The Overlord: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (17 page)

Fossil and I both replied, simultaneously grim, "Copy."

Within the minute, Demon Eggs were taken out, passed around, and clicked on. The explosives were circular, sphere-shaped grenades. They became active as soon as one shifted the midpoint circumference. It reminded me of twisting the two halves of an Easter egg, those colorful pieces of hollow plastic that could bring one such fortune out in the Wasteland. They were an old world treasure for any scavenger, perfect for carrying around loose nuts, bolts, or ammo. The Demon Eggs had no such value. The Thralls being the exception, nobody cared to haul the imprecise grenades around, out of fear for an early detonation. Unpredictable as the warriors that carried them, the Demon Eggs were just as likely to go off in your pouch or hand as they were to eliminate their given target.

The ringing hum of dozens of Demon Eggs being activated was followed by the legions assuming to position themselves for a massive volley toward the landing zone. Commander Zero, himself, had loaded the little round bombs into the tube of his mortar cannon that was attached to the underside of his Brawler gun. Aiming the gargantuan weapon toward the sky, Zero was measuring the aerial distance with special side sights that he had popped out from the gun's contours. Out of the corner of one of his eyes, he noticed I had no Demon Egg in my hand.

"Here." Zero tossed one over to me. My hands automatically caught it, though I didn’t want to accept the favor. For a few seconds, I just stared at the grenade in my palms, not knowing what to do with it.

"Still in love, I see," understood the Commander. "You know she left you behind, right?"

I looked down to Sentria, holding her ground. I couldn't really tell, but I was pretty sure that we exchanged glances in that instant. It was brief, but bright. Her eyes were saddened, but somehow they still managed to let me know that it was all going to be alright. Zero's remarks weren't going to sway me and he knew it too, but the Commander wasn't about to lose any more time.

"Give me that," he whispered.

Almost compassionately, the Commander quickly took the grenade back without any sign of scoff or scorn. Consideration was characteristic for the man I had always looked up to, but it was not in tone with the potentially evil man that had been coming to light that day. Maybe his gesture played a part in what led to me staying by his side for a little bit longer. At the time, I had nowhere else to go aside from following wherever he led me.

Readjusting the sights of the mortar barrel on his Brawler gun, the Commander raised up an arm high for all to see and then swung it down hard and fast. It was the signal. The Demon Eggs went flying like a torrent of black hail. Zero's Brawler spat out three shots, sending a handful of the rounded shells in an arch toward the landing zone.

The Demon Eggs slapped against the rectangular surface of the Angel Gate, plopping to the ground and rolling everywhere in front of the barrier. The silent timers ticked their last inside each one and the Eggs blew in a glaring commotion of blaze and black smoke. Over the course of a good three seconds or so, every Demon Egg that had been tossed down there had detonated.

The dark fog and fumes then began to clear from the landing zone. The clean air from the sea revealed the Angel Gate still in place. The power of Zero's "hell" had held no merit against the protection of Sentria's "angel." She was fine and the barrier hadn't been compromised at all. As a matter of fact, it was as if the Gate had been stimulated by the explosive racket that it had just endured. The electric currents within its grid had expanded, enlarging the square footage of the barrier considerably. The Angel Gate had consumed the fire, becoming fueled by it.

"That's impossible," said Zero under his breath.

The Gate was bigger, glowing brighter, and its energy patterns indicated that it was about to violently burst forth into every forward direction. For a man supposedly without fear, the Commander was beginning to show something akin to the idea of it. He leaned his Brawler gun over a ledge and fired away. The rest of the Thralls did the same.

As a result, Sentria was getting tired with every shot fired toward her. Her arms could barely hold up the weight of the ever expanding shield. Just as she was about to drop her burden, a couple of strong hands came up from behind her and grabbed ahold of her wrists, lifting them higher and stabilizing them with ample support. It was the Overlord. Both were no longer in their strongest state, but as they held together with joined arms, they may as well have been invincible.

Having absorbed all the energy the Angel Gate could take, the electric currents flowed back to the origin point of Sentria's wristband. Collecting and concentrating there, the light it was giving off could not be seen safely with human eyes. Radiantly, the Gate then self-destructed with a powerful force. A potent blast emitted from its midst and took out anyone and everything that stood in its outward blast radius while keeping the lone pair out of harm's way.

