MOTF Book I: BOTE Chapter 15

Soldiers were scattered all around the mining complex, walking back and forth as they waited for their fellow squad members to arrive. In the middle of them stood Shorya, just standing there, looking up in the sky. Her helmet was held beneath one of her arms, and her sword in the other. Her hair glistened in the daylight as Dylan looked on, the rest of his squad following behind him as they approached their companions.

“So,” Dylan began as Shorya noticed him approaching. “What did you find down there?”

“Nothing much,” Shorya said, glancing at the nearest cave entrance. “We found several mining droids above and below ground that Tech might want to run diagnostics on and reprogram. Aside from that, we didn’t find too much else.”

“Alright then,” Dylan began as the unit leaders and advisors converged around him. “Stealth will stay up here on the surface to secure and patrol the perimeter, and half of every other unit will accompany me in the mines while the other half of each unit stays up here. I’m going to give each of you your assignments, advisors first, leaders second.”

There was some confusion amongst the officers at Dylan’s sudden unorthodox method of assignment, but Dylan ignored their confused expressions and kept speaking. “Dirk, you bring half of Tech with you into the mines to run diagnostics on the droids down there. And Chase, you and the other half of Tech run diagnostics on the droids up here.”

“Yes sir!” the two Tech advisers said unanimously.

“Foyle, I need you to bring half of Tactical with you into the mines for some extra security,” Dylan continued. “Weiss will stay with the other half on the surface and assist Stealth in maintaining our perimeter.”

Dylan turned to face the Communications advisers next. “Barto, I need you to take half of Comm down into the mines, and Herndon, I need you to stay with the other half of Comm on the surface, so we can maintain communications.” It was no accident that Herndon was the adviser stationed on the surface. Dylan was a little stressed out by the events of the day, and did not want her messing up what he had planned.

“Sullivan will of course stay with his entire unit up here. Barre and Walton, I need you two to stay up here as well and supervise the activity of your respective units,” Dylan said, turning to the unit leaders. “Shorya, you’ll be coming with me down into the mines.”

Just the same as Herndon’s assignment to the surface was no accident, Walton and Barre’s assignment to the surface was also very much intentional. Dylan wanted to do something with Shorya down in the mines, and after the conversation he had with his two friends earlier today, he decided that their company was an unnecessary hindrance to his plans.

There was a brief moment of silence before all of the advisers headed off to round up their half of their respective units. Dylan grinned widely as he and Shorya walked towards the mines. He had a feeling that the two were going to be a lot closer after this mission ended.

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Dylan and walked through the mineshaft, Shorya directly behind him as he searched for something. Dylan had to find something in this mine, something that would impress Shorya, something for her.

“What are we doing?” Shorya asked, very puzzled by the whole series of events that had led them down this particular mineshaft away from everybody else.

“Hang on,” Dylan said, frantically glancing around the cave. He looked and he looked, but he saw nothing.

Just as Dylan was about to give up, he saw a red glimmer in the wall. Excitement surged through every corner of his body as he approached the wall triumphantly. For a few seconds, he just stood there staring at the wall, with Shorya right behind him.

“This is why we’re here,” Dylan said as he pulled his arm back. Suddenly, he clenched his right hand into a fist, and thrust his arm forwards hard. The wall of the mineshaft, splintered and shattered under the force of Dylan’s blow, leaving a pile of rubble at his feet.

Shorya stood right behind Dylan, her mouth agape as he bent over the pile, scanning it with his eyes. Seeing the familiar red glimmer again, Dylan thrust his hand into the pile of rubble, and when he pulled it out, there was a decently sized red crystal held in his palm.

“What do you think Shorya?” Dylan asked as he held out the crystal for her to examine. He watched her beautiful brown eyes glisten as she observed the crystal with great interest, her eyes drawn to its crystalline structure.

“It’s beautiful,” Shorya replied, still staring at the crystal with great interest.

Almost immediately after she said that, Dylan stretched out his hand even further, tilting it in Shorya’s direction. “Go on, take it.”

Shorya hesitated. “You just spent the last twenty minutes looking for this thing, and you were the one who found it and destroyed the wall to get to it, I can’t possibly-“

“And I want you to have it,” Dylan reassured. “Payback for you saving my life back there.”

