Yesteryear Fiction

The Ultimate Weapon
By Jake A. Strife


“Is that a coffin!?” Seth asked.

I smacked away his hand.

“Why do you have to be such an ass?” Seth asked, as we escorted the jewel-encrusted coffin down the hallway.

I stopped abruptly and held out my hand causing the four Buvarian workers to halt. Of course if most others stopped a Buvarian, the hulking humanoids would tear them in half. But not me. They knew my status in the hierarchy, and they knew to attack me would mean certain death.

“You should know better to speak to a superior like that,” I said with a scowl, “If I wasn’t your brother I would feed you to the Buvarians back there.”

At that I heard one of them chuckle and it sounded like the engine of a truck spitting to life.

“Sorry, Brent,” Seth said.

I lowered my hand and the pig-faced ogres began walking again. I waved them past. Seth and I stood by and watched as they went forward.

“What is so dangerous about that thing?” Seth asked, “It’s not like it would hurt me.”

I locked eyes with him and he stared at me with a stupid look splayed on his face.

“Idiot!” I snapped, “It will not only hurt you, it will kill you.”

His eyes widened.

“Do you think we’re guarding it on just a random whim of the council?” I said, grabbing him by the collar.

“No--but I---what’s inside that thing?” Seth asked growing scared.

Up ahead the Buvarians had stopped and one was looking back over its shoulder. If we dallied much longer would they realize the ruse we trying to pull? If that was the case then they would attack, and likely kill us both in moments.

“We have to go,” I said, “Come on.”

I marched forward and glared at the Buvarian who dared look back. He grunted and looked to the hallway ahead. Seth and I took up the lead once again and the soldiers followed.

I couldn’t help but wonder about the golden coffin myself. All the boss had told me is that it was dangerous and we needed to get it to the loading bay and note the council’s main laboratory. Getting it there would be no problem, but only if the Buvarians believed they were following the orders of council.

We continued on through the blue-gray hall. The only light came from small circular portals above. Outside the windows was only the blackness of space, but I knew we were getting closer to the center of the galaxy. And located there was the supermassive black hole that would end the lives of all the council members at once. We turned a corner and just a hundred specs away was the single working escape pod.

“Brent?” Seth asked from behind me.

I ignored him and kept walking.

“Brent!” Seth said, pleading clear in his now terrified voice.

Something was wrong. I slowly turned around. I laid eyes on the Shadowrian standing beside him, blade to his neck. The shadow humanoid locked gazes with me and I went for my blaster.

“Do not,” said the Shadowrian.

I froze. Poor Seth looked at me, so scared, so very horrified for his life. I glanced at the Buvarians who just stood, hunched over and holding the rails of our freight. They looked shaken, which was a stretch especially for the brutes. They feared the Shadowrian, one of the most dangerous breeds of assassins in the Milky Way.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I want your friends there,” he gestured at the Buvarians, “to put down the Prism-Shield and walk away.”

“And what about me, and my companion,” I asked, trying to stall and think of a way out of the situation.

“You are free to leave as well, just leave the Prism.”

“Brent,” Seth said, “Don’t do what he says.”

“I have to you idiot!” I snapped.

I looked to the Buvarians, nodded and said, “Oogruksh gan trassa.”

The pair looked at one another and shook their heads.

They were more afraid of the council, than the assassin. Big mistake. It looked like I had no choice. I looked at Seth and then at the Shadowrian.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You would sacrifice your friend?” the assassin asked.

“No… just the objective of my mission.” I replied.

I burst into action, going straight for the coffin. As predicted the assassin let go of Seth and swiped at me with his Dragonite infused blade. I slid on my knees and the weapon cut right above my head, singing my hair. Clear of the attack, I smacked the coffin’s activation button and closed my eyes. The light was blinding, and even with my eyelids closed, I could see the scene the skeletal structures of all of the four of us, and the assassin’s heart core.

When the light cleared the Shadowrian was gone in a sizzle of smoke. Prism Light was his weakness, and that was the exact kind of weapon the Prism Shield was. The Buvarians drew their weapons. I had just activated the council’s sacred ark and they weren’t happy.

“Seth, run.” I called to him.

He took off and I followed, we barreled down the hall toward the escape pod. We dove inside and I hit the launch switch. The door slid shut and we blasted off. Seth looked at me, and I at him.

"What just happened?” Seth asked, panting and confused.

“We lost it. The most important weapon in our galaxy,” I said, and began cursing.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“We lost the ark of the covenant!” I snapped and watched the space castle shrink away from us into a small dot.

It was true the council would die by being sucked into oblivion, but with the Ark lost, who knew where it would end up and what it chaos it would one day cause. Who knew what world it would end up on if any, and how it would change things for them, forever.


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I'm Jake A. Strife an author of Young Adult Fiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Screenplays and video game-to-book adaptations. I live in Los Angeles, California and plan to keep on writing till the day my hands fall off!