Me and Teresa hugged the wall as we crouched our way through the darkness. Plastic and glass shards cracked under our boots, but we remained steadfast and continued through the darkness. After a minute or so, we reached a pile of rubble, rubble that once belonged to a door. A door that hung on the left. And once we walked through it, we’d be on our way toward the shipyard. I turned toward Teresa and tried to summon a smile. And even though she couldn’t see my face, and I could barely see hers, I knew from her warm touch as she grabbed my hand that no matter what happened next; we’d have each other’s back.
“Follow my lead,” I said, carefully stepping over the rubble and walking into the unknown. Teresa followed closely behind.
***
“Target coming up on my left,” the lead Snake Pit Fighter said as he locked his hand firmly around the controls, his head swooning from left to right as he surveyed the battlefield in front of him.
He was joined by nine other Snake Pit Fighters. They were trailing behind him, keeping close to his back, each ship inches away from the other, flying in a formation that they had practiced before. Their training was all that these pilots had when it came to fighting other airborne enemies. Most of their time had been spent in the simulation computer. They had run drills on various scenarios, going over every possible situation on the battlefield.
The lead Snake Pit Fighter was nervous. The last time he was in a simulator, he’d racked up seven fails. The last fail was the worst one of them all. He’d managed to crash the ship that he was flying into a canyon. There were no canyons here, so at least he had that going for him.
The other Snake Pit Fighters were doing the same, locking their hands on their controls, fiddling with switches and checking their ships vitals. It was all standard procedure before coming face-to-face with enemy contact. And they were seconds away from that contact. In front of them, careening within the darkness of space, hovering above the starport, were hundreds of enemy ships. Some of them were big, while others were small. But all of them were dangerous. And all of them were heading their way. If the Snake Pit Fighters didn’t act soon, then they would be swarmed by the enemy ships. So quick thinking was a must.
“Multiple enemies in my sights,” the lead snake fighter said, locking on to one of the nearest enemy ships, and pushing down on the fire button.
Suddenly, a swarm of red-nosed missiles left the comfort of his ships Ironsides and dazzled their way toward the enemy target. Within the blink of an eye, the missiles hit their target, reducing one of the ships into nothing but rubble floating in the vacuum of space, shards of metal cascading off the horizon - the other ships that surrounded it were ducking and diving for cover.
“Target destroyed, I repeat target destroyed,” the lead Snake Pit Fighter said, his hand still hovering above the controls, gripping at the joysticks, sweat falling down the nape of his neck.
His helmet was itchy, the hair on his head sticking against the glass and plastic covering his skull. All he wanted to do was scratch his head, but he had a lot of work to do. And when there was work to do, there was no room for error. Especially on the battlefield.
While it was true that he did have backup, he knew that the enemy far outnumbered him and his men. So evasive maneuvers would be necessary. And every single Snake Pit Fighter would have to be on their game.
“Okay gentlemen, let’s show these guys how it’s done,” the lead Snake Pit Fighter said. With another enemy in his sights, he pressed the fire button, and watched as more missiles flew toward yet another unsuspecting target.
Another confirmed hit and another enemy down.
But now, now they had bigger problems. The Snake Pit Fighters didn’t have the element of surprise anymore. The enemy had seen them coming, and now they were retaliating in force. So the game plan had changed, and all ten of them would have to be thinking out of the box if they were to get out of this one alive.
“On my mark, I want all of you to split up. We need to be hitting them like a swarm of bees, and the only way we’re going to manage to take them down is if the swarm splits and hits them from every possible angle,” the lead Snake Pit Fighter said, summoning some inner strength and guts, breathing through his nose and counting down to ten in his head.
Everything was working out just how he’d planned. The enemy were reacting in a predictable manner. If they continued doing so, it would cost them their fleet. The Snake Pit Fighters were well trained and well-equipped. But unpredictability was their weakness. And even though the enemy ships were acting predictable at the moment, nothing was guaranteed in the heat of battle. So the lead Snake Pit Fighter knew that if they were to win this particular battle, and defend the starport from total destruction, they’d need to dispatch of the enemy fighters in record time.