“You saved my life too,” Shorya reminded him.

“And that’s why I want you to have it,” Dylan persisted. “We trust each other with our lives, we understand each other, and we always have each other’s backs. If you went down in combat, I’d be the first person at your side because I know you’d do the same for me. Whenever you look at this crystal, remember that I’ll always be your friend.”

“Thank you Dylan,” Shorya said as she grasped the crystal in her hands. “I will remember that always.”

You idiot! Why couldn’t you just tell her you love her!Dylan thought to himself. Why can’t I just man up and tell her! It was driving him crazy. Every day he grew closer and closer to her, but found it no easier to tell her about these feelings. He always told her his feelings, but he couldn’t work up the courage to tell her he loved her.

“This really means a lot to me,” Shorya said, placing her hand on Dylan’s shoulder. She was smiling.

Dylan smiled back, thinking maybe that wasn’t such a bad move after all. He supposed he could be pretty smooth when the situation called for it. One day, Dylan would work up the courage to tell her he loved her. One day when he wasn’t as weak, when he was braver, and when he could literally offer her the world.

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Arthur was practically shaking with anticipation when the comm line chirped up. “Sir, we have located the prince!” A metalic voice rang out in Arthur’s ear. “Should we proceed?”

“Yes,” Arthur responded. “They may practice violence as an art form, but there are no great warriors among them. Only butchers. Once the Shadikill have been purged from existence, the Blastidonez, Bladewrath, and Speartons will all fall before our might. Once that happens, we will live in peace and harmony. This is the beginning of a new age; the age of the Lightor! Surround the prince and his friends. Ambush them. Kill them all. Remove their barbarous stench from this world.”

“And what of the prince?” Jaira chimed in from right beside Arthur.

Arthur took up his APC in one hand and his supercharged sword in the other. “Wound him, leave him unable to stand,” Arthur said as his power armor and weaponry whirred to life. “I will kill him myself.”

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Dylan was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable as he and Shorya made their way back into a larger, more open area of the mining complex. At first he thought it was Shorya, but then he realized it was something else entirely. He couldn’t quite place a finger on it, but something was wrong. There was no suspicious sound or activity that Dylan could see and seemingly no reason for there to be anything wrong. It wasn’t one of those times where it was too quiet either. He could hear his soldiers talking from a distance as they grew nearer to them.

Eventually, he and Shorya stepped back into the larger chamber, where Foyle, Barto, and Dirk were waiting for him with the rest of his men. A cluster of mining droids were set against the walls of the small cavern, and the soldiers were spread out in different areas of this part of the mines.

“Progress?” Dylan asked, his head tilted in Dirk’s direction.

“Mmmyes,” Dirk began. “We have gathered a lot of the mining droids and set them down here,” he continued, pausing to gesture at the pile of droids. “We are about to begin diagnostics on them, and Barto just relayed that news back to the surface.”

“Great…” Dylan said, his mind drifting off to that feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Everything seemed just fine. Nothing stood out as out of the ordinary, and it didn’t even seem like a situation where everything was too peaceful and normal. But for some reason, Dylan couldn’t shake this feeling. It was a relentless prickling at the back of his mind, and no matter how much he tried to ignore it, it continued to persist.

When Dylan glanced over at Shorya, he could tell that she felt the exact same thing. He didn’t know how or why, but he could see it in her eyes and in her movements. The rest of the squad was oblivious to what Dylan was feeling, but Shorya was feeling the exact same thing he was.

Dylan started to feel even more and more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by. Suddenly, the prickling at the back of his mind turned into a silent scream as a random surge of adrenaline rushed through Dylan’s body. Rather than fight whatever instinct was running through him, Dylan instead surrendered to it.

Suddenly, Dylan’s hand flew towards the hilt of his katana, and in the blink of an eye it was in his hands, and transformed into little more than a blur as Dylan twirled around and thrust the blade away from his body. There was a loud scraping sound as metal tore through metal. Dylan felt an impact in his arms, but he saw nothing at first. Then, much to Dylan’s horror, a droid seemingly materialized out of thin air right in front of him. It’s arms were blades. One blade was extended from the droid’s body, right in the same space occupied by Dylan’s back less than a second ago.

