Requiem of a Nightmare

by Jeremy Spires

  “What?” I demanded.

  “I have never seen such violence.” First class said softly. “It is no wonder the Gilbaglians fear you as they do.”

  “Yeah, well fuck them.” I snapped, then strode up to the door that should have held the Citadel. Unlike Phelb ships, it was locked, and armored. I ran my gloved hand along it, using the sensors in the glove to examine it. “Valentine to Noku.”

  “Go ahead sir.” Ivata replied, with a rattle of automatic fire in the background.

  “Report.”

  “We’re about to breach the Citadel, we got hit by a handful of soldiers. You were right, sir, these ships are very lightly defended.”

  “I know.” I replied. “We’re ready to breach here as well.”

  “Copy, sir, see you on the other side.”

  I reached into the bag and brought out the reason for the stupid bag, since I know you were getting sick of me mentioning it: A shaped charge that would, literally, blow a hole in the ship big enough to escape through.

  Yeah, I know you were sick of it, go to hell.

  “Setting charge.” I said to my companions. Instead of taking cover, I just stepped to one side of the door and leaned against the wall, letting the charge rip a hole through the door. I drew my pistol and stepped through as the debris clattered down and smoke roiled down the hallway.

  I heard the crack-zip of a rifle round that just missed me. My HUD showed me a red band in the approximate location where the shot had rang out from. I turned and fired twice in that location and was rewarded by a thud on the deck a moment later. My display showed me a thermal image through the smoke, and there were several Gilbaglians on the floor around us.

  “Colonel?” A Cetoplin asked hesitantly. “Should we take these enemies as prisoners?”

  A Gilbaglian with a gold crest raised its head to look at me. I aimed my pistol. “No.” I said, then shot the alien in the face.

  Moments later, it was over. Daniels, the Cetoplin and I had eliminated the five leaders of the Gilbaglian Empire on this ship. Ivata checked in twenty minutes or so later, and then Miller called me and informed me of their success. Apparently, they’d skipped the violence and went for the destruction of the ship, instead. They’d blown the ship and escaped. I chuckled at this knowledge, but instead sent a coded command to the Gilbaglian fleet, and simply ordered them away. Their communications protocols were so massively integrated into each other that their fleet did not question, they simply left, because they had been ordered to do so.

  “You should have ordered them to self-destruct.” Ivata said after we’d brought the ships close and docked them, then had to wait for Jones to send dropships to pick up the teams. We sat on the bridge that I’d blown open, helmets off, enjoying a drink and a brief rest.

  “I should have, that would have been hilarious.” The Cetoplin looked at us strangely with our helmets off, and their own still firmly affixed to their armor.

  “Colonel,” The first class said to me, tilting his head. “May I ask you a question?”

  “Yeah, go for it.” I replied, taking a drink from a canteen.

  “Does all of your species hate as much as you?”

  “Probably not, as a general rule.” I replied honestly. “Most people are pretty happy and normal individuals. I have a lot of anger about the Gilbaglians. And the Phelbs.”

  The First class nodded, and Rosita scoffed. I turned to her. “Issue, Lieutenant?”

  “Yeah,” She said, wrinkling her nose. “I got damn skittles in my MRE.”

  “Oh shit,” I said, holding out a hand. “Trade you for reeses pieces.”

  She tossed me the bag and I tossed mine back to her. Not much about the MRE had changed in the last six thousand years.

  I turned back to the Cetoplin, ripping open the bag of sugar bombs and pouring some into my mouth. “I’m not hateful about everything,” I continued, chewing happily. “I love my wife, I love my crew. I just really, really, really want those birds to die.”

  The alien nodded his head, then reached up and removed his helmet. I got a chance to look into those weirdly inverted eyes, and he nodded at me. “Colonel, your people are far better warriors than we ever were. We attempted to win battles with compassion.”

  I chuckled. “I’m not a fan of being the most ethical corpse in the morgue.” I shrugged. “I’d rather answer for my crimes on the other end, wherever that leads you.”

