by H. T. Kofruk
"Have you heard of this entity called United Terra?"
Paul sighed. "Yes. I really don't know if we should believe that it exists."
Elena deflated her armour and made a loud hissing sound in the process. She scratched her shaven head. "If we don't get support soon, those things are going to figure out how to bomb us into purgatory. Why don't we try to contact United Terra?" she said as if she hadn't heard what Paul had just said.
"Because we don't know whether it exists or not. I don't want our soldiers putting their faith into something that could just be a creation of our hope."
Elena opened a pocket in her amplifier suit and took out a small holograph projector. "I found a couple soldiers looking at this a few days ago" she explained.
She turned on the projector and the head of a man appeared and started speaking in the One Tongue.
"United Terra will be the first cohesive community of Rendens in the history of our race. We will put aside our differences in creed, race, gender and beliefs and define together our collective, collaborative future, a future where peace and social dynamism will replace war and social stagnation."
Paul turned off the projection. "Who was that?"
"An Atlantic Alliance soldier called Terry Southend. He was apparently someone famous for his ruthlessness and tactical genius."
"And he's talking about peace and cohesiveness?"
"Anyone can change" she replied with an allusive smile.
Paul smiled as if to admit she was right. Who would have known that he would allow Atlantic Alliance soldiers, the very One God followers he had vowed to destroy, into his forces?
"I've seen the whole piece, by the way" she continued. "You should take a look. He has some interesting ideas though some are a bit far-fetched."
The door burst open almost breaking the hinges. Sergeant Major Joseph Grimly, the former Celestial Guard, didn't even apologize for the rude intrusion.
"You should come and see this, sir" he said simply.
Paul and Elena followed the old soldier out where the former Black Berserker, Major Florian Abasi, was waiting anxiously near the edge of the cliffs that plunged into the sea. The two knights stood between the two taller figures, one clad in white and the other in black. The weather had changed markedly in the short time he had spent underground; a relatively clear day had become a windy day full of dark clouds. The change felt unnatural.
"We saw a build-up of clouds from the south east" said Major Abasi. "Winds suddenly started whipping up. Those black clouds look sinister."
"And synthetic, if you ask me" said Sergeant Major Grimly in his brusque, working class accent.
Paul understood the anxiety that his two lieutenants felt. The enemy had discovered how to use atmosphere manipulators and were creating a diversion for an imminent attack. Against an enemy that preferred close contact battles, heavy and windy rain would be an advantage.
"They're going to come by sea" said Paul.
His companions all looked at each other. The idea of a sea-based attack in the space age sounded almost ridiculous.
"Get ready for attack. Aim the artillery towards the water" he said.
Major Abasi started barking orders into his Web-Com sender.
"Keep infantry formation tight. Once they get on land, they're going to be really difficult to kill" said Paul.
Sergeant Major Grimly went off to look at infantry positions.
"Do we have any submersible drones?" he said to Elena.
She shook her head. "I'll look but I doubt it."
He had a grim feeling about the coming battle. He knew that the Nikruk were massacring Rendens on the other side of the sea and that the frequent air strikes launched from Britain were all that kept them in check. They would be coming to annihilate them completely. More than two million refugees had arrived from the continent in the past year; if he lost, they would have come in vain.
The defending forces waited anxiously as the winds picked up even more and heavy rain fell almost horizontally. Despite their armoured amplifier suits, each soldier felt the wind and rain seep in as if to dampen their spirits. Thunder and bolts of lightning made them jump.
"Do you see anything?" asked Paul to his aide, a young Indian lieutenant.
"It's difficult to see, sir" he said while observing the holograph footage sent from the hover-drones above the sea. "The waves are very violent. I'd be surprised anything survived them."
Paul disagreed. The young soldier had never been in actual combat against the invading aliens and had only heard of what they were capable of. He was in for a shock.
"Wait, I think I saw something jump out of the water."
