Chapter 41: 40: IMMORTAL

The stench of char struck Elias immediately when they entered through the north, finding the emergency exit there blocked by manageable clutter that they quickly cleared away. Some lights were on and others were off, a number flickering with others steady, when they turned a corridor to the right to proceed down the hall circling the main floor. Elias adjusted the filters on his helmet as Hudson spoke over their team link.

"That's the bodies 'e lit up comin' down. Still a lot wanderin' through 'ere after all that."

"Those aren’t the kids," said Elias. "Not students. Look at their condition, rate of decay, lack of garb--it’s whoever…or whatever Jackal kept stored in Westmont undetected for who knows how long."

The hunters took a few steps forward when a sudden, impactive blast—a high caliber shot—echoed through the rotunda from the main floor. Elias charged forward at the sound and kept low and alert, heading towards the first column stationed a few meters away from the stage.

He advanced once he heard the other hunters reach his location and knelt low with rifle aimed, remaining hidden behind another column. Hudson followed, staying back to cover, and they peered at the center of the main floor—at the CDPD cruiser landed in the center. Reflected by the light and enhanced by his visor, Elias could see steady light rain striking the exterior of the vessel, dripping down over the CDPD colors and insignias.

"That sound," he said, his voice low over the COM. "Projectile. High caliber. Grade 9."

"Who's shootin?" asked Hudson.

A rapid dart of movement circled around the front of the cruiser. Elias followed it with his aim, peering close at a figure wearing a helmet—a Silatem helmet—and racing toward the side door. Recognition hit him rapidly as he watched an arm reach up, slamming against the cruiser's outer control panel. He darted forward, shouting, as the door zipped open and the figure disappeared inside.

"Adam!" he barked. “Adam!”

The door slid closed.

He charged through debris toward the center of the rotunda with Hudson close behind and as they neared the vessel another figure emerged from the starboard side—a walking shadow, tall and solid in form, scrawled in ancient rules with a black gaze and solid form already heavily damaged.

Elias shoved a parasite away from him, his rifle streaking up to aim. His eyes stretched wide as Jackal heaved a weapon forward as well at their advance, one over a meter in length—a goddamn shoulder-mounted launcher, the kind designed to unleash a single devastating strike onto vessels and other heavily armored exteriors. Breath seized in his chest when Jackal fired the launcher and the sickening, whistling whiz of an armor-piercing projectile bolted through the rotunda at hurtling speed. The sound echoed everywhere, even inside of his helmet.

Fractions of a moments passed before the rocket completed its trajectory and made impact. However, to Elias, the exchange happened slow, and none of it made as much sense in practice as it did in theory. He whipped around to see Hudson there and then not there, a flashing disappearance that he struggled to follow in maneuver. The commander, a man named Hud Hudson, his best friend since their brutal training days in Union Defense, someone as close to him as another brother–one who could actually stand his presence, barreled into a column near the stage—then through the column itself with an explosive crash.

A wide portion of the already-weakened north side of the temple burst to pieces upon impact, a flare of flames that were enveloped immediately as more of the second and third floor balconies cascaded into rubble. Elias leaped away with frantic urgency as mountains of new collapse crumbled to the main floor and spilled toward the CDPD cruiser.

"Hudson!" Elias roared, shielding himself as his eyes darted around the billowing clouds. His chest heaved as he back ran towards the active collapse, shouting at Hudson to answer. "Hudson! Hudson! Report! Hudson! Hud! Commander—report—fuck!"

More of the temple shattered in response to the collapse, spilling over the stage and burying the parasites roaming there. Elias stopped short before he swept around, flooded with rage—pounding with anger that seized every thought in his mind and melted them into murder. But Jackal was already gone—a quick flash of action and the rebel leader vanished.

"Agost—Davies—" he barked. The men shoved their way out from the outskirts still intact. "Now!"

Elias charged through, stepping over a snarling parasite trapped within parts of the second floor balcony. The door to the cruiser was partially blocked by a piece of foundation that he kicked aside with the flat of his armored boot. Agost and Davies moved close when Elias reached the control panel and tapped for access, finding it already unlocked with no override needed.

He heaved himself into the vessel and was greeted at once by the sight of Jackal's back. Without hesitation he shoved his rifle into grip, though a shadow of movement in front of Jackal made him pause. For a flash of a moment he remained still, aiming, as Agost and Davies jumped into the vessel. His lids narrowed as Jackal spun around, two struggling figures in the warlord's grip.