  The Third class took that with interest and looked at me. “Colonel, is it true that your people attempted to worship us?”

  “No.” I said firmly. “They worshipped a God that did not exist. They believed that an entity of divinity created humanity and was a benevolent being that all living beings returned to, in the spirit world, after death. The funny thing about it was, that benevolent being was surprisingly violent and hated humans almost as much as the Gilbaglians do.” I chuckled at that.

  The Third class looked at his leader and sighed. “We don’t…worship a god. We know what created the galaxies, and we hoped that humans would not go down the path of religions.”

  “What created the galaxy?” Daniels asked quickly.

  “You call it the Higgs Boson.” First class replied. “The dark matter of the universe compressed a dozen or so bosons into what we called the Omega particle. Omega was stable for six point nine seconds before it was struck by dark matter radiation and detonated. The resulting explosion was powerful enough to form a supermassive black hole where the particle existed, and the radiation that shot out from it created trillions, upon trillions of stars. And, according to your databases, humans have more or less figured it out from there.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Did you tell anyone on Earth these things?”

  “Not as of yet. We were told that we should probably wait, much of the human population is still very…devout.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, and rubbed my chin. “Most of them are. I figure it will die out in a generation or two.” I looked back at them. “Speaking of which, are you going to rebuild your race, too?”

  The First class looked taken aback. “What do you mean? Our time has run in this galaxy.”

  “You’re still here.” I pointed out. “Your time hasn’t run out yet.”

  His reply was interrupted by the comm system. “Colonel, this is Raptor Lead, heard you guys might want a ride?”

  “Did you pick up the two that were EVA?” I asked quickly. I wanted my people on suit air to be picked up first.

  “Got Miller and Jones right here, sir. Just waiting on your teams.”

  “Copy that, we’re on our way to the docking bay now.” I replied, putting my helmet back on. I looked at the Cetoplins. “We’re heading down to Atom, you want in on this?”

  They looked at each other and rose. “Did we have a choice?”

  “Yeah, you can go back to your ship. I’m not in command of your crew.” I shrugged. “We’re going to go crash the party on the surface.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ---

  Planet Atom

  Six hours after landing

  Colonel Destota Valentine

  Well, sometimes, I am wrong about things, I’m big enough to admit that.

  The dropship had set us down and then dusted off almost immediately. We linked up with the other members of the squad that I’d sent ahead – of which only twenty-two were still alive. Two had been killed in action already, victims of the Gilbaglian patrols.

  I had immediately ordered the entire unit to scatter and converge only when we could find their command and control center. The avian species, using their natural tendency to flock, would often group together as night approached.

  And, as anyone who has followed this story knows…

  …. Death waits in the dark.

  We grouped once more moments after the sun settled over the horizon, in a small camp. All of them looked weary and tired from the whole day of hiding, running, or fighting in the high gravity, and I admitted that even I was tired. The a
rmor, while semi-powered, was still heavy. I’d made a mistake by carrying so much ammunition, if it wasn’t for the power in the suit, I’d really be in trouble. But I figured that wouldn’t be much of an issue soon, since I had about twenty thousand Gilbaglians to kill on this planet, I’d be in good shape.

  Jones and Dawes were in position, ready to send heavy rounds on a trajectory around the curve of the planet, and we were ready.

  I looked around at my assembled operators. “Well?” I said. “What do you think?”

  “I think,” Ivata said. “That I am very sick of this gravity.”

  That drew a chuckle. “All right. Everyone knows their positions, correct?”

  “Yes sir.” Came the murmur.

  “Perfect. Remember to wait for the signal.”

  “You do know that this is one of your most insane plans?” Daniels said.

  “If it works, it’ll be called one of the most daring and heroic actions of the war.” I winked at her. “If not, it’ll be stupid. Either way, it’s going to be one hell of an explosion.”

  So, full disclosure…I still have my ever-annoying bag.

