Galactic Destiny

by Alex Guerra

  They trained their soldiers much more extensively than the conglomerate did, and it was beginning to show. Brave troopers up and down the line were falling with added frequency as the attacks ramped up. A friendly strike ship lost its wing and plummeted towards our line. It plowed into the ground at a high angle, skidding across the dirt before coming to a rest in the makeshift trenches. As the canopy slid back, some of the troopers went to assist the pilot, but a shell from an enemy tank struck the ship, detonating it and taking at least a dozen troopers with it.

  “Dammit!” shouted Kayton over the firefight.

  “Command has not given the order to move back yet,” said Seya. “We need to hold this position.”

  “Bon!” I called the marksman.

  He held up a hand, asking for a moment as he continued looking through his scope and fired off a round. “He’s gone,” muttered Bon. “Yes, Art?”

  I pointed to the large rifle on his back. “I think it’s time to use that again,” I said.

  His helmet bobbed as he switched out the weapons.

  Sartas ran over to the marksman carrying what looked to be ammo boxes. “High explosive rounds,” said Disma’s trooper, gesturing to the boxes. “I’ll spot for you.”

  The marksman changed out the large magazine with the upgraded ammo and zeroed in down range. The pair went to work, delivering the explosive rounds at the targets. I doubted they would do anything against the tanks, but the armored suits were beginning to drop faster in the sector directly across from us. Battle lines stretched for miles along the western front, and it looked like the rest were fairing about as well as we were for the moment. The greatest portion of the Darkkon’s army was situated in front of us—not counting the multiple squadrons of aircraft hashing it out in the skies over the city and its outskirts.

  Our team was in the thick of it.

  I kept selfishly thinking about The Pillar, although Dotty would have informed me if the ship were in any danger, and I trusted the A.I. to handle it, even if it meant warping the ship out of the system. It was risky for me to be down on the planet as well. Dotty had fully integrated with me, so if the enemy mortally wounded or killed me, it would take a while before the A.I. crystallized and someone else took up the mantle. I made a point not to stick my head out longer than I needed to.

  The conglomerate had the home field advantage. With our numbers bolstered and the lines reinforced, a few units manned the artillery, nestled deep within the safety of the city. Communications officers marked targets miles west of us, and in a matter of seconds, the artillery barrage began. Buildings crumpled, flinging dirt and soldiers into the air. The raining explosives damaged some of the armor, disabling a few of them entirely. Sitting in the trenches, I was mostly worried about another sky shard attack, since it was the closest thing the enemy had to artillery. We made sure to keep the enemy out of range so their sky shards would fall short of our position. I hoped we could maintain that pressure, or we would be in serious trouble.

  I received updates that the fallback point was getting a defensive makeover. A secondary window popped up on my HUD’s feed, and a live video showed large conglomerate vehicles bringing out deployable bunkers, placing them on the eastern ring of the city behind the bridges. If it came to the point of needing to retreat, hardened positions would help us hold the line. What would be available, should that second line fall, was still up in the air. If enough troopers were still alive by then, it would likely be every man for himself.

  “Excuse me for a moment, sir,” said a trooper next to me, motioning with a device that looked like a black scepter with a sharp end at one point and an octagonal shape for its head. “I need to place these down.” Additional troopers around us were placing similar devices in the soft dirt and surroundings, wherever possible. Another was unscrewing the sharp rod and sticking the head onto a flat part of the building.

  “What’re these?” I asked, pointing to the device.

  “Mines,” he said. “Don’t worry, they won’t be active while any friendlies are still here.”

  “Covering our tracks,” added Seya, moving aside to let another trooper set the mine in the soft dirt near her.

  “You really don’t want to be the soldiers jumping in here when we’re gone,” said the trooper.

  I moved, letting the trooper do his thing before he continued past me. Other troopers put a subsequent row further back from where we stood. No, I would hate to be in the enemy’s shoes when they jumped into this trench—and by the looks of it, that wouldn’t be awfully long.

  With more losses on our side, the time came to pull out. Gathering the wounded and dead alike, the armored units covered our retreat. The varied races that made up the conglomerate hopped, ran, and slithered in quick bursts. Sprinting with a rifle in hand, Seya was hot on my heels with Kayton and the other troopers in tow. Ellar had a massive trooper draped over his shoulder, and I found myself once again in awe of the Codari’s strength. Reaching the end of the street just prior to the bridge, I stopped to turn around and cover the others making their way across. Seya and several other able-bodied troopers followed suit, allowing the bulk of the slowly retreating troopers to make their way past us.

  Despite the heavy fire the armor was laying down, some of the enemy soldiers were giving chase, seizing the momentum of the shifting battle lines. I popped an enemy in the chest, his armor taking the brunt of the impact, stopping him in his tracks. He threw himself down and swiftly crawled into the next bit of cover he found.

