The Battle for the Ringed Planet

by Richard Edmond Johnson

  “Dead. A space fighter shot him.”

  “Oh …was that a good thing?”

  She hesitated, “I don’t know, I didn’t really want him to go out like that …” sighing, “… but he was cruel to me.”

  “I’m sorry you had a rough time.”

  Smiling in the dim light of her flashlight, she remarked, “You’re not so bad, all that tough girl stuff …”

  “Hey, I’m a marine, I have to be tough.”

  “I see,” Siiri relaxed the grip on her rifle.

  “So ...”

  “Yes?”

  “Then there’s Torian.”

  Siiri glanced away.

  “You two have been through a lot, fighting and stuff.”

  The girl was quiet.

  “He seems like a good guy, and believe me, I know fleet guys, most of the time they’re jerks.” She leaned over with a wry grin, “You like him.”

  “It doesn’t matter who I like. I have this affliction, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get cured. Anyway, he’s kind, that’s all. Well, caring, and thoughtful ...”

  “Don’t stop.” Torian leaned against the wall in the hallway, smiling and sipping a cup of coffee.

  The blue-eyed girl sighed, “Eavesdropper.”

  “Well, if you’re up, I’m going to crawl into my sleeping bag.” May rose and slung her rifle. She grinned at Torian while striding by.

  He sat against the wall on the opposite side of the door and swallowed some of his hot drink, “Awkward.”

  “Yes you are.”

  “Anything out there?”

  “Just darkness,” she glimpsed at the floor, averting his eyes.

  “We are going to find a cure.”

  “I hope so …” raising her head she watched him in the dim light, “I see the way you watch me, Torian.”

  Pausing, and taking another sip before he replied, “You’re very pretty.”

  “Even when I’m all dirty?”

  “You’re clean now.”

  Siiri got up and sat beside him, hesitating a little, “I know it’s hard to talk about, Torian, and I heard a little from your nightmare, but what happened to Tristan … and you?”

  “Yeah, it’s hard to talk about.”

  Placing her hand on his, she moved a little closer, “I care about you. I can be a friend if you need to talk.”

  Glancing down at her hand in the shadowy light, he turned to stare into her eyes, “Shrinks couldn’t get it out of me, and they got so mad they put me back on active duty.”

  Maybe it was her warm expression, or her round azurite eyes that captivated him, but he let out a long sigh, “Well …we tunneled into this system. It was supposed be a probe hunt, nothing more, but it was bad intel. There was an Imperium fleet, 8 battle cruisers and we were right in the middle of them. Tristan and I had been in tight spots before, but this was it, no way out. Solvairs, must have been a hundred, surrounded us, boxing us in. Hawkeyes are more advanced than any recon ship they have, so they wanted us and the ship intact.”

  He turned away and put down his coffee mug, “We tried to break out. We dumped both our tunnel pods and exploded them to make a gap, and tried to run for it. Without a tunnel pod we couldn’t leave the system…Tristan said we’d figure out something. But they blew out our shields, and then …” he choked and his hand trembled under hers.

  “It’s all right, Torian,” she squeezed his fingers.

  “Aye …” he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, “They hit us in the cockpit and blew Tristan apart …”

  Rubbing his arm, consoling, she whispered, “You don’t have to …”

  “No, there’s more Siiri. We had been heading for a moon. We could outrun Solvairs without our pods. I started to nose dive, I was going to end my life and deny them the Hawkeye.”

  “Oh, Torian …”

  “But I couldn’t, and pulled up at the last minute. The Hawkeye spun on the dust surface, but remained mostly intact, so I survived.”

  “They took you prisoner?”

  “Yeah,” he slowly exhaled, “you know in those holos where the hero won’t talk no matter how they torture him?”

  “I’ve seen some like that.”

  “That’s all crap. If you didn’t talk, they executed you on the spot. They made me watch them cut up some marine officer with lasers. Then they beat me and stripped me and threw me on a table with that marine’s blood still on it. The lasers were slow had something that increased the pain. They did my back a bit to show me what it was like, then they told me they were going to cut things off, starting between my legs, so I told them everything.”