The visual of a blood-spattered young man and a hysterical redhead in extreme distress registered to Elias right before a sudden weight slammed into him, blinding him with surprise and knocking him backwards into the gearsuits of Davies and Agost. He shoved the weight aside, a body, and aimed again, remaining stone-still when Jackal brandished the female at Elias, raising her high by a tight clutch of hair. Jackal’s scimitar glided to her throat and the girl’s mouth stretched open in wild, tear-streaked terror without a sound.

The weight beside Elias—it was Adam—rushed past without warning and barreled right into Jackal's legs, binding them together to try to tackle the native to the ground. Jackal glanced down, swinging the girl about like a doll in the show of curiosity, and Elias swept forward, aiming the rifle at Jackal's head, angling the exit wound with rapid care. From his new vantage point he found there was a knife already lodged in the back of Jackal's neck—and identified the hilt of a Viper 6 blade.

Elias eased the trigger a single time, blasting a new crater into the base of Jackal's skull. The girl dropped to the ground with a heavy thud before Jackal completed the slice and Jackal stumbled backwards, turning to face Elias. A smile flashed on the part of the rebel leader's face that still remained, the ammunition having exploded through Jackal's face and tearing out the left half of Jackal's jaw. Elias glanced down at the other damage on Jackal, a gaping wound already in the wildlander's chest, and seized with cold alarm at the lack of matter inside the cavity. Agost fired from the rear during the hesitation, the shot striking Jackal in the throat. The rebel leader dropped to the floor.

"Bomb—!" Adam released his hold on the frantic girl beside him and scrambled toward Elias, his desperation equal to the female. "Bomb!"

Elias glanced at vivid eyes, red-shocked and half-hidden under bruised and swollen lids.

"Where?"

"Here—" choked Adam. "Somewhere! Less than three minutes now! Hurry! Please!" Adam turned his head to the redhead. "Li—where? Where? Did he say—do–anything?"

The female's attention streaked toward at Elias, mouth moving with words she couldn't say, wincing as she tried. She—had to be Talitha, the infected student Adam wanted to find, the one his brother had disobeyed direct orders to pursue. Jackal's…Akil's daughter, apparently, a pureblood who was dead but also not dead. Elias grimaced inwardly upon immediate inspection of her with rapid overview. Drawn and pale, the girl wasn’t invigorated by the ether in the air but instead looked deathly ill. Her palm slammed on the floor of the cruiser and banged against it insistently, her gaze darting around at the hunters as she hammered away.

"It's under the floor," said Agost, hurrying over to where Talitha indicated. She moved aside to allow him to assess the surface. "There’s an access panel here with display circuitry underneath, a vulnerable spot to place a bomb that would amplify the resulting explosion in an internal chain reaction, destroying much more than just this vessel." His words were rapid as he crouched, removing tools from the pouch and prying at the hinge. "Two minutes to take this apart and disable the detonation mechanisms. Proceeding."

"Five-five." Elias moved over to Jackal's lying form and unlatched restraints he'd adhered to his belt. "Lieutenant, these civils—take them back to the cruiser. That collapse back there where…ah. Well, the strike and resulting additional collapse left a small opening to the outside. Use it to get them out if secure and wait for further orders. Take the rebel's weapons with you to document."

"Yes, Captain."

Adam moved up to Elias, face battered with new wounds. Elias grimaced within his helmet as he surveyed the hand Adam cradled close to his chest, the appendage crumpled and bent askew with heavy bruising and blood spatters, visible signs of bone perforating the skin. Adam himself appeared drained—exhausted—worse than before.

"That damage on Jackal," said Elias, his voice emanating from the suit as he removed the shoulder launcher and scimitar from Jackal. "Was that you?"

"Aye."

"Good."

A rattling noise from the cockpit caught their attention and Elias shifted focus to the redhead dragging a bundle of metal in her arms. She hobbled over to Elias soundlessly and dropped the bundle onto the floor beside the rebel leader, leaving to repeat the process. Elias noted what it was that she was dropping—CDPD animal control chains.

