Pax Galactica - A Space Opera

Chapter 42 - Road To Oblivion

Decker and Ophelia were travelling directly towards the Heptagon as the crow flies. Suddenly the monotony of the desert was broken by twin explosions. Both the rangers' shields burst in a spray violet-to-black fireworks as they were each hit by bolts from a kinetic lance.

They both broke formation and immediately began to fly as erratically as possible so as to confound targeting computers.

<Shield's down!> Decker's Suit announced. <At least a minute, maybe more. One unshielded hit from one of those and we're both dead.>

<Can you sense them?> asked Decker.

<Not cloaked like that,> replied the Suit. <But here.>

Dozens and dozens of ghost-images of an Old One battlesuit appeared on Decker's H.U.D. They slowly spread out and multiplied.

<Based on its speed and trajectory when it fired that kinetic lance it can only be in one of the locations I'm highlighting for you.>

<I need a Perjurer in one hand, and a Falsifier in the other. Don't fight me on this.>

<Sure, why not? I agreed to break one rule so I might as well become an anarchist.>

The weapons Decker asked for warped into his hands. Ophelia was already holding a Falsifier of her own. They both continued to fly towards the Heptagon as fast as they could.

Suddenly the cloaked Old One fired again. It brushed past Decker thanks to his evasive movements, the bolt coming dangerously close to blowing him and his Suit to pieces. The ghosts on the H.U.D. collapsed onto a single location which immediately began to spread out again.

Decker fired his Falsifier wildly into the cluster of ghosts but he didn't seem to hit anything. The ghosts continued to spread outward and multiply. The area where the Old One could be only grew wider and wider.

"Try to estimate where it is on your H.U.D." Decker said.

"Yeah we figured out your trick," replied Ophelia.

Decker shot both rifles at once in a spread while he continued to rocket forward, trying to cover as many of the potential locations of the Old One with weapons fire as possible. While Decker was distracted doing this the Old one took another shot at him. with its lance. The kinetic bolt zoomed under Decker's arm. A few centimeters closer and he'd have lost the limb.

The ghosts collapsed again. Decker concentrated his fire on the spot. A beam from his Falsifier seared through the Old One's shields, cutting straight through the battlesuit at out the other side. A slug from his Perjurer overwhelmed the Old One's shields in a conflagration of violet and black.

Another, more carefully aimed beam from Ophelia's Falsifier took out the battlesuit's cloaking device. Then it was all over. The two rangers blasted the Old One into pieces as they flew past.

The remnants of the battlesuit crashed to the ground. The rangers zoomed off, never slowing. With a thought their weapons disappeared back into hyperspace.

"You QX?" asked Ophelia.

"Yeah," replied Decker. "I'm fine. I lost my shield, that's all. You?"

"Same."

"How many Old Ones are on this sprelling planet?" complained Decker.

"If they're looking for the same Inxon technology that Helios was, probably a lot," replied Ophelia. "Looks like they're not worried about making themselves known either. This whole situation is going tops up. I'm glad I'm going to be dead when they have to clean up this mess."

Decker couldn't help but laugh.

"This isn't our problem anymore," he agreed. "Why should we make some other sprellhead's job easier?"

"If they don't posthumously make us full rangers for all this this heroism and grim dignity I'm going to haunt someone."

"I'll be right there with you. If ever there would be cause for ghostly revenge that would be it."

<You two are creepy,> Decker's Suit told him.

"My Suit thinks we're creepy," said Ophelia, laughing.

<See?>

* * *

The Heptagon came into view. It appeared to be a looming geometric shape made of warped pieces of the sky, completely invisible to sensors. It was like nothing out of this universe, ancient and terrifying in a way the Decker had barely comprehended the first time he saw it. Now he was more cognizant of what it represented. Now he could feel the full weight of its majesty.

The area all around it looked even more like a battlefield. The remains of Old One and gug-gug-gug bodies, not to mention all the gug-gug-gug military vehicles, formed a ring around the Heptagon. They had been destroyed in a myriad of different ways, judging by what was left of them. It almost looked like someone experimenting creatively with different ways to kill.

"Comforting," said Decker.

Both he and Ophelia came in for a hard landing about a hundred meters from the Heptagon, just at the edge of the ring of the dead. They didn't want to risk flying any closer and being added to the ring.

They began to approach with their empty hands in the air.

Here goes nothing, thought Decker.

"Ranger Helios," he yelled. "We've come to join you. Can you hear us? We're unarmed."

"I'm not mad," added Ophelia. "I get why you shot me but you really didn't give me a chance to see what you were getting at back there. I mean I forgive you but I think I deserved better. Maybe a chance to process everything before getting shot at."

"You never even asked me you just assumed I'd have sided with Ranger Aranarth," said Decker. "You can't saddle me with his baggage. He doesn't get to choose for me."

"We'd like another chance. I'm officially calling do over."

"This whole situation is all sprelled up because tensions are high and there was a miscommunication between you and Ophelia but I think we're all on the same team here. If the Old Ones are looking for this kind of tech then we need to acquire it first. We get it."

"We totally get it!" Ophelia repeated.

"We're not your enemies so we'd appreciate it if you'd stop trying to kill us," continued Decker.

"Yes. We want to help but we'll settle for not being actively hunted."

"I think even Aranarth just couldn't conceptualize that you were actually capable of doing what you talked about," said Decker. "He thought you were being crazy and reckless but you were just being revolutionary. It can be hard to tell the difference before the results are in. None of us really understood the power you've unlocked. If things had played out a little different I think the four of us would be in there talking about the best way to use this Inxon stuff to help humanity."

They were getting closer to the building, climbing over the ring of bodies. She hadn't killed them yet.

"Can you give some kind of sign you hear us?" asked Ophelia.

There was a loud echoing sound as the entrance to the Heptagon slid open. The invitation was lost on neither of the rangers.

They hurried inside. The entrance shut behind them and it was like there was never a door there at all.

A loud rumbling sounded from deep within the Heptagon. Sand was jostled loose as it began to shake. With a monstrous burst of exotic energy the alien edifice launched itself up into the sky and out into orbit.