Concrete and earth broke into pieces. Armor and bone slivered and shattered. I was far enough away to avoid the effects, taking cover behind a rooftop ledge. While those that were closest were now fatalities, many Thralls had survived due to the decent cover of the area. Zero, for one, had evaded the blast behind a support pillar. I watched him wince in anger as the concrete block against his back disintegrated and nearly took him out along with it.

After the brilliant devastation of the Angel Gate, the landing zone fell quiet with several Thralls still left. Fever Island, in its hastening decay, had now brought the waters up to our waists. At various points, the complex was sinking slowly but surely. The landing zone in particular was losing surface area in the rising flood.

Though the hostilities had briefly come to a standstill, Sentria was clearly out of ideas. She had just played the best card in her deck, but was still hopelessly surrounded with nowhere to run. Zero knew it too. He stepped ahead with arms high up in the air with open palms. Dangling from a strap around his shoulder, his massive Brawler gun hung without aim. It signified that the Commander meant no harm, at least none in that particular moment. Untrusting, the Captain and the Overlord retreated back to the cover of the rattling Low Atmo, ready to aim out and fire.

"Alright, it's over," the Commander engaged. "Surrender now or be obliterated without anything left to remember you by."

The young Captain then held up her index finger to her ear, as if tuning into something that was calling to her. Beside her, the look on Deadstock's face was as baffled as all of ours. Then, Sentria did something really unexpected. She stood up.

Zero implored further, "You're outnumbered, all alone."

"Not alone," Sentria yelled back, holding her ground.

In a glorious reveal from the surrounding waves, the "Beast of Burden" gusted up from the ocean, sending the waters flying in every direction. Magnificently, its giant engines roared. The very air vibrated in a tremor as the ship came to a hover. Water spilled off the ship's side as steam rose elegantly from her broadside cannons. The guns were hot, meaning they had been in use not too long ago.

Suddenly, the mystery behind the tumultuous quakes that had sent Fever Island sinking into the sea no longer remained elusive. The puzzle behind the United Corp's abrupt disappearance earlier had just been revealed as well. The flagship had been underwater the whole time, blasting away the foundations of the island. As the revelation became clear, it begged the question as to why.

The roar of the flagship's engine lifted it over toward the landing zone. The area shook and quivered as the vessel came to a hover just above Sentria to defend her position. Evidently, the young Captain was working for the Corps. Either she was a double agent all along, or they were both just using each other to get what the other wanted. Presumably, Sentria was securing the safety of the Overlord while the United Corps was likely just after the Plague of Phantoms. Whatever the case, we Thralls weren't about to test our chances against the cannons of the "Beast of Burden." We decided it best not to be ripped to shreds as Zero called out for us to fall back.

A large hatch then opened up from the ship while the cannons let out a few warning shots, swaying any of the Thralls' attempts to attack. Meanwhile, Sentria and the Overlord quickly doubled up onto the Low Atmo and drove the bike on up into the opening of the hull. Just before the hatch closed, the bike set down onto the loading bay inside and Sentria looked back. She was looking straight at me. I wondered how she had managed to pick me out. Maybe she hadn’t at all, but there was a look on her face that spoke otherwise.

Was she still letting me know that it was all going to be okay, or was she now letting me know that it all surely wasn't? Before I could decipher any more on the matter, the hatch sealed shut. She was gone from my sight, maybe for forever.

The "Beast of Burden" then launched into the sky in attempt to flee the island, only to be met with the heavy artillery of the "Lunar Wrath." The Thralls cheered on the fight as our crescent shaped flagship swooped into view, veered sideways, and punched out its guns.

The United Corps ship banged around in the clouds, under fire. Refusing to fight back, United's only interest seemed to be a getaway and it wasn't clean by any means. It then came to me that the "Beast of Burden" might've used up the extents of its arsenal. They were out of ammo and were immensely losing any possibility of an escape as the Thrall vessel tailed closely behind.

Back on the ground, we Thralls were running out of chances. The last of the island was crashing down into the waters as we were all making our way to the top of the rubble. The battle wasn't going to be won by the Thralldom that day and losses desperately needed to be cut.

I begged the Commander, "Sir, we have got to get out of here! We are losing time!"

"The boy's right, mate," Fossil agreed. "We don't have much time. We'll have to fight the Corps another day. Call the ship back before it's too late and we're all stuck like a frog in a sock!"