“Three… Two… One… Split!” The lead Snake Pit Fighter said, pulling the controls back, his fighter ship climbing, the nose of the ship pointing at a ninety-degree angle. The other Snake Pit Fighters did the same. They swarmed around the enemy ships, striking from every possible angle.
But the enemy were prepared. And they had defenses of their own. The Snake Pit Fighters didn’t know it yet, but their ordeal had only just begun.
***
I couldn’t quite believe it but we had just reached the shipyard. Teresa and I were panting for breath as we entered the large and ominous yard, which looked haunted and derelict in its current state. The shipyard was usually bustling with activity, hundreds of ships being worked on, hundreds of workers talking with fellow pilots, stocking the ships with supplies before they had to leave.
But right now, things were different. There were hardly any ships in the yard, and there were no workers. There had been workers, but unfortunately they were no longer with us anymore. Strewn on the floor, every couple of yards, were dead bodies. The dead bodies belonged to the former shipyard employees. Most of them were male. All of them were still wearing their high visibility jackets. Next to them, were a couple of Marines.
It seemed as if the Marines had attempted to thwart the onslaught from the invading enemy presence on board the star port. But it hadn’t worked out in their favor. They had lost. Now, the starport was teeming with savage soldiers, soldiers trying to dismantle both the port and the people on board it. I guess seconds earlier, when Teresa and I found ourselves hiding in the darkness from the footsteps, footsteps belonging to those savage soldiers, they’d just returned from their heinous acts. Hundreds of bodies lay on the floor, riddled with bullets, shot like dogs and left to die.
There wasn’t anything that Teresa and I could have done. They were long gone – as were the soldiers that had executed them, yet we were still in danger. Hanging around and mourning the loss of these men and women wasn’t going to bring them back. In fact, if we hung around long enough, all we’d end up doing is being taken out - like our friends on the floor - bullet holes in our heads and our torsos – and that wouldn’t accomplish much.
So, me and Teresa didn’t hang around, we carefully stepped over the dead bodies and made our way toward the Alpha Ship One, which was the only ship left in the yard. It seemed as if all the other ships had bailed on the starport. As soon as trouble had made itself known, the various captains on board had decided to get out as soon as they could. And I would have done the same thing if only I hadn’t been on the opposite side of the port.
Strategically speaking, this particular station wasn’t easy to traverse during an emergency. And as I said before, it was more akin to a maze than a functioning starport. If it had been up to me, after this was all over - if we all survived that is - the first thing I’d be doing is contacting the Galactic Empire, and maybe suggesting to them that they needed to rethink their architectural design of their ports. After all, the people on the floor, the dead ones all around me that is, would probably agree with my presumptive suggestions. Because if it wasn’t for the mightily confusing layout of this port, then maybe it wouldn’t be so damn easy to infiltrate it or so hard to escape i
t.
Just a thought…
“There it is!” Teresa said, hopping over a few more dead corpses, trying not to give them much attention.
She was a fragile girl as it was, and even though she had already shown some hardness in her personality, especially when she’d managed to defend me from the girl in leather earlier, she still held an admirable quality of empathy about her.
I could tell that she was upset over the carnage that these invaders had caused on our temporary home. I could also tell that she had vengeance in her eyes, and when she’d spotted the Alpha Ship One hovering in the distance, I could see that she wanted nothing more than to board the ship, take off, and blast the people responsible into oblivion.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said, grabbing Teresa’s hand and guiding her toward the ramp that led up toward the Alpha Ship One.
