Fell from the sky
Ekkos was able to salvage the 3rd floor of what used to be the town’s only hotel into his own hideaway for the past 3 days. The north-western corner of the hotel was predominantly rubble, allowing the core of the building to be exposed to the elements. This was both good and bad for Ekkos; it allowed him to stay hidden within the vegetation that covered every square inch of the hotel, both inside and out, ultimately, allowing Ekkos concealment from the life-form scans of the patrolling occupiers but also exposed to the elements. Over the past three days, Ekkos kept his movement to a minimum inside the hotel, it took him 8 hours to unpack his Solitary Recon Kit, that contained his synthetic camouflage, communications network, and static-life-support-system. He had to ensure every one of his movements was calculated and in-sync with all the organic matter in his vicinity, otherwise a life-form scan could compromise his position and get himself killed. This was no simple task like all the solo-recon teams he was trained for it. Once his Solitary Recon Kit was set up he didn’t have too much work to do. The Synthetic camouflage created 2 meter bubble energy waves that masked any movement within the bubble, but there was a reason Ekkos was one of the few of his kind still alive, he didn’t trust it and still kept his movements to a minimum. His Relay Network would track every heat signature, pressure change, and wavelength from sound to radios, which began to build a map of the remaining town and the movement and tactics of the patrolling occupiers. His Static-life-support-system was a 35 by 6 cm cylinder that attached to the back of his life support suit with two tubes that ran form the cylinder to the communication network. It filtered his urine, feces and sweat back into sustainable nutrients this plus 4 ounces of life-gel kept him alive with a sufficient energy source and well hydrated.
“Does it hurt being back home?” The words gently vibrated just left of the base of Ekkos skull. A soft voice of a young woman of a different alien race.
“Not enough to distract from the mission.” Ekkos spoke the words but only in his mind.
“Do not be dishonest , Ekkos, I feel every thought you have.” Buzzed once more in his head. Ekkos froze momentarily, then slowly turned his head to visually grasp the outline of the floating black shape that spoke through him.
“Issa, I cannot hide my hatred, no. But I mustn’t let it control us either.” Again Ekkos spoke to the ever-changing shadow that effortlessly floated near him.
“Do not be afraid to use your scars against them, brother.” Issa softly whispered in his head. Ekkos opened his mind to the memories. The images of his friends and him down by the docks flashed over. That’s where he was most of his childhood, swimming in the ocean waves, searching the ocean surface for creatures to discover. They would take turns trying to catch the Dipper pups that slept below the dock. A somewhat domesticated ocean dweller that ate the seagrass around the docks. Some of the local fisheries kept them as pets when they weren’t hibernating in the caves for the winter. The docks were also where he was when the Occupiers invaded his town. The mid-day suns were blocked out and the sky turned black. Ekkos at first thought it was a storm cloud but examined the source. Thousands of ships covered the sky, each perfectly spaced apart. Issa buzzed in his head, breaking him away from the flashback.
“Ekkos, something is wrong.” She said softly.
“What is it? Are we Compromised?” Ekkos replied in a thought in of mind as he turned back towards the small display screen in his Relay Network. He leaned in closely, reading the data as it continued scan.
“The Occupiers aren’t moving anymore.”
“Show me.” Ekkos said, closing his eyes, preparing his mind for the next moments where Issa would be in control.
Issa synced with him and displayed an overlay of the town from the network Relay Network. Then one by one, she overlayed the other parameters that made up the network map. Too much at once would overload Ekkos’s mind and cause him to lose consciousness. One by one, a blip showed in the network map, showing the trail of the patrolling Occupiers and their current location, which was static. This was odd since they never stopped moving and always were moving at random, which was the only predictable thing about them. Ekkos broke the connection to Issa and began assembling his repeater.
“Issa keep track of the six closest Occupiers, notify me of any changes to their energy output, and give me a count of all the Hounds in and outside the town.” He spoke through his connection with Issa as he began prepping his equipment for disassembly. Ekkos and Issa both knew the probability of survival when the Occupiers increased movement in the area was low. Their main mission was to try to find out why there was a sudden increase of Occupiers in this area, but all that data would be null if Ekkos was compromised. With only 4 Recon Cells left in his Division, he could not risk his life for this information.
