Galactic Defenders- Endurance

by Michael Mishoe

  ​“I am not a member of the Ribiyar species. It may be difficult to believe, and a complicated story, but I am Jack Vade, former captain of the U.S.S. Atlanta.” Jack knew his argument was unlikely to convince him, but he had to at least try to come to a peaceful solution. He didn’t want the mission to end in disaster because of him being attacked by a person who mistakenly thought that he was part of the robotic invaders, though it was admittedly understandable, given his appearance.

  ​The snake-person chuckled. “It doesn’t look that way to me, pal. And since you told me your name, I might as well let you in on mine. I, am the Dark Serpent: Ribiyar Slayer. Or at least they will call me that soon, after I finish off you, and the rest of your kind.” The Dark Serpent grabbed a sword handle from his belt and pressed a button on the handle, and a dark reddish-purple energy blade surged to life on it. The Serpent swung the blade and Jack leaned backwards to dodge the attack. The blade flew over top of him, missing by inches. Jack straightened himself and fired his right V-gun, but the Serpent was nowhere in sight, and the blast shot through the empty air and onto a tree trunk, burning a hole deep into it.

  ​“You cannot fight what you cannot see,” Jack heard the Serpent’s voice echo through the trees, staying out of sight. “This isn’t my first rodeo, and I don’t like losing, especially to aliens.” Knowing the Dark Serpent may be too much for him to handle alone, he activated his internal radio and contacted the landing party.

  ​“Jack to landing party. I am under attack and require immediate assistance. Do you read me?” The only response Jack received was ear-splitting static, meaning the Dark Serpent was probably jamming any communication signals that he might try to send out. As he visually searched the trees for any movement that could indicate the Serpent’s whereabouts, he was suddenly barraged from behind by energy blasts coming from the tree tops, battering the armor on his back. Acting quickly, Jack jumped behind a tree as he fired back at where the energy blasts came from, but he was unable to score any hits on the Dark Serpent. Jack considered producing another EMP, but as his systems were still recalibrating from the last pulse, he thought it best not to risk crippling himself in an effort to find the Serpent. He instead launched the Recon stored in his arm, and the drone ascended into the tops of the tress, and began to rapidly fire laser beams through the trees, attempting to blindly hit the Serpent through his camouflage. Another dark green energy blast soared through the air and reduced Recon to pieces, but Jack managed to quickly fire at where the blast came from. Jack managed to hit the Dark Serpent, and his form materialized as the stealth device continued to try to conceal him.

  ​With his cover blown, the Dark Serpent deactivated the stealth suit, aimed his arms at Jack, and fired the two blasters equipped on his arms. Jack jumped out from behind the tree, and as he moved to a new place to find cover, he quickly deployed and fired his Laser Cannon at the branch the Serpent stood on, slicing it in half. As the branch fell, the Dark Serpent jumped off the branch and landed on his feet at the base of the tree. As the Serpent straightened himself, a tan metallic tail with diamond-shaped green patterns on it, uncoiled off his back. The tail had three claw-like devices at the end of it, clasped together to make a very sharp, deadly spear to use against him.

  ​“Time to show you the sting of the Serpent!” The Dark Serpent grabbed the sword handle from his belt, and reactivated it, but the claws at the end of the tail opened, and he placed the sword in the claws. The claws latched onto the Phantom Blade, giving the tail a deadly enhancement. The Serpent jumped in the air and lunged at Jack. Jack jumped backwards right as the sword dived into the dirt that he had been standing on moments earlier.

