Conquests & Consequences

by Lee Watts

  "Empty?" the Admiral questioned.

  "Of course, for the bodies."

  "Bodies?"

  "Yes. We expect resistance, but that's being taken care of. See to it the bodies are removed discreetly. I don't want corpses all over the broadcasts, even if they are Elderites."

  Balin couldn't believe what he was hearing.

  "Regent, these are Realm citizens. The Charter guarantees them the right to-"

  "The Charter be hanged, and so will you if you say another word! These people can obey the law or are bringing the consequences on themselves. Now, fall in line and send the transports before I have you arrested for sedition and insubordination."

  The Ramillie Major and Realm troops burst into the gymnasium where the children, teachers, and parents were gathered. Seeing the soldiers, many of the children screamed, as did some adults. With weapons at the ready, Imre and the three hundred other soldiers with him quickly fanned out.

  "Now here this," the Ramillie major bellowed. "I want all adults to move to that far wall!"

  "We won't let you take them," Hector Silvanus said.

  "You have no choice. Either get out of the way, or we'll take you out of the way. That goes for all of you!"

  Having run the school for decades, many of his former students now had children of their own in the school. Hector gazed back at the frightened group who looked to him for leadership.

  Hector began walking, and the Ramillie smiled at the compliance, but his grin morphed into a scowl as Hector instead stepped in front of the center of the group and defiantly crossed his arms. Emboldened by this, the teachers and parents joined him in forming a protective row between the soldiers and children. Many joined hands and prayed quietly while facing the rifles.

  "These are our children," Hector asserted, "and we will raise them according to the Codex of the Elder, and as long as I live, you will not take even one away."

  "Have it your way, Elderite," sneered the Ramillie major. Turning to Sergeant Kovacs, he instructed, "Shoot him."

  Kovacs took aim at Hector. The Ramillie smiled, eager to see the Elderite's head disintegrate. After several seconds with no blast, he repeated, "Shoot him!"

  "This is the wrong choice," Imre dissented.

  "You don't have a choice! Shoot him!"

  Imre remained still while thinking of his young daughter, Hannah, and what he would do if someone tried to take her away.

  "WEAK," the major shouted in disgust. "This is why there is no more Realm!"

  Furious, the alien officer drew his sidearm and aimed it at Hector. Imre knew in a way, the Ramillie was right. He didn't have any choice, and he needed to pull the trigger himself, so he did. With that, the Major's head disintegrated.

  CHAPTER 27

  "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, 'Who is on the LORD's side? Let him come unto me'…" - Exodus 32:26

  As the Ramillie's body crumpled to the floor, the hundreds of other troops in the gymnasium spun their rifles toward Sergeant Kovacs. A tense moment passed as the Realm soldiers targeted one of their own, but no one fired. With pounding heartbeats, nervous breaths were the only sounds. Eventually, Imre lowered his weapon and broke the silence.

  "Look at us!" he shouted. "Look at how far we've come! We're doing the Ramillie's dirty work: pulling families apart, storming schools, arresting anyone who even dares stand for the Codex or Charter. This was once the United Realm of Theera-Enty, a beacon of freedom and righteousness, but now look at it. Look at us! We've come to shoot our own people for teaching the things that made the Realm great. This isn't the Realm I know, not the one I swore to serve, but as the Major pointed out, 'there is no more Realm.' I say enough!"

  He looked down at the Hegemony symbol patch on his shoulder.

  "I will no longer serve the Hegemony." Reaching up, he ripped the patch from his uniform and tossed it to the floor. Crossing to the line of parents and teachers, he turned to the soldiers and declared, "I am Imre Kovacs... Elderite... soldier of the Realm. I swore an oath to protect the Realm, the Charter, and the people with my life. If you want to take them, you'll have to go through me first." With the rising pitch of his charging weapon, he added the traditional, now banned motto of the nation, "Long live the Realm."

