Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1)

by Robin MacMillan

  “Ah gentlemen, you’re finally here, sit,” he wheezes out, motioning with his arm to two seats beside him.

  We sit without question. The man sitting beside me looks ancient, his appearance suggests he’s around a hundred years old.

  “Now, let’s begin shall we?” He says.

  “Yes Sir,” I say through force of habit.

  “Now, it has come to my understanding that your previous mission was you two following the orders of General Anders, is that correct?”

  “Yes Sir. Sir, if I may speak freely?”

  “Be my guest.”

  “I thought this debriefing was about the mission, not who was issuing orders at the time.”

  “It is about both; we need to know if Anders was sending you out there for the purposes of the military, or his own.”

  “Well, in my opinion Sir, I think it was for the good of the planet, we took down a serious threat, that compound was harvesting Thopium to use against us, and we took it out.” I say.

  “Did Anders ask you to do anything that seemed odd at the time? As if the orders that he was giving you didn’t make any sense?” Weber asks.

  “No Sir, the orders that we received made perfect sense,” I reply.

  T-Rave cuts in, “Sir, what exactly happened to Anders?”

  “He is locked up for the time being, we are having some of our best interrogators coming here to question him.”

  “Isn’t that taking it a little too far Sir?” I say.

  “We have no idea what kind of information was exchanged between the two parties, and we won’t know for sure until we get some answers from him.”

  “Understood Sir.”

  “Now that we have gotten that out of the way I need to know the details of your previous mission.”

  “Yes Sir, we got our briefing by General Anders, then we departed and met up with Krystil Aakia and Jayon Cofield on the flight deck, we then departed for the Kelownial Rain forest. We almost got to our destination unnoticed, however we weren’t so lucky, myself and the Captain took one of Cofield’s escape ships and entered combat with the oncoming scout ships. We took a few of them out before getting shot down and crashing almost two dozen clicks away from our original drop point.”

  “And the good Captain didn’t think it would be good for the sake of the mission to mount a rescue and take you to the actual destination?” Weber cuts in.

  “He was being chased himself at the time from the scout ships that we didn’t manage to destroy before being hit.”

  “Continue please.”

  “After we crashed we made a camp somewhere near the mountains. We took shifts to watch over the perimeter, there was only one disturbance but it turned out to be nothing. We continued to make camp for a few hours, just to get some rest after the long trek, we left when it was still dark out. We got to the facility some time later; we got inside thanks to some new military ordinance -that stuff works really well-”

  “Yes, I have heard of some of the new explosives that are being engineered. Our provider is working on ways to have nuclear weapons constructed to be the size of your hand,” Weber adds.

  “Wow, really? The size of your fist? That’s quite small for a nuke.”

  What would be the point of making these things smaller? We’re supposedly trying to have peace with the other nations spread across the planet; instead we’re trying to build super weapons that are meant to destroy them. We should be focusing our efforts on more of those collapsible huts.

  “Yes, that’s correct, now please continue.”

  “Right, we got inside using the explosives, where we encountered a different kind of species, wait no…a different variation of the Hakorians that we had previously encountered.”

  “What do you mean?” Weber asks.

  “Well Sir, this particular Hakorian could manipulate the elements of the Earth; I have no idea how though.”

  “I’ve heard some myths that people could be ‘in touch’ with nature and everything else around them, they sound highly exaggerated though.” He points out.

  “Why do you think that? Just because you don’t know how it works?” T-Rave interjects. So, maybe this General is as bad as the last one, by the looks of it he his opinion is the right way to do something.

  “That’s not what I said, I would need proof right in front of my eyes.” There it is, seeing is believing for him, quite the opposite for me. You have to be able to believe in something regardless if you have proof. All you need is a little faith.

  “Anyways, this Hakorian was female, I’m not sure how she did what she did, but she did; and we have to assume that most of the females will be able to do it. Just as a precaution.”

  “And a good one at that, we need to use every edge we can get if are wanting to come out of this in one piece,” Weber says.

  “Captain Ravenson took her out, he said that she posed a threat, and I’m sure that he was right, it just didn’t feel right killing a female though,” I say, remembering the feeling when T-Rave shot the wounded alien.

  “You made the right call son; she did pose a threat, a threat that needed to be eliminated.”

  So that’s how the he thinks, the stakes of the mission will always come first over any other matter. The military’s replaced a corrupt General with a incorruptible one. Typical.

  “After that we planted more explosives in key locations that helped us escape later on. So after we did that we took a lift to the deepest level that it could go, that level contained a large cavern where they were extracting the Thopium by the container load. We got captured after we tagged only a handful of Thopium tanks, before we got captured though we hid more explosives underneath the tanks.” I pause to let the information sink into his head, also giving him the opportunity to cut in and ask questions.

  “What exactly happened when you were captured?”

  “Not a whole lot, they asked me a few questions, which I didn’t answer of course, I followed General Anders orders and talked about possible peace treaties, the outcome was as I expected though. The leader that I was talking to scoffed at the offer, and then pulled The Captain into a separate room to interrogate him further.”

