Terminus Cycle

by Dave Walsh

  The thought was beyond horror -- it would be the end of Andlios if they could simply transport forces into the cities and towns. Ingen had yet to report these theories to Tyr and the warband just yet, out of fear of losing control. He knew these possibilities existed, but he had to be certain of it. Captain O’Neil had mentioned that this technology was still limited, that they were still unable to track it over long distances, nor could it be used if certain interference was present.

  The Krigan bunkers, for example, were carved deep into the ground, buried beneath tons of rock. The comm stations in these bunkers were closer to the surface, where there were only about a meter or so of rock cover. Otherwise signals would not be able to get through, or if they could, they would be extremely weak and broken up. No one would be able to transport into these bunkers, which was a small comfort, but there were millions of Krigans on the surface who still weren’t safe.

  Alva had volunteered to be the runner for communications between Captain O’Neil and Ingen. This meant that she’d traverse the wastelands in between Speera and the outpost to convey messages back and forth. Alva was aware of the dangers present, but she was able to navigate through the wastelands better than anyone else from the warband. When they reported back to Tyr in the evening, he had seemed hesitant about letting her do it, but Ingen was able to convince him of the importance of the mission.

  Without that intel, the Krigans would be ambushed, and their supply lines would be pillaged and eventually cut off. Never mind attempting to do the same to the Earth Ministry forces, the Krigans would be firmly on the defensive, which would just be a precursor to the end of the line. Without a way to be offensive, the Krigans would simply wither and die, eventually having to surrender to the vastly superior Earth Ministry forces. He knew that, and Tyr understood the gravity of the situation. So he offered his only daughter to travel between the Earth Ministry city of Speera and their stronghold countless times for the betterment of everyone else.

  The decision seemed asinine to Ingen. He knew how vital of a mission it was, but he also knew what Alva meant to Tyr. Alva was Tyr’s reason for living, even if he wouldn’t admit it. He looked at his daughter with tenderness, which was shocking from a man who was uniformly brutal and calculated. He always did his best to hide it, but to Ingen, it was very clear. It made his heart ache to see a father love his daughter like Tyr loved Alva, and it made him yearn to feel that kind of love again.

  His mind raced back to Kara. A part of him wanted to pity her, but he realized that he deserved some of that pity as well. Ingen had sacrificed part of his humanity to achieve his goals, only for everything to go wrong. He didn’t think that Jim Levine was that bad of a guy or that he deserved to die, but he was literally the only foothold that Ingen had to uncovering the truth.

  It was, of course, all in vain in the end, but they didn’t know that at the time. They didn’t know that the Fourth Fleet was awaiting their arrival, that war was waiting for them.

  He regretted having to hurt Kara. Maybe in another life, things could have worked out between them, but instead, everything got so messy along the way. Ingen admitted to himself that he missed her, that he had even taken her for granted.

  Ingen rolled over, turning off the overhead lamp and letting the darkness overcome him. Although he’d never admit it to any of the Krigans, he had missed being able to look out his window into the vastness of space over the past few cycles. A part of him yearned to once again be in his bunk, his quarters on board the Omega, staring off into the abyss and letting the darkness wash over him. This was as close as he could get now: sitting in the dark cave underground on Andlios. It was almost like he went from one cave to another in his life, which made him laugh.

  Captain O’Neil had given them intel on an upcoming attack being planned by Admiral Navarro. It was smaller in scale, mostly to be used as a distraction. The attack would be three units in the cover of night two nights from then. They would try to infiltrate the stronghold in the dark while a full battalion would be moving in for Krigar, the capital city of the Krigan war tribe that their stronghold was protecting.

  The wheels were put into motion as soon as Ingen and Alva had arrived back at the stronghold. Messages were sent to the surrounding warbands with examples of what their formations would usually look like. Ingen had argued that he should head into the city to help with the battle, but Tyr urged him to stay at the stronghold and to help them with their own issues. They would be sending many men out to defend the city, but only a select few were staying behind to defend the stronghold.

