“Alright,” Boron shouted to the assembled army, “We need to build this bridge ourselves! Those of you with any technical knowledge have just been drafted.”  The army milled about, the skilled ones making their way to the land-speeder to grab what they needed.  Boron kept looking down the yawning corridor nervously.   Somewhere, buried back there, are thousands of Tar’unt’Tar.  They will be coming…

            “Stay here,” he ordered Shrivala, “Until I return, if I return, you are in command, understood?”

            Shrivala nodded.  Boron was loaded up with land mines.  She too, felt the presence of something coming.   She had hoped it was the Shadow Warriors, but apparently Boron did not.

 

            The darkness crawled around him, Boron flew down the tunnels towards the deeper darkness from where Ugnarth and his men made the ultimate sacrifice.  He flew a good 30 feet off the ground, giving him clearance of any obstacles he may have encountered. Silently, he floated to the ground after an hour of travel, and began placing the deadly charges.

            He worked with no light, not wanting to be seen if there was anything lurking around.  The hair on the back of his neck stood up on several occasions, and Boron would slowly grip the Lunar Sword for comfort.  It made no psychic scream, so he knew whatever was lurking meant him no harm, and he kept working.  It was only just after he placed the last mine, that he did hear something that made his skin crawl.

            A sort of thunder echoed down the pitch-black tunnel, but no storm made such a steady rumble. 

            That, however, was not the worst part.

            He could hear them, in his mind.  They were not as powerful here on their planet, without their psychic amplifiers that were mounted on their ships, but he knew they all wanted blood.

            And they knew he was there.

            After the numerous battles they had had with Boron, they could feel a very strong psionic emission coming from him, or more specifically, from the Lunar Sword.  They had locked on to its signal, and were going to track it down and destroy it.

            Boron swallowed hard, and took to the air.  He flew back like a mad man, made it back in half the time, but even as he arrived, the explosions from his minefield were heard, a faint popping noise.

            Boron was much relieved to see that the bridge had been hastily constructed in his absence.  It was a hack job, he knew, but by the Gods, it held.

            Shrivala was waiting for him, herding the thousands of troops that still had to cross over.

            “Where have you been?  What’s happening out there?” She asked. Fear gripped her, as she, like every other psychic, heard them coming.

            “Quickly, Shrivala, you must cross the bridge,” Boron said taking her arm, “For your father.”

            She nodded and hurried across, signaling for those moving the Gaia Bomb to follow her.  The other Generals were already on the other side, massing their troops.  The Guardians were the first over, and the Gravitons seemed to be taking the rear.  Moggart pushed his way back across the bridge to where Boron stood.

            “Should I make the order, or do you want to?” Moggart asked.

            Boron stared down the passageway, Lunar Sword in hand.  It glowed blue, and its glow was a beacon.  “They’re your men, Moggart,” Boron looked down at the short Graviton.  Moggart had what looked like a modified power spear in his hands.  Both ends had spearheads on them, and he clutched it with white knuckled hands.

            “I know, I know… But…” he looked away from Boron.  “I can’t tell them to die!”

            Already, some of his men seemed to be setting up for some sort of conflict, making small blockades with rocks and left over equipment.  They planted spears in the ground on an angle that would take the Tar’unt’Tar right in the neck.

            “You don’t need to, friend.” Boron said, putting his hand on Moggarts’ shoulder.  “Get back on the other side.  The others still need you.”

            Moggart ran back across the bridge to rejoin the main part of his army.  Still, over 5000 warriors needed to make it over the gap to be spared from the onslaught.

            Shapes began to take form in the darkness.  Several dozen of them, at least. Boron held the Lunar Sword on high and prepared to fight whatever evil poured from the pits of hell.

            The shapes became more defined, and it was clear that it was not the loping run of the Tar’unt’Tar, but the swift feet of Shadow Warriors.

            Boron almost smiled.  Apparently, they made it through the minefield. He swallowed hard. Had he killed some of his own people? 

            Ugnarth, flanked by about 100 of his men ran up to Boron.

