Chapter 11

  A Sea of Blue Comets

  There were three shades of blue uniforms patterned about five rows on the exterior deck of the TA77-C 1 station. There was only one exception, Mira. Standing in the center of the legion next to Castor, she adorned her purple uniform. Her color would be on display for all the Ruber to see.

  The orange sands whipped over the platform they stood on. Legate Apollo was up front, pacing back and forth with a large sword, similar to the one she had seen in the armory, in his right hand. Behind him was the large semi-spherical dent in the ground to be used for a bridge.

  Apollo spouted off orders and instructions, recapping what their mission would be.

  Mira was still bummed she wasn’t part of the primary battle. She rubbed a finger across the circular piece of armor on her chest. She figured that with it and her strength, she would’ve been able to hold her own.

  Apollo gestured towards Mira. “Today, we have a guest.”

  All of the soldiers turned to look at her.

  “As rumored, she is the purple flame. Today she fights with us. Today we fight for her. We will ensure the Ruber will never set foot within Taurus again. Today we quell their rebellion, and we frighten their cold cores.”

  Despite her mission roles, Mira was feeling inspired again. No, she wouldn’t fight the battle, but she was to fulfill their primary objective.

  “Now at the end of this battle, I want to see the ground stained with ashes and the winds to carry a gray fog! I want to see embers of red, orange, and yellow fizzle in the air! Do not hesitate. Do not show mercy. Do not show fear! They are here for one thing and one thing only, and that’s our spirit! We will not let them drag us to the ground.”

  “Yes, Legate!” the crowd yelled. The ground shook as each member pounded their fist to their chest. A cloud of dust carried up into the wind.

  Mira found her eyes unblinking at their Legate, despite the sediment grains that pelted her.

  “Let blue fire rain down upon them!” Apollo cried out.

  The soldiers yelled. This time it was a discord of war cries.

  Apollo motioned to the person just beside him.

  Mira watched as he walked up in front of the rounded depression in the platform. His uniform was a deep blue. A chromatic emblem was pinned to his chest in the shape of a swirling vortex.

  He planted his feet on the ground, his toes curling around crevices in the floor. With arms coated in flame, he held out his arms and began gesturing towards the interior of the crater. He moved his arms in swaying motions.

  Mira could see pulses of energy oozing from inside the hemisphere as his energy started to connect with the bridging outlet of B-OBS-B. The air was almost vibrating. Particulates of dust that flew by it ended up trapped in a spin.

  “I can’t wait for you to learn bridging,” Castor smiled.

  There was a booming noise. It was a sound like no other she’d heard before. It was riveting. A large circular bridge had opened in the middle of the frame. Mira could see through it, darkness speckled with stars.

  The man continued to pull at it still, expanding it. His arms were shaking. The tenderness he used to craft it became much more violent.

  It grew in size until it grazed the dent in the ground. It was at that size that the man pulled his arms down. The flames on his hands dissipated, and he stood still for a moment. In the suspense, Mira assumed he would fall over or stumble away. He didn’t and turned to the crowd with a roar.

  The rest of the soldiers roared back.

  “Today we take back what is ours!” Apollo wailed. With that he turned towards the portal and lunged forward, his body disappearing through it.

  The soldiers in their orderly rows followed his lead and, with a running start, all lunged into the bridge.

  “You ready?” Castor asked as their feet began moving in unison with their row. “Remember what I taught you and stick the landing.”

  Mira nodded, turning her attention to the oncoming abyss of the bridge. She ignited her fists. With a spring of energy to her feet, she accelerated into the vortex. Same as last time, her ears hummed. This time, though, it was silent on the other side. The sound of the wind faded to nothing. She felt lighter too, free from the constraints of gravity as the vortex exited out into open space.

  She didn’t lose her momentum and fell forward into a dive, following the blue trails of the soldier in front of her. Now she could see the huge mass of the red planet of B-OBS-B. Its terrain seemed almost consistent throughout, though she could only see the deepest canyons and tallest mountains from this altitude. In front of her, the soldiers appeared as a sea of blue comets raining down towards the planet.

  As she too got closer to the planet's atmosphere, a filter of purple shrouded Mira’s vision, and she could feel the warmth of her flame wrap around her like a hug. She assumed she looked like everyone else, but purple.

  She glanced at Castor, who had taken on a tail of light blue. His eyes were focused on the ground in front of them.

  Mira couldn't grasp how they were able to triangulate the exact spot they needed to land on the huge planet. They must’ve had to time it up perfectly. Of course, she had been taught the basics of battle maneuvers, but seeing it in person was never the same as hearing it in a lecture.

