Chapter 123: Moon base

I pushed past the alien who had been blocking my way and walked through the Guard's wall. There would be a time, somewhere in the future, where I hopefully wouldn't have to worry about the anti-human sentiment that seemed to be so prevalent among so many, but that day certainly wasn't today. 

The state of the people past the wall was clearly dire. More and more were arriving all the time, and many of them seemed to be injured. Whether that was from the Null Space Invaders themselves, or just the mad rush that had brought them to the teleportation pad I didn't know. 

What I did know was that none of my friends were in the area, which meant they either hadn't arrived yet at all or they had already been teleported up to one of the three moons that were orbiting the planet. 

"Hey you," I called out to a group of Guardsmen who were currently pumping their manna into the teleporter pad to send a group of what looked like at least a couple hundred aliens up through the teleporter beam. "Has Akash, last of the Eldrani come through here? He's a big tree guy, you can't miss him." 

"He came through about ten minutes ago," one of the three said, I wasn't sure which. "He said there might be someone who would come around asking for him, the leader of his group, I take it that's you?"

It was a bit of a shock to hear Akash refer to me as the leader of the group, but in most situations so far I had taken charge so I couldn't be too surprised that the idea had gone through his head. I was more shocked that he would admit that me, a human, someone he had previously said he would never work with, was now comfortable actually calling me his leader. 

"Yeah, that's me," I replied, "any chance you can fit me in on this transport up?" 

The alien didn't reply verbally, no doubt channelling the power to teleport that many people at once was pretty difficult for someone who wasn't on the level of a Squadron Leader, instead, they just nodded and grunted their affirmation. 

I unequipped my sword and let it fade away into my inventory. It was a bit of a risky move, but I wasn't sure how the null-space blade would interfere with the teleportation and I definitely didn't want to risk sending such a large group of people to their doom because I needed the safety of having the weapon on me at all times. 

With that done I stepped onto the pad, settling between an alien that had a human-like torso and head but an insectoid body and an alien who was humanoid but had a coppery red skin that almost shimmered in the light of the fire and explosions around us. 

The teleporters began to chant, and before I knew it the familiar white blaze of energy that meant a teleport was beginning consumed us all. But, as we were whisked away into the aether and off-world, I was just about able to make out through the bright blaze of white light… Lara. 

Seconds too late to catch me in the attach, she launched a massive wave of purple energy into the platform that I had been standing on, disintegrating everything in its path. 

The blaze of white faded and I was in a new place entirely, the smell of acrid smoke had disappeared entirely, and the bone-shattering thud of magical explosions had been replaced by mournful howls and sobbing. I wanted to join them. All those people, wiped away in an instant just before I left because Lara couldn't help herself but try to kill me one last time. 

I sucked in a deep breath, one that burned in my lungs, and let it out slowly. 

Now wasn't the time to mourn, not yet. 

I rolled my shoulders and moved with the rest of the group that had just been teleported up to the lunar base. We were being ushered off of the teleportation pad and into a large room that looked almost similar to an airport arrival centre, only instead of the long winding queues of Heathrow or Gatwick, groups of quadcopter drones were flying down and scanning each person. 

One of the small things darted down to my face and flashed a blue light over my features. 

"Identified: Jacob Lyre," The little drone said, its voice metallic and grating. Nothing like the AI inside BB, that was for sure, the thing was probably just a stunted program used specifically for greeting teleportation passengers. "Mr Lyre, you have been requested to join the Guard meeting currently occurring on the Observation deck," the metallic voice continued. 

Before I could respond the drone had turned a hundred and eighty degrees and drifted slowly away, clearly waiting for me to follow. 

"Sorry, um, drone," I said, jogging a little to catch up, "Do you know if any of my friends have arrived here? Akash, Yr'Arl and Rin?" 

"Searching databanks for required names," The drone announced, bobbing slightly in the air. "All requested names are currently taking part in the Guard meeting on the Observation Deck. Now, please follow." 

The drone took off again at a faster pace, I had to walk with long strides to keep up with it. 

As I followed the drone I walked past people of races I recognised and people of races I didn't. There was one thing that was clear on all of their faces, and that was the pure feeling of grief that all of them were being tortured by. They had lost their homes, their family members, their entire world. All to one insane woman. 

And they all knew that, really, they weren't safe up here on the moon bases. 

If Lara could wage war down there, she could easily wage it up here as well. 

Hopefully, that was what the meeting was about. Hopefully someone, somewhere, had figured out a way to turn the tide.