            “Lord Boron,” he said, seeing the worry in Boron’s eyes, “I know you too well, friend.”

“What do you mean?”  He demanded.

“The mines… we saw you plant them. We ran by while you were busy setting them.  I would have stayed, but we are not all telekinetic, and cannot move with as much haste as some people.” He smiled, even though he was bloodstained.  Boron realized in horror that it was not black Tar’unt’Tar blood, either, but a sticky purple.  Lunatak blood.

All the Shadow Warriors were bleeding.  Some wounds looked like scrapes from the falling rock, while others had obvious battle scars, or what would be scars if they survive.

“Ugnarth, get your men across the bridge, now.”

“Sadly, Boron, I will not.  Not until the last possible moment.  Get as many Gravitons as you can across.” He smiled.  Darklings always had such strange smiles, and Ugnarth’s went from strange to hideous. “Go, young Lord Boron.  The Lunar Sword must survive this, as you and I know.”

Boron grit his teeth.

“We fight together.”

 

They had not long to wait.  The Tar’unt’Tar came to the entrance of the cave and stopped. Like the Avians, they could hear the humming from below, and were afraid to have their senses distorted by it. 

However, they knew the must move fast if they wanted to stop the advance of the Lunatak army.

Besides, what are 4000 verses their hundreds of thousands?

 

Onboard the Yerah, Lunaria watched with abject horror as the mass of lifesigns closed in on her men.  She had hoped that the Shadow Warriors would have been able to collapse the entire network or tunnels, but was sadly disappointed.  Fortunately, the building equipment made it in one piece, but at the cost of the engineers.  Now, they were entering the sensor-dead region.  Scans couldn’t break through the distortion, and she couldn’t send a message to Boron to warn him of the approaching doom.

 

The doomed Graviton warriors cut down the first of the Tar’unt’Tar that came near the bridge.  Their flame-throwers spewed hot death on the next, and the next, keeping them at bay while others made their way safely over the chasm. The Shadow Warriors charged into the fray in what looked like a reckless manner, but drove back swarm, if only for a second.

Boron hacked the arms off of the first that lunged at him, and spun around to give another a terrible slash.  Ugnarth seemed to use no weapon, but whatever he struck at seemed to fall back with fatal wounds.

Even the Avian who drove the land-speeder fought well, he had to, he was a Shadow Warrior.  He spun a chain with a vicious hook around, which delivered an electric shock to any it touched.  Boron lost sight of him when he was surrounded by the monstrous horde.

Boron shot his left hand out towards an oncoming Tar’unt’Tar and threw the foul beast into the chasm.  He did it again with another, but had to use the Lunar Sword, now shining like a sun, for the next.  It flew in his hand and clove the beast in two, before guiding Boron’s arm to fight the next.

The Tar’unt’Tar closed the ring of warriors defending the bridge.  Boron realized to his horror, that he was separated from the rest of the fighting force by at least 20 meters.  Ugnarth was next to him, and the Tar’unt’Tar closed about them.

“Today, we die,” said Ugnarth, almost cheerfully, “I hope to see you in a better place.”

Boron knocked a few Tar’unt’Tar over with his mind, “Take my hand.”

“Why?”

Boron grabbed Ugnarth’s wrist and jumped.  The Tar’unt’Tar leapt at the ascending pair, but fell woefully short.

“Damnit!  Boron, put me down!” Ugnarth shouted as the Tar’unt’Tar snatched at his heels.  On the other side of the chasm, the warriors were preparing for battle.  There were still Gravitons coming over the bridge, and now even Shadow Warriors were backing onto it, with more Gravitons after them.

Boron landed and released Ugnarth, before flying towards the bridge.

He landed amidst the chaos.  Some Tar’unt’Tar were already on it, wading through the Gravitons, which it was throwing over the edge.  Boron knocked one of them off, and it plummeted downwards, into the unknown depths.  Boron stuck the blade of  Lunar Sword in the bridge, and cut across, severing cutting it loose.