  It tingled her skin as she entered deeper into the atmosphere. From here she could better see the surface of the planet. The terrain was mountainous with an assortment of different geologic features fairly similar to the one the station was on. Two things were apparent: the central complex and the quarries that dotted the landscape.

  The surface neared closer and closer. She burst through a high-flying cloud, coughing up the matter after she did. Again the air here was heavy, and it burned her lungs.

  The first row of soldiers had curved towards the complex, about to barrage the dim red figures with blue energy.

  Mira heard a distant whirring noise, and from the corner of her eye, she could see a thick beam of yellow light.

  The beam connected with a light blue star in the row ahead of them. His flame flickered off. Mira wasn’t sure he was ok as he continued to barrel down towards the planet.

  A fret riveted through Mira’s brain. What if the laser cannon was aimed at her or Castor? Surely the yellow beam wasn’t enough to hurt her.

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  A few of the stars in the row ahead of them pulled away in different directions. A couple rolled towards where the blast came from, and a couple pulled up towards them, surrounding them, presumably to protect them. Mira was certain that they were instructed to do so. She didn’t enjoy the shielding. She could handle herself.

  One final beam shot towards them, this one widely awry.

  Mira looked towards the source to see a large explosion of yellow. The cannon was quick work once it had been spotted.

  She looked back to the rapidly approaching ground. Castor motioned to her, and she began her landing procedure, pulling up against the gravity and her own velocity.

  There were only a few soldiers gathered on the upper rim of the designated quarry. The main bulk of stars had crashed down directly into battle.

  Feet first, she was able to land on the ground with just a wobble. The rock around her cracked into pieces.

  Castor landed beside her, stable and softly, only dust blowing from his feet. He nodded to her in approval.

  She looked around. There were carts and loose tools indicating what would have been an active work scene. It couldn’t have stopped being used more than mere weeks ago. Mira picked a pickaxe off the ground, dusting off the red dirt to reveal the lengthy veins running through the head. Like the sword from the armory, this too would’ve been able to accommodate induced energy. She dropped it, turning forward.

  An array of soldiers was assorted behind two parted cliff walls of the upper rim of the quarry. Between them, Mira could make out a heavily damaged stone fortress. Blue comets continued to rain down upon it. There must’ve been upwards of 100 initial explosions of red, orange, and yellow as the blues sliced through Ruber combatants. And even when it slowed, it didn’t. The air was painted with their warm colors.

  Commander Apollo snapped back Mira’s attention as he planted his sword in the dirt. He too was stationed with them behind the wall of the upper rim. “Second wave, we move in 10.” He held out his fingers to start a countdown.

  Once Apollo’s fingers hit one, he ignited his fist and waved for soldiers to move. The first soldier took a quick start to dive through the partition of the cliff faces.

  There was a flash of red light. Mira couldn’t make out what had happened, but the soldier grabbed at his chest. Dust and rock around him spiraled around his body in a dance as if to enter him. His voice was caught between painful chokes. Until he popped in a fiery blue explosion, destroying most of their cover.

  A gust from the blast blew over Mira. Her core jumped in her chest. Her confidence turned to fright.

  From behind the explosion, a person with red fists lunged upward. A soldier pointed in the sky and drew a slashing flare of blue light from his chest at the fleeing enemy. It struck him in the back and tore his body in two.

  The nova initiated, and yet another red firework lit up the sky. The two disintegrated halves of the body were now falling back down to the rocky surface. Mira stared, wide-eyed. The power disparity between red and blue was even more evident in person.

  “Move, move, move,” Apollo ordered.

  The soldiers wailed and launched themselves between the cliff faces into the heat of battle.

  Apollo looked back to them. “Not a scratch,” he said, the command clearly intended for the remaining three blues around Mira and Castor.

  “Yes, Legate,” they replied in unison.

  With that, Apollo grabbed his sword and followed his squadron towards the fortress. A medium blue flame erupted through the veins of his weapon.

  Mira felt that she had to help. People were dying, and she could help stop it. “We need to go with them,” she pleaded.

  “No, you follow orders. Stay here until you're needed,” a soldier replied.

  “People are dying out there,” Mira replied. “We can help them. I can help them.”

  The soldiers looked at each other. “Follow orders,” one said.

  “They’re right. Mira, throwing you out there now would risk not just the battle but you too,” Castor said. “And wouldn’t that be a waste?”

  “So we're just supposed to—,” Mira started.

  “Yes,” Castor replied.

  She huffed. “What’s the point?”

  Castor scowled at her.

  A soldier raised his hand. “Cave left.” His eyes squinted out towards the rim below them where there was an entrance into the wall. He raised his fists, readying a slash maneuver.

