by G. E. Stills
“These fires started about thirty minutes ago,” he explained.
“Judging from the mansion size of those houses I would surmise this is a section where the ruling class lives.”
They spotted a group of moving dots. Further magnification showed the dots to be people. The camera followed the group and watched it converge on a single individual. What took place next was the ruthless killing of the individual.
“It didn’t take them long to react,” Keish’ar mused.
“No it didn’t,” Rho’naa said. “I guess not having to fear reprisal emboldened them.”
“If you can, Admiral, try to zero in on the ones who seem to be in charge. With the ruling class gone, we will need to appoint new leaders.”
Rho’naa glanced at him. Keish’ar was watching the massacres take place on the planet calmly.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Keish’ar gazed at the view screen while lost in thought. It was still difficult for him to grasp only a month had passed. The changes on Bein’ar were preceding at a fantastically rapid pace. New leaders had been appointed temporarily until ones could be chosen by popular decision. Power had been restored. To his relief, less than a hundred of the twenty million population had chosen not to join the alliance. Rather than relocate them to an uninhabited world, they were placed on an unpopulated island on Sto’kan. There they were not a part of the alliance and yet still under alliance protection. New crews, a mixture of human and Men-gar manned the fifteen ships captured. Each of the ships was emblazoned with an easily visible symbol denoting it as one of the Human-Men-gar alliance. Men-gar crewmembers had been added to each of the human ships in hopes the integration of the two races would take place faster.
Keish’ar pinched the bridge of his nose then addressed Admiral Martinez. “Things are on or ahead of schedule here. It’s time to acquire our next Men-gar planet.”
“Those are my thoughts too. Five human warships arrived earlier today to guard Bein’ar. I wish we could spare more, but we are stretched thin with guarding our other allies and watching for bug ships.”
“We have no choice. No matter what steps we take, there will always be risk.”
“I still find it hard to believe all those people switched to our side so quickly. Men-gar and human have always hated each other. No Men-gar has ever surrendered to us since this war between us began.”
“That’s because our leaders lied to us. They told us if we did not kill every human we encountered they would exterminate our race. They told us other lies too, how your females give birth to a hundred offspring at a time and thus your race would expand at an unbelievable rate.”
He paused for a moment and both of them laughed.
“I thought Rho’naa was going to die laughing when I told her that.”
Admiral Martinez swallowed hard. “I’ll bet she did.”
“To continue,” Keish’ar said, “When our forces met in battle, we never talked to each other. It was always a contest to see who would completely annihilate who. I remind you that you have completely destroyed several of our worlds.”
The admiral looked down at the deck. “Yes, but we always asked for surrender first.”
“I know that now after talking to Rho’naa, and our leaders have known it for a long time, but they never told us. The common Men-gar has been unhappy with our leaders and their policies for thousands if not millions of years, but we never knew there was an alternative to what we had. We never knew the humans would agree to coexist with us and even come to our aide.”
“Both sides have made many grievous errors,” the Admiral said.
“I’ve suspected our leaders of lying to us for a long time. My mother told me things about them that planted the seeds of that doubt. When I escaped, human space was closer. I took a chance and I’m glad I did. During the time I spent on Teelan, I learned just how much our leaders lied and just how awesome your capabilities are. When Kyra agreed to help liberate my world, I was convinced I had made the right decision. Spending over a year with Rho’naa and the other humans has increased my belief that human and Men-gar should be friends and not enemies. We have differences, but we have much in common. I believe, the survivors of Sto’kan believe, and as we demonstrated on Bein’ar we can convince others to believe. That is why we will be victorious in the overthrow of the Highborn class.”
He grinned at the admiral. “Now shall we go take another planet away from the Highborn?”
Two hours later, the fleet, now including the fifteen captured Men-gar ships and three troop transport ships, left the system. The transition from Men-gar to alliance control went much the same on the next two planets. Ten more Men-gar ships became part of their fleet.
A scout ship flashed into the system they were in and reported to the Admiral. After giving new orders to the ship’s captain, he shared the message with Keish’ar. “There is a Men-gar fleet of thirty craft in the next system. They are on course to this system, but they are unaware of our presence. I’ve ordered our fleet to disburse and go silent. We’ll capture them when they get here. I’ve been expecting this and am surprised we have not encountered many more fleets since we a deep in Men-gar space.”
Keish’ar snorted. “Most of our ships are concentrated at the known avenues leading to human controlled space. You have no idea how much your capacity to produce large fleets has taxed our ability to keep up. We can’t keep up, in fact, we have never needed to build ships at this rate. Our inner systems have been stripped of large fleets.”
“We had no idea the Men-gar were stretched so thin. I feel certain we would have taken advantage of it long ago if we had.”
“In the past we never had large fleets. Four of five ships were always sufficient to subdue or destroy any civilization we encountered.”