“Occupiers are generating power for a maneuver, Ekkos.” Issa projected a simulated image of the six Occupiers that Issa sensed in the area collecting in a 4-way intersection of the town, forming together into one . Not much information was known about the Occupiers throughout Ekkos’s world. Most of the population was killed off so fast there was never time to learn what they were or where they came from. They only knew what the survivors had seen; operating as a hivemind, collecting into single form or separating into multiple forms.
It wasn’t until Issa’s species manifested themselves into physical beings to the survivors that they all learned what they thought they were. Ancient machines from the edge of the universe, Issa’s species was wiped out before they discovered their origin, forcing a few of them to manifest themselves into dimensional beings and disappearing completely until recently when the Occupiers wiped out Ekkos’s species.
The structure Ekkos stood began to vibrate and rumble, this started a flood of possibilities in his mind momentarily, as he assessed what possible split-second actions the Occupiers could be doing and how could he counter-act them if able. By the time he made it to his second thought, Issa was already projecting an image in his head. “They’re leaving Ekkos”. She reassured him. They both wondered why but nothing was said. Ekkos began to dismantle his equipment while Issa continued to conduct check-scans of activity. They knew there were Hounds in the area, but historical data told them they had about six minutes before they began booting up from their hibernation.
“Did we get what we needed?” Ekkos said, this time aloud to Issa.
“Standby… Not exactly, we collected enough data but due to their sudden exfil the data is skewed and may not help us until we find a reason why.”
Ekkos, was now in the last moment of disassembly of the scanner and waiting for Issa to do one last scan. She sent the equivalent of a head nod telepathically to Ekkos and he lifted a small lever and the scanner dismantled into the small case that fit perfectly into his Recon Kit. He attached the kit to his back and began to climb down the broken exterior of the building this time his movement was quick, in brief moments and slow in other, he needed speed but preferred not to alert the Hounds before they woke. Ekkos continued climbing then from about four meters off the ground gently let go and gracefully landed on the ground without a sound. He stood in the street, of his home town where he was raised before the occupiers took over. He looked left towards the direction of his home, the roads were cracked and riddled with debris. The vegetation had grown between the cracks, vines and brush followed up street lamps and walls. It was almost unrecognizable he thought and he brushed away a distance memory of him flirting with a girl outside the food market across the street. He slowly scan the area and brought his attention to the right, where the street opened to an intersection, the center of town in fact, where he again, brushed away a memory, this one of his family on the street corner as a parade rode through the town center for the “Phoenix year festival”. His attention brushed through the painful flash back then focused on the alley just past the intersection, he saw himself a boy there, scared and surround by larger boys, his body tensed as the fight or flight in him creeped through his bones as his mind could not tell the difference between the memory and reality, however, Issa recognized the change in his body, she did the necessary injects of his mind to bring him back to equilibrium and reminded him of the mission as well as altered his endorphins and cortisol for efficiency.
“We should go east then wrap the outskirts north. It’s the clearest path.” Issa said to him.
