by Sid K
“Shouldn’t they build the storm machine in Ranx then?” Commander Tybett asked.
“Here is where it gets interesting as well as dangerous for us,” Avyk said. “They not only want to rebuild the Sanguine Empire, they want to avenge those who brought its downfall—that was our greatest hero, King Starryvk. Their party literature doesn’t openly call for war on our country, but they do denounce us in the harshest terms.”
“That is ridiculous,” the King said. “That was over six hundred years ago. They can’t mean to hold grudges from that far back.”
“Not to mention that it was the Sanguine Empire which picked the fight with our ancestors, not the other way around,” Commander Byter said. “The Empire sent an army, which our forefathers promptly thrashed, then they decided to go on the attack.”
“I have to remind everyone, this is our conjecture,” Avyk said. “Ranx might not be involved.”
“I highly doubt that,” Yucker said. “We are a much bigger country, but SPASI would definitely know if some of our countrymen were hatching nutter schemes like that.”
“That is mine and my team’s opinion as well,” Avyk said, “but I need to mention that we don’t have hard, material evidence to link this current activity in Coldwoods with the Ranx State.”
“Let us go on the reasonable assumption that they are involved,” Krratyk said. “But in no way is the Ranx Nation a successor state of Sanguine Empire; there were multiple states and countries in that region in the centuries after the downfall of the old empire.”
“It gets worse,” Avyk said. “I called a few historians at our universities who specialize in that region. These nutters of the Ranx Rejuvenation Party are cooking up mythologies. Not just the state, but the Ranxian people are not the descendants of the people who used to live there during the time of the Sanguine Empire. After the empire’s collapse, many invading hordes, migrants, merchants, travelers and such settled down over the centuries. Tribes from nearby and sometimes far away as well settled there. They are definitely not the descendants of old empire’s ruling class, whether army or administrative; perhaps a few Ranxians trace some ancestry to the common people of that time, but I doubt that it is more than a minor fraction.”
“Do you think the Ranx Rejuvenation Party is peddling this nonsense as a front to justify their imperial ambitions?” Krratyk asked. “Or are they really insane as their ideas mark them out to be?”
“Can’t say which one it is,” Avyk said. “Chief Yucker has dispatched a few spies to Ranx. But it will take them a while to get settled there and start getting information.”
“Do we have a King’s Representative in Ranx?” the King asked.
“We do, but we have told him nothing,” Yucker said. “They will have tapped the phone lines out of his house. We have done likewise with Ranx’s Representative here, but so far we have heard mundane conversations.”
“Should we open talks with the Ranxian Nation?” the King asked. “And who are their leaders?”
“The State Minister is the head of the Nation in Ranx,” Avyk said. “But the party leader is as important because he appoints and can replace the state minister.”
“We should mobilize our air army and sea army first,” Commander Byter said. “That way they will know that we are serious.”
“I believe we should do neither right now,” Krratyk said. “We don’t want to alert Ranx that we are on to them if they are behind this. And we don’t want to mobilize and intimidate them till we have hard evidence against them, because if they are innocent they might refuse to help us if our airplane carriers are rushing towards them.”
“What do you want the SPASI to do in the meanwhile?” Yucker asked.
“Avyk, you have done great,” Krratyk said. “Keep collecting more information on Ranx. Yucker, have SPASI try to find out if there are other storm machines besides the one in Coldwoods.”
“Yes Commander,” Yucker replied.
Yucker and Avyk picked up their folders, saluted the King and the Supreme Commander and left the conference room.
* * *
Colonel Weltar of the reserve army stood on the northern side of a ridge with the map of his district spread out on the front of his car. Along with him were four of his capitans. Around him warriors with their ATR automatic rifles were assembling for war. They were all dressed in the standard battle uniform: King’s Red hat and shirt, with black boots, belt and pants. There were four thousand of them spread across the bottom as well as the southern side of the ridge. A big radio set in the passenger seat of Colonel’s car.
“Capitan Duftar,” Weltar said to the capitan standing to his right. “You will lead the attack from here.” He pointed to a ridge on the map, three towns north of Coldwoods. “This is the ridge we are standing on. You will have under your command not only your fourth division, but the second and the third divisions as well.”
“Do we go straight to the compound?” Capitan Duftar asked.
“Storm them right in,” Weltar said. “Alright Capitan Aryt, You and I are staying here with your first division. I am keeping the thousand soldiers of your division as reserve.”
“Yes, Colonel,” said Capitan Aryt, standing behind him slightly to his left.
“Now, look here,” Weltar said and pointed his finger to a road two towns east of Coldwoods. “This is where the fifth, sixth and seventh divisions have assembled. Capitan Haryett of sixth division will be leading the attack from the east.” Then he moved his finger westward and stopped at a small mountain range west of Coldwoods and said, “Our eighth, ninth and tenth have assembled there; Capitan Jolvyt of tenth division will lead their attack from the west.”
“Why don’t we have an attack from the southern side?” Duftar asked.
“Coldwoods southern border stretches far and touches the district of another reserve army—the last district before the polar region,” Weltar said. “If the culprits escape there, the House of War will call upon the 1,000th reserve to do the mop up. More importantly, the mountain cliffs in between Coldwoods and the next town to the south are nearly vertical. They would be fools to run that way.”