The other side lurched downwards, as Tar’unt’Tar and Lunatak both lost their footing.  The Shadow Warriors made great leaps, aided by desperation, to the other side, with a good many of them making the incredible feat.

Others, however, were not so lucky.  One Graviton clung to the edge of the side Boron was on. 

“H-help me!” he shouted. 

Boron bent over to help him up, and saw a Tar’unt’Tar holding tightly to his leg.

And on the Tar’unt’Tar, were 3 other warriors.

 The super-strength of the Graviton held them all up.  Boron took hold of the Graviton warrior with his left hand, and with the other, the double arm off the Tar’unt’Tar, just above the wrists.  The unencumbered warrior scrambled up.  Boron couldn’t watch as the others fell to their doom.

 

Lunaria watched from high above as the army passed out of the sensor-dead region, while the Tar’unt’Tar army retreated back the way it had come.

After several hours of watching, her warriors disappeared into another sensor-dead zone.

She could, however, send signals to them.

 

“Lord Boron,” an officer said, “we have re-established contact with the fleet.  The Queen herself wishes to speak to you.” He handed Boron a comm. unit, and hurried away.

The army had stopped outside this new region.  This was the first “civilized” thing they had encountered so far.  The tunnel from here on to what looked like the command center (as this area was illuminated) was sheathed in metal.  The floors to the high-up ceiling had wires running through them, and pipes, and things their scientists couldn’t understand, but wanted to. Mishquea took samples and readings of everything she could see.  None of what they saw made any sense, really, it’s purpose unknown. 

“My Queen, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Boron said, almost sarcastically.  He wanted off this planet.  He just killed warriors who followed him on this mission. He wanted to escape it all.

“Lord Boron, make all haste to the fortress.  If they do not respond in a peaceful, or at least diplomatic way in 6 hours, I want all your men to evacuate.”

Boron frowned.  This isn’t quite what he was expecting.

“We’ve located another drop-zone,” he said, “if you come to these co-ordinates, you can begin picking up soldiers whenever you’re ready, my Queen.”

“Very good,” she said, “for the Yerah.”

“For the Moons.” Boron said, and turned the communicator off. Silently, he cursed that he ever joined the army.

 

Even after the six hours were up and the order not to wander went out, Mishquea ventured further into the caverns with one Avian scientist, Borthelus.  They had worked together on the Avian Moon, examining ancient relics from by-gone ages past and the ancient language of the Lunataks.  They were considered the top dogs, as it were, in the study of language, and the Tar’unt’Tar proved to be most difficult of all.

During the brief time between finding the writing on the walls of the Tar’unt’Tar ship and their landing on the surface, they unlocked a total of no secrets.  Their written language was pictures and lines, scribbles, mostly.  Haphazard under the best of circumstances.

Now, she thought otherwise.

She realized the new area they were now in was a city of sorts.  There were open chambers lining the walls; small, one-person rooms.  Further down, she found a larger chamber.  As luck would have it, a record-hall of sorts.   A library.

“You understand what this means, don’t you, dear Borthelus?” Said, nearly bursting with glee, “This is the most exciting discovery we’ll ever make! We’ll beat out Bittan for sure now!”

“The grant is not everything, Mishquea,” he said in his melodic voice, “Bittan unlocked the secret of the Graviton language from before we united.  His is the most relevant to our life…”

“But this is so much more!” She spun around, her purple hair trailing her.  She went over to a console.  Although she was over 6 feet tall, she could only just peek over at the buttons on it.  With help from Borthelus, she climbed on top of the control pad and examined it.

“This seems to be an access port of sorts,” she announced.  Borthelus was more than happy on the ground. This high gravity was no fun. He couldn’t even jump high any more, let alone fly.

“Just don’t-” He didn’t say it fast enough, she had hit a button.

A panel opened next to her head, and a large metallic square came out. It was 2 feet long, one wide and an inch thick.  She couldn’t life it out of its slot.

“Gimme a hand, will you?” she asked her now terrified companion.

