Cartlidge: Rise of the Imperfect Flame (17 page)

“Survivors sir!
We think one of
them is what you are looking for!” in a twisted form of Rovanekren. Immediately
after they all left on the train and the door closed behind us. It was pitch
black, yet I could clearly see the other captives. The very air was tainted
with an odor of death. Something was wrong with this room. “We should not be
here.” That phrase repeated itself in my mind. We should not be here. A large
figure on the other side of the room shifted and began walking towards us. I
only thought of protecting Sapphire, but as the figure got closer I realized he
was Rovanekren.

“Arivictus!”
One of the captives
shouted, scrambling towards the door. In a panic, he started slamming his body
against the door in a desperate attempt to force it open. Arivictus laughed in
a dry, cracked voice,
then
focused his attention on
me.

“Human!” He hissed, “How often does a mouse know it is being
hunted by a snake?” He spoke perfect Rovanekren. He walked over to the
panicking captive, grabbed him by the top of his head, and broke his neck with
the twist of a single hand. His lifeless body flopped to the floor with a
sickening thud.

“Now ladies and gentlemen if a snake can smell fear, as
humans claim, why not just remain calm? That way you won’t die as quickly!” He
laughed in his scratchy voice and stood in front of us. Arivictus stood clearly
half a meter above the average Rovanekren. He had the standard unkempt, slick
black hair of a Rovanekren, yet his eyes were much darker than normal. He had
darkened patches under his eyes as well. The fifth horn jutting from his head
told me that he was likely a king. He wore steel black armor with large
shoulder guards that extended his already broad shoulders and no significant
leg protection. The left shoulder guard of his armor had a single curved spike
attached, which slightly glowed with a black aura. Under the armor, he wore a
puffy grey shirt and similar pants, neither of which seemed suitable as
protective armor. In his hand he carried a large, two headed, black axe with
what looked like blades of scythes hollowed out of the axe blades
..

“Now, I know that you know about the crash that took place a
year ago.
Nasty business that was.
I had to execute
the commander of that little expedition since he did not bring me any
survivors. How lucky it is for me though, that some of you did survive the
crash!” He pointed to Sapphire. “I know you were one of them, so who here can
tell me which one of our guests is from the crash?” One of the other captives
pointed to me. He was the soldier I had disarmed on the planet earlier in the
day.

“Ah! The human! I should’ve guessed. Your kind loves getting
into trouble.” He paused for a moment then turned towards the soldier. “But… it
is not polite to sell out your friends for your own gain.” And with a single
motion, he buried the entire blade into soldier’s left side. There was a crunch
of bone and metal armor, and blood began to spill profusely onto the floor.
Arivictus put his boot on the soldier’s other shoulder and ripped the bloodied
axe free.

“That’s two down!” He roared. He started to laugh, but
suddenly grew silent. There was a pause before he raised his axe again and
threw it at the upper part of the wall to our right. It tumbled through the air
before finding
it’s
mark, striking something that
immediately began to glow as it fell to the ground.

“I wondered when I’d find one!” He walked over to the object
and grabbed it. The object turned out to be a person, from
whom
came a brilliant white glow.

“I think that’s an angel!” Someone whispered. Arivictus held
his axe by the top of the handle and in a single motion, cut off what looked
like a pair of small wings attached to the creature’s back. The wings
disintegrated as they fell away and the angel turned dull grey from head to
toe. Arivictus dragged his helpless victim in front of us, took the time to
look each one of us in the eye, and severed the angel’s head with his axe. One
of the captives shrieked. Some sort of terrible cry roared out, and the entire
ship seemed to shake. An ice cold shiver went down my spine, and instantly I
felt sick to my stomach.

“Now then, where were we?
Oh yeah!”
In one swift motion, he seized me by my throat and threw me against the floor.
I felt his foot steadily begin to apply pressure to my ribcage. In a loud SNAP,
my cuirass cracked, and his full weight was on my ribs. I cried out in pain.

