“Mandu, join me.”
Mandu Koenigheim approached. She wore a normal navy uniform. The insignia of the mage-guards, an image of the Tower with two swords crossed through it, shined on the breast of the uniform. “How can I help you, Captain?” she asked in a deep voice.
“The enemy hit us in three spots with those acid-covered rocks of theirs. The acid is spreading, eating through the hull. Can send your mage-guards to burn the acid? I’m hoping it will work.”
“Of course. I’ll dispatch a team immediately.”
“One other thing. I received word from the governor,” he gestured to the display which had resumed its previous form, “that they are under assault. I promised Marines. Can you spare any mage-guards to support?”
She paused and adopted a look as if she were calculating numbers in her head. “I can provide two platoons to support.”
“Excellent. Have them report to the hangar of the Independence to fly down with our Marines.”
“Of course.” She departed.
Captain Rigsby hailed the Dauntless. “Captain Edgerton, what is your status?”
“Just chugging to the hangar of the Independence, cap,” Edgerton’s replied.
Captain Rigsby ground his teeth at the term “cap.” The lack of discipline shown by an Eternal concerned him. “Can you assist with transporting Marines to the ground? The Krai’kesh are terrorizing the planet.”
“You bet.”
“Thank you,” Martin ended the conversation.
“Our fleet has fired again, sir,” Zigana reported. Moments later he said, “Critical hits. Two more enemy capital ships destroyed, sir. The remaining enemies appear to be fleeing.”
“Show me.”
The display morphed into a long range telescopic view of the scene. The two remaining enemy capital ships opened large void portals and disappeared through them, fighters following.
“Can we track them?”
“No, sir.”
“Damn it.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s regroup the fleet, gather survivors and mop up. Then focus on the Krai’kesh still on the planet. And get me samples from those destroyed ships. Look for corpses we can dissect. Also, try to get recordings from the planetary defense fleet ruins so we can see how the Krai’kesh destroyed the fleet so fast.”
“Yes, sir.”
***
Lieutenant Jamison sat in the mess hall of the Independence at a table, alone with his thoughts.
In less than twenty-four hours he had lost half a platoon and learned the Krai’kesh existed in more than fairy tales. He was having trouble processing it.
A tray slammed across from him. A woman in a pilot uniform with a lieutenant insignia sat. “Do you mind?”
Derek gestured to the side of the table she now occupied. “Be my guest. This isn’t my ship.”
“I haven’t seen you around here,” she said. “Are you new?”
“New to this ship. I’m Derek.” He extended his hand.
She looked at his hand but didn’t move to shake it. “So where did you come from?”
Derek tried to save face by combing his extended hand through his short hair. “That’s a long story, but let’s just say I was down on the planet below performing training exercises when the attack began.”
“How did you survive?”
“We went to the docking bay to look for transport off world. We found two … e, eh … powerful individuals, and they transported us. We were lucky.”
“There’s no such thing as luck,” she mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. So where are these ‘powerful individuals’ now?”
“Err…”
“Derek! There you are!” John exclaimed from behind him.
Derek groaned. John stood there, grinning, while Ashley stood in line to get food.
“Hi John,” he said in a deadpan voice. “This is … uh…” he turned to the woman and pleaded with his eyes.
The woman smiled, “Lieutenant, Selene Artois.”
“Artois?” John asked. “As in the Artois family? One of the seven merchant houses? The second most powerful house in the Commercial Sector. That Artois?”
Selene blushed. “You’re well informed for a … what are you exactly?”
“The name’s John, which I suppose you already knew. I’m the captain of the Dauntless. She’s a trading vessel. I’ve been all over the Federation and beyond. I’ve had my share of run-ins with the Artois family. Why, I once played a game of chess with Sebastian Artois to settle a dispute over trading rights. That game sure made me sweat.”
Selene blinked. “My great-grandfather’s name was Sebastian, but he has been dead for many years. How could you have met him?”
