CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Raising her hand like a timid student, El captured the Pirate Lord's attention. Neraka sauntered down the spiral ramp to examine the find. Concurring with the potential for deception, she whistled to one of her crew, pointing to the sky with two fingers before curling them into a fist. Before the child could respond to the command, the impassible, arched door began to glow. A bright amber light shone ominously beneath the folded steel, and suddenly, the room succumbed to brilliant radiance. The blinding white of an accelerated laser stream cut the door clean in half, unmaking the unfortunate crew members caught in its path. Encompassed in a whirlwind of debris and smoke, a platoon of oddly dressed men appeared through the smoldering wreckage. They waded through the swamp of bodies. Pirates loyal to Kaligan, a fact made evident by the crude insignias tattooed and carved into their flesh.

  The commanding pirate gave Lord Neraka a courtesy bow, but his wandering gaze quickly settled on El.

  "Where is it?!" the pirate grunted angrily. The metal plate in place of his jaw slurred his speech, saliva trickling from his rusted jowls. Despite knowing exactly what he was talking about, she withheld her reply. Fortunately for El, Neraka pilfered his attention by leveling her blade to his throat.

  "Volka tasked the retrieval of Atlazar to us. Why are you here?" she asked, unimpressed with the interruption despite being granted an exit.

  "The beacon was activated! Kaligan said we was to fetch the plant girl when we saw the beacon. We saw the beacon, so we're here." The oafish pirate's uncontrollable spitting visibly irked Neraka, her sour expression curdling into a grimace. She turned to El for confirmation and received an oblivious look in return. Neraka reigned in her suspicion, the arrival of Kaligan's men likely to aid in their search.

  "Vault 905. What we seek resides there." Neraka informed the pirates, severing their unpleasant interaction.

  "Tell me when it moves." She said to El before cutting through the crowd of pirates and proceeding to the vault's current location. Kaligan's crew threw daggers at El before pursuing Neraka out into the hallway, their prize worth more than any grudge. Knowing her end would soon come, the men had no reason to dwell.

  Once the room cleared, El's hand shot into her pocket and pulled out the beacon. Sure enough, it had been activated, likely triggered during her tumbling infiltration of the facility. Kaligan's men were her ticket out of this place, it was her job to ensure it was not in their custody.

  "The ship!" El blurted out, quickly cupping her hands over her mouth in fear of being overheard. Her way off this toxic rock was within her grasp. She could almost taste her escape, the allure of freedom stronger than ever. The ground shook once again as the vaults began their migration. Without thinking, she typed a random coordinate into the transmitter.

  "That will keep her busy." She said smugly while looking at the two adolescent soldiers left on guard duty. Armed with the searing claws she had seen demonstrated so callously, she knew a full-frontal assault was out of the question. With the facility operated from the orbital towers, she had little control and fewer options. Her attention was snatched by a fleet of spores falling delicately through the air, blossoming over the pristine consoles. Just one breath would be all it took.

  Hiding behind her workstation, she slipped free of her protective clothing while keeping an eye on the guards. As was the nature of young men, they had taken to play-fighting out of boredom. Shimmering into her translucent form, El crept into the open and stalked toward her prey.

  With their backs turned, unaware of the encroaching danger, a pang of reluctance filled her chest. So young and already so far down a path of irredeemable action. Their innocent foolings a flimsy mask to hide the cruelty that lurked within.

  With the slightest movement, she lifted the nearest boy's hip knife, severing the straps that bound the mask to his face. The other gawked with an impassioned glare as the mask fell. His comrade's eyes glazed over in a film of burning crimson. A powdery vomit erupted from his throat, the dust of what was once his internal workings erupting into the air. Without even a second to respond, he, too, witnessed the glass plates of his mask fall before his eyes. With his vision painted black, the rhythmic beating of his heart ceased. Their short, terrible lives had come to an end.

