The Lost Tribe (Sentinel Series Book 2)

by Richard Flunker

  “So, how are we going to find that Vahe, then?” he asked.

  “Maybe they might know, back at Ama Owenose,” Blue Flower explained. “The tribe of threads has a tower there.”

  “Ok. Fine,” Gheno said, exasperated. “Cove, can you get us there?”

  The AI confirmed with a chirp in his ear.

  “Why do you continue to talk to the box?” Blue Flower asked, looking around. “Do you truly talk to ghosts?”

  “Sure, why not?” he said, looking down at a console. “Not that it doesn’t make any more sense than what you guys do.”

  “We do not talk with ghosts,” she said plainly.

  “That’s the one thing you don’t do,” he laughed.

  Karai walked into the pilot’s cabin. “Cove just gave me the heads up. The black spheres are going to be entering the atmosphere very soon. What are we going to do?”

  Gheno looked down at the console again and brought up the map Cove had been working on. The drones they had dispensed out into the planet had been working on mapping the local continent. He drew a line with his finger between their location and the coastal city.

  “Looks like we can be there in twenty minutes or so,” Gheno said.“Cove, can you get any kind of open COMs back with the Alliance ship?”

  “They are on lockdown. No coms open. I tracked them for a while, but I lost them beyond the horizon.”

  Blue Flower rushed up to the main window and pointed up at the sky. In the distance, the darkness of night was beginning to clear up for the dawn. The sky was clear, with very few clouds. The moons that had shone so brightly just two days ago were now gone. Instead, multiple smaller moons had taken their place. Karai walked up next to Blue Flower and looked up.

  “Um, Gheno.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I have opticals on them now. It’s our old friends of the circle-y kind.”

  Gheno switched screens and zoomed in on the image of the black spheres reflecting the three sun’s light. There were several large spheres but directly behind them all was one far larger sphere.

  “Cove, trajectory?” Gheno shouted out.

  “Computing. Time please.”

  “We’re not gonna have much time,” Gheno said. “Dammit Sentinel.”

  The Lion transport sped off towards the coastal city. Inside the ship, the Threadweaver continued to babble incoherently. Blue Flower had initially been excited to see the new moons, but when Gheno explained what they were, she grew silent. Gheno kept updating the images to try to get a better view, but they were simply that: black spheres.

  “Hey, look at that,” Karai pointed out.

  The images now showed a haze, a cloud, departing from the black spheres. They watched the cloud speed off towards the horizon behind them.

  “Unless they change route, trajectory has them landing in the ocean just outside of the city,” Cove chimed into Gheno’s ear.

  “If, and when…” Gheno scratched his chin, “what are we supposed to do?”

  “The stories say that the dark spirits come because they hate life.”

  Karai and Gheno both turned around at Blue Flowers somber voice.

  “They came from the dark reaches of the web, and have ever looked for our home, our Gadoni. They wish to end all life here because our life here is special.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen them hate life,” Gheno said softly.

  “But we have the wolf, the bear, and the eagle. The prophecy says they would show up at the darkest time to lead us.”

  “Cute story,” Karai chimed in. “I’d prefer if we had weapons. Last I checked this hunk of junk has none.”

  Blue Flower looked back up at Karai. “We are not helpless. We are great warriors. If they take our lives, it will be at the cost of their dark blood.”

  “Hmmm….a fight,” Gheno said under his breath. Blue Flower turned to him.

  “You have the eye of a warrior. You will fight with us, right?”

  Gheno caught her gazing into her dark green eyes and then turned away quickly. “We need Sentinel.”

  “We need a big gun,” Karai said.

  The transport landed at the same pad that it had been at initially. Gheno opened the hatch and Blue Flower stepped out. The dawn was growing brighter and the invaders had grown in size in the blue sky. Cove had let him know that they would be entering the atmosphere in ten minutes. Their trajectory hadn’t changed.