"Go back to what you saw" he ordered.
The holograph rewound and then displayed the footage in slow motion.
"Switch to motion enhancement" he ordered again.
The movement of the waves consequently became much more exaggerated, making sudden changes easily distinguishable. After a couple minutes, he finally saw it. It was a small speck in the violent sea but the motion enhancement showed what a powerful swimmer it was. It burst through the surface of the bubbling water and created menacing ripples.
He found the idea of swimming through the sea to launch an attack preposterous. He had initially thought they had learned how to use commercial submersibles. That would at least have provided them with large targets in the water.
"They're only five miles from the coast. Fire laser cannons into the water" he said through his mouth piece."
He heard the order being repeated. The bright red lasers lit up the grey sky as they cut through the water. A hundred laser cannons fired in succession, hopefully piercing as many alien bodies as possible. Nobody could know for sure if they were hitting anything at all.
"Should we launch pulse missiles, sir?" inquired Grimly through the Web-Com.
Paul couldn't be sure whether they would be effective in the water. It was also very possible that he had glimpsed merely the first wave of attack. There was no missile production facility in Britain and he didn't want to deplete his precious stock.
"No” he grunted. “Focus firepower with the laser cannons. Aim pulse cannons at closer waters."
Three hundred pulse cannons, most of which were the smaller kilo-class, adjusted the curvature of their pulse trajectories to impact the waters within one mile of the coast.
"Sir, I think I saw one jump out of the water just two miles from the coastline" reported his aide.
He had no idea how fast these aliens could swim but if the two sightings were any indication, it seemed they could cover three miles in ten minutes.
"Sergeant Major Grimly, rain down pulse cannons."
The deafening sound of hundreds of pulses curving through the air and hitting the water drowned out even the thunder. The blue underwater pulse explosions created an impressive scene, especially coupled with the red beams of laser.
"Infantry, prepare for engagement" said Paul.
"Do you see any, sir?" said Abasi through the Web-Com.
He was answered by the explosion caused by a single rocket that flew in from the water. It was immediately followed by a second rocket.
"Launch shock shields!" yelled Paul.
White sheets of shock-absorbing material soon peppered the air, dissolving into nothing within seconds. One of them was struck by a rocket and it immediately enveloped the explosion before dissolving.
"Sir, they're almost at the coastline."
The holograph showed hundreds of Nikruk bursting out of the water to launch rockets from their rocket packs before plunging back in like a pod of dolphins. They were only a few hundred feet from the white cliffs that lined the coast.
"Artillery pull back" he ordered.
A hundred laser cannons were lifted and moved away from the cliff and behind infantry lines. Paul saw that only two of them had incurred any serious damage from the small rockets fired by the aliens. If they survived the immediate battle, the giant weapons would be precious
assets given the dearth of production plants.
Paul walked to the middle of the infantry line that was stretched out five hundred feet from the edge of the cliffs.
The first Nikruk jumped out and landed at the edge of the cliff in an almost straight line in front of Paul. He heard the order to open fire given by Grimly. The first arrival was almost obliterated by infantry fire. The second one landed just seconds behind the first and met a similar fate. Two more landed almost simultaneously, followed by another four. Soon dozens where emerging from the violent sea.
The initial arrivals stood little chance with literally thousands of weapons pointed at them. Paul also noticed that the aliens stood still for a couple seconds right after landing, perhaps out of fatigue, more probably due to sudden disorientation after finding solid ground beneath their feet. He knew this ‘weakness’ was not something that had been taken into consideration when they planned the offensive.
Grimly's voice continued to give brusque orders to the infantry battalions made up of survivors from all the Six Empires. Not a single Nikruk made it past a hundred feet towards their direction and he could hear a smugness creep into the voice of his most experienced soldier. Paul knew that such smugness was always the first step towards disaster.
The sudden enormous clap of thousands of Nikruk feet landing confirmed this belief. The ground trembled and it almost seemed as if a portion of the overhanging cliff would collapse into the dark, churning water.