  Uncertain, the remaining soldiers kept their weapons trained on Imre and the other adults. The air was thick with tension, but no one dared move. Each soldier looked to the others for a signal, and after several moments one of them finally acted. Lowering his weapon, the soldier ripped the patch from his arm and discarded it. Walking over to Imre, the soldier quietly but confidently echoed the almost forgotten saying, "Long live the Realm."

  A few seconds later another soldier did the same, then another, dozens at a time joined the line beside Sergeant Kovacs. In the end, less than twenty of the original three hundred held their position.

  "Pull back," one of the few remaining Hegemony-loyal soldiers instructed, and they quickly left.

  A collective sigh of relief came from everyone in the room.

  "Praise the Elder!" one of the parents cheered.

  "Hold on!" Imre shouted above the rejoicing. "This isn't over. They're coming back, and next time it'll be with a full contingent of Ramillie troops."

  "Do you want us to set up defensive positions, Sir?" one soldier asked.

  "Negative, if we stay here, we're dead. We're moving out."

  When only twenty soldiers left the building, the Ramillie in charge of the outside troops knew something was woefully wrong. After being briefed on the situation, he signaled for a contingent of Ramillie troops to follow him in to retake the school. Only steps from the main doors, the Ramillie were entirely unprepared for the flurry of blue laserfire suddenly raining out at them. Bunched up, the Ramillie soldiers were taken out quickly. Before the dust settled, the main doors burst open, and the Realm troops raced out toward the nearby empty troop transports, with hundreds of civilians close behind the soldiers.

  "GO! GO! GO," Imre shouted as the parents and kids boarded the waiting troop carriers.

  The onlookers and Ramillie perimeter guards were aghast at what was happening. A Ramillie guard fired, and the others quickly followed his lead. Blasts of red energy slammed into the transports, and the Realm troops returned fire.

  "I'll hit 'em with the swivel gun," one soldier shouted while rushing to the control console of the vehicle's top-mounted cannon.

  "NO," Imre ordered. "That'll hit the crowd too! Lay down cover fire!"

  The soldier did so as the vehicles sped away from the school with multiple news cameras broadcasting everything. Balin watched the entire event unfolding live on his screen. With Ramillie forces distracted by pursuing the transports, the camera crews were able to enter the school. Making their way to the gymnasium, they found the pile of Hegemony patches on the floor with a simple note atop the stack, "Long live the Realm."

  Balin froze the image and stared at it for a long time. His eyes welled. In shame, he looked at the gray and red patch on his own shoulder. For most of his career the blue and white banner of the Realm was there, but no more. Committing himself, he ripped the tribal logo from his sleeve, slamming it on his desk.

  "Long live the Realm," he whispered defiantly.

  After several quick communiqués, he got up to leave his office. On the way out he stopped and pulled down the flag with the ruby-hued Hegemony symbol on it. Tossing it aside, he went to the closet and pulled out a carefully folded and preserved banner of the Ream and took it with him.

  "Where are we going?" asked the soldier next to Sergeant Kovacs as their transport sped down the street.

  "The spaceport. It's our only chance. They'll corner us if we stay planetside."

  "Then where?"

  "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go."

  As they raced toward the spaceport a pair of Ramillie starfighters closed in fast. Twin blasts of red energy slammed into the ground next to them. Dirt flew and splattered against the escaping transports. In
each of the escaping vehicles, troops manned swivel guns and spat lasers at their pursuers, but the fighters were far too maneuverable. Imre knew if they kept on the road, the transports would be wiped out.

  "HANG ON," he shouted as he whipped the vehicle in a sharp turn. The other transports followed suit, and the convoy headed in a new direction.

  "Where now, Gunny?"

  "City center," Imre answered.

  "Are you crazy? It's swarming with Ramillie troops!"

  "Yea, but we've got a chance against them. There's nothing we can do against those fighters. Besides, the skyscrapers will provide cover."

  "What about the spaceport plan?"

  "New plan," he shouted as the Ramillie fighters screamed past them and were forced to pull up to avoid the city's buildings.

  "Now what?" asked the soldier beside Imre.

  Imre didn't have a good answer or even a bad one. Praying aloud he said, "Elder, I need a sign."