Ekkos began to step off, but his intuition told him to be cautious. Then Issa spoke “Hounds! They weren’t on the scans, they’re going to ambush you.” Issa immediately increased power to his exo-skeleton and he began to sprint through the intersection. Behind him three Hounds broke through the brush that hid them and began to follow him, they walked slowly, each metal leg clinked as the thin needle of the foot stuck in the ground. They walked slowly at first and the rear hips began to change form. They expanded and rose to increase power to their stride. The three of broke into sprint quickly catching up to Ekkos’s trail. With each step the Hounds improved and analyzed Ekkos’s pace two split from the trail, one went left and one went right as the single hound closed in closer. “NOW!” Issa said yelled and in that moment Ekkos spun on his heels letting his anti-gravity adapted boots continue his speed and direction and he spun 180 degrees with his repeater pointed directly at the hounds core processor pod and fired three consecutive rounds. The hound crumbled and rolled and bounced lifelessly. He spun back around and continued his stride until Issa gave him the signal to turn. “right” she prompted and he leaned into the corner like a figure skater in a turn and continued his strides. As Ekkos flew around the corner a hound leapt out of the brush just a meter away and closed the distance instantly and pounced with a pincer extended but just before the pincer snapped on Ekkos’s abdomen Issa initiated an emp blast from Ekkos’s Kit causing the hound and its pincer to fall limp in midair but still colliding into Ekkos, the two tumbled and rolled through the street and skidded to a stop against a young sprout of trees. Ekkos quickly pulled his plasma dagger from his sheath on his chest and severed the pincer before it regained power but the hound had booted back up and mounted Ekkos, he swung his left leg out toward his right and brought it back down around the leg of hound an Issa boosted all the power to that one boot and he buried his knife in the joint and with the help of his antigrav boot he severed it and the hound collapsed to his side. He quickly turned over and severed the connection to the pod. As he looked up he noticed four more hounds closing in on him from the street.
“Issa…”
“I know” she replied. “Shoot them!” She knew there wasn’t a means of getting out of this and she needed to buy time. Ekkos still with his dagger buried in the pod of the lifeless hound next to him fired into the massing crowd of Hounds 10 meters away. His first three rounds were sporadic and the red balls of plasma melted through the hounds but did not hit the kill spots and they began to approach. Issa reminded Ekkos to breathe and helped manage his thoughts. Ekkos brought himself to his feet and fired three more rounds into the closest hound each round hitting the exact same spot, melting its way farther into the core processor. He targeted the next hound and fire three more, this time the hounds were running and his rounds impacted slightly offset. More and more hounds began to accumulate from alley ways, broken buildings, and even some from the trees the hung over the street. If he ran he would surely be tracked and killed within 90 seconds, if he stood and fought he had a better chance of lowering their numbers and running would be more feasible.
“I’ve never seen so many in one place and so focused on one thing.” Ekkos thought to Issa as he continued firing into the crowd, one by one the hounds dropped but they closed in quickly. Ekkos held the repeater in one hand while kneeling down to retrieve his dagger from the hound below him. He began walking towards the closest hound as he fired into it as it ran towards him, it slid to a stop just at his feet, two meters to his right was another and he did the same, each body began piling onto of each other as Ekkos used it as a means of cover and buffer from the hounds. He focused one side and fired until finally his repeater’s energy magazine went dry. Behind the wall of metal carcasses he kneeled, reloaded his repeater and began engaging, however this time he was completely surrounded. A pincer reached out and snapped just clipping the steel of his exo skeleton on his thigh. As a last ditch effort he began to climb the wall of hounds and fired blindly into the crowd. He turned back and fired but a hound was already on top of him, driving its needle-like paws into his legs, he drew his dagger and stabbed and fought the metallic alien as it extended its pincer. Ekkos screamed out in pain as the legs broke through his exo-shell and pierced through his leg but the sounds of his scream were muffled by a sonic boom followed by the sound of a chain gun firing. Round began impacting the crowd, creating massive holes in the hounds. Ekkos used this opportunity to kill the one on top of him and slide down the hill of bodies and to the best of his ability ran.
“Is that my ship Issa?” Ekkos thought to his companion. Rounds form the chain gun continued to fire as the ship buzzed overhead, Ekkos watched as it banked up and floated effortlessly as it turned back around heading straight towards him as he continued running. The hounds followed closely behind but the first strafe of his ship was effective and injured enough to give Ekkos a head start.
“yes.” Issa finally replied. It took great concentration for her to command Ekkos’s ship and engage in the hound so accurately without hitting Ekkos in the process. “head for the north town edge.” She said to Ekkos. He continued through the streets running as best he could with the wound to his leg. His Exo-skeleton treated the wound as he continued to run, injecting anti-biotics, clotting the blood and covering the wound with a pain-relief gel that sealed itself. As the drugs kicked in, his leg operated normally allowing to increase the speed again. He signaled to Issa the thought of his anti-grav boots and she effortlessly engaged them to the power he needed. His ship was now right over head on another strafe as the chain gun opened up and the hounds in pursuit, it cleared a path through the mass with the rounds impacted. Metal from the hounds flew through the air and even impacted the other hounds around them but the metal debris shape shifted and was absorbed by the hounds just like their creators could do. The Occupiers had unknown technology that Ekkos’s planet had never seen before.