  I know, I know…just sit back and enjoy the thrill ride.

  “Alright,” I said, clapping my hands. “Let’s go.” I picked up my rifle, made sure the magnetic feed for the magazine was ready, then turned and walked, by myself, down the hill into the Gilbaglian encampment.

  Carrying the bag.

  I walked right past the majority of them, transmitting images, updating my position in real time as I walked deep into the heart of their camp, and right up to their command tent.

  I reached into the bag and withdrew the final item, it looked like a slightly oversize football. I knocked on the door to the prefabricated structure. It opened a moment later and a gold-crested Gilbaglian, a female who wore the rank of Commander on her tunic, stared at me wide-eyed for a moment.

  “Hi.” I said cheerfully. “I thought you’d like to accept this gift on behalf of the Vandorian people. We feel really bad about destroying half of your entire battlefleet and killing all of your ranking leaders in the system. It must be terrible not having any new orders, when you’re so single-minded.” I didn’t have my translator on.

  The Gilbaglian, dumbfounded, accepted the item I’d held out for her.

  As soon as she touched it, I didn’t waste more time on words. I activated my suit thrusters, mostly useless on a planet, and threw myself backwards into a flip as hard as I could, using the thrusters on full power to throw me the required thirty feet away.

  As soon as I landed, in a crouch, I touched a control on the tacpad attached to my wrist, then picked my head up to look.

  The Gilbaglian turned into so much of a blue-black smear, which I watched in the slow-motion of an adrenaline haze. Then the rest of the small complex exploded as the massive truncheon grenade detonated.

  There was a moment of silence, and all things moved in slow motion as the adrenaline flooded my body and I drew a breath as I raised my rifle. I pulled the trigger, aiming at a tent where three Gilbaglians were just beginning to push their heads out. The heavy rounds ripped through the fabric and then through the avian bodies.

  I turned and held the trigger down as what was obviously their mess tent opened and more than fifty of them came streaming out, some bearing plastic trays as weapons. I stood rooted in place, watching the counter in my HUD count backwards as I emptied the drum into the group. Our automatic weapons suffered some accuracy loss as we used the full-auto setting, but not as badly as Phelb weapons did.

  I watched them fall by the dozen and then shots rang out all over the camp as the rest of my unit attacked and threw their strength into the fray with mine. There was no way we could kill them all, but I also had a plan for that.

  One of the behemoths, used as a sentry, crashed out of the underbrush behind me and I spun, training my weapon on its face and pulling the trigger down. The smaller rounds only seemed to piss it off, and I had to duck a massive fist swung at my face.

  I crouched and turned but I was too slow in the higher gravity, and I felt my feet swing up away from me. I started to roll but my sniper rifle, affixed to my armor, caught on the underbrush and I was forced to watch the massive leg of the behemoth come down and smash into the center of my chest.

  There was a horrible popping, ripping sound and I felt the air driven from my lungs. Blood splattered the inside of my visor.

  But my armor took the majority of the strike. I reached down and ripped my combat knife out of the sheath on my hip and drove it into the knee joint, which bent backwards like a demented goat. I buried the knife up to the hilt and then twisted it. The behemoth roared in pain.

  I freed myself from the underbrush, noting that I’d lost my rifle and one of my ammo drums was missing. Fuck it, I decided, and knocked the other drum off the magnetic mounting, and got to my feet. I pulled my sniper rifle off my back, opened the action and shoved a round into it as the behemoth roared and leaned down towards me.

  I pushed the action shut and pulled the trigger, snapping the creature’s head back and blowing a fist-sized hole through the back of its head.

  I exhaled and turned to find myself surrounded by Gilbaglians, all armed and armored. I looked at my motion tracker and found that my people had fallen back, the way they were supposed to, and dispersed into the dense foliage.

  Turning in a circle, I aimed the big rifle at all of them in turn, then shrugged and shot one in the face, taking its head completely off its shoulders.

