The Warlord

by CJ Williams

  “I have the hammer,” she acknowledged. “Engaging in three…two…one.”

  This time the sun was at our backs and I could actually see sunlight reflecting off thousands of missiles as they shot away from our fighters. The sight gave me a momentary high. For a brief moment, I felt a glimmer of hope that we might actually win this battle.

  Unfortunately, the Bakkui responded with even more firepower. I could not imagine how many projectiles they threw at us. Thanks to Marian’s configurable defense, most of their warheads had no impact. They disintegrated against our forward shields leaving blistering streaks of white radiance.

  Our weapons hit against their force fields with better results. The shaped charge in our missile nosecones cut through Bakkui shields, opening the way for our nuclear warheads. One after another, their destroyers exploded in atomic fire.

  “Tell the Sajans to join up so they can take advantage of our shields.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “I don’t want to blow through the Bakkui like we did the Greys. There’s too many of them. If we get caught in the middle, they’ll eat us alive.”

  “Understood,” Marian replied.

  “But we’re a lot more maneuverable than they are, so keep us in a rolling scissors as we give ground. And split five hundred of our ships off to either side of the Bakkui’s main force to attack their flanks.”

  “Deploying now.”

  “Keep the Sajans and the rest of our force between the Bakkui and the Sajan homeworld. Don’t give them a direct shot at the planet.”

  I divided my attention back and forth between the tactical display and the viewing window. My fighters were inflicting steady loses on the Bakkui and the antiquated Sajans were doing their share. Their little carriages would dart forward, fire and then fall back behind our shields. It was like watching a flock of sparrows harass an eagle that wandered too close to their nesting ground. The Sajans couldn’t do a lot of damage but they were a distraction. When the Bakkui targeted the Sajans, it enhanced the effectiveness of my Reapers.

  Marian synchronized our shields with the Reapers, keeping them in a flat configuration oriented to the attack. The razor edge deflected everything the enemy threw at us. Working together we were holding the larger Bakkui force at bay, slugging it out one ship at a time. I lost track of time and looked at the ship’s clock but it didn’t mean anything to me. I hadn’t noticed when we first engaged. It was probably no more than ten minutes ago but it felt like hours.

  The tactical display showed we were making progress. The Bakkui numbers kept counting down. Ours were too, but not nearly as fast. Our flanking attack, however, was ineffectual. The enemy’s higher numbers let them dedicate enough firepower at those fighters to keep them on the defensive.

  “Tell our flankers to rejoin. They’ll do better with us than on their own.

  “Acknowledged.”

  Our outlying fighters began repositioning toward my main force. While maintaining a continuous stream of fire at the enemy, they approached the outward edge of our spread formation.

  Without warning a hundred Grey dreadnoughts came out of lightspeed and blasted through them, their arc-beams ripping my ships to shreds.

  “Chaff!” I shouted. “Everyone dump chaff!”

  I cursed at my own stupidity. The Greys had used a page out of my own playbook and I never saw it coming. I thought they were well on their way back to their own planet, but they had just extended away from the battle, and then turned around and caught us without warning. I was an idiot for letting that happen.

  The tactical display highlighted the cost of my hubris. The five hundred flankers that were rejoining had been cut in half. The Greys continued right through the solid wall of Reapers I had established, cutting us to pieces.

  In seconds, I had less than fifteen hundred fighters left. It was time to bug out toward the planet and rejoin. Maybe we could turn the tables once more.

  Before I could speak the Bakkui accelerated, their sheer numbers swarming all around my relatively miniscule fleet of spacecraft. If I called for a bug out now, they would send missiles right up our tailpipes.

  It was my worst-case scenario. Each one of my fighters, and all the Sajan forces were now engaged in dogfights. That’s okay if you’re in a more advanced fighter than your opponent, and fighting one-on-one, but it’s suicide when the battle is one versus many. Just when you think you’re taking a shot at the bad guy in front, there are two more sneaking up right behind you, already pulling the trigger.