  Then, four Hegemony Security Enforcer hovercars came into view. Adding to their troubles, Imre noticed a line of midday traffic ahead of him.

  "Stay with me!" he said into the radio to the other transports as he zoomed off the road and onto the sidewalk.

  People dove into stores to get out of the way, and low hovering craft slammed through merchandise displays. Clipping a pole, the attached street sign stuck on Imre's windshield. It was an arrow pointing the way to the underground transport tubes.

  "Well, I asked for a sign."

  "You're not going to…," the soldier seated next to him started to say.

  "Everyone, follow me! We're going underground!"

  Crashing through the passages designed for pedestrians, the transports bashed against the sides of the narrow tubes, but the security enforcer hovercars followed.

  "Take 'em out!" Imre signaled to the other transport gunners. Weapons fire flew both directions, but when the lead enforcer car exploded, it blocked the other pursuers. Despite the momentary respite, the fugitives knew the chase was far from over. Emerging in the main terminal, people scattered as Imre's and the other fleeing transports slowed for the first time since beginning their flight. Tubes led in four different directions.

  "Which one goes to the spaceport?" asked a voice from the back. It was a female sergeant named Tia VanAllen.

  "I don't know," Imre admitted.

  "Let's ask for directions."

  Imre and the male beside him looked at her in disbelief.

  "Are you crazy?" Imre barked.

  "What is it with men and asking for directions?" Tia fussed.

  Reaching up to the controls, Tia hit the switch opening the back hatch of the craft.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Getting directions," she said as she raced out of the vehicle.

  Imre looked to the soldier beside him and huffed, "Women."

  A few seconds later, she returned.

  "Take tube four then cross over to tube six at the next junction," she directed as the door closed.

  The two men looked at each other; finally, the other soldier spoke.

  "Well, you heard the lady."

  Radioing the other transports to follow, Imre sped away and into the sizeable connecting junction where more tubes intersected.

  "Which one's tube six?" Imre asked.

  "There," Tia exclaimed while pointing.

  Imre started for the tunnel, but the soldier beside him said to stop.

  "What? I don't see anything," Imre said.

  "It's almost two o'clock."

  "So?"

  "I use this terminal a lot, the express runs at the top of the hour."

  A high-speeding train then began zooming past them. Less than a meter away, the wind from the fast-moving train shook their ship. Imre looked at the other man who shrugged. As the zipping train passed by, security enforcers on more than a score of one-rider hover bikes zoomed down the stairs and into the terminal. Each sleek vehicle had a single, small cannon mounted on it.

  The terminal, now crowded with vehicles, erupted in laserfire.

  "Split up," Imre shouted over the radio. "Rendezvous at the spaceport!"

  Not wanting to lead the security enforcers to their actual destination, Imre chose a tube at random, as did the other transports.

  "Gunny, we've got three on our tail!"

  Tia spat fire at the trio of pursuers, but narrow and elusive, they were challenging targets. Lashing out with their own weapons, the hoverbikes found the bulky transport much easier to hit. The ship rocked violently as the shots pounded away at it. At last the redheaded VanAllen was able to blast one of the hoverbikes.

  "YOU WANT SOME?" she taunted to the two remaining riders.

  As if able to hear her, the pair fired simultaneously and scored direct hits on one of the transport's two engines - taking it out.

  "Whoa! What's going on back there?" shouted Imre.

  With one of their comrades out of the way, the two remaining hoverbikes had more room to maneuver making them even more difficult to hit. They continued firing at the ever-weakening transport.

  Imre rushed the transport craft through the maze of tunnels at breakneck speed, but the hoverbikes matched his every move.

  Frustrated at her inability to hit the hoverbikes, Tia struck on the idea of targeting the tunnel itself. Blasting the walls, caused hunks of rock and metal to fly out and smashed into one of the riders, knocking him off the bike, which then slammed into the wall.

  "Ha ha!" she cheered.

  The remaining hoverbike hit the accelerator closing the gap between it and the transport.