  ​The Serpent removed the sword out of the dirt and swung his tail-sword at Jack’s direction. The energy blade flew off the handle and soared toward him. Jack dived right to dodge the blade, but the blade sliced the top of his right arm, leaving a nine-inch long gash in his armor and exposing the circuitry beneath. Jack aimed his right V-gun at the Dark Serpent, but when he tried to fire the weapon, it merely sparked and produced a small puff of smoke, having been sliced in half by the Phantom Blade. Jack deactivated it and stored it in his arm, while he deployed the V-gun in his left arm, and then fired it at the Dark Serpent. The V-gun produced its motorcycle engine revving sound right as the weapon discharged its energy, and the noise caused several birds nearby to flee the area. The Serpent dogged the blast, and then charged toward Jack, his tail-sword slinging more energy blades toward him. Jack jumped away from the path of the projectiles, but three of the blades sliced through his back as they flew past him, creating several deep gashes in his back. Struggling to maintain his balance in spite of his damaged systems, Jack turned to fire back at the Dark Serpent, but he was no longer in front of him. A powerful energy blast from behind propelled him into the base of a palm tree, and the impact with the tree jarred his internal components which caused many of his systems to freeze, effectively paralyzing him as his systems readjusted. While Jack desperately tried to regain his motor functions, the Dark Serpent grabbed him and rested his back against the tree. Though his vison was blurred from the damage he had received, and the effects of the reboot in progress, he saw the Dark Serpent raise his tail-sword into the air and position it high above Jack’s chest.

  ​“You were a worthy adversary, alien. It’s almost a shame to end our little event. But alas, this is where you meet your demise. And now, my Phantom Blade tastes the blood of its first kill.” The tail-sword thrusted downward, the blade eager to finish off its prey.

  Chapter 16

  Date: July 9, 2132.

  Location: Unnamed island in the Atlantic Ocean.

  ​Just as the Phantom Blade was about to plunge into Jack, a voice echoed through the air, and the blade halted mere centimeters from Jack’s chest.

  ​“Victor, stop!” Jack slowly turned his head to see several of the Atlanta’s crew, among them Chief Lexton and Doctor McGriffen, along with a small group of officers he hadn’t seen before, approach the two of them. The tail rested on the ground besides Jack, and then slithered toward the Serpent, whose real name was apparently Victor. While the tail recoiled on his back, Victor bent down, plucked the Phantom Blade from his tail, deactivated it, and attached the handle to his belt. The officer who had stopped Victor from killing Jack stepped close to the Serpent, clearly more than a little upset with him.

  ​“Victor, I told you to stay with the group. What were you thinking, running into the woods like that?”

  ​“Forgive me, ‘sir’, but we all saw those fighters land in the trees when we got on the island, and my equipment picked up his energy signature once we began moving through the trees,” Victor said, pointing at Jack, who still hadn’t moved from his spot by the tree, “and I thought that he might be a Ribiyar reporting us to his superiors. If I was correct, we could have been surrounded and captured by the Ribiyar by now. Which is why I didn’t wait to get your permission before I left the group to engage him.”

  ​The officer exhaled deeply, still frustrated at Victor, but Jack saw that he found a small, yet rebellious, amount of wisdom in his actions. “All right. But from now on, I need you to report your findings and wait for my orders before you do something like that again. Understood?”

  ​“Very well, ‘sir’. What are your orders now, Lieutenant Oakland?” Oakland. The name echoed strongly through his battered memory as Jack who the officer was. Otlin Oakland, always insisting others call him by his preferred name Olo in place of his unusual given name, had served with Jack aboard the U.S.S. Charger, which he had been stationed on before he had risen to the rank of captain. Olo had been a remarkable officer aboard the Charger, and he and Jack had become close friends over the year they had served aboard the ship with each other. Though he had tried to keep in touch with Olo as much as he could while Jack progressed with his military career, he and Olo had fallen out of contact with each other as the years passed by, so it had been almost a year and a half since the last time
Jack had talked to him. Though he wanted to reunite with his friend and tell Olo who he was, he needed to stay focused on the mission and wait for the proper time to inform him, as Jack’s condition would be a great shock to Oakland and it would take time to adjust.

  ​Olo turned toward the rest of the officers in his group. “We need to help these officers to get supplies for the crew on their ship,” he said, addressing the Atlanta’s crew. “But first, we need to continue searching the island for any sign of Ribiyar, and we still have a lot more ground to cover.” As Olo began to give instructions to the officers, Jack’s systems finally succeeded in restoring his motor functions, and he gradually felt control of his arms and legs return. Slowly, Jack began to stand up, a somewhat difficult task as his systems still recalibrating from the impact with the tree and the damage received during the battle. Chief Lexton hurried over to Jack and helped steady him as he tried to stand.

