The Legacy of the Lost Hope Read online

much larger, large enough for the thing to fit through. Kneeling down to see, Amber felt an embrace of déjà-vu as a light matching her name spun to meet her. What features available to describe would have been the human shaped head with the eyes of gold glaring into her very being.

  Trailing behind the metal corpse was the vanguard probes it had unleashed upon the vessel, each were competing for a chance to climb upon the damaged limbs. It was chaotic to see, as those that clambered onto the severed limb and spinal area suddenly left to allow more to clamber onto the severed regions. Grimacing at the vanishing entity, Sallyn found her focus change from interest to self preservation as the space ship rocked. Sharp thuds thundered as each impact started to tear into the vessel. Information spurts filled her eyes with an overload of information as ship diagnostics reported engine and main power cell failures in the main propulsion segment of the vessel.

  Sallyn realised one more shot would severely cripple the ship or worse, she needed to get onto that patrol cruiser and fast. The drone gave off thought processes that signified its intent and Sallyn refused to understand its loyalty to Volg. Running through the maze of hallways and open-plan cabin rooms, Sallyn headed for the huge cargo bay. Further attacks were absent while she declared freedom from this ship as her only remaining option. Heart monitors showed her pounding organ straining under the pressures of the external environment, while instincts of self preservation took over her basic thought processes. Adrenaline bursts were out of control as she followed the map through the winding halls, any normal human would have been panting heavily after that approximate kilometre dash.

  The entrance to the cargo bay was before her, all she needed to do was override the locking mechanism. “Amber, if that is who you think you are now, stay with me and help me fight the consortium. Pollux was the beginning; the consortium has gotten away with manipulating people far too long. The Augment forces were never the enemy, the power mad are.” “You’re power mad and you’re going to get yourself killed.” “Better to die a free man than as an empty shell!” Sallyn yanked the optic fibres feeding the transmission out of the panel and used her tendrils to access the locked door’s processors.

  Each tendril tip laced its way into the circuit’s optic connectors, Sallyn’s brain then began rewriting the locking codes. Mental firewalls shielded her mind from any potential attacks in the making from Volg or that entity crawling through the hidden rooms and ducts of the vessel. Opening gradually, Sallyn needed to concentrate as the door slowly slid open. Fully open, she saw her transport ship still docked on the floor. The ladder was the easiest part; the hardest was to take the glares of the autonomous drones, all seemingly disappointed in her choice. It would be a long walk to freedom, as she got closer to her landing transport, the glares suddenly switched from her to something else.

  Joining the drones in their glare, a swift upward glance behind her, and then another look as what she saw next was beyond belief. That infernal cyborg was clambering along the lights with its progeny in tow. Whatever code was being transmitted by the drones, it seemed to correspond with the emotion of fear as though a superior predator had attacked the herd.

  Drones began fanning out from the entity heading to the door controls of the cargo bay. Sallyn rushed to her transport vessel, it was open at least while the maintenance drones fled from the transport in the middle of their repairs. Entering through the cargo hold of the transport, she raced to the pilot’s seat; the drones had removed all of the autopilot’s control unit. Sallyn overcame her fear of the space to take command of the ship via her optic fibre follicles. Her mind spanned the entirety of the ship, becoming an extension of her body. Her thoughts would become its actions.

  Repulsion rings engaged and thrusters roared into life to lift the vehicle off the deck quickly to get her to the core struts supporting the cylindrical cargo bay. The target was small but still it would be severely injured by the impact from the transport. For a half finished skeleton, it was fast, then as she got closer to ready the pinning manoeuvre she saw something unusual about the entity. Her eyes magnified segments of interest where the structure had been extended and new bone like forms occurred on the body. A conclusion arrived, the drones were sent out to find materials to repair it. In the moment of thought processes, the thing neared the button. Simply thinking thrust had pushed the vehicle forward. With the pull of inertia, Sallyn had to concentrate, though it was in vain as the button was reached.

