Act 1: The Death of a God

Chapter 12/13 - Ahri & Fictillis

by Emmanuel Ordway

Chapter 11 here.

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Ahri

 

Ahri was sitting down at the main table of the bridge, looking at a holographic map of the planet Neptune. Her inquisitive, green eyes looked over all the markings of failed colonies before she found the one her new crew member, Kilegros was talking about so much. What could be so important on this colony?

“Tobias?” She looked up at the ceiling and called out, waiting for his response.

“Yes Ahri?” A robotic voice responded from the speakers above her.

“Change direction to these coordinates,” Ahri commanded while uploading the new directions to the Hydra. “Our friend would like to go there; we should make it quick though. I don’t like how many of the colonies are gone and I would prefer the ship to not have her grave there.”

“Of course. The new estimated time is going to be three days.”

“Three days? Is there any chance we can lower the time to get there?” Ahri let out a sigh of annoyance as she sat back in her seat.

“No Ahri, the location is on the opposite side of the way the planet is facing us and this ship doesn’t have the engines to use Thalassifite- Ahri, we’re receiving a call from an unidentified ship?” Tobias’ voice sounded concerned and confused, quite unusual for the Hydra.

“Let it through then.” Ahri responded, equally as confused.

The table in front of her closed the map and soon the holographic image of a Shaikyn soldier stood in front of her. His Imperial suit was a quartz white with thin lines of red tracing his frame, a few medals showing himself off to be a naval officer.

“Are you the captain of this vessel?” His voice barked at her, demanding answers immediately as if he had command over Ahri.

“Yes I am the captain, what do you want?” Ahri sat up as her voice grew more sharp to match the energy of the soldier’s voice.

“You have entered restricted Imperial territory and your digital codes show your ship was a part of a recent incident at a space port! There is a frigate dispatched to intercept your ship! You will turn your engines off completely until the search on your ship is completed!  Any attempts to flee your position will result in you and your vessel’s immediate destruction!” The soldier barked at her in a commanding voice before his image disappeared from the table.

“Ahri?” Tobias questioned through the speakers.

“Fuck.” Ahri growled and bit her nail on her thumb for a moment while thinking. ‘If they get on this ship, they will arrest us. If we flee there’s no doubt they will blow us up. Maybe if we present him to them. . .’

“Cut the engines, I have a plan, call dumb and dumber here.” She whispered while grabbing her helmet and sliding it over her head.

 

In the darkness of space, a pitch-black ship descended onto Ahri’s ship, extending an arm to the side port of the ship, connecting the two metal beasts. A group of soldiers got ready at the airlock, all of them wearing protective armour to shield them from the harshness of space and gunfire. The airlock shot open with a loud hiss as the group made their way onto the other ship, waving their guns around each corner to shoot any person attempting to make a jump on them. Soon they reached the cargo bay of the ship where they found the crew members.

Ahri, with her hands raised, stepped forward to the group of soldiers.

“Look I don’t know what you want from us, but we haven’t- UGH!” In the middle of speaking, Ahri received the stock of a rifle to the gut by the first soldier and was shoved to the ground, his front arms restraining her as his back arms began to handcuff both sets of her arms.

Tobias, knowing better, made no movements to help her as he was taken to the ground and restrained as well. His body scanned all the soldiers, ready to fight at a moment's notice if given the command. He noted the gold lining on these soldier’s white armour, suggesting maybe they were a part of some royal guard or royal force.

“Where is the rest of the crew?” One of the soldiers dropped down on one knee and yelled down at Ahri, her barrel pointed down at Ahri’s helmet. 

“It’s just us!” Ahri yelled back, even more pissed off now.

“Two people couldn’t man a ship this large!” She growled at her, poking the side of her head with the barrel.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that one there isn’t a normal person!” Ahri nodded over to Tobias; his robotic body not even being held down effectively by the fleshy bodies of the soldiers.

“Hm. Begin the search.” The soldier barked at men around her, many of them walking away from the scene to rummage through the ship.

