Chapter 133 The Ascender
The Blast Door to Action C swung they built the last, heavy thud, and the nightmares of the Menagerie were behind us.
We were in the great atrium of the Station Zero. It was not the same kind of silence. It was not the silence of a tomb; it was the silence of a machine that was about to fire. Electricity of high voltage was vibrating the floor plates at our feet, as it hummed along the air.
"We need to move," Ryker said. His voice was no better than gravel on glass. He did not turn back and see where Kael had died. His gaze was to the front, and he was staring at the great pair of doors at the extreme end of the hall with ASCENSION painted over them.
"That's the tower?" Vane answered, reloading his final magazine. "The elevator?"
It is the throat of the world, said Sato, who was looking at the schematic Kael had sent to the datapad of Ryker. The central shaft is used to join the ground station and the Aether in geostationary orbit. It is a cable with twenty thousand miles of carbon nanotubes and diamond thread.
It is a long climb, grunted Baron shaking blood out of his fur.
"We aren't climbing," Ryker said. "We're hijacking."
He turned to Jaxon.
"Jaxon, take the refugees. Barricade Sector of Habitation. There are heavy doors there. Hold the ground floor."
"Sir?" Jaxon looked panicked. "You're leaving us?"
We are going to the top, Ryker said. Valerius is running the defenses out in space. Unless we reveal the command center, he will simply gas this whole facility with us in it. We must cut the head out of the snake.
Jaxon straightened. He stared at the frightened families, the injured militia.
"We will hold," Jaxon promised. "Give them hell, General."
"Go," Ryker ordered.
They scrambled up to Sector B and Ryker followed them, keeping watch over them until they were clear and then he returned to us--the Strike Team. Me, Baron, Vane, and Sato.
"Ready?" Ryker asked.
"Always," I lied. My ring seemed heavy, chilled to my finger.
Ryker smacked the doors to the tower of ASCENSION wide open.
The Guardian Gate
We didn't walk into a room. We were in an informational palace.
The tower was built on the foundation of a round room three hundred feet in diameter. The Tether, which appeared to lead somewhere indefinitely, rose in the middle, through a hole in the ceiling.
It was a pillar of black and broiled cable, as thick as a redwood tree. Beside it, and lying on the launch pad, was the Ascender, an enormous, teardrop-shaped carriage of glass and silver steel. It resembled a luxury liner constructed on the empty.
The welcoming committee stood between us and the Ascender.
They weren't the Fallen. They weren't the Berserkers.
They were the Immortals.
There were twelve soldiers in semi circle around the carriage ramp. Their armor resembled smooth, mercury-like, and bubbling with a personal shield of energy. They did not carry rifles they carried glaives--long sticks crowned with crackling blue plasma blades.
Purist Elite, Soto, you shall have, Sato said, and stood still. "Valerius's personal guard. They are genetically improved. Reflex boosters. Pain suppressors. They are quicker than you, Ryker."
I have never heard of any man being quicker than me, Ryker snarled.
The Immortal leader came forward. His face plate had been a black mirror.
His voice, booming, synthesized and cold, was called UNAUTHORIZED BIOLOGicals. "SUBMIT FOR INCINERATION."
"I decline," Ryker said.
He did not wait till they charged. He moved.
Ryker was a blur. He threw himself on the leader with his Star-Metal sword clipping into flame in his hand.
CLANG-HISSS.
The Energy shield of the Immortal was struck by the Star-Metal. Sparks flew. The shield checked, but the impulse of the kinetic blow caused the soldier to step back.
"Contact!" Baron roared.
The Wolf Alpha attacked the right wing. He did not fight with arms, but with multitude. He dashed at an Immortal, and hurled himself down on him. The plasma glaive of the soldier cut off the shoulder of Baron, which burnt fur and flesh, but that made no difference to Baron. He bit the sensors on the helmet of the soldier clamping his jaws.
"Vane! Suppression!" Ryker screamed, ducking under a plasma blade that would have made a headless man of him.
Vane opened fire with two pistols.
BANG-BANG-BANG.
The bullets went to nothing against the mercury armor.
"I'm doing nothing!" Vane screamed. "They're bulletproof!"
"Aim for the joints!" Sato yelled. "The neck seals!"
I was in the doorway and my heart was hanging. I couldn't shoot. I couldn't fight like Baron.
But I had the Ring.
I noticed an Immortal lifted his glaive to plunge it into Ryker.
"No!" I shouted.
I didn't try to blast him. I didn't have the power. Rather, I reached out with my mind to grab blindly the air. I reached for the gravity.
Pull.
I yanked the Immortal's cape.
It was little enough, but it hurt him off his footing. He stumbled. One inch his glaive passed Ryker, and cut a molten trench into the floor.
Ryker spun. He saw the opening. He plunged his sword into the armhole in the armor at the armpit of the soldier.
CRUNCH.
The Immortal fell, his suit all flashing red.
"One down!" Ryker yelled. "Eleven to go!"
But we were losing.
Three of them were in the company of Baron. They were dissecting him like a doctor. Ryker was in combat with two simultaneously, and his sword was a tornado of orange light, and yet he was on the wing.
"We can't win this!" Vane shouted, reloading. "We need the elevator!"
