Rax

by Maia Starr

  "Enough of that," Yiri said, as he turned off the screen.

  "Throw him in with the director. Let them die together if they want to. We do not need either one of them anymore,” Yiri said as three warriors grabbed my arms.

  "What the hell is going on here?” I shouted.

  "I am taking over this mission. We will have no talks of peace. We are at war. We are so close to dominating the Earth and you want to throw it all away simply so you can marry this human? That is ridiculous. That is not the Zian that I know. She has fogged your mind. You are a lost cause, Zian. Now I am in charge. Phase 2 is mine and it starts now,” he said.

  "Now? Phase 2 was not supposed to start for months. It will not be effective if you invade Earth now without giving the humans time to drink the water. It will be a waste,” I said growling at him.

  "It does not matter. We have a grand military presence here just waiting. We must strike, and we must strike now! We have to strike before they discover us hiding here and take down the entire mothership. We have the advantage and I am going to take it. I am also taking your position. Lock him up,” he bellowed.

  "You won't get away with this, Yiri! You are dead! I'm going to kill you!” I shouted as I struggled against my own warriors.

  I could hear Yiri laughing like a madman. He had finally lost it. He had grown more brazen then he had ever before. Now he was going to ruin any chance at peace. He was going to create the biggest battle that Earth had ever seen. As I was struggling in the hallway against the warriors that restrained me I could feel a small tremble. It was very familiar and I knew what it meant.

  "What is it? What is happening?” Lily shouted as the guards throw me into her room and lock the door.

  "I can tell you, but you're not going to like it,” I said to her.

  "I think that is obvious. Just tell me what it is?” She shouted at me.

  "It is Yiri. I was in the middle of telling the high Council your alternate plan when he came in and arrested me. He is going through with phase 2 of the plan right now. The fleet of thousands of ships are leaving the mothership as we speak. I can feel the tremors of them taking off."

  "What do you mean? What do you mean? I don't understand!” She yelled.

  "Phase 2 of the plan was to show our military strength and to invade Earth with battleships, causing a great battle. This was after months had passed and the water supply would have been in the system of every human. But Yiri has launched the attack,” I said to her.

  "You mean Earth is under attack right now? This very second?!” She yelled.

  "The fleet is leaving now. The ships are on the way and Earth will be under attack in less than 10 minutes.”

  "Zian! We have to stop it!” She shouted at me.

  "I am way ahead of you,” I said to her as I slid my hand across the wall. Bam! I punched a hole in the wall next to the door.

  "What are you doing?” She asked.

  "I'm getting us out of here,” I said to her, as I yanked the wires hard. The lights flickered off and on and the door opened.

  "Oh, that is clever,” she said.

  "Follow me,” I said to her, cautiously making sure that guards were not waiting at the door. They were not.

  "I have to go to the floor with the communications. I have to get a message to Earth. They have to be warned. By the time the Earth army is in position the invasion will be more than 10 minutes in,” she said as she ran towards the elevator.

  "I can get you to a communication device but not on that floor. We have to get out of here at the same time. Yiri is in charge, we are wanted fugitives. This way,” I said as I grabbed her and pulled her into the stairwell.

  "What do you mean we have to get out of here? We are on a ship! We can't exactly walk outside and run," she said as she followed me down the stairs breathlessly.

  I kicked open a door.

  "No, not run,” I said as I pointed at a small ship. “Stay low and follow me,” I said as I ran toward it. In all the chaos of warriors getting ready for battle no one noticed us.

  "I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe this is happening,” she quietly said over and over.

  "Get in!” I opened the door to the ship. She climbed in.

  "Here,” I said and say turn on the communication device and dialed the Earth embassy.

  "Director?” A young female said on the screen.

  "Yes! It is me! There is no time to lose. I need you to do two things! One, I need you to sound the alarm! The Corillion are invading the Earth as we speak, thousands of ships are headed your way!” Lily said. I quickly saw the young girls face go into panic as I was flipping switches and turning on the engines preparing for takeoff.

  "The second thing is I need you to patch me through to Dr. Waldrorf!"

  The girl was stunned silence and motionless.

  "Do it! Sound the alarm now!" Lily shouted at her snapping her out of her daze.

  "Yes! Sorry!” She said as she pressed a few buttons and an air raid siren went on. Then she typed and another man came on the screen.

  Meanwhile, I was driving the small ship out of the mothership along with thousands of battle ships loaded with warriors.

  "Director? Holy shit we thought you were dead,” the man said.

  "Dr. Waldrorf! Listen to me. The countdown I gave you is a countdown to an invasion, and it is happening right now this very second. More Corillion warriors than you have ever seen in your life are headed to Earth. But most importantly they have contaminated the water supply with a solution that will force all human men to become sterile,” Lily said.