  Decompression dragged her off target and bouncing out of the cargo bay. Overloading her synapses with errors and damage responses, Sallyn found her mind ejected from the piloting system. The loss of the extension was shocking enough but the view was near death worthy. Staring down at her was the prow cannon of the cruiser, both port and starboard sides frayed as its gunship hatches opened. Inhaling, Sallyn prepared for her last few moments of existence to be swift and painful. Swarming out were the dozen or so space craft trailed by blue hazy streaks.

  Heart rate monitors registered results of alarming pulses to the blood flow, while her mind began questioning why she committed the most heinous crime in the history of the consortium. Regardless, she is as much a fugitive as Volg has become. Desperation was her drive now and she knew that she would have to be erased from existence if she was caught. Seeing no alternative bar the planet for refuge, Sallyn plugged herself back into the vessel.

  Descending through the thick, heavy clouds laced with mild acidic rain, Sallyn mentally pushed herself to maximise the efficiency of the vessel and it was beginning to show its strains on her. Sweat glands perspired profusely as she fled the assault craft in pursuit. Bolts of light skimmed the transport craft’s frontal screen. As more ammunition darted in front and behind, she hoped the cover would work for a few more minutes as she could try and find a canyon to hide in. The machine juddered and rattled as it worked its way through the atmosphere.

  Flashes of blue bolts conflicted with the streaks of yellow from the kinetic weapons fire. As the storm’s war with the ammunition raged to a point, it obscured the natural dangers of the alien world from view. With impaired vision, the ship was narrowly dodging oncoming rocky outcrops as small explosions forced certain sinister shadows to come to view. Instinct forced the vehicle to flinch at each encounter with a high rise outcrop. Unpredictable rates of these near collisions kept Sallyn draining her brain power, she was losing her mastery of the cumbersome vessel she was now embodying.

  Hidden from her peripheral vision, a tower of sharp rocks collided with one of the engines and the shock threw the vessel into an uncontrollable spin. Adrenaline made the mere seconds stretch into lengthier periods of time, giving her the chance to rapidly relinquish control and head into the cargo bay. Clamping her hands onto the frame of the doorway, Sally found herself losing balance through the rotations the vehicle was being put through.

  The grand slam at the end threw her down to the metal floor, hard.

  Reddened skies in partial view greeted her childish self, as her home world was left in cinders. Orbital bombardments collided into grand skyscrapers with mid departing space craft leaving the docking clamps. Carnage descended through the clouds as tumbling ruins began the city’s transformation. It was horrific to see as burning bodies drifted from the highest towers. Her father dragged her in desperation towards a sheltered emergency room. Screams from the streets rang loudly in her ears during the panic and sirens directed people to shelter. But this wasn’t her life or her memories, they were someone else’s, Sallyn never knew her parents as they were killed in a mining station collision. As the dream destabilised, she was left in darkness.

  Sallyn then tasted iron and salt on her tongue. No more pleasant than the smell of the atmosphere, until it started suffocating her. Atmospheric converters were still on the ship since her last visit, the struggle to breathe and reach the converter were troublesome enough without the sound of the closing gunships agitating her nerves. Grabbing the mouthpiece after her tendrils raked at its edges, the aftermath of putti
ng the converter on was more painful to bear as her body was flooded with oxygen rich air. Coughing removed most of the foreign elements while the converter forced her coughs to be heard as varying pitched static noise. Thankfully she was didn’t wear the hood, her hair only dimly lit up the cargo hold but it was enough to guide her.

  Several slow and deep intakes later, Amber managed to push herself off the floor. Pressing the rear hatch controls failed to engage the opening mechanisms, to soon realise the power unit was heavily damaged. The claustrophobic cargo bay had only one exit, the orange haze from the pilot’s seat. As she approached, she couldn’t help but feel some compassion for the battered and bruised vessel. Outside lingered the ever present storms of the planet as the gunships hunted throughout the sky for the transport. Out of nowhere a great purple wave of what looked like plasma surged in all directions throughout the view from what was left of the cockpit, it consumed everything in sight including the orange haze of the sky. As it coursed its way over the hull of the downed transport, Sallyn placed her human hand on the glass to feel the heat of the