by James Somers
to at least keep an eye on their young king. Then something occurred to him—If he couldn’t be there, maybe someone else could.
☼
When Commander Mendle had assembled his troops, he opened the door to the private assembly hall allowing Tiet to enter. Though no formal ceremony had taken place to crown him as king, everyone knew full well the authority that had been granted to Tiet by the Council. They were glad for it.
Tiet walked to a place before them where he could address the men selected for the mission. They stood erect, waiting for orders which they would follow or die trying.
He said to all, “I don’t know if you realize the mission we are about to undertake. We are going to reinforce the troops already stationed at the city of Thalidi where it has now been confirmed that the Baruk have landed and are deploying their forces. The Baruk are coming at the city from the Valley of Usai. It will be our mission to take up positions within the suburban district which lies between the Baruk and the defensive wall of the city.”
“Excuse me, sir,” said Commander Mendle. “Did you say outside the defense wall?”
“We’re going to provide an ambush in the hopes of at least giving the city officials enough time to evacuate the civilian population. There isn’t much time to evacuate a city full of people, but we have no choice. With the number of Baruk forces that will be thrown at us in this first assault, we likely will not be able to hold them from entering the city.”
“So, is this is a suicide mission, sir?” asked one of the soldiers.
“Not at all,” Tiet said. “I have no intention of wasting lives, but we need to buy some time. We have security tunnels within that sector which were intended to allow the civilian population living in the suburbs to evacuate to within the defensive wall perimeter if an attack came.
“We will take up positions well ahead of the tunnels then fight and fall back as we have to. When we can’t hold our positions anymore, we’ll evacuate through the tunnels and help the rest of the civilian population in the city to get behind a front Wynn Gareth will be putting together with the majority of our security forces from all of the twelve cities. That is where I intend to face off with the Baruk.”
“Make no mistake, men, this will be an extremely dangerous mission and some us may fall in the battle, but I for one would rather lose my life fighting the Baruk than to live under their rule. Trust in your training. It will save your life and the lives of your fellow soldiers. Now let’s go!”
The troop commander barked a few quick orders at his men then they all made their way to the transports ready to take them to Thalidi. Tiet watched the elite group of five hundred soldiers file into the carriers as he made last minute checks to his own uniform and weaponry. The last item he checked was the latch across the hilt of his father’s blade. He was ready. Tiet boarded the lead carrier as the ramp began to ascend. Within moments they were all in the air flying toward Thalidi and the Baruk.
☼
Kale watched the monitor that his guards were watching, as different images and information on the coming attack was displayed. The two soldiers were talking between themselves about what was happening and even how they wished they could get into the action rather than remain on guard duty.
“Look at that, the King is going to lead the first strike at Thalidi,” said one of the soldiers.
“Yeah, but this says Thalidi’s population is going to be evacuated to Baeth Periege,” said the other. “That doesn’t sound like they expect to hold the city.”
Kale was concerned now. His brother was heading into an attack against overwhelming forces and probably would not survive it. He had to do something, even if Tiet hated him. Kale knew the Baruk wouldn’t be coming at all if he hadn’t betrayed his people in the first place. He was responsible for all of this.
The two soldiers still weren’t paying any attention to Kale, but his eyes were fixed upon them. After a few moments they both collapsed into the floor unconscious. The hand of one of the men rose into the air. The limp body was dragged across the floor by the elevated hand toward the security scanner to Kale’s cell. The hand planted itself on the scanner. The computer responded by lowering the security field to the cell.
Kale practically leaped across the room to the locker where his weapons had been stored, breaking the lock with his mind. He removed his weapons and then, using the hand of the other soldier nearby, he opened the chamber’s main security door.
When Kale stepped into the hall, he found Wynn Gareth standing propped against the wall about ten feet away. Kale froze, unsure of his next move.
“That was faster than I expected,” Wynn said.
Before Kale could respond, Wynn held out a security code key. “You’ll need this if you’re going to get to the hangar and take my personal fighter to Thalidi.”
