UNTITLED: Book One

DAY 134.01

This ain’t war

It’s a slaughter

First, our reason, then our Fathers

Thema is throwing up now while pods continue to crash into the ground around them. She had to let down the shield so her people could mobilize, or even just escape. They were packed in this island, perfect for the kill if she passed out.

Pods rain down on them, many of them crushing her people and blowing through the transports they had floating on the other end of the island, waiting on standby. Even the ones trying to take off back towards the city.

The pods empty by ejecting their doors out like cannon fire. Then out floods at least 20 soldiers per pod. Thema wipes her mouth and stumbles to her feet. Her vision is blurry, but it’s not hard to miss the large carrier above them. She squeezes the handle of the sword and the sword releases the piercing shrieking noise again, then she swings the sword towards the cruiser, hoping to destroy it in one strike. But before she can complete her swing, a hand catches her forearm. It’s Solara, slightly grimacing from the piercing shriek of the sword.

“That’s a dumb way to die Thema, considering there’s more war to fight after you destroy a single fucking carrier that’s basically empty now.”

“Get your fucking hand off me!” Thema yanks her arm free then loses her balance, falling to the ground.

Solara looks down on her, no words spoken. None have to be. That’s when it hurts the most.

“Listen, as much as I’d like to fight you, and ohhh how I really want to fight you now that you’re all special and shit, there’s a bigger problem at hand.” Solara points to the sky.

“What do you care!?” Thema snaps back as she frantically scans around the battleground, absorbing what she’s seeing.

She notices Aiye has made somewhat of a perimeter around them by fighting off the waves of soldiers that she’s only just now realizing have been rushing at them. Do they know who she is? Do they know what I have? Why are they coming specifically for us on such a large battlefield?

She thought she and her team had gotten rid of all the Dark State cells hiding here. Was one of the cells able to get information out? Did she and her team miss one?

“I don’t care, but shouldn’t you? Don’t you have people in the city right now?” Solara points towards the city in the sky. It’s currently being barraged by battleships—to no avail.

TOZI. JUNAID. The realization of who she left up there hits her like a punch to the face. She takes off sprinting towards the nearest transport.

“There she is.” Solara says bluntly as she trails closely behind a stumbling Thema.

Despite being severely weakened by her usage of the sword, Thema still easily slices and dices her way to the nearest transport. A soldier fires a rocket at Thema and the transport she’s about get in, but Solara catches it with two hands. She manages to hold it there, despite its propulsion system struggling to continue shooting it forward, studying it for a second before she aiming it directly up above her. It explodes not too far from her, engulfing her in the blast.

Thema looks back at her, then gets inside the transport. Suddenly, Solara, covered in soot and some scratches, pushes her out of the way before she can sit in the driver’s seat.

“You’re barely standing, move.”

Aiye jumps in right before the door closes. He’s carrying the enemy’s weapons, the keys, and something that looks like identification.

He shouts over the outside noise, “What’s the plan? What’re we doing? Oh, Thema. You’re here… stillll with the glasses too. Hm. Never mind. Sol! What’re we doing!? We moving??”

“I was wondering the same thing myself,” Thema coldly replies. She’s sweating profusely and her skin looks clammy and pale.

“You look bad and you’re getting worse.” Aiye remarks.

“That’s what happens when you look for power in anything but your own fists.” Solara interjects while turning on the transport. “But she’ll have to suck it up because it’s only gonna get worse before it gets better. We need to get to the city now. Our window is closing and I don’t wanna be stuck on this island fighting weaklings. These battleships and pods are knocking people outta the sky like it’s nothing. So we need a shield until we get to the city.”

“Ah.” Thema and Aiye both reply in unison.

“Perhaps I should fly then? Watch out Sol, you’re terrible at flying.”

“What? I can fly? Fuck you! You watch out.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t fly, I said you are terrible at it!”

“Enough time’s been wasted! It doesn’t fucking matter which of you two flies it, just take off! NOW!” Thema shouts.

Aiye and Solara switch seats. Aiye punches in the city’s coordinates then he takes off by immediately using overdrive—setting it off like a rocket launch. Typically used for an emergency boost of speed when already flying, but they have no intentions of flying this thing after this so they might as well get all they can out of it now.

While the small transport ship is launching off the ground, Thema concentrates to maintain her shield around it, and her consciousness. She’s bleeding now out of her nose and ears, but she’s holding up for now.

They streak through the sky battle, rocketing towards the city. Their ship rattles violently as its engines begin to overheat and Thema’s shield continues deflecting attacks.

“Uhm, these shields are strong yeah?” Aiye asks.

“Yes. If *huff* you let me *huff* focus.” Thema replies through her struggling breathing.

“Cool, because we’re headed right for a battleship and we can’t maneuver at all. Not at this speed. And certainly not in this piece of junk.”

“Then we go through it.” Thema replies before squeezing the grip of the sword tighter and roaring in pain.

Their transport ship does exactly that. The battleship turns all its fire onto them, but just like the city, it does nothing to make them fall. They crash right through the ship, exploding through the middle of it. The front of the battleship separating its back as the explosion rips out the middle portion.

“WOAH!” Aiye exclaims as he catches a glimpse of the two halves crashing into the ocean below them. “I thought we’d just go through it and leave a small hole behind!”

“HAH. That was pretty cool, “ Solara adds with a smirk.

“I put a little *huff* extra into it, and now *huff* I’m regretting it. Please tell me that we’re close.”

Solara looks at the city just as a small portion of the shield goes down to welcome them. “Home sweet home.” Solara replies just before they crash into the belly of city and out through the top of it. They skid onto the mall lawn, digging up the grass along the way, before stopping near the base of the big Narra.

