by Francis, Ron
"Maybe you can tell him that you are considering adhering to the Conglomerate demands, provided the Princess is returned immediately." Plonse called as he strode into the room. He had left his vacation to come back to Hyperia the moment he heard of the trouble and had just arrived." Tell him you will make a decision shortly, and station men in the sublevel, deleting the security log of their position. If it is Torav, he will want this Conglomerate dog, Greyside, to have this information as soon as possible. Then we may catch him in the act of treason and erase any doubt, Sire."
The King looked over at his dutiful friend and his young servant and replied, "That is an outstanding plan, Plonse, we will make it happen the next time Torav comes into my presence. After I bait the trap, I will ping both of your comms and then you will send the men into position to take him into custody if he is the traitor."
"It will be as you say, Your Highness." Plonse replied as he left with Soall to prepare the ruse they hoped would catch their traitor.
An hour later, Torav approached the King. "What news, My Liege?"
"Nothing yet, my friend. How are we doing in the search for the final traitor?"
"We have found no evidence of the remaining Conglomerate spy, my King. I will personally see that the search continues."
"Tell me, Torav, what should we do with this spy when we catch him?"
"I believe we should publicly execute the traitor, Your Highness, to discourage this sort of thing from ever happening again."
"Maybe you are right, my friend. In the meantime, I am seriously reconsidering the Conglomerate offer to return my daughter to me. I may have to give them what they want, I only wish to see my daughter again, Torav, does that make me week?"
"Not at all, it is completely understandable, Sire, I would wish the same if I were in your position."
"I will talk it over with the Queen and make a decision within the hour, my friend."
"I will leave you to it then, my King." He bowed as he left the King's presence, excited to finally have some good news to report to Greyside. He quickly made his way to the palace sublevels, unaware that there was a plan in place to capture him. He donned his robe and began to make his transmission. As soon as Admiral Greyside's face appeared on the screen, the transmission was cut and Torav was surrounded by Plonse and six palace guards.
Two of the King’s bodyguards stepped forward and grabbed Torav by the arm as the realization of what had just occurred hit him. Torav tried to break loose from their grip but could not. They brought him before King Dominus, and he could not bring himself to make eye contact with the angry ruler before him.
"What was the price, Torav? What was the price to betray my family?" When no answer came, the King yelled, "Take him to his cell, he will talk, eventually." As the threat hung heavy in the air, the guards began to drag Torav away. As he was being taken, he began to yell.
“You are making a huge mistake, Your Majesty, if you kill me, you will never see your daughter again. I can promise you that, Dominus,” he spat.
King Dominus struck Torav hard across the face as his anger rose. “All of this was your doing, the attempt on my wife, the abduction of my daughter, even the initial attack on Princess Rayelle? All of it was you? How could you do this to me? We were friends. I trusted you with everything."
"That was the point," Torav snidely responded as the royal guards were cuffing his hands.
The King responded, "I know you do not have my daughter. They escaped your man, and while they might not be safe yet, neither are they yours to bargain with. You will suffer greatly as you tell my men every last detail of what we need to know, and then you and your co-conspirators will be publicly executed, as you yourself have suggested.” He looked at Torav in disgust and yelled, “Take him away, Plonse.”
"How, how did you find out?" Torav yelled as the guards dragged him out of the throne room.
"Stop," the King cried. He walked up to Torav, smiled and replied, "It was Soall that figured it out. I guess he is more intelligent than you gave him credit for." He smiled knowing that Torav would curse the young page right up until he was executed. Dominus even planned to have Soall attend, just to make Torav's last moments that much more uncomfortable. He looked at his one-time friend in disgust and repeated, "Take him away!"
Torav continued to protest as Plonse and the King’s palace guard escorted him from the throne room. King Dominus looked at Soall and said, “You have done well, my friend. Hyperia owes you a great debt. As soon as you turn eighteen, you will officially become one of my royal advisors, and beginning today, your family is exempt from taxes for the rest of their lives. When my daughter is safely returned, you will be honored among the heroes that saved my family.” With that, he turned to leave. He was escorted out by his men and hurried back to his chambers to prepare his speech and see his wife.