  “Our people will be ready. Go find your Vahe, go find your ghost,” Blue Flower said, looking up at Gheno.

  He looked back down at her and for a moment, he nearly forgot why he was there. A strange delusion ran through his head. He would rush out and fight alongside the beautiful maiden, guns a-blazing. Then he recollected himself and shook his head.

  “What do I do with the old guy in there?” he asked.

  “When he is finished dreaming, he will talk,” she said. Then she turned and ran off towards the city. Gheno watched her until he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  “Stared enough?” Karai asked. “We need to get out of here.”

  Gheno followed Karai back inside of the ship, nearly tripping over the Threadweaver. He sat back down on the Captain’s chair.

  “We have to do something,” Gheno thought out loud.

  “This is a transport. We don’t have any weapons,” Karai pleaded. “We just have to get out of here. It’s not even our fight.”

  “I think maybe it is,” Gheno said. “You know, one time, Kale and I used this transport as a platform against some pirates.”

  “What are you thinking?” Karai asked.

  “I'm thinking we have to do something to help, at least until this old guy wakes up,” Gheno said. He told Cove to put the ship back into the air. They sped past the spiraling towers and towards the western side of the city. He had the ship turned to face out towards the ocean just as they caught the view of the first spheres entering the atmosphere.

  “Wow,” Karai uttered.

  The spheres burned bright white as they crashed into the atmosphere. The dawn suddenly grew bright. Deafening explosions ripped through the sky as four now blindingly white spheres came crashing down in to the ocean. Water exploded in all directions, sending large waves crashing into the coast. Many of the waves came crashing far onshore, tearing down trees and buildings alike.

  The four spheres landed in a perfect square, followed by the giant sphere. This one came in much slower, landing directly on top of the four spheres. They formed a giant pyramid miles out from the shore. Karai and Gheno watched in horror as the tsunami waves rushed inland. What they could see were the trees waving back and forth under the rush of water. Karai looked back at Gheno.

  “I hope she wasn’t out in that.”

  “No matter now,” Gheno said, pointing out the window, then tapping a screen on his console. “Something’s coming out of them.”

  The two smaller spheres facing out towards coast began to flatten out a bit. They formed a slanted slope almost like a hoof, with two halves. From the opening in the middle, hundreds of smaller black objects began skimming out over the water, headed towards the shore. Gheno zoomed in his opticals. They were almost saucer-shaped, and they were spinning as they made their way towards the flooded city.

  “Cove? Sensors? Anything?”

  “Gheno, the objects are saucers,” the AI responded.

  “I can see that, Cove. Tell me anything about them,” Gheno shouted.

  “I cannot. I have insufficient information,” Cove continued.

  “Then get information. We need to know how to fight these things,” Gheno ordered.

  “There's too many of them,” Karai said. She had sat down on the forward console and was doing her own sensor readings.

  “Screw this,” Gheno said. “I'm not going down without a fight.”

  Gheno took the ship forward and flew really close, just above the tree line. They could see some water damage, but the ocean hadn’t come in as far as he had first thought. He stopped the ship and left it hovering about a hundr
ed feet off the ground just at the beginning of the beach. The land under him was a mess as water rushing back into the ocean along with the debris it had torn apart on land.

  “Cove. Hold it here. The moment you get word on those things-weapons, anything-you let me know.”

  Gheno ducked under the cabin door and rushed into the hallway at the closet near his quarters. He popped it open and reached inside. Karai followed him.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  Gheno smiled back and pulled out three plasma rifles. He slung one on each of his shoulders, and carried the third one out towards small overhead hatch. He popped open the hatch, pulled down the ladder and climbed out. He stood up on the top of the lion transport and got in the whole view. Ahead of him was a giant spherical pyramid. The cool humid air greeted him with a blast, along with the first of the suns to break the dawn. He pulled out a small head band and put it over his hair. He tapped a button and a dark visor sprung down over his face. He walked forwards towards the edge of the ship, standing directly over the pilot’s cabin.

