Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation

by Dale C. Musser

  “It was solely by luck that we happened to be closer to this planet than any of them and heard the emergency signal first. Find their ship, send down troopers and make sure they are dead and get out of there. You have maybe a day at the most before Federation ships start arriving and you need to be away from there when they get here.”

  “Understood,” the second voice came back, “but I don’t see what the fuss is about this Tibby guy; we’re winning the battle against the Federation, what difference can one man make?”

  “This guy is bad news for us. Do you realize how many of our operations and plans this one man has disrupted? Roritat wants him dead, so dead it will be. You got that?”

  “Hold on,” the second man said, “we’re picking up readings, I think we’ve found the ship.”

  “Get down there and check it out, and remember, no survivors. Be sure to leave the bodies behind for evidence, so when the Federation arrives, they will know their hero is dead!”

  “Tibby, what are we going to do?” Kala asked as she hugged a confused Lunnie to her.

  “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is try to disguise the entrance to this building.” I said as I grabbed one of the tarps and a mat that Kala had made.

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  “By making it appear less square and more like a natural feature.”

  “And, how are you going to do that?”

  “I’m going to to use the floor mats you wove. If I place them diagonally across the square corners of the opening and weigh down the ends outside the hole with rocks, and then take some of this lose grass, and place it over the corners in the right fashion. It may appear to be just a natural hole in the ground; at least the obvious square shape won’t stick out like a sore thumb.”

  “Like a sore thumb?” Kala said looking at me strangely.

  “Sorry dear, it’s an old Earth expression for something that catches your attention by not being normal.” I replied.

  “Ah, I see!” Kala replied as she placed Lunnie on the mattress with Reidecor and began helping to gather up the mats.

  An hour later, we had the mats in place and grass conveniently strewn about, hoping it would make the opening to the underground building less conspicuous. We had also used sand at places in hopes of making it look more natural, but I had my doubts about how convincing it looked from the air. Fortunately, we had a light shower that naturally rearranged the grass and dirt, making it appear more normal. I had my fingers crossed that it would at least throw the Brotherhood off track long enough for Federation ships to arrive. That night I didn’t go out, and I rolled the stone in front of the opening to the outer chamber so any light from the solar lamps would not be visible through what remained of the opening to the surface. We listened to the radio and only picked up a brief communication between the Brotherhood ship in orbit and their contact someplace nearby.

  “We’re positive now it’s Tibby’s ship. We’ve not gone to the surface yet since it was raining earlier and looked pretty messy. It looks to be dead and there isn’t any sign of life around it. We are getting no energy readings at all from the ship and there didn’t seem to be any signs of human activity there. Sand is piled up around most of the ship. Right now we are seeing a lot of lights all over the desert around the ship. It looks like it’s being generated naturally from some kind of plants.”

  “You haven’t gone down yet because it was raining? By the balls of a hairy dudokian, Banowet, I swear I’ll kick your ass if you don’t get down there right now and check things out! We’re running out of time. The Federation has ships closing in on this location right now. Roritat will turn us all over to Ming for discipline if we fail in this task, and we don’t want to face Ming.”

  “Understood, we’re on our way now. I’ll take two squads of troopers.”

  “You’ll take three; now get your asses moving. I want a report back in an hour. Understood?”

  “Yes sir!”

  I had brought all the arms in the arms locker to our place on the plateau, and fortunately they all were still fully charged, but if the Brotherhood found out where we were, it was unlikely they would attack us with troops. Instead they would simply attack from above using the weapons of the ship and blow the place up.

  “If they aren’t convinced we have perished, they will come looking for us and eventually find us. We may have to move deeper underground in the tunnels. I have no idea where the tunnels go, but if the Brotherhood starts looking for us, we will have no choice but to find out.” I donned my environment suit as Kala asked. “Where are you going now?”

  “I’m going out there to watch and see what happens down at the ship. This suit will block my infrared image, so I shouldn’t be spotted by any of their scanners, plus I will be cloaked as well so I won’t be spotted. I’ll go to the cliff edge, from there I can at least see their movements and get some idea what’s going on. You can monitor the radio and listen to any broadcasts they make until I get back.” I think it would be good if you don your suit also and get some backpacks ready with several days’ supplies of food. We may need to move quickly.

  Kala nodded and bit her lip as she began to don her environment suit as I slipped out the entrance and onto the plateau. I got myself situated at a point near the cliff edge where I could see down to the desert below. From this point, I had a good view of the area and by focusing the image coming through the screen on my helmet, I could zoom in on the ship. There was no sign of life other than for the Sisoma trees and a muralam scrounging about looking for something to eat. Then three patrol ships swooped down silently setting to the desert floor around the ALI. Their hatches opened, and three companies of Brotherhood troopers poured out and quickly surrounded the ALI. I saw three troopers enter the ship as their squads took up positions outside. Several minutes passed before the troopers who entered came out, and all the troops outside relaxed from their ready positions. I could see the three troopers talking to a fourth individual whom I assumed to be their commanding officer. After a few minutes I saw him turn, and all the troopers in the area turned looking at him. He obviously issued some orders for them to search the area, looking for some signs of survivors. When he turned back to the three troopers who had previously gone inside the ship, I saw one of them point to something inside the hatch, and I observed as he walked over examining an object in the airlock. The rock, I realized he was looking at the rock with the message I had left behind. Now they knew for sure we had survived the crash. The question was, did he believe we still survived?

