Chapter 35
Clash of Armies.
Battles are won by information and the correct deployment of men and equipment, a greater force can be overcome by striking at the heart of the enemy before they have time to react, but the most important quality in a leader is his willingness to sacrifice anything to secure a victory.
From the observations of Ivar-Anoon, first General of the combined forces of the Mac-Mar Alliance.
Never had the lands of Gorn seen such an army for they did not travel mounted on Whiptails or Trofar but in great metal machines that shook the ground like the stamping of thousands of Rimar.
Ivar-Anoon stood proudly on the bridge of the gigantic troop carrier that bore his flag, he was dressed in his finest battle uniform with a finely crafted sidearm fixed to his wide belt, surrounding him were the many officers and technicians that kept the armored vehicle on course and scanned the terrain for any sign of an enemy, the huge transporter was twice the size of the lesser armored land cruisers that made up his magnificent attack army, it had multiple long range Blaze-cannons and multilevel targeting missiles and its reinforced hull was constructed from the finest Itarian steel, it also had an electromagnetic shielding that would detonate any incoming armaments aimed at them, in its vast hold were a thousand well equipped ground assault soldiers, the best of the best and each of them held a powerful phase-rifle in their hands.
At last I will have my victory the General thought as he looked out the view window from his command chair. Standing beside him was his son Captain Romar but his mind was filled with far different thoughts then his father, another war, more dead and for what? Victory is a hollow reward. It was a good thing that Ivar did not hear those words for his life had been one of constant warfare and he found no fault in that, now as he headed for the place that Servant had told him about he stood up and began to pace back and forth in an effort to ease the excitement he was feeling.
“How long till we reach the engagement coordinate?” the General asked to his navigator.
“Sir we will be at the designated site in twelve time periods” the navigator replied smartly.
This made the Commander very content for he would soon come face to face with his allusive enemy and the battle he longed for would finally begin.
As the vast army moved across the landscape they met no resistance for the terrain was mostly barren without any sign of life, animal or otherwise, the ground was hard and rocky and dotted with the remains of ancient machinery, the same kind that covered many other areas of Gorn, some of them could be recognized as warships from the many planets of the Outer-Rim while other were unknown and must have originated on the planet itself.
Overhead the sky was clear of clouds and the day moons could be seen moving slowly across the heavens as they had done for a millennium or more, and mixing with those orbs were the invasion fleet of the Mac-Mar, ten thousand great ships and more, destroyers, interceptors, huge battle platforms holding the very latest engines of destruction, the main power of the Alliance gathered together in one place, each one of their Captains assured of their invincibility for who was there to challenge their might?
Ivar remained quite as his army neared the battlefield then he turned to his son, “Someday all this will be yours” he said proudly, “You will take my place and lead the Mac-Mar to even greater victories until all the Outer-Rim is ours”.
Romar looked into the eyes of his father, “And then?” he asked.
“What are you talking about?” the General replied.
“If we conquer all the planets who will be left to fight?”
This made Ivar smile and he drew nearer to his son, “There will always be a war to fight”.
The Captain made no reply but his mind was not quiet, endless war, it that our fate?
Ivar returned to his view window without further comment then he heard the words he had been waiting for.
“Sir we have reached the designation ordered”.
The General looked over the area but what he saw did not make him content for the land was empty of any army.
“What trick is this!?” he shouted out causing the officers on the bridge to turn their heads away least they be blamed for his anger.
It was no deception for the land was vacant of human life and all that was visible was a great mound of rock and a pyramid shaped structure that protruded from the ground, the erection itself was exactly like the fallen beacon that once topped the ruined city of Del-Godar but this one was intact and glowed with an inner light.
Ivar’s face turned livid with rage, “I was a fool to trust that Tromac!” that word was rarely used by officers of the Mac-Mar for it was considered far to vulgar even for the battle harden warriors, “Prepare to return to command center and signal all orbiting warships to await my orders!”