  The swishing sounds of artillery fire overhead were louder than before. Through my scope, canisters peppered the field around us before exploding. White plumes of smoke billowed out, obscuring our mutual sightlines. With all the troopers off the line, our armor fired off their own short-ranged canisters, continuing to add more smoke before they reversed and started their own retreat.

  Armored suits swept by us ahead of the tanks at high speed, including two forest green units I recognized as our own team’s pilots. I waved them past, and then they slowed down. I held my position with Seya next to me until the large tank approached us.

  The first of eight tanks neared us in reverse, its six spherical wheels thundering over the paved roads. It trained its turret towards the battlefield and let off a thunderous shot in the direction of the enemy. I traced the lazy arc of the shot as it left the barrel and blew up over clouds. Secondary explosions shone faintly through the smoke, like lightning in a cloudy night sky.

  Like the conglomerate’s rovers, the armor appeared to have omnidirectional movement, allowing the vehicles to strafe without altering its heading. Seya and I ran alongside the first, finally pulling back. A few supporting engineers moved with the tanks, their packs loaded to the gills with tools and spare parts. The smaller humanoids of the bunch wore exosuits, allowing them to carry the bulk of their equipment along with ease—jogging at a slow pace.

  Sneaking the occasional glance behind us, I switched through the various filters of my visor but was unable to penetrate the white clouds of smoke, realizing it was likely lined with something that played havoc on visual sensors looking it its direction. I went over the bridge alongside a few troopers who held the rear with me.

  I marked a point on a high rise, half of its golden windows blown out by the concussive blasts which rocked the city throughout the day. “Bon,” I began, “you and Sartas get into that building for overwatch. Garvo you’re in the opposite building with Ornay and Tal, take a few troopers with you.”

  Confirmations chirped back from the team, and I found Commander Disma with a few of his troopers holed up near one of the mobile bunkers. When the last of the tanks drove over the bridge, erratic explosions sounded off from our previous location.

  “We’re blowing the bridge already?” I asked.

  “No,” said Disma. “Those sounded like mines.” More of the booby traps ignited, with high-pitched screams accompanying some of the blasts.

  “Sector three clear of friendlies,” said Ard
et, Disma’s communication specialist. “All units have moved to the secondary lines.”

  Disma held his rifle casually on his shoulder, taking a moment to rest. “Now we set up and pray they don’t push past us,” he said.

  “Are there any civilians still in the city?” I asked.

  “I haven’t heard or seen anyone in this area,” he said. “We just have to hope everyone got the message and followed the herd out.”

  “What about air support?” I asked.

  “Still overhead—I don’t have a report on the numbers though,” said Disma.

  I took the opportunity to inspect the area. The nearside of the bridge was a hundred and fifty yards away from us. Defenses encapsulated the ramp in a concave crescent. Like the bunkers, barricades and other defenses, engineers mounted them to the street for the troopers to use. The metal barrier before me had a bottom that was two or three feet thick. It was waist high, and the top half was like a windshield on steroids. There were slits throughout its length, allowing the average trooper to stand side by side with three different areas to shoot out of safely. I wouldn’t want to test the strength of the bulletproof glass, but I was sure I would see it firsthand soon enough.

  I positioned myself and my team along the northern side of the westward facing crescent. The eight tanks took up strategic positions throughout the line alongside the seventeen armored suits. Our two green ones stayed near us.

  “Reactive armor,” said Kayton, following my gaze towards the strange wiring rigged in the front of the barricade.

  I cocked my head to the side in question.

  “If a rocket or grenade comes in close enough, this scans it and fires shrapnel to try and mitigate it—keyword being try,” she said. “It’s a one-time use, though.” She shrugged and mocked lining up a shot with her rifle through one of the slits that was a little too high for her.

  Kayton kicked the levers on the bottom of the barricade, and a small step-up slid out, allowing her to see properly. I would have thought the process funny if we weren’t in the middle of an imminent attack, despite the ingeniousness of the technology. Many distinct species fought for the conglomerate—all of varying stature. It made sense to have adjustable and straightforward weapons and defenses.

  “Dotty, give me an update on the fleet,” I said.

  “Defensive line is holding,” said Dotty. “The Pillar has three power cores left. The conglomerate has suffered the loss of more ships, but the Darkkon fleet is dwindling at an accelerating rate.”

  The transmission echoed to the troopers around me. A lot of them cheered while congratulating each other.

  “Quiet down!” yelled a commander. “Keep your focus on what lies ahead. We still have an army of imperials waiting to storm these lines. We need to win the war on the ground!” The commander walked the ranks and shouted additional orders, as the rookie troopers got to work, double and triple-checking their setups. A smirk crept across my face for a moment, but the commander was right. We weren’t out of this yet.

  “You guys see anything from your position, Bon?” I asked.

  “Negative,” he answered. “Smoke is still rolling in from the other side. No movement yet on either bridge.”