  Mira couldn’t see what he was looking at, but he motioned for her to stand back.

  It was sudden. A woman emerged from the cave, dove up towards them, and hurled a spear tipped in red flame.

  The soldier was able to bat it away, and it hit the ground, bursting on impact.

  The woman then dashed straight for them, a sphincter in her other hand. She wasn’t the only one either, as from around the ledge four others jumped up the wall: two men, one young, maybe her age, and three other women.

  Mira ignited her fists. Castor did the same.

  “Now's your chance,” Castor said.

  She liked the sound of that.

  A second spear shot towards a second soldier, who not only knocked it out of the air but also back at the thrower. The attacker fell backward, and in the moment of vulnerability, the soldier was able to land a finishing blow on the target. A red explosion coated his face in their ash.

  There were five left, one for each of them. Mira locked onto the younger boy. He seemed shaky. Mira figured it would be easy. She extended her arm and, with a snap, let a blast of force knock into him.

  The boy slipped and fell to the ground, knocking his head on the rock. He looked up to her, holding his sphincter out.

  Mira kicked it out of his hands. Her fist was already full of purple fire. The boy already knew he was done for.

  “Please,” he pleaded. “Please don’t.”

  The words rang in Mira’s ears. She thought about what Atlas said about killing, and for a moment she hesitated. He reminded her of him, scared and fragile.

  That was until she heard an explosion behind her, and she, in a moment of fright, socked the boy in the chest. He went limp. Mira felt instant regret. Shakily, she raised her fist and turned to see what the explosion behind her was caused by. A red star was on the ground, his body pulverized. Mira shook her head. There was another loud explosion, and Mira turned to see yet another red star explode midair. The last two looked at each other, unsure whether to continue, their mission so far being a bust.

  No decision was made as a flare directed by Castor pierced one.

  Her nova ripped out of her, and her partner in a chain reaction also went out with a bang.

  The soldiers brushed their hands and gave each other pats on the back.

  Castor walked up to Mira, noticing the body below her. He ignited his foot and stomped it right through the boy's head.

  Mira shuddered. The lifeless corpse grayed as its core died. Heat wafted away from the body into her face.

  “Finish the job next time,” Castor said, clearly upset with her performance. “I saw you hesitate. Never hesitate to kill your enemies. They won’t hesitate to kill you.”

  “I… I didn’t know. I thought I did,” Mira mumbled.

  “Ha! Don’t make me laugh. You could have punched right through him if you really wanted him dead.”

  Mira was flustered. She knew he was right. Why did she hesitate? This was what she was meant to do her whole life. She couldn’t help herself, though, as tears began to form in her eyes.

  “Are you crying?” Castor scowled, raising an eyebrow. “Clearly you weren’t ready.”

  His words burned, and confliction brewed in her core. She just wanted to go home, see Atlas and Stephen and Yue. She didn’t want to be here. A glistening purple tear rolled down her cheek, and she sniffled. She could hear the soldiers behind her chuckle. Her cheeks grew purple with embarrassment.

  Castor sighed, squeezing his nose. “It's your first day. I didn’t expect much. Swallow those pathetic emotions quickly, though. It's what makes you a good soldier.”

  That was about the most remorse she expected from him. She turned to the soldiers who had their backs turned to her, whispering among themselves.

  Castor had turned his eyes, fixated on a spot on the lower rim.

  She wiped her tears away. “Let’s do this,” she said.

  The soldiers looked back at her. One of them scoffed. “You’re not fit for this yet. Putting you out here is a huge—”

  A yellow-tipped spear skimmed past his ear.

  Mira darted to the side as the weapon approached her.

  It lodged into the rock beside her. With a single soft sizzle, the head of the weapon popped open in a bright explosion. Ash and debris scattered from the cratered wall, covering the air in a thick smoke.

  Through squinted eyes Mira could make out the figure of Castor. He had prepared a plasma shield to protect from the blast. He appeared to be trying to yell something to her, but she couldn’t hear him through the ringing in her ears.

  She felt a beckoning in her chest, as if it was to tell her something. Her eyes darted forward through the ashes and smoke, and out jumped a man with yellow flame. A flaming pickaxe in his hand was poised at her stomach.

  With a moment's notice, she was able to wrap her hand in flame and send it flying towards the man's weapon, snapping the head off the handle. With her other arm she slashed, hitting him off to the side. His body smacked against the rim wall and collapsed to the ground.

  His body pulsed. A faint yellow glow peeked out of his skin. His jaw slacked, a beam of light pouring out of it as his body pulsed again.

  BLAM! His body became a blur of fire as his nova exploded out of him.

  Her core was hot in her chest. Now she had properly killed someone.