  Marian was doing everything she could, spinning and twisting crazily. She was jinking left and right, up and down, firing like mad the entire time. But we were taking so many hits, the boundaries of our shields were illuminated like a pane of glass in front of a flame thrower. Marian constantly reoriented shields, but with missiles striking from all directions, it was inevitable that somebody would hit us broadside. And they did.

  Marian cut internal gravity and I bounced against the ceiling and then fell hard across the navigation console. The numbers of friendlies on the tactical display were counting down like a microwave timer and I was out of ideas.

  “Bug out to the Bakkui’s rear.” I said. “We’ll lose a lot, but maybe we can pull out enough to make another stand.”

  “Acknowledged. Message incoming, on speaker.”

  A familiar voice filled the bridge as I got to my feet. “All Sajan forces, withdraw from battle immediately. Alliance missiles are inbound.”

  “Elaine?” I shouted. “Is that you?”

  Her response was understandably curt. “Silence on this frequency!”

  I shouted at Marian, “Order our forces to disengage upwards, perpendicular to the battle!” That was the shortest route to get out of the line of incoming fire.

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Same goes for the Sajans!”

  “I understood that to be the case,” Marian said calmly.

  I needed to follow her example; I was getting way too worked up in the middle of the fight. But we had come so close to getting wiped out that it was difficult to not be excited by the sudden arrival of the cavalry.

  Our escape maneuver caught the Bakkui by surprise. Very few of them followed as we rocketed upward. The Greys, who had just watched me pull one stunt after another were not so slow. I could still see their arc-beams lancing out.

  “Keep firing chaff!” I said.

  “Acknowledged,” Marian replied, spinning the ship to pump missile after missile at the pursuing Greys. As she did, I could see the battle below. The entire region of space around the battle area was lighting up like a fireworks display. Alliance missiles were taking their toll on the Bakkui. It was just the way I would have directed their fire. Nuclear warheads and as many as possible.

  “Have our forces concentrate on the Greys,” I said. “I want to shut down those arc-beams.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The tactical display showed the Bakkui and Greys repositioning. The Bakkui were taking notice of my fleet while the Greys moved toward the incoming Alliance forces. It wasn’t clear who was fighting who. I was afraid the Greys’ arc-beams might catch Elaine off guard.

  “Don’t let the Greys hit Elaine’s force,” I said. “Move to intercept and keep pumping out the chaff.”

  My fighters triangulated downwards, firing as we went. The Greys tried to hit Elaine with the arc-beams but our chaff was disrupting almost all of their shots. The beams lanced out and immediately dispersed into shattered electrical sparks, all of their energy spent.

  One of my fighters exploded unexpectedly, just as Marian said, “Warning! The Alliance forces just targeted one of our Reapers.”

  I should have seen that coming. Elaine had never seen anything like my Reapers and for all she knew they were a new model of Bakkui. The fog of war, etc., could certainly cause fratricide, but this was not helping any of us.

  “Elaine, this is King Lucas! You’re firing on my forces. Those unmanned fighters are mine. We’re s
upporting your fleet by taking out the Grey dreadnoughts! I’m sending you our identification code.”

  “Code sent,” Marian acknowledged. “The Alliance is not responding to my communication.”

  “Why not?” I demanded.

  “Unknown. I suspect it is because I do not have a First Family ID. You may recall that we had to take that out of the equation to get our army to respond to your authority.”

  “I don’t need a design lecture!” I shouted. “Send all that information to Elaine. Quickly!”

  “I am trying,” Marian assured me.

  All around me, my own fighters were disintegrating under the Alliance onslaught while we continued to fire on the Greys.

  “Have the Sajan forces relay for us,” I said.

  “I am attempting to contact the current Sajan commander. Unfortunately, their losses extend through several layers of command. Finding someone in with authority is proving difficult. They are essentially fighting as independent units. Standby.”

  “Put me through to Elaine!” I said. “Elaine! This is King Lucas. Acknowledge immediately.”