"Keep shooting!" roared Paul at his dumbfounded army.
The mass of dark figures evaporated into dark blurs as the enemy took advantage of the brief respite. A second massive clap from the following wave of Nikruk soldiers landing on the cliff caused Paul's heart to beat dangerously fast. A third almost made him spit out his heart. His mind raced to find the most effective way to ward off the deadly enemy who were surely merely seconds from reaching the line. His thoughts went to a prototype weapon designed to immobilize the swift adversaries by giving a massive, wide-area electric shock. The problem was that it had never been tested in such wet conditions. Military equipment was designed to insulate against external electric shocks but tens of thousands of civilian refugees were hiding in bunkers barely a few kilometres away. Would the earth separating them from the damp surface be enough?
If the line broke and close-quarter combat occurred, it would most certainly end in a massacre. Civilians in the whole of Britain would be hunted and possible exterminated by the tireless enemy within a few months.
"Issue shock!" he ordered.
He could tell that Grimly was hesitating by his silence.
"Now!" he yelled more forcefully.
“Sir, if I may…” said the older soldier.
“Now damn it!” shouted Paul.
Six giant conductors situated half a mile behind the defensive line, each one fully charged with enough energy to light a large city for a full night, suddenly and simultaneously unleashed. Paul only saw a split-second bright flash and a slight tingle. The scene that lay in front of him almost made him draw his sword.
Thousands of Nikruk were immobile on the scorched and smouldering ground. The wet grass was burnt and smoking where the electricity had struck. Some of the aliens were stirring and shaking their heads. He had to be impressed that they survived a shock that would have immediately killed almost any other life form. Although he felt dishonourable, he ordered his troops to open fire with full force on the enemy before they gained their senses.
They were mowed down by tens of thousands of burst of pulse fire as well as explosions from personal small rockets. Some fired back after gaining their senses but they caused minimal damage.
The sea was starting to calm when he finally issued the cease fire order. Even the sky was showing signs of clearing. The black smoke from ten thousand Nikruk corpses blew towards the west. The silence of his troops went well with the desolate scenery.
"Check the status of the civilian colonies" he said to his aide. When the younger soldier nodded to indicate they had not been harmed, he sighed heavily and almost went down on one knee. But before passing out from battle fatigue, he had one last thing to take care of.
His troops didn't celebrate the monumental victory, only standing silently as if merely being alive was surreal. He passed them by until a tall soldier in muddy white armour came into view.
"Sergeant Major Grimly" he called out softly.
The older soldier swivelled around to see who was calling him. He received a gauntleted fist to his left cheek as soon as he set his eyes on his commander. He fell down on the muddy floor, his instinct making him bounce back to pay back the blow. He came face to face, however, with the point of the famous Catholic blade, Lordswroth.
Paul lowered the sword to Grimly's unguarded neck. The point dug into the wrinkled folds of the veteran elite soldier's flesh without drawing blood. Grimly looked up and saw the fury in Paul's eyes. At that moment, he would have believed that the Grey Knight would be more than capable of pushing the living blade to cut his artery.
"Next time I give a tactical order, you follow immediately without question" he said flatly.
Grimly looked down at the warm blade and swallowed. "Yes, sir" he said weakly.
Paul walked away and headed to his bunker while Grimly wiped the blood from his lip.
Chapter 6: Shame
‘Does it really take the death of millions to realise the immorality of a regime? The 20th century World Wars, the Second Chinese Civil War (between the Communist Party and the New Han Royalists), the Disaster, the Khmer Rouge mass-killings, all of these wars resulted in millions of deaths and vast social, political and cultural changes. The petty intra-Renden wars after the launch of space colonialism 'only' entailed a few hundred thousand Renden deaths at a time (though non-Renden deaths greatly outnumbered Renden ones) and we shrugged off those 'low' numbers. Only after billions of perished Rendens and the threat of our own annihilation are we finally striving for a different future.’- Terry Southend,
The long night of Nuevo Santiago gave way to a foggy morning. The locals lived without discomfort in the forty-three hour day cycle; instead of three meals per day, they took four; a two hour nap after lunch at sixteen o’clock kept them fresh for the rest of the day. The lower gravity of the planet also contributed by lessening the fatigue of merely staying upright or walking. The sun rose at about eight o’clock at this time of year, well before the bustle of the city really started.