  As I watched I saw him turn and look at the canyon with the stream flowing through it, his head following its course. I noticed him look about the area and turn toward the mountain plateau on which I stood. Even though I knew he could not see me, I felt naked and exposed and almost expected him to have his men take aim at me and begin shooting. In an instant he turned and barked some orders and a squad of men quickly boarded one of the patrol ships and lifted off, rising in the air to a height about 500 meters above the desert. They slowly began tracing the course of the stream in the canyon. I turned to run back into our underground house, and as I ran my eyes wandered down to the stream. The dam, I’d forgotten about the dam. From the air, they would clearly be able to see it, and they would know it was man made. They would all be here on the plateau in just minutes. We needed to move and move quickly.

  As I ran into our shelter, I was hoping the patrol ship following the course of the stream would go slowly looking for any signs of us, even at their slowest pace, they would see the dam in about 20 to 30 minutes at the most. I uncloaked and went into the second chamber where Kala and the twins were and quickly moved the large stone back in front of the door. I knew it wouldn’t buy us any time, but I felt safer knowing it was in place.

  I said, “We’ve got to move now. Into the tunnel, quickly! They will be here in less than 30 minutes.”

  “Tib,” Kala said in an alarmed voice. “Padaran has been trying to reach us on the emergency radio
.”

  “Padaran?”

  “Yes,” Kala said. “He’s requested we not reply, as he knows the Brotherhood is already here and they would detect our transmission. He said that the NEW ORLEANS is en route and only a few hours away.”

  “If we don’t find a place to hide and defend ourselves, we might not be alive in a few hours,” I exclaimed as I put a backpack on my back, had a rifle in one hand and reached down and picked up Lunnie in my other arm. Come on, we need to get as deep into the tunnels as we can. Kala grabbed a backpack, a rifle, and Reidecor and followed me. As we proceeded deeper into the mountain away from the cliff, I cursed myself for never exploring the tunnels more. I knew the tunnel we were in dead-ended in a cave in just a little past the point where the small room with the hole in the floor and where the water leaked in. However, I believed that if we could get down the hole, that there was another level of tunnels below, and I hoped those would still be clear. When we arrived at the hole, I said to Kala, “I’m going to go down, it’s less than a 3 and a half meter drop. If the tunnels go on from there you can toss the backpacks to me and then hand the twins down and come down after them.”

  “What if the tunnels don’t go on?” Kala asked.

  “We’ll worry about that once I find out there is nowhere to go from down there.”

  I moved to the edge of the hole and lowered myself over the side, so I was hanging by my hands. I looked down to see my feet were only about a half meter short of the floor below, so I let go landing in about 75 centimeters of water pooled there from the leaking crack in the wall, before it flowed off in a direction of the cliff. I looked in the other direction to see a long and dark corridor. About 9 meters away I noticed the floor seemed to be dry again. I went a short distance down the corridor. I could feel cool air moving out from deeper in the mountain, and I knew that someplace further along the tunnel that there had to be another connection to the outside. I returned to the opening in the floor.

  “It appears to go on for some distance, toss me the backpacks.”

  Kala tossed the backpacks down and lowered the rifles next. Finally, she lay on her stomach and lowered the twins down as far as she could before dropping them into my arms. Reidecor was first, and I carried him to the dry location in the tunnel and set him by the backpacks and told him to sit still. He seemed quite confused by what was going on, but he didn’t seem frightened. Lunnie was next and for some reason, seemed to think it was a game, and she laughed when Kala dropped her into my arms. Then Kala slipped over the edge and dropped to the floor beside me. We immediately headed down the tunnel deeper into the mountain. Along the way, we passed side corridors and rooms. All of them were empty save for paintings on the walls and some shards of what looked like pieces of pottery.

  “Tib,” Kala whispered, “how do you know you are going in the right direction?”

  I paused and looked at her, “I don’t. However, the air is flowing in this tunnel and not in the others, that means that somewhere this tunnel exits the mountain and is letting fresh air in, so that’s the direction we want to head.”

  By now, we were quite a way inside the mountain. We hadn’t heard any signs of pursuit, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any. Reidecor was becoming irritated by our trip and was starting to fuss. Lunnie seemed to be taking it all in stride and was observing everything. Finally we came to a large circular room in the tunnel, from inside the room the tunnels ran off in four different directions. The room appeared to be richly decorated in mosaic tiles with ornate patterns.

  “We’ll take a break here. Be prepared to move quickly if we need to.” I said as I took up a station at the tunnel we had just exited. Kala opened her backpack and took out some food for the twins. Reidecor immediately began eating his, while Lunnie seemed more interested in what I was doing, and in looking at the room about us. The room was lit up from the illumination provided by Kala’s helmet light and made it easy for them to see.

  “I’m going to slip back the way we came for a short distance to see if we are being followed.” I whispered to Kala.