  Ingen drifted off to sleep, his mind awash in possibilities, in the future, in what he’d need to do to make all of this right. There was so much work to do.

  * * *

  “Can we really trust this O’Neil?” Alva sat at the foot of Ingen’s bed, staring down at her hands. It was early, and Ingen was still groggy.

  “What?”

  “Can we trust him?” She turned to Ingen, who was rubbing his eyes and letting out a loud yawn. “He is of the Banished, Ingen. He’s from Earth.”

  “So was I,” he said as he sat up and stretched his arms out. “I’m not that bad, am I?”

  She shook her head. “But you are Krigan now. He is not.”

  “Are you kidding? I was lucky that you were the one who found me that day when you did, Alva.” He stared off at the ceiling. He had shut out most of what had happened, but he remembered that the first face that he saw was Alva’s, soon followed by Øystein's, who was looking to take his head off and deliver it to Tyr. “You saved my life that day; you are the reason why I’m a Krigan at all.”

  “You have a warrior spirit, Ingen. You belong with us.”

  “Øystein didn’t think so,” he said. “Hell, I’m not sure if he believes that yet.”

  “Øystein is a brute,” she stated flatly. “He does as my father says, and he follows tradition. You bested him in combat, Ingen.”

  “Sure I did, but that hasn’t stopped him from grumbling about me, has it?”

  “That’s just how Øystein is. You know that he’s like an uncle to me. He knows that you are important to the Krigans, to our warband, to my father and to me. That is enough for him, even if he complains about it.”

  “I guess so,” he said.

  “But I’m not sure about this O’Neil.”

  “If you trust me, Alva, you can trust O’Neil. He saved my life, and he gave me another chance. Without him, I wouldn’t have been there for you to even save.”

  “Saving your life is one thing, but turning on his own people?”

  “I know that it seems far-fetched, Alva.” He threw the blanket back, putting his legs over the side of the bed and sitting next to Alva, both of them staring forward. “I used to hate O’Neil. He was a symbol of everything that I hated; he was in charge of the Omega Destiny, of the whole oppressive system. He represented everything that I was fighting against. Then I met him and realized that he had his own share of problems, that this system was just as oppressive to him as it was to me -- we were just in different positions.

  “He wants change, Alva. He wants peace. You and I both know that we can’t win this war. This isn’t even a war at all. This is a slaughter, and we are barely holding on here. They want to wipe us out completely. He’s an ally to us right now, which is very important. You are going to be the one who is running back and forth between Speera and here, which means that you’ll be interacting with him and his people.”

  “I guess.”

  “No, I know that. Look, Alva,” he began as he turned to look at her. It was late, so her hair was down, and there wasn’t as much dirt caked onto her face as usual. She almost looked like a girl for once. “This is asking a lot of you already, but you are a good judge of character. I have my beliefs already, but your opinions are just as important as mine. You’ll take in as much as you can about them, then report back to me. If you for any reason don’t trust them, you have to let me know. As much as I’d like to believe in h
im, this could be a setup.”

  “I can do that, Ingen,” she said.

  “Thank you, Alva. I trust Captain O’Neil, but someone could be manipulating him. I was able to uncover that his wife was cheating on him, and I handed the evidence over to him, but if Captain Navarro found out? I’m not sure. He’s capable of many things, most of them horrible from what I’ve seen.”

  “I still don’t understand why,” the girl said. “What have we done to them? Why do they need to hurt us like this?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, kid. If I had to make that guess, though, I’d say because we were in their way.”

  * * *

  “Tonight, my warband,” Tyr shouted from atop of a bench, arms outstretched, pulseaxe in hand. “We fend off the Banished while our brothers defend Krigar!”

  “We’ll mow them down with our axes, spare none of them,” Øystein boasted, getting cheers from the warriors among them.