John slapped his forehead. “Doh, I lost track of time. It felt like just yesterday I whipped him. Oh well, cat’s out of the bag, or would have been soon enough. I’m a Guardian.”
“Guardian?” she asked with a blank look.
John shook his head. “Kids these days. Better known as Eternal,” he said.
“Oh,” she said. She looked at Derek. “Two Eternals saved you?”
Derek blanched. “Well, we sort of saved them. They were surrounded and…”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, yeah, two Eternals saved us.”
“Nothing to be ashamed of, Derek. We’ve saved lots of people over the years.”
“Yes,” Selene said. “It’ll be a story you can tell your grandkids.”
Derek snorted. “If I survive to have grandchildren.”
“Are you embarrassing Derek, honey?” Ashley said, sitting next to Selene and setting her tray on the table.
“Not on purpose. He reminds me of Eth … you know who.”
“Go get food.” She turned her gaze on Derek. “So, Captain Rigsby has asked us to go down to the planet. The enemy fleet retreated, but the Krai’kesh ground forces are still terrorizing the civilians.”
“Ready when you are, ma’am,” Derek said.
“Finish eating, then gather your men. Engineering is analyzing the damage to the Dauntless to see if they can repair it in a short time. We can’t go anywhere until the repairs are done.” Ashley looked at Selene. “Hi, I didn’t catch your name, hon.”
“Selene.”
“Such a pretty name. Were you involved in the fighting?”
“Yeah. I flew against the enemy fighters. You rescued me when I was EV.”
“Oh! You’re that pilot. It’s so nice to meet you.” Ashley smiled.
“Yeah.” Selene cleared her throat. “Your husband explained that you’re an Eternal?”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “That man. I don’t think he could keep a secret if his life depended on it.” She sighed. “But yes, that’s what we’re best known as.”
“You must be rich,” Selene said. “Why are you flying around as merchants?”
“My mother always told me money can’t buy happiness. Being merchants gives us an excuse to fly around the galaxy.”
“You could be ‘happy’ flying around in a space yacht with servants waiting on you hand and foot. Why fly a dumpy old freighter?”
“Hey, who’s calling my freighter dumpy?” John took a seat next to Derek.
“My mother had a wall decoration engraved with the saying ‘home is where the heart is,’” Ashley said. “The fact is the Dauntless is home to us. It’s had more upgrades than I can remember but it’s been our home since the first shadow drive was demonstrated - long before fancy space yachts were even designed, let alone built. We were pioneers in those early days.”
“Just without the covered wagons and mud and disease and rattle snakes and death,” John said through a mouthful of food.
Ashley shot John a look. “As I was saying, the Dauntless is our home and will be for the foreseeable future.”
Halfway through Ashley’s answer Selene had averted her eyes and now sat quiet.
Okay, things just got awkward, Derek thought. “So, wh
at can you tell us about the Krai’kesh?” he asked.
“Loads,” John replied. “Well, she can,” he waved a biscuit at Ashley, “my attention wandered when we were going through those old records.”
“Wandered,” Ashley mocked. “You fell asleep.”
“Tom-ah-to, tomato,” he said.
Ashley cocked her head, raised an eyebrow and gave him a look that seemed to say “really?”
John shrugged.
Ashley returned her attention to Derek. “How much do you know of history?”
“Just what I learned in primary school.”
“Did you learn about how the Federation was founded?”
“Yeah, in civics and history class.”
“And the Battle of Pelinor?”
“I vaguely recall…” he trailed off.
“The Krai’kesh invaded from the north pole of Tar Ebon,” Selene interrupted. “Every nation in the region united and stopped them. Then those same nations formed the Federation. What about it?”
Somebody paid attention in class.
“Well, history records the Battle of Pelinor and the larger War of Tar Ebon as the first encounter humanity had with the Krai’kesh. That’s not strictly true.”
“Oh, here we go,” John said. He made a snoring sound.