Most of what had happened so far had been nothing but a blur. Whilst in perilous danger, the human body has a habit of heightening the senses. And with that habit comes the undesirable effect of memory loss. The body is so overloaded with emotion and heightened sense, that the brain cannot keep up with the arduous task of storing certain information. Like in the midst of a heated argument with somebody, it’s always difficult to remember what was said, or how it was said. And just like that, right then at that moment in time, my mind was all over the place.
There were chunks of memory that had disappeared from my recollection. Like what was said during our walk up the slope, toward the Alpha Ship One. I know something was said, but for the life of me I cannot remember. All I can remember though is the fact that both Teresa and I were more than happy to reach our ship. And even though there were hundreds of dead bodies below, we felt a certain happiness knowing that we were seconds away from leaving this dangerous port.
“Open the door,” Teresa said, giving me a frightened glance over my shoulder, checking if there was anybody behind us. I did as she said, grabbing my ship key and swiping it over the sensor. Suddenly, the double doors opened and we scrambled inside, I then swiped the key once again to lock the door behind us.
“We made it!” I said, still trying to catch my breath as I placed the key back in my pocket and raised my head up to look at Teresa.
I expected to see a smile on her face, but was met with an expression of fear. Right then I knew that something was wrong. Turning around, my worst fears came to life, beating against my insides like a barbed-wire-batt. Standing on the deck, pointing their weapons at us, were four heavily armed humans.
“Looks like we have a few stragglers,” one of the armed men said, slowly making his way up toward me and Teresa.
I was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do. Part of me wanted to fight, to hit out and protect Teresa and my ship. But the other part of me was subdued and frightened. It was like there was a battle going on within the middle of my head. It was ripping and tearing at both sides of my brain. The side of my brain that said fight or flight, and the other side, the rational side, the logical side. But in a situation like this, thinking wasn’t going to get me out of danger. They say that a strategic and calculated mind wins on the battlefield, but sometimes – just sometimes – straight out violence trumps everything.
“To hell with this!” I said, pulling my hand back and landing a stiff shot onto the approaching man’s jaw.
He wasn’t expecting it. The look on his face said it all, really. He was in shock, as was I, but within the few seconds of shock that proceeded my outburst, I managed to grab the man’s sidearm, and was now aiming it squarely at his head. The others had raised their guns higher and were now approaching Teresa and I. But as soon as they saw that I had his weapon pointing directly at him, they startled and stopped where they stood.
“That’s not wise,” the man said, visibly shaken up, a welt forming under his eye where I’d smacked my knuckles against his face.
But before I could retort, I heard something behind the three of them. A mighty crash of some sorts. Followed by footsteps. The three men turned on their heels, and were met by some aggressive opposition. I couldn’t see all that well, on account of the man I had directly in front of me blocking my vision, but I heard some screams followed by some gargles and then the collective sound of three bodies hitting the ground.
The man I had in my sights quaked in his boots slightly as he stared at me, shivering and stuttering as he realized that the tables had been turned. He immediately dropped his weapon, the sound of it clanging off the metallic floor. He now had his hands up, and moved slightly to the side as I pushed past him, still holding my weapon at him. What I saw behind the man at first frightened me, but then comforted me. Standing at attention with smiles on their faces, both Dale Dykstra and Philip saluted me as they stood over the incapacitated bodies of the three men that’d had their guns pointed at us seconds before.
“Where the hell did you two come from?” I asked, patting Dale on the shoulder. He smiled at me as if to shrug off the question. Philip came closer and gave me a hug. Dale did the same, and squeezed the two of us.
“Guys? What about him?” Teresa said, holding the other man by the scruff of his neck.
The three of us turned around and saw Teresa grabbing at the lone survivor. My heart quickened a little in my chest, knowing that we most likely would have to kill him as well. I wasn’t good with that sort of thing. I preferred that other people did the dirty work when it came to death and destruction around here. But I wasn’t stupid either, and I knew that we couldn’t keep him as a pet. But before I could even make a decision, Dale Dykstra had walked over toward him, his heavy gigantic frame looming over the scared-stiff man and cocked back his huge fist and landed a stern shot to the bloke’s head.