An hour later, King Dominus was all over the vid news stations, and Soall suspected that it was not just being viewed in the Hyperian Sector. All of Hyperia watched the transmission as he was announcing for the first time the abduction of Princess Rayelle. He also announced the capture and scheduled executions of the traitors. Then things got interesting. King Dominus then went on to chronicle the Conglomerate’s involvement in everything that had happened over the last week and a half. He offered a ten million chron reward for Admiral Greyside to be brought to him alive, and then to top it off, King Dominus announced that if Princess Rayelle and Collette were not returned safely to Hyperia within forty-eight hours, that Hyperia would be declaring war on the Conglomerate and would show it no mercy. All of Hyperia was buzzing with the news.
______
Balinaz Superior watched the King of Hyperia’s vid conference over and over again. He couldn’t believe what King Dominus was accusing the Conglomerate of. Actually, he could believe it, he just didn’t want to. The King had specific details and names. He had put a price tag on Admiral Greyside’s head big enough where the Admiral would never be able to show his face in public again. Balinaz had been the leader of the Conglomerate for almost four years now, and during that time, he had managed to begin turning the tide of corruption. It was his most sincere hope that the Conglomerate would become a legitimate, honest, or at least semi-honest, government. This was the last thing the Conglomerate needed. A high ranking military official kidnapping the daughter of the most powerful man in the galaxy was going to end his quest to legitimatize his government very quickly. He had to contact King Dominus quickly to avoid war. As he waited on the transmission for King Dominus, he thought of the rumors and wondered if he should not send a fleet to Pandara to rescue the Hyperian royal family.
“What is the meaning of this, Balinaz?” The King boomed.
“I would like to offer my condolences and my sincere apologies, Your Majesty,” he stammered. “I promise you that I had no idea about what was happening with your family. Admiral Greyside was working alone; he was not under orders from our government.”
“I care nothing about that, my daughter is missing and it is your responsibility. Greyside is one of your top men. You are responsible for his actions.”
“Your Majesty, please let us at least try and be reasonable,” he began.
“Reasonable?” Dominus shouted. "Reasonable? My daughter has been missing for five days now. She currently being chased like a dog through the Pandaran jungle, and there has also been an attempt on my wife’s life. Do not speak to me about being reasonable. The only reason Zenith itself is not in flames right now is because I am awaiting the safe return of my daughter before I make that decision. We are at war.”
“Please, Your Majesty, I urge you not to declare war on us. I have been making great strides towards cleaning up our sector; war would erase all of that good work. War would be terrible for both of our people, Your Majesty. Please, I beg for restraint,” he was desperate to avoid this conflict. He knew he could not win, and even if he did, his sector would still lose.
“Until my family is returned to me and Greyside
is delivered to me for execution, there is nothing to talk about. Call off Greyside’s men, send the pirates working with him out of your sector and get my family back here safely, because I can promise you one thing: if my daughter is harmed in any way, Zenith will be destroyed whether you had anything to do with the abduction or not.”
______
Jesse didn’t think they were going to make it out of this jungle. Jaketh’s forces were closing in, and it looked like he and Captain Blade brought almost eighty men. Even with their advantageous position, he knew they could not defeat that many. As he was thinking about what Suzy would do without him, a ship flew low overhead and Jaketh’s men began firing on it. The ship made a second pass, strafing Jaketh and Blade’s forces before coming to a halt about one hundred-fifty meters behind them. Six ropes emerged from the side of the ship and six mercenaries slid down. They were followed by six more and followed again by six more. Jesse still wasn’t sure what to make of it when suddenly Reece yelled out “You’re a hard man to find, Colonel.” Jesse smiled as he began to think they might just survive this mess. Suddenly, enemy fire took out the ship. He watched the ship crash into the jungle a few hundred meters away, and he lost his smile.