  She nodded to me as I turned and moved back along the hall. I went about 300 meters and then stopped and listened. All was quiet. I sat and waited a bit more, still silence. I was about to head back to Kala when I thought I heard a sound. I waited and then I heard it again, a shuffling sound like someone coming down the corridor. I retreated back toward Kala in the circular room. I was close enough to her that I could see the light where the tunnel entered the chamber, and I could hear her talking to the babies. I was almost to her when I noticed a small room off to the side. I slipped into it and waited. Anyone coming down the tunnel would pass me here and seeing the light and hearing her and the babies in the other room would assume we all were there. I was just hoping there were not too many of them.

  “Lunnie, daddy will be back in a few minutes,” I heard Kala say. “Now eat your food. Reidecor has finished eating all of his.” A dark shadow passed in front of the door of the room I was hidden in, then another and a third. I could see they all were dressed in trooper attire and carrying weapons. I waited a few seconds before moving out of the door, checking back the way they had come and seeing nothing I turned and stealthily crept up behind the last man.

  In the old movies of Earth, you always see scenes like this where the hero sneaks up behind a line of men and slowly takes them, one at a time, without the others knowing. Well, it doesn’t work like that in reality. Oh I tried it, but the number-three guy wasn’t as quiet going down as I hoped. His friends heard him and immediately both turned to attack me. I managed to thwart the attack of number two in line with a martial arts move and had disarmed him, only to look up and see the number-one man about to blow my brains out. Unexpectedly, a beam of light shot out of his forehead, and he dropped to the floor dead. Further down the tunnel I saw Kala silhouetted in the door with her rifle at her shoulder.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, as I picked myself up off the floor.

  “Yeah, fine.” I dusted myself off and then checked the bodies of the three men for anything we could use. I took their knives and a few grenades as well as power packs for the laser rifles. And then as a final thought, I took the lead trooper’s helmet which contained a headset for communicating with his commanding officer. I donned the head gear to hear. “Unit 3, respond. Have you found them? Come in Unit 3. If you do not respond, we will be sending men in after you.”

  “Damn,” I muttered. “We just can’t seem to get a break.” Then to Kala I said. “Get ready to move. There will be more troopers coming. I’m going to leave a booby trap for them.”

  I took the grenades and positioned the dead troopers in the tunnel in such a way that anyone following would have to move them. Then I activated the grenades in such a way that if the bodies were moved it would detonate them. As soon as I finished, I joined up with Kala and with each of us carrying one baby; we picked a tunnel with a strong incoming air flow and moved into it. We were on the move about 20 minutes when there was a muffled explosion sound and a small pressure wave that pushed through the tunnel. “Sounds like they found the bodies in the tunnel,” I said when Kala looked at me. I don’t think they will be following us that way anymore.”

  “But how are we going to get out now?” Kala asked.

  “We’ll keep going the way we are. These tunnels go someplace where there is an opening. I just hope when we get to it, we can reach it.”

  Slowly, the tunnel we were in began to slope upwards, and then it began to spiral around in a large inclined loop. We were all beginning to get tired; the weight of a baby on one arm, a rifle in the other and a pack on our backs while climbing the ramp was taking its toll on us.

  “I would have thought we would have reached the surface by now,” Kala puffed.

  “We must have descended more than we realized as we moved through the tunnels,” I answered, “but we should soon reach it now.” I answered.

  The spiral ramp continued on and finally leveled off i
n a new tunnel. By now, we didn’t know where we were or in what direction we were headed. Hours had passed since we entered the tunnels, and it must be daylight outside by now. I was about to tell Kala we would take a break when ahead of us I saw light. I motioned for Kala to stop and wait as I crept along the tunnel wall toward the light. I was almost to the area where the light emanated from when, suddenly there was a fluttering of wings about me. I had disturbed a bunch of the nesting bat like creatures that I’d seen dining on the Sisoma trees. They fluttered about trying to get out of the tunnel and flew in the direction of the light. I nearly discharged my rifle in panic before I realized what they were. Once they were gone and I had regained some of my composure, I moved around the corner to see an opening to the exterior and daylight. I moved forward to the opening only to discover that we were about 130 meters above the plateau. The reason it had taken us so long to ascend the ramp was because the tunnel we had been traveling through had eventually gone under the upper cliff on the plateau. I could see out and down onto the plateau and further out beyond the plateau edge I could see desert as well.

  I saw three patrol ships near the entrance of our underground house. I assumed it was the location because I could see the stream and the dam I had made. A few troopers stood guard near the entrance to our underground home, and I could see others searching about outside on the plateau. None of them appeared to be aware of me in the opening in the cliff, and in fact, I do not ever recall having noticed the opening when I looked up from the plateau, so there was no reason to believe that anyone saw the opening. I looked about the area behind me inside the mountain and noticed a small room. I checked it out and discovered another tunnel behind it. There were round stone doors for both entrances to the room, and both had holes in the centers of the door for reasons I didn’t understand. but they may have been for ventilation. I went back to Kala and told her what I had discovered, and I suggested we move everything up into the room and wait out the arrival of the NEW ORLEANS.