The New Era Chapter 28

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF TH E NEW ERA
Uther seemed to want to slip back into unconsciousness, but Hans wouldn’t let him. "Uther, what are you talking about? What’s over. Come on, stay with me."
Uther, who had closed his eyes for a few seconds, reopened them. "Forgive me Hans, I’m weak. Deka’s dead. I killed him, but the victory was not without its cost. Deka had Renegade technology, and with his powers as a god. I was out matched, but I had more training with the technology than Deka had, so I won. I am badly wounded though." Anticipating Hans question, Uther added, "you can’t see the wounds Hans. The technology doesn’t inflict wounds that are visible, but they’re there."
"How bad is badly wounded?" Hans asked. "Will you live?"
"I don’t know, probably. Listen Hans, I came here to instruct you. Since Deka is dead, we were able to put the force field back in plce. No more Veletti can get in. You still have to deal with the ones already inside, but the force field only works one way, so they can leave the city at any time."
"You’ve got to help us," Hans pleaded. "Watchers are dying left and right."
"Sorry Hans, I’m too weak. You’re on your own."
"What about the other Renegades?"
"We need all of then in our fight against the gods. Like I said, you’re on your own."
"You promised you would protect us from the gods."
"Hans, we didn’t know what we were getting in to."
"This is your war. You got us into it. Our safety is your responsibility now."
"Hans, I’m dying because I protected the city! I’m dying! How dare you accuse me of neglecting my responsibility." Uther stopped himself before proceeding. His voice calmed down, but his expression did not. "Hans, listen carefully. Anytime a Veletti transports somewhere, he is forced out of the city, so the ones that choose to remain you will have a much easier time fighting. Secondly, don’t worry about killing the Veletti. They’re not sentient. They exist only to perform the will of the gods. They’re every move is guided by instinct. They’re like machines." No sooner were the words out of his mouth, then Uther disappeared again, still mad because of the comments Hans had made. Hans turned back and ran the way he had come to warn the others.


The Veletti had disappeared as suddenly as they had come, apparently only concerned with saving Gaius and having better things to do then finish Lauto off. At first, the wound didn’t feel nearly as bad as she thought it should, but she wasted no time in looking for help. Using her mouth and her left hand, she took her shirt off and tore a piece which she used as a tourniquet. The rest of the shirt she wrapped around the wound as a bandage. She left the hallways quickly, but taking care not to run. The pain attacked her soon enough, and she had hardly gotten out of the hallways when she collapsed in pain.
Many Watchers went by her. A few stopped to help her, but no one wanted to stay with her. Everyone had loved ones they had to make sure were safe, or weapons they had to get to, or they were heading to a place they thought would be safe. Someone suggested Lauto be given over to Akristh and Mucius, who were already taking care of one wounded, and could handle another.
Akristh wasn’t please when the messenger, Roc, told her about the decision, figuring it was tough enough to look after one wounded and defend herself at the same time, but she bit her tongue and followed Roc to Lauto, carrying Crassus with Mucius’ assistance.
When they got to Lauto, there was a crowd of three people around her. Lauto was laying still on the ground. Only her mouth was moving, but she wasn’t making any sense. One minute she’d be crying about how she didn’t want to die, the next she was imploring the people next to her to shoot her and end the pain. Akristh had only heard that Lauto was injured, but didn’t know about the severity of the wound. When she saw Lauto, she just about fell over.
"What am I doing here?" she asked the people around her. "I’m no doctor. Why do you bring her to me? I don’t know what to do."
"Nobody knows what to do," replied Paper, one of the men standing around Lauto. "Do what you can."
Akristh was horrified as she saw all the people around her leave. "Don’t go! Somebody stay! Help me!" Her cries were of no avail. Everyone left except Mucius and Crassus.
Akristh fell to the ground besides Lauto, gripping her head in stress. "What do I do?" she repeated the question, mostly to herself, much louder. "What do I do?"
"It looks like we might have some help after all," Mucius said. Akristh looked up at him, then followed his gaze. Kyoko, Katina, Pericula, Kile and Drusus were all heading towards them.
"We heard about Lauto," Kyoko explained, "and how you were left with her."
"I guess news travels fast in a crisis," Crassus remarked.
"We were close by," Pericula responded. "We happened to over hear some people talking about it just a minute ago."
"You’ve got to help me. I don’t even know what to do," Akristh pleaded. "I’m not a doctor. I shouldn’t even be here."
"I don’t think anyone in the city knows what to do," Kyoko said. "We’ve always relied on the medicine balls to heal us."
"Then read this." Everyone turned around when they heard Hans’ voice. Hans handed a computer pad to Akristh. "The computer can tell you everything you need to know about how to take care of the wounded."
Akristh received the pad gratefully, but was puzzled to see Hans back. "I thought you wanted to split up," she said.
"I met Uther. The forcefields are back in place. No more Veletti can get in. If the Veletti inside try and transport anywhere, they’re forced outside by the forcefield."
Pericula smiled. "That means no more surprise attacks. We should see the Veletti coming and shoot them at a distance."
"And the ones already inside the city can’t hide from us," Drusus added.
"Then I guess we don’t need as many people to look after the wounded," Kyoko reasoned. "Not when we don’t have to fear a surprise attack any second."
"I’ll stay here," Akristh volunteered.
"Kile and Drusus better stay with you," Pericula said. "They don’t know their way around the city, and their weapons are rather ineffective. They’d only slowly us down."
"The rest of us should get moving," Hans said, "before anyone else dies."


