by Aeon Solo
Commander Sampson engaged with the council of Admirals in the conference room.
“We can confirm the return of the Draco from Alpha Draconis,” his words struck the atmosphere with great potency.
“Then our greatest fears have been realised,” an Admiral responded.
“How did they survive? We…” another said unable to finish his sentence; the Alliance were determined not to speak of the horrors of that day.
“We exterminated those vile creatures and we should do that again!” Admiral Tomkins yelled, inferring they use the planet destroyer. Commander Sampson looked to the holographic projection with disgust.
“That weapon was beyond unethical, and there are humans on that planet, humans who may have died when your men fired upon that planet!” he screamed. The room fell silent.
“What are we going to do?” Admiral Sarin asked, her voice a pleasant change in pitch, to the domineering tones of the men before her. Commander Sampson relaxed slightly.
“I’m not too sure. We could send a military fleet along with a hundred fighters and see whether we can break through their defences,” he posed to the group. Some nodded in response, others grunted with displeasure.
“I suggest a vote, we use the planet destroyer or send another fleet,” Admiral Tomkins put forth, sharing a tense look with Commander Sampson. 80% of the group voted for Commander Sampson’s plan of sending another military fleet and fighter squadron. The meeting concluded, and Sampson began to prepare for the coming conflict. He walked through the ship’s corridor with Regina at his side.
“I cannot believe he wants to use that thing again after last time,” he said, agitated.
“What happened?” Regina asked, intrigued by the secret super weapon that her father spoke of.
“The council permitted the use of a secret space weapon which can destroy entire planets, entire systems,” he said, disgusted by the council’s actions. Regina was stunned whilst she received this revelation. They never taught this in school. She thought for an Alliance that prides itself on truth and knowledge, it’s rather hypocritical that they still hide secrets from the civilians.
“Right, I need to prepare for this assault. I will see you later,” he said, he walked away to his command post. She looked on, worried for the coming war, worried for her father’s well-being.
Some days passed, and Commander Sampson was still preparing his military assets.
Anu-Krai continued practicing his manoeuvrability in his ship near Naprador, when he received a transmission from the Archon telling him to meet him in his throne room. He landed beside the pyramid and did as he was asked.
“You requested my presence?” he asked.
“I need to show you something, proof of why you shouldn’t trust the Alliance. I’m taking you to my home system,” the Archon stated. They entered the Mikasa and travelled through hyperspace, emerging at the edge of the Alpha Draconis solar system.
“You see this,” the Archon said, gesturing to the swirling light ahead of them in the distance. Anu-Krai was amazed by the sight. Light swirled around a deep, deep blackness; an abyss which nothing could escape. Not even light.
“What happened?” he asked, bewildered by the sight.
“That was my home-world before the Alliance used their horrific weapon. They created that black hole to destroy us, I escaped before the disaster,” the Archon looked on deflated.
“I can’t believe they would do that,” Anu-Krai responded with sympathy for his overlord.
“There’s more,” the Archon added. They switched to a nearby system. Twelve planets lay destroyed by impacts, a ruin of biblical proportions. The debris spread throughout the system.
“This system was wrecked by the black hole as it travelled around uncontrolled, it did not engulf these worlds as it did mine, it merely displaced them from their orbits, smashing them into each other and the various asteroids,” he explained to the Knight who was observing the wreckage intently.
“This is horrible, unimaginable,” Anu-Krai responded with disgust.
“I know, but they did it, they say they protect life, but they destroy it, that world there,” the Archon pointed to a large planet with a massive crater covering a quarter of its diameter.
“That world was home to life, not sentient and intelligent, but still life. It had the potential to harbour intelligence in the future, yet they disregarded it,” he explained further. “This is why we must take back the galaxy, so this horror doesn’t happen again,” he said finally. Anu-Krai nodded in response, they returned home to Agarta.
The Archon was further manipulating the Knight, ensuring he continued to serve him in his conquest.
Chapter 3
The next day Anu-Krai took his ship and landed beside the edifice he visited with Mara previously. He recalled memories of her as he placed the book he found back in the compartment on the wall where it belonged. Not much remained of his scolded heart. He had grown cold since her passing. He hated the Archon and the Alliance equally, vowing to destroy them all eventually. But he needed the secrets.
He sensed a noise in the air, the same noise he heard when he met the unknown woman. He rushed down the stairs and out of the building, examining his surroundings. The essence emerged from the woodland, approaching him. Faintly visible to his eye, she swirled and solidified in front of him as she strolled close.
“You return here again?” she asked probingly.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he responded. “The Alliance aren’t exactly good you know,” he stated sternly toward her. She seated herself on one of the large boulders on the ground around her.
“He showed you Draconis didn’t he?” she asked, with slight guilt in her voice. Anu-Krai nodded in response to her question.
“What they did was beyond immoral, but they did what they thought was right given the danger the Draco pose,” she said.
“The danger I see is from them, they destroyed multiple planets! And the woman I …’’ he yelled with fury.
“She died?” she asked, sympathetically.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“Again, you’ve experienced so much loss,” she said, sympathetic to his tortuous life.