“Tell me son, what is so special about this little beast
here? Why did your council send a military frigate to find her? Why does she
have the symbol of life tattooed across her sickening Anth face?” Rage filled
me as he spoke and I began to struggle against the restraints. I could feel the
heat of the energy now engulfing my arms. I swore at him, making him frown. He
rose his foot to bring it down on my ribcage, but just as he did I tore my arms
free of the restraints and caught his foot mid-air.

He quickly pulled his foot away and instead brought his axe
to bear, aiming it at me. “Ooh! A human king! What a rare catch! Well I’ve
always wanted to kill one of you!”

“Stop!”
We both looked at
at
Sapphire throwing herself between us. As I rose to my
feet Arivictus grabbed Sapphire’s hair and held her up a meter above the
ground. He kicked me back down in an effortless gesture then examined Sapphire
for a moment. She was desperately trying to support herself by holding onto her
own hair. I was frozen in horror. I couldn’t bring myself to rise. After a
moment he used his free hand to tear at her shirt. It opened just enough to
reveal the heart-like symbol just below her collarbone. He sat for another
moment.

“A life gem?!”
He roared. He looked
towards me. “Well, we can’t have that now
can
we?” My
heart stopped. Everything became silent. Arivictus dropped Sapphire onto her
feet, allowing her just enough time to recover and look up before swinging his
axe downward.

“No!” I wasn’t sure if it was a thought or a shout but it
made no difference. The axe slashed diagonally across her body where the gem
was situated. Something was propelled through the air towards me. Sapphire’s
upper body, as if in slow motion, descended for what seemed like minutes until
it reached the floor. There was no blood. Instead, her body collapsed like a
sand sculpture struck down by a wave of the sea. There were only ashes left
swirling around the floor at our feet. Arivictus turned away, confused by his
own actions, as if looking to an unseen figure for guidance, then turned to me.
I slowly regained control over myself and looked at the object. It was a gem, a
little smaller than my palm, with eight sides. The gleaming gemstone was
covered in a thin layer of red ash, and there was a large crack across one side
of it. I turned my head to look at the dust pile and vomited to the side.
Arivictus came over to me but before anything else could be said or done, the
ship shook violently. It had taken a direct hit from something. Two soldiers
entered the room, bringing with them a tidal wave of light. An odd shadow in
the back shifted slightly.

“Sir!
The entire Rovanekren Armada
is here!”

“What?!”
He roared and raised his
axe overhead in preparation to deliver my death blow. I clenched my fist around
the gem,
then
rolled away from the strike. Without
taking time to aim, I fired a blast of energy toward the two soldiers. The
blast struck one and the near miss knocked the other to the ground. Everyone
ran for the train. Two of us made it but the remaining two were pulled back in
by Arivictus. The train moved towards the hangar for a few minutes and then
stopped. Doors opened on both sides and several shots rang out. The captive to
my right took a direct hit to the face and fell over dead. We moved out the
left door and began to run. My thoughts began to fall over themselves. No. No.
No. The word repeated itself over, and over again. The image was burned into my
mind, as if it was still in front of me. We continued to run as explosions went
off all around us. An explosion found
it’s
mark and we
were taken off our feet. I felt weightlessness just before crashing into a
wall, then, gravity returning, the floor. The other captive was dead. I pulled
off my right shin guard and shoe, which had been
charred
in the blast, and kept limping onward. I needed to make it. I didn’t know where
I was going but I was determined to get there. My vision blurred from tears.
The image would not leave. Why couldn’t I get rid of that image? Four soldiers
stood in front of me and I charged them. One caught me and held on. It was not
forceful, but it was strong. I struggled to free myself and when I raised my
arm to strike the soldier, I realized he was a Rovanekren.

“Sir!
Calm down! You are safe. We
are the advance boarding party.” He spoke partially in Rovanekren and Gaia.
“Are there any other survivors?”

I paused to find my voice then spoke. “There are some escape
pods on the planet, but I’m the only survivor left on the ship. They … They
killed all the others…” Sapphire’s image found its way into my mind again and I
struggled desperately to keep composure.

“I am sorry, sir. We arrived as soon as we found your
distress beacon.” He paused for a moment. “Sir, if you do not mind me asking,
where is the high value target we needed to rescue? Are you it or…?”