Ekkos had made it to the north edge of town where what used to be farmland started. “get to the roof of the two-story and wait for me.” Issa said to Ekkos. As the instantaneous thought populated inside his head he reacted without hesitation, using the force of his boots leaped and bounced 3 meters high and clambered on the a single story building that used to be the towns tool store. He pulled himself over the edge and raced across the roof gaining enough speed to make the leap onto the adjacent building, he bounced again with the same technique and cleared the gap to the two story building, he grasped the edge of the roof and pulled himself up just as his ship dived straight for him, he began running for the edge and Issa piloted the ship, making it bank up right in front of the two story and Ekkos jumped, trusting Issa with his life that the ship would be there to catch him. The ship seemed to float down in front of him in slow motion as his momentum flew him towards it, the bay doors flew open and Ekkos hit the deck and rolled into his ship. “Grab on” Issa instructed, and as Ekkos rolled he held out his arm and grabbed a ladder rung then ran through the floor of the ship and Issa punched the ignition into the atmosphere. Ekkos began to climb the ladder against the g-force of the ship’s acceleration. He climbed up into his pilot seat and buckled in.
“What the hell was that? What has the Occupiers so worked up that they drop that many hounds off here?” Ekkos said aloud.
“I looked over the data scans and found an anomaly, it showing an incredible power source but it’s not the Occupiers signature.” Issa replied as she leveled out the ship and engaged the camouflage.
“Coming from the town?” Ekkos said.
“It’s hard to pinpoint, it’s all around us, I can’t navigate its source.” Issa said as she displayed a holographic image she created on the HUD of the nav-board. It showed a 3 dimensional map of their location floating thousands of feet in the air and the town south west of their position with a green foggy overlay that encompassed the entire image. “That’s her. The green.” Issa said.
“Her? What do you mean her?” Ekkos said confused. In reply Issa portrayed what she felt from the energy into something his mind could comprehend. He felt what she felt and struggled with the feeling, it altered his mind and caused flashes of images he couldn’t comprehend.
“It feels like a her..” Issa said while pushing the feeling through him. “Ekkos… Something is wrong.” She couldn’t help the transfer of information as she kept the connection open to Ekkos. His mind flooded with darkness and images of Occupiers massing, he felt them in his mind, he felt the powerful singular mechanical hive mind that they rooted from. The mass of emotions and images overloaded his mind and he blacked out.
Ekkos woke to Issa calling out to him, his eyes fluttered open and began to regain focus, he noticed in front of him miles into the atmosphere thousands of Occupiers massing together and creating a grid shape pattern that slowly got closed in.
“They’re sporadic, clustering, they seem to be panicking. I can only assume it’s because of her.” Issa echoed in his head as he still fought off the fog of images. “Do you feel her now?” She continued, she eased his mind into a meditative state then gently released him into her presence. He immediately felt her. Love, hate, calm, eternity, power, all feelings he recognized they came with memories, not his own but they felt like it. Maybe they were. Ekkos couldn’t tell the difference between his own memories and hers but it allowed him to feel closer, to feel the connection, to feel as if he was her. He began to feel warmth. All his fear fell away from him and he felt as if he was rising into an evolved enlightened being then suddenly blackness. He felt absolutely nothing, his mind didn’t race, he didn’t feel his body, he didn’t have thoughts. Just in blackness for lifetimes. A lifetime he waited in the dark, after what felt like years he began to have thoughts, his mind slowly came back to him, his memories, who he was, where he was then just one thought. Her. Suddenly he felt as if traveling at lightspeed through a tunnel with the wind whizzing by followed by hitting a wall. He opened his eyes, remembering his situation.
“Issa” he said aloud. “Were you there with me? In her head?”