  “That’s horrible, Torian … but you had to tell them.”

  “I know, but they recovered the Hawkeye and made me show them all the controls and scanning equipment. There was another LRRS prisoner and he confirmed everything. They kept us in the same cell. We were different from the other prisoners because we were technologists. The others … well, they became slaves, the women prostitutes, and some to the arena to fight to the death.”

  “You’re not there, Torian. It’s all behind you.” Then she pressed closer, “How did you get free?”

  “There was a prisoner exchange, each one of us was worth a hundred of theirs. The other guy, I can’t even remember his name, when he got back, walked out of an airlock.”

  “I’m sorry you had such an awful time.”

  He examined the girl next to him, “You’re the only one I’ve ever told. Don’t tell anyone else, especially the grunt in the other room.”

  “You know I won’t.”

  “Thanks Siiri, I guess we’ve both had it rough.”

  “Then we need to help each other.”

  “Aye … we do.”

  Chapter 14: The Lost Ones

  Bright morning rays lit up the land around the tower, and spilled a little into the rock formations below the escarpment. The road led down into dusty obscurity.

  “Foot prints.” May knelt beside tracks near the door that leading away and down into a land of desolation. They had finished breakfast and strapped on their gear.

  “Con is useless.” Torian sighed in frustration.

  “They’re not military boots.” Siiri added, touching Torian’s arm.

  “No, if they were Imperium they would have blasted the door, shot us to pieces, and raped our body parts.”

  “You have such a succinct way with words, Space Jockey …”

  “He tells it like it is.” Siiri grinned at May who rolled her eyes.

  Torian bent over and picked up a smooth round rock, “Well, someone threw this at the door.”

  Both May and Torian glanced at Siiri, and he directed his words to her in a soft voice, “Tell us about the Lost Ones.”

  “Um …” she bit her lip, “I don’t know what’s true and just stories Father Jarlan told us when we were kids.”

  “Well, anything is better than nothing.” he glanced over the escarpment at the tall rocks protruding from the brown dusty haze.

  “All I know is that they are other survivors, and they are what I may become. They’re very dangerous.”

  May peered warily down the road that made a sharp incline downwards into the strange land before them and placed her rifle butt on her hip, “Let’s hope they don’t have plasma rifles.”

  “No, but before I was born my uncle led an expedition to explore the lands south of the city. Maybe 20 seasoned hunters. They were never heard of again.”

  Torian shook his Con, “Well, Jarlan said the facility was down there somewhere. So let’s head out.” He glanced at Siiri who nodded back with a nervous expression.

  The road down the ridge sloped sharply and the loose gravel did not help with their footing, but they got down without slipping. There was light enough to see without flashlights near the edge of the darkness caused by the rings, and it was calm in the morning so there were few dust devils, but still a brown haze. The stone pillars were round and ten or twenty meters high, igneous rock le
ft over when the winds carved away the sandstone. They were plentiful and their shadows long and eerie on the sandy gravel road.

  “It’s getting darker.” Siiri whispered.

  “I don’t like these rock things, the road curves around them.” May commented.

  Glancing at the blonde girl, Torian motioned, “Point your rifle the other way, Siiri, so we have the right side covered.”

  “Ok, Torian.”

  Sunlight, mostly blocked by the rings above, streamed through gaps between the ice and frozen crystal in space forming eerie rays that allowed some limited visibility. Still, it was dark enough that a few moments later Torian snapped on his flashlight, though the dusty haze was like a thick brown fog. Siiri spit out the gritty taste of the dust and May pushed up her helmet visor.

  “Can’t see much through the visor, even on all settings, but my Con is working again.” she announced from the rear, “12 clicks to your coordinates.”

  “Mine too, no, wait, cut out.” Torian sighed, “And my prox shield.”

  A dust devil swirled around him in the darkness and Siiri called when she lost sight of him, “Torian!”

