The Dogs of War (Ictarian-Kanggun War Book 1)

by Bret Brown

  Gravity, working on the rocky masses and the ship, slings objects around one another for those that don't impact. However, having to have slowed down from hyperspace, P-T knows that they'll be at risk for many things far more dangerous in this sector than the asteroid field.

  Two days later, Leliana is trying to comfort her son as the inertia dampeners have been disengaged to improve maneuverability. She tries to keep his mind busy by playing some school games, but nausea is also taking its toll on her. Suddenly, a loud bang and hard shift to the ship throws her and her son off balance. Thinking P-T has fallen asleep, she runs to the cockpit to see what is happening.

  When Leliana gets to the cockpit, she sees an exhausted P-T working the controls. The computer console is lighting up madly and giving all types of warning alarms. "Did we hit something?", she asks very concerned.

  P-T replies, "Raiders... three of them."

  Hundreds of laser blasts fly past the cockpit viewport, brightly lighting up the otherwise dim cockpit. Several shots hit the Phantom's shields rocking the ship violently

  "Raiders?... What do they want? Why are they attacking us?... Can we tell them we're no threat?", she asks anxiously.

  P-T shaking his head no says, "Our death is their only objective."

  Just beyond the last of the most threatening asteroids, three Raider ships lay waiting and firing at the Phantom's position. These ships are very much similar to the model that the Phantom is, but it's hard to tell if they've installed any technical upgrades with their sensor disruptors.

  Rowan makes his way up to the cockpit as well and is crying loudly. "Mommy!", he sobs "I wanna go home?"

  Turning to her son, she tries to comfort him. "I know baby. I need you be strong right now.", hiding her own fear. "Now, do like we talked about and go to the safe place." She wipes his tears away and kisses him several times. "Can you show mommy how brave you are and go to our room?"

  Rowan, sniffing and crying, shakes his head yes and leaves the cockpit threshold and runs back to the room. Leliana straps in at the co-pilots seat and starts looking over the console for any familiarity in the controls as several more shots rock the Phantom. Exiting the asteroid field, P-T engages in a dogfight as the Raiders fire upon them relentlessly.

  Leliana discovers how to open up the navigation chart on the console and sees that they are near a solar system with some planets.

  "Hey, uh...guy.", still unaware of his name, "There is a planetary star system nearby. Do you think we can use that to our advantage?"

  Without much time to really think about it, P-T patches in the new coordinates still evading the Raiders.

  The Phantom's forward batteries are currently ineffective against the Raider ships shields unless he gets several direct hits on critical points. Knowing this, P-T tries to find a way to make their shields vulnerable. He takes a look at the composition of a gas giant in the system they are heading to. Seeing that it may work to their favor, P-T points to planet showing on the console "There, we can lose them and weaken their shields."

  Leliana looking at the plan says, "Won't that weaken our shields too?"

  P-T shrugs his shoulders in a quasi-agreement.

  "Are you fucking crazy!", she exclaims. "Things are bad enough and you wanna make it easier for them?"

  Not one for taking advice, P-T continues his course towards the planet still doing his best for evading the attackers.

  Two hours into the pursuit, the Phantom finally reaches the gas giant. P-T pilots the ship into the upper stratosphere the planet, careful not to venture too deep as its gravity will crush them. The thick, soupy toxic atmosphere starts to create havoc on the Phantom's systems. They begin to lose shields and sensors, as lightning strikes the ship and its surroundings. Methane rain pours heavily as they make their way through, making vision through the viewport impossible.

  Uncertain if they are still followed, P-T speeds through to exit the planets stratosphere hundreds of thousands of miles from where they entered. Their shields are down and until the systems come back online, they are vulnerable to blind attacks.

  P-T, cursing under his breath, is working the control console as fast as he can trying to get at least the shields up. Leliana is looking out through the cockpit viewport for any sign of the aggressors. In the distance, she spots a bright electrical discharge from the edge of the planet several hundred miles away. Pointing to it, she exclaims "There! Right ahead of us." Drawing P-T's attention off the console.

