Sevastian and Timothy had to fall back into the forest and the others were shooting at the Cetro in wide arcs to cover for their retreat. Patience quickly lost her cool and ignored the danger. She stormed forward, heading directly for the closest enemy.
Robin saw one of the Cetro falling from atop a ship with a smoking hole in his chest, another lost her weapon after a projectile from Landom ripped off her arm. The woman raised her remaining hand and shot metal spikes out of an appendage in her arm. Landom activated his mutation to thicken his skin and blocked two of those barehanded. Happy used her inhuman reflexes to dodge another three spikes.
Half-way into the settlement, black smoke rose from a shadow and swallowed two Cetro that had hunkered down behind a stack of crates. Their bloodcurdling screams echoed over the battlefield for only a moment.
ROMAS also was on the move with the BWT drone. It had already killed one of the fanatics and wounded two more. But its target was the Head Priest in the distance. It didn’t get far however, before one of the wounded Cetro rushed towards the drone. The man had wires all over his legs and to Robin’s senses he glowed even brighter than others of his kind. With two long jumps the Cetro climbed a ship in his way and used it as a vantage point for a mad dash. A last high and well-aimed jump brought him on top of the drone where he immediately stomped down with one of his biotech legs. The leg burst apart, but so did the drone. Together, they tumbled to the ground.
Robin’s head pulsed with pain, his headache returning with full force. He could barely keep his mutation active without his vision shaking.
“No, no, no! Why is this happening?” he muttered, “This is not how it was supposed to be!”
He was here just to ask them why they had fled Seka. What they had learned after investigating Jim’s death. Now, everyone tried to kill each other like madmen.
He saw Patience who was finally about to reach an enemy. She had already multiple holes in her suit but still barreled forward like a bull. The man she was about to tackle realized that he would not come out on top if they would clash head on and retreated while continuing to shoot with a ballistic rifle. He scored one more hit, which did nothing to slow Patience down, before he climbed the steep wall of a ship. He was surprisingly agile and nearly made it to the top of the ten meter high hull before he lost his grip and fell back down.
Patience had reached his position by now and just before the Cetro fell into her waiting attack, his hand detached and shot upwards. Working like a grappling hook, it found purchase on the ship’s hull and moments later the man was pulled up like fish on the line. After he reached safe ground, away from the raging brute below him and with enough cover from the ranged attackers, Robin saw the man’s shoulder slump down in exhaustion.
On the ground Patience loudly cursed the man and his family. She hadn’t given up yet though and after taking a quick look around she took the heavy metal lid off one of the crates next to her. She crouched down, pulled her arm back and took aim. In one fluid motion she threw the lid towards the Cetro above her like a frisbee.
The man had no chance to react before he was hit in the middle of his stomach. Patience stepped aside as the upper half of the Cetro fell down next to her; the lower half remained standing on the legs like an unfinished statue.
“Burn in Plasma!” Robin shouted and pounded his head with his fists, hoping it would make the unbearable pain go away. He lost control over his mutation and dropped to his knees while panting heavily.
Ang’Tue appeared from the shadows of another Cetro, hands raised and about to send out a deadly cloud of black smoke. His luck ran out when the woman had somehow anticipated his move and was prepared. With a mad grin on her face she began to laugh and a tube opened on each of her shoulders. Robin saw a bright flash and for a second his passive energy sense returned and sent shivers all over his skin, then Ang’Tue was lying on the ground. He spasmed as blue lines of electricity ran over his smoking body.
- Attention!
- Detecting unusual readings from your body
“I just wanted to talk…” Robin muttered but no one heard him.
“I just wanted to talk!” He shouted, louder this time, but in the heat of the battle no one listened.
His vision blurred and he had to use his hand to not fall over. He had no idea why TechnoBlood was reacting with so much hostility, but he knew that it was him who brought his crew here. His friends.
Now they were fighting for their lives. Again.
This was supposed to be just a friendly visit, not some bloody battle.
“Why are they fighting?” His thoughts slowed down and thinking straight became impossible.
“Why aren’t they stopping?”
Notifications scrolled through his Interface.
- Warning!
- Your mind seems unstable, you need to calm down
- Immediately retread and seek medical assistance
- Warning!
- Your body temperature is rising sharply
- Immediately retread and seek medical assistance
- Warning!
- The electric field of your body is fluctuating
- Immediately retread and seek medical assistance
- Warning!
- Your…
“Rob!” He heard someone shout his name, but it sounded dull and far away.