  ​“Jack, are you all right? You took quite a beating from the looks of it,” Chief Lexton said as she moved under his left arm to help him stand, and as she glanced over the gashes in his armor.

  ​“My condition is not optimal, Chief Lexton, but I can continue on with my task. My systems are bypassing damaged components, and I’ll be able to function well enough until we get back to the ship.” Jack moved his arm out of Lexton’s support, and though he nearly fell, he managed to stay upright as Olo walked toward him.

  ​“I apologize for Victor’s actions, soldier,” Olo said as he glanced toward Victor, who didn’t look the least bit sorry for attacking Jack, with his smug grin on his face. “I didn’t think anyone would be out here on this remote island, certainly not anyone wearing battle armor like yours.”

  ​Jack was about to respond when a small, triangular-shaped device fell from the sky in the middle of the group. The device had Ribiyar markings inscribed all over its surface, and like almost everything else seen by the species, the device was colored in a shiny silver coating. Jack immediately recognized the device from the information he had reviewed in the Ribiyar ship’s computer, which identified it as a wide-radius explosive. Acting quickly, Jack deployed Recon from his right arm, which had automatically been fabricated when the other drone had been destroyed, and the drone latched onto the explosive device and soared high into the air as fast as its engines could manage. A large explosion erupted in the sky, destroying yet another of his drones, and the force of the blast threw many officers to the ground as they covered their ears. Jack, who had managed to remain standing, scanned the surrounding area for the Ribiyar who had thrown the explosive, when behind them, a Ribiyar jumped out of the trees and fired at them as he ran toward the group of officers. The alien quickly shot down three of the officers from Olo’s ship, but before he could kill more, Victor grabbed his Phantom Blade, activated it, and flung several energy blades toward the alien, who was sliced into pieces and fell to the ground in a pile of sparking scrap metal.

  ​“I am grateful you were not that aggressive when you faced me,” Jack grimly remarked as he continued to scan the area, attempting different scanning methods as attempted to circumvent whatever techniques the Ribiyar were using to shield them from his sensors.

  ​“I admit, I was toying with you for most of the fight,” Victor said as he attached the Phantom Blade onto his tail. “It was my first time I could try out most of my toys in action.”

  ​Behind Jack, Doctor McGriffen feverously attempted to tend to the officers who had been shot by the Ribiyar. After a minute of performing emergency procedures to the officers, the doctor stood up and said, “I am sorry, Lieutenant Oakland, but their wounds were too severe. There was nothing I could do for them.”

  ​Olo grimaced, greatly pained that more people had been added to the long list of casualties in this war, and while they were under his watch. “They didn’t deserve to die like this. Now that we now the Ribiyar are here, we have to send to signal the Ocean-Walker and then get off this island, before we’re ambushed again.” Olo quickly pulled a small trigger shaped device, removed a cap covering the top, and pressed the button within. A light on the trigger began blinking green, signaling the signal was beginning transmitted. Turning to Jack, he said, “Soldier, can you detect any more Ribiyar in the area?”

  ​“My scans do not show any in the vicinity, but I was unable to detect him as well,” Jack said, pointing at the remains of the Ribiyar attacker. “They are likely somehow masking themselves from my sensors. I am contacting the drones accompanying the officers from my ship and instructing them to perform a visual search of the area.”

  ​“What we need to do is to head back to our ship, the Ocean-Walker. We are too exposed out here, and we only have about ten minutes before they begin bombing the island.” Olo turned his head to the thick vegetation surrounding them. “It’s going to be a tough journey though, and it will be even more difficult if the Ribiyar find us and decide to shoot us down, which they probably will.”

  ​Chief Lexton stepped forward. “I may have a better plan, sir. We have several Ribiyar fighters that we used to get here. We can use them to travel to your ship. It would be a lot faster than trying to traverse through the island to get there. Jack, can you control the fighters from here?” He attempted to connect with the computer systems in the fighters, and though the connection was weakened from his distance from the ships, he was successfully able to gain control of all the fighters.

