The Black Phoenix Cycle

The Dark Hand waged that there was no more time. He looked over to Aemellion and Deleon. They were once again speculating over the source of the attack, the era of time from which the attacker hailed, and possible next steps. Alikae was not about to stand and listen and struggle to understand what those two were again debating. Alikae ran to Neff and pulled out the loaded pistols that were still holstered in the grizzled man's belt. Alikae was about to run to the other dead crewman when… There was another scream. This time one of the sea marshals fell dead from a talc-bullet and Alikae was able to trace the shot back to the hills from where the bullet was fired. The rest of the crew burst into a dance of panic. One of the marshals screamed, “Neff! Neff!” Another crewman ran past Isaah and barreled into Anna, almost knocking the young woman to the ground. Sheldon sank down to his knees while Lars ran to Anna in a futile attempt to shield her from the impossibly heated bullets. “Get in the water and behind the boats!” Alikae yelled to Frontship crew and the Artarians. He ran across the rocks of the beach and quickly up to the hills, but at the opposite side from where he thought the assailant was perched. And he heard another crackling hiss. Alikae instinctively fell to the ground as the bullet streaked over his head. The sniper knew he was now hunted. The Dark Hand stayed low to the ground and while on his belly he started scrambling toward the attacker. Another bullet streaked by him but he followed it to see a figure move further into the island, not more than four hilltops away. From where Alikae had paused, he noticed the silhouette of a dark and stocky figure. He jumped quickly to his feet, and Alikae heard the soft and distant sound of foot falls. The Dark Hand became more wary as he suspected that he was being drawn into the island and into a trap. But he tracked his query in the dirt and kept the foot prints visible. It was not long before the hills had flattened into a sweeping field almost a league in length and laid in front of one of the three of the largest mountain crags that Alikae had seen from the island's beach. But at the foot of the small mountain, there was a doorway built into the side of the dark rock, and the door was open, revealing a dim light inside. “Push back your cowardice, Alikae, and step within.” His query knew Alikae's name. The Dark Hand did not recognized the voice as it was deep and hollow and grated like a key turning in the rusted lock of one of Knighthaven's dungeon cells. He sensed that it was no longer a hunt, or a trap; Alikae knew somehow that this was reprisal. Alikae tightened his grip on both of Neff's guns and cocked the hammers back and with confident and menacing steps he walked across the field and entered into the “war systems depot” about which Aemellion had talked about earlier with Deleon. The hard leather soles of Alikae's boots echoed throughout the vast chamber as he entered into what he could only describe from his limited Artarian perspective as a vast lair…but a lair of monsters unlike anything he had seen before. The floor was smooth, made of some sort of rock and polished to a shining black. If all of the rooms in the castle of Knighthaven were put together next to one another and all the walls taken away, still it would not compare to the size of the chamber in which Alikae now stood. There were shadows to either side of the Dark Hand...shadows of great lumbering beasts, squatting and peering at him. He could barely make out the silhouette of he whom Alikae had been chasing. The man stood in the center of the great space. There was a single light above the man's head, but it was not a torch or a lantern; it was an orb of light similar to the fixtures Alikae had seen at the Black Phoenix Clan’s Steel Fortress back on his home world. Alikae heard a low humming as another light shone, and in series orb after orb ignited in brightness until the whole chamber was lit by at least twenty of the light fixtures. Alikae stood in an alien setting. What Alikae saw as crouching monsters were similar in shape and size to Sir Sheldon's wyvern, Delsai. But they were not wyverns; they were machines. They stood on mechanized legs and wings protruded from their backs. And where there should have been a head and neck on the technological beasts, there was a glass hatch. Alikae could see that a man could sit inside them. The wonders had not ceased since Alikae crossed through the Radii Gate, so he was at least not shocked into immobility at the strange sight, as these mechanical mounts lined the chamber and could be counted in the hundreds. He also could discern large barreled guns and knew that these machines were great weapons of war. War systems… He repeated to himself what he remembered Aemellion saying earlier on the beachhead. But Alikae’s chagrin was reserved not for the tall imposing machines, but back to the man in the center of the room. The orbs of light revealed the nemesis that awaited Alikae.