Kason moved past Nevlen and behind a metal blast shield, used for larger shuttle craft upon departing the pad area.
He placed Alon’s body down.
Nevlen followed behind and knelt down next to the Keeper. He placed his fingers to Alon’s neck.
Kason grabbed his arm and moved it away.
Nevlen looked up at Kason.
“He’s gone, Nevlen,” Kason said.
Nevlen’s expression went white as he slumped down next to the dead Keeper.
Kason’s eyes blazed at Nevlen and Nevlen could feel the anger of the Reaver go right through him.
Nevlen waited for Kason’s blade to meet his throat, a death he had earned, he thought; but, none came, as Kason already returned to his men and the fire fight for their lives.
∞∞∞
High above the planet, the Orion’s Rage remained docked to the Kryth station.
Droe Temin was in the command chair. “Kansec, open a line to Major Danchal,” she ordered.
“Connected to coms.”
“Major Danchal, you’re clear for evac.”
The sound of engines firing filled the hangar bay, but the constellation camouflage screen showed no signs of a ship ramping up as the Mercador approached the hangar shield cloaked and undetectable.
“Copy that. Heading to extraction point,” Major Danchal replied.
The Mercador headed out of the Orion’s Rage hangar, becoming visible for the briefest of moments, as the constellation camouflage passed through the bay shield before going back into her invisible shroud.
“The Kryth are threatening to open fire on us if we leave our position,” Kansec said from his bridge seat.
Droe smiled. “Let them take their best shots. Proceed to the planet. Shields at maximum.”
The Orion’s Rage undocked from the Kryth station.
The great ship moved past, heading towards the planet, as a barrage of gun turrets instantaneously opened fire on the humans’ departing vessel.
Soon the second station, off to the right of the ship, began opening a volley of intense bombardment towards the Rage.
Droe looked on as the space between the stations, flashed against the Rage’s shields.
The great ship continued at flank speed towards the planet, ignoring the mass of incoming turret bolts as the shields absorbed their destructive power.
Droe’s mind was on the rescue at hand and getting everyone off the planet’s surface.
The imagery flashed in her head of what could have happened down there during the conference.
Was it an ambush? How many casualties?
Though she was concerned with everyone’s safety, her mind was on one in particular, Kason. I hope he’s alright, she thought.
Data Cell 26
The human delegation had entrenched themselves behind the large blast shield on the landing pad.
The pad door began to buckle as the group prepared for the assault from the horde of Kryth about to come pouring through.
The Kryth weapons’ fire was silenced for the briefest of moments behind the door before two massive explosions erupted, blowing the pad door outward, sending it over the landing pad side.
Fire raced through the opening before being sucked back into the hallway the Kryth were attempting to breach.
Kason’s men readied their weapons on the open door front.
Smoke billowed out along with the intermingled screams of dying Kryth soldiers.
Kason knew what had happened to the door. The two Reavers gave their lives, as the Kryth over-took them, by detonating themselves, now giving precious time for the group.
Kason had no time to grieve as new plasma bolts flashed down from above. Three levels up, on another landing pad, Kryth soldiers began raining down plasma.
Kason’s team returned fire up towards the platform. They now had two points of contact.
Commander Parejas and Nevlen fired at the door the Kryth were now starting to come through.
“Mercador, we have a hot landing zone. Prepare sweep, over,” Parejas radioed.
The response came quick from the ship. “Copy that. Evac zone hot, beginning sweep. Keep your butts in their positions,” Major Danchal replied.
Mass driver fire rained down from the Mercador’s twin rotary guns.
The upper platform of Kryth soldiers was shattered as the solid mass of rounds impacted.
The beautiful marble structure fell in smoke, pouring chunks along the building’s façade.
Another barrage of cannon fire came from the Mercador, blowing through and around the open door frame, shredding the entrance and riddling it with hundreds of fist-sized holes.
Shards of the building and Kryth soldiers splintered, showering the pad with fiery hot debris.
The Mercador came in, turning a hundred and eighty degrees with her rear ramp down, right above the pad.
Kason signaled to move as the group ran for the ramp.
Kason was last, with Alon’s body. He passed it to the other Reavers who were already onboard.
“Everyone is on! Get us out of here!” Commander Parejas ordered.
The Mercador’s engines roared as the assault craft left the pad just before four massive energy blasts impacted right where the ship had been.
“We have fighters coming in. Hold on!” Major Danchal said.
The Mercador streaked upward towards the clouds as four Kryth Tornkeen fighters gave chase.
“Orion’s command, breaking atmosphere in two,” the major said over coms.
Explosions rippled behind the Mercador as the Kryth fighters closed in. Another round impacted much closer, jarring the ship to its side.
The group was tossed around within, trying to strap themselves into their seat harnesses.
Another blast hit the side of the ship, sending Alon’s body rolling across the cargo hold as everyone braced from the impact.
Nevlen detached himself before Kason could approach. He stumbled to the body, lifted it, and strapped it in a seat.
Nevlen gave a brief nod to Kason, who turned away to find his own seat, ignoring him.
