NOVEL NEXT Ch94.2 Jabari: Glorious Entrance (Scene 2)
Mars Standard Time: 19:00, May 11, 2295 (Earth Day Equivalent)
The Harrowing Steppes, a region near Xing Hong, Hellas Basin, Mars
"I'm being corralled toward—" Ume's transmission cut to static as one massive tentacle slammed down where she'd been. The Gyata's wings glowed as she pressed low against the vehicle, amber eyes flickering with yellow lines. "Deploying countermeasures!"
Hafgrim's ancient voice rolled across the battlefield like a tide. "Young lovers? How tedious. Your affection makes you predictable."
The Kraken rose higher, her bulbous dome-like head dwarfing even the Scarabs. Two massive eyes, glowing with eldritch intelligence, fixed on Ume's position.
"You'll have to go through me," Jabari snarled, his Scarab stepping protectively forward.
"And me, china!" Wilhelm added, his mech flanking Jabari's.
But even as they rallied, Jabari could see Hafgrim's tentacles moving with purpose, weaving a net of flesh around their position. "Beinaklifr!"
"Comrades! Below!" Not Ume's voice—Amir's warning came just as the ground beneath his Scarab exploded.
Tentacles—how had he missed them burrowing underground?—wrapped around KM-233's legs. Servos screamed as they constricted. Warning lights painted his cockpit red.
"Should have seen this coming," he grunted, fighting the controls. "Can't—"
"Hold on!" Ume's Gyata shot past, her Plasma Handgun blazing at the tentacles. Each shot was well placed, but the black flesh barely scorched.
"Shango's schlong, Ume, get clear!"
"No." The word was steel. "Not without you."
Through the chaos, he glimpsed the others fighting desperately. Wilhelm's Scarab grappled with two massive arms of Hafgrim's, his mono-eyed mech's sweeping Plasma Spitter shots carving chunks of flesh that regenerated almost instantly.
Around them, Dilinur spun through Eclipse forms, her silver Psi Fan leaving trails of crimson fire, but for every tentacle she severed, two more seemed to take its place.
Ologuns fell back, their Plasma Rifles barely slowing the ancient horror.
Amir moved like liquid sunlight, his bared torso seeming to blur as he wove between attacks. The Sand Lotus monk's staff whirled, each strike accompanied by bursts of golden energy. "Sūrya Khadga!" A blade of pure solar energy materialized in his hands, slicing through one of Hafgrim's arms. The severed appendage writhed, spraying ichor that hissed against Martian stone.
But even as Hafgrim recoiled from Amir's assault, two more tentacles converged on Ume's position.
"Ekwensu!" The word tore from Jabari's throat. His hands flew across controls, redirecting power from locomotion to weapons.
But it was too late.
Ume's Gyata tumbled through the air, its rider thrown clear. She hit the ground hard, rolling with mechanical precision but clearly damaged. Her left arm hung at a wrong angle, synthetic skin torn to reveal silver alloy beneath.
"Motor function at sixty percent—" she reported, voice steady even as she struggled to stand. Then softer, just for him: "I'm alright, Jabari. Keep—"
But before he could respond, before he could break free of his own restraints, Hafgrim's monstrous form loomed over her. One of the Kraken's pitch-black arms lashed out, coiling around Ume's face with deliberate cruelty. The appendage tightened, sealing over her mouth and nose, cutting off any chance of protest.
"Let her go!" Jabari roared into the comm, his voice raw with fury. Ume's amber eyes found his through the Scarab's viewport, holding his gaze for a few eternal seconds before flickering closed. Her body jerked once in futile struggle, then went limp, dangling like a broken doll in Hafgrim's grip.
"Such passion between man and machine," Hafgrim taunted, her crude voice dripping satisfaction, orange eyes gleaming. "Does she see electric sheep as her systems fail? Or perhaps you have more Moondust shards to bargain with?"
"I said let her go!" Rage surged through Jabari, hot and blinding. His hands slammed across the Scarab's controls as he barked, feeling KM-233 shudder as its six legs dug into the regolith.
The tentacles binding him groaned but held. Still, the mech lurched forward inch by inch, an emerald juggernaut fighting against the elder Kraken.
Hafgrim's ancient eyes gleamed with cold amusement, her dome-like head tilting as if savoring the challenge. "A pity androids cannot be made into Hundkyndas. We'll settle with crushing her. But first…let me savor your torment."
Another of her massive tentacles reared up, thick and pulsing with dark energy, positioning itself between Jabari and the unconscious Ume. Her cavernous maw split open, harsh syllables of Jǫturmál spilling forth like poisoned honey: "Kyrrð Ginnungagaps!"
A wave of Void energy rippled outward, an invisible force of suffocating emptiness that crashed against the Scarab. Jabari felt it through the mech's sensors—a chill that had nothing to with the negative Martian tempature outside—no, it was a psionic wave that dragged at every servo and joint.
KM-233's legs strained, titanium groaning as the fusion core roared at maximum output. Warning lights flashed across his HUD, systems screaming under the pressure of Hafgrim's spell. The mech's forward momentum slowed to a crawl, locked in an unseen vise just meters from the Kraken.
