by Aaron Hubble
Fernando nodded in agreement. “The bulk of their fighting force is on this planet. With the planet under their control, they will create their hybrids, eliminate the existing population and bring their hand-picked, shiny pupils to Aereas in these.”
Pictures of a smaller ship appeared on the screen. “This beauty is the governor’s ride. Where the Eden is the freight hauler of the fleet, this is the sports car with the ability to make the trip to Aereas in half the time, three weeks, in fact. This first one is set to leave in a week carrying the six CPF governors and thirty other high-ranking officials who will reestablish the CPF on Aereas.”
“Our operative in the capital confirms the governors met this week and have plans to leave in several days,” Noni said. “She couldn’t find information on where they would be going, but this rounds out the picture for us.”
Fernando continued with his summary. “This second ship, this freight hauler, will follow in a couple of weeks. From what I can tell it’s set up with twenty-five thousand stasis units. This one will carry the handpicked CPF citizens to HP-397 to begin their new lives. They’ll ignite their engines and say ‘adios’ to the Earth forever, leaving the rest of us to die of the plague.”
“Huh,” said Charles. “I was wrong. The CPF can be worse. Nice to know there are still surprises in the universe.”
Fernando continued to study the information in front of him. “I will admit I’m confused by this information.”
“What has you troubled?” Noni asked.
“This information says four ships have been constructed, but this facility isn’t big enough to house such enormous ships. At least from what we can see from the outside, the facility is much too small.”
“Maybe what we can see is just a small part of the whole, like an iceberg,” Noni said.
“Perhaps,” Fernando mused, “but they would still need to produce enough thrust to get a ship that size out of Earth’s gravity. That would require an enormous amount of fuel. The schematics just don’t bear it out. I’m not convinced they’re constructing the ships here. Something isn’t adding up, but there just isn’t enough information to know what’s truly happening in Antarctica.”
Bobby studied the screen. “No matter. This is it,” he said. “This is our chance to deal the deciding blow to the CPF. Fernando said in a week, all the CPF governors and their most powerful cronies will be in one place, here, in Antarctica. My assumption is something this important will have a significant troop presence as well. If we can take this place, surprise them at just the right time, we can take out the governors and their power people and cut the head off the beast. Without them, without a large portion of their troops, we will have effectively defeated the Continental Peace Federation. The rest will be a mop-up job around the globe.”
Noni nodded. “It would require pulling the bulk of our troops out of their assignments. We would be leaving assets we’ve already taken exposed.”
“True,” Bobby agreed. “But if we’re careful about it, leave a skeleton force in each place, we should be able to do this undetected. We could mass our troops on one of these islands off the coast and launch from there. This is our shot.”
“Agreed,” Noni said, looking at the others. “I’ll get a crew on the logistics right away. This is a big job, but I think we can pull it off.”
“That leaves two more questions,” Fernando interjected. “What about the virus and the rest of the CPF troops on this distant planet? If what’s in this report is accurate, it’s only a matter of time before the virus finishes the job it started thirty years ago. What good is liberating Earth from the CPF if we’re all just going to die anyway?”
“Good point,” Bobby said. He stared at the picture of the blue and green globe that looked so much like home. The CPF had taken their tyrannical vision across the stars to conquer another set of people. He loved how they’d skipped right past diplomacy and embraced genocide. That made sense.
Noni straightened and put her hands on her hips. “My husband started R3 because of what the CPF had become. He didn’t just view R3 as the anti-CPF, not just another choice if you were dissatisfied with the status quo. He saw R3 as the light to the CPF darkness. In the end, light always prevails; the darkness cannot stand against it. Across the stars is another people who are now being crushed by the darkness that is the Continental Peace Federation. Light has no boundaries; it doesn’t just belong to Earth. These people are now our brethren in this struggle. We will take our light and bring it to them. I’ve always thought the pivotal battle against the Continental Peace Federation would happen here on Earth. Instead, it will happen light years away. No matter. We’ll offer our help because we know how to fight this enemy. We’ll give our help because they need us and we need them. Without us, the CPF will claim their planet and they’ll be killed off. Without them, our race will die off as well, leaving Earth a lifeless husk. Together, we can eliminate two threats. I say we go to them and offer what help we can.”