  One of them stepped forward and held out a hand. “You are beaten.” She said, I recognized the voice as female. “Surrender your weapons.”

  I shot her too.

  “No.”

  I touched the tacpad on my wrist again, and ten seconds later I heard the whistling song of high-velocity rounds ripping through atmosphere.

  One of the Gilbaglians fired. The round bounced off my helmet but made my HUD flicker.

  I raised my rifle and shot him in the head, too.

  “Surrender!” They started shouting, “Raise your hands” And “Drop your weapons”. None of them seemed to know exactly how to take a prisoner. Untrained armatures.

  I pulled my pistol and fired three times, walking backwards, I bumped into something and peered over my shoulder, looking into the face of a behemoth. “Oh, Hi.” I said.

  Then I found myself flying through the air and landing face down in the mud. My gloved hand was still clutching my pistol and I was grateful for that. I jumped to my feet, using the opportunity and I saw with dismay that the behemoth was bending my sniper rifle in half.

  “Hey!” I shouted, walking forward. “You fucker, that was my favorite rifle!” I fired several rounds from my pistol at the creature, then noticed the whistling was getting louder.

  “Hey, Colonel?” Ivata said over the comm.

  “Right, right.” I emptied my clip into the closest Gilbaglians, then broke and ran.

  I ran directly towards Ivata’s icon in my HUD, at my top speed. Ivata began running also. This was the craziest part of my plan, luring the Gilbaglians into one place and grouping them up.

  Then I’d ordered two high-explosive, nuclear tipped missiles fired on our position.

  Six miles was the minimum safe distance. I figured that with the low bowl area that the Gilbaglians had set up camp in, plus the armor, we should be able to be safe from radiation around a mile out. The other members of my team were already almost two miles away, and still sprinting flat out.

  The whistling grew into a scream and the sky behind us brightened. Ivata tackled me from behind and the ground shook, and the world exploded around us.

  I lay there for a long moment and then had the presence of mind to click through the icons and find the bio signs of my team. There were four additional that were flatlined.

  Ivata’s was completely missing.

  I flipped over in a panic and found him laying near me, but I saw that the power unit of his armor was damaged a
nd sparking. I reached out and ripped the unit off of his armor and threw it away in to the under brush where it burst into flames.

  “Thanks,” Came his muffled voice. “What is the radiation level?”

  I checked. “Lethal to Phelbs.” I replied. “We might be a little glowey, but we’ll be fine.”

  Another advantage of modified genetics, our bodies were hardened against radiation of all forms, with a very few exceptions.

  Ivata stood and popped his helmet. I rose to my feet and turned to look. A mushroom cloud rose a few thousand feet over our heads. I stared up at it and grinned behind my helmet. “That,” I said, turning and high-fiving Ivata. “Was awesome.”

  He looked at me and smirked. “Did you hand her the grenade?”

  I laughed, a shaky sound that was the last of my adrenaline metabolizing. “Yeah, I did.”

  We laughed and turned away from the carnage and started walking towards the rally point.

  Why, you might ask, did we not just have the ship nuke the planet from orbit? Well, simply put, because the Gilbaglians were too scattered around the area, in a rare show of intelligence. But with our attack, we’d managed to pull in all of the sentry force, all the soldiers, and all the outlying commanders.

  Like I’d told Ivata, it would either be the stupidest or coolest thing we’d ever done.

  “Destota!” Mallory’s voice shouted in my headset.

  “Yes?”

  “Get off that planet, NOW!”

  I paused and glanced at Ivata. “Why?”

  She chuckled. “Oh, you know. The rain, the wind. Maybe the nuclear fallout. But mostly, the fifteen Meyges ships that just came through the corridor.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ---

  Carrier Shadow of Eternity

  Atom System

  Twelve hours later

  “It really isn’t surprising.” I said, looking out at the Meyges ships, all six hundred and forty of them, hovering near the corridor. They had a massive fighter screen, accounting for more than half of the ships on the screen. “If they’ve been rebuilding for ten thousand years.”