  "Now I've gotcha," Tia gleamed, but before she could target the bike, it fired and scored a direct hit on the transport's cannon, blasting it off.

  "How's it going," Imre asked.

  "Uh… could be better," Tia answered.

  Before Imre could ask what that meant, he noticed a fork in the tunnel.

  "Scan the tunnels," Imre instructed, "Which one leads to the spaceport?"

  The soldier beside him answered, "I'm getting a lot of confusing readings. Scans are bouncing off the rocks. Trying to compensate… uh oh."

  "What uh oh?"

  "There's another of those high-speed trains coming."

  "From which tunnel," Imre asked.

  "Uh… the left one. NO, no the right."

  "Are you sure?"

  "I don't know. One second the scanner shows it as one then the other."

  Laserfire from the pursuing hoverbike slammed into the transport causing it to shudder. Speeding to the tunnel's fork, Imre shouted, "I need a choice here! What's the call, left or right?"

  "Uh… right."

  Veering toward that tunnel, Imre caught a split-second glimpse of the train zooming directly in front of them.

  "LEFT!"

  Pulling hard on the controls, the transport scraped the dividing wall of the two tunnels as it made its last instant change of course. The hoverbike, following too close to see the train until the transport moved, collided head-on with the train at full speed.

  Pursuers gone, the battered transport limped its way to the rendezvous point. As it emerged from the underground at the city's main spaceport, Imre noticed several of the other transports already waiting. Two more came out shortly after, but as the last emerged from the tunnel, it exploded, and Ramillie security enforcer bikes poured out behind it.

  "What now? New plan?" asked one of the transport drivers.

  "No! This is our only chance," Imre answered. "Head to the departures area. No turning back now! We've got to get one of those ships!"

  Ramillie fire streaked out at the transports. Suddenly, a missile blast slammed into the ground in front of the lead transport and sent the others peeling off in various directions.

  "WHAT WAS THAT?" shouted Imre.

  Before anyone could answer, four Ramillie starfighters screamed overhead.

  "We've got company!" shouted a driver.

  "I see 'em," Imre acknowledged.

  "Not the fighter
s - in front of us!"

  Imre Kovacs magnified the forward display and saw half-a-dozen, heavily armed Hegemony security enforcer vehicles racing toward them. At the same time, there were three times that many hoverbikes closing in from the rear.

  Frantically, he searched for anywhere to run, but there was nothing. The forward craft began firing, and the transports rocked heavily from the intense fire. All propulsion systems on his vehicle went out, and Imre whispered a quick prayer knowing any second he would meet his maker.

  Then, inexplicably, the enforcers in front of the transports began exploding as six Realm starfighters zoomed overhead. Powerful blasts of blue energy punched from the Realm fighters quickly destroying the enforcers behind the fugitives. Fast to respond, the Ramillie starfighters fired at the Realm ships. A missile sped across the sky slamming into one of the Realm fighters destroying it. This explosion caused a ground-shaking boom as debris rained down. Realm shuttles made quick and hard landings by the transports and opened their main hatches.

  "Our rides are here," Imre shouted. "Everybody, move!"

  As above them the dogfight continued, civilians and Realm troops hastily boarded the shuttles. When the last Ramillie starfighter was destroyed, the shuttles crammed with children, parents, teachers, and soldiers lifted from the ground. Racing out of the atmosphere, the shuttles hurried toward a massive Realm warship in orbit.

  Making high-speed approaches, the shuttles and escorting fighters quickly docked inside the gargantuan Realm craft. When all were safely aboard, the warship immediately broke orbit. As the hatch of his shuttle opened, the harried and confused Imre stepped out. Noticing an officer was waiting to greet him, Imre saluted the white-haired, barrel-chested admiral who sported a rip on his sleeve.

  "Welcome aboard the Dauntless," Balin greeted.

  CHAPTER 28

  "Thou in thy mercy has led forth the people which thou has redeemed: thou has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." - Exodus 15:13

  Lights switched to red and klaxons began to sound as a voice came over the ship's speakers.

  "Red alert! Battle stations! Battle stations!"