Phase pistols drawn, I stepped down the ramp, eyes ready and alert for signs of danger. Janet was right behind me, as was the doctor who had his tangler clenched firmly in his hand, Becca, who still didn’t look comfortable holding a weapon, and Lily who had a phase rifle resting on her shoulder. Neada was the only person who didn’t look ready for a fight, but I did notice she kept the snap on her holster unsecured.
As my feet touched damp soil of the surrounding clearing I held my hand out for the others to stop. I heard something rustle and had both of my weapons trained on the source within the blink of an eye. Fortunately, the source turned out to be nothing more than a forest creature, a rodent judging from its size, who’s tail end I caught sight of just as it went scurrying away.
I grimaced and lowered my weapons then waved the others forward. We crept from the open clearing into the forest and I motioned for Janet to take the lead. This was her terrain, I’d be a fool not to have her take point when she knew it better than any of us.
Snap.
The sound of a twig, my eyes darted around until I found what I was looking for, a figure perched behind a tree. Lily must have seen him before me because she reacted must faster than I could have. Yanking him from his hiding spot, she shoved him against the tree and pinned him with her elbow digging into his chest.
I raised my phase pistol and trained it on the man, who looked to be a ranger, judging from his attire. He was armed only with a single phase pistol and I snatched it from his belt and tossed it over my shoulder for my sister to catch.
“What have we here,” I said, studying him doing my best Mara impersonation and keeping my face a mask of cool indifference. “A ranger no doubt, but are you friend or foe?”
“Friend!” He blurted out shaking with terror as he stared down the barrel of one of my pistols. “I-I didn’t even have my weapon drawn.”
“He has a point,” Lily said glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Vakrexid is most suspicious. If he was a friend, why did he not reveal himself to us?”
“I didn’t know who was coming and by the time I realized who you were. This one–” He jerked his head at Lily. “Had me pinned against the tree.”
“Which makes me wonder why you wouldn’t have your weapon drawn,” I said pressing my gun into the side of his cheek. “If I had to guess I’d say you were hiding from someone or something else and didn’t see us coming at all.”
His face lost all color and he started to stammer and stutter incoherently.
“Perhaps, I can clear this up.” A new voice said and I swirled around to face the owner as he crawled outside of the brush.
I slipped my pistol’s back into their holster and grimaced at him as he grinned back at me. “Rayland.”
“Miss me?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
He chuckled and pushed past me, placing a hand on the other ranger’s shoulder. “Corporal,” he said patting the other man on the cheek before turning away. He pulled his phase weapon from its holster then spun around, firing a single shot that landed directly in the center of the other man’s forehead.
Lily staggered away from the corpse of the ranger and let the body fall to the ground and spun around to look at Rayland her jaw hanging open and her eyes wide.
“That man is responsible for the death of no less than five of his fellow rangers. It was the least he deserved,” Rayland said between gritted teeth. “I just wish I could round up the rest of the rat bastards who ran off and show them the price of betrayal like I did the Corporal here.”
“Rayland,” Janet said. “What’s happened here?”
“You took out Dahl and most of his men, but a few escaped into the wilderness. Haven’t been able to round ’em all up just yet, but their numbers are dwindling. The whole damn thing cut my force in half and the worst part is Bueller fell in the crossfire.”
“Oh God.” Janet gasped, closed her eyes and leaned against a nearby tree. “What about the council?”
“We lost Schmitz and Estez, but the rest are alright if a little on the jittery side. I don’t think we need to worry about any more insurrections for the time being, but I wouldn’t say the council has been very cooperative since Bueller died. We are lucky though, they made Le Fonte interim President and rumor is they’re going to make it permanent.”
“Arianna?” I blinked. “Isn’t she, I don’t know, a little young for the job?”
“She stepped in and helped put things back together once we had Dahl taken care of. The other members of the council were too afraid of their own shadows to do anything, but keep themselves locked away in their homes with their thumbs up their asses.”
“That ship overhead,” he said gazing back over his shoulder in the general direction of the Defiant which was hovering in the sky about our ship. “It looks human built.”
“It is,” I replied putting my hands on my hips and staring off in the same direction. “It’s an E-R-F ship. That message we received from them was a date and time for a meeting.”
Rayland raised his eyebrows and a smile touched the corner of his lips just before fading away. “Well, that’s good news. I assume they have some sort of plan?”
“I’m sure they do, but I’d be damned if I know what it is, they haven’t exactly been very forthcoming. Maybe they’ll a little more open with you. Who knows? Maybe having a familiar face around, like yours, will help.”
Rayland raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say a word as twenty rangers, armed to the teeth, appeared from out of the forest. Their attire had helped them blend in so well that none of us had seen them coming.
“Holy shit.” Lily drawing her weapon and slipping it back into its holster so quickly that no one, save me, noticed. I couldn’t blame her for being jumpy; I’d almost done the same thing.
“Come on boys,” Rayland said spinning away and waving at them over his shoulder. “It’s time to move out.”