"That's what he had on her," said Adam, observing Talitha’s quiet, repetitive motions. "Wrapped them on tight, broke skin, choked her–she couldn't move at all. She’s in bad shape. Real bad. Bleeding a lot…and always shaking. Crying. Those…those are the keys for the chains."

Elias scanned naked flesh visible within the tatters of her destroyed costume rubbed raw, deeply bruised and smeared with red, the damage etched into her with the pattern of the restraints. He nodded, finishing his regulation methods before grabbing hold of the chains to use.

"Got it,” he said. “I'll use these too–lock him up tight. Now leave."

"Wait," said Adam, stopping Davies before the lieutenant could escort them out. "A rebel who turned on Jackal told me there's a motherlode of ether next door—under that City Hall building. Didn’t know exactly where Jackal kept it but knew that it was underground. There’s tunnels here, like what Gracie found to get onstage, since Jackal wants to destroy the mines along with Westmont. He was pissed when he was performing and said something about squeezing natives out of Union with the Westmont restoration project. You can reach the passage behind the stage—I can show you—"

"Not possible."

"What…happened?"

"Temple collapse. Happened while you were in here. Where's the defector?"

"Jackal killed him for helping me. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him. He helped me out when it was almost…over. He was the same one who helped Grace get inside–the blonde."

"You’d be dea—?” Elias whisked away reaction–the questions–and jerked the chains tight around Jackal's wrists without mercy, refusing to consider Adam’s statements too deeply as he yanked on the heavy metal ropes. “Copy. A motherlode of ether under City Hall. Underground tunnels too." He nodded. “I'll find it. Thank you."

"Thank…you."

Elias glanced at Adam for a moment before returning to his work. He wrenched the blade out of Jackal's head and wicked away the dripping fluid, handing the stained weapon over.

"That’s yours," he said. "One of our best. I remember you always liked blades, even as a kid–even when we practiced. Heard you got pretty good and won a reputation. See that’s true.”

“…You know about that stuff?" said Adam. "The tournaments and all?”

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“I do."

"Those were just for fun. For school. Didn't mean anything."

"Meant something today. Good job. Now get to the cruiser."

Davies led the teenagers out of the vessel and they stumbled over the debris littering the main floor. The sound of gentle rain pattered as Elias kept his attention on the restraints, moving to trap Jackal's ankles.

The memory of Hudson barreling through the column and crushing through the temple column haunted Elias. The projectile, a warhead tipped to pierce a vessel’s armor, impaled Hudson into his Silatem gear and buried the commander under the facility. Dead on impact, regardless of any detonation—and the blast following the collapse might have been a last touch to Hudson’s end. They wouldn’t know the condition of Hudson’s remains until they retrieved his body and confirmed.

Elias shoved the thought aside.

"How's that bomb looking?" he said, peering at Jackal's exposed throat, his hand brushing the tomahawk's sheathed, razor-sharp edge.

"I disabled the timer," replied Agost. "He used a COM device so the matter was simple with our override codes. Spotted an anti-handling fuze in my scans too. I'll have to be careful as I disarm the detonator. Time crunch or not, we might still go out with a bang."

"Did you hear about the motherlode?"

"Yes. If this bomb went off, perhaps a nastier outcome than what we've suffered so far with a triggered chain reaction. At the very least, the guaranteed destruction of the temple."

"We're headed to City Hall. It's not our job but we'll deliver visuals to Defense immediately. We have to act on the intel now."

"Yes, sir."

Elias checked Jackal's restraints, grazing the tomahawk again. Agost addressed him without looking up.

"We won't question you, Captain, if you do it. We'll sign off on the debrief as needed and I’m sure Heywood will support. This interaction had no other possible outcome that I can see. Decapitation's a recommended method for rabid control and you might as well disable the rest of his corpse to prevent reanimation. Do as you judge.”

"Noted," replied Elias.

Elias inspected the cockpit of the CDPD cruiser, tapping on the controls and checking the gauges to find them still operational—if they could manage to shake it out of the debris surrounding it. He spotted the helmet Adam stole on the ground and picked it up, turning it over in his hands before carrying it back out to the bridge and setting it aside.

Another minute passed of Agost's diligent work before the commander reached into the opened access panel, pulling out a metallic cylinder about a meter long and wide enough for Agost to cradle in both arms with babying care.