  Regret welled in her throat; thick, oily, unswallowable. Not a sentiment of loss or sorrow, but for the unfortunate, unalterable state of things. Having grown up in a safe and relatively happy environment, she had known the touch of a loving parent and the embrace of true friendship. The children who called Neraka's crew family knew only of death and the cold sting of the whip if one were to step out of line. Not that redemption was out of reach for such tainted souls, though dreams of Elyssia and their unwavering loyalty to villains made them near-impossible candidates. They were not the last sentient obstacles she would have to dismantle on her path to freedom, but her firm commitment to survival made the coming trails a tragic necessity.

  After winding through countless vault-studded corridors, she pulled herself up a tall set of ladders and out onto the planet's surface. Her gaze arced up to a churning maelstrom in the skies. She became mesmerized by the hypnotic spiraling of the serpentine crown affixed to the atmosphere. A Levantikar had arrived.

  Even from the planet's surface, the remnants of the three orbital towers were visible as bright specs floating in the wake of the enormous creature. A distinct array of dorsal fins coiling from head to tail differentiated it from the cosmic titans El had previously encountered. The realization of consequence hit like a hammer to the skull. Turning to observe the control rods jutting from the facility, she pleaded with them to move. She waited with bated breath, but stillness endured. With Neraka's only obstacle retired, the location of Vault 905 would soon be arrived upon. Atlazar would return to pirate hands.

  Not all was lost. El sighed in relief as she spotted something resting amongst the undergrowth. It was her way out, her ticket to the vast, empty nothingness. She could lose herself in the turmoil of the Levantikar's presence and, god willing, save her friends. A question she had attempted to avoid muddied her thoughts. What exactly was she saving them for? To be constantly hunted, always having one eye on the door, nervous glances over their shoulder wherever they went. There was no silver lining. No glimmer of hope on the Horizon. Just the dismal monotony of avoiding the oppression that would forever bite at their heels. Despite the bleakness of their prospects, she would not allow the destiny of her crew-mates determined by anyone but themselves.

  Not a single man remained to guard the ship. The pirates' hubris was one of their greatest and most exploitable flaws. Believing a battle won before it had ended was a mistake of fools, and this time, it would cost them their ship.

  Rusted iron pipes were bent to create a crude frame layered with what appeared to be the poorly welded hulls of several unique vessels. There was no mistaking this as anything other than one of Kaligan's ships. It presented as a poor imitation of the Gallowmare, itself the amalgamation of assimilated vehicles and repurposed architecture.

  Approaching the cockpit, El stood dumbfounded. The flight permissions were still active. This was below even her most uncharitable expectations, further compounding the notion that her appropriation of the vessel was well deserved. She checked her suit for breaches, brushing away the clinging remnants of moss.

  With a flick of the ignition, she was away, sailing through the brownish haze of the planet's atmosphere and out into the endless black.

  Floating high above the planet's surface, El's eyes once again rested on the coiling body of the Levantikar. Unaware of whether the destruction of the towers was intentional vandalism or a casualty of its gargantuan mass. Regardless, it had wrought destruction on an unparalleled scale.

  She killed the ignition, taking a moment to marvel at the impossible being. As her ship sat motionlessly, the eye of the beast passed directly before the viewing window, and for a brief moment, El caught a glimpse of infinity. Aeon's of history were etched into the moon-sized globe nestled inside a great crater. Its gaze led directly to the spear-tipped beak that concluded its titanic head. Despite this being her third encounter with one of the creatures, she remained transfixed. A relic beyond time swam effortlessly before her, and she could do little to prevent herself from being consumed by wonder.

  The light of the moon that so perfectly lit the creature suddenly dimmed to darkness. El felt a tremor roll through the instruments of the ship. What little interior lighting was available began to flash uncontrollably, and a static disturbance bit its way through the communication. Gently steering her vessel away from the planet's orbit, her hands froze, gripped to the guidance levers. Her distraction had cost her everything. As her ship turned, the bow of an enormous ship came into view. A set of rusted metal jaws welded to the ship's bow opened to reveal a gaping black maw. El watched helplessly as the corroded teeth slammed shut behind her, plunging her back into the depths of her deepest fear.