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Excerpt from Tip of the Spear:

Prologue – Downfall

Earth Gregorian Date: 09/24/2762

System: Argo Navis

Aliyya braced herself against the shuddering wall as she struggled to retain her footing aboard the plummeting battlecraft.  The growing intensity of the tremors suggested the deteriorating vessel had penetrated the thickening air of the mesosphere.  Each second seemed to tick by faster than the previous.  Within minutes, they were going to violently impact on the surface of the planet below.

“Where are you?” she whispered to herself.

Darkness slowed her progress as the considerable damage to the battlecraft managed to short circuit even the emergency lighting.  Fingers tracing along the walls, Aliyya navigated almost exclusively by memory.

She silently wondered if she had what it would take to finish the task at hand.  A small voice insider her doubted it.  Worse, some deeper part of her hoped she that couldn’t.  There was no alternative, though.  Finding her resolve, Aliyya locked away the traitorous voices and pressed on.

Brilliant sparks showered from the subdermal circuitry running overhead.  These sputtering downfalls were obscured by the pooling smoke that swirled overhead.  Despite military conditioning, aches radiated from her back as a result of the prolonged crouch she used to escape the expanding cloud of toxic haze.  Even in the small pocket of breathable air, she could taste the acrid fumes.

There was a crackling as the communications line opened on her headset.  “Aliyya, what’s your status? Over.” Jabr asked.

“I’m still up,” Aliyya whispered.  “Continuing pursuit of the target.”

“Glad to hear it.  The last set of detonations you felt were us blowing engines.”

“I figured.  What’s the SITREP?”  Aliyya coughed, sucking in a hot lungful of smoke.  “Please tell me we’re falling back to Earth.”

Jabr’s hesitation was slight, but Aliyya didn’t miss it.  Voice low, Jabr said, “You’re in-system now.”

“Do what you have to.  We can’t let them reach the surface.”

“I know.  I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”  Jabr knew their mission came first, and his tone said as much.

“I’m going dark from here out.”

“Good luck.”  Despite the well-wishing words, Aliyya heard the farewell concealed beneath.

Without another thought, Aliyya tore out the earpiece out and dropped it to the floor.  She refocused her mind to the task at hand.  If she wanted to avoid being crushed beneath the thousands of tons of metal, she needed to reach a shuttle.  That meant the same was true for her quarry.  All she had to do was beat her target to the hangar.

With trepidation, Aliyya inspected the unfamiliar device dangling from her wrist and hand.  It was a thing of beauty, draped in coiled metal and diffracting crystals.  In the same hand, she grasped a knife of ancient design.  Another cascade of sparks rained from above, and the blade shimmered.  The reflective sheen revealed a curved edge that drew back like a bow.

Knife held at the ready, she rounded the bend and made her way into the open expanse of the hangar.  Faint light trickled in from small windows, allowing her to see shapes if not any finer details.  Only a few shuttles remained.

Due to the nature of her pursuit, there had been little more than a skeleton crew piloting the vessel.  Based on the look of the nearly empty hangar, it seemed likely that most of them had already fled.  She could just leave now.  If she sabotaged any remaining shuttles, she wouldn’t even have to get her hands dirty.

The thought was appealing to Aliyya, but she ultimately decided against it.  The importance of this job warranted her seeing it through to the end – even if it meant doing the unsavory deed herself.

She closed the door to the hallway and pressed tight against it.  Like a spider, she waited patiently for her snare to draw taught.  She didn’t have to wait long.  The door to the hallway slid open.  Black smoke billowed through the opening, obscuring her view.  Five shadowed figures froze, temporarily paralyzed by surprise.

With a firm grip, she grasped the lead figure by the shoulder, pulling it close.  She frowned, recognizing that the man wasn’t her target.  He wore a Constellation uniform, but she knew him to be an imposter.  One of the pilots, she assumed.

His eyes flashed surprise, then familiarity.  The fleeting moment of recognition melted back to shock as Aliyya drove the knife into the man’s stomach.  With no remorse, she withdrew the blade.  The surprised man grunted and fell to his knees.

Before the other soldiers could react, Aliyya threw the curved blade.  Turning end-over-end, the edge caught one of the soldiers in the chest, lifting them off their feet.  The impaled woman released a familiar sigh: a dying breath.

At Aliyya’s feet, the kneeling man gargled blood.  She knelt beside him, using his dying body as a momentary shield.  From his waist, she drew the dying man’s pistol.

Seeing the surrounding horror, one of the remaining figures fled back into the bowels of the doomed vessel.  Aliyya fired the handgun after the fleeing shadow, but he’d rounded the bend before the weapon’s sensors could lock onto his signature.

One of the remaining escorts had finally recovered his wits.  A barrel rose from his waist.  Aliyya rolled to the side, preferring the thick, metal wall as a shield to the perforated man.  The poor man, now a corpse, was blown apart as his companion’s rounds impacted.

Aliyya ran headlong for the cover of a nearby blast fence.  She could hear the armed soldier’s feet as he pursued her into the hangar.  Rounds pinged off the far side of the blast fence, indicating that the weapon had likely locked onto her as she’d found cover.

“Come on,” the unfamiliar voice called.  “I’ll keep her pinned.  You get to the shuttle.”

Hearing the words made her throat tighten.  She couldn’t let that happen.

What could she do, though?  The man’s weapon already had a lock on her.  If she extended even the smallest limb past the edge of her cover, the weapon’s precision actuators would instantaneously correct for any error in the operator’s aim.

Footsteps thumped across the hangar’s decking as her target stumbled towards the shuttle.  Good.  He’s still disoriented, she thought to herself.  She might not have lost her chance. 

She knew what she had to do.  It might not work, but she’d have to take the risk.  She couldn’t sit idle while he escaped.  Raising her hand, Aliyya stepped out from behind the blast fence.

The sound of gunshots echoed oddly in the hangar.  Aliyya Pushed.  As if obeying her command, the bullets dropped to the metal decking with a satisfying ding.

Surprise shone from the whites of the phantom’s eyes.  Similar to before, yet entirely different, Aliyya Pushed.  This time, instead of stopping bullets, a jet of flame surged forth from her extended hand.

There was a scream.  The burst of dazzling light had momentarily blinded her.  When her pupils adjusted, she could see the smoldering man writhing on the decking.

The final figure had stopped fleeing, hoping to catch a glimpse of the flame’s source.  They locked eyes.  He turned to run but tripped over himself.  Pitifully, the shadowed man crawled towards the safety of the shuttle.

Aliyya strode deliberately over and kicked him onto his back.  There was an eruption of sparks from overhead, and she could clearly see the face before her.  Aliyya smiled her wickedest grin.

This was her target.

He looked at her, comprehending nothing but fear. “Who are you?”  His voice trembled.

Aliyya looked at him with pity and wondered, is he more afraid of dying or of failure?

The target’s eyes opened wide, realization dawning on him too late.  “Don’t do this,” he pleaded, each word sounding hollower than the last.

“It’s already done,” she whispered, fearful that her uncertainty would be plain if the words were uttered too loudly.  Aliyya took no pleasure in killing, but she would do what needed to be done.  She always did.  A familiar memory came to mind and spurred her forward.

She raised her hand and Pushed once more.