"I'll force a detonation with the laser outside, get rid of the active spark," he said to Elias. "The rain makes things much easier. Once it's nullified we can head to City Hall."

"All right." Elias stood as well. "I'll check the cage, get this fucker inside for transport."

"Copy."

Agost stepped carefully out of the cruiser and Elias watched the commander ease over the debris, headed toward the now-exposed exterior. He turned and glanced at Jackal's motionless body, head and body torn apart with mortal-looking damage and displaying mortal-looking weakness. He chuckled at a sight he despised beyond words for near the entire span of his lifetime…and beyond rational control.

"Commander's right, you'd be a lot easier to move in pieces, cocksucker," he spat. "Feel like waiting for you to wake up so I can do that slowly and feel every bit of it. I bet you’d fucking wake up too, as disgusting as you look. Let me enjoy every second of your misery at a Silatem compound in the wildlands. No Union jurisdiction. No Union oversight. No one will know what happens."

Elias stayed for a moment, delving into black thoughts, before slamming his boot into Jackal's face, crushing the little that was left. The snap of bone was audible, the noise resounding within the cruiser. His boot slid, gripping as it contacted wet matter, and he left Jackal there leaking and restrained, moving to the rear of the CDPD cruiser.

The cage for holding detained prisoners was located on the port side of the vessel, a separated compartment sealed with a pane of reinforced bulletproof material and an outer armored gate. He accessed the control panel on the side and found it operational, a quick scan of his standard override key working to unlock the compartment. He left it open and continued, opening the partition to the rear.

There was someone there and he halted in surprise, reaching for his firearm although there was no movement. He raised his rifle and approached, aiming down at the slumped figure. Something was wrong, the body was crumpled into impossible angles. Heavy black tracks ran over the CDPD jacket and trousers that the female figure wore. His bitter laugh returned—it took a moment for Elias to recognize the dark haired, dark eyed female crushed in an ugly way.

"Well, lover," he muttered, jabbing the listless corpse of the traitor he'd known—that he’d foolishly invited in his home and fucked—as Rose Desjard. "You look like shit. Guess someone got to you before I could. Lucky you—and I mean that. Whatever happened to you here is a damn favor."

He slung his rifle on his back, picking up the fallen body and finding her falling apart in his hands as he moved her. Without finesse he brought the woman called Rose to the cage and dumped her inside, standing there for a moment to survey the sight.

"Elias."

A deep voice called to him from the bridge, cutting through the silence. Elias sparked with alert.

"That's my wife, my queen, my lioness, called Labat and the Terror of Vangral. She'll remain loyal for all eternity to me and only me no matter her condition. The woman you laid with presented me with your father's head all those years ago, sawed it off herself after I slaughtered him before our tribe. It was a glorious Harvest that year, your father's blood on the circle. Tell me, Captain—did you enjoy the head she gave you?"

A blasting, sudden pop from the main cabin made Elias jump and he turned fast, racing to where he'd left Jackal, spotting the wildlander rising again. The ankle chains were broken and the arm restraints snapped next with ease. Elias fired immediately, pumping high caliber ammunition into Jackal as the wildlander rose, a beast that refused to stay down despite collecting critical damage. Jackal moved now with blinding speed, faster than anything Elias had experienced before, and Jackal reached him in a single blink.

The gearsuit crashed against the cruiser wall with a crack, Jackal's pinning Elias against the cruiser as a fist crashed into his visor, slamming him against the surface behind. The suit sensors blared, warning Elias that a rabid parasite powered by unreadable levels of ether intoxication was attacking—and that the splinters forming in the heavy plated polymers of his visor was a problem.

"Animal chains," Jackal roared, laughing without sign of pain through a broken face—without sign of a mouth to emanate it—the noise booming from somewhere deep within the mangled form. "Pathetic, Elias. I'm not an animal. Sinum isn’t cattle." He hissed the word, disgusted. "We're immortal and never die. Not here, in our home, our planet. Ipir's forever ours and we won’t leave or give her over to you. You’ll never be rid of me." Jackal laughed again. "9819…my humble Union abode, and all the rest I've prepared. More that you’ve missed with your myopic analysis of my thoughts. At the strike of the first hour, the grand finale. My offering complete. You lose."

