NOVEL NEXT Ch94.1 Jabari: Glorious Entrance (Scene 1)
Mars Standard Time: 18:18, May 11, 2295 (Earth Day Equivalent)
The Harrowing Steppes, a region near Xing Hong, Hellas Basin, Mars
"Ume. Stay close to my mech." Jabari said while piloting his Scarab. The mech's six strong legs were folded under its belly as it descended towards the surface of Mars below like an emerald comet. On the HUD, the ambient temprature displayed '5°C / 41°F'. The artificial atmosphere created after the previous century's terraforming projects had trapped some heat, making it warmer than pre-colonization Mars.
"I have a Plasma Handgun, Jabari." The android retorted in an even tone. Her Gyata hoverbike, steel gray with verdant wings powered up, was already gliding forth towards the red planet.
"But your Gyata is also without heavy plating like my Scarab." He added, watching her sleek form against Mars's russet sky. Even from here, he could see how the low gravity made her movements more fluid, almost dance-like.
"You threw yourself away in Yosemite…" She shot back again, and he caught something in her voice modulation—was that concern masked as criticism?
"That was different. I did it to help you all retreat with the Moondust shard."
"And if I need to do the same?" A pause. "Would you let me?"
Before he could answer, Celine's suave voice cut over the voice channel. "Cut the chatter, you two. We're facing the Fenris creatures up close and personal."
"Of course, ma'am." Ume's response came crisp and immediate, but Jabari caught the faintest hint of disappointment in her vocal patterns.
"Amir, why in the Thousand Gods' names are you stripping?" Jabari twisted in his pilot harness to stare at the Sand Lotus warrior behind him. In the cramped confines of KM-233's cockpit, Amir had already unwound his white silk wrap, revealing a torso adorned with golden jewelry that caught the emergency lighting. His deep bronze skin bore intricate scarification patterns—sacred geometry that seemed to shift in the dim light.
"The Unarmored Caster Principle." Amir's fingers worked at the clasps of his remaining garments, his traditional warstaff secured across his back. At thirty-nine, the Djinno warrior moved with the fluid grace, each motion economical. "Fabric blocks Aether flow. The more powerful the psion, the less we can afford to wear."
"Huh." Jabari narrowed his eyes. "People at Cape Coast call that superstitious nonsenbse."
Amir flashed a grin. "Consider it a compliment to our enemies. I'm taking them seriously enough to fight at full strength."
The Scarab's impact warning chimed. Jabari turned back to his controls, feeling the familiar jolt as six titanium legs absorbed their landing on Martian soil. Through the interface, he sensed every grain of regolith shifting beneath the mech's weight. His warm brown eyes narrowed with focus as threat indicators began populating his HUD.
"Touching down now, boet," Wilhelm's voice crackled through comms, his Afrikaans accent coloring the words as his Scarab too landed. "Dinu, you ready to give these skelms a proper hello?"
"More than ready." Dilinur's contralto voice carried an edge of anticipation from within Wilhelm's mono-eyed vintage Scarab. Even through the comm static, her controlled tone spoke of years of Imperial discipline barely containing her newfound freedom.
If she had not found him that day, Jabari could not imagine where he would be right now.
The deployment hatches hissed open. Amir vaulted out first, landing gracefully despite Mars's low gravity. His bare feet found purchase on the rust-colored ground, golden chains shifting against his chest. Behind Jabari, Dilinur emerged from KM-227. The former Imperium Conjurer stood at average height, but commanded attention. Almond-shaped eyes, dark and contemplative, surveyed the battlefield from a face both soft and determined. Her raven-black hair, styled in that traditional updo held by an ornate hairpin, gleamed under distant sunlight. The black silk robe she wore, accented with crimson embroidery, fluttered as she drew her silver Psi Fan.
Jabari had still to understand how such outlandish weapons would even work. After all, he had only just recently become psionic, thanks to that night with Fuuka Natsukawa.
"I count twenty-four hostiles—mostly Bone Fiends and Skuggrs." Ume's voice cut through the tactical channel. She swept past on her Gyata hoverbike. Even in combat, Jabari couldn't help but notice how naturally she moved—each shift of weight calculated, her small frame belying the strength within. "Three Kraken signatures hanging back."
"Seeing them," Jabari replied, letting warmth creep into his voice. "Though not as clearly as I see you."
"Your targeting sensors need recalibration then," Ume responded, but he could hear the pleased modulation in her tone.
Jabari's displays lit up with threat indicators as the first wave crashed against their position. Bone Fiends loped forward on exposed muscle and sinew, their hollow eyes gleaming with unnatural hunger. Behind them, Skuggrs scuttled on insectoid legs, acidic bile already gathering in their maws.
"Ologuns, formation!" Jabari commanded, his muscular frame tensing as he gripped the controls. Since returning to the Kimaris Warband with Dilinur, he had been promoted to the rank of major, as Dilinur became a cadet under Wilhelm. Ume had remained a cadet since, though there were rumors that Prince Laurent was planning to promote her after they reached Xing Hong, the city on the other side of the Steppes.
But nonetheless, Ume was Jabari's responsibility. A heavy but sweet responsibility indeed.
The Sun Moon Cannon hummed to life, drawing power from the cold fusion core. "Wilhelm, anchor left. I've got right!"
"Copy that, boet!" Wilhelm's Scarab mirrored the stance, creating an overlapping field of fire.
The Ologun marines in their green exosuits took position between the towering mechs, Plasma Rifles crackling.
But it was Amir who drew Jabari's attention. The warrior raised his arms, a golden warstaff in his hands, Devavāṇī flowing from his lips: "Surakṣitaḥ Asi!"
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Golden light erupted from Amir's form, not just striking one target but cascading outward in waves. Where Celine's healing had always been precise, focused on individuals, Amir's Solar magic washed over a dozen marines simultaneously. Doubt fled, and the soldiers straightened with vigor.
"By the ancestors!" one marine breathed. "It's like sunrise in my veins!"
"For the Directorate!" another replied. Jabari could hear the awe beneath the gruffness.
Amir spun his warstaff, deflecting a Bone Fiend's lunge with casual grace. The creature's claws sparked against the weapon's surface as Amir pivoted, using its momentum to send it sprawling.
"Behold, the power of faith!" he called out, already moving to intercept another attacker.
Jabari triggered his Scarab's Sun Moon Cannon, toggling Sun mode, the superheated beam carving through a pack of Skuggrs. But his attention kept drifting to Ume as she wove between enemies on her Gyata. Each time a creature got too close, his Scarab shifted subtly, ensuring his firing arcs covered her position.
"Shadowing me?" Ume observed, executing a barrel roll to avoid acid spray. "Your protection pattern is 73% predictable."
"Hey. Maybe I just like the view from this angle," Jabari replied, vaporizing a Bone Fiend that had gotten too close to her trajectory.
"The view of combat efficiency?" But he could hear her trying not to smile.
"Something like that."
"Detecting temperature spike," Ume's voice suddenly sharpened, though she still managed to add: "Jabari, underground movement—southwest of your position." Professional, but with his name spoken just softly enough to make it personal.
Her android senses had detected what their instruments missed. Jabari swiveled his mech just as the ground erupted. A massive form burst from below, black tentacles reaching for the exposed marines.
"Hafgrim! Defend yourselves!" Celine's voice rang over the comm as the ancient Kraken fully emerged.
The creature was nightmare made flesh—over three meters of writhing, ancient malevolence. Her bulbous, dome-like head dominated the battlefield, smooth and featureless save for two massive eyes that radiated eldritch intelligence. Countless tentacles, each thick as a tree trunk and glistening with oily secretions, coiled and writhed like serpents. The tentacles moved with impossible precision, their surfaces slick and reflecting faint light as they reached toward her prey.
But Hafgrim's orange eyes bore into Jabari's direction, somehow able to sense him inside the Scarab without seeing. "The one who'd given us the Moondust shard."
"That was then," Jabari growled. "This is now."
The elder Kraken's eyes narrowed in amusement. "How generous of you to deliver your pathetic self!"
"Activating Moon beam!" He switched firing modes, the freezing ray catching the creature mid-emergence. Ice crystals formed along its bulk, slowing it enough for Dilinur to strike.
"Agni Śūla Hana!" Crimson fire erupted from her Psi Fan, the Eclipse spell tearing through the Kraken's frozen form. The creature's psychic scream sent lesser Radi-Mons scattering.
"Great timing, Khatun," Amir called to Dilinur, using the respectful title as he spun his warstaff through another Bone Fiend. The compliment drew a rare smile from the former Imperium officer.