“I followed you there, but lost you along the way.” She said softly to him. The Occupiers continued to close in but still miles away. It seemed they weren’t too focused on Ekkos’s ship but just the space around him. Issa gave control of the ship to Ekkos, they both knew there was a low chance of getting out of this alive but they were calm, and more focused on where she was than their own fate. He spun around facing the other direction, the Occupiers were there too, a black cloud slowly growing darker and larger. He pulled back the throttle and floated carelessly. He felt as if this was a memory, he slowly began to feel what his next move was, his remembered bits and pieces of these moments followed by memories of what he was going to do next so he followed those memories. He dumped the throttle forward and began rocketing towards the occupiers in the distance. Issa didn’t question him because she felt what he did, she read his thoughts and memories with him but she couldn’t lead him, she now was just along for the ride. The black cloud-like formation was getting closer, and larger in size but Ekkos trusted himself fully. Then just about a mile out in front of him, between his ship and the Occupiers, a bright light began to fall, its light shined and twirled as blinding beams turned and rolled, Ekkos banked down and followed it, the force of the drop and acceleration threw his against his seat, he fought the urge of loss of consciousness and continued to accelerate. In the distance the black cloud began to syphon and follow the light, what looked like a massive black tornado was thousands of Occupier ships chasing the light just like him. He unbuckled from his seat and grabbed the safety line on the back of his seat and rigged it to his belt.
“We have to time this perfectly Issa!” He yelled as he held on to his seat and crouched down behind it.
“Opening the drop door now.” Issa said as she took control of the ship. They were now flying almost straight down to the surface of the planet at incredible speeds. Ekkos knew he did not have the reaction time and necessary knowledge of the exact moment they would have to pull out, but Issa did, she wouldn’t even have to think about it and she would maneuver it perfectly.
“NOW!” Issa yelled as she focused Ekkos’s mind and fine-tuned his muscles for his maneuver. He released his seat and slid right out the drop door, the safety line snapped tight and Issa pulled the ship a full 180 degrees facing the sky as Ekkos swung like a pendulum behind. He saw the ball of light and it blinded him but he opened his arms and swung right into it and wrapped his arms tight as the swing continued, Ekkos noticed that they were only about a hundred feet off the ground as he grabbed the light, and Issa banked again going parallel with the surface and they swung again, this time up and they floated weightless momentarily, and Issa hit reverse thrusters and they swung right back into the drop door.
Issa continued to fly low, nape of the surface over mountains and hills, around the towers of rock formations that rose sometimes a kilometer into the sky aided to her maneuvers as the Occupiers followed closely behind. On the bay floor, Ekkos held tightly still as held rolled and rolled from the banks of the ship until he flung all the way into the side of the ship and could no longer hold. In front of him laid a young woman, she looked not like his kind. Soft facial features, golden white hair that seemed to have a glow, her skin was pale and also seemed to glow, she was naked, and Ekkos noted that even the surface of the ship that her body laid on had a beautiful glow to it. He quickly grabbed a large blanket from the bunk above him and wrapped her in it and picked her up to move her to the bunk, however the jostled movement woke her and Ekkos almost dropped her when her eyes met his gaze. Her eyes were white with gold irises. They too had a glow. Then she smiled and brought her hand up to his cheek and nestled her head into the crook of his arm and closed her eyes as if she didn’t want to wake from a nap. He gently set her on the bunk and engaged the anti-roll mechanism. As he walkaway she opened her eyes and looked right at him and said “Thank you Ekkos. Thank you Issa.”
“Uhhm.. You’re welcome.” Ekkos felt confused but Issa gestured him away and reminded him that they were still being pursued. Ekkos turned and looked through the window in the drop doors and saw the hundreds of ships behind him. In front of them was thousands more, creating a globe formation closing them in. Issa and Ekkos continued to communicate possible outcomes and routes in their heads. They made split second plans and decisions between the two of them. Issa tried different Maneuvers and they saw the counter-actions of the Occupiers, there wasn’t anything they could do with this overwhelming force. Issa began to circle the largest towering rock formation in the area, it was almost a kilometer wide and rose about thirty thousand feet into the sky. Ekkos’s people called this “God’s tree”. The occupiers that followed closely behind were now in front of them and Issa opened up with the chain gun. She was able to disable the front six of the formation but then they caught on and maneuvered. They didn’t engage back, most likely because they wanted her alive.