Nevlen looked at Alon’s lifeless body and blamed himself for the unfolding events. If he had just rescued the Reavers on Mentabak 3, Alon might still be alive, along with all the other men who lost their lives today.
Now empty inside, Nevlen strapped himself in. He wished it to all be over.
Several blasts hit the Mercador again.
The ship’s shields waned under the barrage.
“Shields are dropping fast. Down to fifteen percent, Orion command. Need a little help here!” Chion yelled.
The Kryth fighters drew ever closer, readying their next barrage.
The Mercador streaked upward, breaching cloud layer after cloud layer, struggling to break the atmosphere and be in the safety of the Orion’s Rage hangar bay.
The Kryth fighters fired their weapons; two struck the side engine, piercing through the last of the shields. Sparks and metal flew from the Mercador’s side trailing smoke and debris.
The cloud bank in front of the Mercador glowed blue before turning into a blinding flash of light. A large energy beam pierced down, past the Mercador, enveloping the Kryth fighters in its wake.
The beamed impacted the Kryth fighters, incasing them in a massive fireball as the ships were incinerated on contact.
A voice came over coms. “Sorry for the coms delay, Mercador,” Droe said.
“That’s okay Orion’s Rage; we will take the delay for the support anytime,” Major Chion replied.
The Mercador broke the atmosphere and entered space leaving the glowing charged cloud bank behind.
“Landing bay is ready for your arrival,” Droe said.
The Mercador approached the rear of the great ship as the Rage turned back towards the stations, using her size as a barrier for the limping gun-ship and her crew.
The hangar bay approached as the Mercador entered the bay shield, touching down on the deck.
M
ajor Chion radioed their arrival.
“We have them,” said Kansec.
“Plot course for the Mydian system. And take those turrets out . . . They’re beginning to annoy me,” Droe ordered.
She sat back in the command chair and prepared for their escape.
The Orion’s Rage moved at flank speed heading back between the two stations, which continued to fire at her. The barrage of hundreds of bolts impacted her shields as she passed.
“Outer shields are at eighty-seven percent. I’m preparing to engage enemy turrets,” Kansec replied.
Just as the Rage was between the stations, a strategic placement of ion bolts targeted and fired at each enemy turret.
Twenty shots blazed off from the Rage’s gun batteries.
The rounds were incased in an ion field. Upon making impact with the stations’ force fields, the Kryth shields absorbed the ion shielding but the rounds passed through unscathed.
Each round found its target. The turrets on each station bubbled in an explosion, marking each in a fiery pin-pointed blob of wreckage.
The Orion’s Rage moved past the stations, which now fell silent.
“Commander, we have two Kryth Exendoth destroyers approaching. They just jumped into the system and are closing fast,” Kansec yelled.
“Fire two ion waves, one per ship, followed by four Torcon torpedoes, two per ship,” Droe ordered.
“Yield type, Commander?”
“Cast nuclear. . . twenty percent. . . fire!”
Two massive ion beams left the front of the Orion’s Rage for their targets, followed by the four massive Torcon torpedoes coming out of their horizontal launch tubes.
The ion beams tagged each Kryth ship, causing the shields to collapse as the torpedoes streaked in from behind, leaving thin white contrails in their wake.
∞∞∞
The control bridge inside one of the Exendoth destroyers was flashing lights and warnings.
A Kryth officer seated near a forward-viewing window relayed the information to his captain.
“Shields have dropped but are recovering, now back to forty percent. Four inbound sub-light weapons on approach bearing 2-4-7. Impact in fifteen seconds. Orders, sir?”
The captain was engaged in the readouts in front of him.
“Have defense batteries engage all inbounds. Prepare to fire all forward cannons on the humans’ ship, on my mark,” the captain ordered to his crew.
“Orders received. Activating defenses, preparing cannons.”
The Kryth destroyer opened up with a barrage of defensive fire towards the incoming torpedoes from the humans’ ship.
Just as the weapons’ fire met the torpedoes, the torpedoes shattered apart into ten smaller projectiles, each zigzagging through space towards the destroyers.
The defense batteries couldn’t target the changing courses of the errant armaments.
It was too late.
Each missile found their objectives, impacting upon the Kryth destroyers. Dozens of massive circular explosions appeared over each destroyer’s hull.
The rippling of fire covered the entire length of each ship, as the shock waves tore apart one destroyer, sending crackling energy coursing through the two now drifting sections.
The second destroyer listed itself, as the inside of the ship flickered, one flash after the next before exploding and dispersing to the vacuum of space.
The Orion’s Rage raced past the debris of her targets. Her massive engines glowed bright and vanished as the great ship jumped out of the system.
Data Cell 27
The acrid smell assailed Lintorth’s nostrils. He was becoming far too familiar with the stench of close quarters’ combat with these humans. The smoke and odors filtered through the blackened and destroyed hallway towards landing pad seven.
Lintorth Sol was looking down the corridor at the littered bodies of sixty Kryth Mahr soldiers, all torn asunder.
He stepped over and around chunks of armor and flesh.
He halted at the mangled doorframe near the landing pad.