Ahri sighed as she remained sprawled out on the ground, forced to look up sideways at the soldiers who were busy scanning the environment for any other crew members. 

‘Do not mess this up guys, or we are all dead.’

Chapter 13: Fictillis

 

Fictillis clung to the side of the ship as tight as he could, breathing heavily but wouldn’t admit how much this scared him. He looked around for a moment before lowering his head to the ship’s hull as bright lights passed over them, multiple smaller and larger ships drifting around lazily in the void.

“Holy shit man! That’s not just a frigate!” He whispered into his mic, the lights illuminating the whole side of the ship as it passed over them.

“Yeah, I got that impression already!” Kilegros bit his tongue while also holding onto the hull, his mind wondering why some officer would lie about the force sent to meet them.

“Do you think she wants us to go yet?” Fictillis wondered out loud as he lifted his head away from the ship and looked around. He saw the multiple large ships circling around them like vultures circling around a dead animal.

“I don’t know but we should go soon. Let’s just jump into the frigate, disable the ship, get into ours and go. Maybe take those others out if we need to.” Kilegros whispered back as he looked over at the ships as well.

“Okay, but before that I got to tell you something man.” Fictillis shook his head, unable to fight the looming guilt he felt about trying to kill the only Eonvym he’d met, the only other person who could understand his life.

“Not now, just focus on the mission.” Kilegros shook his head at Fictillis, knowing they needed to act fast so Ahri or Tobias did not end up dead due to their lateness.

“Alright then let’s get busy.” Fictillis sighed as he stood up, his magnetic boots attaching to the hull as he looked at the frigate next to them.

Kilegros stood up as well and began to run towards the frigate, or at least hop wildly as to not fall back onto the hull of the ship. Fictillis, who was ahead of him, held his hands out as they grew red hot resisting the need for oxygen for flames, his power overcame that. He leapt violently into the vacuum, many of the lights from the ships around them focusing on him and threw himself down on one of the mechanical hands the frigate had connected to his ship. He immediately crashed through the machine hand, blowing it into many molten pieces of steel as he flung around through the void and crashed through another.

Kilegros began to run towards the mechanical hands, ready to rip them apart but his momentum was caught by something much stronger than himself. He gasped out in pain as a hand hovered over his shoulder and pulled him up from the ground. Fictillis, in his rage, didn’t notice his fellow Eonvym being attacked, but once he broke the other ship off from his own, he landed back in the hull and faced Kilegros.

“What the hell?!” Fictillis growled and held his heated fists up as he watched a tall golden figure from the parade hold Kilegros up by his shoulder, his golden claws extending and digging into his suit.

“Fictillis, you failed me. I said Mars, not Neptune.” The Son laughed softly while he held Kilegros away from him a little, the Eonvym’s arms seeming to be restrained to his sides through some form of magic.

“What is he talking about Fictillis?” Kilegros hissed out as he could barely move his lips, his limbs shaking gently in pained stasis.

“I don’t know.” Fictillis lied as he quickly summoned a flaming sword into his front left hand.

“Oh, he’s lying, my friend. He was supposed to take you to Mars and deliver you to me. But obviously he failed,” The Son nodded to Kilegros and seemed to toss Kilegros with minimal effort to the side, shooting him into Fictillis and sending the two Eonvym flying across the hull of the ship. “Now I’m usually a pretty hot-tempered man, don’t tell anyone I said that, but right now I just feel disappointed Fictillis. I could have made you great, but you threw it away.”

Fictillis reached out wildly for the hull, grabbing a loose pipe sticking out and catching himself finally as Kilegros gracefully teleported onto the hull, standing upright to stare back at the Son.

“Kilegros I was going to do that but-” Fictillis spewed his words, trying to apologize but was cut off by his fired-up comrade.

“Save your breath you fool! We need to survive still!” Kilegros hissed while making a spear of ice in his hands, electricity flowing through the spear as it cracked and weaved through the space and his suit.