A Men-gar scout ship entered the system and soon after the rest of the thirty ships followed. Admiral Martinez allowed them to get deep into the system before giving the order to converge on them. The Men-gar were only able to launch a few long-range missiles before the null-field reached them. The missiles were destroyed and the Human-Men-gar fleet didn’t fire a single shot. The same procedures were used in seizing control of the captured vessels. Accommodation of the prisoners was accomplished by shifting personnel around the fleet. Skeleton crews took control of the captured ships along with some of the ground troops from the transports. Only one Men-gar ship held out.
“That is one of the Highborn’s ships. They will not surrender,” he said.
“So what should we do with it?” Admiral Martinez asked.
“We can’t allow it to spread the alarm so that leaves the choice of waiting here for them to suffocate or destroying the ship. We’re in a hurry, so I would suggest destruction. If we do that, I would like the Men-gar ships of our fleet to do it. My idea is to have the prisoners watch us do this on monitors. It will help them to realize this is not just a case of human ships destroying Men-gar.”
“If that’s your call then it will be so.” The admiral gave the order.
Five of the Human-Men-gar ships took position and moments later opened fire. When they ceased firing, and the brilliance dimmed, nothing remained of the Highborn vessel but small floating debris. Soon, the fleet continued its journey.
****
They were still two solar system away from their target world when the fast courier caught up with them. The Captain of the courier quickly contacted Admiral Martinez.
“Since you are deep in Men-gar territory they sent me rather than risk the signal be intercepted or give your position away,” the Captain reported. “I’m sending you a download of the latest news about our war with the La’new.”
“Thank you, Captain, the download is coming in now. Standby to receive my response.”
He stood next to the admiral as the message scrolled on the screen in front of them.
To Admiral Marti
nez
Update on encounters with The La’new. There have been several encounters notably in sectors 16, 17, and 20. In our searches, we discovered the colony planets 45x and 27x had been overrun with La’new forces. There were no human survivors on either. We also discovered a Men-gar planet. It too had been overrun and there were no survivors. All three planets were destroyed along with the La’new ships that orbited them. One of our fleets encountered a much larger La’new fleet in Sector 19 and engaged them in battle. Reinforcements were summoned, but regrettably arrived too late. All forty human ships were destroyed. The reinforcements destroyed the remaining La’new vessels.
New presence of large forces of La’new have caused us to abandon sectors 16 and 17. We have stationed four fleets, one hundred ships total, in sector18 in hopes of keeping them back long enough to evacuate planet Termente located in sector 19 and home to 2 million people. At this time, we are more delaying La’new progress than stopping or reversing it. Units have been pulled from the other fleets, one-hundred in all, to bolster the force in sector 18.
This has necessitated the reduction in size of the fleets guarding the known approaches from Men-gar territories. It is hoped the Men-gar will not choose this time to mount large attacks.
After the message scrolled, videos depicting scenes of the three planets the bugs had overrun played for them. Each world was teeming with bugs and otherwise devoid of life. The videos showed the complete destruction of each world. The videos ended and a final note scrolled across the screen.
This update provided to Admiral Martinez by Teelan military command.
Keish’ar was certain the grim expression that washed across the Admiral’s face was mirrored on his own. “Even you humans cannot afford to lose forty in one battle. That is a huge loss of men and ships. What of your other allies?”
“They will and are, of course, contributing, but their combined industrial capabilities is far less than ours. Let’s just hope your people don’t choose this time to launch a large attack.”
“I have an idea. We’re planning to acquire two more Men-gar inhabited planets. Although they are important and need be added to our growing alliance, I have another suggestion.”
“I’m listening.”
“The planet Moon’an is one of the major ship building facilities of the Men-gar Empire. What if we added their capability?”
“Go on.”
“It won’t be easy. I had planned on doing a slow infiltration and building unrest but…”
“But desperate times call for desperate measures, I once heard. Tell me more.”
Keish’ar stroked his chin. “There are usually about fifty or sixty ships from the fleet there scattered in groups of ten to twenty throughout the system. In addition, most of the time there about a hundred ships in various stages of completion.”
The admiral whistled. “A hundred and fifty ships?”
“Yes I know, a lot of firepower and added to that, there is a large presence of Highborn and their security force on the planet itself.”
“So what is your plan?”
“It all hinges on one thing, do we have the capability of installing null-weapon projectors on the Men-gar ships we’ve acquired?”
“We might be able to do that.”
“My idea is to have some of our Men-gar ships enter the system and enter parking orbit around the planet. When challenged on approach they will say they were in a fierce battle with a large human fleet deep in Men-gar territory and have come for repairs. When they have been placed in parking orbit they can activate the null-projectors rendering everything on and orbiting the planet incapacitated. It will be the job of the rest of the fleet to do the same to the outlying ships.”
“Do you really believe it will work?”
“It’s a risk I admit, but yes, I think we can pull it off. I’ll be with the deception ships and once the null-field is activated, we will bring the troop ships in. We may have to bombard sections of the planet that have many Highborn and their security forces. Our troops will kill the rest.”