Ashley ignored him. “A thousand years before the Federation formed, an event known as the Founding occurred. It was marked by great cities like Tar Ebon and Tera Leon being built. The Founders came to the planet of Tar Ebon in seven great ark ships, carrying genetic samples and living representations of every species from the planet they came from, Earth. The ark ships scattered across the world. In each place the ships crashed they cannibalized the ship and built cities.
“The Founders left a record for us. The record tells of how they faced the Krai’kesh in the future. Their future. It tells how humanity lost, how they destroyed the home world of the Earth Federation, how only seven ark ships remained. They went back in time to Tar Ebon, hoping they could prevent humanity’s demise by preparing for the Krai’kesh invasion earlier.”
“Why did they come to Tar Ebon?” Selene asked. “Why didn’t they go back to Earth?”
“During their exploration of the Milky Way galaxy, this galaxy, in the centuries before the Krai’kesh arrived, the Earth Federation discovered a planet with ruins. They dated the ruins and discovered an Iron Age civilization existed a thousand years before it did on Earth. They noted that fact and moved on. But when the Krai’kesh were at the gates they remembered and considered this possibility: what if humans from the future could travel to the past? What if they could save the world that was more advanced than Earth during the same period in time by a huge leap?
“They devised a plan. Seven ark ships went back in time. But they put a failsafe in place. The Founders knew they were going to a time a thousand years before the dating of the ruins indicated. They needed someone to arrive at the time of the attack to help defend humanity. The Founders would lay the groundwork, but they needed a follow-up mission.”
“So that’s where you came in?” Derek guessed.
Ashley nodded. “We didn’t know it until we read their records, but the Founders selected us from a third reality because of our prodigal status in their own timeline. In their timeline, we were the first, and most powerful, mages. They reasoned we would have the potential in another reality to possess that level of magic also. They were right.”
“They ripped us from our place in time and space and sent us back in time to a thousand years after the Founders landed. That was the plan, anyway, but Dawyn and Bridgette went further back and had been on Tar Ebon for twenty years when John, Jason and I showed up. We still ended up finding one another, but it was a mess.”
“So, long story short,” John said. “We are here to save the world from the Krai’kesh.”
“For once I agree with you, dear,” Ashley said, smiling at her husband. She looked at Derek and then Selene. “The Founders gave us a mission - to save humanity from the first Krai’kesh attack and prepare them for the larger invasion to come. Everything we did in our past was for humanity.” Ashley studied the table. “I’m not proud of everything I did. Sometimes I wake at night in a panic, wondering if I did the right thing, if we did the right thing. But we tell ourselves everything we did was for the common good. It consoles some of us.”
“Why isn’t that history more well-known?” Selene asked.
“Time.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was well-known, two thousand years ago. Scholars studied at the Tower of the Seven Stars and learned that history after we uncovered it. But generations passed and agendas changed. Different political parties didn’t want to even acknowledge the Krai’kesh. Histories that provided evidence to the gravity of the situation and proof of the Krai’kesh proved inconvenient for the politicians, so they buried the histories through budget cuts and anti-Krai’kesh research propaganda. It worked, as the number of people expressing surprise at the Krai’kesh emerging attests to.”
“Why didn’t you try to un-bury the histories the Founders left? Why didn’t you fight the politicians?” Selene asked.
“Honey, we tried that for a few centuries. But there were only seven of us Guardians and not everyone cared as much as others. Dawyn was busy running the military, Bridgette and Isabelle built the FIA, Jason lost himself in his scientific research and development and our children wanted nothing to do with a destiny.”
“Their shields,” Selene began. “Did you encounter anything like that during your encounter with them two thousand years ago?”
“Yes, on a broader scale. They hauled a large crystal south with them. It was that crystal which allowed the enemy to rip the entire army of Tar Ebon to shreds. It nullified the power of mages, druids and shifters like Bridgette. We weren’t sure how it worked, but when Dawyn destroyed it we could use our magic again. Jason speculates that…,” Ashley trailed off, getting a distant look in her eyes, the hallmark of communicating through her implant.