“How did you know?” Kale asked.
“I’m the one that fed the information to the monitor in there. Tiet hasn’t allowed me to be there to watch out for him—but he can’t stop his renegade brother, can he?”
Before Kale could respond, Wynn said, “You’d better get going. And, Kale? It’s not too late.”
Kale gave him a thoughtful look and nodded. Then he turned and ran toward the hangar bay. Wynn watched him go. He looked in on the two unconscious soldiers.
They were unharmed, so he left them there asleep. To wake them now would mean setting off the alarms over Kale’s escape. Wynn wanted the young king to have his powerful older brother on hand to help him stay alive.
BREAKTHROUGH
The Esyia careened around several Baruk ships firing its dispersion cannon at the targets. With the weapon able to adjust to varying shield frequencies the damage was now mounting. Still, the flagship of the Baruk remained distant to the battle. Ranul watched it from his science station.
He had noticed the vessel remaining away from the fight while the other Baruk warships made great effort to intercept any Vorn cruisers trying to get near it for an attack. Ranul conducted multiple scans on the vessel, but one piece of information continued to puzzle to him.
A very unusual waveform was emanating steadily from within the ship somewhere. It was more biological than mechanical and seemed to envelope not only the Baruk ships, but also the surface of the planet near the Twelve Cities.
The Esyia shuddered as laser fire blazed across its shields again. The few remaining Vorn ships were holding their own now against the Baruk. A number of enemy vessels had already been destroyed with multiple direct hits from the dispersion cannons, but they were still outnumbered three to one.
Ranul shifted as the ship quaked then continued on with his observations.
“What are you doing? I haven’t heard anything out of you recently,” said Estall.
“Why, did you need something?” he asked without looking away from his data screen.
“Helmsman, head for that group on another attack run,” he said as he climbed from his own chair to join Ranul at his science station.
Few things could have caught Ranul’s attention during a full-on space battle with their lives at risk, and Estall wanted to know what it was.
“What is it?” Estall asked as he braced himself against the bulkhead next to Ranul.
“I’m not exactly sure, but I think I might be picking up some sort of coordinating waveform used by the Baruk.”
“What?”
“It’s a signal, biological I think, and it’s coming from that Baruk flagship. I can’t decode it. It seems to be focused on the movements of the Baruk only. It could be telepathic in origin.”
“Telepathic? Do you mean something onboard is controlling the Baruk forces?”
“Well, I can’t be sure,” said Ranul, “but it would make since, at least with the data I have. If we destroy that control source we might be able to disorient the Baruk long enough to win this battle.”
“Transmit what you’ve got to Control on the surface. Let them know we’re going after the
flag ship with everything we’ve got,” Estall said. “Helmsman, plot a new course for the flagship of the Baruk. Notify our remaining ships to concentrate all firepower on that vessel.”
“The information is being transmitted to the remaining ships, sir!”
The Esyia came around, setting her course for the Baruk flagship. The dispersion cannon rotated as the gunner set up the targeting information.
“Fire dispersion cannon at selected targets,” Estall commanded.
The first volley of cannon fire struck the shields of the flagship. The cannon compensated for the appropriate shield frequency within milliseconds and the blast penetrated, striking the ship. A large portion of the hull on the port side was vaporized. Within moments a heavy firefight issued forth upon the Esyia from other Baruk ships coming to the aid of their flagship.
“Where are those other ships?” shouted Estall.
“Sir, they’re being engaged too heavily to aid us at the moment. The Baruk ships are attempting to ram us now!”
“Estall!” Ranul called from his station. “The signal I’ve been monitoring…it just increased its intensity tenfold in the direction of the Baruk ships.”
“Then it is some sort of telepathy?”
“Almost certainly,” Ranul said. “Whatever is aboard that ship wants to be protected even if it means using the other Baruk ships as battering rams to stop us.”
“Sir, more Baruk ships are coming at us on a collision course!”
“Evasive