Almost immediately after Dylan yanked his katana free of the droids body with a look of horror on his face, Shorya swung her blade in an arc around her body, and two droids suddenly appeared behind her, collapsing to the ground cleaved in half.

Sheer panic and chaos overtook the soldiers as they wildly flailed and fired their weapons around them. Some of their wild strikes and shots connected, others met thin air. In the next few seconds, half a dozen of Dylan’s soldiers had fallen; two Tech, three Comm, and one Tactical.

Dylan also sprang into action, and whipped out his cannon, taking it up both hands and sheathing his katana. He fired his rockets and laser blasts across the cavern in a way that seemed random, even to him, but somehow each and every one of his shots managed to connect with and disable a droid. It was almost as if he knew exactly where they were.

Red streaks of light shot across the cavern as the laser attachments on his cannon fired searing hot laser beams through the air, tearing through the invisible chassis of the stealth droids. The cavern was showered in falling metal every time he fired a rocket.

As Dylan briefly glanced over at Shorya, he noticed her fighting in a similar way, cutting and shooting down every droid about to reach her with surprising accuracy. “Duck!” Shorya suddenly screamed at him. Without any hesitation, Dylan dropped to the ground, as several blasterbolts flew above his head, and a suddenly materialized droid dropped to the floor behind him.

Before the droid’s body even hit the ground, Dylan sprang back up to his feet, aimed his cannon just to the right of Shorya, and simultaneously fired all eight lasers at once. The lasers tore through the bodies of three droids advancing on Shorya, making them visible, and tearing them apart.

“See what I mean?!” Dylan cried out across the open space between the two. “We always have each other’s backs!”

“Get behind me!” Foyle cried out in a very shrill voice.

Dylan and Shorya glanced at each other once before they bolted off in Foyle’s direction. When they reached her, Foyle was flailing her bladed whip around in arcs around her body, slicing up the droids before they could even reach her. Every other living Shadikill soldier underground was already behind Foyle providing cover for her by the time Dylan and Shorya raced by her.

“Light ‘em up Foyle!” Dylan shouted, finally realizing what she was up to.

Foyle swiftly pulled her flamethrower off of her back, and grasped it in her right hand. Screaming, she pulled the trigger as she swept it from side to side, the flames engulfing the attacking droids. Behind the inferno, Dylan and his soldiers continued to provide cover fire for Foyle as she melted the oncoming droids to the ground.

Everything seemed like it was going to work out until suddenly, a Tech soldier collapsed to the ground, a gaping hole in the middle of his face. Suddenly, Dylan turned his head and realized the so called “mining droids” gathered on the edge of the cavern were rising to their feet and firing at them with arm mounted cannons. Dylan realized at this moment that he and his soldiers were outgunned and outnumbered.

“Fall back to the surface!” Dylan cried out. “Fall back!”

He did not have to tell his soldiers twice. As soon as the word fall left his mouth the first time, his men were already heading towards the tunnels that would lead them back to the surface. Foyle was the last person to fall back.

Foyle stood her ground for a few seconds, swung her whip across the floor, wrapping it across the energy shield of a fallen Tech soldier. With one good hard yank, Foyle sent the shield flying into her hands before she activated it. A shield in one hand and a flamethrower in the other, Foyle continued to spit fire at the droids, protected behind an energy shield. The rest of the soldiers all provided cover fire as they all fell back through the mineshaft, back up to the surface.

Once they reached the surface, Dylan was more happy to see daylight then he had ever been in his entire life. Almost immediately however, he noticed a battle raging around them still. The “mining droids” on the surface had also sprung to their feet and sprouted laser cannons on their arms.

“Damn!” Dylan cried out in outrage before turning to Barto. “I thought you and your men were supposed to keep the comm lines open!”

“Somebody jammed our signals!” Barto cried out in response as he fired at a nearby droid with his automatic blaster rifle.

Suddenly, a realization dawned on Dylan. This whole thing had been a set up from the beginning. But why would somebody go to such lengths just to kill… me. They were here for him! They knew who he was! They were actively seeking him out and trying to kill him!