“Fly off planet” she said to Ekkos and Issa. Her voice was beautiful and it carried softly but with power.
“We won’t make it through the Occupiers” Issa spoke to Ekkos’s mind but not aloud.
“Yes Issa. We will.” She said inside Ekko’s mind. The three of them were now using his mind to communicate. It allowed them to branch thoughts and images while Ekkos could still see them.
Issa didn’t hesitate. The ship pulled straight up and she maximized the speed. The Occupiers in pursuit maintained pace as the majority broke off to cut them off. Issa weaved the ship through stray occupier ships that attempted grappling and followed The “God’s Tree” around . She used its rocky surface to lose line of sight with the occupiers behind them. The top of the tower was only a few seconds away and they would no longer have it for security. Issa knew deep down there was a very low chance of breaking through the Occupiers hold, the powerful hive mind that controlled them would have to make a string of mistakes if they were to have a small chance to escape. Their ship crest the tower but hundreds of occupier ships lay in wait and ambushed them. They shot grapple hooks through the bottom of the hull. Four massive bolts pierced the inside of the ship just a foot away from where Ekkos was standing and splayed open like a pyramid. A few other came from the top as all the momentum they had slowed from the drag of the other ships in tow.
“I’m sorry Ekkos, there’s nothing I can do.” Issa said to him. He knew that but had hope that this woman knew something they didn’t.
“It’s okay Issa. We’ll be okay.” He said with a reassuring smile.
“Issa, what is powering the ship?” the woman who was now standing next to one of the bolts that pierced through the ship. She had her hand on the apex of it and was slowly dragging her hand down the side, inspecting it. The surface of the bolt itself vibrated and began to be distorted by light. When she removed her hand and the distortion went away the places she had touched were melted, but not by heat, like the matter that made them dissipated. “What is the source?” she said finally.
“Nuclear.” Ekkos and Issa said simultaneously. The two of them waited patiently for her reply as she wandered the next bolt and knelt down on both knees beside it. She grasped both hands around the base and a bright light glowed from her hands blinding Ekkos. When his vision cleared the bolt was gone and all that was left was a hole in his ship. He peered through it and saw hundreds of occupier ships swarmed below like a bee hive. It reminded him that despite the safety he felt near this woman they were still in great danger. He looked back to her as the bay doors opened in the ship.
“What are you doing?!” He yelled to her. He realized that her and Issa were communicating without him. He walked towards the open bay doors and pulled a lever on the wall. A large caliber turret dropped on an anchor arm in the center of the ship. Ekkos grabbed the anchor and pulled it towards the bay door as it floated over the bolts still in the ships floor. In the distance the ships grew closer together. Just a few hundred meters away and Ekkos couldn’t see a single space in-between them. He determined that were thousands already stacked on top of each other to prevent any chance of their escape. He stood behind the turret and grasped a handled that poked out the side and pulled with all the weight of his body and he racked the bolt and inserted a round, making a loud CRRCHUNK.
“We have a plan here?” Ekkos said to both Issa and the woman.
“Issa please turn the power off to the ship.” The woman said. The ship began to lose power, as it did it slowly lost its ability to alter gravity. The ship began to tilt towards the surface of the planet, but the Occupier ships still had their grapples attached and the ship just canted slightly down and to the right but still sat upright.