  “And what information did they try to get out of you Captain?” Weber turns to T-Rave.

  “Basically the same questions that they asked the Colonel. I didn’t crack though, once they realized that they took me back out into the other room where they were going to kill us.”

  “How did you manage to escape?”

  “Well, I was counting on the fact that the explosives that we planted would explode. Lucky for us they did. It provided a good distraction for me to take control of the situation.”

  “So you made a gamble?”

  “Yeah, we did. We had set the timers for ten minutes; even though I knew that we were unconscious when they captured us it wouldn’t have been that long.”

  “In the future try not to gamble. Remember, you are gambling with your lives,” Weber points out.

  “Yes Sir. I wasn’t aware at the time that they were coming out to kill us. When they came out, I was in the middle of figuring out how I could get to my helmet, because if I got to my helmet then I could detonate the explosives. Luckily though the Captain had a plan of his own and got us out.”

  “You should be able to function by yourself though,” Weber says.

  My jaw clenches from the frustration, Weber’s only finding the negative things in this debriefing that he can easily pick apart.

  “Well, Sir, the military sent us on that mission, knowing full well that there were only two soldiers…unless Anders also had a hand in that as well.”

  “No, that mission was sanctioned by the military. We are aware that we might have put pressure on the two of you when you left.”

  “When we left? There was pressure on us constantly,” I exclaim.

  “Watch your tone soldier, just because you are frustrated doesn’t mean you take it out on the person closest to you,” Webers voice soun
ds shaky.

  “Of course Sir, pardon me,” I apologize; it’s hard to contain emotions even at the best of times.

  “Anyways, after you escaped what happened?”

  “Well, after I was cut loose from the chair then we got our equipment and then made a break for the lift. We got into the lift and started to head towards the surface,” I say, the rather dull storytelling’s coming to an end.

  “And then?”

  “Well after we got to the surface we detonated the explosives that were attached to the bottom of the Thopium containers. The ground shook and then we left, we blew up the lift first before leaving though, in case anything had survived the explosion. That location will always bear the mark of what we did; a massive sinkhole was formed from the result of the explosion.”

  “The land will heal overtime,” T-Rave says, some of the things that comes out of his mouth sometimes makes me believe that he’s a different person altogether. One minute he has a gun in his hand shouting and threatening, next thing you know he’s talking about the land being injured.

  “We tried to contact Captain Cofield; all we got was static, so we tried to retrace our steps back to our crashed pod. We came upon a waterfall and began to rest when the Captain finally was able to break through the bad connection and contact us. We then waited there for an hour or so and got evacced.”

  Weber sits back in his chair; he scratches what remains of his white goatee. “And then you just came back here, nothing else happened?”

  “Nope, we just got picked up and then me and Cofield talked about what was taking him so long to respond to our communiques,” I say.

  “How come he was delayed in contacting you?”

  Pure pressure, Jayon had asked me to keep that Intel about the message to myself, “he and the engineer were just monitoring communications. That is why we were unable to contact them.”

  “Did they pick up anything?” Weber asks.

  “Nothing interesting, it was just status updates on the mining operations,” there, I did it. I lied to my commanding officer.

  “Alright, is that everything?”

  “Yeah, that’s everything,” I supress a gulp, if the General sees me being fidgety then he’d wonder if something is wrong. If the General ever finds out that I withheld information about the Hakorians and their plans, that would mean the end of my military career and potentially getting thrown in a cell.

  “Alright men, this is all the information that I need, dismissed,” he says.

  T-Rave and I stand up at the same time and then salute the General before we depart through the door. The door shuts behind us, T-Rave turns to face me.

  “Sir, was it just me or was there a tiny bit of tension going on in there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What happened after I left the cockpit?”

  Shit, well my cover’s blown already; the General hadn’t called my bluff by T-Rave definitely caught on quick.

  “Nothing happened, we talked about why they were so late in picking up communications with us, everything that I said in that room was what happened,” I take in a breath; I said it too quickly, as if I’d rehearsed it in my head in case I got caught, “don’t ever accuse me again Captain, understood?”

  “Yes Sir,” he says briskly, “just don’t ever do anything that might raise my suspicions,” he sighs, “anyways Colonel, I need to get home, it has been a very long day.”

  “Indeed it has. I’m assuming that we will be here in the morning. There is probably more and more missions being planned for the future, this war might have just started. I have a feeling that it will be very short, short but bloody.” It’s definitely been long; long and stressful.

  I turn from T-Rave and begin to walk towards the lift that will take me to the main floor where my speeder is hopefully still parked. It’d be foolish for anyone to try to steal it in front of a military embassy. Utterly foolish.

  “Goodbye Colonel,” T-Rave shouts down the corridor.

  “Seeya,” I wave my hand behind my back without turning around, I just keep walking. The lift doors open up and I step inside. I hit the button that will take me to the main level, I could’ve given it voice commands but what’s the point? People are just getting more and more lazy these days.

  The lift doors shut and quickly reopen to reveal a different floor. I walk out of the lift and head towards the security desk at the front.