Fictillis nodded and got up to his feet, summoning the sword of fire again as the Son hovered just above the hull in front of them, his golden feet dangling inches from the ground.

“So, it is a fight then? I guess you two must end eventually.” The Son laughed softly again as he held his front hands out to his sides as his flowing golden cape began to disappear, moving into his back as two long golden blades stretched out from his palms, nearly as long as his forearms.

Kilegros didn’t wait, thrusting his hands forward and sending the spear flying at the Son who easily deflected the spear with one of his blades. The spear flew over his shoulder and Kilegros vanished from sight, reappearing at the location of the spear as he gripped it and swung around to take a swipe at the Son’s back. The Son’s back arms grabbed Kilegros’ blade as he parried Fictillis’ sword, spinning around and slamming Kilegros down on top of Fictillis. Fictillis gasped for air, pushing Kilegros away into the vacuum and summoning his sword again, thrusting his blade up to the Son. The Son’s blade shot back into his palm for a moment, the blade coming out as excess gold on his elbow as he gripped Fictillis’ sword’s blade, the flames licking all around his hand.

“You’re a pathetic excuse for an Eonvym. It’s a shame the power was bestowed upon you instead of a much more noble and stronger Shaikyn.” He spat, his other hand grabbing Fictillis’ hand and roughly twisting it back, snapping his hand backwards instantly so that it was parallel to his forearm.

Fictillis howled in pain as his hand went limp once it was let go. He held his hand with his other as he pulled it close to his chest as if to comfort a crying baby while the fight continued with the Son and Kilegros. Kilegros teleported onto the Son’s shoulder and tried to stab at his neck with a small ice dagger, his blade bouncing off the neck armour as the Son grabbed Kilegros by the neck and threw him down, pulling his hand back and bunching it up into a golden fist before striking Kilegros across his visor with enough force to blow the head of a Shaikyn open, splintering the ballistic plastic of the visor as his vitals went red instantly. The Son let out a loud call of laughter as a second figure appeared next to him in the shimmering electricity of teleportation, one of the silver armored guards from the parade, her ice scythe appearing in her hand as she was ready to fight. Kilegros’ lifeless body floated lazily around the hull as Fictillis tried reaching out to his comrade, in a feeble attempt to keep him close to the ship.

“Well Fictillis I must say, even if you failed to bring him to Mars, you did at least let me kill him. In repayment, I will allow you to have the privilege of a death and not be kept as a dishonorable slave,” The Son cleared his throat and stood up straighter as he turned to the guard, the two embracing for a moment. “He’s your kill but save the body of Kilegros if you wouldn’t mind, Noxia.”

“Of course, my liege.” She bowed slightly to the Son, him scoffing at her comment before he teleported away.

The guard looked at Fictillis and smiled under her silver skull mask. “Now I have no need to give you a quick death.” She giggled softly and swiped her scythe upwards in a swift motion, Fictillis’ good hand flying away into space as it was swiped cleanly off his body.

Fictillis cried out in pain, surprisingly not feeling nearly as much pain as he thought he would since it was a clean cut. Noxia laughed at his cries, not noticing the body moving behind them as she reached her scythe down to him and pressed the blade to his chest, not yet pushing the blade into him.

“You have spirit, I admire that I will admit, but you chose the wrong side.” Noxia sighed disappointedly as she prepared to shove the blade into the chest of a wounded Eonvym.

In one swift press, she pushed the blade a few inches into his chest, lifting him up by the blade and kicking him off her weapon, sending him flying into the black void only gently illuminated by the lights of starships. Noxia smirked and watched the dying body get further away from the hull before she turned around, only to be greeted by a fist crackling with electricity to the face. Kilegros fell forward onto his chest from the punch, sending Noxia flying to the ground as she cried out and winced. He jumped up quickly and kicked her across her visor, the cheap hit not only disgracing his honor but also knocking the woman out cold. 

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I hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading.