by Barlow,M
The Commander of the force darted to a helicopter to evacuate the sinking vessel.
Mara continued to rip through the vessel as he jumped inside the helicopter and it took off. She glided beside the chopper and tore off the side panel with her hands.
He looked at her hands in terror—somehow more scared of her appearance than the torn panel.
She pulled his body out of the helicopter just before it plunged onto the deck of the carrier, exploding.
Mara grabbed his neck with her left hand as she floated in the air. To his credit, the Commander didn’t scream once the entire time.
“Any last words?”
“Go to hell!”
She chuckled. “Not exactly a punishment, I’m energy based.”
He reached for a gun on his waist. One that would explode with a bang but wouldn’t leave a scratch on her armor if it penetrated her defensive shield.
“A commander belongs with his army.”
With her right hand, Mara pushed a power wave as she released his neck. The wave knocked his body back a few meters before he dropped into the water. His body only caused a small splash.
Mara stared at the battlefield. For a moment, it reminded her of her destroyed world. She closed her eyes and drifted in the air.
*****
Mara landed next to the Australian government building minutes after the battle and joined the Queen inside while her sisters took care of the cleanup.
“It’s done,” Mara said.
“What’s done?” A lady asked.
Mara’s eyes narrowed, examining her. The lady was fair-skinned with red hair and sky-blue eyes. “Who are you?”
The Queen intervened. “She is the Commander of the Army, Jackie Wheeler.”
“We’ve destroyed their invasion force,” Mara said, her tone cold.
“Did you kill them?” Jackie asked.
This would take a while, and she had no patience for the relentless questions. Mara pressed a few buttons on her wrist piece to replay a record of the short battle in the space between them.
When it was over, Jackie’s face color matched her hair, and her nostrils flared. A sign of anger as opposed to the look of gratitude Mara expected.
“This is brutal,” Jackie said.
Mara smiled. “Thank you!”
“Not a compliment. They will retaliate to avenge their people.”
“And we’ll be here,” Mara said and stared her down. “They attacked, we responded, what’s the issue?”
“Things are different on Earth. You can’t scorch the ground every time there is a threat.”
Mara didn’t want to argue. She ignored Jackie, but the minister was persistent.
“We have human rights,” Jackie said. “Even at times of war. I understand you come from another world with different rules for combat, and you must be struggling to cope after what had happened to your planet—”
“We had to send a clear message to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And I know you’ve violated those rules in the past when it suited you to extract information or save innocent lives.”
The Queen motioned her to stop. “I understand you want to be civil, Jackie, and I know you fear repercussions, but we don’t have this luxury. They were armed soldiers not innocent civilians. If we hadn’t stopped them, they would’ve leveled your cities. Now, we can spend our precious time debating whether what we did was right or wrong, or we can prepare to face an enemy that’s far more powerful and far more ruthless, than what you just witnessed here.”
A shade of blue flushed her mother’s face.
Mara examined the Queen’s features and a terrifying, distant memory flashed in her head.
Before she could read into it, the Prime Minister interfered. “What do you have in mind?”
“Your technology isn’t far behind,” the Queen said. “We can help you refine it and enhance your personnel. We’ll teach you how to travel into deep-space in case we need to take the fight to them.”
“That’s very generous. What do you need?” The PM asked.
“Access to your personnel and a large, isolated area with manufacturing facilities where we can work uninterrupted.”
The PM nodded. He exchanged looks with Jackie before he spoke to the Queen. “Western Australia has plenty of room.”
“How about the United States?” Mara asked.
“I have to consult the president about the logistics, but we’re onboard,” the Secretary of State, Jessica White, said and glanced at Mara.
The Queen smiled. “Good, you’re a force to be reckoned with from what Mara told me.”
“If you can transport your soldiers here, they can train with the Australian soldiers,” Mara said.
“Sure,” Jessica said. “You think that’ll be enough?”
“It’s hard to say,” the Queen said. “We don’t know how many of their ships survived. We must prepare as fast as we can and hope it will be enough.”
The Queen paused and pointed toward her. “Mara is a combat expert. She will enhance and train your men. Shara is our engineer. She will help you build the new generation of airships and transform your machinery and weaponry. Alissara and my pilots will train your pilots.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed. “Will you have enough time to enhance the Australian Army and move to the US to do the same thing?”
Her mother nodded. “My plan is to start the process, build infrastructure, and train Australian personnel. Once your soldiers are trained, we’ll leave everything in their hands and move to the US.”
“That’ll take years,” Jessica said.
Mara glared at her. “No, it will take two months of hard work. Enhanced soldiers learn faster.”
“There is one more thing,” Jackie, the Australian Minister, said. “When do we announce your arrival?”
“We’re ready now,” the Queen said.
“With all due respect,” Jessica said and waved her hand. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We should keep it quiet, do what must be done, and once everything is settled, announce your existence to the world.”
“I disagree,” Jackie said. “We can’t cover everything that’d happened up to this point. People are asking questions, and some of them know.”