Zero kept staring up at the skirmish in the sky. I could tell he didn't want to let the United Corps get away, but he would be dead if he didn't. We would all be dead, not that I'm even sure we were among his judgement calls anymore.

"This is Commander Zero," he growled into the radio while scowling at his ship in the sky. "Cease fire and terminate your pursuit. Return to the island and extract all operatives, immediately."

The shockwaves of artillery concluded without another stream of light scraping across the atmosphere. Cleared from any further hindrance, the United Corps disappeared into the horizon. The "Lunar Wrath" swung back around, straight for our dismal position. Stranded atop the final pieces of wreckage, we withdrew into our ship and departed the aquatic perils.

Through the glassy hull of the "Lunar Wrath", those of us that were left of the Fever Island mission watched as the mass of concrete and ruin sank further into the darkness of the sea. Not many Thralls had survived. Many fallen squads, many fallen legions were vanishing into the sweeping waves and the falling constructions.

The remains of Fever Island and all the secrets it held plummeted into the abyss. Every last mystery was gulped up by the ocean. I wondered if all of its surprises and enigmas would ever surface again, if ever they would see the light of day. If anyone wanted to know what exactly transpired on Fever Island, they would have to sink to the bottom of the sea just to find out.

13

THE EQUATION

This is President Ember Nightwood, once again. The words that follow were never put into an official report. What follows is my own sole experience that I have graciously agreed to chronicle for this fragment of history, for the following is more than just a series of facts. Rather, they are the compelling force that would prove to drive the famous facts into motion.

During the mission to Fever Island, I placed it upon my crew to hide the "Beast of Burden" from the watchful eyes of the Thralldom. We waited for a veil of clouds to come between our two aerial vessels and made our descent in secret. Having lost visual of our craft, the Thralls were likely in a panic. The Thralls aboard the "Lunar Wrath" then discovered that they were unable to find as much as a reading on us, for we were no longer even in the atmosphere. Submerging into the Pacific Ocean, we were hiding beneath the waves, all thanks to the amphibious upgrades that Captain Sentria had adamantly petitioned for.

Though my ship was perfectly visible beneath the waters, I had taken the gamble that the "Lunar Wrath" would be absent of logic and not look down. Turned out, I was right. Thus, surprise was on our side when we emerged from the Pacific to retrieve Sentria and the package.

Once out of the Fever Island airspace, we could all finally breathe without worry. At least, everyone else could. I stormed into the loading bay and found Sentria there with the Overlord, both on the floor. Grime, soot, and blood had plastered every inch of them. Dr. Deadstock had not sustained any visible wounds in the escape effort, but he seemed wounded to me all the same.

At the time, I was unaware of the situation that had happened to him on the island. Having the Wandering Star removed from his bloodstream would be a slow adjustment to recovery, but already, he was healing. His midnight skin had dulled. His violet eyes had darkened down to an average brown. What stood before me was no Space Wizard, but a normal looking black man, the man I once loved. Deadstock, still in the dark as to my plot and plan, was eyeing the chipping paint around him and the scuffed hardware of my used and abused ship. Sentria's true colors must've come as much of a surprise to him as it did for Zero and the other Thralls.

He turned to Sentria, "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Yours," she candidly specified to him as I approached with a crunched nose and a disdainful frown.

Deadstock then swiveled his gaze toward me, "Ember. So Sentria has been on your payroll all along, I see."

I greeted him coldly, "Hello again, Doctor." The Overlord was not part of the package that I had initially ordered Sentria to nab. I wasn't expecting him, at least not in the state he was in. The Wandering Star was missing, clueing me in to the fact that something had gone horribly wrong on Fever Island. I turned my attention to the Captain to investigate. "What happened out there?"

Without response, Sentria pulled out a crumpled sheet of blueprints and passed it off into my hands. I looked the sheet over, assuming it was my answer, but it was not in the slightest what I had expected it to be. The blueprints revealed the weaponized schematics for an electromagnetic warhead. I was not at all impressed. An EMP would be useless against the Blood Tech. The Marines tried it in the Last War. The technology of the Thralldom had been evolved to block any electromagnetic pulses. Why would this EMP design prove to do any different? I had been after a weapon of mass destruction along with the containment of the Wandering Star. I was led to believe that the Plague of Phantoms was a WMD, not some EMP.

