Ko saw him in the crowd, looking for a way up the floors, as he got shoved and pushed by people trying to escape the blasts from the outside, into the safety of the temple. If only these poor fools knew, thought Ko. The chaos of the crowd at the entrance to the temple must have disorientated him, as he looked lost, despite having lived in this temple for months now. Ko was standing in a Traes guard exo-suit, looking down into the entrance. He wasn't being attacked which told him that people were still too afraid of consequences. He would need to change that for all of this to work.

  Ko shot two bolts into the crowd, just above Meno’s head trying to gain his attention. He saw the crowd baulk at this action, first pulling away and then roaring in incredulity and they seized with fury. It had two desired effects as Meno looked over at him, and he was now also subject to the fury of the crowd. The rest of the guards would now feel that same scrutiny. He held his hand out with forefinger and middle facing down and saw Meno recognise him. Good, the kid wasn't panicking yet, and quickly made his way past Ko, who was standing in the Traes guard exo-suit that was about to become the target of the new ‘consequence’.

  He spotted a man to his left who was about to run straight over an elderly man trying to escape the chaos. Ko flicked his right hand in the familiar movement and changed places with him, his vision needing the familiar adjustment period of an entirely new scene in front of him. Usually, Ko could get away from the side effects of vision blurring by simply closing his eyes, but this situation needed full awareness. He had left the exo-suit for the man to stay in. He reached out his hands and caught the elderly man, guiding him to the side, but made sure to watch the exo-suit that he had just left as it, and the man inside was consumed by the mob, screaming something. They would no longer be afraid of the guards now, he thought.

  “Thank you, young man,” said the old-timer in Ko’s arms.

  “No problem pops. Maybe stick to the corners, eh?” the old man nodded, and Ko took the room in, watching the flow of people. It was like a storm in the middle of some rough sea, people flowing this way and that, crashing into one another as the light from the flames outside flickered against the stone walls of the temple.

  He needed to find a command panel as fast as he could. He knew from the schematics that he had memorised that there was one below, toward the basement levels, in a security command room. The tunnel down to it was crowded, but he would just need to make some quick swaps and he would be through. He looked around for any weapons but couldn't see anything. There was no helping it then. He made his way quickly across the room toward the tunnel, bustling through the crowd and pulled out one of Paba’s bang-bangs that he had hidden in his base layers. Very clever little devices he kept thinking every time he grabbed one. Just a small generator and some loose tech. Ingenious.

  “Here, throw this,” Ko said to a young man who seemed to be the most enraged person around him. Always the easiest targets, “Down that passage, that's where all the guards will come from” he added, and stepped forward, not needing to check if the boy would do it or not, he knew that he would. Within a matter of seconds, Ko saw the bang-bang lobbed over the crowd toward the tunnel. He had no thoughts for his compatriots as the small bomb made its way through the passage entrance. The cost of revolution, he thought, grimly.

  Ko stood to the side, ensuring that he would not be bowled over as soon as the bomb went off, and the tide of the crowd flowed toward him. The blast shot a jet of fire toward the mob, and Ko felt the heat of it, and once again the entranceway screamed, but this time in fear, people ran away from the hallway, and Ko pushed himself against the wall as they rushed past him. He kept his eyes on the entrance waiting for a guard or, preferably a Dorlec soldier to appear. He needed one of their suits, the Dorlec probably held full authority over the Traes guard now. Even if that wasn't an official order, he had spent enough time with the Traes guard to know that they would submit to the more experienced Dorlec.