“Again?” he posed.
“It’s complicated, the Draco serve evil,” she replied.
“And the Alliance don’t?” he threw back abruptly.
“It’s complicated,” she repeated. “The Draco are inorganic. They do not have the life essence you have. Not any more at least, there are so many…” she responded, but was interrupted.
Meanwhile, the Alliance headquarters on Earth grumbled with hundreds of feet, they prepared to send their military fleet.
“‘Commander Seymour, you have clearance to begin your assault,” Commander Sampson ordered from the control room.
“Yes Commander, we will enter hyperspace shortly. We are making final preparations,” he replied. He analysed the various holographic projections, biting his lip.
“I wish you all the luck in this universe Commander, stay safe,” he said, offering as much moral support as he could. He feared their demise, like the first fleet. He held high respect for Seymour, they both joined the Alliance academy at a similar time.
He sent a transmission to Regina.
“Hey, where are you?” he enquired, a little nervous.
“I’m preparing to depart,” she responded hesitantly.
“What!” he roared, his heart was clattered with worry, a punch in the gut.
“I told you specifically not to be a part of this assault, after last time!” His tone rife with both fury and worry for the well-being of his daughter.
“I can handle myself father, you know that, I’m one of the best fighters we have, I must protect our Earth,” she replied with slight guilt, feeling the hurt her actions would have and cause her over-protective father.
“That’s not the point Ree, I can’t lose you, this is reckless!” he bellowed back. Some of his personnel observed
his struggle.
“I’ll be fine, I promise,” she replied, and the transmission ended. He leaned the device on his chest, teeth gritted, a shake of the head.
“Commander!” someone yelled, taking his attention away. He composed himself once more.
“Yes,” he replied firmly.
“The fleet have entered hyperspace and will arrive at the system shortly,” the same woman responded. He analysed the holographic projections ahead of him depicting the fleet and location.
“This had better work,” he muttered under his breath.
A deep rumble sounded in the deep. Anu-Krai turned to the atmosphere, the Alliance fleet exited hyperspace above Agarta and began an assault on the space defences. The apparition was interrupted, her gaze locked onto the fleets.
“I must protect my people,” Anu-Krai said firmly as he rushed back to his ship nearby.
“They will cast you aside once you serve your purpose, don’t you remember?” she screamed to him, he stopped in his tracks and pivoted to face her.
“Remember what?” he enquired, confused.
“You’ll see soon enough…I hope,” she responded. She faded away into nothingness, her frequency vibrated beyond the band of this reality.
He got into his ship, bursting into space, accompanied by a fleet of Draco in similar triangular-shaped craft. He breathed deeply.
A hundred fighters cascaded from a large ship ahead, the space stations and satellite defences were barraging the fleet. Regina felt slightly queasy as the gravity of the situation became real. She emerged from the fighter transport. Anu-Krai and his Draco companions engaged in a firefight with enemy fighters as the two forces clashed. Multiple fighters broke off and attempted an assault on the planet’s surface, Regina was one of them.
Anu-Krai assaulted a command ship, spiralling to dodge incoming blasts. He fired a barrage of energy bolts, tapping his finger repeatedly on the controls. The attack did nothing to the large vessel. He glided past the surface of the craft and back around to face it directly. He activated his anti-matter missiles and fired all ten in his inventory at one of the ships engines. It dealt significant damage, disabling the engine causing the ship to jolt downward as the engine shut down. He grinned arrogantly, but he was hit by an automated blast on the ships surface.
“Viola what was the scale of that impact?” he blurted out, whilst alarms radiated through his ship.
“I am patching up the system, the hyperdrive is disabled,” she responded. He spotted the ships attacking Agarta.
“We have to stop those ships,” he said. Other Draco ships engaged the fighters, Regina screamed with fury whilst she fired upon them, destroying two fighters whilst she spanned effortlessly to avoid being hit. She summersaulted around, to get behind a fighter on her tail destroying it. She celebrated with a joyous laugh, to the applause of her comrades. Anu-Krai was closing in on them fast, he witnessed her antics.
“Looks like we have a challenger here. V, am I limited in the movement I can do?” he asked, hoping his controls haven’t been hindered by the blast from earlier.
“The system’s capacity is at 76% and lowering,” she answered back. His face winced slightly upon on hearing her response.
“It’ll have to do,” he replied quietly.
He powered toward Regina and her two remaining comrades; one Draco ship was being chased by them across the planet.
“Stay sharp, only one left!” she yelled to her comrades. Anu-Krai powered up from behind destroying one of the ships to the surprise of Regina and her comrade.
“Behind me,” he yelled to her in the com link. She flustered for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. She glanced at her dashboard, illustrating one final anti-matter missile. If it hit the ship ahead it would destroy it. But she would be forced to manually fire down the last ship using the blasters.
“You take the one ahead, I’ll deal with this one! We split in 3, 2, 1,” she roared to her comrade, who followed her command. The two Alliance ships separated. Anu-Krai followed Regina, firing a barrage of blaster bolts at her, but she dodged each one. They swerved away from the other two and raced over dense woodland. She spiralled further to avoid his attack, he homed in on her, tapping his finger repeatedly on the controls. He was becoming progressively frustrated at her constant dodging.