  “Are you tied in?” Gheno asked into the visor.

  -I am- the AI typed onto the screen.

  “Load Sentinel’s program HG7.”

  The inside of the visor came to life, scanning the horizon, and beginning to pick up the incoming black saucers. He took careful aim at the saucer that was closest to the shore. Gheno took a deep breath, calculated, and fired off one shot. He watched the bolt of green plasma sail out from the rifle towards the ocean. Just like he had practiced many times on Alioth, the bolt hit the front of the saucer, eating away a portion of its shape, and sending it spiraling off into the water, nearly taking out two more.

  “Here we go,” he said, lining up another shot.

  3127 – Gadoni, in orbit, on the coast, in and around Ama Owenose

  “Do we have optics online?”

  “Check stream sixteen, sir,” an ensign shouted back at the Admiral.

  The Admiral looked around for functioning screens. The ensign pointed at the working screen where an orbital image of the planet below had popped up. The large black spherical pyramid stood out among the blue-green ocean that was visible through the clouds.

  “What is that?” the Admiral asked, pointing at the blur of brown and green on the coast.

  “Tidal wave sir, caused by the spheres landing into the ocean.”

  “Seismic activity?” The Admiral asked.

  “Some, yes,” was the reply.

  “Bring us into orbital range, ensign. As soon as possible, please.”

  An officer came running up and handed the Admiral a tablet. As he took the tablet, he looked past the officer and saw Ayia standing at the bridges’ doorway. She was leaning up against the wall staring back at him. At her feet sat the criminal, Cruxe, nursing his shoulder wound. Marcus glanced back down at the tablet and pulled up the data he had requested. He handed the tablet back to the officer.

  “Is this correct?” he asked.

  “It is. One hundred and three casualties. Seventy three fatalities. They were extremely efficient until we turned the plasma on them.”

  “So, what’s that? Three full Cairns? Seven hundred men?”

  “Roughly sir.”

  “Very well. Sub-commodore has direct command of the three Cairns. Have all shuttles ready to go, commander. The sub-commodore will meet the Cairn leaders in the hangar.”

  The officer saluted and ran off. The Admiral shouted out for a female officer who was down in the lower bridge overseeing some video. She had requested to speak to him. When she looked up, he motioned her and she came running up.

  “What do you have?”

  She pulled out another tablet and brought up a streaming image on the screen. It was one of the large tar like creatures. It was in a bright white room, and it was struggling to keep its shape. It didn’t appear to be able to touch the wall.

  “A live one?” Marcus asked.

  “Yes, sir. It ran into our EW containment rooms on engineering during the fight. Once in there, it couldn’t move.”

  “Those rooms are used to store unknown and unclassified electronic warfare gear?”

  “That’s correct, sir. It’s a kind of electronic clean room. Magnetic and gravity controlled shells keep everything inside electronically isolated.”

  The Admiral looked back down at the screen.

  “Can we keep it in there?”

  “I don’t know, sir. I have people working on it,” she replied.

  “Well done. Keep me up to date, understood?”

  She saluted and ran off. Marcus sat back down on his chair. The bridge was still intact, but he was still getting reports of all the damage done to his ship. They were able to fly, but nearly all of their weapons were offline. That damage had come from just the small wedges that had attacked them. The people on the planet were taking the full brunt of this attack. The Admiral didn’t like being left out of a fight.

  He reached out and tapped a button on his screen. A small beeping sound was followed by a chirp.

  “Admiral,” came Jayne’s voice.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I'm on the flight deck. Just arrived. Jaguars are nearly finished docking.”

  “Perfect. Refuel, and recharge as quickly as possible. I need you to fly all wings out as soon as you are physically able.”

  There was a brief pause.

  “Orders?” she asked.

  “Not sure yet, but we need to take it to them.”