  He didn't need to wait long, three arrived at the smokey threshold, their rifles aimed toward the crowd in threat, but unwilling to fire. The Traes guard shouted at the crowd, urging them to step back, jockeying their rifles forward at them,

  Ko found his target, felt the familiar resonance lock, and with a flick of his wrist, Ko found himself in the exo-suit, now standing on the threshold as chaos erupted around him. He took a step back and calmly raised the rifle that was now in his hands to the back of one of the guard's helmets, under their shield, at the base of the skull and fired, and with a whisper from the barrel the guard dropped. The other not knowing what had happened, didn't even realise the bolt under his chin as Ko fired again. Both were down silently as he looked at the Traes guard, now out of uniform and wearing what Ko had been, and standing where he had been standing scrambling to try and get forward. He didn't know that he had just lucked out. The crowd in front of him looked at him fearfully, and he shot two bolts into the air, which caused them all to move backwards. It would have seemed like lunacy to them, and nobody wants to risk the next move of a lunatic.

  “Man down! We’re under fire!” he called into the exo-suits comm, as he turned into the corridor and ran toward the security room. He heard the panic in the response as guards were readied to enter the corridor. As he suspected, the Traes Guard were trained, but they had no real experience, they didn't know how to handle a situation like this at all. Their awareness was something that was told, it wasn't something that they felt yet.

  He made his way quickly through the corridor and saw the open door of the security room, with five guards making their way out. Ko immediately gripped his side as though holding a wound, slowed himself down and put on a limp, ensuring that they would see him as someone who required immediate assistance.

  “They’re coming” he feigned weakly through the exo-suit helmet, and the guards took him in for a moment,

  “How many?”

  “I dont know,” he said trying to add some fear into his tone, on top of the pained voice. They would understand. These guards would not judge weakness, they all felt the same.

  “Get him inside and get him medical attention” said the lead guard, to which one of the others lifted him, holding him on one arm as he was escorted into the security room, as the rest of the guards made their way through the corridor up to the chaos. Ko didn't watch them, he didn't need to, he knew that he had convinced them well enough.

  Once in the security room he looked around and saw panels and holograms showing the crowds above, outside and some of the top floors too, all swarming with people, all overrun. Ko realised that they were not watching what was happening in the Traes apartments, and he imagined that was by order of Moran. He needed to get eyes on the Dorlec numbers and their target, Angie.

  The Security Command office was staffed with three guards, not including the guard that had brought him in. The three that were tending to the holograms and panels were frantically calling into comms devices, letting the other guards know where threats were and informing command. All of them looked well out of their depths. They stuttered their commands and information, some of it not even making sense.

  The guard that brought him in issued orders to the other three to give him medical attention before turning and leaving again. Thankfully the remaining guards were not wearing exo-suits, which would make this easier. People in armour tend to trust it and feel like they can attack. Being exposed made a difference. Ko waited for the doors to close and for one of the others to get close to him, bringing over a medic pack, she was young, terrified and shaking as she dropped to a knee in front of him.

  “Where are you hit?” she said scanning his exo-suit, visibly shaken. Ko stood up, held the rifle out and said, as gently as he possibly could,

  “Please stand in the corner” she looked up at him in horror, her breath caught in her throat,

  “Wha…?” she said falling from her haunches, her eyes wide in questioning.

  “You two as well please,” he said to the other guards, two men, about the same age as the young girl. They didn't try and fight back and both immediately raised their hands, sharing in her look of terror which was only exacerbated as they looked at each other.

  Ko quickly shuffled them over, handed them wrist restraints and told her to tie the other two up before he tied her wrists and ankles.

  “Please continue to help your teams, keep your eyes on the feed and make sure that they dont know that I’m here,” he said to their confused faces, “If they find out that I am here, or you tell them, I kill all three of you, understood?” he received nervous nods from all three. “Don’t be the one that gets your two friends killed, cool?”

  He turned to the holograms and panels and quickly orientated himself, finding, through the chaos, Meno who was travelling through the corridors well enough. He was fast, thought Ko. The kid continues to surprise.

  “I’m in,” he said on his private comms device,

  “Meno?” was Paba’s immediate question. It was almost sweet.

