by James McEwan
Commander Cotton Paw took the lead followed by Lex and the twins, Eve and Rod were in the back as they made their way to the edge of the jungle.
Chapter 15
The planet of New Hope is the home and capital world of the Ameron people. The Ameron’s are fiercely independent and extremely devote. They had chosen to not join the United Terrain Federation of Planets when it was formed all those years ago. The Ameron’s had good relations with the other governments and had suffered a major economic blow when Isis fell. However, they did what they always did. They prayed and soldiered on.
General Lincoln Ark had just returned to his office after his morning prayers and meditation. He sat down at his desk and looked at the day’s agenda. A readiness meeting with the Prefect and the war counsel, followed by lunch with the sisters of the Starlight monastery. His afternoon was filled with inspection after inspection. Every Ameron knew of the evil that had taken Isis and now was threatening the rest of the galaxy. It was time to make sure they were as ready as they could be for war. They had no intention of letting New Hope fall as Isis had.
He set the schedule down and glanced over to a picture on his desk. It was a picture of his kid sister and her family. She, her husband and son were all killed some ten years back in a raid by Nektons. His little niece was reported to have survived. However, he himself at the time was working in the Ameron’s military intelligence and was deep under cover. By the time he found out that she was still alive he tried to track her down. He found the orphanage where she had been taken, but when he came to collect her he was too late. She had run away and no one knew what had happened to her.
He often thought of her and wondered if she was still alive, where she was now and what she was doing. He wondered if she looked like her mother or more like her father. He looked away as his adjutant entered his office. The man was wearing the standard black and white uniform of the Ameron defense force with Captains’ bars on his collar. “It is just as you thought,” he said as he handed the general a letter.
Ark took the letter and read it, “Damn those fools!” He cursed, “Don’t they understand that we need to join the alliance. We don’t have the resources to stand alone.”
General Ark was a deeply religious man, but he was also a realist and he had an uncanny, and somewhat annoying habit, of being right about the worst things. He was considered a progressive and some though he was somewhat dangerous in his thinking. It had gained him enemies over the years, yet he was able to keep it all in balance.
“The council voted not to join the new alliance as they said that God saw us through the first two star wars, without the help of the Federation, and that God will see us through this one as well,” the Captain said.
“Yes, but too many people had to die needlessly just because they were too stubborn then. Now how many will have to die this time? This time it just might be all of us,” he looked at the picture of his sister and her family again.
“You know what they say…”
Ark interrupted him, “I swear by all that his holy if you say it is God’s will I will shoot you where you stand.” He was only half kidding.
“Then I will just say good luck with your meeting Sir,” he snapped a salute.
Ark returned the salute, “Thanks, now get out of my office.”
Ameron’s outer defense outpost 23 was not much more than a large rock floating in space with a small base and a large gun on it. It was just one of the many outposts that made up an asteroid belt that surrounded the system in which New Hope was located. It was early in the morning base time and most of the base’s personal were in their bunks happily sleeping. In the command center was a green LT on his first assignment after officer candidate school. He had a Sergeant and two privates with him in the center. The Sergeant was reading a magazine about the latest and greatest in modern weaponry. One of the two privates was busy playing a video game on the screen he was supposed to be scanning for threats, while the other one had fallen asleep and was softly soring.
They all had been briefed on the threat, but they felt that the Amerons were small potatoes on the grand scale of things. No one ever expected to be attacked, let alone this early, after all the NGE forces seemed to be focused on the bigger governments. Or so they thought. And that thought was soon to be proven wrong.
Inside the command center the screen lit up like a Christmas display. Proximity alarms sounded and the LT, who was busy studying the stations logs trying to learn his job, dropped the log book and jumped up. “What the Hell?” He muttered
NGE ships had just dropped out of hyperspace almost within firing range and they were powering up their weapons. At first it was just a few ships then hundreds dropped out of hyperspace. On the defense station the small crew was stunned at the numbers they were seeing on their screens. The Lt. just stood there watching, frozen in fear and disbelief. The private who had been playing a video game was now tracking targets and trying his best not to soil himself when the NGE ships opened fire. “Sir they’ve opened fire, what do we do?”
The Lt. was unable to think or move as he had locked up tighter than an airlock. “Sir what are your orders?” The private asked.
The first volley of fire hit the stations shields. The building shook and dust from the ceiling trickled down. “Open fire you idiots,” The Sergeant shouted as he took control of the situation. “And pray,” he quietly added.
The NGE held nothing back. All the ships that were in position to fire let loose with a massive volley of missile fire. The Amerons fought back by launching every missile they could and fired their two MAG (magnetic accelerated gun) cannons as fast as they would cycle. The fight was short, but deadly. The Amerons knocked out several ships right away with the MAG cannon, coring two from bow to stern. Yet it wasn’t even a flesh wound to the NGE as their missiles punched through the stations shields. And before the station Commander could get his pants on, it was all over. There was nothing left of the station or its crew. The NGE destroyed it completely and overwhelmingly.