“What are you doing?” He whispered, although he didn’t need to.

“Give me the camera, if you won’t help, you big Mutant!”

“Hey!” He said indignantly, his musical voice a breaking.

Still, he handed over the camera and she took a quick shot of both engraved sides.

“Hey, what’s this?” She wondered aloud.

Mishquea pushed another button and looked at the screen that came on in response.

“Don’t!” Borthelus shouted.

It looked like a movie or something.  Scenes played out on the screen.

“Can’t you hear that?” He said.

“Hear what?” She asked.  Beside the images, hieroglyphs ran down the left side.  “Gimme the video recorder!” She grabbed it from his already stretched out arms.

“The voice… the images…” He said.

“Well, I don’t hear anything,” she said filming.  The image depicted a star system, from which…

“This makes no sense.” Both Mishquea and Borthelus said at the same time.

The video ended suddenly.  They looked at each other and after Mishquea jumped down from the console, and ran from the library.

 

“I think I understand!” Borthelus panted through haggard breaths.  “I’ll need to see the video to know for sure!”

“We’re such an incredible team!” She yelled.  They weren’t too sure why they were in such a hurry.  They evacuation wouldn’t end for another hour or so, it would take them minutes to get back to the main group.

They rounded a corner and looked towards the fortress.  

The doors to the great palace were opening, and all hell was breaking loose.

 

“My Queen, if there are any more transports to send, launch them now!” Boron yelled into the communicator.  They had lost contact with the fleet a few moments ago, but he hoped it was only one-way.  There were still thousands of soldiers to get out of here, and there were what seemed like teeming millions inside the palace, and beyond them, something huge lurked in the dark recesses.  Several something’s, really, and none of the Lunatak warriors wanted to stick around to see what it was.  There were a dozen transports still on the ground, and they were being hurriedly filled.

Boron drew the Lunar Sword.  Shrivala was already in space, and hopefully onboard the Dark Omega by now.  Moggart was given permission to have his men leave first, after their sacrifice earlier.  Fzarriz wanted his soldiers, the Guardians, to stay and fight.  He claimed they were freaks and abominations anyway, cannon fodder really.

Fzarriz had rushed to a transport, and climbed onboard.  There, he met up with Shrivala.  She smiled pleasantly at him.

Now to see if Alzorra held up his end of the bargain, he thought evilly.  She led him into the bathroom of the cramped ship.  He followed her eagerly, and didn’t even have time to be surprised as she pulled the trigger of her laser rifle.  Point blank.

Fzarriz died instantly, and she jettisoned his corpse into the atmosphere as they fled the doomed planet.  Her mission completed, she shook her head, and wondered why she was in the bathroom.  She walked out and was given some interesting looks from the soldiers on board.  She shrugged it off, and sat down.  She only hoped Boron would be okay…

 

Boron paced furiously.  Where were the other transports?  There were only two left on the planet, and there were still far too many soldiers to fill them. 

From the direction of the palace, he saw two scientists running madly towards them.  The first took off, packed to overflowing.  All that remained on this planet were the Shadow Warriors, the Guardians, and a handful of Ice Warriors, still longing to avenge the blood of their world.

And me.

 

Mishquea ran into the last ship, and squeezed amongst the crowd.  She barely managed to fit herself.  Borthelus was a step behind her, but the door slid shut in front of him.  He pounded on it with all his might, but it would not give.

“NOO!  I need to get on! I know how to decode their language!  I know!”

From the other side, Mishquea was wailing for them to open the door and let him in.  She had managed to keep her recording equipment with her.   She pounded on the other side, but it was no use.  The last transport took off, leaving Borthelus behind screaming.

 

Boron felt his heart sink.  That was it, then.  It was now or never.  Ugnarth walked to his friend’s side.

“So, this is finally it.  I’d like to see you get us out of this one.  Your mental powers won’t save us now, old friend.”  The old Darkling was rubbing something beyond his arm with a cloth. Boron stared at it, whatever it was, and shook his head.  The Tar’unt’Tar were slowly advancing on them, knowing the battle to be over.  They had driven the invaders off; they had won.