  “Right here, take my hand. May …”

  “I got her. Here, put it on Torian’s back, and I’ll put mine on yours.”

  With his flash light attached to his rifle brightening the gravel road he was able to keep on the path while Siiri clutched his shoulder.

  “What was that?” Siiri suddenly stopped.

  “What?” Torian leveled his rifle.

  “I saw something.”

  “Nothing on my Con,” May reported.

  “Just shadows from the dust.” he shined the light on the road, “Wait, foot prints …”

  Out of the brown fog, with streams of dust trailing, something swung a heavy object at Torian, striking him in the shoulder first then bouncing to his head. The young man grunted and collapsed to his knees, dropping his rifle and clutching his head.

  “Torian!” Siiri screamed.

  Instantly May, with her combat armor and weapon at the ready was beside Siiri, “Did you see it?” She did not wait for the blonde girl and pulled the trigger on her assault rifle, but nothing happened.

  “Dammit! Stoppage!” she shook the rifle and selected the reset button and aimed again, but again nothing.

  Siiri was kneeling next to Torian holding his bloody head while he moaned and started to slip out of consciousness. Then a figure appeared, holding a large metal club. It was a young man with tattered pants and an open thick black shirt. Siiri gasped. His eyes glowed bright yellow.

  The strange man raised the club over his head to finish Torian but May was faster. Her marine training had taught her to react instantly, and the tall muscular woman charged at the stranger and deflected his club with her rifle, then she shoved the butt forward and connected with the man’s jaw sending teeth and blood flying. May tried the trigger again and two more times, as the bizarre male staggered back. Then, finally, the rifle fired, killing the injured assailant instantly.

  May stepped back and knelt beside Siiri who cradled Torian’s limp form in her arms. The side of his head was bright red; her hand covered in his blood as she tried to stop the bleeding.

  The female marine yanked at Siiri’s webbing and pulled off a small square brown object, “Compress.” She handed it to the blonde girl as they both heard footsteps on the gravel road.

  Quickly examining her Con, which was still working, she reassured Siiri, “The gash on his head looks worse than it is. Head wounds bleed more. He has a mild concussion, get him awake, we have company!” she jumped to her feet as two figures appeared, a man and a woman, and with ragged cloths and messy hair they looked like vagabonds, except their eyes glowed.

  The man had some sort of stick with a round stone on top and using it like a lever, whipped the object directly at May. It struck with full force on her chest knocking her back. The woman had a spear and charged at aiming it low for Torian’s body. Siiri grabbed her rifle and aimed to fire, but it did not work.

  Jumping to her feet, the blonde girl used the rifle to deflect the spear jab from the wild woman. May, protected from the rock by her chest armor, but recovering from the shock of the impact, regained her footing just as the man charged her and they began to grapple. He was strong and fast but the Dragon Marine was bigger and shoved him hard backwards. She then aimed the rifle, but again it failed. Using the butt again, she struck hard and cracked the man’s ribs. Then, with a final blow, used the end of the rifle on his head and broke his skull. Siiri’s rifle fired and the attacking woman staggered back clutching her abdomen.

  “These rifles only work part of the time, like our Cons.” May stood watching the road with her flashlight.

  Siiri immediately returned to the injured young man and began to wrap the compress on his head, “Wake up Torian!”

  “More coming …nothing on my Con! Just us!” May announced grimly, then angrily “I’ve had enough of this!” she pulled a round green object from a pouch on her webbing.

  “Frag out!” the dark haired helmeted marine called out and threw the grenade far ahead and then ducked next to Torian and Siiri. A loud bang sounded with cries of anguish and debris raining down on the two women and wounded man. Then silence.

  “That should keep them for a bit.” then May grabbed Torian’s backpack straps as Siiri finished wrapping his head with the bandage, “Let’s get him behind that rock pillar.” the tall woman began to drag the stricken flight specialist.

  “Careful May, please.”

  When they were behind the rock May glanced apprehensively in the darkness shining her light and rifle towards the road, “What are those people?”

  “I imagine the Lost Ones. They always told us to stay away from the Outlawed Lands.”