I stopped Rayland, putting a hand on his chest just as he had started to move forward. “I really don’t think it’s such a good idea for us to go back down into the nest. Grab the president and whoever else wants to come along and we’ll meet them aboard the Defiant.”
He nodded and looked back at me between pursed lips. “Give me an hour or two, Le Fonte shouldn’t be too hard to convince, but with the rest of the council afraid of their own damn shadows I don’t know how many I’ll be able to drag along.”
Janet moved in line with the rest of the rangers and in mere moments they all dispersed disappearing into the trees without a trace. Becca, Lily and I all shared looks, and turned away headed in the opposite direction. Overhead, the Defiant hovered in the air and I stopped to stare up at the great ship in wonder realizing just how well it represented its namesake. It was a human-built ship hovering in the sky in defiance of the gray skins on a world they’d trampled underfoot.
It made me think our little ship needed a name, something that represented the spirit of the resistance, but nothing said that quite as well as Defiance. Then it struck me, if we were going to defeat the Qharr we’d need to be relentless. What better thing to name our ship?
I smiled and stepped onto the ramp leading into the ship. I’m not sure what it was, but something told me why might actually pull this thing off.
Chapter Five
The defiant was so bright. That was the first thing I had noticed upon stepping through the airlock. The Qharr preferred things dark, so none of the ships or domiciles had been particularly bright, and the Relentless had never been the most luminescent of an environment. I suppose there hadn’t been much need for lighting, the ship was a prototype after all.
There was something about the ship that was off putting, it wasn’t the brightness though, that I liked. No, it was something about the place. Everything was so crisp, sterile and uniform. Each room was virtually identical from the last and each corridor too. It was a wonder they could travel the decks of the ship without getting los
t.
“Thrum, thrum, thrum.” It was the sound of Lily’s fingers against the conference table, a long dull gray slab that exemplified the design of the interior of ship. Faux-Mara had invited us aboard only to dump us inside the conference room and left us to stew. Lily wasn’t the only one who was getting tired of waiting, Janet was pacing back and forth across the length of the room, the doctor was sitting at the head of the table behaving quite sedate for once, and Rayland looked ready to doze off. Arianne on the other hand, sat at her seat patiently hand clasped in front of her with a smile touching corners of her mouth.
Finally, the door slid open and in marched Mara accompanied by a severe looking man in a uniform. “I’m sorry about the delay,” she said with a smile that didn’t quite extend to her eyes. “Colonel Morris here had some security concerns that needed to be addressed.”
“Yes, when introducing an unknown element,” he said with a sneer, his eyes falling on me before he glanced at the doctor and Lily. “You must take a certain number of precautions.”
Mara cleared her throat and took a seat setting a small computing device on the table in front of her.
“Sit, Morris,” she said without looking up. The Colonel moved to comply and she studied her little device, her fingers pecking at the screen before she looked back up and eyed me with that shrewd calculating look that was so uniquely hers. “Now, we do find this talk of your little disagreement in the nest a little how should I put it? Off-putting?”
“Well, I can’t really say I’d argue with that.” Arianne grimaced and ran a hand through her long auburn tresses. “It was more than off-putting to have men I’ve known my whole life kill each other in front of my eyes. I’m ashamed of what Dahl has done, though thankfully he has been brought to justice.”
“Be that as it may, we are preparing to retake our world, Miss Le Fonte, I can’t commit my troops to an engagement with so many unknown variables. When I go into battle with someone I damn well expect him to watch my back. How can I trust a single one of you to do that when you’ve spent so much time shooting each other? The plan will go forward with or without the assistance of the nesters or the resistance.” Colonel Morris slammed a fist onto the table in front of him.
“Now, now Morris there is no reason to be so terribly rude,” Mara shook her head and turned to Le Fonte giving the other woman the same penetrative glare that I’d come to associate with Mara. “Trust is the biggest issue. None of us has any reason to trust the others, but we must find common ground if we are to retake Earth.”
“Well said. Might I suggest a joint venture between our three groups? It would give our men an opportunity to get to know one other and hopefully get a good measure of each group’s mettle,” Le Fonte said meeting Mara’s gaze without even blinking.
“Now you see, I told you there was no reason to be such a pessimist, Colonel,” Mara said turning toward Morris who had a sour expression on his face.
She turned back toward Arianne and smiled. “What would you suggest dear?”
“The Relentless!” I blurted out suddenly and my cheeks burned as all eyes in the little conference room turned to me. “I mean, that’s what I’ve decided to call our ship. The shield reactor is faulty, but Mara’s people believe it can be fixed. If we could find the parts, having working shields would be pretty damn beneficial.”
“It would be helpful, but a supply run isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Arianne frowned and glanced over at me. “A simple supply run isn’t going to help our people get along better. They need a challenge, something that would force them to work together.”
“It wouldn’t be simple by any means.” Lily shook her head and bit her lip. “Few things ever are on Earth with the gray skins in control of damn near everything. I know somewhere where we might be able to pick up the parts we need. There’s an old junk yard where the Qharr dump old derelict ships. There aren’t any human vessels, but if we can work out what we need I might be able to find something that would work.”