  “Shouldn’t we be focused on defending Krigar, Tyr?” one of the men asked over the roars. “What is a stronghold if our great city falls?”

  “My friend,” Tyr said as he hopped down from the bench and walked over to him. “Am I not Tyr, leader of all Krigans?”

  “Yes,” he said. “You are, my lord.”

  “Then why would I be here, with you, if this was not important?” He turned to face the band of warriors assembled in the hall. “You see, my friends, our strength in this war comes not from just our great cities and from direct battle. Our strength is more than that -- our strength is being able to not just win a battle but to fight another day! Krigar will hold out, but this stronghold is just as valuable as Krigar is for the Krigan people!”

  “Then why so few of us?”

  “I’m glad that you asked, Tralgar. You see, we’ve received intel that tonight, a mere three units of enemies will lay siege to our stronghold, believing that they have given up bad intel to us from the few guards that we captured a few nights ago. They told us of a great attack coming down upon our stronghold, that Navarro would look to route us out, to destroy us stronghold by stronghold before focusing on our great cities.”

  “Then...”

  “But they lied!” he snarled. “Ingen has new intel. They plan to invade Krigar, hoping that we’ll gather our forces here for a showdown.”

  “Right,” Ingen asserted after waiting for the right time to speak. “We have it on good authority that this force will be minor; all that we have to do is hold them off for a few hours and make them think that we have gathered our forces here to brace for an attack.”

  “How do you suppose we do that?” Øystein growled. “If Tyr is only keeping 20 of us, how do we not just run out and wipe them all out?”

  “Good question,” he said, trying to be encouraging of Øystein and still fearing any little thing could set the brute off. “We are planning to have concentrations of our forces at the main choke points. We want them to see a horde of angry Krigans. Hell, we don’t even need to hold them off for hours -- we just need to show them that we have a huge force here and wait for them to send a signal. Then we can wipe them out.”

  “This is the great Ingen’s plan?” Øystein mocked out loud. “For us to sit and take fire from the Banished as decoys?” He spat on the ground in a rage.

  “Yeah, it is,” he replied. He stood toe to toe with Øystein, their chests touching. “Because this will lead their siege force into Krigar where our best men are waiting for them to wipe them out. This is how it is going to work. Ten men in front, five on each side. When I give the signal, the flanks dive in, and then you do whatever you want. That’s the plan.”

  “Get out of my face,” Øystein said as he pushed Ingen, who stood his ground, catching himself.

  “Do you have a problem with the plan, Øystein? If so, do you have one of your own?” Ingen asked sarcastically, refusing to back down.

  “No.” Øystein looked over at Tyr. He sighed then turned back to face Ingen. “There is no problem, Ingen.”

  “Good.” Ingen turned his back to the big man, feeling a huge rush of relief overcome him. All of the confidence in the world seemed to melt off of him when Øystein was in his face. He had to remain strong around him, though. Øystein was a valuable member of the warband and knew his place, even if he complained about it the whole way through. Gaining his respect meant gaining everyone’s respect.

  “Øystein,” Tyr called out. “Take three of your best, and take first watch. They should be here anytime now. The rest of you, try to get some rest while we wait. Tonight we show them once again what Krigans are made of!”

  A roar came from the men as Øystein and three others headed toward the front entrance. They were his lackeys -- they hung off of his every word -- but they were good warriors, and they were strong. Seeing the four of them saunter off made Ingen feel better about that night. These were the best Krigan warriors on Andlios whom he was down there with. Three units would be nothing for them. They would mow right through them when the time was right. He knew that.

  “Ingen,” Tyr called as he walked over to him. “You stood up to Øystein. Well done. He simply needs to be reminded of his place now and then; he needs to be shown force.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he replied as he nodded, his heart still racing. “Still a bit nerve-racking, though.”

  “You’ll get used to it,” he replied as he smacked him across the back. “Are our scanners set up to detect when they send a signal?”