“Why don’t they stop?” He muttered.
“Why… don’t… stop?” He said louder, his head throbbing.
“Why… STOP?” Robin’s voice rose to a yell, then he lost himself completely to the pain in his head.
- ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
- ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ?? ? ?
He wanted them to stop - his whole body was itching and power flooded him.
He wanted them to stop - his head was pounding. An instinct told him that they should listen to him, but somehow they didn’t, even though he had asked them to.
He wanted them to stop - …so he ordered them to obey.
“STOOOOOOPPPPPPP!”
Like an unstoppable force his shout rolled over the camp.
Explosions erupted all over the battlefield, Cetro began to spasm and his friends staggered and fell. Everything turned into chaos and fires broke out all over the place.
Then, Robin finally was swallowed by darkness and he lost consciousness.
***
Moments earlier, Landom was cursing Robin’s nine generations in his mind. Again.
‘We will just have a talk with them!’ the Captain had said.
“Damn!” He cursed and aimed at a man who was about to shoot at Alena. The Cetro did a backflip when the projectile hit his chest but he stood back up in the blink of an eye. A metallic sheen gleamed under the skin on his chest.
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“Damn!” Landom cursed again.
He looked around and analysed their options. They couldn’t do much. Patience and Ang’Tue were already too deep inside to call for a retreat and Robin also seemed to be out of action. The latter kneeled on the ground and hammered his own head while mumbling gibberish.
It wasn’t all bad, though. The Cetro were desperate, uncoordinated and tired. There was danger but with their suits the crew was more or less safe for now.
He was a bit worried about the Eltaran, but the old man was stubborn like an ox and Landom trusted that he would be back on his feet before it became too dangerous for him. The woman who had tasered him was already lying next to him, a gaping hole in her stomach.
Just as he was about to head over to Robin to pull him behind cover, the young man suddenly snapped. He threw his head back and desperately shouted over the chaos of the battlefield.
“STOOOOOOPPPPPPP!”
The cry was accompanied by a physical shockwave that hit Landom like a ship in full flight. For a brief moment his mind became hazy and his thoughts sluggish. He staggered backwards and quickly opened the visor of his helmet when it began to flash with static that blocked his sight. He also dropped his gun after it became unstable and sizzled with energy.
All around him his comrades did the same, safe for Alena who rolled on the ground with her hands pressed to the head and screamed in pain.
Timothy also didn’t look too well. He kneeled, panting and gritting his teeth. The part of his suit where he had stored his datapad was completely burned after the device went off in flames directly on his body.
The Cetro had it worse though.
Landom saw that many had seizures or mechanical limbs that suddenly just flailed around. People were falling to the ground after losing control over their bodies.
Some, those with augments for their senses, began to bleed from their orifices. Blood came out of many Cetros’ eyes and ears.
Landom also observed multiple explosions - energy weapons, personal devices or the lights in the camp.
Hit the hardest however were Cetro like the women who had tasered Ang’Tue. They had implants inside their bodies that now went haywire or downright exploded. Not much remained of those poor souls.
Landom quickly rushed to Happy and called Sevastian, who was on his way to Alena.
“She’ll make it! Leave your sister be and help me first. We need to subdue the Cetro before they can recover.”
He sprinted forwards to the closest enemy, a man that kneeled on the ground while blood flowed out of his eyes in streams. He quickly knocked him out and turned to address the rest of the crew.
“Everyone else, bring our friends to safety and tend to the wounded!”
Then he dove back to the battlefield, which now felt more like the final scene from a horror movie.
***
Robin awoke more refreshed and relaxed than he had been in weeks.
Somewhat dazed, he sat up and wondered where he was. He noticed that the headache, which had been his constant companion over the last days, had finally vanished.
“What the… how did I get here?” He mumbled and looked around.
He had been resting on a camping mat out in the open in the middle of a flower field. It was dark already and he saw a fire crackling nearby. Shadowy figures sat around it, talking with hushed voices he couldn’t understand.
‘The fight!’ Robin suddenly remembered and sat back down when his memories returned. Bits and pieces came together until he got a rough idea of what had happened.
‘The Cetro attacked us. We fought. No, my friends fought. I… I just collapsed? What did I do? I wanted them to stop fighting. Stop the useless bloodshed. I asked them to stop…’ He tried to make sense out of his jumbled memories. Something didn’t feel right.
‘No, I didn’t ask…’ he then realized, ‘I ordered them to stop! I was demanding obedience. What the heck? What is wrong with my head?’