"Ume... hang on..." Jabari growled through gritted teeth, sweat stinging his eyes as he fought the controls. His Scarab trembled, caught in Hafgrim's Void grip, its legs clawing futilely at the Martian dirt.
Around him, his allies threw themselves at the ancient horror with desperate fury. Wilhelm's vintage Scarab charged from the left, fist blades extended, only to be swatted aside by a casual tentacle swipe that sent the mech tumbling. Amir leaped impossibly high, his warstaff glowing with solar energy as he brought it down toward Hafgrim's dome—but another tentacle intercepted him mid-air, slamming him into the regolith hard enough to crater it. Dilinur's silver fan danced, Eclipse flames painting the air crimson, but the spells that had torn through lesser Krakens barely singed Hafgrim's ancient hide.
"Foolish children," Hafgrim's voice was almost pitying. "I was chosen by the Hivemind to guide the Fenris Horde. Old when your mothers drew their first breath! Your little lamp lights cannot burn one who has dwelt in the deep darkness between stars—"
Then something changed.
A new energy signature appeared on Jabari's sensors—approaching fast from the direction of Xing Hong. The craft that emerged was exotic. Sleek, organic curves painted deep purple—aubergine, with no visible weapons ports. It moved with an almost biological grace, as if swimming through Mars's thin atmosphere rather than flying.
"Unknown vessel on approach vector," Wilhelm called out, tension creeping into his posh voice. "Hey? Config doesn't match anything in the DSC database."
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The air above the battlefield shimmered. A woman materialized in holographic projection, standing three meters tall between the combatants and the purple ship.
Jabari's breath caught.
She was devastation wrapped in silk. Her holographic form wore a long, midnight black dress that flowed like liquid shadow, revealing and concealing in equal measure. Her skin held a luminous quality that made it impossible to place her heritage—she could have been from anywhere, or nowhere, or all places at once.
"A Novian?" He managed, unable to look away.
Dark hair swept back in an elaborate chignon exposed the elegant line of her neck, where an amulet gleamed—a beetle wrought in some dark gold that seemed to drink light. Not the mechanical scarab of Directorate heraldry, but something older, more organic. Egyptian, perhaps, or…
No. The way it pulsed suggested something else entirely.
But it was her eyes that held him—emerald green, sharp as lasers, beautiful as poison. And the way she held a glass of strange yellow wine in her snowy palm. A mature beauty, refined by years into something more dangerous than mere youth could achieve.
Angel or demon, his mind whispered. The kind of beauty that could topple kingdoms.
Hafgrim's arms recoiled as if burned. The black Kraken's voice cracked with something Jabari had never heard from a Radi-Mon: recognition.
"ÞÚ!" Hafgrim's Jǫturmál rolled like thunder. "Trufla ekki. Þessir Jarðarbúar verða að deyja og étast."
The Novian woman's laugh was crystalline bells. When she spoke, her Jǫturmál was honeyed venom, her full, dark burgundy lips curving up:
"Hvað leiðinlegt. Við höfum þekkt hvort annað svo lengi, og svona fagnar þú mínu fólki á Mars?"
Even without understanding the words, Jabari felt the weight of history between them. That scarab at her throat seemed to pulse with each syllable, as if feeding on the ancient language. Was she connected to the Directorate somehow? But no Oligarch spoke Jǫturmál—it was the tongue of monsters and the frozen north.
"Mána-ryk-kristall verður að vera heill!" Hafgrim's many arms writhed with agitation. "Mennirnir kúgaðir."
The holographic woman tilted her head, elegant yet predatory. Her fingers rose to touch the scarab amulet, and her smile could have cut glass. "Þvílík synd. En ég er með skilaboð frá leiðtoga okkar."
"Skilaboð? Á þessum tíma?" Hafgrim replied.
"Hann segir..." The woman's green eyes gleamed with something darker than humor. "Það er kominn tími á nýja áætlun. Án þín."
Hafgrim's massive form went utterly still. Then she uttered in panic, switching back to accented English—
"NO! YOU CANNOT—"
The ship fired.
No—fired was the wrong word. The vessel seemed to exhale death, a concentrated beam of ghostly green Void energy that made reality hiccup. Where it touched Hafgrim, flesh didn't burn or freeze—it simply ceased. Not destroyed, not vaporized, but phased out of existence, swallowed into nothingness.
The Novian's hologram then held her wine and observed with the detached interest like someone watching a lab rat die.
The Kraken screamed. Her grip on Ume loosened as tentacles that had shrugged off military-grade weapons writhed. The Void beam carved across her bulk, like knife through paper.
"But you were nothing when we first met!" Hafgrim's voice cracked in her agony. "A mewling—"
Another beam answered her, slicing through the tentacle holding Ume. The android dropped to the Martian surface as Hafgrim reeled back, her massive form trying to burrow, to flee.
But the aubergine ship pushed with predatory grace. Another beam carved through that massive dome-like head. Each strike was almost artistic in its brutality.
When it was over, Hafgrim's remains decorated the Martian landscape like a grotesque art exhibition. Pieces of the Kraken lay scattered across the low gravity, twitching but no longer living.