  “He’s doing fine, making his way up” he said watching as the boy threw one of Paba’s innie grenades at a Dorlec primer who was thrown a wall of fire toward him. Ko watched as the Hologram lit brightly with the light of the fire, only to see it being pulled into a hot tiny mass that blew up in the Dorlec’s chest. This kid had a natural talent for chaos, he thought. “How do I get this thing to work?” he said pulling her Pendant from his pocket under the exo-suit and inspecting it. It didn't have any notable points where it could be integrated into a system,

  “Just place it on the command console, he will…it will do the rest,” she said. He noted before how she refrained from humanising the intelligence, but only as an afterthought. Clearly, she saw it as more than code, but knew that others would be hesitant to accept it as that. Paba was a very interesting character, he thought, she had most likely befriended the intelligence, after creating it. Perhaps because of that she could fathom it, but perhaps like all creators of intelligence before, that was the ill delusion that she could handle it, understand it. He wondered. This would most likely be the most dangerous thing he had ever done. Even learning about systems like this was illegal. He pointed at a console and turned to the guards,

  “Is this the command console?” he was not familiar with this technology, a few decades older than what he was used to. The girl who was still watching the holograms and panels turned to him and mid-sentence gave him a short nod. She still looked terrified and was seeming to do everything that she could to dance this fine line that Ko had placed her on. He felt bad for her, but at the same time, necessities must. Ko was just happy that they were following his instructions and weren’t forcing him into doing anything he didn't want to. He placed the pendant on the console,

  “He’s on,” he said and immediately was hit with a floating and rotating crescent facing upwards like the illuminated belly of a moon with lines drawn down the half-moon shape, it looked like a deranged smile. Suddenly all over, reams of symbols and numbers began moving over every hologram and panel, overlaying one another and heading in all directions. There was a strange ticking sound that came through, not in sequence but almost random that then started to speed up, becoming louder and louder as the symbols continued to multiply until Ko couldn't see anything else. The holograms and the panels had been consumed with the symbols, and the maths, all code from ancient to modern. He saw the guards watch this with terror now too, and apparently, their comms had gone down, as they repeated themselves and sought reconnection to whoever they were speaking with. Then all at once, it stopped, and the room continued as though nothing had happened at all. The panels and holograms continued, and the guards' comms seemed to be back. All that Ko could see was the rotating smile at the top of each hologram and panel. A shiver went up his spine, something he couldn't remember when last he had felt. Let’s hope he didn't regret releasing this.

  “Empress Paba! Where are we?” said the console in a strange, near-human voice, it seemed to go from panic to absolute calm immediately. Ko didn't know what to do, but he saw commands being generated on the sides of the panels, countless pieces of code overlapping one another, complex maths like that Ko had never seen before being generated and then overlaid.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “I’ve got him,” said Paba in his ear, as he looked transfixed at the system that seemed to be completely autonomous.

  “Ah…who are you?” said the console accusingly to Ko, whose blood now went cold.

  “Leave him, Hal, he’s with us, bring up this one,” said Paba’s voice over the comms. She must have been interacting with HAL on her side because he saw the panels change over and suddenly he was looking at Meno once more, which caused him to jump forward facing the floating image of Meno who was now in the middle of fighting two Kryptea. Fuck, he thought as he watched Meno get thrown against the wall, but he managed to dodge, somehow.

  “Paba, cut their comms” he turned and gave an apologetic look to the three guards who seemed mortified. What did they expect really?

  “Done,” said the console in a chipper voice, “Friend?” it said questionly. Ko stepped back from it, feeling deeply uncomfortable. “Friend?” it said more desperately,

  “Yes, he’s with us, Hal” Ko felt himself let out a breath. He didn't know what would have happened if she hadn't confirmed that for him. From what he could see, they now currently had access to the entire temple. It had taken a moment for Hal to do all of that. No wonder Worrec wanted it. He needed to focus.

  Ko turned back to the holograms and saw that in an instant Meno had thrust his fist up toward the male Kryptea’s chin and lifted him with the force of his blow before pulling back quickly, and saw that he had left one of Paba’s small grenades behind, under the Kryptea’s chin. The red-skinned soldier hadn't seen it, and when it burst, Ko saw that it was an innie. It pulled at the Kryptea who was not prepared, killing him almost instantly as his jaw and throat were pulled to the centre of the gravitational mass.