“That’s what the CIA is good at,” Jessica said. “If you’re onboard, Queen Carilia, I will have them chase loose ends, give explanations for what happened, and run a large cover-up campaign. People will find out when we’re ready.”
The Queen looked at Mara before she announced her decision. “You know your people better than we do. I trust your judgment.”
*****
Western Australia
December 24, 2030
Mornings were bright, afternoons were very hot, and nights brought a cool breeze and mosquitoes. That summed up the weather for the last seven days Mara spent on the Western Australia army base. Today wouldn’t be any different.
It was early in the morning, but the sun flooded the desert as it did at midday in Reno. Mara glanced at the sun before she was forced to look away. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth. Weather extremes on Earth manifested to a degree beyond what she was used to. They didn’t have snow on Korr, nor did they have scorching summer days.
She finished the set up yesterday. A week after the battle on the East Coast. It took Shara two days to adapt Korr’s programming to humans’ brains. Today, Mara would start the soldiers’ enhancement process. She crossed the wide, open space that separated the enhancement hall from their wing on the base. It used to be a training room, she was told, but it was the right size, so she decided to use it.
The hall was empty except for ten chairs made of one piece of crystal material. Mara switched on the power for the chairs and bent down next to the first chair to check the connection.
First, she checked the sturdy, cubic base to make sure it was bolted to the floor. Mara opened the small compartment on the side and examined the power cables that came out of the base and crawled to the ba
ck wall.
Next, she moved to inspect the thin, curved body where the soldiers would sit. There were no damage or defects. Mara stood up and inspected the top part—half a hollow sphere that would provide a comfortable space for the head—and the short plate that connected the head to the body.
Thin, green veins ran through the chair under the crystal surface. They transmitted the energy and data between the computer in the base and the rest of the chair. None of them were exposed or damaged.
An army officer entered the hall. The commander of the base had tasked him to help her, and he’d come in handy more than once. The officer stood by the door with a tablet in his hand.
“Line up the soldiers, and send them in, ten at a time,” Mara said.
He nodded and left the hall. A few minutes later, he returned. “They’re ready.”
Mara had finished the inspection. She motioned him to let in the first wave. To her surprise, he stood straight and saluted. Then the commander of the base, General Gabriel Wu, sauntered into the hall.
He wore a heavy camouflage uniform, a hat, and boots. In two hours, he would sweat the liquids in his body unless he sticks to the shade.
“Do you mind if I witness the process firsthand?”
“Not at all.”
She motioned the officer by the door, and he led ten soldiers inside and had them sit in the chairs.
“I’m glad you chose WA to do your work,” Gabriel said.
Mara checked the soldier to make sure they were secured in their seats.
“After seeing you fight I can’t wait to see what my soldiers can do after you train them.”
The soldiers were ready for enhancement. Mara walked to a panel past the last chair on the right and pushed a few buttons to start the process. The chairs buzzed, and the green veins in the chairs glowed.
“It’s not the traditional combat you’re accustomed to,” Mara said. “It doesn’t rely on physical strength. The chairs won’t teach your men hand to hand combat. This process targets the brain.” She walked back to stand next to Gabriel.
“We always used martial arts.”
“As did we, thousands of years ago. But when we reached the limits of our physical fitness, we studied our brains to unlock their full potential. Over time, we perfected our technique.”
“Technique?”
Normally, she’d ask him to have a chat with Shara who would explain everything in great detail. But the enhancement process was time-consuming, and she had nothing better to do.
“Much like ours, your brains communicate to the rest of your body with minuscule energy pulses, generated by nerve cells. We’ll amplify these pulses, and your men will control the outside world the way they control their limbs. These chairs are advanced computers that’ll activate their brains. They work to amplify the brainwaves outside the body in the form of power waves, or telekinesis as you call it.”
“How long does it take?”
Some of the chairs had finished the first phase of the process and initiated phase two. Mara inspected the vitals of the soldiers to make sure they’re fine.
“An hour.”
“That long?”
“It’s an intricate process,” Mara said. “The device maps the brain before it activates underutilized areas in the brain. Then it amplifies the brain activity.”
Gabriel rubbed his chin and stared out of the open door. “We need more chairs.” His voice was soft as if he was talking to himself.
Mara shrugged and continued to check the soldiers’ vitals. “It’s a start. Once your government sees what the enhanced soldiers can do, I’m sure they will have no problem funding an expansion.”
“I hope so. These enhancements, are they identical?”
“No, every brain wiring is unique. This process amplifies the brain’s natural strengths, but there are general enhancements every soldier acquires like speed, recovery, strength, and telekinesis. Usually, one shines more than the others.”
The commander gaped at the soldiers’ faces through the glass spheres as if they were monsters that’d come to take his life.
“Do you worry that some of those natural strengths shouldn’t be amplified?”
Mara smiled. Her mother told her humans feared the unknown more than they feared death. “That’s why the chair maps the brain first to make sure the soldiers are fit mentally. It will reject—”
A loud monotonous tone interrupted her. She darted toward the chairs and unbuckled the men.