She re-focused her eyes several seconds later. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but the repairs on the ship are complete. Let’s get ready to go.”
John took a slow bite of his food and chewed slowly.
Ashley rolled her eyes. “Men.” She looked at Derek. “Go suit up and gather your men. Meet us at the ship in ten minutes. John,” she glared at her husband, “will be done eating by then if I have to shove the food down his throat.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Derek rose from his seat, nodded to everyone at the table and turned to leave.
“Hey, jarhead,” Selene said.
Was she talking to him? Derek half turned back to her. “Me?”
“Yeah, you. Be safe out there. You have to survive to have grandchildren, remember?”
Derek blushed. “Thanks. I’ll do my best not to die.”
***
Selene entered the fighter CIC. “Yes, Lieutenant?” the CAG asked.
“I have an idea, sir.”
“Go on.”
“We’ve seen that coil gun projectiles hurt the enemy. What if we retrofit our fighters with coil guns?”
“I thought of that, but it would take a great deal of time to retrofit the entire fighter complement. Not only does it require calibration of the coil gun mechanism, it requires storing the ammunition. The Viper class fighters weren’t designed for storing ammunition.”
“Damn. So, we have to wait until we’re in dry dock?”
“I didn’t say that. I’ll see if we can get the nanufactory to make enough coil guns and ammunition for our flight crew to retrofit with.”
Selene saluted. “Thank you, sir.”
***
Federation transports descended toward the landing zone amid the battlefield Serpentis III had become. Starfighters flew ahead, strafing the area ahead of the ground forces.
John whistled. “Would you look at that. Got ourselves a full-on siege.”
Below lay the capitol
compound of Serpentis III. Barricades and fences held back a swarm of Krai’kesh, while refugees looked like sardines inside the large compound. Laser fire from towers along the perimeter and from along the barricades and fence line marked the defenders. In several areas, a bulge had formed and civilians fled as Krai’kesh flooded through.
“Can you get us right overhead?” Derek asked. He pointed at one bulging area. “Here.”
“You got it, chief,” John answered.
Ok boys and girls, we’re going in for a LALO. Get ready to jump, Derek said over the platoon channel as he moved to the rear of the Dauntless.
The survivors from his original platoon were mixed with seasoned veterans from the 2nd battalion, known as the Wardogs.
“Get ready!” Ashley shouted.
The rear door of the Dauntless lowered. Derek braced himself for the pressure drop and activated his combat helmet. He checked his weapon as the other unbuckled and did the same. They lined up, with Derek in the lead.
“Coming up,” Ashley warned. “We’re above the LZ, go, go, go!”
Derek jumped off the back of the Dauntless. He spread his arms and legs for free fall. The nanites in his suit expanded out to form wings on his arms and flaps on his legs. His descent slowed, and he circled the LZ, bringing his arms close to his body first to dive, and then extending his arms again to slow the acceleration. He repeated this several times as he glided to the ground. He landed with a roll atop the capitol building and the wings on his arms and legs melted back into his suit.
Guards on the capitol roof turned their guns on him but lowered them when they saw his uniform and the insignia.
The rest of Derek’s platoon landed on the roof.
Above the Marines, the Dauntless flew away. “Off to get more troops, chief,” John said through Derek’s comm link.
Across the battlefield, transports were landing or performing similar Low-Altitude, Low-Opening drops.
Derek jogged over to one guard. “Where do you need us?” he asked.
The guard, wearing armor with the insignia of Serpentis III, a snake wrapped around a planet, answered without turning from where he fired down on Krai’kesh.
“Southeastern section is taking heavy losses. The whole line will fall if we don’t get reinforcements.”
Emergence: Book One of the Dark Tide Trilogy Page 7