The ships in the distance closed in more this time, altering their shape and form, Ekkos guessed it was to board the ship and capture the woman. He did not hesitate and began firing the turret at the ships, long streaks of bright red struck the ships ahead of him and began to fall from the sky one by one. Ekkos managed to damage about 100 ships before another bolt entered the top of their ship, knocking Ekkos from the turret. Small shots came from the ships in front of them and began hitting the inside of the ship, one grazing Ekkos’s leg another puncturing his right arm which caused to fall again. The ship shook and a loud bang came from the top of the ship. Ekkos did not even have time to react as a something swung from the bay doors and into the ship and pinned him to the wall. He was face to face with what looked to be the form of a Phalaque. A race of aliens he knew to be one solar system away from theirs. It stood a whole meter taller than him and it’s head was long and triangular with a massive lower jaw and large teeth. It’s shoulders were shallow and arms long enough to touch the ground. Its hand had long sharp fingers made of mostly bone except for the joints. Its torso was similar to an insect with an exoskeleton covering vital organs and legs were massive but always stayed bent. Ekkos remember that these creatures were violent and their bodies evolved around war centuries of tribal wars. It made sense why the Occupiers took their form for close combat. As Ekkos raised his head to meet the creature he stared into nothingness. The creatures body took a form of a Phalque, but the exterior looked like a glossy black hole. It absorbed the light reflected the images around it. The Occupier Phalque dug its claws deeper into Ekkos and he screamed out in pain. The ship shook again as another Occupier Phalque entered the bay, but it shook the one that was holding Ekkos against the wall and he took that opportunity to shift his weight and drive his knife through the arm that held him against the ship. Ekkos limped backwards away from the two Occupier Phalaques. One approached the woman slowly and she backed into the corner with fear in her eyes.
“You’ll need to sever the spine Ekkos. That’s where Phalque’s brain is.” Issa said to him. She entered his head and hindered his pain receptors and enhanced the neuron’s tied to his reaction speed. Ekkos felt the immediate change in his body and took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them he leapt towards the Phalque, he ducked under a slash and parried a downwards attack allowing him a half-second to get behind him and drive his blade into the base of the spine just above the creatures hips. It quickly turned to react but as it turned Ekkos twisted the blade and leaned into it, severing its spine and it fell lifeless to the floor. Ekkos turned towards the other, that was now holding the woman by the wrists above its head, examining her with is long face. Ekkos noticed her staring back, beginning to glow. He watched the creature open its jaw and Ekkos immediately leaped onto its back while driving his blade into the spine, this time right below the head. Upon impact the creature and the woman fell to the floor. When she hit the surface she was knocked unconscious and emitted a bright light that was brighter than the sun. It lit up the whole ship and Ekkos quickly covered his eyes as he knew what was coming. The light grew brighter and now covered the entire sky. It pulsed like a heartbeat and continued to grow. For the next 8 seconds the light blinded everything until slowly dimming back to darkness. He looked up to see the woman still unconscious, he felt the ship begin to free fall. He grabbed the woman in his arms and held her from falling out the ship. He noticed all the occupiers ships were also free falling. He pushed himself against the wall of the ship with the woman in his arms and before he could say the words, Issa had the ships power back on and they were no longer free falling. Ekkos looked out the bay doors and watched as the thousands of Occupiers ship were falling from the sky into the surface of the planet.
Ekkos turned to Issa who had emerged and portrayed herself as her physical species form and walked over to Ekkos and the woman who still sat up against the ship. She spoke aloud this time as she gently placed her hand on Ekkos head, much like the touch from a mother.
“Let’s get you home.” She spoke softly. In that moment the holes in the ship began to fill themselves with a liquid metal. “We have about four minutes until the ship self-repairs to %100, let’s get her into that bed before we warp.” Issa said. Ekkos brought himself to his feet and lifted the woman into his arms and placed her on the bed.
“Issa…” Ekkos said as he buckled the unconscious woman into the bed. “What could she possibly be, why are the Occupiers after her?”
“Before the Occupiers wiped out my race we found a power source in the universe. An unlimited power source. We searched for it but it would blink out of existence, with no pattern. One moment it would be there, light years away then next it would be gone, for a year, maybe 20 years, then suddenly blink back somewhere else, but it was so powerful we could track it immediately. We started developing an artificial intelligent space craft that would track and find it. After a year of pursuit it only was able to pick up the size and shape of the power source but nothing else. We recalled the craft but when it returned there was 23 more identical to each other.”