“Do we really need nine thousand soldiers?” Duftar asked. “Sure, they ambushed a hundred SPASI guards, but so what?”
“I told the House of War same, that I could mop them up with a couple thousand warriors,” Weltar said. “But they specifically ordered a full force attack. Said something about elite Ranxian troops and some secret weapon that can create storms.”
“I don’t believe it,” Aryt chuckled.
“Well maybe you want to tell that to the Supreme Commander,” Weltar laughed. “I doubt he will be amused. Speaking of him, bring that radio over.”
Aryt took the radio from the car’s seat while Weltar moved the map aside to create empty space on the front of the car. Aryt placed the radio and tuned it up to the army frequency.
“Colonel Weltar to the House of War,” Weltar said.
“Coming in loud and clear, Colonel,” Supreme Commander Krratyk said.
“Commander, the 999th reserve army is fully mobilized and ready now, ten thousand troops and all the officers,” Weltar said. “We await your orders.”
“Just tell your soldiers to be careful,” Krratyk said. “We have Colonel Sthykar with a few friends, as well as hostages there.”
“Told them before, but will remind once again before the attack,” Weltar said.
“Alright then, I order you to launch the attack,” Krratyk said.
“Alright,” Weltar said and turned off the radio. To his capitans he said, “We have the go, now tune the radio to our frequency.”
Aryt turned the radio to local frequency for their army and Weltar spoke, “Capitans of 999th, this is Colonel Weltar, acknowledge Capitans Haryett and Jolvyt.”
“Haryett here,” Capitan Haryett said. “All troops assembled and ready to go.”
“Jolvyt ready as well,” Capitan Jolvyt said.
“Alright, listen up once
more,” Weltar said. “We have Colonel Sthykar and a handful of troops already infiltrating the place. We also have hostages to rescue, including a Constellar. It will get chaotic near their compound, so be careful who and where you shoot.”
“Yes, sir”
“Yes, sir”
“Alright, capitans, launch the attack,” Weltar said. “Thrash these sods good and hard.”
Weltar turned off the radio and said to Duftar, “Take your troops in.” Duftar nodded and saluted him and walked forward along with two more capitans to take command of their troops.
The attack began a few minutes later, from the north Capitan Duftar, from the east Capitan Haryett and from the west Capitan Jolvyt; each led three thousand soldiers through the forests and mountains towards the Ranxians’ compound near Coldwoods.
* * *
Corporal Montex rushed up the stairs to the third floor of the tower. In the big central room, Boss Hantex and Capitan Suka Manx were leaning over a round table with a map spread across; its edges dangled off of the table. They straightened up and looked at Montex as he rushed in with panting breath.
“Boss, Suka, my men who were tapping the phone lines heard a lot of calls from the headquarters of the local warrior class go out to thousands of homes,” Montex said, “They are assembling an attack.”
“We already know; those men told me,” Suka said. “What do you think we are doing here?”
Montex looked over the map; Suka placed his index and middle fingers and his thumb on it and formed a triangle with Coldwoods in the center.
“I took one look at this map a year ago and said if we were attacked by troops, this is where they would attack from,” Suka said keeping his three fingers on the map. “The ridge in the north three towns over, this big road to our east and these mountains in the west. Happens that is where they are assembling and planning to launch an attack from.” He turned to Hantex and smiled, “Aren’t you glad I already positioned our soldiers? You wanted to hold them in our tower till we got their locations confirmed. It would have been too late and we wouldn’t have gotten good locations to fight off the invasion from.”
“Alright, so I was wrong, I will give you that,” Hantex said. “You are Ranx’s best soldiers, you know your tactics.”
“So do the Starfirians,” Suka replied. “That’s why I could predict their moves in advance.”
“Tell me about our positions,” Montex said.
Suka changed the locations of his fingers on the map. “Three hundred Ranx Rangers in front of each of the invading fronts,” Suka said, “All have fortified higher ground. Corporal Montex, I want you to take personal command of our troops in the north.”
“Higher ground or not,” Montex said, “we can only delay them; we can’t fight them off with the ratio ten-to-one against us. Not even Ranx Rangers can do that.”
“You don’t worry about that Corporal,” Hantex said. “Delay is exactly what we want. Soon I shall start the storm machine and then no ratio can overcome the fury of wind and water.”
Montex saluted both of them and took their leave to follow his orders. Suka and Hantex watched him go, then once again leaned over the map and examined their situation further.
* * *
Suka brought Sayett from down below while Hantex directed Slyntya to follow him. They took two of them to a room on the third floor where a photographer had set up a tripod against a wall facing an open window with blue sky outside. Boss directed Slyntya to stand in front of the window as the photographer took a photo, and then they did likewise with Sayett.
“I want to give your government the reassurance that you are unharmed,” Hantex said. “I don’t want them to try anything foolish.”
“Are you sure about that?” Sayett said. “You think our government would hold off an attack just because of a detective and a Constellar? We are not big time players in Starfirian politics.”