Bobby looked at the others gathered around the table: Charles, Fernando, several other strike team leaders, and intelligence officers. They all gazed at Noni with rapt attention. The woman had the ability to capture a room, because she believed in what she was saying. There was no rhetoric or spin. It was the unvarnished truth, and Bobby had never known Noni to say anything she didn’t believe with every fiber of her being. That was why he’d stayed with R3 instead of drifting away to hide from the CPF in the wilderness. She made him believe in himself and in the resistance.
He slapped his palm on the table. The sharp sound startled several of the others. Bobby grinned. “So the first order of business is finding a place where we can mass our forces and call them out of the field quietly.” He looked at Fernando. “Get all this information to the intelligence crew, and have them begin mining the data for any specifics we need, such as how many troops are in Antarctica right now and if more are on the way. I want to know everything about this facility and who is currently there. This is it. This is our opportunity. Let’s make the most of it.”
Nervous energy filled the room as people scattered to their respective work stations and began the delicate job of bringing together a massive operation which would determine the fate of two races. Bobby still had a hard time believing the decisive battle of a war that had lasted decades could be fought in a week. How did one prepare for such a paradigm-shifting event such as that?
“D-Day,” Charles said beside him.
“What?” Bobby asked after Charles’ voice had roughly brought him out of his thoughts.
“There was a war in the twentieth century. I happened upon a book about it in this burned-out library where I used to hide from the gangs when I was a kid. It was kind of like this. The whole world was at war. A couple of dictators wanted all the power and those who believed in freedom fought back. One of the deciding battles was called D-Day. The Earth had been broken up into nations. Several formed an alliance and launched this offensive against the nations aiming to take over the world. The freedom fighters rode boats across a channel and pushed into the enemy fortifications and eventually got a toehold. They fought like hell, mate, and lost a lot of men, but they did it only because they believed that what they were doing was the right thing.”
Charles clapped Bobby on the shoulder. “That’s what we’re doing, Bobby-boy. We’re doing the right thing, but we need to be prepared to say goodbye to a lot of good men.” The Aussie slapped his back again. “Been nice knowing you, mate.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Earth - Unnamed island off the coast of Antarctica
The abandoned research facility had seen better days. Bobby didn’t know its history, but judging from the equipment still remaining, it seemed like a place where they would monitor climate and weather. After all of these years of sitting idle, new life had come to the old base. R3 had claimed the buildings as the staging grounds for the assault on the Continental Peace Federations warp ship facility that sat on top of the Antarctic ice. T
roops and equipment had been trickling in, per orders, over the last week. Using the cover of darkness, R3 had efficiently assembled a machine of war Bobby hoped would overwhelm what was left of the CPF on Antarctica. Intelligence had found the troops at the facility only numbered around fifty, relatively small compared to the entire fighting force that once kept an iron-like grip on Earth. Eighty percent of their troops had left three months ago for the invasion of the alien planet. To Bobby, it proved this was an all or nothing proposition for the CPF. The group which had worked so hard to dominate the globe was picking up their toys and going somewhere else.
Tomorrow would be the day they brought the Continental Peace Federation to its knees.
Of course there was another planet to liberate, but one step at a time. The first order of business was to capture the facility and put the governors in a cell.
An icy wind ruffled the hood of his parka. He pulled it tighter and zipped the coat all the way up.
“Of course they couldn’t pick a nice warm place to put a secret base,” Charles said, crunching through the snow next to him.
“If this was easy, that would be the first clue we’re in the wrong place. The CPF is not about ease,” Bobby replied.