Furiously, I held up the contents of the designs for her to see, "This is not what you were sent to retrieve, Captain! Where is the package?"

"The package is right here," Sentria sensibly explained. "As you can see, Ma'am, extraction was successful." She gestured to the Overlord on the floor beside her.

"Dr. Deadstock was not the priority!" I yelled. "Without his power, he's useless! You were ordered to bring me the Plague of Phantoms along with the Wandering Star, not some drawings on a piece of paper!" I then refilled my spent lungs as I came to a terrifying conclusion, "They have it, don't they?"

Deadstock waved off the medical personnel attending his wounds in an attempt to interject, "Hold on, what is going on here?"

"The Thralls stole it," Sentria replied to me.

"No," I harshly corrected. "You let it slip through your fingers so you could save a man who can never be saved."

Seemingly hurt, Deadstock began to piece together the puzzle before him. "Ember, have you lied to me? All this time, have you just wanted the power for yourself? It'd certainly make sense. Why else would you be here?"

I attested, "Before you start throwing around accusations, you would do well to remember that you are on my ship. Tread carefully, Doctor. This is not what it seems. There are some things that even you do not know."

He struck back, "Things like Chokeberry, you mean? You knew he was on the island, yet you adamantly tried to convince me he was dead."

"Chokeberry? What are you talking about?" In my bewilderment, I had no idea where this was all coming from. To me, it had come straight out of leftfield. "Are you saying that Choke is still alive?"

"Well, he was still alive this morning, but not anymore," he said mournfully.

In my defense, I stated honestly, "I can assure that I had no idea that Chokeberry was on Fever Island."

Deadstock carried on, "Strange, because all the data on Fever Island came directly from your United Corps intelligence."

"The Corps and I were simply overseeing. The mission to Fever Island was completely a Thrall operation based on their own intelligence. The whole thing was based directly from a proposal written personally by Commander Zero." It then all started to connect for both of us. "Someone has been lying to you. That much is for certain. Whoever it is that misled you has been using you from the beginning. I think you and I can both guess who that might be. It's not me, I can promise you that."

Sentria then interceded, "Almost a year ago, the United Corps sent me to infiltrate the Thralldom. My job was to earn their trust while keeping tabs on Commander Zero. President Nightwood believed he was up to something. She was right. Yesterday, when you came back to Earth, we all found out exactly what he was after. My only mission since that point has been to ensure that you didn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Indeed," I agreed. "However, the price was not supposed to be so high. We have just compromised the whole planet by exchanging the most powerful weapon in the world for one man's life."

"In order for the world to survive, the Overlord must also survive," exclaimed Sentria with charisma. "Dr. Chokeberry is dead, which means the Overlord is the only one capable of implementing those designs in your hands."

"What? An EMP?" I questioned negatively.

"That EMP isn't exactly ordinary," she revealed. "It was designed to destroy the Wandering Star. The Blood Tech is a disease and this is the only cure. Whether you like it or not, the construction of the Plague of Phantoms is the only chance we got."

"Listen to our daughter, Ember," instructed the wise Overlord. "She's right."

"Our daughter?" I repeated, asking it to myself as well as asking it to back to him. I was unaware that he knew. "How did you find out?" Before he could begin to answer, I quickly veered to Sentria and demanded an explanation. "You've told him our secret."

Sentria seemed pleased as she turned from my sternly focused gaze and grinned at her father, "No, I didn't tell him anything. He figured it out all on his own."

Deadstock swayed his head at me in disappointment, "What exactly do you take me for, Ember? It wasn't that hard to put together. Just look at her, she's practically a hybrid clone of the two of us combined. From the moment I met her, it was like looking into a mirror. A reflection that only revealed the best of my qualities. I didn't think I had any left, or ever did, but when I saw our daughter I knew there was hope."

How dare he claim anything about her? He had no right. He had not been there to raise her. Sentria was not a daughter that I shared with anyone. She was my daughter and mine alone. Yet, there they were, father and daughter just staring and smiling at each other.

He went on, "The similarities had me puzzled and intrigued, but there were moments when I couldn't see myself in her. There was something more, something better than I could ever be. There was something special about her that she certainly didn't get from my bloodline. I didn't quite know what it was until right now." Deadstock then turned to me wholeheartedly. "It was you, Ember."