“Don’t worry, my men are well armed. I had them stock up on weapons and ammo before we left the ship. At least now you have some reinforcements to fight alongside you,” Reece offered. "I’m pretty sure the Conglomerate soldiers didn’t see us disembark. And before you ask, the answer is yes, as soon as I picked up your tracker, I sent a transmission to the King. He knows where we are and he’s sending reinforcements now. Endeavor is only an hour and a half behind us, and she is loaded with another two dozen soldiers. The First Stryke was in orbit, but they were discovered and chased out by the Conglomerate Flotilla before we got here. Endeavor is going to land at a clearing twelve kilometers away if we don't contact them and tell them otherwise. We set that up as a precaution so we should probably start heading that way.”
“Thank you, Reece; you don’t know how badly we needed this. I’m not sure the King can get men to us in time, but I have an idea. It’s a long shot, but it might work. I need to get to the shuttle and see if communications still work. I’ll also see if the pilots have survived.”
“Hold on, Colonel,” Reece started as he pulled out a fresh battle suit jacket. “I thought you guys may have lost yours when you were captured, so I brought three extra jackets.”
“Great thinking, Reece. Zendar took mine as a souvenir when he captured me. Kimi gave hers to Rayelle and Josiah still has his, so we can give these to Collette and Kimi," he replied as he took the jacket from Reece. "Okay, I have to get to that ship. I need someone to go with me.”
“Yeah, I noticed you were injured,” Reece began.
“No, it’s not that. This jungle is dangerous. Make sure none of your men stray from the group. Also have Wassan brief you on what the death brush looks like.”
“Alright, Jesse,” he replied. “Hey, Xanu, go with Colonel Marcos back to the ship to see if the pilots survived and if the communications terminal is functional.”
“Yes, Colonel,” Xanu replied as Jesse raised an eyebrow.
“Colonel, huh,” he asked.
“The King made me a Colonel for this mission.” Reece laughed as Jesse and Xanu turned and made their way to the ship. Josiah had already positioned Reece’s men and they were dealing out some serious punishment to the Conglomerate-pirate strike force. Since the ship cut their numbers down substantially and they received an additional eighteen men, the situation was no longer hopeless. Reece still looked worried when he saw how haggard Jesse’s team looked. They needed to find a way out of this jungle fast. Having enough men to actually defend their advantageous position was helpful as once again Colonel Jaketh and Captain Blade were turned back in their efforts to capture the Princess and Jesse.
“There isss no way they have only eight men up there,” Blade commented as he called for another round of reinforcements.
“The ship that we destroyed must have brought them reinforcements. We will need a sizeable contingent if we still wish to capture the Princess.” Colonel Jaketh was also calling in reinforcements because now that there was a price on Admiral Greyside’s head, the only way any of them could come through this was to take the King’s daughter alive, so they would have a bargaining chip.
Jesse and Xanu reached the downed ship and noticed one of the pilots was dead and the other was trapped under some debris, but largely unhurt. He used Helga as a pry to get some leverage for him and Xanu to move the debris. Even as they were pushing on the staff, he felt the wound on his side open up again and he grimaced in pain. It took a few minutes, but Jesse and Xanu were finally able to free the pilot. He then looked to see if the communications terminal was still working. He was surprised and thankful to see that it was. He decided to make two quick transmissions.
______
Meanwhile, outside, the battle raged on. Colonel Jaketh and Captain Blade had to retreat and wait on more reinforcements. They really needed to call in some Razzers to knock out the resistance across the river, but they couldn’t for the same reason they couldn’t use grenades or explosives. They couldn’t chance hitting the princess. The only way they could successfully cross the river and win the battle without killing their target was through sheer numbers. They were willing to wait for that, even if it meant letting Marcos dig in a little more and set up some more surprises. He would run out of ideas eventually, and Colonel Jaketh knew he could wait him out.