  He sees another electrical discharge in the vicinity of where Leliana was pointing to and lays in an attack course. Once he gets within firing range, he fires the forward batteries at a high rate. One of the vessels explodes from the weapons fire. The other tries to evade, but was too slow as P-T had already changed targets before the explosion of the first ship. The second exposed ship explodes as well. Uncertain where the third ship is, P-T holds position waiting for any sign.

  After waiting a half hour, he decides either the last ship was destroyed in the planet’s atmosphere or left entirely. With that decision, P-T changes course and begins to leave the solar system; shields still down and sensors are limited in range. As they pass beyond another planet's outer moon, laser blast zoom over the cockpit viewport and loud bangs rattle the Phantom.

  Hit without shields, the Phantom is in grave danger. P-T alters course again and tries to take evasive action. However, the damage to the Phantom is too much for continuing space combat. Seeing that the closest planet is a habitable one, P-T heads straight to it. Still doing what he can for evasive maneuvers, the Phantom hits the planet's atmosphere.

  As the Phantom enters the stratosphere, the turbulence builds on the ship. Although this planet has less atmospheric pressure due to its smaller size, flames begin to engulf the ship as friction builds. P-T is weaving the ship side to side now that aerodynamics are impeding his ability to maneuver.

  Still being pursued, P-T throttles the Phantom to full speed into the canopy of the rich vegetation that extends far out from the rocky surface. They rip through the outstretched branches on these long trees, shattering tree trunks as they continue their rapid decent. Hundreds of laser blasts still ringing all around them, rocking them hard as they glance off of the armor, setting fire to anything the blasts catch.

  As they travel further into the planet, sensor warnings beep loudly and the consoles are flashing.

  Leliana screams at P-T as she looks through the viewport "What are you doing?", seeing that impact is imminent.

  Suddenly, P-T cuts off thrusters, fires several shots into the rocky surface and hits reverse thrusters on full causing the Phantom to jerk back abruptly. Inside the Phantom, both Leliana and P-T are thrown extremely hard into the consoles in front of them. Fortunate for both they had their seat belts on or their asses would have traveled through their brains. A large cloud of dust and debris engulf the Phantom as fires set ablaze on the surface and around the ship. Big black pillowing smoke rises from the position as they land hard against the surface.

  From above, the Phantom looks like it’s been destroyed, fortunate for the crew of the Phantom, the planet's lush vegetation makes it too difficult for an accurate visual to ensure death, as the Raider makes a couple passes firing at the Phantom; only to stir up for rubble and debris in the ships vicinity. Satisfied, the last Raider vessel leaves the planet and the Phantom alone.

  Chapter 7

  Inside the Phantom, Leliana is knocked out completely from the impact. Her head is bruised and she's slightly bleeding from her nose and mouth. P-T is also slightly dazed, but maintained conscience during the crash landing. He attempts to get up, however, he soon realizes has suffered a broken leg and his right wrist is shattered as it dangles loosely from his arm.

  Needing an energy boost to heal his wounds and to recover from the last few hours, he grabs a S.L.A.G. bar from the storage bin next to the main console with his good hand and starts to eat it.

  Slouched in the co-pilots seat, Leliana slowly starts to regai
n her conscience state; moaning and groaning. As the pain begins to pound on her nerves, she begins to slightly whimper as well. Her face contorts with each heart beat; her head throbbing with pain.

  By the time he finishes the S.L.A.G. bar, P-T's injuries have healed fully and he can move from his chair. Leliana now fully conscience, holds her head in agony. She wipes the blood from her face.

  Like a shock to the system, she gets up urgently from the seat; stumbling down onto the console; hobbling on it to get her balance. Holding her ribs, she soon realizes some of the extent of her injuries. With one arm, she uses whatever she can find for leverage as the Phantom is at a steep angle in its crash pit. However, with the gravity is less than what she is used too, her efforts in pulling herself around are not overbearing with her adrenaline rush.

