Focused Vanguard Read online

  "My son," Sun whispered, his lips shaking. He hung his head and stood that way for a while, staring at the floor, then snapped his neck back up suddenly, a new fire in his hazel eyes.

  "Let's get you back to your home," He finally said, heading towards the shuttle. Then he suddenly became still.

  N8 heard the faint rumbling of… a starship engine? He did not understand. Then Sun seemed to hear it as his eyes grew wide, staring out of the force field at the twinkling stars. A sizable ship blotted out part of the starry field as it careened straight towards the bunker's hangar bay.

  "Pirates! Find cover!" Sun screamed, sprinting back into the corridor, brandishing Lo's rifle in one hand and whipping his plasma shiv on in another. N8 stayed in place, not knowing completely what was meant by the ship's prow stopping just inside the force field, lowering slowly to rest on its sturdy landing gear. All he knew was that he was afraid.

  The ship hissed as it opened in the front, a long thin ramp shooting downwards, the force cracking the chrome floor. Armored creatures, some Earthling, some others, ran down the ramp, and finally N8 came to his senses. Pulling his rifle to his chest, he ran, jumped and rolled behind his crew's broken-down shuttle. The pirates began to shoot at him, white-hot energy crashing against the ship's hull.

  N8 tried to think. He pulled his rifle to his shoulder and fired. He looked up and nearly realized he had shot in the wrong direction. His heart pumping, his arms shaking, he stood up from his crouch and turned around, his height letting him see over the shuttle's top.

  The pirates had spread out into the shuttle bay. N8 glanced to his left and saw Sun down the corridor in the far corner, shooting nonstop at their new enemies as they approached his location. N8 saw some of them walking towards him. He pulled his rifle again to his shoulder, aimed and squeezed the trigger. Then he squeezed the trigger again, and again. He fired one more time and then dropped behind the shuttle again, hoping that he had hit one of them. He had never been in real combat before.

  Suddenly one of the pirates appeared right beside him.

  "Drop your weapon! Now!" The masked pirate commanded, pointing his glowing violet rifle at N8's face.

  N8 thought of Dad and his advice before he had left Stasis. It was hard, since he had a large gun in his face, but he did try to remember. They had played a war game. Dad's military had surrounded N8's commander, and demand for surrender was made. N8 had refused, and his commander was killed. But what had Dad told him after? Quitting is good. Right?

  N8 lost his grip and his weapon dropped to the floor. He put his head into his hands as he sat down on the floor, still shaking. He was not sure what was going to happen next. A few more pirates appeared, and N8 was almost sure that the small, girlish one with no mask in the middle was the leader. She stepped towards him and then knelt in front of him, gently pulling his hands from his face.

  N8 could still hear Sun and the pirates fighting, though it was becoming distant. N8 went still as the woman moved her long, painted nails against his burned cheek.

  "Handsome. Even with those sores," She said through red, barely parted lips. She gestured to the pirate who still had his rifle in N8's face.

  "Sure to be an Ape, this one," She said to her crewmates, who nodded, their faces hidden behind their black masks.

  "Excellent value as a slave, physically or… well, physically." The pirates laughed at that as N8 felt a tight, stinging pain pushing his wrists together behind his back. It hurt.

  "Find the other Earthling and kill him. Then search the bunker for the food. It's here." The pirate woman turned to look at N8, her spotted green and brown eyes crawling all over his armored body, stopping briefly at his naked, muscular arms.

  "Put this one on board. Take him to the doc for sedation, and then… take him to my room."

  "Yes, Captain." Said the rifle-waving pirate.

  N8 made the right choice. He sighed. The unusually loud sound seemed to bother his captors, and the woman swiftly back-handed him across his face, the same cool, smooth nails from before cutting deep into his cheek full of blisters. Cold blood fell down to his chin as a fire began burning in his chest.

  For a moment, N8 just stared at the faint glowing of the force field as the pain began to burn. N8 tried to stop himself, but he could not. It was too late. The vision in his right eye became red and soon he could only hear his strong heart beating, as if blood were pumping from his ears. He stood, his arms still tied behind him. With a small twist, his binds broke apart and as he charged the woman with primal force, his vision and single human eye went black.

