Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (11 page)

His helmet, however, wasn’t on.

I frowned.

That frown only became all the more powerful
as a quick nervous feeling sunk through my gut.

I knew exactly what it meant. A second
later, the massive deployment doors opened once more, and Prince
Xarin walked in.

Mark straightened up, an odd look flashing
in his eyes as he twisted his gaze and locked it on Xarin.

Xarin cleared his throat as he stared at
each soldier in turn. His gaze never met mine, though, and he
appeared to look right over the top of my head.

I hardened my jaw.
I
barely existed to this man
.
Though he’d had the
hubris and arrogance to kidnap me from my life and draft me into
his army, he’d already forgotten about me. I was simply another set
of hands that could hold a blaster.

Xarin didn’t say anything, then he turned
sharply to the side. He was wearing his armor, including his
ceremonial cloak. It shifted over his shoulder, scattering down his
back with a smooth slipping sound. He began to talk to Mark in a
low tone.

Though I couldn’t pick up the exact words,
there was something about Mark’s expression that told me he didn’t
agree with whatever Xarin was telling him.

Finally Xarin took a step back. “You have
all been selected for this critical mission. You will all comply
with every order I give you, before we land on the planet, once we
are on the planet, and when we depart. It is critical you follow
everything I say.” For some reason, his gaze appeared to lock on
me.

I clenched my teeth even harder, chasing
away the flighty feeling that threatened to fly through my gut.

My gaze flicked towards Mark again, and I
picked up his angry expression once more. He smoothed it off his
face when Xarin glanced back at him, though.

“I will lead this mission,”
Xarin stated flatly. “You will now board the transport. There will
be no questions. All you are required to do is follow orders.” With
that, he turned, the cloak
swished
around his
shoulders.

I caught one last glance at
Mark, noting how momentarily dark his expression became. He even
appeared to curl
a
hand into a fist.

If the rest of the crew were to be believed,
Xarin and Mark were friends. That was the only reason why a
half-Arterian half-human could hold such an important position.

But friends did not look at friends with
such a dark menace building in their gaze….

I was shocked into action as the soldiers
beside me pushed off with grunts.

I was forced to follow the group as it
churned around me like a frantic school of fish fleeing from a
shark. Or, in this instance, fleeing towards one. For we all
followed Xarin at a distance down the corridor until we reached the
docking bay.

We filed into a short-range
transport, designed to ferry soldiers from the
Illuminate
in orbit down to a
planet.

Suffice to say, it was not built for
comfort. Apart from the pilot’s seat, and navigational command,
there were two long, uncomfortable benches that ran down the inside
of the elongated ship.

I sat down, squeezed between two large
Arterian soldiers.

I was surprised to see that there was not
some throne for Xarin to sit upon. I was even more surprised to see
that he sat down with his men, sitting at the end of the bench,
just across from me.

His helmet was now on, and I couldn’t see
where his eyes were directed.

And yet something told me he was staring at
me.

He stared at me the entire trip down to the
planet.

We had no idea why we were
going down there. Xarin hadn’t whispered a word. As he
had
kept repeating, he simply expected us to
follow.

We were like loyal pets. Too foolish to
understand our master’s intentions.

I stared at him the entire trip, never
blinking once.

There was…
there was just something about
him. Beyond the arrogance and privilege. My mind couldn’t
comprehend it, but my heart could as it beat faster.

The trip down to the surface of the planet
took a little under 15 minutes.

There were no windows in this section of the
ship, and the only indication that we were sweeping in to land were
proximity sensors blaring from the small cockpit.

Before our ship touched down, Xarin rose. He
didn’t bother to lock a hand on the railing that ran above the
bench – as a violent tremble shuddered through the ship, his boots
locked onto the floor.

The pilot turned around in his seat.
“We’ve landed. Deploying the ramp now.”

Suddenly a door opened up behind Xarin, and
a metal ramp pushed out from a recess, cutting down to the ground
beyond.

Instantly I was met with a
dank, earthy smell. It was worlds apart from the dusty dry
odour
of the refinery.

I found myself standing and craning my neck
through the door, eyes growing wide as I saw the lush jungle
beyond.

We were not allowed to disembark until Xarin
waved us forward with a swipe of two fingers.

Though the move was dismissive, and should
have set my anger off anew, it didn’t. Instead, as I took a step
forward and walked onto the top of the ramp, I gasped.

I’d never seen a planet more lush with
vegetation. It was so dense, it pushed up against the side of the
transport, several massive purple and green leaves pressing over
the ramp.

We
walked down the ramp in single file. I passed several
clogged vines, and as the leaves brushed against my grey and black
armor, they deposited condensation across the metal. It dribbled
down my shins and splashed over my boots.

It was unusual for Prince Xarin to lead a
mission, Mark usually took point.

Xarin only appeared for the truly important
missions. The life-or-death operations involving the Zorv.

As I looked around the jungle,
I couldn’t see a single enemy. I couldn’t even begin to tell what
Xarin thought was down here amongst the dense leaves and
entwined
vines.

Xarin strode off a distance into the jungle,
head tilted to the side. He leaned down to one knee and pressed his
hand into the dirt, leaf matter and twigs pressing up between his
rigid metal fingers.

After a long pause, he pushed to his feet,
appeared to nod to himself, then strode back to us.

All the soldiers had
now
disembarked.