Dylan’s surprise and fear suddenly was washed away by anger. Seething rage poured through his body. They weren’t going to kill him. He was going to tear apart each and every one of them one by one! They would learn the price of trying to kill him! He would make them learn! He would not stop until every damn Lightor on Innamorta fell before his blade!

By this point, Dylan was almost shaking with fury. When he seemed on the verge of a break down, suddenly, everything seemed perfectly focused and clear in front of him. He returned his blaster cannon to its holster on his back, drew his katana, and charged at the nearest cluster of droids.

The droids all turned towards him and rained blasterfire upon him, but Dylan bobbed left and right with consummate ease, dashing from side to side, and completely avoiding every blast that came his way. Once he reached the droids, it was all over before it even began. Dylan’s katana became a black blur of motion as he ferociously slashed and hacked through the droids in front of him.

One of the droids was different however. Its body was technologically empowered in the same way Lightor general power armor was, but it mattered little to Dylan. Though this droid had a sword, supercharged limbs, and combat programming, it would never have Dylan’s passion or his conviction, and thus it would always be his inferior.

The droid may have been stronger and faster than the vast majority of his men, but this would not save it from Dylan. Dylan fell upon that droid with a serious of vicious slashes and thrusts, and the droid staggered back under his wild flurry. Dylan did not let up. After a couple more seconds, Dylan breached its defense with a stab through the droid’s chest piece, and less than five seconds later, the droid was in several pieces scattered across the ground in front of Dylan.

Dylan had little time to savor his victory as blasterfire rang out behind him. He turned to see another advanced droid, this one’s charge cut short by several well placed shots to the back of its knees, and the continuing barrage of blasterbolts striking its back. Taking advantage of this weakness, Dylan plunged his katana straight through the droid’s face.

As he looked up, he saw Shorya with an automatic blaster rifle aimed at the back of the droid he had just brought down. Seeing yet another advanced droid coming up behind her, Dylan fired off a rocket at the droid. The droid behind Shorya was blown to the ground by the sheer explosive force of Dylan’s shot, and before the droid could get up, Shorya had severed its head with her own sword.

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Arthur watched the Shadikill prince from a distance. He was a rather intriguing warrior Arthur thought. Full of emotion and impulse, but at the same time this warrior seemed to always know what he was doing. Somehow, this boy had survived wave after wave of the stealth droids, and now he and the other warrior were tearing through Arthur’s own elite droids as well. The accompanying warrior acted off of the same impulse that the prince did, and the two seemed to always have each other’s back.

The two seemed like a nigh unbeatable duo to Arthur if there ever was one. Their synchronization was almost perfect and they seemed to thrive off of each other's presence. If he was ever going to kill the prince, he would have to-

Arthur’s next thoughts were interrupted by a Tech soldier charging his way, who Arthur believed to be the leader of the Tech unit based off of observation. He held a shock baton in his right hand, and a gauntlet on his left hand.

The Shadikill soldier pressed a button on his gauntlet mid charge, and suddenly electricity and a laser sprung forth from the gauntlet, but Arthur merely held up his broadsword and caught the blast. Arthur attempted to retaliate with a blast from his anti-particle cannon, but the Tech Leader swung his baton around, knocking the APC to the side before it could blow him apart.

Swiftly, the Tech leader transitioned into a strike with his shock baton. Arthur however, was ready. As soon as the strike came his way, Arthur swung his broadsword in an arc, deflecting the Shadikill’s strike. Arthur’s sword clashed with the shock baton twice more, before Arthur thrust his blade into the Shadikill’s shoulder.

The Shadikill Tech Leader screamed out in pain as Arthur slashed his blade free, tearing off the boy’s right arm at the shoulder. As the Shadikill collapsed in pain, another Tech soldier ran over to try and save him. Arthur swung his APC around, and fired. A green ball of antiparticles discharged from the tip of the APC, and struck the Shadikill Tech soldier with great force, blowing his body completely apart. His limbs were scattered across the ground, his head rolled across the ground, and his torso was practically nonexistent, completely obliterated by Arthur’s APC.

When Arthur turned back to finish off the Tech Leader, he saw his body being dragged across the ground by a grappling hook protruding from the gauntlet on his left hand. Arthur briefly considered chasing him, but decided he had more important things to worry about; the Shadikill prince. The only way to take him out, would be to kill his companion first. With that in mind, Arthur reached out to Jaira through the Comm channel.