“The Occupiers?” Ekkos asked.
“The first of its kind we thought. We thought we were on the brink of science. We began to dismantle and study them, to understand how the AI developed clones of themselves, but their components and structure had changed completely, similar to a living organism. We didn’t understand how they communicated with each other. After 6 years of studying and testing, one rebuilt itself and killed the scientists that were studying it. We knew we had no idea what we were working with and it was better if we destroyed them all then to risk them evolving any more. So we did. All 24 melted down then we altered their chemical compounds so they couldn’t rebuild themselves in any way.”
“What happened to the power source?” Ekkos asked.
“It continued as it always did. Randomly blipping through the universe. Some still pursued its origins just as some continued pursuing what altered our AI. But at that point our society was failing. Technology had controlled every aspect of life and our species no longer survived without it. We were the most advanced species in the universe that we knew of. We had conquered multiple solar systems and spread ourselves amongst the stars.” Issa continued, as the ship continued filling holes and repairing components.
“Did technology lead you to be a dimensional being ?” Ekkos asked as he stared down at the beautiful glowing woman in his bed.
“No.” Issa said as she approached him from behind, gently placing her hand on his shoulder and looking down at the woman also. “She did.” Ekkos looked at her with a puzzled expression. “She came to me, and in a… sort of dream, maybe a hallucination. I saw time itself, myself through time. Myself in different worlds as different people. I saw the end of time and the beginning. I saw everything that ever was and will be. She showed me all of it. Then showed me what the Occupiers would do if we didn’t stop them. She showed me that the 24 AI crafts that returned were decoys, fakes. Sent to learn and absorb data. That the Occupiers existed in the far reaches of space and were destroying worlds and other species far away in the universe. But we couldn’t stop them from wiping us out. Only a few of us could manifest ourselves into other dimensions. The few of us that she deemed worthy I guess. So we spread to other colonies and tried to save them. But we couldn’t Ekkos, we couldn’t save anyone. I’m sorry.” Tears fell from her cheek and onto the woman below, each drop glowing like a ripple on the water with it touched her.
“You saved me, Issa. And we saved her.” Ekkos said with a smile. He embraced Issa in a hug. The first time he ever felt her physical being, but the moment quickly faded as the sky amongst them was covered in black. Like something had covered the suns, or rather absorbed all the light they emitted. Issa felt the presence and formed herself back into her dimensional being. She opened the bay doors to darkness. Ekkos tried to look through the cockpit window but it was the same darkness.
“They’re here for me.” The woman said calmly as she rose from the bed and wiped the drowsy from her eyes.
“Who are they?” Ekkos said from the cockpit. “The Occupiers?”
“No, their creators.” She said, she opened her hand and looked down at them as she attempted to create light from them, light shimmered and pulsed slightly until the light left her hands. She looked back up at Ekkos. “My Creators.”
Ekkos looked back puzzled and made his way to the open bay doors as he noticed the darkness contorting and twisting behind her. “what’s going to..” he said but before he could finish, everything went black. He looked around but could not see anything but darkness. He brought his hand to his face, looked down at his feet but still, could not see them. His mind buzzed.
“They have you.” It was Issa. Still able to speak to him. “They’ll take me soon once they discover me.” She continued. “You have to find her, Ekkos.” Her voice began to fade.
“How do I find her, Issa? I can’t see anything!” He spoke but there was no reply. “Issa!” he tried again.
“Open your eyes, Ekkos.” She spoke but her voice became distance, faded and quiet. Ekkos closed and opened his eyes. Nothing. He tried again, still nothing. Then, he felt Issa inside his head, weak but there. She buzzed around his head like a mouse in a maze then he felt her in between his eyes. A warm feeling that began to grow then like a light switch flip in his head, the sky lit up, colors he couldn’t describe and structures he didn’t understand. A world that defied physics sat before him. He looked down at his body. It was a different form, emitted waves and colors not of his past reality, although he still recognized himself.
“I’m here, Ekkos.” The woman buzzed in his mind.
“I’m coming to find you.” He said back. This time, in her mind.