Normally, flattery had no effect on me, but it wasn't the feeling of being flattered that began to give me a change of heart. It was different. It was the feeling of family, not flattery. I had not felt it in a very long time.

It was then that I found myself on the floor with them both. Squatting in my rolled up coveralls, my hand covered my mouth in an exasperated distress. I felt as if I was losing control everything, but at the same time regaining all that I had once lost. A few of my crew tried to attend to me, but I quickly bid them away.

Putting myself back together, I returned to the matter at hand, "Well, I am glad I could arrange this little family reunion for everyone, but unfortunately we need to move our attention to a greater concern. Commander Zero and the entire Thralldom now have complete control of the Blood Tech. All life on this planet is now at the mercy of their whims."

Deadstock warned, "As you know, Dr. Chokeberry figured out how to use the Wandering Star as a weapon during the Last War. Unlike Choke, Zero is no creator. He's just someone who can pull a trigger. Unfortunately Choke has left traces of his work all over the Lair, just waiting to be found by the Commander, if he hasn't already. If Zero manages to use the Blood Tech as a weapon, then no opposition will stand a chance, just as it was in the Last War."

Quickly, I scanned over Dr. Chokeberry's designs in my hands, "What can we do, if anything? Even if this EMP will deactivate the Blood Tech for good, we would still need the Wandering Star to do it. These designs indicate that the warhead must be powered by the very thing that it's meant to destroy."

"Then we'll first have to get the Wandering Star back," said the Overlord, confidently.

"How do you suppose we do that?" I inquired, speculatively.

Deadstock was never one to falter into naivety, but that statement came across as ridiculous. I safely assumed I must be devoid of some crucial knowledge toward the situation. Indeed, I was.

Sentria presented the answer, "The right to rule."

I wished back, "Excuse me?"

My husband enlightened, "At the center of the Lair is an altar, erected for a single purpose. It is our designated place to hold a fight to the death. It's only been used once, on the Last Day of the Last War. You see, anyone can challenge the acting Overlord for the right to rule. Whatever victor arises from the deadly duel, they become the new lord of the Thralls with all the power that comes with it. Alternatively, as the Overlord, I can challenge anyone I see insubordinate to my authority. I am the true Overlord and I hold the supremacy over all their ways."

I presented my misgivings, "Do you actually believe Zero is simply going to accept your challenge without a fight?"

"He's going to put up a fight, for sure," Deadstock assured. "In order to invoke a challenge, I have to be at the altar when the claim is made. It's at the heart of the Lair and Zero will spare no expense to stop me from reaching it. If I can make it, he must submit to the law. The other Thralls will make him even if he doesn't want to. It is their way. They hold their practices as sacred, this I know."

I pointed out, "Now that you are devoid of all your space magic, what makes you think you can win on pure strength alone?"

"I don't," Deadstock forlornly replied. "Nonetheless, this will not be the first time that I have spilled blood at the altar, but it will be the last."

To me, the whole idea seemed half-baked, "Even if you are capable of winning, I would wager that Commander Zero is expecting you to try. He will have the whole place fortified, swarming with Thralls on both air and ground."

Sentria stepped in enthusiastically, "Then call everybody in, every mercenary, every favor, everyone we got. Prepare every ship we can get our hands on and we'll all make a push for the Lair together. They'll unite if for no other reason than because it's death if they don't. If the forces of the Free World can work together and engage a battle with the Thralls, than it might be enough of a distraction to make a straight plunge for the altar. My "Tomahawk" is small and agile. I could get the Overlord in through all the chaos. My ship can do the job as long as it's me in the cockpit."

"You are proposing to put countless lives on the line for a suicidal endeavor that might not even work," I sensibly indicated.

My daughter spiritedly orated, "I reckon that if I'm crazy enough to try, so is the rest of the world. The Corps at least will, anyway. We're descendants of Marines, Mother. This is what we signed up for. This is what we were born for. Don't take my word for it, though. Take a look around for yourself."

Down in that hull, the crew had been slowly clustering in. They had listened to every word and discerned the stakes. These faithful members of the United Corps stared at me with an eagerness that forced me to actually believe in this foolhardy plan. Sentria stood up and called them to formation. At once, the crew came together, stood at attention, and saluted marvelously.