The holographic woman observed her work with satisfaction, before speaking in perfectly cultured English, turning to look in Jabari's direction: "You've arrived just in time for a dinner. Welcome."
"By the Thousand Gods!" Wilhelm breathed over the comm, his usual suaveness shattered. "That was quite the grilling!"
Nearby, Dakai was already retreating, his grotesque form shambling back into the wastes. Whatever confidence he'd brought to the battle had shattered along with Hafgrim. He vanished into the Martian haze, leaving only the lesser Radi-Mons to face their fate.
"Shall we finish this?" Dilinur asked, her silver fan snapping open with renewed purpose. Despite the battle's chaos, not a hair had escaped her elaborate updo. "Rakta Unmāda!"
Eclipse energy erupted from her form, but this time it spread outward, touching their remaining Ologun marines. Where Solar magic healed, Eclipse inflamed—muscles surged with power, reflexes sharpened to superhuman levels, and fear simply ceased to exist. The marines roared as one, charging the remaining Bone Fiends and Skuggrs with berserker fury as Dakai vanished into the distant red hills.
"That's left a dent," Wilhelm commented, his Scarab using its powerful frontal limbs to carefully retrieve Ume's damaged Gyata. The hoverbike's verdant wings were bent, its gray hull scored by acid, but the frame remained intact. "Nothing Seydou couldn't—ah. Gods watch over his soul."
His Scarab finally free, Jabari practically tore open the deployment hatch, not even waiting for the legs to fully kneel. He hit the ground running, Mars's low gravity turning his sprint into bounding leaps toward Ume's fallen form. His heart hammered against his ribs—she had to be alright, she had to be—
"Ume!" He skidded to his knees beside her, cradling her damaged form with desperate gentleness. Her face was pale, synthetic skin marred by Hafgrim's assault, amber eyes closed. No response. No movement.
"Allow me," Amir was there, upper torso still bare, mildly bloodied from his own impact but already channeling Solar energy. His hands glowed with warm golden light as he placed them over Ume's chest. "Surakṣitaḥ Asi! Come back to us."
For terrifying seconds, nothing happened. Then Ume's body convulsed, her mouth opening as she began vomiting a viscous gray substance—Hafgrim's vile secretions. Jabari held her steady, one hand supporting her head while the other rubbed her back. Amir maintained the healing flow, whispering prayers in Devavāṇī.
"That's it…" Jabari murmured, his voice rough with emotion. "Get it all out. I've got you."
Ume's systems rebooted with a sharp gasp, her amber eyes flickering back online. She looked up at him, still trembling, and managed: "During the battle, when you said you were always watching me..."
"I meant it." He breathed, pulling her against his chest. He could feel her heartbeat against his own racing pulse. "Just glad you're back."
"That is extremely inefficient, but…" she whispered back, her good arm coming up to weakly grip his pilot suit. "I like it."
Up in the perpetual Martian night sky, another hologram materialized to face the Novian woman's. Laurent appeared in his characteristic blend: a deep emerald garment with intricate gold embroidery, layered beneath a tailored military jacket, smooth dark hair styled in short locs adorned with small golden rings.
"Mayor Millaray Montero." He inclined his head with courtesy. "Your entrances grow more theatrical each time."
The woman—Millaray—turned to face him with languid grace. "Prince Laurent N'Guessan. Quarters for your men are almost ready in the Lion District. I trust the same hotel as last time should meet Kimaris standards?"
"Appreciate it." Laurent's smile held diplomatic edges. "We're here to establish operations against Skarn's forces. With the Terra Alliance also here, I hope Xing Hong is prepared for complications."
"My city has weathered many storms." Her hologram raised that glass of amber liquid—wine, but with strange white strands mixed in. "I'll ensure your accommodations include everything Lady Kamara specified. She was quite…thorough in her requirements."
"Celine always is." Laurent's tone carried fond exasperation. "I assume medical facilities are included? We tend to accumulate casualties."
"Already arranged. The hotel staff has experience with military operations." Millaray's perfect features revealed nothing. "Shall I expect you within the hour?"
"Once we've secured our wounded." Laurent's eyes flicked toward where Ume lay in Jabari's arms. "Some victories come at a cost."
The purple ship's engines hummed, a sound more felt than heard through Mars's thin atmosphere. Without another word, both holograms dissolved, leaving only the aftermath of battle and unanswered questions.
As the last Bone Fiend fell to Dilinur's Eclipse-empowered marines, Jabari found himself staring after that aubergine vessel. It hung in the air a moment longer, as if ensuring no threats remained, before gliding back toward a distant golden city's lights.
"All Kimaris personnel, return to Isazi immediately," Laurent's voice crackled through standard comms now, diplomatic tone replaced by command. "Celine, help us coordinate and prioritize the wounded. We enter Xing Hong in one hour."
The massive transport, Isazi, descended from above, the blimp's fusion-powered bulk casting shadows across the battlefield. As they boarded, Jabari couldn't shake the image of that woman—Mayor Millaray—speaking fluently in the language of monsters while wearing a scarab that was clearly not the Directorate's.
What kind of mayor would need psionic power like hers? And why had she come to his people personally at that exact moment?