Romar knew what his father was thinking but he hoped that he was mistaken for an order from the General would power up the planet Rippers and if activated there would be very little left on the surface of the planet for it was a weapon of last resorts and lifted up the ground and turned it over to fall back and destroy all that once was.
I can’t let that happen the Captain thought; taking revenge on a whole world for the loss of a battle is madness.
But before Ivar could give that command the troop carrier began to shake violently causing the alarms to sound.
“Report! Report!” Ivar shouted as he grabbed hold of his command chair in an effort to steady himself, but before he heard a reply he saw the cause of the powerful tremor.
In clear view in his view window, the pinnacle that rose up from the ground began to move upwards, slowly at first but gaining momentum as it reached skyward, great rocks were pushed away as more and more of the structure became visible, it sides were smooth and metal like without openings of any kind, the power behind this phenomenon must have been enormous for nothing seemed to challenge it, boulders the size of many Trofars were lifted up and cast aside like pebbles, tons of earth fell away from its sides to be picked up once again by the rising pyramid and as it did the air filled with rumbling sounds like the roar of a thousand Earthshakers.
Even Ivar stood watching in disbelief and he had seen the giant fortifications of the Youngonrie, this can’t be he thought, but then he remember the words of Servant that his enemy was under the ground but the General never thought that they would emerge in such a fashion, but he was still the Commander of the greatest army in the Outer-Rim and he would act the part, “Prepare to attack!”
The monstrous fortress continued to rise until it towered over the landscape and cast a shadow like some gigantic God looking down on lesser creatures, at last its movement stopped and the air was still but only for a moment or two then the huge metallic side facing the army of the Mac-Mar opened making a ramp for those inside to exit, and that is exactly what they did, row upon row of dark armored warriors marched forward along with great armored vehicles of a design that no Commander of the Outer-Rim had seen before, they were cold and without any regard for artistic intention, at their fronts if you could call them that were disk like devices and must have been some kind of energy emitter but other than that they were just metal monsters of war created only for death and nothing more.
Ivar watched has his enemy marched to face him and although it did not show on his face he was afraid, this is not an army of peasants he thought, this is a force to be reckoned with.
But being the man, he was he stood without emotion and spoke in a voice that was firm, “Signal the attack”.
“At once sir!” was the reply and in an instant the order was sent out and the war begun.
At first there was no movement in the lines of the dark warriors, they did not shout or clamor for victory and the air was not filled with the blare of signal horns, they simply stood shoulder to shoulder holding their weapons and saying nothing.
The first blast of phase-cannon from the Mac-Mar came a few seconds later but instead of decimating the enemy the powe
r beams struck an invisible barrier that deflected their energy and did no harm.
They have shielding Ivar thought, and this made the hair on the back of his neck tingle for shielding powerful enough to combat his phase-cannon was something that few worlds possessed let alone this desolate planet. Several more blasts struck the enemy but they also did no damage but the line of dark warriors made no response and stood unmoving, then several of their black machines moved forward from the structure and stopped ahead of the dark armored warriors, the disks they carried turned towards the troop carriers and suddenly a beam of white hot light shot out and struck the Mac-Mar’s troop carriers.
“BLAM!” A great ball of fire tore through their shielding and blasted several of them into a million fragments, the force was so intense that Ivar’s huge command ship was shaken to its core, and the General was thrown to the floor.
Romar raced to his father aid and helped him to his feet, “We must withdraw” the Captain said.
“Never!” screamed the Commander then turned to his officers, “Order the men to engage the enemy hand to hand”.
A moment later streams of Mac-Mar soldiers emerged from the remaining troop carriers and howling like demons they raced forward firing their Blasters, it was then that the dark warriors from the earth began to move. They marched in step and showed no sign of fear and when they were within range their weapons began to shoot out a wall of destruction, Mac-Mar fell like shafts of Kasha wheat in a harvest but they did not falter and continued forward returning death for death and they were successful for the dark warriors armor could not defect all the intense fire and many of them died but far less than the invaders from the sky and very soon the tide of war began to take its toll on the soldiers of the Alliance.