  ​“I have established the connection with the shuttles. While I prepare the ships for takeoff, I will need you to inform the officers guarding them to come aboard as soon as possible.” Chief Lexton contacted the officers stationed by the fighters, and a minute later, all the drones and personnel from that group were aboard. Lexton informed Jack that they were ready, and he sealed the fighters boarding ramps and activated their launch thrusters. Once they were in the air, the ships began flying toward them.

  ​“Chief Lexton, there is a problem. The vegetation is too thick in this area. I cannot find a landing site for the fighters with all the trees around. We have to find somewhere where there is a big enough clearing for the ships to land.”

  ​“Should we go back to the clearing where we landed?” Doctor McGriffen asked.

  ​“Negative.” Jack reported. He had been monitoring the video footage the Recon Drones sent him as they searched through the island for Ribiyar, and many of the drones’ footage showed a great number of Ribiyar warriors charging through the landing site, heading toward him and the others, right before the aliens shot the drones out of the sky. “There are Ribiyar traveling through our landing site, and they are currently heading our direction. The closest landing site that I can see is that hill.” Jack said, pointing to the mound near the center of the island he had been traveling towards. “Chief Lexton, while I give the fighters their new heading, you need to inform the other search parties to make way to the hill as quickly as they can.”

  ​“I’m on it.” Lexton grabbed her radio and contacted the remaining search party from the Atlanta’s crew. “Search party two, do you copy? You must head to the mountain at once! Repeat, head to the mountain as fast as you can!”

  ​“Acknowledged, search party one,” a male officer responded. “We are heading for-,” on the radio, alien weapon blasters could be heard firing at the search party. “Search party one, we are under attack! Repeat, we are under-” The radio transmission cut off abruptly, followed by empty static. The other two search parties did not answer Lexton’s calls, and Jack was unable to detect the Recon Drones that were assigned to the groups, which likely meant that both groups had been attacked, and subsequently killed, as well.

  ​“Lieutenant Olo, do you have any other search parties in these woods?” Chief Lexton asked, stunned from the death of her crewmates. “They are likely in grave danger as well.”

  ​“No. My search party is, essentially, bait for the Ribiyar. In the event that they showed themselves, which they obviously have, and after I sent the signal of inhabitation, which I did
a few moments ago, we were given only a few minutes to return to our ship before it launches a massive bombardment on the island to take the Ribiyar out. We have to get to the mountain, before the ship starts to open fire on this place.”

  ​“If you were planning to attack when you saw signs of Ribiyar inhabitation, why didn’t your ship attack the island when you saw our fighters approach the island?” Jack asked after he finished giving the fighters their new landing site.

  ​“We still wanted to see if you were alone on the island,” Olo responded. “If you were, we wanted to attempt to overpower you and try to retrieve whatever technology we could from the fighters.”

  ​“Could we use the fighters to attack the Ribiyar?” One of the officers from Olo’s group asked. “That might buy us some time as we make the run to the landing site.”

  ​“That… could work,” Olo replied, sounding surprised that he hadn’t thought of that himself. “Send enough to create a big enough commotion but leave us enough to travel without being packed in like a can of sardines.” Jack quickly gave the fighters new instructions, again, and sent four of the seven fighters, who weren’t inhabited by the Atlanta’s crew, to attack the Ribiyar chasing them across the island. “Come on, we need to get moving!” Olo said as he began to quickly run toward the mountain, with both his and the Atlanta’s search party following him. Jack ran alongside Chief Lexton and the other members in her search group as they quickly made their way to the landing site. As they traveled, Jack continued to give flight instructions to the fighters to dodge the Ribiyar’s energy weapons, but the Ribiyar somehow still managed to shoot down the ships. One of the fighters had already been shot down, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before the Ribiyar were able to destroy the other three. It was then that Jack made a decision, one that may save the rest of the officers, but may also cost him his life in the process. As he continued running by her, he said, “Chief Lexton, I am going to stay behind, and hold off the Ribiyar.”