  ‘Who the fuck is this kid?’ Ko thought to himself as he watched the dead Kryptea slowly drop. Ko knew very experienced soldiers who were not capable of something like that. Let alone even being able to compete with a Kryptea’s speed.

  He kept watching Meno as he was thrown to the other side of the wall by the Kryptea known as 6, stopping Archon the female from being able to attack him. 6 had seemingly intervened a sure killing blow from Archon. Ko heard on the comm,

  “Now, please” The kid was out of breath. He must have had it knocked out of him.

  “You got it, kid,” he said into the comm. He hit the detonator and the room shook with the blast that was happening a few stories above him, the ground cracked like thunder and Ko saw the flames billow out the building on the holograms, he saw the crowds run, duck and hide from the sudden and much more powerful blast than what had come before. He heard the mob screech after the initial blast and felt the temple rumble as its stone walls tried to resettle. The sheer pressure from the blast would have caused the walls to bulge out of place.

  “Is he okay?” Ko said into the comms, trying to speak over the screaming guards in the room. Paba would know how to navigate this system better than he could.

  “I’m sending gliders from the basement up to his floor, go help him!” said Paba through her comms as she felt nausea speaking the words, but she knew that if she didn't focus on this now all was lost. She stood up from her sitting position in the abandoned apartment that she had chosen since being dropped off in the city by Worrec.

  The small room with its stone walls and closed windows had kept her out of chaos, in a bubble of anxiety, but she needed to be sharp now. She looked out the window at the temple and saw the burst of flame from the second floor, and immediately saw the Pillar gather more resonance around itself, the subtle glow from the gravity engines intensifying, growing more opaque as it pulled energy towards its shields. It had engaged its defences. They would start their own attack soon if they were identified.

  “Empress Paba, who is this strange thing?”

  “He’s a friend, Hal, help him. I’m turning on the weather systems now, I need you to create a storm that will delay that Pillar. Choose violence,” god she hoped that this would work. She had never asked Hal to act in violence before and didn't know how he was going to respond.

  “Violence, accepted. Okey dokey!” Hal said enthusiastically, “Storm Hella, incoming”. Immediately Paba heard the planet's weather management system kick in, the slight vibration in the ground, the small hum that you needed to listen for, and she felt the winds pick up, even in the closed room. The winds would be tearing through every crack if Hal pushed the system to its limit.

  She rushedly put the data pad under her arm and moved from the abandoned building that she had been camping in. If the Pillar caught a whiff of her signal, it would blow a crater in the city one hundred meters deep. She looked to the temple and saw rising along the walls the fifteen gliders she had sent up the building, their metallic mirror finish glimmering in the light. She saw too the twelve Pillar fighters dropping to the lower floor. Those were dagger class, the gliders would be ripped to shreds if she didn't do anything.

  “Shit,” she said, stupidly not thinking about the Pillars fighters, “Hal, activate temple defences, blow those Pillar ships away, but keep the temple gliders,”

  “Inspired!” Hal let out jubilantly on her comms. “Temple defences activated, swatting flies. Fire suppression around friend, but friend is not alone” Paba saw the Pillar’s fighters get pushed out by the Temple’s defensive shielding, which swelled outward, like a visible bubble growing around it, knocking the fighters off course. She knew that the runes that they had seen lining the walls of the temple when they first arrived would now be glowing. They were old tech, but good tech. Hopefully, it would hold. Though not for long, and in any case, they would still need to get past those things when getting Meno, Angie and Ko out.

  “I know, you need to help him, use the gliders. Make sure that he doesn't get hurt”

  “Yes Empress” Hal said quickly and she watched as the fire from the blast was pulled back, being suppressed quickly by the temple systems. The temperature around her had plummeted and the winds were now roaring through the streets. She felt the bite of it, the icy winds cutting through her as her breath began to feel heavy with the cold air entering her lungs. She began to shiver but knew that she couldn't stop. She stood outside of the building, not daring to stand in the middle of the street with the winds picking up. They howled down the alleys and Paba saw all manner of things being picked up by it as it lay the city to waste. Hopefully, people had had enough time to get inside. She would gradually increase the intensity of the storm..