“I am not worried about the attack; that is what my weapon Storm Maker is for,” Hantex said. “It is time to give you a look. Suka, let’s take them upstairs.”
The photographer took his negatives to the dark room to develop them while Hantex walked up the stairs to the roof, followed by Sayett and Slyntya with Suka at their backs.
Hantex opened the door with the key and they were on the rooftop. It was a round and flat roof but filled to the brim with man-sized machines, instruments, radars, antennas and wires.
“Now don’t you try any sabotage,” Hantex chuckled. “I have built fail safe features and duplicates, triplicates in them.”
“And I will shoot to kill if you try to break anything,” Suka said tapping his pistol at his side.
“That is, if they don’t get electrocuted first,” Hantex laughed. “Suka you are fast, but the electricity is faster.”
“Yeah,” Suka guffawed.
Sayett and Slyntya did not say anything while Hantex and Suka were having a bit of humor at their expense. They were looking at this with confusion. Sayett had learned accounting before becoming a detective; he knew nothing about the technical matters. Slyntya was a scientist, but this was a field that she did not even know existed, machines she did not even think possible to create. They walked around the maze of machines and the jumble of wires but said nothing.
“Enough,” Hantex said, “Let’s go down.”
“Let’s go,” Suka said and directed Sayett and Slyntya to walk down the stairs to the third floor again. He pointed them into the central room.
A man sat to the side with a typewriter; two armed guards stood next to him. When he saw Hantex, he handed him two copies of a draft he had typed out.
“Here it is,” Hantex said and handed one each to Slyntya and Sayett. “Sign them,” he pointed to the pens on the central table. “This indicates you have seen my machine and you believe that my intention and my abilities to seize power are real.”
Slyntya started reading, but Sayett just walked over to the table, took the pen and signed off on the paper. Slyntya walked over to him, picked up a pen and whispered, “You didn’t read it?”
Sayett laughed. “Meaningless. These have no legal status,” he whispered. “Our understanding of it doesn’t matter. He just wants to show our government that he is serious.”
Then Slyntya signed off on it. Suka took the papers from them and then Hantex held out a tape recorder and had both Sayett and Slyntya describe what they had seen and what the Boss’s intentions were.
“Take the woman Constellar to her room,” Hantex commanded the two guards, and they escorted her to her room on the second floor below.
“I didn’t want to say it in front of her,” Hantex said, “but if your army somehow manages to win—which I don’t believe they will—but if by some miracle they do, then they will end up destroying this compound and this tower, and all of you Starfirians will die with us Ranxians as well.”
“Let her go, at least,” Sayett said. “I am a detective—have been in deadly shootouts, barely escaping—”
“Last time against me,” Suka laughed. “You got lucky that you could escape.”
Sayett ignored him and continued talking to Hantex. “But she is not part of the armed machinery of the state. She was overseeing our investigation because she oversees our banking system and your men started robbing banks to finance this scheme.”
“Distasteful task for us, too,” Hantex said, “Ranx Rangers are soldiers not outlaws, however your government left us no choice. I couldn’t convert my wealth in the Ranxian currency to the Starfirian one without a thorough investigation.”
That is the whole point, you scoundrel, Sayett thought. He said, “What I mean is, she is like a books examiner for a bank, in no way dangerous to you and your operations.”
“Mayhaps,” Hantex said, “but then you should hope that your army doesn’t manage to decimate us.” The two Ranx soldiers had returned and Hantex called to them. “Take this detective back to his underground cell.” While they escorted Sayett downstairs, Hantex turned to Suka an
d handed him the cassette from the tape recorder.
“Now we will use the police chief,” he said to Suka. “Take this cassette and those signed papers and give them to the Coldwoods chief. Put him on the helicopter we have and tell our pilot to drop him off at the Southstar airport. Get photos from the dark room before you go down and tell the chief to take the photos, signed papers and the cassette straight to the capital and to give them to this House of War.”
“What about our pilot?” Suka asked. “The chief could have him arrested at the Southstar airport.”
“Forget the pilot,” Hantex said, “but don’t forget to give some money to the chief for an airplane ticket to the capital.”
“He is a police chief, he doesn’t need a ticket on a plane,” Suka said.
“They do in this country,” Hantex said. “Stuff a few hundred star bills in his pocket.”
“Be back in a few,” Suka said and went to the dark room to collect the photographs. Hantex walked into another room that served as the control center for the machine where a dozen technicians were handling various instruments. Hantex closed the door behind him and then called for all of them to gather around.
chapter 21 – the gathering storm
Colonel Sthykar, Relkyett, Pelyett and Tulkar walked carefully through the woods towards Relkyett’s neighbor’s plot. Relkyett was the only one who knew the way and was out in the front with his rifle, slowly moving away the twigs and branches; they all avoided stepping on leaves to prevent the crunching sound and kept watch for any sign of trouble. Pelyett was slightly anxious; he did not like walking out in the open with enemies looking for them. Tulkar was to his side and was trying to think hard about any time in the past when he might have had some conversation about the mechanics of helicopters. Sthykar was the last in the line, walking backwards with his ATR rifle aimed to their rear. He was making sure that no one was following them or would ambush them from the sides.