  N8's artificial eye was unaffected by his state of rage and accurately recorded the ensuing carnage.

  N8 first grabbed the pirate woman and lifted her high in the air, lasers burning into his thick armor as the other pirates ran, their faces full of fear. N8 brought her down in the blink of an eye, her spine immediately snapping with a sickening crunch. He tossed her aside like a ragged doll, his dark eye looking towards the pirate who had put the weapon in his face.

  Putting his fists onto the ground, he charged the man on all fours, his incredible speed too much for the pirate. The pirate fell and yelled in fear words that N8 did not understand as he stood above his captor. With that same speed, N8 picked the man up by his face with one large hand. As the man struggled to pull himself free, N8 pulled his arm back and threw the pirate straight into the vaporizing energy of the force field.

  The man's armor protected him and he fell to the floor with a loud clang. N8 felt a faint burning in his chest and looked back towards the other members of the pirate crew, who were shooting at him as they sprinted into the corridor where Sun continued to fight. Putting fist to ground again, N8 reached the five pirates who tried to escape before they ever made it to the corridor.

  They screamed and cried as he snapped one of them over his knee, then used the pirate's broken body as a weapon, swinging his lifeless remains until the remaining three met the cold floor. . He stepped on each one of their heads to satisfy his anger. That only left one in the hangar, a small, scared Earthling woman with tears streaming down her face. She was only a girl, N8 noticed. Thin frame. Long black hair. Small, developing breasts and almost wide hips.

  N8 stopped for a moment, as if there were a thought in his brain. Then with a huge, naked fist he punched the girl clean through her stomach, the freed hot carnage sticking to and burning his pale skin. He pulled his arm out of the gaping hole and let the girl's body drop quietly to the bloodstained chrome.

  "No! Eleza!"

  N8 again felt a burning sensation, this time in his back. He turned around to see his captor, now without his black mask, running towards him, firing two pistols one after the other. The man's red beard was dark with blood as it fell from his broken nose. He had tears falling down his face, too. He screamed like an Ape as he leaped towards N8, his right arm pulled back for a punch.

  N8 waited for the throw and then grabbed the pirate's fist. The man's eyes became wide as N8, with a wild growl, crushed the man's fist within his own. The man began to scream, but N8 grabbed him by his neck and squeezed. Then he threw him down onto the floor and stepped hard on his captors head with a muffled crunch.

  The shuttle bay was silent once more, faint sounds of battle coming from the corridor. Then they grew quiet and after a moment, a blood and guts-stained Sun walked slowly into the bay. He walked over to N8 and the two of them looked at each other.

  "Well, this is a mess." Sun finally said, looking at the bodies all over the hangar.

  Then they both looked at the still-open pirate ship.

  "You still good?" Sun asked N8.

  He snarled in reply.

  Putting fist to ground one more time, N8 rushed up and into the pirate ship, the remaining crew running through narrow, dimly lit hallways. With a powerful roar, he pushed and punched his way through the thin maze. Whenever he found a creature, no matter how small or large, he smashed them quickly with both fists. Men. Women. Children. Vermin. Screams
and squeals echoed through the dirty ship. Lasers were fired. The sick crunch of broken bones and blood bursting from skin. N8 roared again, pushing a door open and saw the pilot sitting in his chair.

  The pilot immediately pulled himself out of his safety harness and pulled his pistol.

  "Ah, what in Old Hell?!" He screamed, apparently to himself.

  N8 quickly ripped the man's pistol-holding arm off his body in one motion, and then with the other stabbed that same arm through the man's chest. Breathing hard, heart still pounding in his ears, N8 again heard nothing but silence. He roared in triumph.

  "That happen?" N8 asked Sun, ending the recording and opening his human eye, his senses returning to the present. He had just woken up a few moments before, still wearing his armor with holes that still smoked, his back against the hull of the broken shuttle.

  It was N8's rule. No matter what, he had to watch what happened when he blacked out. He wanted himself to know why he needed to keep control over his nature. Still, he wished he had not watched this time. He had never killed children before.