  She saw one of the gliders come her way, the arrow-shaped mirror finish vehicle stopped just before her and she got in. Thankfully with the gravity engines, she could cocoon the ship in a gravity bubble that would lessen the effects of the storm brewing around her. The problem was that the enemy ships would have the same advantage. Knocking them out of the sky with a storm wouldn't really work, not if they intended to fly in that same sky.

  She stuck her head inside the glider to see that nobody was in the plush finish vehicle and upon seeing that it was clear. She threw the data pad onto the cushioned seats and brought up the main hologram where Hal’s smile appeared, it was then wrapped with code and she saw the features of what Hal had designed for himself appear. Around the smile, the eyes and face coalesced with code to make his face, an energetic kid that he thought represented him well.

  “This is command now, clear a path and get us into the air, we need to block the Pillar’s visibility of the temple and us. Start building an energy charge in the storm systems, we are going to have to throw everything you can at the Pillar”

  “Fantastic, and we are off” She saw the altimeter climb next to him on the hologram and saw out of the windows that the weather had now reached an absolute blizzard, and Hal had now added lighting around the Pillar as well. She watched as the brilliant cracks of blue light illuminated the sky around the Pillar, hitting it like a focused rod. The shields absorbed it, and she saw the glimmer around the Pillar through the storm as the energy was transferred around the monolithic ship. “Drink?” he said in what he must have thought was a seductive voice.

  “We still have friends in that Temple, Hal. I showed you, Angie, before, find her and then send it to the friend that uploaded you to the system”

  “Done, Angie is in the highest level apartments, room 5, with two guards outside the room and a creepy one in the room with her. There are no means of removing the guards without harming the Angie” he added the name like he was announcing it.

  “That’s fine, send it to Ko, friend that…”

  “Already done,”

  “The other one,” she said frantically, now no longer able to see the temple through the thickening of the weather around the temple, only bursts of light through the storm, only Det’em’s fingertips clearly visible, “Meno, is he okay?”

  “He’s on one of the gliders you sent him,” he said in a chipper voice.

  “Good!” said Paba, taking a deep breath. The Kryptea had been on him immediately, which had always been the worst-case scenario. She wanted to tell Hal to bring him back, she wanted to try and protect him, but she needed to stay on course, on mission. “He needs to get to room 5. Help him”

  “I’m afraid I must have misspoken, Empress, when I said on one of the gliders, I meant, on”

  “He’s what?!”

  *

  Sheppard craned over the balcony of the Traes apartments, now shielded by the Temple’s defences, a bubble shield around them. He didn't know if they had kicked in automatically or not, which at the moment, did not matter, it was protecting them from the storm outside, that raged like the planet itself was set against him. He could no longer see the Pillar and only knew where it was because of the small flickers of light through the black blizzard where he now knew it was being struck with lightning. The thunderclaps were reverberating around the lands, even with the sound being swept up by the hurricane-like winds.

  “Smik!” he roared, turning his head only slightly from the rising Gliders that climbed the tower. His Dagger class fighters were still being kept out of the temple by the shield being generated by the temple. The glow of runic defences glowing brightly on the patio. “Report, Smik!” the Luitenet made his way over, in a panic as Sheppard turned to see the room in chaos, his soldiers scrambling to regain communications, to get some idea of the threat since the Agora had blown and the lower levels became flooded with insurgents. It was only then that the strike had occurred within the temple itself, with a massive blast that threatened to bring down the ancient tower itself.

  “I’m sorry Commander, we still have not regained communications, the last we had from the Kryptea was that they had engaged with the boy, Meno” his luitent spluttered at him, his hands being held together in front of him nervously, like a mouse.