"Your form's not bad either," Dilinur replied, her fan snapping open to deflect acid spray. "Though you're showing quite a lot of it."
"The gods gave me this body," Amir laughed, golden chains dancing as he moved. "Who am I to hide their artwork?"
Then the battlefield shifted. The remaining creatures pulled back, creating space as two figures emerged from the Martian haze alongside a recovered Hafgrim. Jabari's blood ran hot.
Beside the reconstituted Kraken, Mao Dakai's grotesque fusion of flesh and bones. The Draug's hulking frame was layered with chitinous plates that wept viscous fluid, while multiple corded appendages wrapped around his body—some serving as limbs, others as grotesque weapons. His head bore jagged, serrated protrusions, and his maw—a cavern of dripping, razor-sharp teeth—opened to reveal the abyss within.
Jabari's hands tightened over the controls. Dakai had killed Seydou in cold blood on the Far Side of Osram. He had yet to avenge him.
"Fenris Horde," Hafgrim's voice carried across the battlefield, rough like grinding stone. "Show these Earth-dwellers why Mars belongs to us!"
The battlefield erupted.
Jabari's world narrowed to his targeting reticle and Ume's position on his HUD. Everything else—Wilhelm's mono-eyed Scarab firing to his left, Dilinur's Eclipse psionic power painting the sky crimson, the screams of dying marines—became noise.
"Ume, bank right!" The words left his mouth before conscious thought. A Skuggr's acid stream sizzled through the space she'd occupied a heartbeat before.
"I see it." Her voice remained steady, but he caught the slight uptick in her vocal modulation—an android tell he'd learned meant stress. The Gyata rolled through a turn, her form pressed flat against the bike as another acid burst passed overhead. "Your warning came 0.7 seconds before necessary. Were you watching me instead of your sector?"
"Eh. Always watching you," he admitted, launching a plasma barrage at advancing Bone Fiends. "Can't help it."
"That's...inefficient." But her voice carried warmth that belied the words.
Mao Dakai charged straight for their position, his grotesque bulk moving with horrifying speed. Multiple arms ending in serrated claws extended from his torso, each dripping with viscous fluid, glowing amber eyes fixed on Ume.
"I can tell from your scent, little doll." Dakai's voice was grinding metal and bubbling flesh. "Different from the meatsacks. I'll eat your delicious circuits nonetheless!"
The threat to Ume sent something cold through Jabari's chest. His next shot took Dakai center mass, forcing the creature to dodge.
"Dakai!" Jabari growled, more to himself than over comms. "You will pay for what you did to Seydou!"
"Urrrrgh?" On his fours, the Draug turned, eyes on Jabari's mech. "The Maridian boy in his stupid beetle. I'll gut you like raw steak!"
"Pattern analysis complete." Ume's voice cut through his anger, carrying that particular tone she used when she was about to be brilliantly tactical. "Entity Mao Dakai favors his left after each lunge—there!"
She was already moving, Gyata screaming across the battlefield in a trajectory that made no sense until Dakai instinctively lurched left—directly into Jabari's waiting Sun Moon Cannon.
"Moon beam firing!" He announced as ice crystallized across the creature's flesh. For a moment, Dakai stood frozen, a monument to rage captured in crystal.
Then Dilinur's voice rang out: "Agni Śūla Hana!"
Jabari nodded approvingly. In the short time since joining the Kimaris Warband, Dilinur had been able to work with team tactics. He was glad to know that Imperials were as diligent and adaptive as the stories suggested.
The Eclipse flame met frozen flesh with a breaking sound. But the Draug wasn't finished.
As the ice shattered, Amir surged forward, the warstaff in his hands. His voice resonated with power as he chanted: "Sūrya Tāpa!"
A barrier of pure Solar energy materialized between Dakai and the others, golden light so intense it left afterimages. The wounded Draug slammed into it, flesh sizzling where he made contact.
"Yield!" Amir commanded, sweat gleaming on his bronze skin despite Mars's cold. "The power of Sun reaches even here, for we are its harbingers."
Dakai reeled, his monstrous form stumbling. For a moment, it seemed the combined assault had broken him.
Then, Hafgrim's massive tentacles erupted from three directions at once, and Jabari realized with sick certainty that they'd been herded into a trap.
"Elevated position, now!" Jabari's Scarab legs pistoned, launching him onto a weathered rock formation.