The inner walls, ceiling, and floor had been smashed inward with great force as two small craters marked the center of the doorframe. Pieces of armor, not Kryth, also lay strewn throughout the hallway. No doubt the remains of the armored enemies they were assailing, Lintorth thought.
Two against sixty, the unwelcomed thought entered Lintorth’s mind but did not surprise him.
He had seen a similar scene onboard Dalyth Point, all at the hands of these black armored warriors. A cost he knew had to be forfeited for the sake of the Domain. He just desired more of the enemy to lay here than that of his own.
The enemy at his feet had detonated themselves after a fierce firefight with numbers not in their favor. Drawing the Kryth in close, they assured their comrades’ survival with their sacrifice.
Lintorth felt a kindred spirit with such combatants.
His thought was interrupted.
A stumble sound came from behind. Voskal Lat floundered over the piles of Kryth bodies as he approached Lintorth.
“I just arrived. Did we get them?” Voskal asked.
Lintorth just stood looking over the broken scattered armor of the Reavers.
Voskal wasn’t sure if Lintorth had heard him.
“What happened here?” he questioned again.
“Let this be a reminder to you, my friend. Our enemy is to be respected, as once again the many Kryth bodies attest to.”
“But we do have them on the run and Sontar did capture one,” Voskal replied.
“Do we have them on the run? I do wish I shared your enthusiasm, Voskal Lat. Sontar may have captured one, but there is no telling how many await the call of battle against us.”
Lintorth’s eyes narrowed. “We postponed the inevitable today. This battle was sparked by the recklessness of arrogant fools within the Domain, including those fortunate enough to be standing here being counted among the living.”
Voskal knew his place. This was not the time to question the events of things yet to come.
“The spy services are always at your disposal, Lintorth. We stand by at your request,” Voskal said.
Lintorth stared past the contorted door frame out into the darkness of night.
“I will call for you in Dranneous, my friend . . . when the time is right. Now go,” Lintorth ordered.
Voskal Lat nodded and returned down the hallway, overstepping the fallen.
Lintorth stepped outside onto the landing pad.
Through the darkness came a hooded black-robed figure. The individual approached and stopped before Lintorth.
“Have you done as I asked?” Lintorth questioned.
A female voice spoke, “I have. The tracking residue was placed on the humans’ ship docking port.”
“Now, can you do as you say, Kasaya?”
“Yes, I will be able to track the humans and lead you right to them.”
Lintorth smiled. “Your services are recognized by the Domain and most appreciated by myself. Find out where they hide and your future will rest by my side.”
The hooded figure nodded and turned, vanishing into the darkness from where she had appeared.
Lintorth turned and walked back off the pad, back through the charred remnants of the hallway.
He stopped at the sight of bodies around him. He knew what type of warrior these humans were. Vengeful ones.
These armored soldiers must have looked upon every engagement with the Kryth with extreme prejudice, a xenophobic cleansing of sorts, Lintorth thought.
For the Lore Archives had shed light on a mystery he now wished was a dream, a horrible nightmare to awaken from and be done with.
Lintorth surmised that for the last 267 moons the humans must have been planning their vindictive attack. He knew this all too well.
The Kryth were outmatched in each encounter, starting in Sol. The humans had been watching, learning about their enemy and peeking around every corner in every system for all those mo
ons, waiting for the opportune moment to unleash their Retribution. This made them dangerous, for they had all those moons of intelligence on the Kryth.
Lintorth thought of this loss of time, for the Kryth had nothing except dead soldiers, lost military holdings, and unyielding questions.
Lintorth swore to himself.
He would never again be caught off-guard by the unknown. He would take the fight to this new enemy, and it would be he who would lead the Domain to their finest victory.
Lintorth made his last few steps out of the ravaged hallway and around the corner; his crimson red cape flowed past and out of sight.
Data Cell 28
The sash was drenched with many types of blood, not just Ramek’s this time, Kason thought.
Kason sat in the Reaver ready room holding the red regimental cloth in hand, now darkened with different hues of red.
Lying next to him were two other sashes, belonging to Reavers Markon, and Danik. Three sashes. Three lost Reavers and no knowledge of Jens or Ramek.
Kason glanced up at the four empty helmet posts in the room. Each adorned by each man’s unique mask.
How could this have happened? Kason questioned himself.
His anger, though subdued, was searing his heart.
His thoughts drifted from his Reavers to Nevlen, each turn of reflection bringing a final solution to his resentment of the man, while Alon’s memory added the final sinews of hatred.
Kason knew he would regret any action carried out against Nevlen, but it helped calm the disgust he now felt.
The thing that broke his thought was the beep of the coms system.
“Captain Bender, you’re requested on the bridge,” the computer voice said.
Kason was hollow inside.
He stood up, leaving Ramek’s sash alongside the others on the bench.
Before he exited, Alon once again entered his mind.
What would Alon do?
These losses are not acceptable. My friends are gone. I should have been there, and not allowed the shared missions with Nevlen’s team.
Kason cursed himself for this. This will not happen again.
Kason exited the ready room and walked down the causeway of banners.
Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga) Page 16