“You will
fan
out in groups of two and search the immediate vicinity
using your scanners.” Xarin gestured to the closest soldier to him,
waiting until the man plucked his scanner from his hip holster.
“They have been preprogrammed to detect certain signals. Should
your scanner beep to indicate such a signal has been detected, you
will immediately contact me using your communication lines. Do you
understand?”

Every soldier, including me, saluted and
grunted out a yes.

“Very well. Move out.”

I turned, searching for a teammate.

That’s when I heard somebody walk up behind
me.

Someone reached a hand out and locked it on
my shoulder.

I shoved it off, reacting before my mind had
a chance to catch up to my body.

I
spun
,
a snarl on my lips, ready to tell the jerk behind me to keep his
hands to himself.

…
Which was when I realized
it was Xarin.

His hand was still in mid-air, presumably
from where I’d shoved it back.

I couldn’t see his expression – his helmet
obscured it. His body language, however, said everything.

He tilted his head to the side, the
powerful blue-white headlights from the transport behind lighting
up the side of his shoulder and glimmering down the side of his
helmet. “You’re with me,” he suddenly said.

I stiffened, back straightening so much it
practically rammed through the top of my head. “What—”

“That’s an order,” he snapped, then
turned, waving his hand forward with a dismissive move.

I sneered at him from under the
confines of my helmet, so very glad that he c
ouldn’t see my true
expression.

I had no option but to follow.

We travelled
down a rocky
incline towards a
dense area
of
jungle.

This planet was completely at
odds with the desert world of the refinery. The thick jungle pushed
at us from all sides,
mist hanging through the roots and droplets of
water pooling on every leaf and blade of grass.

Almost immediately the outside of my
helmet visor began to condense up. The prince didn’t appear to have
the same problem. Then again, he was wearing the most advanced
armor in the whole goddamn galaxy, wasn’t he?

Another flare of jealousy pumped through
my heart. It wasn’t enough to see me turn on my foot and ran off
through the jungle in the hopes I could escape the Arterians and
finally be free. No, at the very thought of doing that I almost
fell to my knees.

I couldn’t leave him. No matter how much I
hated him, I just couldn’t stomach turning away.

“Concentrate,” he suddenly snapped from my
side.

“That’s easy for you, you don’t have a
face full of condensation,” I snapped before I could remind myself
who I was talking to.

There was a moment’s pause.

Then there was a hiss as the prince
detached something from his armor. Before I knew what he was doing,
he walked over to my side, and crossed in front of me. He reached
an arm up and clutched the left side of my helmet. If my helmet
hadn’t been in place, his hand would have rested against my jaw and
neck.

I stiffened. Every single muscle seized in
place as the blood beat a thunderous reprieve between my ears.

My mouth went dry, and nerves climbed my
neck so quickly it was like lightning discharging up my
back.

I tried to tell myself that the prince was
just attaching something to the neck piece of my armor, but it
didn’t matter. I could not quell my beating heart.

A second later he finished what he was
doing.

I felt a click. Then I saw something flicker
over my visor. Everything changed. I was no engineer, but it looked
as if it upgraded – in a matter of seconds.

The condensation covering my helmet no
longer mattered, because the external camera’s somehow adjusted for
it.

I brought a hand up and waved it in front
of my face, hardly believing what I saw.

The prince chuckled.

He chuckled. The man was actually capable of
a moment of mirth.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him in
surprise.

I watched him tilt his head to the side.
Before he could say anything, he straightened his back and gave a
stiff nod. “You’re ready, now follow.”

The prince never said anything, nor did he
ever suggest anything. Everything was a snapped command, an order
from a member of royalty.

I tried to remind myself of that fact as I
followed him, and it helped flush out the giddy surprise of having
him clutch the side of my helmet.

You’re stronger than this. So
much fucking stronger,
so start acting like it,
I berated myself.

We continued to press through the jungle.
I was curious as to why the prince had asked me to come along with
him, rather than one of his imperial guards, but I knew I couldn’t
ask that question. Ask it, and I’d just get a snapped insult in
reply, not an answer.

So I stowed my curiosity as I kept my gun
clutched in my hand.

The prince hadn’t even bothered pulling
his weapon from his side yet, and once or twice I saw his helmet
incline towards me. Soon his curiosity obviously got the better of
him. “Soldier, why do you have your gun drawn? There are no
contacts around here. We have already completed a thorough sensor
sweep from orbit. This is purely an exploratory
mission.”

Perhaps the right thing to do would have
been to holster my gun. I didn’t. I twisted my head around to stare
at him. “If it’s so safe, why did you bring so many soldiers? And
why have you got your Illuminate sword at your side?”

The prince appeared to react. Though I
couldn’t see his body from under his armor, his shoulder pieces
suddenly twitched forward. He even took an almost frantic step my
way. “What?”

I was dumbfounded by the strength of his
reaction. I took a step back to regain my personal space. My mouth
was dry, and my heart beat a little harder, but it sure as hell
wasn’t because the prince had told me off. It was because he took
another step and another step until he stood too damn close to me
once more.

“Why did you call it that?” he demanded,
words splitting from his mouth.

“…
I don’t know, it was just a
comment. I mean, that’s what your ship is called. I guess I just…”
I trailed off, because I’d lost the ability to form a coherent
sentence.

My mind was starting to ring again, and that
steady throbbing sensation was crossing through my jaw once more
until it felt as if it would shake my teeth from my skull.