The Admiral studied him. “There won’t be others in the Highborn areas?”
Keish’ar returned his stare. “There will doubtless be innocents among them if that is what you are asking. Some may be caught in crossfire. It will be a battle of Men-gar fighting Men-gar. I hate saying it, but they must be considered collateral damage. We must have this production base no matter the cost.”
The admiral nodded gravely. “I understand. I don’t like what you’re saying, but I understand. You will have the needed null-projectors even if I have to remove them from some of the other ships.”
The two of them retired to a meeting room to work out plan details. Hours later, they sat back in their chairs.
“It’s a bold scheme, Keish’ar. Let’s hope it works.”
“There is risk involved, but I think it will.” Keish’ar allowed a small smile to crease his lips. He held up his glass of water. “To desperate times and their success.”
The Admiral clinked his glass in toast. “To their success.”
****
The ten Meg-gar ships limped into the Moon’an system. The propulsion units of two were silent and they were under tow. On two more the drives were only partially working. Keish’ar stood on the command bridge of the lead Battle-cruiser waiting for the challenge he knew would arrive any moment. He thought of the outward appearance of battle damage his ships displayed and knew it would not hold up under close inspection. He only hoped it would during long-range scan.
Base control contacted him and to his relief accepted his made up story. He smiled in satisfaction as his ships were directed into parking orbits surrounding the planet to wait for repair. When all his ships were in position, Keish’ar flipped a toggle switch opening a communication channel.
“Now,” was his single word. All of his ships came to life and encased the entire planet, along with the structures and ships in orbit around it, in a null field. His signal also went out to the ships being commanded by Admiral Martinez.
Keish’ar paced the deck tensely waiting to hear from the Admiral. He hadn’t broadcast to the people of Moon’an yet. Let them wonder what has occurred for now. The ships and factories in orbit had sufficient air to at least sustain life if not pleasantly. One of the crew handed him a fresh cup of coffee. He gazed down at the cup of steaming liquid. Coffee was an acquired taste, something human he had learned to enjoy. With enough sweetener and flavored cream, it was even delicious to the taste. He took a sip just as the communicator in front of him crackled to life. It was the Admiral.
“All outlying ships have been taken captive. Two Men-gar ships destroyed and one of ours heavily damaged, but the solar system is now under our control. Troop ships have been dispatched and should reach your location in two hours.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Keish’ar breathed a sigh of relief and forced the tension in him to recede into the background. Time for the next step.
He switched frequency on the communicator in front of him to one that would reach his Men-gar captives. “Your attention, fellow Men-gar. The Moon’an system is now under control of the Human-Men-gar alliance. You know by now that all electrical systems have ceased to function. We of the alliance do not have that same situation. I know some of you here in orbit are no doubt beginning to suffer with you atmosphere production equipment inoperative. We will be restoring your electrical systems long enough to remedy that condition, however I must insist you deactivate all weapons systems before that takes place.”
He paused and took a sip of his coffee.
“We will be scanning you and any weapons systems activated will be detected.” This was not true, but Keish’ar could only hope his captives would not call his bluff. “If we detect such activation it will be considered an act of aggression and your ship or structure will be destroyed without warning. I will now give you suff
icient time to take any weapons systems off line before restoring electrical functions. Electrical function will be left on for enough time for your atmosphere generation equipment to replenish your air before being deactivated again. I will give you further instructions once that has been accomplished. This is General Keish’ar of the Human-Men-gar alliance signing off for now.”
He switched the transmitter off and allowed thirty minutes to pass before issuing the order for suspension of the null field focused on the structures and ships in orbit around Moon’an. He watched lights come on in the ships and structures. None of their scanners detected any sign of weaponry coming on line. A short time later, ships from the alliance began to arrive. They formed into a shell that encompassed the planet and near space around it.
Time for the next step in this revolution. This one will be bloody.
At his orders, shuttles ferried troops down to the largest city on the planet. Two thousand well-armed and armored Men-gar troops of the alliance marched on the base housing the Highborn security forces. When they had executed everyone there, the soldiers attacked the Highborn residences. With the defending forces having nothing more lethal than hand held projectile weapons, the confrontations were more massacres than battles. The unarmed noncombatants watched in awe. With the largest city liberated from Highborn control, the allied force moved on to the next largest city. One by one, the cities were liberated of Highborn presence.
Keish’ar glanced up at the overhead clock, then crossed the bridge and stopped before the radio panel. It’s time. Every six hours, he made another broadcast to the population explaining the current situation. He talked of the end of Highborn rule, he described in detail the lies they had been told about humans and how the La’new species was a new and deadly enemy of both races. He told them that in the future they would be allowed to choose their own local leaders, but for now they would be subject to alliance control and any resistance would not be tolerated. He went on to explain unlike under the rule of the Highborn, they had a choice of becoming part the alliance or not. “If you are against joining us you will be relocated,” he finished his broadcast.