“ROMAS, buddy. You had a long list of warnings before I blacked out. Can you show them again please?”
- No recordings of any warnings found
- Corrupted data found
- Analysing storage…
- Restoring data…
- Procedure failed.
- Total loss of data for the time of the incident
“Burn in Plasma, what’s going on here?” Robin mumbled.
The figures at the fire immediately stopped and turned around when they heard him. The smallest of them quickly rushed over to him.
“Rob! You’re awake!” Niu happily shouted and took him in a wide hug before taking a step back to take a good look at him, “How do you feel?”
“Uhm.. confused?”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah?”
“Come on, could you leave this to us, young Miss?” Ang’Tue said when he arrived together with Landom.
“But…”
“No ‘but’, go back to the others. Give Robin some time, yeah?” The officer said.
“Fine!” Happy grumbled with a pout before she returned to the fire.
“What has happened with the Cetro? What… What has happened to me? Everything feels hazy after the fight broke out.” Robin asked.
“It was quite the mess, yes.” Landom nodded.
“Is everyone alright?”
“We only sustained some injuries, nothing a recovery stim couldn’t fix. The only permanent loss was the BTW drone. It was damaged beyond repair, sorry.”
“Too bad, but at least everyone survived and is back on their feet, that’s the most important.” Robin said and shook his head.
“After the fight on Terulos we were in a worse state!” Ang’Tue chuckled.
“For someone with a mutation that makes you nearly invisible, you are getting roughed up in each and every single fight pretty badly…” Landom scoffed, “Rob, what is the last thing you can remember?”
“Uhm, the Head Priest had spurred on his people with some fanatic speech. After that a fight broke out.”
“Yeah, I hate these religious lunatics…” Landom said and began to explain what happened afterwards and how the short but fierce fight unfolded. When he reached the moment where Robin had his breakdown, he stopped.
“This… I can’t remember. Just… pain, my head had hurt so much. What exactly did I do? Was it an unknown aspect of my G-Anomaly?”
“Hard to tell, but I don’t think it was a skill of your mutation.” Ang’Tue said with worry on his face, “It was way too powerful for that and had a physical aspect to it, which doesn’t align with your G-Anomaly - no matter how absurdly twisted it may be.”
“What else could it be?” Landom asked, “I had some suspicions even before the fight. Do you remember the failed scanner at the station? Later, that happened again after we changed ships.”
“What? You didn’t tell me!”
“No, you had enough on your plate.” Landom waved him off and continued, “I concluded that it had to be a local event, so I thought about the possibility that you were the source. You had stress and complained about a constant headache. Maybe you have a skill you didn’t know about that influences the electric charge in your surroundings, only a little - just enough to disrupt the scanners but nothing else. Perhaps even some kind of innate ability? Like the increased empathy of the Ommih?” Landom asked.
Ang’Tue visibly flinched at the last part.
“Let’s hope it’s something else that we just don’t understand right now.” He said, “There is a difference between subtly feeling the emotions of others and blowing up each and every electronic device in a fifty meter range.”
“You seem frightened.” Robin observed, “Why would it be a problem, if it was an innate ability?”
“It… Innate abilities aren’t a problem. But humans don’t have those.” Ang’Tue said and stood up.
“But, I am a human.” Robin pointed out in confusion.
“Oh yes, most definitely. Now you see why it would be a problem.”
“Uhm… not really, no.” Robin scratched his head and Landom also looked confused.
“Well, let’s postpone this talk until we reach… our next big destination. There are people who know more than I do and can conduct specific tests.” The Eltaran said and left while being lost in his thoughts.
“Oh you already have decided where to go next?” Landom asked and Robin nodded without elaborating any further. It wasn’t on him to share that they wanted to visit the Eltaran, even if he fully trusted Landom.
“What happened after my… outburst?” He asked instead.
Landom gave him a short appraising look and didn’t press any further.
“We used the chaos to retrieve our wounded and subdue the remaining Cetro. It went surprisingly smooth from there on.”
“How many have survived? How many did… did I kill?”
“Does it matter? Would knowing change anything?” Landom asked with a soft voice.
Robin shook his head, he didn’t need a number - his answer already revealed more than enough.
“Did the Head Priest survive?”
“Yes, Patience personally questioned him after she allowed him a break to help the surviving Cetro. You should ask her for the details.”
“Thanks for everything, mate. I didn’t make it easy for you.”
“Never did.” Landom laughed and patted his shoulder, “You’re welcome, Captain.”