Throttled by the blows that he couldn’t defend or escape, Elias struggled to turn his head as Jackal spoke, grimacing at the repeated bashes of his helmet against the wall. He reached for the rifle and his thumb struck a sensor, ejecting a bayonet from the weapon’s body that he rammed into Jackal’s side. A sudden, severe drop in temperature registered through the Silatem suit.

Jackal's fist slammed into his armored visor, at last cracking the material and splitting through. Shards fell into the helmet as Jackal’s next blow crushed into Elias’ face and for a moment after impact, Elias saw and felt nothing. A zipping sound nearby signaled the cruiser door had opened. Agost’s ragged voice yelled to him.

"Captain!"

Gunfire pounded into Jackal from the exterior. Jackal's movements stuttered before he could strike Elias again, visible clumps of material spraying off of the undead form with each contact of ammunition. He shoved himself forward to break free amid suppressive fire from Agost's projectiles, Jackal tearing the bayonet out of his own body once they were disengaged and switching focus, turning to hop out of the cruiser to pursue the still-firing Agost. Reeling, Elias coughed, grimacing at the shards pierced into his face and the sensation of bones within that had jostled loose. Something somewhere broken. He blinked hard, adrenaline and desperation returning sense to his head, and yanked his useless helmet off, tossing it aside.

Agost evaded, retreating and firing at Jackal who refused to slow—refused to drop, even as he fell to pieces. Elias yanked his firearm back into grip and retracted the bayonet as Jackal stopped advancing. He didn't need his helmet to identify troubling amounts of elevated ether in the air—an element toxic to humans in extreme doses but that supplied something else to those with native blood. The concentration on the main floor was intensifying by the moment and the chilled gas had sunk to the ground, settling over the inside of the temple as a light powdered dust.

Hissing song flowed from Jackal, echoing within the opened interior of the rotunda. The remaining parasites awakened, noticing the presence of human prey for the first time. Rabid figures lumbered toward Agost as if no stealth adjustments had ever been made and Elias wicked away blood that dripped into his eyes, yanking out the largest of the shards embedded in his skin as he jumped out of the cruiser.

He'd held off on using explosive ammunition but it seemed there was no other way to stop the Sinum master. No way out except to blow Jackal to pieces so that nothing was physically left behind that could attack and hope that would make some kind of difference. The hunters could lose it all anyway no matter what they did, the dangers so volatile, that any risk was worth the effort to win.

A dense black shadow darted through the rubble across the main floor with agility, leaping at Jackal and halting the rebel leader mid-song. Powerful jaws tore into what remained of Jackal’s head and a wolf hung onto Jackal as the wildlander struggled to rip the animal off. Elias followed Jackal's movements with the muzzle of his rifle and balanced the firearm in one arm, loading an explosive charge to the tank's modules.

Jackal ripped the black mass away and broke it in half with his hands mid-air, only to be attacked by another—and another—and another, until a pack of four were ripping into him at once. When a fifth streaked by Elias he turned away from the target, looking in the direction where the beasts were coming from. His lids narrowed as he spotted a small figure within the debris, almost missed unless he looked hard enough.

There was a girl there. A girl with red hair.

He watched the girl—she was Talitha—hold her head and rock in place as if suffering terrible pains in her skull. Another pair of wolves circled her and she faced them each, staring at them as they prowled, almost crawling on her haunches like the beasts herself. Her lips moved and she stretched an arm out, pointing a finger at Jackal. As if activated by the command the wolves darted away towards the rebel leader, jumping on him to attack. More wolves entered—wolves from the mountains, wolves from the swarm. Too many now. A sea of wild black fur and snapping jaws.

Talitha's head rose to look at Elias and he met her dark, hollowed stare from a distance, their intensity pulsating from afar. With Jackal's spell broken the parasites realized in tandem that Elias was human and standing there vulnerable without his helmet, full of suitable blood. He reentered the cruiser and grabbed Adam's discarded piece, placing it on his head and syncing it to his suit with automated adjustments.

He exited, recalibrating the stealth distortion for the entire team present, and signaled to Agost to keep an eye on Talitha instead. Davies had returned with both Adam and Talitha against orders, and Elias watched the native girl send another wolf toward Jackal, her motions repetitive and untiring, caught in a trance. He removed the tomahawk from his side and approached Jackal once more.

As expected, Silatem encountered a complication during their mission. One that prevented them from returning their contracted target alive—or even in one piece.

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