And no one knew this better than Ivar-Anoon, I am losing he thought, but he had more surprise for his enemies for he had not engaged his Flyer squadrons and since his enemy had shown no command of the air he could rain down death from above, “Order all flyer wings to engage the enemy”.
“At once” came the reply.
The Flyers had been held on the ground and away from detection but now they leaped into the air and headed at full power to the battlefield where their well-trained pilots would target the enemy below and eliminate them.
But in the short time before they would arrive the Mac-Mar were slowly being destroyed, one by one the troop carriers vanished in a holocaust of fire and smoke, likewise the warriors that had conquered a thousand worlds, soon there would be nothing left of a once magnificent army.
Ivar watched the destruction of his men with a cold eye, acceptable losses he told his mind, an army can be rebuilt and that is a small price for victory.
But watching men that had served under him tore at the heart of Romar, is the man who gave me life a monster? He thought, when will this madness end?
“Flyers are overhead commander” an officer reported.
“Order them to attack with all weapons” Ivar replied.
The General was sure of his decision and waited for the Flyers to begin their targeting run, but as soon as they lost altitude the top of the pyramid structure opened and out soared a mass of metal disks the size of an Ax-Breaker, they moved swiftly and headed towards the Mac-Mar airships, they radiated no beam of force but simply smashed into the slow moving Flyers cutting them in half and sending them crashing to the ground, the disks showed no damaged and continued to circle overhead like Sundroppers waiting for their prey.
“We’ve lost” Captain Romar said in a voice that only his father could hear.
“Lost?” replied the General, “I never lose” and he turned to an officer at his side, “Signal the fleet to power up the Rippers!”
“You can’t do this” Romar’s voice was filled with defiance and that was something that his father had never heard from his son.
Ivar looked into the eyes of his offspring, “I am Ivar-Anoon first General of the Mac-Mar Alliance and you will obey me!”
Romar stared into the face of his father, “No” he said.
Ivar slowly removed the handgun from his belt and pointed it at his son, “Are you disobeying a direct order?”
The Captain did not speak or make any gesture to draw the weapon that he also carried he just looked into the face of his father.
“Will you obey!” the General repeated lifting the gun and pointing it at his son’s heart.
Romar shook his head, “No” was the simple reply.
Ivar did not lower his weapon and continued to look into the eyes of his son, “You are not my son, you are a traitor and there is only one punishment for those that will not obey”.
Before that sentence could be carried out a blast of energy struck the command bridge and it was engulfed in flames.
Flames also covered most of the battlefield as the Mac-Mar army broke ranks and ran for their lives, those that managed to survive were soon exterminated, cut down by the spinning disks and their dismembered mangled bodies lay strewn about on the bloody ground, the troop carriers were now only heaps of twisted metal and charred bodies, the great army of the Mac-Mar would conquer no more worlds and the Outer-Rim would never again fear the sound of their marching feet.
The dark warriors from the ground stood uncaring, they made no shouts of victory and they did not rush to the aid of their wounded, they felt no joy or sorrow, they were not longer humans, they were only weapons. The great troop carrier was now just flaming wreckage as a huge column of smoke rose up to the sky, here and there screams of the dying could be heard above the sound of power cells bursting from the intense heat, soon it would be just another rusting hulk littering the lands of Gorn.
On the command bridge of the huge war machine General Ivar was bleeding from numerous wounds and his left arm had been torn away at the elbow by the blast, but flames had cauterized the limb and he would not die of loss of blood and the pain was excruciating but gritting his teeth he rose up on his shaky feet, surrounding him were the remains of his officers still at their stations as any good warrior should be, it was then that he saw his son’s body lying next to him but he did not check for signs of life or shed a single tear.
In war losses are to be expected, were the only thoughts going through his mind, that and his need for victory.
He slowly made his way through the rubble to the communications console and saw that it was still able to function, so using the last of his strength he pressed the com-link.
“This is Gerneral Ivar, activate all Rippers, destroy this world!”
And with a smile on his face Red Ivar passed from this world into whatever fate was waiting for him.
Nomads The Risen God Page 47
