Chapter 4 - First Sin

 The explosion engulfed my entire view. The shock and sound wave that came after made me lose my hearing. I could feel Alex shaking my shoulders to snap me out of it, but it wasn’t working.

What would happen now? Why did this happen? Is my father truly dead? Why was I brought here? Why is my father dead? Who did this? A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but one thing stayed clear. We were under attack.

“You knew…” I said softly as the explosion became just flames. All of the debris launched from the building had hit the ground now.

“Lucan!” I heard a voice just through everything. It was Alex. I turned my head to face him as he unhilted his blade from his shoulder. “We don’t have time!” his voice cut through the air once more.

I finally started to snap back to reality. If my father was just assassinated, then that means that they may want me dead as well. Turning my head towards Shinna, I saw she was already awaiting an attack from that side of the street.

“Take this,” Alex said as he threw me the blade hidden in my bag. “You may not know how to use it, but just block; that’s all you need to do.”

Shinna looked over, confused by the conversation, but didn’t say a word. In the fraction of a second, she was turned away; a man lunged out from the crowd of people running away from the central building.

“Shinna!” I screamed out as she raised her blade, blocking him in the process.

“Get your shield on, Lucan!” Shinna said while struggling to hold off the man.

“Right,” blasters were now a threat if swords were snuck into the city. Using my wrist control, I activated my personal shield. It slowly went around my body, laying itself on me. I felt it like a sheet of tinfoil go across my chest.

With the blade in my hand, I extended it. It was already heavy and hard to lift, but as it extended, that became an even bigger problem. I held it upright to keep balance of the blade.

Frantically looking around, Shinna was still holding her position with one attacker while Alex and I awaited the next. The final people trickled away from the streets as smoke began to fill the air. Though some were standing still.

“You see them?” Alex asked, staring at the diminishing crowd.

“I think so!” I responded quickly. On each side were two more attackers. Three towards Shinna and two towards Alex. They were all hooded with black mobility gear and no signant to show who they belonged to.

“Shinna, you have two more!” Alex said as he prepared for his fight. Shinna’s opponent made three quick attacks before she quickly used her mobility gear to get behind him. Her shoulder thrusters and foot boosters worked in a simultaneous masterclass. With one swift movement, the man fell to the ground with Shinna’s blade in his back.

“I can handle them!” She said, cleaning the blood off the blade with her forearm. “Just keep them away from Lucan; that’s their goal here nothing left to lose!”

“Looks like we agree on something now!” Alex shouted as his first opponent engaged him. As he did that, the other made a dash towards me.

I quickly put the blade across my body to stop the blade as he began to wind up his swing. As his sword began coming down, I quickly closed my eyes. A sudden weight went across my entire body. I opened my eyes to see his blade stopped against mine.

“Good work, Lucan!” Alex called out as he was just behind the man whose blade I was holding off. “You might be a natural,” Alex said as he slashed the man’s back. I felt the man’s strength leave his blade as he fell back.

As Alex blasted through the air using his mobility gear, I turned to face Shinna. Both of her opponents were busy with her. One of her opponents suddenly made a dash towards me. Not even a second later, Shinna punished him for being left open. He was on the ground, dead in seconds.

The other fights went swiftly, and the three of us regrouped in seconds.

“What comes next?” Alex said, panting. “The central building is on fire, and we're standing in the middle of a road extremely close to it.”

“I want to see my father,” I said, still not processing the possibility that he was alive.

“We can’t just do that,” Shinna said. “The building will be crawling with more assassins, or even worse.”

“I’m your acting Lord now, am I not?” I asked. “My brother and father are in an unknown condition, so that puts me in charge.”

“Lucan,” Alex said, beginning to tear up. “It’s time you face the fact…your father is dead. You didn’t have time to process it a second ago, but now you have to. We have to find a way off planet and get back to Sir Yuko or Commander Carter.”

“We cannot just abandon him,” I said as I hilted the blade still in my hands. If my father is alive, we can help save him, right?”

“Lucan, we have no way of knowing your father’s condition. You are our priority, just like you have been since the second that explosion went off-”

“Do you hear that, Shinna?” Alex said, suddenly facing in the direction of the central building. The sound of something was in the distance; it was a mix of blades and mobility gear.

“We have incoming,” Alex said as he stood in front of me. “Lucan, head toward the buildings. I don’t care which one.”

“Is that all you got!!!” A voice said in the direction of the other sounds. A person suddenly came over the building, crashing to the ground in front of us. A cloud of dust was made from his landing.

The man stood on two feet with a blade drawn and in full black mobility gear. He turned towards us to say, “My lord.” The General ran towards me and hugged me tightly. “I’m so sorry, your father…he’s dead.” The sounds of mobility gear continued over the rooftops. “Two double blades.” The General said to Shinna and Alex

“Double blades, but those are-” Alex was cut off

“I’ll take one; you two take the other.” The General said as the two soldiers came over the building with their shining white armor with an orange-colored forearm. Each carried two daggers and had enhanced mobility gear built for speed.

These were Imperium soldiers, no doubt about it. They were here to kill me and my father no matter the cost.

Immediately, one dive-bombed the General. His speed met the General as he kept his distance, trying to find an opening. The other continued flying just above the ground towards me. Alex, first using his mobility gear, tried to get his attention. With a swift movement, he went just over Alex’s head and continued.

I started to run. I didn’t see what Shinna did, but he did slow down. I dove inside the building before hearing someone call out who I assumed to be Shinna “No, Lucan!!!”