“‘System capacity, 32%,” Viola said, slightly unnerved despite her robotic voice. Regina knew she couldn’t continue to dodge the barrage forever.
“Here we go,” she whispered as she spiralled and swirled over him.
“What!” he yelled, looking upward through the window as he tried to match her manoeuvre. She got behind him, firing her final missile which clattered the edge of his wing. In the turmoil, he fired a barrage of bolts which connected with her ship, knocking her out of the sky. They both plummeted heavily to the ground, crashing within a couple hundred meters of each other.
They jolted heavily from the impact. Their ships inertia modifier massively reduced the impact on their bodies. Protecting them from the G-force involved in flying and changing directions at such high speeds. Anu-Krai awoke a few seconds after being knocked unconscious, he held his head as it reverberated with pain. He grunted whilst he moved out of his seat.
“Viola, can you hear me?” he asked, hoping for a response from his AI assistant.
“We have sustained severe damage, I’m losing power, there is a survival kit in one of the compartments, good lu…” Her voice laggy and sporadic. She lost power before she could finish her sentence. “Viola! V!” he yelled, hoping she was still somehow functioning. There was a cold, eerie silence that followed.
“Ah, man,” he muttered. He rushed to the various compartments in his ship. After shuffling around he found what he was searching for. There was a survival kit, it contained two nutrient solution sachets which had enough nutrients and compact water molecules to fend off thirst and starvation for many days. There was a nanobot healing solution, and various other accessories. He attached the bag over his shoulder, grabbing his sword and mask to confront the enemy fighter. He strolled toward Regina’s ship, the vile scent of burning metalloids and vegetation was thick in the atmosphere. He activated the temperature modifier and the blade glistened with heat. He approached the cockpit and prepared to strike. It was cracked open and empty. He scoured the ship, searching for the pilot, there was nothing. He heard the click of a branch break behind him, he gritted his teeth knowing they were behind him. He turned to face them. Regina was aiming her blaster at him.
“You destroyed my ship!” he roared.
“And you got lucky shooting me down when you were crashing!” she barked at him.
“Lucky! Ha-ha, you call that lucky,” he laughed sarcastically. “You had some sort of anti-lock on thing or something!” he continued. He was adamant her ship was using some technology to stop him connecting with her ship.
“Well get good,” she responded callously.
“Get good? Wow, if my ship was at full capacity, I would have easily matched your little stunt,” he said brashly, trying to enforce an intimidating persona. Unable to admit she had got the better of him. “Are you going to shoot me?” he asked. She twitched slightly as she considered her options. She lowered her blaster, he turned off the temperature modifier on his blade.
“Where are we?” she asked firmly.
“Well, I would know if you didn’t blow up my ship, but you know…” he raised his arms sarcastically in response.
“You aren’t a Draco? Stop pouting and grow a pair,” she retorted.
“Grow a pair of what? And no, I’m not,” he answered, unsure of what she referred too.
“Really? You are impossible aren’t you, is this a dead rock or something?” she continued to mock him.
“If you are referring to the planet then no, this rock is…” he replied, but unable to finish.
“Shut up!” she interrupted him before he finished. She sighed derisively, shaking her head whilst she walked away.
“Where are you going?” he said.
“Away from you,” she said.
He followed her. They walked away from the crash site, hoping to find civilisation.
Meanwhile, the battle raged on, some fighters engaged the pyramid in Naprador, but the Archon scoured the area, destroying all the fighters within moments with the Mikasa. He observed the battle in space.
The Alliance fleet was bombarded again by the space defences.
“Charia, use the rail gun on their capital ships,” he ordered to his battle commander, who acknowledged. Charia activated the rail gun located at the Patsule space station. It launched a small captured meteor at an extraordinarily high speed toward a capitol ship.
“Captain! A meteor is…” a man on the ships bridge cried whilst the meteor darted toward them. It took a mere few seconds to smash its target into oblivion. The captains face dropped as the meteor approached. It created a massive explosion, with enough force to destroy a small moon.
The debris of the ship clashed into nearby ships, both Draco and Alliance. Debris fell into Agarta, burning up in the atmosphere.
“Commander Seymour! We cannot continue this assault, we will be destroyed in moments, did you see what they just did?” a terrified captain on his bridge yelled. He grasped his face in thought, observing the battle through the bridge window. Ships crashed and burned, debris was scattered across the system, he was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. His moment was taken by the same terrified captain.
“We must escape to hyperspace. They will be targeting us next with that weapon! Please sir let’s go!”
“Ok, ok, let’s return to Earth, activate the hyperdrive!” he yelled to his pilots, “Retreat back to Earth, we’re done here,” he ordered, telling all to retreat to Earth. The few ships that remained followed the order.
Anu-Krai and Regina had their eyes caught by the flash of the destruction.
“No,” she said with despair. Anu-Krai came up from behind to observe the battle with her. “Well, looks like we’re winning,” he mocked. She glared at him intently as he walked by. “I should just kill you right,” she said.