“Stay put until you recover.”
The soldiers opened their eyes. They were disoriented at first, but it didn’t take them long to recover. One of the soldiers managed to stand up before he collapsed in the chair. Within minutes, the ten soldiers stood up facing her.
Mara waved her hand in a quick motion and launched a small, metal ball from her hand toward one of the soldiers.
Gabriel almost snapped his neck when he tried to follow the ball and the soldier who dashed to catch it. He was speechless while Mara gave him an I-told-you-so smile.
“Let’s see what you can do,” Mara said, facing the soldiers.
She exited the hall into the open space outside and motioned the enhanced soldiers to follow her. She blasted off into the air.
Mara punched through the air with her fists in quick succession. The soldiers stood still. Her power waves sent them flying in the air before they dropped to the ground.
The attack didn’t slow them down. They shot to their feet as soon as their bodies hit the ground and retaliated with small power waves.
Mara moved to the side to avoid their attacks. More waves chased her. Bigger waves. She avoided some waves, and her armor blocked the rest. With her free hand, she pushed them. She slammed their bodies against each other and against the sand.
Again, they recovered and launched a more vicious attack. Power waves surrounded her. They were fast, and they would get faster with training.
Mara activated her shield which absorbed their attacks. Her eyes glowed. She sent huge power waves, rendering the ten soldiers unconscious.
Mara landed and hovered into the reconditioning hall. She motioned the officer at the door as she slipped past him. “Next wave.”
Ten more soldiers walked into the hall and sat down on the chairs. Mara examined them and asked them to relax in their seats.
“They were no match for you,” Gabriel said.
“I know. They need training,” Mara said and started the enhancement process for the second wave. She strolled outside the hall. “Let me show you something.”
He followed her outside in reluctant steps.
The enhanced soldiers were still on the ground, but they were conscious. Mara hovered to their spot and landed next to them. “Pick a soldier.”
Gabriel pointed to one of the soldiers.
“Let’s see how he fares against one of your army units,” Mara said.
Gabriel’s eyebrows lifted. “Do you really think a lone soldier can hold his own against a unit? That’s suicide.”
Mara smiled. Confidence beamed from her bright eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll advise him to spare their lives.”
Gabriel chuckled. “That’s an easy wager. I wish I can put money on it?”
Mara’s smile widened and turned into a loud laugh. “I don’t feel right, taking your money, Commander. Alissara told me you have two kids in college.”
Gabriel frowned and instructed his first officer to prepare a hundred soldiers for a drill.
Mara motioned the enhanced soldier—the one Gabriel picked—to approach. The soldier was nervous.
She smiled to comfort him. “What’s your name?”
“Nate.”
“Listen to me, Nate,” Mara said, and held his shoulders. “All you have to do is listen to what your mind is telling you. The world around you will respond to your thoughts now like you’ve never experienced. You had a taste of what you can do. This time, put your heart into it. But, do not kill anyone. I can do many things, but I can’t
revive the dead.” She explained to the soldier how his new powers worked and gave him a few tips.
Minutes later, Mara stood next to Gabriel in front of the base. On their left was Nate. On their right, the unit. One man against a hundred soldiers in full tactical gear with two airships, five tanks, and five helicopters.
Gabriel fired his gun, and the fight started.
*****
Nate ran toward the unit and picked up speed as he closed in on them. His strides were stable, wide, swift. He wasn’t afraid anymore. They, too, closed in on him. Once he was in range, they didn’t hold back. Missiles, bombs, and lasers rained from the land and the sky and melted the area around him. Deafening sounds filled the area.
She examined the look of sorrow on Gabriel’s face as if he could see the soldier’s dead body beyond the dust and the smoke.
Mara smiled. “Have faith.”
One of the tanks got knocked back a few meters. Another got smashed as if a ten-ton rock fell from the top of a mountain and landed on it. The helicopters didn’t fare much better. Nate released a power wave after another, taking them out.
Nate turned his attention to the tanks again. He buried two of them. Then he punched through the air with both his fists to knock the remaining tank back at least thirty meters.
The two airships fired heavy rounds and missiles toward him. They forced him to run for his life. They followed him and continued their massive campaign to destroy the desert near the base and wear him down in the process.
Nate circled around, creating a miniature sandstorm. He jumped toward one of the airships. He held onto the door with his right hand. His left sent a power wave that destroyed the door before he disappeared inside the airship.
For a while, nothing happened. Then the airship spiraled down. It touched the ground and crawled on the sand for fifty meters before it stopped.
The remaining airship held their fire not to damage the first one. Once they located him, leaving the ship, they opened fire. He darted out of their fire zone. His left hand covered his face. His right hand sent power waves into the air over and over again.
The airship jerked back and forth between the power of the engine and his power waves. He threw them off their game. Before they knew what was happening, he jumped inside the second airship. A minute later, it landed, and he exited from the side door.