With so much going through my head, I made a fatal mistake. The double blades were best suited for urban close combat, as their maneuverability and adaptability were unmatched. I’d driven myself into a corner with nowhere to go.

The double blade still outside the building tapped at his wrist as his shield flickered off. “A suicide,” I said as I got back up to my feet and ran to the window on the opposite wall from the entrance.

Before the man entered the building, I saw over my shoulder Shinna and Alex stop him while working together. They fought their hardest, trying to stop him from getting into the building. Suddenly, a blade went through and found its way into Alex’s chest.

With Alex’s strength leaving him, the man made it inside the room just before the explosion went off.

“NO!” I heard the General’s voice cut through the air as light began to come off the man.

My body was suddenly blasted back into the wall. The force crushed my chest like nothing I’d ever felt before. The chairs and tables in the room also began to go flying in my direction. One hit me, causing me to lose consciousness.

—

I don’t know how long I was out, but just opening my eyes was a surprise to me in the moment. Dust and debris were still in the air from the explosion, though it wasn’t much. If I had to guess, I was probably unconscious for maybe a few minutes.

A slap went across my face as Shinna’s face came into view, holding back tears. Her face suddenly turned to shock as she called out to the General. Ringing still went through my ears, so I couldn’t tell what they were saying. The General bent over my body as I lay on the ground under a stall.

A rumbling came across the ground as Shinna and the General looked off at something just outside the stall.

My hearing came back to me as Shinna said, “Lucan, are you okay?” Her voice was soft yet worried; it was something I had never seen from her.

I tried to raise my chest off the ground, but I couldn’t. My body slammed back down, and a shocking pain went through my diaphragm. “Don’t try to move, m’Lord,” the General said as he raised his head over the stall, looking around the area.

“What’s going on? Where’s Alex?” I asked as I looked down. In a sudden state of shock, my heart leapt out of my chest when I saw the piece of rusted metal in my chest.

“Well, there’s that,” The General said, pointing at the piece of metal in my chest. “As for Alex, I’ll leave that to you, Shinna. I’m going to do another comm check.”

“I understand, General,” Shinna said as she looked back down at me. I could already tell she was about to cry. “The double blade was locked down; he had no opening to get to you. That was until I gave him one. He took the opportunity without a second thought and killed Alex right there before dashing into the room with you. At first, it might’ve been a scrape…Then I saw the bleeding.” Tears began to stream down her face. “The blood went everywhere and…well…he didn’t make it.”

“No…” I said. I remembered that moment Shinna lunged out to attack him, but he dodged and took the opportunity to kill Alex. “First my Father and now Alex,” I said as tears streaked down my face. “Plus, I doubt I’ll make it with these wounds.”

Shinna opened her eyes to look back at me. “No,” she almost shouted. “The General said you’d make it so long as we got you back to the ship as soon as possible.”

“Well, if you couldn’t tell we aren’t on the ship, Shinna. If we stay here, we're as good as dead.”

The General came running back out of the house and knelt next to me. “M’Lord, we have a connection with the ships in orbit. I suggest we-”

“There’s no way I make it up to the ships. They need to meet me here.” I said as I looked at him. “Am I correct in that?”

“Yes, you are, M’Lord”

“Cut the fucking formalities and help me for a moment,” I said as I sat up despite the pain. “I have an idea; I don’t know if it is even close to viable.”

The General immediately lowered his head and said “Yes, Lucan, I served your Father and I will continue to serve you under the same oath I sword him.”

“Thank you, General,” I said. I continued to sit brooding for a moment, wondering if anything would work. Then it came to me, “They have a port to export the Salcarite they mine. That’s the only entrance that is even viable when it comes to getting a ship into the city. My idea is we destroy the entrance, making a hole large enough for a ship to make it through the entrance. The resulting confusion will give us enough time to escape.”

The General stayed silent a moment. “I think it could work, yet…” he stopped for a moment, then said to me honestly, “that would kill thousands in the city from the resulting storm that would sweep through here.”

“I know…but we’re in a corner.” I turned to Shinna, who was silent, and asked, “What do you think?”

She seemed surprised by the question but responded somewhat calmly, “We don’t know the scale of this attack. If it’s as bad as we think, then we are in a desperate situation. No matter what we do, people will die. Friends, family, citizens, it doesn’t matter.” She turned off toward the street before continuing, “We didn’t start with battle, or war, or…whatever you want to call it. Yet, we have a right to end it, so I ask for a resolution. We can’t deny your orders; we are your followers, but I ask you. If we do this, if we can make it out of here…using your plan…” She looked back at me, dead in the eyes, with no sense of fear. “You will lead your men on the field of battle against the Imperium.”

“I agree with Shinna. The strongest leaders don’t just command the swords; they also swing one as well.”

Using my right hand, I grabbed Shinna’s hand. “I swear to you…to both of you as my friends and my loyal followers, I will. I don’t care how long it takes or what happens along the way; I will…” After I said that, I felt my mind start to drift as I fell back to the ground.

Shinna quickly moved over me as I began to close my eyes. Her eyes were scared and welling with tears once again. It was so unlike her, and who could blame her? There were now uncertain times.

—

A monitor was beeping next to me as a flash of bright white light hit my eyes. I slowly tried to open them, but the light was hard to adjust to.

Next to me, I heard someone lightly snoring. Looking down, I saw a large blue colored wrapping across my abdomen. I lay back down on my pillow as tears flowed down my cheeks as I confirmed that everything wasn’t just a dream. Father was dead, killed in an explosion planted by the Imperium. Alex died in the resulting fight to kill me as well.