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Two Shadikill Tactical soldiers stood right in front of Jaira, but she didn’t flinch or lose control. She held her electrostaff in front of her, twirling it around in circles as she advanced towards the Tactical soldiers. The two soldiers drew their swords and charged at her. She twirled her staff around, deflecting their offensive frenzy as she advanced on them and pressed an offensive advantage.

She struck with both ends of her staff, effectively increasing her striking speed, and using its large handle to increase the leverage behind her blows. After ten seconds of meeting their attack head to head, Jaira let one hand drop to her belt, and she removed a pair of electric charges from her belt. Before the Shadikill could react, Jaira threw the electric charges at the legs of one soldier.

Immediately, that soldier dropped his sword and began spasming uncontrollably as electricity coursed through his body. Jaira swiftly brought around one end of her electrostaff around, smashing it into the head of the spasming soldier, and ending his life as the other soldier looked on in horror.

With one of her enemies dead, she continued to swing that end of her electrostaff in an arc, swinging it at the side of his companion’s head. While the soldier managed to block that strike, the subsequent strike from the opposite end was to quick to block, and it struck him full-on in the face. As he collapsed to the ground, Jaira lifted her weapon into the air before stabbing it into the soldier’s prone body, ending his life.

“Jaira,” Jaira heard Arthur say through the comm channel. “I need you to lead the Shadikill Tactical Leader over to me.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Jaira said, pulling her electrostaff out of the dead soldier’s body.

As she began to head in the direction of the Tactical Leader, she got the sense that something wasn’t quite right. Suddenly, she swung around her electrostaff around. Almost immediately, the Tactical Stealth Leader materialized out of thin air, with one arm pressed against the handle of her staff, holding it in place, and the other stabbing his combat knife at her face.

For a few seconds, Jaira was driven into a backpedal, desperately trying to avoid taking a combat knife to the face as the Stealth Leader jabbed it at her in complex sequences he no doubt learned in his training. Jaira quickly regained her composure however, and caught him in the face with a kick. As he staggered back, Jaira twirled her staff around and jabbed it into his stomach with great force, sending him sprawling back several feet, and no doubt knocking him out. If he got up, it wouldn’t be for a little while.

As Jaira turned around, two Stealth soldiers were running her way, in an attempt to save their leader. Jaira returned the staff to her back, and pulled out her blaster in anticipation. Very swirly, Jaira took aim at the two soldiers, and held down the trigger. Several bursts of plasma and electricity were fired from the tip of her blaster, striking the two soldiers in rapid succession, bringing them to their knees, and then reducing them to charred corpses.

Finally, Jaira turned her attention back to the Tactical Leader, took aim, and pulled the trigger.

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Shorya was in the middle of cutting a droid in half when something hit her. The projectile burned and sent electricity surging through her body. Shorya grimaced in pain as she turned to face her attacker. Much to her surprise, this attacker was not a droid, it was a Lightor female in white armor who looked to be about her age.

A few more plasma projectiles whizzed by Shorya’s head before she began her charge. Shorya ran towards her with her automatic blaster rifle in one hand, and her curved sword in the other. As Shorya advanced on her opponent, the Lightor began to give ground, clearly hoping to prevent the fight from turning into a melee.

The two Innamortan ladies fires several shots at each other, but they managed to dodge the vast majority of them. Shorya drew closer and closer to her opponent as she stepped further and further back towards a rock jutting out from the ground.

Finally, after twenty more seconds, Shorya finally came within striking distance of her opponent, put her blaster away, and took up her sword in both hands. Her opponent likewise holstered her blaster as well, taking out her electrostaff and giving it an experimental twirl before activating it.

The two stared at each other for a second before opening up with an experimental flurry of attacks. The first bout consisted of prodding at each other’s defenses, before they broke off to examine each other for a few seconds. Shorya got the sense that this girl was a very reserved fighter. She seemed to have a very balanced fighting style, though she also seemed quite fast and agile.