The two men stood in silence staring at the blue water as it crashed onto the rocky beach. This place was just a barren lonely rock in the ocean, but Bobby found it beautiful. There was something soothing about the emptiness and the crash of the surf. If he closed his eyes he could forget all about the fight and the struggle over the last three years. After this was all over, wherever he ended up, Australia, North America or even on some distant planet, he wanted it to be quiet. He just wanted to sit down and read a book and play with Luke.
“Do you ever wonder what it would be like not to fight?” Bobby asked Charles.
“Not fight?” Charles snorted. “I didn’t know there was anything else in the world, but fighting.”
The two men laughed comfortably. “Ah, yeah mate. I think about it a lot,” Charles said, his voice lower and wistful. “Do you ever stop and think what it would be like to not have someone shooting at you? I get the feeling it’s nice and a lot less stressful. There’s no way I’ll have any adrenaline left once this whole thing is over.”
“Do you think two soldiers like us can ever stop? Is it really possible to just settle down and live a quiet life?”
Charles shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’d like to try. If it gets a little boring I can always take up a dangerous hobby.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, maybe polar bear wrestling or cliff diving or…” Charles eyes grew wide. “Dare I even say it-marriage.”
“Whoa, don’t get crazy,” Bobby said.
Bobby’s comm crackled with Fernando’s voice. “Bobby, this is Fernando. I need to speak to you immediately.”
Charles raised his eyebrows, and the two comrades exchanged a look. Fernando sounded rattled. “We’re on our way.”
The two jogged off and entered the squat building. He heard the low hum of the solar generator they used to power the heat and lights. Fernando poked his head out of one of the side rooms and waved them inside. Bobby removed his hat and gloves and unzipped his parka as he entered the room. Fernando paced back and forth.
“I figured it out,” his said, his voice strained.
“What did you figure out, Fernando?” Bobby asked, slipping the parka off and draping it over the back of a chair.
The man ran his fingers through his black hair and then steepled his fingers in front of his face. “The ships are not in the facility.”
“What?” Bobby and Charles said at the same time. They looked at each other and then back at Fernando. “Did we move all this stuff and men here for no reason?”
“No.” Fernando shook his head. “We’re where we want to be, but it will take one more step to get to the ships.” He took a deep breath. “I was just able to hack into CPF communications and found transmissions between the ship facility and transport vehicles ferrying materials between the facility and the construction platform.”
“I thought you said we were in the right place? It sure doesn’t sound like it,” Bobby said.
“We are, and we aren’t. They aren’t building the ships in the facility. Like I said, it doesn’t make sense. The facility is too small, and getting the ships out of the atmosphere from here would be highly inefficient. Don’t you see? They’re building the ships in orbit from a construction platform and transporting the necessary building materials to the platform from the ship facility on the ice.”
“Shut up, Fernando,” Charles said.
Fernando rolled his eyes. “I’m serious, you ridiculous Aussie. After I realized this, I remembered from the files on previous warp flight that the combined nations built the Wayfarer ship on an orbiting construction platform. The CPF must be using the same platform. It all makes sense now.”
Bobby’s mind shifted into high gear. “This means the governors will most likely be in the ship facility for only a short period of time before they’re taken up to inspect the ships they’ve commissioned to be built.” He turned to Charles. “Get the teams ready now. We’re accelerating the timetable. I want boots on the ice in three hours. From the landing point it’s an hour hike to get us into position. The estimated time of the governors’ arrival is sometime tomorrow morning. The timing of the strike must be precise before the ship takes them up. If we lose them here, we lose them forever.”
Charles didn’t wait. He dashed out of the room, and Bobby could hear his boots squeaking on the tile floor as he jogged down the corridor to where the rest of the troops were making preparations for the assault. Bobby looked back at Fernando who still stood with his hands pressed to his face.
“Are you ready to scramble their communications?”
Fernando nodded his head, a worried look still on his face.