  “Was your mission successful Colonel?” The security guard asks.

  “Yep, as successful as it could get,” I put on a cheery smile. I reach the doors leading to the outside world in just a few short steps from the lift. My speeder’s still parked in the same spot, with one slight difference though; a gorgeous brunette leaning up against it.

  Very, very thoughtful of my wife to come and greet me, it’s always nice.

  I run up to her and pick her up and spin her around, laughing all the while. I kiss her softly on the lips after giving her the biggest hug anyone could ever imagine. One of the best actions that I find provide the most comfort.

  “How long have you been waiting for?” I say.

  “Not too long,” she pulls away from my arms, “your office let me know that you’d returned.”

  I bring her in close again, her hair smells like she’s used that new papaya hair shampoo.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I say, I let her out of my arms and open the speeder door. “Ladies first,” I gesture to the open door. She steps inside and sits down in the passenger seat. I walk around the side of the speeder and hop inside.

  “Welcome Mr. Woods. Please state your destination,” the computer chimes. “Home,” I respond.

  The speeder lifts off the pad and takes off.

  “I was worried about you,” Syreena says.

  “Well, I’ve always said that I’ll come home,” I kiss her on the cheek. One of the great things about modern speeders; you didn’t have to be paying attention to the lanes as you’re flying. It reminds me of a couple I saw a few cycles ago on my way to work. The man in the passenger seat had grabbed his girlfriend and began to mush her hair around her face, his hands found certain areas that he could play with. Also for some reason their speeder had been in manual mode, so they were just parked in the middle of the lane making out and blocking traffic.

  “Have you thought at all about what I said earlier?” She asks.

  “Hmm, well we did talk about a lot of stuff earlier, is it possible that you could narrow that down a bit?”

  “The conversation we had about you leaving,” she says, it sounds like she’s uncomfortable with the subject, which she probably is.

  “Ah, I remember that one. Well, I talked to General Anders before we left, I’m not exactly sure if that information was correct though.”

  “What do you mean?” She interjects.

  “Well, General Anders been compromised; we discovered that he’s in contact with the enemy, so he’s now locked up, pending further and immediate investigation. He did say though that the military needs as many soldiers as they can get to win this war. I can't just leave them, they need me, it's my duty to defend my home, and all those in it.”

  “Did you rehearse that little speech?” Syreena teases.

  “Yeah, a little on the flight back,” I grin back.

  “If it's what you have to do then you do it.”

  “You don’t need to worry though, it will-”

  “You have arrived,” The computer cuts in.

  “Ok, we’ll finish this inside alright?” She says.

  “Yeah, for sure.”

  The speeder pulls into our garage bay door and lands in its usual spot. The door hisses open, I climb out of the seat -the seat’s really far down compared to the rest of speeder- and hurry to the passenger side door. I hold out my hand for Syreena, she takes it and steps out as well, she smiles at me in return. A true gentleman always helps his lady out of the vehicle.

  The door heading out of the garage opens, the smell of my home c
omes wafting out, it’s a glorious smell after being on a mission; it smells safe. The lights automatically turn on as they sense heat signatures, the hallways illuminate with light after a couple of seconds. “Ah, it’s good to be home,” I sigh out. In a perfect world I could just go to my room and pass out. However, Syreena would most likely want to spend an evening with her husband, listening to someone’s voice is always better then listening to snoring.

  “Would you be upset if I fell asleep right now?” It’s worth a try. The look on her face as I said it though told me the answer.

  “Yes, I would be upset. It has been days since I’ve seen you last, so humour your wife. Alright, now that we’re inside, you were saying before?”

  “I have no idea anymore…”

  “Well, you have terrible memory then, as I remember you were talking about your mission, and about leaving.”

  “Right, that damn computer interrupted me. Well, after I had that chat with Anders then it really did put things into perspective more, I can't just abandon everyone and just leave, I’m in it till the end.”

  “I’m relieved that you said that, after you left I thought things through, and it was too much for me to ask,” she hugs me, pure happiness radiating from my heart.

  “Thanks honey, I’m glad you think so.” It’s always good to have support for your career from your family.

  “So, what should we do now?” Syreena says, she gives me a wide smile, a gleam is in her eye as she says it. It isn’t hard to tell what she’s talking about.

  “I’m sorry to say, but I need to have something to eat and then I feel like passing out. We can definitely do something tomorrow; it might take a couple days to get called in. After that last mission we deserve a few days of RNR,” I say.

  “Alright, I’ll give you that. Why don’t you go and get ready for bed and I’ll bring you some hot tea.” She says, walking through the hallway and down through the archway that head towards the kitchen.

  “Sounds great.” I turn towards the bedroom and start walking. There’s nothing better than coming home and crashing on your bed; one of the best feelings ever.

  The lights in the bedroom are off as I enter. I walk until my knees bump the bed frame, what happens next is what some would describe as the teeter-totter effect, my face goes face first into the pillow. The nice, cold pillow; it would probably be even colder if I flip it over. I can tell already that I wouldn’t stay awake long enough to drink my tea.