  As she makes her way out of the cockpit and towards her room, she is yelling out "Rowan!" Finally reaching the door, she pounds on the panel to get it open; hinting to the unintelligent device her desperation. When the hatch opens, she finds the room in total chaos. Anything and everything that was loose in the room has been strewn across the floor making it difficult to see anything distinctive. She enters the room tossing objects to the side and behind her; desperately searching for her son.

  Frantically, she calls out to him, "Rowan! Rowan! It's Mommy! Baby, where are you?!"

  Having cleared the majority of the debris on the floor, she starts looking in places where he could hide. "Rowan! Come out from where you are! We're safe now."

  Tears begin to stream down her face as despair undertones her cries, "Baby, I need you to come out please. Please come out to Mommy!"

  In a floor storage hatch, a muffled boys voice is barely heard, "Mommy?"

  "Yes baby! Who else could it be?", she says, "Where are you?", as she listens to pinpoint as to where she heard the voice.

  "In here.", the boy replies; slapping his palms on the panel above his head.

  Leliana follows the sounds and reaches a spot in the center of the floor, but she cannot locate how to open the hatch as she searches with her hands. "Baby, I need you to open this up. I can't find how you got in."

  A few seconds later, a click and the hatch pops open; exposing the child. Leliana pulls him out and immediately embraces him giving him multiple kisses on his head and cheeks. She checks him over for injuries; running her hands over his small body. The boy giggles in response to her touching his ticklish areas.

  "Are you hurt?", she says.

  "No Mommy. What happened to your head?", the boy asks.

  She lightly runs her hand over her forehead as the reality of her pain comes back into focus. Feeling her swollen forehead, "It's just a little bump baby. Mommy will be okay."

  The boy giggles, "Mommy... can we do that again? That was fun."

  "Yeah, you had a good time on the ride?", she smiles wryly as she picks him up gingerly as she's still in a lot of pain.

  P-T emerges from the cockpit after powering everything down and working on repairing the computer systems. He gives a quick, indifferent glance at the woman holding the child in the threshold of the spare quarters.

  She approaches him, rather aggressively, saying "I don't know if I should F-", she lowers her voice a bit and buries Rowan's head in her chest; covering his ears to keep him from hearing her.

  "If I should fucking kill you or be thankful. That line is completely fucking blurred right now.", she says very angrily through gritted teeth.

  P-T unconcerned about the woman and child walks right past them and keeps walking to the rear of the ship. She follows behind continuing her tirade with P-T.

  "Right now, because we are alive, we are thankful. You, as sure as hell, almost making that fucking regrettable."

  P-T reaches into a storage bin in the side paneling of the ship, grabs an oxygen mask and some tools.

  Leliana asks "Where are you going?"

  Nearly before Leliana can finish her question, P-T opens up the rear cargo ramp; a hard rush of wind sweeps through the Phantom due to changes in air pressure.

  Hearing screams and cries from his passengers, P-T glances back and sees that the woman and child have changed physically. The lack in atmospheric pressure on their bodies, different than what they were accustomed to, has caused them to bloat moderately.

  Unaffected by the pressure, P-T exits the Phantom, putting on the oxygen mask, and closes the hatch; leaving the woman yelling at him furiously.

  "Are you fucking kidding me? You can't be that fucking stu-", as the hatch seals off her final words.

  P-T inspects the exterior of the Phantom, clearing off the debris on the ship; as part of the ship is buried under the uprooted rubble. Looking around the surroundings, he sees long, skinny trees stretching nearly two thousand feet up. Wispy branches with large and wide leaves extending from the narrow trunks on the top quarter of the trees. As the subtle breeze passes through, the branches move like a bird gliding through the air. Yellowish, orange light from the nearby star, surprisingly cuts through to the surface.