After the brief pause, Shorya immediately sprang at her opponent, transitioning into a series of swift, but precise, cuts and stabs. The Lightor girl repelled her strikes, but she was slowly giving ground under her assault. Shorya grinned to herself behind her visor. She knew that she was the superior fighter of the two. As Shorya began to press the offensive harder and harder, attacking from a variety of different angles at various speeds, her opponent began to give more and more ground until she was backpedalling desperately. Shorya felt a sense of accomplishment as she drove her opponent closer and closer to the rock outcrop.

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Dylan plunged his katana through the chest of one droid, blasted apart another, and then turned to a third one, slicing it in half through the top of the head down. Despite the great danger they were in just minutes ago in the mines, Dylan couldn’t help but have an incredibly good time at the moment, slicing and hacking through droid after droid.

Suddenly, Dylan felt like something was very wrong. Much like the feeling he had in the mines, he couldn’t explain this one either, but he knew it would be foolish to ignore. Glancing around, he did not see Shorya near him. Dylan’s heart practically skipped a beat as he frantically searched the battlefield for Shorya.

He breathed a collective sigh of relief when he saw Shorya across the battlefield, hammering at the defenses of an actual Lightor soldier. Dylan felt a lot better noticing that she was fighting a very skilled, but ultimately inferior opponent. His heart practically leapt out of his throat however when he saw a glimmer of gold behind the outcrop the two were headed towards. There was a Lightor waiting to ambush Shorya once they turned the corner.

“It’s a trap!” Dylan cried out. But the comm channel was down for some reason, and Shorya was too far away to hear them. So, with no other alternative, Dylan took off sprinting towards Shorya and the outcrop.

Dylan could feel his heart throbbing as adrenaline rushed through his body. His mind quivered and shook with fear. Fear that was threatening to break him. But he took that fear and used it to spur him on. He could not lose Shorya. He would not lose Shorya! He began to run faster and faster. Faster than he could’ve ever pictured himself running. The entire world was just a blur around him as he raced through it, with Shorya being the only point of clarity in his whole line of sight.

He could feel himself pushing his body to the very zenith of its limitations, and he was sure that if any of his men saw him running, they’d have their mouths open in shock. Any other time he would’ve enjoyed the rush, but here all he felt was fear. Fear that he would lose the only person who truly understood him. Fear that he would lose his friend. Fear that he would lose the woman he loved.

As Dylan got closer and closer, he realized with great dismay that they had almost reached the outcrop. He wasn’t going to reach Shorya in time to save her at this speed, and he had already pushed its body to its limit.

Frustration, rage, fury, fear, grief, and hate all swirled through Dylan. It was an emotional storm enveloping his mind, permeating his will and spirit. In any other situation, it may have been too much for him, he may have completely broken down under it, but here, it was exactly what he needed.

Dylan pushed himself harder than ever. He could feel his body surpassing his physical limitations as the world around him turned into a blurred tunnel, with him at one end, and Shorya at the other. As he pushed himself even harder, he could feel the length of the tunnel slowly shrink as he grew ever closer to her.

An entirely new level of emotional grief hit him when he saw the Lightor in the gold armor raise his cannon to fire. By this point, the fear, hate, and grief were absolutely permeating every fiber of his will and being. As he sped towards Shorya, and the Lightor in the golden armor, Dylan let his emotions completely take over, and acting purely on instinct, he leapt through the air.

He felt his body soaring through the air, and just as the muzzle of the cannon began to glow green, Dylan flew right between Shorya and this Lightor warrior. For a split second Dylan’s entire vision turned to green, his feeling turned to pain, and his ears were filled with the sound of his own screaming, and then everything went black, as the world around him disappeared, replacing itself with nothingness.

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Shorya was flung backwards by the impact of something hitting her. At first, she thought it was a blast from the Lightor’s cannon. Then when she realized she was alive and actually looked at what had hit her, she realized it was far worse. When she sat up and looked behind her, she screamed.

“He’s dead,” the Lightor in golden armor said assuredly. “We have no more business here.”

“What of the girl?” the female Lightor asked.

“Bring her with us,” he responded. “She’s our prisoner now.”

The last thing Shorya saw as the Lightor soldiers dragged her away, crying, was Dylan’s body lying on the ground, with a gaping hole in his chest. Just like her nightmares.