  Sun only nodded to his question, standing a few paces from N8, busy spraying and wiping his rusted orange armor with some of the cleaning supplies he had pulled from the maintenance closet. Dead bodies continued to bleed all over the shuttle bay. It was an awful smell to N8's perfect nose.

  "Truth?" He did not want it to be. Sun nodded without looking at him again, pulling out small bits of gore from the cracks in his armor.

  N8 lowered his head.

  "I am sorry," N8 clumsily signed.

  Sun stepped towards him and put his hand on his shoulder plate. N8 looked up, his human eye red, but no tears came.

  Sun just smiled at him, his shaking green eyes warm. N8 lowered his head back down.

  "Do you know how to get back to the—well, wherever you came from?" Sun asked, helmet in one hand and in the other a dirty cloth rubbing hard against it.

  "I cannot pilot," N8 signed sadly.

  Sun just stared at him, continuing to clean parts of his armor.

  "I cannot pilot," N8 signed again.

  Sun stopped cleaning and put his rusted helmet between his arm and torso.

  "I don't know sign language." He finally said.

  N8 felt a warm feeling in his cheeks and ears. He thought Sun had understood him earlier.

  "Don't be embarrassed. Being mute isn't something to be ashamed of. Your grandfather was mute, though that may have been my grandmother's fault." Sun said, ending with a smile.

  "Do you at least understand me? Just nod if yes." He added.

  N8 nodded. That was right, he had forgot—Sun was his real father; who had just killed his best and only friends. Right?

  N8 shook his head, trying to remember. He stared at Sun and felt like killing him. Yet something inside told him no. Sun was the only cure to his limited mind. He must be patient. He would make him suffer later. Then N8's head hurt and his mind became dark and impossible to explain.

  "Great. So, I'm guessing you don't know how to get us back to your home?" Sun asked.

  N8 almost signed in reply, but then remembered. He did know the way back to Alliance space, but he could not pilot them there. How could he tell Sun? N8, a little angry at himself, just nodded.

  "Damn." Sun jammed his helmet onto his head. Then, using his Blood-given strength, he picked up several of the pirates weapons and corpses and began to walk up the long ramp into the pirate's spaceship, his items dragged along behind him, the dehydrator strapped to his back. Before he reached the inside, he stopped for a moment and looked at N8 through his dark visor.

  "I'd rather take my chances in space, on this ship, than stay here. Hopefully the ship your shuttle came from is still close to where you pulled away." Sun said, raising the small orange navigation box in his hand, having pulled it from his belt.

  "I can reverse the coordinates and get us back to your home, give or take a parsec. Hopefully." He slid the box back into one of his belt pouches.

  "Come on, we're getting the hell out of here." He finished.

  N8 continued to sit, lying against the broken, blackened shuttle that had brought him and his now-dead crew to this military base, Bunker 3.0. He tried to remember on his own everything that had happened, but he could not, his mind still too… twisty. He used his robot eye again, and started looking at the recording from… two days ago, when he was on the way to this horrible place.

  He felt his senses fade and reappear, reacting how they did then, his thoughts from then replacing his thoughts from now. He was sitting in the engine room with Lo; still alive, still strong, still happy. N8 thought of Dad, and how it was his birthday, and how Dad had not tried to speak with him by communicator.

  N8 stopped and thought for a moment, the mental activity pulling him back to the senses and thoughts of the present, like someone dipping underwater and then resurfacing. He opened his human eye and both eyes swerved to look down at his wrist, his communicator now exposed after Sun had broken off the arms of his armor. He almost felt surprise that the device had not broken in the battle with the pirates.

  N8 tapped on the black circular screen, which glowed bright green as it turned on, the interface loading. This was important, but his mind had again become dark. Why was he using the communicator? His head hurt, as it always did. Then he heard a loud crash. His head snapped up, and he saw Sun staring at him, his helmet rolling down the ramp from where he had first thrown it.