  I looked over just in time to see the man drop a glass of water in his hand. The glass shattered on the ground.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?” The man said.

  "I wish that I was kidding. But it is true. I need to get this information to you and everyone else. I need you to send that message far and wide to every single data port that we have. Do it now and then prepare for an air raid,” she said. I was very impressed with her logic and tactic. She was shouting orders just like a leader, she was my equal. I looked over at her in admiration. Just then a loud boom was heard on Dr. Waldrorf's end and his building shook. Then we lost the communication with the scientist.

  "Dammit! It has already started,” I said to her.

  "What can we do?” She asked me.

  "Stay alive,” is all that I could say to her. The invasion was too far gone to stop. Even if I captured and killed Yiri, by the time the warriors were forced to return to the mothership the battle would be too far along. The Earth army would not just let them go, so the warriors would have no choice but to fight.

  As we broke through the atmosphere of Earth we were not prepared for what we saw.

  "Holy fuck, that cannot be,” Lily whispered.

  "I am afraid it is,” I said to her.

  "But capital city, it is in the ruins. It has almost been completely wiped out,” she said through tears.

  "Hold on!” I shouted as we flew through hundreds of ships belonging both sides. It was a dog fight.

  "This is unbelievable! This is wrong!” Lily shouted.

  "We need to get out of here!” I shot about her.

  "And go where? This battle is all over Earth. Nowhere is safe,” she said as I maneuvered the ship in and out of blaster bullets flying by us.

  "We're going to be shot down by either my side or yours at any second,” I said to her.

  "Fine! let them shoot us down. There's nothing here for anyone anymore. There is no point,” she said.

  "No, do not speak like that. Do not speak like that Lily, I do not want to know that I have done this to you. I cannot bear it. I need you. Earth needs you now more than ever. This battle will not last forever, and when it is over it will be time to rebuild. Earth is going to need a leader like you, one that will promote peace. Your alternate plan can still be put into place, and it will be needed now more than ever after this. But only you can do it. I have faith in you. I am here to serv
e you."

  She looked over at me and I could see the mood on her face change. She was turning into the brilliant human female that I knew she was and always had been.

  "You're right. I will be needed, we will all be needed. We need to get out of here," she said.

  "Good, good…but where, Lily? This is your planet so direct me where to go” I asked her.

  "To my sister. Set coordinates for Lake Michigan. There is an island in the middle of it. That's where she would go. It is a secret that only she and I had talked about, but I have never actually been there.”

  "Setting coordinates for Lake Michigan,” I said as the ship shot forward and out of the battle. I could only hope that the Earth army would not follow.

  Chapter 9

  LILY RETRON CRACE - DIRECTOR NEW EARTH EMBASSY

  "There," Zian said as he maneuvered the ship along the outside of the battle over capital city.

  "What? What is it?" I asked as I looked in the direction that he was looking.

  “You see that ship with the orange stripe down the side? "

  "Yes, I see it. It is a Corillion ship. What about it?" I asked.

  "It is Yiri. That is the lead ship. That's where he is,” he said to me.

  "Are you sure?" I questioned.

  "Yes of course. That is the ship I would be in if I were leading the battle," he said as he steered our ship in the opposite direction.

  "Wait, where are you going? Aren’t you going after him?" I asked him, confused that he was not.

  "No. I have to get you out of here. I have to protect you.”

  "No. Let's get him. Shoot him down," I said to him.

  "Lily, no we cannot do that. It is too dangerous," he said.

  "I don't care. War is dangerous. Letting him live is more dangerous than going after him. He cannot be in charge of the Corillion. You know that, and I know that," I replied.

  "Yes, I do know that. But let me go after him on my own time. I am skilled, but I will not take you with me!" he said.

  "By then it will be too late. You have the shot now, take it. Do it for me!" I demanded of him.

  He looked at me for a few seconds. Then he made a hard right. He was heading for Yiri.

  "Hold on. This is going to be messy!"

  "Do what you do best," I replied.

  In seconds, we were engaged in battle once again. But Yiri's ship was just on the outside of the battle, as though watching over it. Zian flew straight for him. He went around the backside and I was impressed by his tactic. He really knew what he was doing.

  "Firing!" He shouted as he fired off a few shots.

  A few seem to hit the ship but then ship went into action. It flew hard and fast, twisting and dodging as we chased after it. Zian continued to fire on it using guns. Then a puff of black smoke appeared and the ship went hurtling down to the ground. It crashed, but it did not break apart. Zian looked at me. He was asking me what I wanted him to do.

  "Go get him!" I said to him.

