An excerpt from the upcoming sci-fi novel Blood Brothers by Nos Jondi:
“Please tell me you haven’t screwed your sword, Darius,” Chikondi said. The others in the room laughed.
“Please tell me you haven’t screwed your sword, Darius,” Chikondi said. The others in the room laughed.
“Very
funny,” Darius said, replacing his sword in the sheath attached to his back.
‘This is going to be all blood and guts, you heard Mavurama. Ruvuma has brought
enough bodies to this little get together to start her own little republic.”
“I guess she’s feeling the pressure just
as bad as we are,” Chikondi said, still checking her weapons. Her Lance-V
handgun, the Vamps preferred weapon of choice, tried and tested. It packed a
nasty punch, able to knock a grown man right off his feet. Check. As Mavurama
spoke, she sensed the urgency in his voice. She saw the anxiety in his eyes. He
was very much aware of what they stood to lose during that mission.
She
checked the clips in her assault rifle, the MX-II. It was set to non-lethal, loaded
with stun charges. Check. All their
current weapons were upgrades from what they used during the Belt Wars. Under
no circumstances were they allowed to inflict fatalities. Mavurama said that
would only embolden the Imperial Government and justify their repression.
“Ok, everyone gather round,” Darius
clapped his hands to get his team’s attention.
“When the planet is within launching
range, we are going to air-drop down to the surface. Remember: five sets of
jumps before you get to the ground and you should impact the surface without
too much of a bump. We have our quota of bodies, let’s make sure we meet it.”
They put on their helmets, running last
minute systems diagnostics checks on their on-person computer software,
proceeding down to the loading dock. Chikondi’s heart beat like a jackhammer,
its intensity vibrating her chest, the blood pulsating just as furiously in her
veins. She remembered this feeling only too well, in the days from the war. Her
senses heightened as her adrenal glands dumped adrenaline into her
bloodstream. She looked around and knew
that everyone else experienced what she was going through at that very moment.
This was what they were created for, the scientist had told her. To him, she had been no more than a weapon, to
be used as the Emperor saw fit. She felt
no sadness as she recalled that memory. Neither a machine nor a tool, but so
much more. The reason she left the Belt with Mavurama, was because he convinced
her along with hundreds of others, that they all had choices. They could chose
the life they wanted. Yes, the war was over, but their meaning in life
transcended that. They would make their
own destiny among the stars and all the cosmos would bear testimony to that.
“Excited?” Darius asked, his visor
retracted, his eyes a bright orange-red.
“I would be crazy not to be,” she said.
“A lot of the regular troops said we
were,” he laughed, throwing his head back and letting out a loud whoop.
Chikondi laughed and watched as the
docking bay doors opened. The bright red and blue-green planet of Basongo
loomed up, like a giant glass marble of swirling colours and textures, tattered
clouds drifting through its atmosphere. Chikondi thought how beautiful it was
and wondered if anything at that moment could compare to its splendour. She
sent a command to her helmet and her visor snapped into place. The other
members of her fire-team stood behind her, readying themselves. She took a step
forward, her toes just behind the redline and looked up at the signal lights,
shining above the open doors. They were all on amber; when they changed to green,
it would be time to take the exhilarating plunge downwards.
“Alright people get ready, here it comes!
Tir gova!” The second Darius finished
his sentence, the light above made a loud mechanical beeping sound and the amber
disappeared into green. Chikondi rushed and threw herself forward with complete
abandon, like she had done a hundred times before.
The planet shot up in high definition,
her helmet toning down the sound and force of the wind that tore past as she
free fell gracefully through the air.
“Alright, everyone synchronize for the
first jump!” Darius said. “On my mark, three, two, one, jump!” She closed her
eyes and willed herself to some other place. Based on their calculations, they gauged
how many jumps they needed to complete in order to cover the distance between
the main ship and the planet surface without landing in a splatter. Teleporting
in freefall was not easy as compared to being stationary. It required a great
deal of focus and concentration, things she had in spades.
She teleported in, a cloud of azure smoke
peeling away, the planet much closer than it had been earlier. Darius’ voice
came loud and clear over the intercom a second time and they jumped out again.
Three jumps later found them standing on the hard ground, surrounded by dense
trees and bush. The prisons stone facade towered tall over the forest in the
distance, powerful searchlights conducting continuous sweeps of the immediate
vicinity.
“Ration up, all that jumping took plenty
out of us. Sixty seconds and we move on. Mailer, radio to the other fire-teams
that we‘ve made planet surface and are heading out. Don’t give them our
position, the Imperial Army is probably monitoring our frequencies,” Darius said.
Chikondi sent a command to her suit to dump a litre of blood into her
bloodstream through a patch in her left upper arm. It did and she felt rejuvenated
a few seconds later. The ideal quota after any jump as intense as the one
they’d just completed was five litres. With the Impies in constant pursuit, they
were now down to one per every five jumps. Their bodies adapted but a more
would have helped.
“Ok, let’s go, I don’t need to remind
everyone to stick to the shadows,” Darius said. They moved quickly and silently
through the dark undergrowth. The moon was out and cast deformed shadows all
throughout the forest. They avoided the patches of light that cut through the
trees, making sure they kept close to the ground. These missions were simple
compared to the ones she had run during the Old War. Being spotted during those
meant getting lit up by a salvo of missiles and automatic fire. She had lost
friends who perished in forest fires, the thick smoke making it difficult to
teleport once the infernos started. Captain Ruvuma was fortunately, not
adopting the same tactics.
“We’re approaching the prison now,”
Darius said. “Get your handguns and blades ready. Mailer, give us eyes on the
surrounding area.”
Mailer craned his neck forward, his body
bent over, almost like he was praying.
“There are approximately a hundred mobile
light units scattered through the no – man’s land that runs right round the
prison. Drone planes are patrolling the skies, as well as Pyro-ships directly
above the forest and a thousand troops on the inside of the security fence. The
no-man’s land is booby trapped with land mines,” he said.
“They aren’t taking any chances this time. Fifty metres through a mined area is a mindless thing to do and we don’t have the luxury of dying today,” Darius said. “Time for a little weather making guys.”
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