The same scene was playing out again and again across the defense line. The NGE had within less than an hour punched a huge hole right through the Ameron defenses and now there was nothing between them and New Hope.
At the same time, General Ark was sitting in the readiness meeting giving serious thought to pulling his side arm and shooting half of the governing counsel. They were bickering back and forth about how real the threat was and how serious they should take it.
“Why should we allocate so many resources to fighting someone else’s war?” Said Council member Kruger, a tall thin older man. He made no bones about how he felt about the military and especially Ark.
“I for one do not want to be caught unprepared for a fight if or when it comes,” fired back Council member Nel, a small round woman who made up for her lack of height with an overabundance of spunk.
“You would. You have always supported war over peace,” Kruger jabbed back. Ark sat there watching as the two traded verbal blows like two prize fighters. It had been going back a forth for a while and it was starting to get personal. The Prefect stood up and put a stop to the bickering with a question to Ark. “General Ark you know Admiral Hayes personally, don’t you?”
“Yes Sir, I do,” he answered.
“Then what do you make of her statements about the threat from the NGE?” The Prefect asked.
Ark stood up and, out of years of habit, pulled on his uniform jacket to straighten it. “I have known Admiral Hayes for a good number of years and on more than one occasion I have had the great pleasure of working with her and her Starguard Marines. I will tell you that you can trust everything she says as the truth. She said we should get ready for a fight and by all that is holy in this universe, we better be moving heaven and earth to prepare. Make no mistake; she says the threat is real. It is deadly real.”
Kruger stood up and leaned on the table, “Believe you? You expect us to believe you just because you say that some Godless heathen
Admiral says so?”
Ark looked at Kruger, “I don’t know her religious believes and frankly I don’t give a damn, but what I do know is that we will be fools not to trust her warning.” he paused then added, “Very dead fools.”
“I tend to agree with the general,” the Prefect interjected. “We would be fools to not heed this warning. I guess the question is how can we prepare?”
Kruger was starting to lose his cool, “I can’t believe what I am hearing.” His statement set the room on fire. Council Members from both sides began to argue and shout at each other. The Prefect was trying to calm them all down when a colonel entered the council chamber and handed Ark a message.
Ark read the message and then in his best and loudest commanding voice barked out, “Enough! The debate is over.” He slammed the message down on the table for all to see. “The fight is already on our doorstep ladies and gentlemen. The NGE forces have attacked our outer defense and they have fallen. They will make planet fall by nightfall. So if you will all excuse me, I have planetary defense to command,” and with that he turned and left the room.
Chapter 16
Thad had been lying on the floor of the cold room for hours. The wound in his chest had healed hours ago. He had been waiting for things to quiet down. The sun would be up soon and he knew it was time for him to get moving. He got off the floor and was thankful for it. Lying on the cold floor for hours had made his backside numb. He rubbed his back and butt trying to get some blood flowing to relieve the cold.
The Ralnai had stripped him of his weapons, but since they didn’t know what the DDSD was so they had left it on his body. Thad used the touch screen to select another force sword and in a flash of green light he held it in his hand. He wanted the stealth that only the blade could provide. However, he also wanted some fire power if needed. He rendered up a sub con-machine gun just like he had before.
Geared up and with the pins and needles in his backside subsiding, he was ready to finish the mission. Thad left the cold room and just in time. Any longer and he would have started suffering from hyperthermia. The warm air of the hallway was a welcome change and it was still dark which Thad was also thankful for.
The compound was now quiet. The dead had been attended to and, with no perceived threat, almost everyone left alive was now trying to catch a little rack time before the tasks of cleaning, repairing, and burying the dead. This gave Thad the freedom to search without a great fear of discovery. He still needed to be careful as the Ralnai may have been sleeping, but they were notoriously light sleepers.
It didn’t take Thad long to search the entire place. At one point he came across Tor Tran-kor, and a part of him wanted to murder the big, ugly lizard and skin him so the twins could make new boots. However, this was not his mission; the twins were. He let the sleeping lizard lie.
The last room he searched was the sleeping quarters for the slaves. Thad could have started with this room, but he wanted to rule everywhere else out first. He slipped in behind the human slave who was supposed to be on guard duty but was softly snoring away completely unaware that the shadow of death was about to fall upon him. Thad placed one hand over the man’s mouth and with the other hand he placed the cold steel blade of the force sword against the man’s neck. The man snapped awake in a panic and started to struggle, but he quickly stopped as he felt the blade start to bite into the flesh of his neck. “Don’t move, don’t make a sound or I will end you. Do you understand?” Thad whispered into the man’s ear. “Do what I tell you and I will not harm you, do you understand?” The man slowly nodded acknowledging that he understood Thad perfectly. “Now I’m going to remove my hand from your mouth and if you try to scream or alert anyone you die got it?” Thad pulled his hand away and the man didn’t make a peep. “Good. Now I’m looking for the two redheaded twins. They would have been new in the last day or so.”
“Yes, the Hammer women,” the man answered in a whisper.