The man hit the deck, his head smashing against the metal beneath him. Dale stood over him, a smug look on his face, and smiled back at me.
“Might as well see what he knows,” I said, smiling back at Dale, and then looking at the three bodies behind me.
Dale and Philip had disarmed the three men on the floor via violent means. It had taken me a few seconds to realize, but Philip had a bloodied knife in his hands. And Dale had blood-soaked hands. So unfortunately, the three men behind us were useless. They were very much dead, but in my mind I had already justified their deaths, even though I had nothing to do with it.
They would have killed us in a heartbeat. If it wasn’t for Dale and Philip already being on board the ship without the other men knowing, then it could have been us on the floor instead.
“We need to get off this starport ASAP,” I said, stepping over the three dead bodies on the floor and making my way toward the captain’s seat. I turned the power on, the engines idling, and did a quick systems diagnostic check. Everything came back 100% operational. I nodded at the others and ushered them toward their seats.
“What about the dead bodies?” Philip asked.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Well, I guess can jettison them once we are in orbit,” I said, flicking a few switches and pressing a few buttons, starting the inaugural liftoff process.
“How about sleeping beauty over there?” Teresa asked.
I sighed, slowly pushing the power lever up, the sound of the Alpha Ship One’s engines roaring to life.
“When he wakes up, we ask him what this is all about,” I said, fielding off any remaining questions by getting the ship’s power to a hundred percent and disengaging from the shipyard dock.
Before we knew it, we were hurtling out of one of the exit tunnels of the starport. Within a few seconds, we had entered low orbit space, just above Earth’s atmosphere. A battle was still being waged around us as we attempted to leave the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) of the space station. Hundreds of ships were dogfighting amongst each other. I turned to the others and gave them a nervous frown.
“Looks like we have some ducking and diving to do,” I said, maxing out the throttle and preparing myself for some evasive maneuvers.
Chapter Four
<
br /> Commander Korr was overlooking the holographic schematic map in front of him. The hologram was rising from his workstation, showing the position of his men on the battlefield. From the comfort of his commanding chair he could overlook a live feed of the battlefield, seeing how his men stacked up against the enemy forces of Earth. He was pleased with how his battalion were successfully fending off the advances coming from the well-prepared humans. The Commander knew that the humans were both efficient and deadly.
Korr wasn’t an idiot, and knew that if he and his men were going to overthrow Earth’s fleet, then they would need to think fast and act just as swiftly. Korr had a few ideas of his own. The Commander knew that his success on the battlefield totally relied on the efficiency of his own men. It was a give and take situation. His men needed to be just as prepared as Earth’s fleet. If they took their enemy for granted, then a surefire loss was most likely on the cards for them.
And war is very much a game of cards. A lot of the time, war is likened to chess. And while chess is a game of strategic traits, war has other ingredients mixed into its proverbial deck. While chess is a static game of war fought between inanimate pieces, war is fought between organic life matter. And frankly speaking; the total objective of most wars is to annihilate the organic matter that stands in the aggressor’s way.
So as Commander Korr stared at his holographic schematic in front of him, he thought of the various ways that his men could succeed in the forthcoming battle that was looming ever so near. The Commander made sure that he and his men were not ill-prepared and that they had a few aces up their sleeves. And just like war was not only a game of chess, but a game of cards, the ace that the Commander had up his sleeve was the dark horse in this escapade.
He just needed to know when to use it.
In poker, it is wise to use a dark horse or wildcard straightaway. For it is a turn-based game. But unfortunately for Commander Korr and his Annex Rebel Fleet, this wasn’t Civilization the video game. There were no turns, and diplomacy was not an option. There was no negotiating with these people. For they had sullied the human name, and the history that came with it. And in Commander Korr’s mind, they had to pay for their sins.
Destroyer of Worlds (Alpha Ship One Book 2) Page 4