In a dark alley, not yet touched by the feeble, pale sunlight, a portion of a grease-stained wall of a dirty building suddenly disappeared along with an overflowing rubbish bin and a wet snarling cat. The metallic whirring sounds of a sophisticated lock-system being manipulated emanated from a solid steel door. The door finally flew open after a loud hiss of pressure being released.
Bin’ja blinked his yellow eyes as he entered the morning light, oblivious to the brown blood dripping from a deep gash on his right shoulder. His alien head was exposed but no human eyes save Heera’s saw him. She hung on his good shoulder, her whole body covered in blood, mostly from the mobsters she and Bin’ja had to kill to get out alive. As the two stepped out of the door, the hulking figure of a tall local fell flat on what should have been his face except his neck had been brutally turned backwards. As the door guard lay stomach down on the wet, dirty ground, his face looked up at the sky. His lips made some feeble final movements before they became as still as his glazed eyes.
Heera inhaled deeply the misty air. The blood on her face was starting to cake. She collapsed to the floor with her back on the opposite wall of the alley. Bin’ja followed suit.
“How many did we just kill?” she asked.
Bin’ja just made a rumbling sound.
“Well, at least we have a ship. Several ships even to choose from.”
Killing became easier the more she did it. Her first killing had been on the planet inhabited by the strange ‘Hummers’. Although unconscious at the time,
she had managed to drive a laser saw through the heart of Haseeb, her would-be imprisoner on the planet. Actually, she corrected herself, he had impaled himself on the saw. She would, however, have happily driven it through his black heart had she been conscious so it was basically the same thing.
She had just killed three people, the insane Mamá Luna being the first. When Bin’ja finally came out of his writhing pain inflicted by the Mother imposter, he had given one of his blood-freezing shrieks. Heera had taken advantage of the moment and ducked clear of the metallic blades protruding from Mamá Luna’s left arm.
She had slid her small blade into Mamá Luna’s windpipe without her even noticing. One of the most notorious bosses of Nuevo Santiago’s criminal underworld had crumpled to the ground after having realized that she could no longer breathe. Heera had almost felt pity when tears glistened beneath her formerly psychotic eyes. Bin’ja had thrown her one of the pulse firearms whose owner had been decapitated and the two of them took care of the rest of the thugs.
Heera knew that her whole body would unbearably ache later on. Her back and chest still hurt from the intense fight. She knew that killing was ultimately an evil deed, no matter the motivation or the character of the victim, but she couldn’t help feeling slightly smug.
“Killing is always a sad thing” said Bin’ja. She knew that Bin’ja had sensed the smugness in her and had chosen to shame her.
She stayed irritably silent.
“Whether those people, your people, deserved to die or not, we have ended life.”
I would end a thousand lives to see him.
“We should go in and at least pay our respects to the dead.”
“Why?” she snapped. “That bitch just tried to kill you and sell me like a whore. I have no respect to pay her.”
Bin’ja silently got up and re-entered the bloody hell hole. Still breathing heavily from irritation, she didn’t follow him in. Old men and women in their comfortable command centres ordered the death of thousands, millions, billions all the time. Their lives were never directly threatened yet they issued these genocidal orders. She resented Bin’ja’s righteousness. Why should she not kill for what she wanted when everyone else wouldn’t hesitate to kill her? She had survived more than enough attempts on her life already. She sulkily got up and retraced the blood-stained steps back into the building interior.