Solara casually kicks the transport’s back door with enough force to send it flying across the lawn. She casually steps out of the transport. Dropping gently to the ground. The other two follow.

She stands there for a moment, taking in the sight of the lawn, with the war going on in the background.

“My question is, how did we even get through the city’s shields? Honestly, I was kinda expecting to crash, or something.” Solara says to no one in particular.

A freaked out Thema replies, “WHAT!? So you were gonna have us crash into the city if this didn’t work out??”

“You trusted Sol to plan that far?? I thought YOU had the plan!? That’s why I didn’t say anything!” Aiye defends, also freaked out at the fact that they could have just splattered against the shield if whatever happened just now, didn’t happen.

“I assumed we’d be fine. Some bruises and whatnot, but we’d figure it out like always. That guy’s always watching after all.” Solara replies calmly.

“Solara! You’re not invincible.” Thema says while brushing past her, pissed off and sickly. “You know, for someone who says they care about their own people, you play around with too many people’s lives. Including your own. Just like your fath-.”

Solara frowns. But Thema continues.

“… If you idiots must know, the city is designed to let the people it recognizes in. And if that didn’t work during wartime protocol, I would simply make way with this sword. By force or we teleport. Like Warden’s twin blades, this sword is somehow connected to the city. I was even able to get into The Eye by myself,” she says pointing up in its direction.

That catches Solara’s attention as her head immediately snaps in Thema’s direction. “YOU. Got. Into. The Eye?? WITHOUT him!?”

“Yeah… *cough* why? *huff* What’s it to you?” Thema replies cautiously. Defensive now due to Solara’s change in aura. That level of interest from her is never good.

Solara just stares at the sword for a moment, “I seeeee…”

Yeah, never good. Thema thinks to herself as she gets in a weak defensive stance, ready to defend herself and her weapon. “Don’t even think about it.”

Solara stares at the weapon longer. Then at Thema. The air about her cold and calculating now. The other Solara quickly rising out of her. Just as she moves to step to Thema, Aiye steps in between them with his back to Solara.

Facing Thema, he looks her in her eyes and tells her, “Go handle your business. We can settle things between us, once and for all, after we get rid of the literal army attcking our planet... To be honest, I thought it was The Broker attacking because he and the rest of the surface peop- he and his people were going to attack. But now I’m thinking the worst must’ve happened to them. There’s no way this attack is just here. Meaning we’re on our own in this fight. No people from below. No colonies. Just us, against the full might of The Dark State. AND The Warden. Go get your people and get yourself back together because there’s no way we’re winning this without you.”

“What are you gonna do?” Thema asks.

“Kill The Warden? Then take the fight to the Dark State? And then go about our own business. I don't know,” he shrugs. “Something like that. I doubt you have a problem with killing him, huh? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you calling him The Warden now. Even when standing directly under The Eye.”

Thema looks at them both for a moment, then up at The Eye. “Sure. But, you’ll have to find your own way in there. I won’t stop you, but I won’t help either.” She says before taking off running in the other direction.

“…Can’t do this without you,” Solara mocks Aiye’s words with a scoff, breaking the silence as they watch Thema instruct New Wave and Old Guard while she heads into the city.

Aiye turns to her, “I’m serious. We can’t Solara. I’m NOT going to have us be the last two of our kind. That’s not winning. Look at The Broker and what happened. Is that what you want for us? I don’t. Fuck that?”

Solara sighs. “Guess not.”

She looks up at The Eye, then Aiye does too.

He asks, “Right, so how’re we gonna get up there?”

“We wait.” Solara calmly replies as she begins to walk towards the edge of the city to watch the raging war below.

By now, the city’s defenses have come up and they’re on the offensive. Blowing through the occasional battleship and mowing down their smaller fighters zooming around the sky.

Aiye follows behind her, “Wait for what Sol?”

“Until he’s ready to die. He’s in The Eye. So while near the city, he can hear us and see us and he knows what we want. He’s knows Thema ain’t with him any more. He for sure knows we ain’t. The Dark State’s at his door, which im sure he knew they were here and likely let them attack to get us all together. But also Sollar’s dead—the Colonies are gone… I’m assuming, if the Dark State made it to our corner of the galaxy without any warning. But yeah, all he ever does is watch from inside The Eye. Losing his mind slowly, since I was a child. And now seeing the sword at work, I finally know why. So, we wait for him to open up to us once he’s come to terms with the fact that today is the day he will die.”

She plops down on the edge, letting her legs dangle over it. Aiye sits down next to her. “Wait patiently without jumping head first into exhausting amount of danger?? Say no moreee. I can do that, haha. It’s like our rolls are reversed,” He says and he scoots close to her, playfully getting in her personal space while she chuckles and pushes him away. “By the way, what happened to those keys, by the way?”

“Well, by the way, they’re in one of those transports, by the way, still on the island, by The WaY.” She jokes with him. He returns the playful push with a smirk and his infamous eye-roll before she continues. “But yeah, they all look alike so I couldn’t tell you which one. Don’t have the detector thing that Broker had either. So yeah, we wait.”

“So, we wait. Gotcha.”

And so they wait, with the perfect view of the full battle. The different colors of the battle lighting up the daytime sky. Blasts from the enemy’s flagship and battleships continue to hit the shields. The impact of the attacks light up the city. It’s kind of beautiful, the way each impact makes the transparent shield ripple with a rainbow-like color. Then below them, large fires dot the seas with battles raging over on Isi-Iyi in the distance.

As time passes while they watch, Aiye holds Solara in a warm embrace as she rests her head on his shoulder. Her single, long braid drapes over the edge with her legs. The sun rising across the horizon, to signify the dawn of a new day. Not knowing this will be the last time they ever embrace like this, as this.

The thunderous drum strikes once…