  “Understood. I’ll report in when we’re space borne.”

  The link came to an end. The Admiral wasn’t sure just how the natives were going to be able to defend themselves against such an enemy. In fact, he wasn’t sure what the enemy had against them. He tapped the screen again and dragged over the optics that were still online. He looked down and saw a black blur emptying out of the giant pyramid and swarming towards the shore.

  “Ensign?” he shouted out. “We need our high resolution optics up now!!”

  ***

  Gheno had setup the transport as his personal floating firing range. He had Karai keep bringing him more and more rifles. He knew they had at least twenty of them on board. They had never used more than five at a time, but Kale had insisted they have that many fully charged at all times. Gheno was laid out right above the pilot’s cabin. He had the rifles thrown about. He would fire one until the thirty shots were spent, then he’d grab the next rifle and keep firing.

  “Do we have a count?” he asked into the visor.

  -Over three hundred-

  “Not good.”

  Gheno had counted only eight direct hits on the water saucers. Cove angled the transport up a bit so that he could have a good view. The ocean was starting to rush back out to the sea, dragging with it all the debris it had torn up on the way into land. He refused to admit it, but he knew he saw plenty of bodies washing out with the trees and mud.

  He took careful aim and fired off another shot. It landed just ahead of a saucer, missing it. Gheno grunted in frustration.

  Karai appeared at the top of the hatch and threw out the last set of rifles. Gheno stood up, walked over to them and the hatch and got down on one knee. He took out a cloth-like strap, and threw it over the rifles. The strap magnetized and stuck the rifles to the deck, holding them in place.

  “Now, in the same container that had the rifles, there's a small box with a green circle. Bring that up here,” he asked of Karai.

  She ducked back down, then popped up again. “What is it?”

  “A charger for the rifles.”

  She nodded and disappeared back into the ship. Gheno dropped his rifle and tucked it under the strap and proceeded to grab another rifle. He walked over towards the edge of the transport again. He took care to hop down onto the section above the pilot’s cabin. The wind was blowing and the last thing he needed was to slip and get blown off the ship. He wasn’t ready to die just yet.

  Gheno lay down on the surface of
the hull and stretched out. He aimed down the length of the rifle at another saucer and was about to fire when he felt something moving in his pant leg. He jerked and nearly lost the rifle off the side of the ship. He stood up quickly and began digging into his pants. He felt the movement again. It was on his right leg side pocket, almost at his knee. He could feel something in the pocket.

  “What now?”

  He reached into the pocket slowly, ready for anything. He felt something small, about the shape of an apple, with the feel of one as well. He took it and brought it out into the light. It looked like a small rock. He brought it in for a closer look when it squirmed in his hand. Gheno let out a shout and was about to throw it when he heard something. He held the rock and turned it over.

  “Ghost walker?”

  The rock was talking to him.

  “Um…”

  “Ghost walker?” the rock emitted the sound again.

  Gheno recognized the voice. “Blue Flower?” he asked out loud, feeling foolish for talking to a rock.

  “Ghost walker,” she answered. “You found the ear!”

  “The ear?” Gheno shook his head. “I'm thinking translation is messed up again. Is that really you?”

  “It is me, Ghost walker,” she said.

  “I'm going to wake up from this bizarre dream at some point and when I do, I hope I'm on Valhalla or I just did some amazing drugs,” he thought out loud. “So I'm talking to a stone?”

  “An ear,” she said, elated. “Ghost walker, we can see you. You are raining light down onto the evil spirits.”

  “Yeah, something like that,” he said, holding the rock near his mouth. He suddenly felt awkward. “It’s not going to be enough.”

  “The council has called the tribal warriors. They are all coming.”

  “That sounds like a good thing,” Gheno said. “How long until these warriors get here?”

  “Soon. Ghost walker, we have some warriors here too, but we don’t know how to defend against the sea. We have never had enemies come from the ocean.”