“No… I’m not” I choked for a moment, my vision blurred. I
handed him the life gem. “But this needs to be returned to your ship as soon as
possible. This is of top priority.”

He looked at the bloodstained rock for a moment then took it
in his hand without question.

“What’s your name soldier?” I asked.

“ Commander
…
Ezekiel.”
He spoke in Gaia. “This is my squad.”

“Alright.
My name is Jacob. Jacob
Cartlidge.”

“Pleased to meet you sir.
Our drop
ship is in the aft hangar bay. If you follow us we will get you home.” He
turned away to speak in a communicator.

“All teams, we have the package. Break off immediately.
Anyone who does not make it back in fifteen minutes will be left behind!”

I heard several sounds of confirmation from the communicator
as he put it away. He handed me a pistol. I inspected it closely as if to find
some sort of flaw,
then
switched the safety mechanism
off. A noise rang out far behind us. It sounded completely different from the
explosions I had experienced
earlier,
this one was as
if someone had let free an angry bull inside the nearby room. Something large
was coming closer. We all began backing away, until the slow shuffling became a
run. Shortly after we turned to run another noise came from behind, followed by
the sound of large objects crashing into the floor and something else.
Something large charging toward us.
We were being chased! I
turned back in time to see Arivictus barreling through the doors and rapidly
closing the gap between
himself
and us. We must have
doubled our speed running on pure fear but he still managed to close in on us.
As we ran through, a pair of doors closed immediately after us. A sudden thud
indicated that Arivictus had crashed into the closed doors but not through
them. Silence followed. We all collapsed from exhaustion. I examined the room
and then rose from the floor, panting. Three other squads looked at us in
confusion,
then
continued filling the nearby drop
ship. We were in the aft hangar bay. The large hangar was in stark contrast to
the claustrophobic rooms that comprised the rest of the ship. The walls were
covered with containers, panels,
launch
rails for
fighters, and repair parts for damaged ships. Ezekiel and his squad stood up
and began directing the others. I limped over to the ship and then rested upon
it.

“You let them lock the blast doors?!” Ezekiel shouted.

“Sir, we lost a whole squad defending the ship alone.” The
soldier looked incredibly shaken from his battle. Ezekiel sighed.

“It’s alright soldier.” He lifted his head and shouted, “Any
of you good with Clawtrodon tech?”

Another soldier walked up. He had his helmet removed, his
face covered in sweat. He had several burns on his armor from the rounds of his
Clawtrodon foes. Ezekiel and the soldier walked over to a control panel and
began the work of freeing the ship. The others continued filling the drop ship
with provisions scavenged from the Undying. I looked up towards the cockpit to
find the pilot nervously tapping his fingers on the dashboard, eyeing Ezekiel
and the solder impatiently. I sat down and allowed my thoughts to return to
Sapphire. Her smile appeared in my head, as vivid as if she were sitting in
front of me.
Sapphire.
She was gone. I rested my head
between my arms, which in turn rested upon my upright knees. Sapphire was gone.
I let her die. I promised I would protect her and I let her die!

I broke down into a sob. I was a failure. I had always been
a failure. I will always be a failure. “But this, this was worse.” I didn’t
just fail myself. I failed my squad, my crew, Captain Mar, everyone. I failed
them. “But… this…” I failed her. I was sure the other soldiers were looking at
me, but I didn’t care. I only thought of Sapphire. I continued to cry until a
noise brought me back. It was the sound of a body slamming against the dented
door. I
rose
my head and stared in shock.

“Is that door unlocked?”

“I need more time sir!”

“We don’t have more time!” Another metallic thud rang off. I
looked towards the door and knew that beyond it stood Arivictus, Sapphire’s
killer. A warm, stinging feeling welled up in my chest and throat, and spread
to my now tense arms and legs, then to my face, which looked upon the door with
a look of blind fury that few will ever know in their lifetime. For the first
time I felt a sense of pure hatred. It was an overwhelming, powerful
feeling, that
begged to be unleashed.