  "You had a communicator this whole time?!" Sun shouted, leaping from the peak of the ramp to crash onto the chrome floor beneath, just a few steps from N8.

  "What are you, an idiot?!" Sun yelled, making N8 feel angry. N8 had to control himself. He had to. This was his father. His only chance at freedom. He paused. Freedom from what?

  Sun gestured for the communicator, and N8, trying to control his growing rage, handed it to him. Sun flashed a quick, hungry smile, his shaking eyes wild.

  "This is much better," He muttered, pressing the icons that started a transmission to Dad, all the way on Stasis.

  "I'm coming… Megan." He added in a much quieter voice.

  Chapter 7

  After several non-eventful hours of waiting and feeble attempts at communication, one rescue shuttle flight and a never-ending review of the recording from N8's eye with military intelligence once onboard, Sun and N8 were finally discharged from the debriefing room and were greeted warmly by Dad in the brig, Sun imprisoned.

  "It's been far too long, old friend," Dad said to Sun as they stared at each other, his eyes cold as ever.

  "Agreed." Sun said, laughing without being happy.

  Nathaniel stood to the side of Dad, attempting to smile as he happily watched his dads' reunion. They both turned towards him as he coughed without meaning to, interrupting their strange conversation.

  "Nathaniel, I'm sorry that I wasn't able to talk to you, or get you anything for your birthday," Dad said, looking away from Sun, his growing smile as he was apologizing confusing to N8. "But I think, because of you, we can give you something grand. If you want it, of course."

  N8 just stood there, not understanding.

  "Nathaniel, we can use your father's blood to cure you."

  N8 still did not get it. Then, very slowly, it made sense to him. He remembered. His heart began to pound, an emotion he was unfamiliar with seeming to pulse through his entire body. He could be cured? His brain would be free from confusion? He could learn?

  He paused. He could finally become an officer?

  Part of him did not want it. He wanted to stay an Ape, be proud and honor his dead crew. But that was silly, because his crew was dead. There was no one left that would understand his limited word choice, no one who would fully understand the emotions involved with being an outcast of a society, yet used to preserve that society like an engineer used a common tool.

  He felt mad, but stopped before the strong emotion blocked up his thoughts. No, he should cure himself. He had waited for this, had wanted this f
or so long. Now he had the ability to honor his mother, to no longer be called a freak or a monster, but normal. Still standing well over eight feet tall and weighing half a ton, but a normal Earthling, anyway. N8 smiled at his joke. He had made a joke!

  "You okay, there?" Sun asked as N8 barked out a mangled laugh. N8's face turned serious again and after a moment, made his decision.

  It was time to realize his dreams. He signed his response with trembling hands.

  "Yes."

  Dad smiled.

  "Then let's get you to the medical wing."

  "Good luck," Avery called out to Nathaniel as the nurse, Rosu, wheeled him out of the brig and into the lift heading toward the hospital level. Before the lift door cycled shut, Avery saw Nathaniel sign at him and Sun.

  "Thank you."

  The door shut and the lift hummed its way up the ships decks. Avery and Sun stood there a while, the thick panel of clear, reinforced glass all that separated them. Sun was still dressed in his rusted battle armor, a fresh white bandage wrapped around his exposed right forearm. Avery was still in his uniform. They needed to change. The war was over.

  Sun grinned at him briefly, then turned serious.

  "Admiral, I know I've made some mistakes, but I have some unfinished business I would like to complete. I know it's a lot to ask, but—"

  "You would like me to provide you with a transport to travel to Earth, so that you can make amends with Miss Fredricks?" Avery interrupted, his grey brow shrewdly raised.

  Sun stammered for a moment.

  "How do you know Megan? Do you know what became of her?" He asked.

  "I met Miss Fredricks a little over twenty-two years ago, Corporal Fang. I was the officer sent to relay your death. She happened to be the only person close to you we could find."

  Sun's voice scratched as if his throat had gone dry.

  "How was she, how is she, how did you end up with Nathaniel, why did she name him Nathaniel?" The questions began to pour out of him. Avery put up a wizened hand and Sun stopped, his own wrinkled hands clasped in front of him.