The remaining two Veletti turned and ran. Everyone fired after them, but it was of no avail. They had escaped down the hall. Suddenly, the sound of a laser gun firing twice was heard, and both Veletti came flying back out of the hall, dead. Julius emerged from the hallway, his laser gun still pointed out looking for victims.
Pericula ran up and embraced him. "Thank goodness you’re alright. I was worried sick about you."
Julius returned her embrace. "Thanks sis, I was worried about you too."
Pericula took a step back. "Is Dad alright?" she asked.
"He’s fine. I never knew Dad could shoot a laser gun as well as he does. I mean he’s no expert by any means, but he’s not half bad."
"Where did Dad get a laser gun?"
"Oh, we replicated them. That’s how I got mine too."
"You mean before the replicators broke."
"No, they’re working again."
A voice came from behind everyone. "You can thank me for that." Everyone turned around to see Uther. "Deka was able to destroy parts of your computer, but I got them working again."
"We need to tell people immediately," Kyoko said.
Uther nodded. "Good idea. I wiped out Bakes’ control over the computers, so you can broadcast this message from any monitor."
"Julius, go quickly, do as he says," Pericula ordered.
"No way, I want to get in on the action."
"Do it now!" Pericula’s tone of voice left no room for argument. Julius reluctantly, but quickly, left
"Are you doing better Uther?" Hans asked.
Uther nodded. "The docs fixed me up a little bit. I’m well enough to come down and guide you a little, but I can’t take part in any fighting. Now, speaking of guiding, if you wanted to you could ask your Teacher how many Velettis are left in the city, and where in the city they are. But, since I already know the answer, you don’t have to do that. There are thirty-nine Veletti who haven’t fled or been killed. They’re all at the city square. Gaius is with them."
"How many Watchers are fighting them?" Hans asked.
"Well, there are two other Watchers who are near the city square, but they’re not really fighting the Veletti. They’re taking shelter behind the buildings. The minute they poke their head around the wall, it gets sliced off by a disc."
"Then how do you suggest we fight them?" asked Kyoko.
"That’s a good question." Uther bent his head down in thought for a moment. "I promised the docs I wouldn’t do any fighting, or do anything that would exert too much power, but I’ll bend the rules a little bit here. I’ll walk into the square. The Velettis likely won’t know that I’m a Renegade, and fire at me. Using my power, I can make the discs pass right throw me, doing no harm. Hopefully, I’ll be enough of a distraction to the Velletti that you can attack from the other side."
"That still sounds dangerous," Katina noted..
Uther laughed. "Of course it’s dangerous. There’s no denying that it’s dangerous. But it’s do-able."
"It looks like our only chance," Hans said. "We’ll do it."


Mucius, Hans, Kyoko, Katina, and Pericula all stood behind one of the buildings in time square, waiting for Uther to act. They had found the two other Watchers who were there, Eva and Estaci, who both agreed to help from the other side. Mucius watched the city square through a small monitor on a computer pad. Through the monitor , he saw Uther step into the sight of the Velettis. Some fired at him, but Uther kept walking. More Velettis fired at Uther. Soon almost all of them were shooting at him. Mucius nodded to the others, and they all ran out from behind the building, and started firing their guns at the Velettis. From the other side, Estaci and Eva did the same.
The Velettis were totally unprepared for the attack. They began falling like flies. Many of the ones that survived immediately transported out.
The remaining Veletti turned and fired back. There were discs and laser beams flying everywhere. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Hans saw Kyoko suddenly hit the ground hard and slide a small way. His heart was beating rapidly as he threw his laser gun aside and ran to her. She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t breathing. Hans started to drag her to safety behind the building. Someone came over and helped him. Without looking up, Hans knew it was Mucius.
Once behind the building, Hans looked carefully at Kyoko, trembling like he never had before in his life. She looked as beautiful as she ever had before. Her black hair fell neatly behind her. Her face was soft and pretty. Her lips were parted slightly. Hans turned to Mucius. "Get the Medicine ball," he yelled, his voice as shaky as his body.
Mucius looked down at the computer pad, then up at Hans. He swallowed, his face heavy. "It’s no use Hans. She’s dead."