachel squatted down beside the thrall and studied her in fascination. “Athletic build, five-foot-nine, angular eyes, beautiful...” She gently brushed aside the woman’s dark flowing locks. “Pointed ears too. They’re strictly adhering to the Progenitor’s standard template.”

“They obviously don’t share the Maliri’s aversion to long hair,” Sakura observed, pointing to the wavy tresses.

“That was a cultural development. The Maliri who weren’t enthralled were rejecting Mael’nerak’s preferences...” Rachel murmured distractedly, examining the almost jet-black mane. “It’s also interesting her hair is dark, even though she’s a thrall; Mael’nerak’s Maliri and now John’s both have white hair. I assumed that was a sign of Progenitor influence ... but perhaps there’s another factor at play.”

“Light-green skin,” Calara noted, looking at their prisoner’s flawless complexion. “Alyssa said that Rahn’hagon’s thralls were red and the ones she saw invading the Legacy had yellow skin. I wonder how many different colours there are?”

“I always loved your blue skin, it reminds me of the ocean,” Helene murmured to the twins, while gently stroking Tashana’s arm. “I’m glad that John is Protector to the Maliri ... you’re both so beautiful and kind...” Her voice trailed off as she saw the hate-filled glares they were aiming at the thrall.

The Maliri sisters stopped shooting daggers at their prisoner to give Helene a terse nod in gratitude, then quickly returned their attention to the unconscious woman.

Rachel’s professional curiosity was piqued as she watched the furious pair. “Your reaction to her can’t be linked to skin tone ... neither of you have ever behaved this way towards any of us. What do you find so offensive about this thrall?”

“She’s one of Larn’kelnar’s minions,” Irillith snarled, her lip curling with distaste. “We should kill her as soon as possible...”

Tashana’s violet eyes blazed with fury, fiery sprites cavorting around her fingertips. “I’ll take care of it...” She glanced at Alyssa. “Are you finished interrogating her, Matriarch?”

“Nearly...” the blonde murmured.

“Perhaps it’s linked to a thrall species being ‘claimed’?” Rachel mused, studying the twins, before returning her attention to the unconscious woman. “In which case, this antipathy will no doubt be reciprocated by Larn’kelnar’s thralls towards the Maliri. It would be fascinating to wake her up and see if I’m right.”

“Her name’s Yalera. She’s a Larathyran and Larn’kelnar rules their Empire,” Alyssa said, the glow fading from her eyes as she ended her telepathic interrogation. Her melancholy gaze fell on the unconscious thrall. “She was recruited by him 72 years ago, at the tail end of a war of extermination against a civilisation called the Concordiat of Arntriss. She watched as he obliterated the Arntriss homeworld with a Quantum Annihilator...”