"The ramp is locked!" Sato screamed, and indicated the Ascender. The walkway of silver was pulled in. "I need to access the hardline!"
"Get to the console!" Ryker gave the order, and struck a blow that hooked his teeth. "We'll buy you time!"
"Cover me!" Sato ran towards the control pedestal towards the Tether.
One Immortal, who had separated himself out of the pack, came to receive her. He raised his glaive.
"Sato!" Vane screamed.
He didn't shoot. He threw his gun.
The Immortal was struck on the faceplate by the heavy pistol. This did not hurt him, but seemed to divert him.
Sato slipped under his guard in that second. She didn't have a weapon. She carried a taser--a jury-rigged contrivance of a drone batteries.
She pushed it down into the knee-joint of the Immortal.
ZZZT.
The suit's servos locked up. The soldier went dead, his leg stiff.
Sato stumbled to the console. She jacked in her datapad.
"Kael!" she screamed. "If you're in there, help me!"
The console lit up. The screen code went by so quick it was a blur.
"ACCESS... GRANTED, the well-known, synthetic voice said through the PA.
The Ascender's ramp hissed. It began to lower.
"The door is open!" Sato yelled. "Get in!"
"Retreat!" Ryker commanded.
He seized Baron by the scruck of his neck, and carried the bleeding wolf out of the battle.
"Move, you stubborn dog!"
We ran for the ramp.
The Immortals pursued. They were terrifyingly graceful in their motion, and sprang over the bodies of their dead comrades.
Vane was the first up the ramp. He swung around and fired covering fire, which was toward the visors.
I took the hand of Sato and dragged her in.
Ryker and Baron were the last.
One of the Immortal sprang, his glaive to the back of Ryker.
Ryker didn't turn. His sword turned about, a blind stroke, and gripped the glaive. He hit the soldier in the chest, throwing him out of the ramp.
Ryker dove inside.
"Close it!" Ryker roared.
The emergency seal button was slapped by Sato.
WHOOSH-CLANG.
The massive glass door was closing when a plasma blade flew across the surface. The gun had barely left a glowing mark in the glass, without penetrating.
We were inside.
The Launch
The Ascender was luxurious on the inside. Seats were made of white leather, the walls were of brushed steel, and there was a viewscreen, which displayed an 360-degree view of the outside.
However, we were not examining the decor.
"Launch!" Ryker screamed, and flumped himself against the wall.
Sato hit the sequence.
The computer said: DEPARTURE INITIated. Whole Plot: You are to travel to the Orbiting Platform on the planet Aether. ESTIMated Time En route: 4 HOURs."
The floor vibrated.
The clamps that attached the carriage to the launch pad were detached outside.
KA-CHUNK.
We felt the lurch.
"Hold on!" Vane grabbed a railing.
The Ascender shot upward.
It wasn't like an elevator. It was like a rocket. The G-force struck us immediately making us stick to the floor.
I looked down the ground through the glass floor.
Station Zero shrank. The Immortals turned into the tiny specks of silver. The white plaza was reduced to a postage stamp.
Then, the clouds.
The storm layer was broken within a few seconds. The grey turbulence disappeared, and the upper atmosphere had blazed with the blue of the blue sky.
We were flying.
We made it, said Vane, as he strove to rise against the Gs. "We're gone."
Ryker crawled over to Baron. The Wolf Alpha was huddled into a ball, bleeding through a dozen cauterized wounds.
"Baron," Ryker whispered. "Stay with me."
Baron opened one eye. It was hazy.
And up high, said Baron, with a bloody grin on his snout. At last we got the high ground, Ryker.
Yeh, said Ryker, sticking a med-patch on the shoulder of Baron. "We did."
I looked out the window.
The sky was darkening. The blue was growing pale to purple, then to black. Stars, sharp, untwinkling points of light began to appear.
And below us... the Earth.
I had never seen it from here. It was beautiful. And it was broken.
I was able to observe the grey spots of the Rot that were spreading like ink over the continents. I was able to view the fires of the burning cities. I would discern the storms which were whirling in the seas.
"It's dying," I whispered.
Ryker joined me at the window. He put his arm around me.
"It's sick," Ryker corrected. "But it's still spinning."
Up he looked, into the darkness above.
Hanging in the emptiness, as a silver city, was the Aether, coming toward us.
It was massive. A rotating metal wheel, solar panels which are like wings. It looked like heaven.
"That's where he is," Ryker said. "Valerius."
"What's the plan?" I asked. We are in a box heading towards an enemy stronghold.
Well, we are not stuck, said Ryker, and the space station was getting bigger. "We're a boarding party."
He turned to Vane.
"Check the weapons locker. In case it is a VIP transportation, they will be equipped with security equipment.
Vane opened a wall-panel. He whistled.
"Pulse rifles. Stun grenades. And... hello."
He drew a huge and black cannon.
"Gravity Hammer," Vane grinned. "Crowd control."
Ryker took a rifle. He handed a med-kit to Sato.
"Patch Baron up," Ryker ordered. "We dock in three hours. I want everyone ready."
He stared at the starship that was coming towards them.
Valerius, said Ryker, thinks he is safe in the air. He believes that the Rot will not be able to get him.
He put his hand to the scar on his breast.
He did not remember that wolves have the power to climb.