  Her reply shocked me. In a grim voice she said, “Whoever is calling, be advised your use of the King’s name is treason and will be dealt with as such.”

  “Elaine!” I shouted. “For God’s sake. I’m the one who promoted you when I relieved Grant from command. Don’t you recognize my voice?”

  “Standby,” she replied.

  Thank God! She had finally gotten a clue who was talking to her. In my condition, I could understand how difficult accepting my authority would be, especially in battle against the Bakkui. But if she would just listen to me and verify what I said, she would discover it was really me.

  Her voice came back on the radio. “All Alliance and Sajan forces. Be advised that the Starfighter spacecraft claiming to be carrying King Lucas is unmanned. That ship is designated as hostile. Engage and kill with prejudice. General Cain out.”

  I got that feeling on the back of my neck. The one you get after a really bad day, when you suddenly realize things are about to get a whole lot worse.

  “Get us out of here,” I said to Marian. “Head back to Saja. We’ll try to work things out there. But I can’t explain our case if they blow us to kingdom come.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Marian spun the ship around and something kicked us right in the tail.

  Gravity went off and I slammed against the back wall of the bridge. If it wasn’t for my metallic constitution, it would have killed me. My body left an upside-down imprint in the metal bulkhead.

  “Gravity drives off line,” Marian said.

  “Do you have anything to keep us moving?” This was serious. Drifting in the middle of this four-way gunfight was suicide.

  “Minimal maneuvering drives. Fortunately, I had already accelerated toward the planet. If we are not destroyed in the meantime, we will eventually reach Saja. I can use my force fields for directional control once we enter the atmosphere.”

  For a brief moment, I thought of calling Elaine for help and then quickly discarded that idea. She didn’t sound in the listening mood at the moment. If we were lucky, no one would notice that we were barely functional.

  “Shut down all communications,” I told Marian.

  The tactical display was still active. Elaine’s force numbered over eight thousand spacecraft and she was managing the battle with canny aplomb. She put several ships around the remaining Sajans, protecting those brave lives as best she could. My Reapers were decimating the last of the Greys even as the Alliance was blowing us out of the sky.

  “How did she come up with so many warcraft?” I asked aloud. “Where did she get enough personnel?”

  Marian said, “The majority of her ships are unmanned, Your Majesty. It appears she adopted the same modus operandi as yourself. However, all the Alliance ships, even the unmanned ones, are broadcasting First Family identifications.”

  Elaine’s forces steadily whittled away at the Bakkui. A few minutes later, the last of my Reapers exploded and the twenty or so remaining Greys bugged out toward their own space, this time, I assumed, for good. The Bakkui, as was typical for them, fought to the last ship.

  By that time Marian and I were approaching Saja.

  “Maneuvering to enter the atmosphere,” she said. “We’re getting a call from Approach Control.”

  “Let them know who we are. Can we land at the palace?”

  “I’m afraid not, Your Majesty. Without gravity drives I am unable to make a spot landing. I can glide in using our shields as airfoils, but our final touchdown will be at a relatively high speed; in excess of two hundred miles an hour.”

  “All right, pick a farmer’s field or something similar. Make it close to the capital city if you can.”

  “That will not be difficult.”

  Elaine’s voice came over the speaker once more. “Approach control, did you just authorize atmospheric entry for that bogus Starfighter?”

  “Affirmative,” a male voice replied. “It is King Lucas.”

  “No,” Elaine said forcefully. “It is not. That is an unmanned spacecraft. Don’t worry. I will take care of it.”

  This was not good. “Get us down right now!” I shouted.

  “Acknowledged,” Marian replied nervously.

  Marian nosed over into a dive straight down. The planet filled the viewing window and the shields glowed a bright orange as molecules of nitrogen and oxygen shattered against it.

  “They are firing on us,” Marian said. “Small caliber only.”