  “Get the comms back up, use the temples systems to turn this fucking storm off, and regain connection to that Pillar!” he roared at the sheepish man whose head dropped in acceptance of the orders. “Moran!” he bellowed into the hall and saw the large Traes Commander with his black moustache being held high by his thick neck. He didn't look ashamed at all, which disgusted Sheppard, this man had no shame, no concept of his own incompetence, “Get your men to shut off controls to the weather system, and send your troops down to support the Kryptea” he watched as Pac Traes behind Moran, still standing over his dying wife looked at him venomously. “I am holding you responsible for this Moran, sort it out” he snarled, to which the Commander's moustache shook with words bitten back.

  He began walking through the patio noting that all of the soldiers were watching him intently, looking for direction, looking for answers, unable to think for themselves in any shape or form. They were all failures to the Dorlec name.

  “Arm up, barricade the passageways, defend the balcony, there are gliders rising to this location. Do not let these farm hands sully the Dorlec name!” he roared, not looking at any soldier directly. “This is now a P3, all tech is authorised, ensure that you handle it appropriately,” he said making his way off the patio into the apartments. He never wanted to raise the threat level of an invasion like this, something that should have been so simple, so routine, he had now needed to classify it as an ‘Escalating Threat’.

  He passed to the room where former Captain Angela Lawrence was being interrogated and saw the two guards standing outside of the door. His mind was again spinning, he had not dug deep enough to get the answers that he needed and now it was too late, he was paying the consequences of his own negligence. They had help, they had always had help. On Gol they had escaped with help, while on Yeley they had been accepted into the Planetary Head’s home, confidence and Guard. Of course, they had help, but he didn't expect this level of assistance, a full-scale siege.

  He had only seen the boy, Meno on the footage, he hadn't recognised anyone else, he didn't even know what their support looked like. He had been a fool. He had underestimated them, their support, their abilities. The child who was brought up on a nothing moon, trained by a dying soldier had just killed a Kryptea, something that not even hardened soldiers were capable of. He was more than Sheppard had been told he was, he was more important to outside forces. He was a threat.

  “Sir, we don’t have any comm…” The soldier's neck burst with a flick of Sheppard's hand. Disgusting, he thought. Breaking protocol out of fear, for not having a comm signal. You salute first.

  “Open the door,” he said to the other who looked down at his former colleague on the ground, his hand raised to his forehead before rushing to push the door for him. The room smelled like blood and Sheppard saw the seer in their red robes towering over the old soldier. Former Captain Angela Lawrence was strapped to a chair, blood still covering her face and exo-suit, looking dazed as the seer gazed into her mind. The seer turned to him, the hood of their robe obscuring its face.

  “She does not know where they are,” said the seer with a calm confidence, as it hulked over her.

  “Bring her back,” he said, his voice now icy. He watched as the seer’s hand moved across her face and her open eyes awoke, she gasped and tried to catch her breath, her gaze shifting around the room trying to latch onto anything that could ground her. “Who are you working with?” she was still trying to bring herself to, and she caught eyes with the seer, pulling back into her chair to try and get away from the person who had just invaded each of her thoughts, scrutinising her mind. “Lawrence!” Sheppard bellowed at her. Another explosion hit and rattled the side of the temple, dust sifted through from the ceiling and Angela Lawrence had a feint smile that arrived on her face, seeming to piece everything together.

  “Are you…” she started trying to catch her breath, “Under attack commander?” Sheppard fought the rage in himself and quietly, more venomously asked again. “Did you underestimate the Yeleans?” she said with another smile,

  “Who are you working with?” she started to laugh, a horrid sound as it was interspersed with coughing and wheezing.

  “Are you losing?”

  “Do not play games with me. The Yeleans are not capable of this, who are you working with?”

  “Careful Commander, your Dorlec is showing” she said throwing her head back in laughter. The seer slapped her across the face, and the former Captain spat on the ground. “And you have a Pillar and everything,” she said, laughing again in the silent room as dust fell from the ceiling. If the seer was still connected to her mind, they would have heard her think, ‘Meno, Paba, you fucking idiots’.