  “Yeah.” He looked over at the equipment by the wall. “I’ve calibrated everything to coincide with their comm channels. We should not only be able to tell when they send the signal, but we should be able to decode it and hear exactly what they are saying.”

  “Good! This is what we needed.” He grew quiet, staring down at the consoles. “Ingen, I do hope that Alva is all right out there.”

  “I know. I’m worried about her, too,” he agreed, feeling uneasy about how they had sent her off into the wastelands earlier that day to rendezvous with Jack Dumas. “Not that we need to be worried about her but just -- I don’t know.”

  “It needed to be done,” Tyr added. “We need the intel. Sending her before the battle was our only option. If we had to wait, who knows how long we would have had to wait? Who knows how many guards would be out patrolling the wastelands? No,” he nodded, almost like he was trying to convince himself that it was the right choice. “This had to happen.”

  “I know, I know. I just wish that I could have gone with her.”

  “She is going to have to do this on her own, Ingen. If this arrangement is to work, I'm going to need you by my side. Every Krigan needs to help their warband in times of war. Alva will grow to be a strong warrior, I’m sure of that, but for right now, this is how she’s valuable to us.”

  “Yeah,” Ingen agreed as he swallowed hard, unable to shake the feeling. “You know, she’s like family to me now, Tyr. She’s like the little sister I never had.”

  “Good! Because you are the older brother Alva never had, just like you are the son I never had.”

  “Oh, bullshit,” Ingen said, shaking his head. “Stop with that.”

  “No, it’s true. After Alva’s mother passed away, I was in a dark place, Ingen. I was the leader of the Krigans -- the most powerful man on the planet, in fact -- but I found no joy in any of it. I watched Alva grow, I watched her turn into a woman, but I also saw her mother in her. I found myself unable to face her, unable to be the father that I needed to be. Then you came along. She found you in that life pod, and she cared for you like one would for a pet... no offense.”

  “None taken, I guess.”

  “Good,” he said. “A sense of humor is important, Ingen. Your arrival, the way that Alva cared for you, it showed me what I needed to do, what I wasn’t doing. Not only am I a better father for it, but I'm also a better leader. I’m happy to have you as a member of this warband, Ingen, and I consider you to be a part of this family as well.”

  “I’m honored, I re
ally am.” Ingen let it sink in. For a man like Tyr to express himself like that took a lot. The Krigans, especially Tyr, wouldn’t just talk about their feelings like that. “Do you always get this mushy before a battle, you big goof?”

  “See! Always with a sense of humor, I appreciate --”

  “Tyr!” one of his warriors shouted.

  “What is it, man?”

  “Øystein is reporting troops approaching.”

  “Good,” he declared as he hoisted his pulseaxe over his shoulder. “How many?”

  “Three units, as we predicted.”

  “Excellent.” He looked over at Ingen, who had moved into place at the console. “Ingen, you alert me as soon as they’ve made their transmission.”

  “Got it. Good luck out there.”

  “I’ve never needed luck, but be ready to pray for the souls of the men we are about the crush.”

  “Remember, just make them think that there are a lot of us. That’s it.”

  “Twenty Krigans should be able to wipe out six units without trouble, but only thirty of them?” Tyr said, gripping his pulseaxe tightly. “This will be practice for us.”

  Ingen was left alone at the comm station, monitoring for a signal sent from the attack squad. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of Krigans shouting, of shots being fired, and wanted nothing more than to rush out and to take out a few of the Earth Ministry soldiers with them. But he knew that his role was vital to not only defending the stronghold but for holding Krigar.

  He knew that there were security recording devices by the front entrance, but they weren’t on. He scrambled around before he pulled up the feed, seeing the Krigans hunkered down behind crates firing off shots, waiting for the signal to launch their all-out attack and wipe them out. There were ten on the front lines, in a tight formation to give the impression of there being more waiting in the wings. He knew that there were five on either flank in hiding, waiting for the signal to surround the Ministry forces and make them regret trying to push into the stronghold.