Spacial Illusions

Chapter Sixteen

NOT PROPERLY EDITED
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Callisto stood like a statue at the edge of her old Scout Regiment ship, dark eyes locked on the flashing sky as she scoured for the oncoming army of Earth. A tornado of Nightlight Piranhas swept through the clouds, dropping a huge ship roughly twenty feet from her position. She caught a glimpse into the cockpit through the solar visors and the enraged reptilian eyes of Director Striker himself shone back at her. This was it there was no turning back now.

"This is for them." The engines shut off and the ship was swiftly surrounded by the vessels carrying his army and pawns. As she figured, the soldiers were the first to step off their ships and blanket the clearing to protect Director Striker as much as possible. Callisto waited for the clatter of guns and boots to fade away before raising her voice loud enough to be heard by the man in his protected ship.

"Don't you think that it's time to stop hiding in the shadows and behind your soldiers, Striker? Or maybe you're mixed with the genes of a chicken and blessed with the bravery of a worm." Her keen ears caught the hiss of the cabin doors behind the wall of silvery mutants. A few moments later the soldiers stepped apart to reveal the monstrosity that was Director Striker. He was a towering 6'5", his skin was the grungy earth brown shade of a Komodo dragon, ears were furry and rounded like that of the polar bear spreading out into short white hair, she could see his long fangs poking out over his bottom lip and the dead eyes of the Inland Taipan snake. He hardly looked human anymore.

"Look at you soldier, so far you have fallen that you've turned on your own people, your own planet."

"You say fallen, I say came home. I won't let you slaughter an entire planet just to feed your hunger for more. We had our chance a long time ago."

"We'll see if you say that when I make you watch these pathetic savage aliens burn." Callisto drew her katana, jolting some soldiers to prime their guns for an attack if she were to even flinch.

"We'll see who really gets burned. Face me like a soldier, Striker, or everyone here will know just how cowardly you are. Are you a S.T.A.R. Corps Director or are you nothing but a scared child throwing a temper tantrum?" The hulking man hissed with bared serpentine teeth before tanking a twin set of chakram weapons from the scabbard on his back. The zing of metal slicing on metal rang through the air seconds before Striker took a running start at Callisto.

"Now, Deimos!" With those two words, the skies rained down with glowing shots from guns and attacking Nightlight Piranhas to break apart the Earth army's tight battle formation. The soldiers scrambled to collect their bearings and return fire, quickly turning the clearing into a gunfire melee.

The war for Praesidium has begun.

Striker and Callisto clashed with a flash of sparks and the shriek if sharpened metal fighting for victory. Up close it seemed that the lumbering man was taller and much more intimidating but she knew that even a fleeting second of fear or hesitation would get her killed and then it would be all over for Praesidium.

"You're oozing with fear, soldier I can smell it pouring out of you."

"Afraid of you? Hardly. I've seen scarier things in those trees." They pushed apart and circled one another like wild animals, searching for a fault in their movements. The Director struck out first, throwing his arm like he was boxing so that the sharp edge of the chakram raced out to cut through her throat. Callisto ducked beneath his weapon but had to swerve sideways to avoid being gutted by his second rounded blade. She crouched low and swung her sword out to cleave the man in half, lowly growling when he leapt out of the kill range enough to receive a simple gash to his gut instead.

Pain seared through her left shoulder as Striker launched one chakram that sliced cleanly through the trapezius muscle above her collar bone and embedded itself into the chest of a silver-suited soldier. The unlucky stranger staggered to their knees as the sound of them choking on their own blood echoed through their helmet before they fell forward to shove the weapon deeper until it came to a grinding halt against the spine and connected ribcage.

"You killed one of your own, and I'm the fallen one?" Director Striker sneered at her taunting words as they circled again. As he passed by the corpse of his pawn, he kicked out with his foot to push the body over on their back, the last few inches of the circular chakram jutting up from the silver suit and drying blood. Callisto knew that on his second pass he planned to remove the weapon and that would be the clearest window of attack she'll ever have for the entire fight.

Her prediction was proven correct when the huge mutant swiftly turned his back to grab the sharp chakram with his free hand. Callisto took her chance without hesitation. Leaping across the distance between them, she swung for his spinal column. At the same instant, her enemy snapped out his unoccupied arm to bury his weapon deep into her right side. The impact altered her blade trajectory and sliced the flesh of his lower ribcage diagonal to exit through his left shoulder with a flying spray of maroon blood that now dripped from her katana to the tainted grass below.

Callisto landed with a chakram protruding from her side as Director Striker ripped his second one free from the soldier with the sound of scraping bone and sucking blood rushing to burst from the gaping hole he created. Nearly every possible inch of the circle was slathered in slick and shiny with crimson blood that covered his fingers and plopped to the ground like rain. He didn't bother cleaning away any of the slippery blood as he fitted his hand around the handle cutting the chakram in half and turned to face Callisto once more.

"They served their purpose and have died in the glory of war. They will be remembered as a hero, you won't even be uttered from the lips of the dead. You will die as a traitor and a coward. And nobody will mourn you, they won't even bother to care."

"I'd rather die an unnamed coward than live with myself as a famed executioner like you. These people have lives, they have a chance to avoid our mistakes. I cannot and I will not let you take that from them." She yanked the chakram from her side before forcing her left hand to close around the curved handle.

"This is for them."