  A dense underbrush fills the surface beyond the wreckage. Any indigenous creatures that were in the immediate area are either scared off or killed by the incident; making it feel abnormally quiet for such a varied vegetation.

  A gray and purple mist saturates the remaining horizon between the trees and the canopy; dense from humidity as steam rises from the ground and visibility is low, far beyond the Phantom.

  Standing on the ground, P-T leaps on top of the ship in a single bound; taking advantage of the small planets low gravity. Surveying the ship, he sees an opening in the armor plating where the Phantom had been hit directly.

  Approaching the damage, he can see a three-foot-wide hole, blown completely through the armor plating; exposing the Phantom's interior mechanical systems. The edges of the hole are melted from the blast; rounding off the jagged perimeter of the damage. Stepping into the hole, P-T starts to work on the exposed mechanical systems.

  Meanwhile, back inside, Leliana and Rowan are no longer bloated after the Phantom's interior pressure regained back to normality. Livid, she puts the boy in their room.

  "Stay here and play with your games. Mommy has some work to do.", she says in a very stern tone; trying not to lash out at her son with the anger she has against P-T.

  She then goes to the cockpit and begins working on the consoles; cursing under her breath. "That son of a bitch. He wants to pull that kind of shit, then he's gonna get a fucking lesson."

  After a few hours of work, P-T finally calls it a day as the daylight diminishes. He heads back to the rear cargo ramp to re-enter the Phantom. However, it's not responding. Putting two and two together, P-T jumps back on top of the Phantom and slides down to the cockpit's viewports. Seeing Leliana in there still working on the consoles, he shouts at her, "Open the ramp."

  Startled, Leliana jumps in her chair grasping her chest, "Shit," with a resounding defiance, she answers back "NO!"

  Tired and exhausted from no sleep for nearly three days, P-T turns his head slightly to crack his neck; visibly annoyed to the fullest. He gives a cold, dead look at the woman and signals to her that she's going to be dead by dragging his hand across his neck like his cutting her throat.

  Knowing that this is not a bluff, she starts yelling at him through the glass, "Wait! Wait! Wait! All I wanna do is establish some ground rules if we can. Rule number one, you must decontaminate before exiting and entering the ship when you are on a new world!"

  However, her request was made in vain as P-T has already disappeared from view. Scared for her and child's life, she starts pounding on the viewport screaming for P-T to come back; doing this for several minutes but P-T remains unseen.

  She stops her efforts and sits back in the pilot’s seat; tears running down her face. Determined, she's wipes her tears away, snorts up the snot running down her nose. "Fucking maniac," she says under her breath. "Of all the people in the universe that could have came to help, we get stuck with this fucking nut."

/>   On the console, a low beep emits as the computer brings up the exterior airlock hatch's camera to view. In view of the camera, P-T is standing in front of the airlock hatch looking straight at the camera very angrily.

  Leliana, finished wiping off her tears, leaps out of her chair and goes to the airlock. She taps a few buttons on the panel, opening up the exterior airlock hatch. A quick blast of air rushes out of the room as the pressure equalizes; kicking up charred dust and foliage near the hatch.

  With a very agitated look, P-T hastily enters the airlock chamber; walking straight to the viewport of the interior hatch. Nearly touching it with his face, he glares at the woman with homicidal intent. The clear viewport fogs and recedes with each breath he takes; demonstrating the intensity of his adrenaline filled rage.

  Not backing down from her position, Leliana pleads her case. "You have to understand a few things about the passengers you carry. Now, I have no clue as to what you are. You look human, but clearly you have some supernatural abilities. ; we, meaning my son and I, DO NOT. We are very delicate, normal human beings. Meaning, we cannot be exposed to strange worlds without precautions. The dangers that both sides face could be overwhelmingly detrimental. Our ancestors found out the hard way when they first started to settle new worlds and millions of people died nearly killing the planet with them. So, to keep my son and I alive, you cannot enter until you've gone through decontamination. That's all I FUCKING ASK!"