“Yes, the Hammer women, where are they?” Thad asked.
“They escaped last night, sometime just before you showed up and started killing people,” he replied.
“Damn it,” Thad whispered upset about missing them again. “Where did they go?”
“I saw them heading west towards the deeper jungle,” he pointed in the direction they went.
“What in the world are those two thinking? They don’t have any jungle training,” Thad was upset and thinking out loud.
“They weren’t alone,” the man offered up.
“What do you mean they weren’t alone?” Thad asked.
“Well, that little thief Lex and her stupid cat were with them, and some other woman I have never seen before and she was carrying some guy who looked like he had a cast on his leg,” he told Thad.
So the big lizard wasn’t lying about Eve and Rod. He felt better knowing that Eve was with them as she could handle just about anything that the jungle could dish out. However, this other woman and her cat gave him some concern as he didn’t know her and if she was a thief he wondered just what her “angle” on things was.
“I told you everything I know, are you still going to kill me?” the man asked in fear.
“No,” Thad replied.
“Then what now?” he asked.
“Now you go back to sleep and forgot you ever saw me,” Thad said as he withdrew the blade from the man’s throat.
“I don’t think I can do that,” The man said.
“What, sleep or forget about me?” Thad asked.
“Forgetting about you will be easy, but I don’t I will be doing any sleeping anytime soon,” the man said honestly.
Thad magnetized a hard point on the back of his armor he attached his sword to his back. Then he slipped his arm around the man’s neck and put him in a sleeper hold, “Don’t worry you’ll sleep plenty.” After a few seconds, the man was out. Thad left him in a position that would keep him from suffocating. He did one last check to ensure he was breathing and then he left.
Thad made his way unseen from the compound and headed west. It wasn’t long before he found their tracks and he followed. The sun was just starting to come up when he reached the wall and found the hole. He decided to see if coms were still being jammed. He tried to contact Eve, but only got static in return. She was outside of his transmitter’s limited range and with no com network to use or any other way to boost the signal they might as well be jammed because it was the same result. Thad took one quick look behind him and, satisfied that he was not being followed, headed into the jungle.
Back in the cold storage room, two Ralnai stood over the area where they had left Thad and were looking awfully confused. “You don’t think he got up and walked away do you?” Asked one of the big lizards.
“No, no way, he was dead when we left him here,” the other one replied.
“Then where did he go?” The Ralnai asked as he started to look around as if someone had moved the body.
“I don’t have any idea. I’m just as puzzled as you, but we better find him and soon,” answered the other Ralnai.
“You don’t think one of the others moved him to get us in trouble?” The smaller of the two lizards looked at his buddy, “If they did, I’m going to kill him and his hatchlings!”
“Well, one of us is going to have to tell him,” said the larger Ralnai.
“What, why me? You tell him, you’re senior!” The smaller one fired back, obviously scared to face Tor Trans-kor.
“Yeah, but he likes you better, after all, you are the runt and he likes little things,” the larger Ralnai was trying to make his point.
“True, but I like my head right where it is. You freaking tell him,” the smaller one said.
“No way! You tell him. He will be less likely to kill you than me,” the larger one said as he pushed the little one.
The little one growled and snapped his jaws, “No you tell him.” He then pushed back hard.
The larger one snapped his jaws and growled back, “No you!” he sh
outed and pushed back harder.
The little Ralnai slid sideways from the push, “No you,” he screamed as he charged. He hit the other right in the midsection and the fight was on. They started punching, clawing and snapping at each other. The large Ralnai had size and weight on the little one, but he was also slower. However, he landed a good punch and the little one stumbled backward and into a shelf knocking it over and spilling its contents onto the floor. The fight continued until they heard the roar of Tor Tran-Kor.
The two Ralnai were on the ground covered in flour and other food staples that had been on the shelving. They froze the second they heard their boss scream at them. The larger Ralnai was on top of the little one with one claw around his neck and his other pulled back ready to throw another punch.
“Get up you two idiots,” Tor Tran-kor barked. The two Ralnai got off the floor and stood in front of their leader. “Where is the body?” Tor Tran-kor asked. Neither lizard moved, then the larger one shrugged his shoulders. This sent Tor Tran-kor into a frenzy. The two Ralnai started to inch backward, but it didn’t save them from his wrath. Tor Tran-kor leapt forward and grabbed the larger Ralnai by the neck, his claws digging deep into the big lizard’s flesh. “I asked you a question trooper!”
“I don’t know, we left him right here,” he croaked out.
“Maybe someone is being funny and moved the body?” The smaller Ralnai offered up. That earned him a back hand slap as Tor Tran-kor was not in the mood for excuses.
“I want his body found and brought to me right now!” Tor Tran-kor roared and threw the larger Ralnai against a shelf that was already slightly tipped. The two crashed to the floor adding to the mess. “And get some slaves in here to clean this shit up!”
“Master,” a male slave said timidly.
“What?”
“Ah, I saw the man leave and he headed East, just like the others,” the slave said.