“All we have is duty, Ugnarth.  It’s all we ever have.”

“We have each other.” Ugnarth said grinning, that awful, ugly grin.

“Shut up.”

“You know, I’ve never heard you like this.  You used to always have some optimism, some spark.  You need to get away from the military for a while. Take a vacation.”  He rubbed beyond his other arm, now.

“I was on vacation.”

Ugnarth said nothing, but held his arm up and examined it.

“Ugnarth, what the hells are you doing?”

Ugnarth smiled, “If you had bothered to keep up with your training instead of running away to join the army, you’d know.”

Boron sighed and walked towards the Gaia Bomb.  The Ice Warriors were surrounding it, prepared to defend it to the last. The Guardians were the first wave of defense, taking a defensive position in the narrowest part of the cavern.  They knew they were doomed, but their ingrained sense of loyalty kept them from running.  The Tar’unt’Tar picked up speed as they approached the Guardians.  The Shadow Warriors moved to back the Guardians.  Boron and Ugnarth ran there as well, not eager to die, but trying to delay them as long as possible.

 

Alzorra watched all of this unfold. He knew damn well there were still people trapped on the planet surface, and he wanted it that way. The scattering field he had set up was a stroke of genius; now no-one on the Moons would know what happened. Boron was his biggest threat, being unaffected by his mental influence.  Boron hadn’t admitted to knowing there was a conspiracy when Alzorra had Shrivala confront him about it.  Obviously not someone to underestimate.  But no longer.  Soon he would be dead.

The Shadow Warriors were an organization he didn’t like the idea of not controlling. Having Lunaria order Ugnarth to sacrifice himself and his men, all for the glory of the Empire was another of his finer moments.  Whoever thought that one up should rule the Empire…

Oh, wait.  That would be me, thought Alzorra with a smile.  I have only one more enemy…

 

Boron met the ranks of the Tar’unt’Tar with savage force.  He blasted them with his mind, as well as with the Sword.  Ugnarth fought next to him, unseen blades wreaking havoc with the Tar’unt’Tar.  The Guardians pounded with mighty fists, and smashed the sea of the damned.

Then, their defensive line broke, Tar’unt’Tar poured through the crack and surged devilishly at the small entourage of Ice Warriors.  Boron broke from his battle to try and intercept them.

He was running along the wall, so he could only be attacked from one side, when out of nowhere, he was struck from behind, and knocked into a small chamber that lined the walls of the caverns.

He struggled to get up, there was a Tar’unt’Tar in the doorway, who clicked its scimitar like mandibles at him menacingly. Boron slashed at the fiend, and split it’s gut open. It toppled to the ground, but fell against the wall. 

Or rather, the console on the outside of the pod.  The door closed on him, as he slammed against it.  

Cursing, he looked outside.  The Gaia Bomb! It was still unarmed!  Damnit! A Tar’unt’Tar loomed over it, ready to smash it to bits. 

Suddenly, the Avian Lunatak jumped it, and wrapped his chain around its neck.  Boron heard the mental scream split his skull, and the Lunar Sword’s as the Avian was grabbed by another Tar’unt’Tar and ripped in half. 

Boron felt cold all of the sudden.  Damnit! Was he dying?  Boron stretched his mind out to the control panel of the Bomb and somehow, activated it, even as his body shut down.

The pod he was in launched itself into the air, and out a shaft at that opened at the top of the chamber. 

Ugnarth looked up and saw Boron disappear, “Damn, wish I’d thought of that…”

The Darkling was grabbed by two Tar’unt’Tar even as that last thought escaped his mind, and he thought no more.

 

The majority of the fleet pulled back a safe distance and watched in morbid fascination as the home-world of their greatest enemy was blown to pieces.  The three ships that were the Shadow Warrior were destroyed in the explosion.

 

            Now, was truly the time to be alive.

 

            Next in the series, Darkness (I told you this was only the prelude J )

 

 

 

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