  “Their eyes glow like yours!” May accused.

  “It’s not like that with me!”

  “For now!” May sighed and Siiri winced.

  Torian moaned and May reached for her medical kit on her webbing and pulled out a small red tube, “I’ll give him a stim.”

  “What will that do?”

  “It will wake him.” she placed the tube against his neck and pushed the button at the other end. No sound was heard and May tossed the tube away, “Give him a minute or two.” she checked her Con and watched the road with her flashlight.

  There was a moment of silence and then Siiri whispered, “Wake up Torian. Please wake up.”

  “We should go back, we can report to our lines, get reinforcements.”

  “But we’ve come this far …”

  The wounded young man moaned and then slowly opened his eyes, “Crap. What hit me?”

  “Some of her friends,” May quickly replied.

  “They’re not my friends!” then she glanced down at Torian “Don’t sit up yet, take it slow.” she held his hand.

  “All right …” he felt the side of his head.

  “Rifles don’t work properly,” May informed Torian while Siiri pulled out her water bottle.

  “Who’s out there.” he tried to sit up despite Siiri’s protests.

  “People, but not like us, wild, with glowing eyes like her.” May pointed.

  Torian drank from Siiri’s bottle, “Did the voices come again, Siiri?”

  “No, I think Kayla is mad at me.”

  “Ok, help me up …”

  “We have to go back, Torian, you’re in no condition …” May started.

  “No.” he held onto to Siiri for support, “Ow that hurts.” He rubbed his head.

  “You don’t know how many … more of those Lost Ones are waiting, and without weapons…” May sighed.

  Holding on to Siiri’s shoulder, he teetered a bit, and then straightened out. Torian tried to take a step but his knees buckled and the blonde girl grabbed him.

  “See, you can’t even walk.”

  “Well, I can’t walk back then, either. Give me a little more time.” He reached for his own medical kit and pulled out a
blue tube similar to the one May had used on him earlier.

  “You shouldn’t take that with the stim I gave you, especially with a head injury!”

  “Those people out there will do worse if I don’t.” he stuck the tube in his arm and pressed the button at the end and the effect was almost instantaneous and he sighed, closing eyes.

  “Now you’re going to be high.”

  “What is it?” Siiri voiced concern.

  “A very potent pain killer, and combined with the stim, he’ll be babbling nonsense!”

  “Not me… I think.” Torian grinned while his eyes rolled back.

  “Oh great! Can you walk?” Siiri helped him up and he took a few steps.

  “I think … I need a shoulder …you’ll have to lead, May.”

  She cursed, “Ai son teen!” and then sighed.

  “I hear Dragons say that a lot.”

  “Especially around Space Jockeys.”

  “They must be jealous.”

  “Kwai.”

  “You’re lucky my Con’s out so I can’t translate.”

  May took the point on the road as Siiri held Torian in the faint light passing several bodies.

  “Did you do any of that, Siiri?” Torian noted the plasma wounds on a couple of the dead.

  “Yes she did.” May confirmed while sweeping the road with her flashlight.

  “May did most of it. Don’t make me look or I’m going to be sick.”

  “Sorry you had to, Siiri.”

  “It was necessary, Torian.”

  There were no attacks or interruptions over the next couple of hours and Torian became stronger walking on his own and eventually taking point again. They heard movement a few times and even sighted shadowy figures, but nothing came of it. May was hoping their show of force made their enemies think twice about attacking. At noon, they sat against a rock pillar and opened their rations. Siiri checked Torian’s bandage and it had become all bloody so she got out another compress. Torian took out a clear ointment and dabbed it on the gash while Siiri applied the bandage. It was only a 2 centimeter cut and not to deep, but a lump of swelling had formed and his shoulder was badly bruised when the blonde girl pulled down his flight suit to examine it.

  After lunch, they set out with Torian stronger and more confident, covering ground faster. His Con worked off and on but May’s and Siiri’s quit all together. Torian led with his rifle ready and flash light illuminating the road as they marched for another hour or so.