“Good. Nothing changes in regards to that portion of the plan. You’ll just need to do it a little earlier than originally planned.”
“Bobby, they’ll be expecting the governors to arrive at a specific time to the platform. If those transports are delayed very long, there will be questions. You need to capture those transports and a pilot and get up to the platform on schedule. Hopefully the security force is small because you won’t be able to use your weapons once you’re inside the platform itself.”
“Why?” Bobby asked.
“If a bullet penetrates a bulkhead, the cabins will depressurize and all manner of bad things will begin to happen. You’ll need to use knives, batons, and your fists. No projectile weapons. They won’t be expecting you. If you do this right, you should be able to take the facility with a minimum of fighting.”
Bobby placed his hands on his hips and looked at the floor before blowing out a long breath. “It’s never easy is it, Fernando?”
“No, it isn’t. It’s a good thing the nature of our existence as a resistance organization has required us to be adaptable on the fly.”
Bobby laughed. “I never liked waiting anyway.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Earth - Antarctica, CPF warp ship facility
From the air Idi Kalu could not discern what was building and what was ice. The engineers had done a miraculous job of camouflaging the warp ship facility. The wind was strong today; snow swirled and moved across the surface of the ice like ghosts searching for a new haunt, further hampering visibility.
That is what all of Earth would be soon. Just a place of ghosts. The facility, the capital city, and eventually the entire planet.
Idi felt a pang of regret. With all the CPF had accomplished, they hadn’t been able to stop the virus and save Earth. They’d had to travel across the black void of space to do that. There was no sense in dwelling on the failures of the past. The future was bright, brilliant in fact, and he would be remembered as the man whose vision saved mankind, not as the one who hadn’t been able to rebuild a dying planet.
“Sirs and madams,”
the pilot’s voice came across the intercom. “The roof is open and we’ll be landing in the hangar in five minutes. Even though you will be inside, I suggest you bundle up. The facility is quite chilly.”
Idi began to pull on his parka. How many times had he actually worn a heavy coat? Once or twice on his visits to Asia, maybe. It was so bulky and cumbersome. The feeling was just wrong. He was made for the warmth and sunshine of his native Africa, not this barren chunk of ice. Beside him, Olivia struggled into her coat, one sleeve caught behind her back
“Let me help, my dear,” he said reaching around and freeing the trapped sleeve. His nose caught the pleasant, floral scent of her blond hair. Her vivid green eyes locked onto his. He pulled back quickly. Once he’d allowed those bottomless eyes to pull him into a night of passion. He’d thought of that night often, but hadn’t allowed himself to pursue a relationship with her. He hadn’t wanted to, but as he’d explained to Olivia, there would be too many complications and conflicts of interest. The others on the council would not stand for what would appear to be an alliance, a lesser region using the bedroom to make a power grab and increase its importance on the council. No, unity trumped emotion.
On top of that was the nearly quarter of a century difference in their age. His rejection had been hard on her, she still seemed captured, perhaps even haunted by that night that she assumed would turn into something more.
His mind drifted. Maybe on this new world. Maybe something could be allowed to grow between them if she was willing to give up her position. Yet, he needed her where she was because she was predictable and her feelings for him allowed Idi to nudge her and position her for his own purposes.
No. Relationships only brought complications. He dismissed the fantasy as he saw the roof of the hangar open, and the ship stop its forward progress and begin its descent into the belly of the building.
Once the ship had lowered itself inside, the large roof glided noiselessly back into place on massive rollers, sealing the building from the hostile environment. The CPF had taken every precaution to track the movements of R3 and had determined there was no one watching, making this the ideal time to make the journey to the bottom of the world. It had become increasingly difficult to track their movements though. One by one the aging satellites that had been in orbit since before the plague had become inoperable. Their techs had only been able to raise one surveillance satellite this time and the information pulled from it had been sketchy at best, but based on the fact that no information about this facility existed outside of the governors themselves and those stationed here, he felt confident they were not being watched.