  "I thought you might say that," he said with a grin.

  He flew the ship straight down amongst the chaos of the battle. I could see the Earth army to my right and the Corillion army to my left. Both were on foot and were headed toward each other. Yiri's ship was in the middle of what would be become the battle ground.

  "We're not going to have much time," I said to him.

  "Look at me," Zian said to me. I looked at him and he had his hand on a joystick.

  "This lever, this is how you work the ship. Pull it back to go up. Got it?" he said as he began to land the ship near the wreckage of the other.

  "Why are you telling me that? I am not going anywhere without you," I said to him.

  "You are staying here inside the ship. I am just going to go check it out. I'm going to go make sure that Yiri is no more. "

  "No, I'm going with you," I said to him.

  "No, you are not. Stay here," he said as the ship landed and he unbuckled his belt. He grabbed a blaster gun off the wall and opened the door. I knew that he would not let me go so instead I planned to wait just a few seconds before I following. He stood in the doorway and turned back to me. "Lily, I love you. I love you so hard and it happened so fast that I can't believe it. I can't wrap my head around it. Just know that I love you!" Then he was gone. He vanished into a cloud of black smoke from the wreckage, just as he had appeared the first time that I saw him. I unbuckled my belt and stood up, staring out the windshield. I watched as he ran toward the wreckage and went inside. It felt like he was in there forever. I couldn't stand it anymore. I could see the two armies were moving closer. I knew that in a few minutes they would be engaging in a massive battle and we would be right in the middle of it. I grabbed a blaster gun off the wall and followed him. I entered the wreckage. Zian had a gun pointed at Yiri, who was on the ground bleeding.

  "Why? Why did you do it? Do you know what you have done?" Zian said angrily.

  "I told you why. Because you would not. You met that human and you became soft. Someone had to pick up where you left off," Yiri said.

  "No, not like this. This was never part of the plan. It was only to be a last resort. We were going to use the water contamination as leverage to create a system that both the Corillion and the humans could live with. That was phase 2 of the plan. The invasion was only a last resort to that plan, and mostly just to protect ourselves so that we could leave the solar system. You took it into your own hands and made it something more sinister," Zian said.

  "No, I took it into my own hands and made it something more successful. Look around you. We are at war! This is not just a battle here and there, but war all over Earth, and we are going to win. I did this. I am the one that will get the glory for it," Yiri exclaimed.

  "You can’t get the glory if you are dead,” I proclaimed, shooting off a few rounds as I stepped beside Zian. Yuri, fell, dead. I had shot him.

  "Lily? "Zian said to me.

  "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I didn't mean to do that. It just happened," I said, shocked at my own behavior. I had never shot anyone before. Just then, we began to hear the voices of men and Corillion shouting.

  "We got to get out of here," Zian said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the wrecked ship. I was walking as though I was floating outside of myself. I could not believe what I had just done. I didn't recognize myself. This was what war did to people. I stopped walking.

  "What is it? "Zian asked.

  "I've imagined myself killing a Corillion countless times. After my father was killed in battle with the Corillion, all that I ever wanted was to get revenge. But now it doesn't feel good at all. All of this useless and senseless violence," I said to him even though I was just thinking out loud, and not really directing my words to him.

  "Stop Lily. As you said before he could not live. He will only cause more pain and chaos. Yiri was not right in the mind. You did the right thing. I was on the verge of doing it myself. But right now, we have to get out of here. The two armies are marching toward us and we will never be able to leave. We will die if we stay here!" He yanked on my arm and pulled me to the ship. Once inside I strapped in and stared out the windshield at the massive armies converging.

  "We're never going to make it out of here," I said to him.

  "Yes, we will. We just have to move faster than they can respond to us," he said.

  "How do we do that? "I asked him.

  "We're going to go full throttle as soon as I start the engines. Go from a parked position,” he said.

  "You can do that?”

  "I'm going to try," he said.

  "Wait, that means you have never done it before? "

  "Exactly. Strap yourself in."

  "But..." but before I could finish my sentence Zian hit the throttle and we jolted straight into the sky. It was very fast and I almost thought I was going to black out. Zian was concentrating hard and his knuckles were turning white as he maneuvered and flew the ship toward the coordinates.

  "That was amazi
ng," I said to him, impressed with his skill yet again. There was a reason that he was the leader of the Corillion. He was a brilliant specimen of an alien and I doubted that there were any other like him.

  "Thank you. It was close!"

  "It was?" I said, a little bit scared.

  He laughed and I looked out the window. I could not see any battle at all. We were flying over farmlands. keeping a fair distance from anything else in the sky.

  "We should set her down, as there is a lot of air-traffic showing up on the radar," he said.