  “Keep us posted,” I said, turning to Disma. “I believe we should wait until we have a majority of their support on that bridge before we blow it.” If the empire managed to get over to our side, we would cut off their retreat. The area was open and clear, it would be a killing zone for sure, which meant the infantry would need to use the armor for cover.

  It would be a challenging task for the Darkkon soldiers, but they seemed determined to get to the heart of the capital. Had I been their commander, I would not have engaged this position. Instead, I would have waited for reinforcements—whether that was with more air power to soften our side up before crossing or using artillery beforehand.

  “I agree,” said Disma.

  “And the bridge to the north?” I asked.

  “I gave Sartas the detonation codes for that one. He will have an easier time determining when to raze it,” he said.

  “Then we’ve done all we can for now,” I said, taking count of the forces around me.

  The ball was in the empire’s court. All we could do was wait.

  TWENTY-SIX

  “Smoke’s clear,” said Bon. “No enemies in sight along the far side.”

  We waited for about half an hour. It appeared the Empire was holding back, possibly recovering from the traps we laid for them and planning their next move. Attacking the bridges head on would be a death sentence. Despite their tenacity thus far, the Darkkon command was not so foolish as to throw countless troops into a meat grinder.

  It appeared to be a stalemate. The only choices we had were to keep shelling the other side with our artillery and to wait. The enemy’s air force was not enough to sneak by our defenses. Those of us on the ground were safe from any attacks from the skies.

  Pilots called out targets over the comms as they continued their flybys, and artillery fired a quick salvo in response to each new callout. The sound of each round flying overhead meant more destruction of buildings, armor, and neutralization of soldiers followed soon after.

  I played with the safety on my rifle a few times in anticipation before turning to Disma. “Any word on the civilians?” I asked.

  Disma opened his visor as he scratched the slightly orange bridge of his nose, while his brown freckles played across the contours of his features. He flicked his bright, green eyes up towards me and said, “Civilians are safe. Our forces from Uharr are watching over them. So far, they have not encountered much fighting.”

  “It seems the empire’s plan failed then,” I said. “Any news on other cities?”

  “None.” He shook his head. “It’s strange, but all the enemy forces have converged on the capital.”

  “What is so special about this place?” I asked out loud. No one said anything “Dotty, is there any significance here?”

  “None that I can pick up,” it said.

  “Do you know if there is any Yau technology hidden away here?” I asked.

  “Unknown,” it replied. “Scans are not showing any evidence of Yau technology, and there is nothing in my archives to suggest this planet would have such a thing. Although there is always a chance that it could be hidden, the likelihood of that is extremely low.”

  Again, we had more questions than we did answers. The A.I. didn’t give any significant updates on the orbital battle. It was late afternoon, and the sky was darkening. It was a sunny day, with few clouds obscuring the night sky forming overhead. Laser fire from the opposing fleets dwindled, their signature red lines no longer crosshatching the space between them. I imagined for a moment the chaos aboard the ships as holes tore through the vessels bleeding their atmosphere into space, with technicians running around their innards putting band-aids on dying ships for a few more minutes of fighting.

  There were losses on both sides. Had we not used the wormhole technology to jump into the fray and seize the initiative, I doubt our fleet would have fared well in a standup fight. Darkkon ships had the shielding technology that the conglomerate lacked, but we had mobility for now. We would need to improve the design of our own ships if we wanted to win future engagements. This would mean more time for research and development, as well as actual fabrication of parts. I hoped we would be able to modify versus building these ships from scratch.

  “Arthur,” came Dotty’s voice over the team’s comms. “A large wormhole anomaly is forming in the outer reaches of the system.”

  “What?” I spat. I knew that all the conglomerate’s forces were here around Lumarus. A sinking feeling formed in my stomach, my face flushed with draining blood and sweat. “Can you give us a visual?”

  A small window popped up on our visors, the signature green tear of a wormhole was forming over the black starfield.

  “Estimates place the wormhole to be three times larger than that of Nemetor’s,” said Dotty
.

  “Is it another fleet that’s coming through?” asked Seya. “Are they all coming through a singular point?”

  “It should not be possible,” responded Dotty. “This appears to be a single ship.”

  “There’s no way a ship can be that large,” said Kayton in disbelief.

  “Commander!” said comms specialist Ardet. “Air force is reporting a full retreat of the Darkkon ground troops.”

  “A retreat?” asked Disma with disbelief.

  “Yes. They say it looks like they’re departing for their transport ships and readying to leave the planet,” said Ardet.

  Why else would you pull all your forces from an area when reinforcements arrived. Most of the conglomerate’s fighting force was here, and everyone else either didn’t have wormhole capabilities or were guarding the home systems.

  The wormhole split apart and slowly formed a jagged circle—a window into another system. Inside the window was an enormous ship. It barely scraped by the edges of the wormhole, its bow stabbing into our system. Its length was proportionally long to the enormous prow, taking nearly an entire minute to slip through the opening before the tear dissipated behind it.

  “Oh my god…” I muttered, looking at the monstrous ship.