  It appeared that Elaine didn’t want any collateral damage below. It would look bad if the Alliance debuted on Saja by wiping out a bunch of citizens from the falling debris of the king’s spaceship. She was shooting at us for effect only, but at this point I had no doubt she meant to pulverize the ship the second we landed. I had to get her attention before she did.

  “Make me a white flag,” I said heading off the bridge. “If I can just get a few seconds of her attention, maybe she’ll give us a chance to speak.”

  “Acknowledged,” Marian said. “It’s in the replicator bay near the entry hatch. You better hurry. And hang on!”

  I broke into a run and found the flag. I grabbed it up and ran to the entry hatch, ready to jump out the second we touched down.

  “Prepare for impact,” Marian called and then we hit.

  It wasn’t that bad. The internal gravity shielded me from any serious jostling but it was certainly a bumpy landing for a spacecraft that normally lands vertically and touches down as light as a feather.

  The door opened and I jumped onto the ground. We had landed in a modest river valley against the base of some foothills. Marian had plowed a deep furrow across the landscape. In the distance, the foothills rose into rugged mountains. I had no idea where on the planet we were, not that it mattered. During our descent, the emphasis had been on speed and avoiding getting shot out of the sky.

  I ran about thirty yards from my ship and began waving the flag over my head. I just wanted Elaine to see that it was a real person; that it was me. I didn’t think she would gun me down if I was standing there defenseless, displaying a flag of surrender.

  An ugly spaceship landed fifty yards away. It was the same model that Carrie used on Mauga when she kidnapped Annie. Was Annie on this ship? That didn’t seem plausible. Carrie would not have taken her into battle.

  No, I was sure that I was facing Elaine, the young woman I promoted over Grant Jefferies. She must have come straight from Haiyanas in pursuit of the Bakkui.

  A side door opened and a boarding ramp extended to the ground. A lone human male disembarked and stood there looking at me.

  Of course, I recognized him instantly. I saw that face every morning in the bathroom mirror. It was Lucas Blackburn, King of the First Family and by the grace of God, ruler over all of humanity.

  And he looked really pissed.

  I could tell because he was holding his favorite sidearm…my favori
te sidearm…the Colt 45. I had the same one strapped to my own hip. He pointed it in my direction and I literally headed for the hills.

  Marian was no use to me anymore. But then, maybe she was. “I need some Barbicans,” I shouted, ducking behind what little terrain there was as I ran. I heard a couple of shots and felt a tug on my left sleeve. How had this happened? While evading into the foothills I wondered how my counterpart came to be here.

  He obviously survived my attempt on his life back on the Grey planet. And did a good job keeping his existence from me. It all fell into place. He must have realized that the army was on my side and there was nothing he could do about it. He probably had Freddi make him a transport and headed back to Haiyanas. Since our two brains had the same thoughts, he didn’t have to worry about me taking care of Annie. She was my top priority. It gave him a chance to team up with Carrie and develop that subterfuge to spirit my wife away.

  That meant that by now Annie had to be aware that her human husband was still alive.

  That was a disappointment. She wasn’t likely to forgive me for trying to kill him. At least, not right away. In time, she would. She had already reconciled to living with me once, even as a mechanical replacement. If I could just rid the galaxy of this human Luke once more, somehow, I could get Annie back. With him gone, I was the only one left. It would take time, but I could wait. For all practical purposes, I was immortal.

  Another bullet ricocheted against a tree trunk. The wooden splinters bounced off my face.

  “Where are the Barbicans?” I shouted.

  There was no answer. I risked a look back and saw Luke’s ridiculous looking spacecraft firing on what was left of poor old Marian. My faithful ship exploded into a ball of flame. If Luke used his ship on me, it would be the end of the story. Fortunately, his ego was exactly as big as mine.

  The idiot was chasing me into the foothills. He thought he could finish this up close and personal and that gave me hope. He was flesh and blood, and I was a powerful and fast-moving machine. When the chips were down, I could outpace him easily. But that wasn’t my goal. If he wanted to settle his hand to hand, I was happy to oblige.