Jesse had just finished letting the King know Reece’s ship was shot down. He let the King know that up until this point, his daughter only had a few bruises, and was otherwise unharmed. King Dominus was grateful, but Jesse could tell he was trying to keep the pain and concern out of his voice. Jesse thanked the King for sending Reece. He hoped Reece’s team would be able to turn the tide of the battle, but it seemed both the Conglomerate and the pirates had unlimited amounts of men to throw at them. Even if they made it to Endeavor, it was likely they would need some support getting away from Pandara. As positive as he tried to be, he stressed the necessity of reinforcements arriving quickly. King Dominus promised they would be there as soon as possible. He thanked him and ended the transmission.
His next transmission was to Ginderbar. “Hello, this is Colonel Jesse Marcos; I need to speak to Commander Enosal as soon as possible. It is an urgent matter.” There was no reply at first, and then as he was starting to speak again, a young voice answered.
“Chief of State Enosal is in a meeting with the Chairman of Kaldor, he will need to get back to you. Who shall I tell him is in need of assistance?”
Jesse replied as impatience filled his voice. “Listen, kid, I am a personal friend of your Chief of State. In fact, I’m the one that gave him the Sword of Targon which enabled him to become your Chief of State. I am also the man that saved Kaldor. I will be dead very soon if I don’t get some help. Please, interrupt him; tell him it’s Colonel Marcos. I promise you will not be punished.”
After a long moment, the young voice responded, I’ll see what I can do.”
Almost three minutes later, Jesse heard a familiar voice. “Hello, my friend, what can I do for you? Are you ready to call in one of the favors I owe you?”
“You owe me nothing, my friend,” he replied as blasterfire erupted outside the ship. “I do, however, need a favor.”
“Are you engaged in battle right now?” Enosal asked incredulously.
“In fact, I am,” he began. He went on to give his friend all of the harrowing details of the last several days. He told him how he saved the Queen, and then agreed to rescue the Princess. He talked about how they were stranded and that Endeavor was still an hour and a half away and they were at least seven hours away from additional reinforcements covering their rescue. “I know this is a long shot,” he admitted. “I was hoping you had some Battle Hammers in the area that could get here more quickly than the King’s forces. I don’t know how much
longer we can last. I understand if you don’t; like I said, this is a long shot.”
“Give me a moment to check on some things with my advisor,” Enosal’s image disappeared for almost four minutes. When his face reappeared, he was smiling. "It appears your long shot may yet pay off. I have twenty-four Battle Hammers that can reach Pandara in less than three hours, and it is a good thing; you look terrible. Do you think you can hold out that much longer?”
“We will have to, my friend. I will owe you big for this.”
“No, this will barely make us even. This one is on me. Now, do you know what my ships will be up against?” Enosal was hoping Jesse had some intel, but didn’t think he would given how long they had been on the ground.
“I am told by my friend Xanu that as of two hours ago, there were eight pirate ships and twelve Conglomerate ships in orbit.” After Jesse gave him the breakdown of the capital ships, Enosal wished them luck, let them know he would contact the King to alert him to Ginderbar’s involvement and then ended the transmission.
Xanu looked at Jesse in amazement. “How exactly is it that you made him Chief of State of Ginderbar?”
“One of the pieces of the Treasure of Ameteo was a special sword that would allow the wielder to unite the mercenary tribes of Ginderbar and claim leadership over them. I could have claimed leadership myself, but instead, I gave the sword to my friend Enosal, and now he is their leader.” As he was talking, he began to run back towards the battle with Xanu and the pilot behind him. “Wherever possible, run where I run. You don’t want to fall into the death brush, trust me.” When he reached the others, he told them about the Battle Hammers, and how they would only need to hold on another three hours. Jesse, Josiah and Reece began to devise a plan to get to the clearing where Endeavor would be meeting them when suddenly Jaketh was back on the offensive. Something had changed; there was a much greater urgency in the attack.