“Salvaging parts from human ships is one thing, but you’re talking about using components from Qharr vessels. Their systems while similar in function operate on entirely different principles.” Mara shook her head. “Qharr and human tech just don’t meld.”
“Oh yeah,” I reached inside my jacket and yanked one of my phase pistols free of its holster and slammed it down on the table in front of me. Mara’s people had confiscated the power-cells when we first entered the ship, but I didn’t need them to prove my point. “This pistol can use power-cells from both human and Qharr weapons and I’ve been using them for weeks now. They seem to meld just fine to me.”
“A phase pistol is one thing, but–”
“But nothing!” I cut Morris short and glared at him between gritted teeth. “Lily is brilliant. She’s founds ways to do things with Qharr tech that your people probably haven’t even dreamed of. The only reason we were able to move around so freely was because she found a way to fool Qharr satellites into thinking we weren’t even there. If she says she can do it I believe her.”
“Be that as it may,” Mara said clasping her hand over mine. “The president does have a point. Such an errand doesn’t exactly fit the criteria of what she has in mind.”
Lily shook her head and tapped her index-finger against the table. “We used to mine the place for parts all the time, but then the Qharr caught wind of it and started patrolling the area. It won’t be easy to sneak in, and getting out will be just as hard. There’s a pretty good chance we’ll run into trouble. That is what you wanted, right? Something that would force us to rely on each other.”
“Right,” Arianne nodded.
“What we really need is another ship,” Mara said. “We could dig up one of the other omega-sevens, but that would involve yet another repair job.”
“Not to mention, the weapons are severely outdated in the Relentless.” Lily crinkled her nose and glanced at me with a shake of her head. “I had to burn out the phase emitters just so we could disable the weapons on a single destroyer. It’s going to be a pain in the ass retrofitting the Relentless. That is assuming we can even find the parts. I’m not sure I’d want to do it on a second ship too.”
I bit my lip and gritted my teeth as an idea suddenly popped into my head. “I-I think I might know where we can get another ship. When we snuck into the compound to rescue my sister we had help.”
“Oh god.” Lily groaned and messaged the base of her nose. “Not Velspatt again.”
“You weren’t even there,” I replied glaring over at Lily.
“No, but Kaya told me all about it. I just don’t think consorting with the Ghrev crime syndicate is going to work out so well for us.” She did make a valid point, but the angry set of her jaw was any indication I think her antagonism had much more to do with my failure to return her declaration of affection.
“She may be a criminal, but I get the feeling she hates the gray skins just as much as us. If I can convince her to–”
“That a pretty big if,” Mara stated. “What’s to say this Velspatt won’t just turn you over to the Qharr? Criminals are hardly the sort we want to be consorting with in any case.”
“I won’t deny that Velspatt may not be the most likely choice for an ally, but she came through for us in the past. She has no reason to turn us over to the Qharr, or she would have done so the last time we visited Scottsdale. All I want here is to take a small team into the city and reach out to her. If she says no, fine, but think of what we’ll have gained if she says yes.”
“Very well,” Mara nodded. “I’m not in complete agreement, but part of being in an alliance is making concessions. You can take your team into the city and I think another group can find this junk yard. I think I should tell you that I believe we may need to accelerate our plans. The longer we stay on Earth the more likely we are to be found by the Qharr.”
“Why don’t you tell us a little more of this plan of yours? Enough beating around the bush! What makes you think we’l
l be willing to risk our lives when you won’t even tell us what the hell it is you’re doing here?” I stood bolt upright out of my seat pressing both fists into the table.
Mara stared at me calmly, her eyes smoldering holes into my soul, but not about to be cowered, I sat back in my seat to glare directly into her eyes. She thrummed her fingers against the table and pursed her lips. I didn’t break eye contact and she cleared her throat before finally speaking. “Soon, if anyone is captured during our little excursions and the Qharr are successful at interrogating them I don’t think I have to tell you how disastrous that would be for us. If you make it back, then I will tell you, dear.”
“Fuck, how the hell did I know you were going to say that?”
Mara smiled and clasped her hands in front of her. “Now, why don’t we start making preparations? The sooner we get underway, the better.”
“I’m not about to let this go, Mara. I swear God if you don’t give me something I will walk. You may think you can do this without us, but I’d be very surprised. Earth has changed a lot in the last two decades and a half and the only people who can tell you what you need to know are those of us who have been fighting and dying here on Earth.”
Mara pursed her lips and clenched her jaw. Her facade of calm serenity fell away and I could see the anger smoldering in her eyes. “I believe I can risk giving away part of the plan seeing as it must now change.” We planned to foment an uprising among the human population here on Earth, but the fall off the resistance has made those plans all but impossible. As you said, you and your co-patriots in the resistance have been the ones fighting and dying. You are the only ones who could have successfully infiltrated the compounds and cities. Neither the E-R-F forces nor the nesters have the appropriate knowledge.”
“Then maybe it’s time to consider a different tactic,” I replied. “What if we undermine the very fabric of Qharr society? They are a race of warriors who pride themselves on their honor. How do you think they’d react if they learned that the humans were the first race?”
Battle For Earth Page 53