The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

22: Good vs. Bad

     The ship swung back around, targeting the two-story structure below, and peppered a volley of lasers down upon it. As with the last several times that this had taken place over the last few minutes, the shots impacted what appeared to be a primitive domicile and went straight through the roof and the walls. From what little could be detected from the inside, there were indications that several small fires had started. Left unchecked, it would collapse in a very short time period. The pirate Oi'Ramal growled behind his unneeded breathing mask as he moved past the house and once again flew over the collection of similar domiciles below, looking down upon the wretches of this backwards planet. He did not understand how they were lacking basic security instruments such as shielding or reinforced giranal building materials meant to take more firepower than even his ship had handy. Glancing down at the curious and panicked Earth dwellers, he considered firing on them directly, but decided against it, not thinking them worth the energy. This planet would likely be destroyed soon enough anyway regardless if the missiles were going to arrive on target and schedule. It was no matter to him, he had his mission and he would see it carried out.

After tailing his target all the way to the planet and intercepting them, he had initially thought that would have been the end of it and he could progress to phase 2, the destruction of the school and ideally the recovery of the Shards for his employer. Those hopes had been dashed when he had seen out of the corner of his eye the two white lights of wisps spiraling down to the surface, undoubtedly to complete the first part of their own plan. At that point, he didn't have much choice but to contact his employer for further instructions. His payment was halved, but he received the information he needed, the individual that had been targeted for an emergency joining by the disgraced soldier. Now here he was, beginning to feel that he was wasting his time. There was no sign that there was anyone at home, no one had come screaming out at the sky, and he was having issues detecting any kind of life signs either before or now. Just the people in the streets below, and a couple figures near the house, probably trying to get a closer look. And why shouldn't they? This was probably the biggest thing to happen to this planet since they had invented nuclear fission.

He adjusted a breathing tube attached to his mask, a device that he didn't particularly require to be around this planet's atmosphere but it did improve his intake levels, and started to retarget. At this point he decided to just set to hover and collapse the house. The next most likely place to strike his target was the school itself anyway, so taking care of both parts at the same time would likely earn him the good graces of his employer again, and perhaps restore his payment at the end of all this.

Right before he inputted his final commands was when he saw the figure breaking away from the pack around the entrance to the rear of the house, and moved towards the middle of the rear grassy area. He saw an hand extend and suddenly knew that he had been targeting the wrong location. The sword of Kon was there in the figure's hand! His target was somewhere else altogether! He hurried to reset his systems as the figure broke out in a straight run for the lone large tree in the middle of the yard. Oi'Ramal depressed the screen and the shots fired, but slightly too late, and striking the ground behind and around the figure as it reached the tree. He emitted a larger growl and cursed the maneuverability of his craft, as it moved past the tree. It would take him a moment to come around, but when he did, this would end, and he would claim the ancient sword as his prize!

Finally, I'm back in my element. Critock thought as the laser blasts rang around him, kicking up dirt and grass. The shots fortunately had all missed through no work of his own, all he had to do was run as quickly as Kyle's weary legs could carry him and that was enough. He correctly assumed that the pirate, if that was the same one, hadn't had the benefit of getting a primer on Earth, whether through Tom's learning machine or his own attachment to an Earth-bound brain. So he would have no idea at the speed, or what Earthlings could actually do. He noted the ship soar past him as he neared the sole skinny tree, and he hoped that both Kyle's body and the tree limbs would keep up with what he had in mind. With a quick leap, he grabbed two branches and hefted himself up, using the velocity of his body as fuel to spring up into the tree itself. Without pausing he climbed quickly up the branches, through the sticks that poked his skin. The higher up he went he noted more of the multi-colored leaves and would have thought them worth looking at if he had the time, but there was no stopping him until he reached the top of the tree, which reached to approximately the height of the middle of the second story. His feet stood balanced on a top branch that miraculously supported his weight, and he turned smoothly to face the pirate's craft, now having turned around and was moving right towards him. He stretched out his arm, again activating the Sword of Kon, and smiled slightly as its electricity arced out more furiously than before, almost as though it too was anticipating the battle. Laser shots rung out from the ship, but were slow enough that Critock swung his sword, knocking them away seamlessly. The pirate kept coming at him, and he braced himself. He knew the ship wasn't going to come too near the tree for fear of crashing, but since firing at him wasn't accomplishing anything the next trick was to try to scare him off balance. Once he had fallen, he would be easy pickings. So it was a game of chicken, then. He braced himself as much as possible as the ship continued to aim directly at him.