“Enable face to face,” Korr said, realizing that the Admiral wasn’t able to see who he was talking to, or what, to be more precise, he was talking to. All the Admiral knew was that Earth was being attacked. And that quite frankly was enough for him to attempt to talk to the perpetrators, whoever they may end up being. But the Admiral wasn’t expecting to see a fellow human stare back at him when the face to face camera was turned on. He knew that Earth was being attacked by a human ship, but he’d refused to believe that his own people would be responsible for such a thing.
He was of course, greatly mistaken.
“Why are you attacking us? This is an act of treason! You are one of us! You are human!” the Admiral squealed as he stared daggers at the screen.
On his end he could see the entire bridge and all the people that stood on it. There was no doubt about it. Earth was definitely not being attacked by aliens. They were being attacked by their very own kind.
“Admiral, my name is Commander Korr. The people on this ship are under my command. A command that I take quite seriously, so be assured that this isn’t some kind of mistake. This isn’t a blunder, fluke or misunderstanding. This is retribution. This is preservation,” Commander Korr said, to a round of cheering from his cabin crew.
They were all yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, momentarily drowning out the sound of Admiral Thisk’s voice on the video chat. Korr had to gesture to his crew to be silent. They obeyed him almost immediately.
“Preservation? Of what? All you are accomplishing with this is your very own demise, Commander Korr. We are well equipped. We are battle hardened. And we certainly aren’t no pushovers. So what exactly you’ll accomplish out of this, other than death, is anyone’s guess,” Thisk said, his face growing redder by the second.
He was steaming mad. What right did these people, ACTUAL PEOPLE, have to attack their own planet?
Korr started to laugh as he walked closer toward the screen. Every step he took echoed in the collective silence on the bridge. His crew waited with bated breath. Korr’s footsteps clunked on the metal below him. He reached the screen and put his hand on the glossy glass surface. A smile crept across his scarred face. All the while, Admiral Thisk watched on in horror, not quite understanding what was going on. All he could see was Korr’s rather large hand on his own screen. He appeared to be stroking it. Gently brushing his fingers on the camera. It disturbed Thisk. He’d never seen anything like this. It was as if the man that was attacking his planet was in some sort of trance. But then the hand disappeared and Korr’s scarred face glared back at Thisk. A grin, accompanied by yellow stained teeth adorned the Commander’s pot-holed face.
“It’s nice to feel, sometimes, isn’t it Admiral?” Korr asked suddenly. His crew murmured in excitement. The admiral didn’t say anything. He just sat there in stunned silence.
“Feeling is something us humans do on a daily basis. We feel anger. We feel pain. We feel disappointment. Those feelings are present in most people's lives. They’re probably present in yours. But one thing that isn’t present, is gratitude. Gratitude in being part of a species that can do as they please. And by God, you should be grateful. For if it was the other way round, and an alien race had goaded you and your people into a war that they were sure to lose, then there would be hell to pay. So think of us as an equalizer. An equalizer to a forgone conclusion. And that conclusion is the end of the human race. Because you can’t keep doing what you like. You can’t keep fighting the bad fight and expect to not get touched. Fear is a feeling. And I’m pretty sure you are fearful Admiral. After all, a huge warship is about to wage all-out carnage on your tiny planet. A warship that is Commanded by me. By my crew. And together, we make up your worst nightmares.”
Thisk wiped the sweat off his brow and frowned.
“So you intend to make us extinct? Is that what you’re saying?” he asked.
The Commander nodded his head and stepped back a few paces from the screen. He turned to his crew and raised both his arms in the air.
“You see that lads? Some intelligence. He get’s it. But how much he gets, I’m not sure. But he will understand the true meaning of fear when all’s said and done,” Korr said, turning back around to face the screen.
“You’re wrong. I don’t get it,” Thisk said. But then he broke into a smile of his own. “But the moment you started your attack, I sent the entire planet’s Snake Pit Fighters to your bearing. By the time I finish this sentence, you’ll be done.”
Korr paused for effect, and raised his left hand toward the screen. He started to wag his finger at Thisk while tutting.
“You play a weak game of chess, Admiral. I am not stupid. I know of the defenses you have at your disposal. But you fail to play a good game of chess. You send your pawns. And you send plenty. For the game has just begun. And we’re in this for the checkmate.”
***
The gun fights are deafening as both Teresa and I duck for cover behind a partially shot through wall. The lights are out and all I can see is the occasional muzzle flash coming off somebody’s Laser Omiter 9 Cannon. I didn’t know what the hell was going on here. All I knew was that Earth was being attacked. And seeing how close we were to Earth, it didn’t take me long to figure out that whoever was attempting to destroy the planet, was also boarding the starport and trying to wipe us out.
I wasn’t really interested in the why’s of the matter. To be honest, I didn’t really give a hoot. All I wanted to know was where the hell could I get a gun, and protect myself from whatever this was. My question was answered almost immediately when the partially standing wall we were leaning against exploded and flung both Teresa and I onto the floor a few feet away from where we had been originally standing.
I tried to catch my breath as I lay there on the hard metal floor, staring up at what looked like a black hole, but in actual fact it was just the dense darkness that surrounded us. It was no use though. My lungs were shot to crap. I was inhaling clouds of dust from the debris that were flying around the area we were in. I say area, because I didn’t know where the heck I was. I mean, we could have been anywhere on Sector Eight, but without any lighting, there was no way to know. So we were stuck. Stuck listening to whoever, or whatever was shooting their firearm in our immediate radius.
I tried to feel around for Teresa, hoping that she had landed next to me, but my hand found itself gripping some sort of cold, hard steel. I felt around a little bit more and sat up quickly when I realized that what I was touching was in actual fact a Long Barrel Laser Cannon. I hadn’t seen one of those things in years. They were pretty much primitive compared to the technology that we had these days. Which made me wonder who it belonged to. I stood up, bent down, grabbed the laser cannon and cocked it. I knew how to use it because on my off days, I was known to go Laser Tag when I could. An activity I wasn’t exactly proud of, but they used similar laser cannons.
Obviously not set to deadly, of course. But I doubted that the particular laser cannon in my hand was set to tickle mode. So I felt confident with it. The only problem was that I couldn’t see a damn thing around me. And to make things even worse, the gunfire in the distance had stopped. Which either meant that we’d won, or I was the last man standing.
“Anyone there?” I said under my breath, which was probably the stupidest thing I could have done.
“Flynn?” I heard Teresa groan. She sounded close by. I turned around as fast as I could and beckoned her again.
“Flynn?” she groaned once more.
It sounded like she was in front of me. Maybe a hundred feet. But as I said, there was the slight problem of it being completely dark. The emergency lights had long gone out. Probably when the explosion happened. The explosion that made me and Teresa go on an unplanned flight across the vast room we were in. I assumed we were still in that room. The room just outside the changing rooms. But I was so disorientated that truth be told, we could have been dead and I wouldn’t have noticed, I was that out of it.
Silence. Just my breathing. Then nothing. Teresa stopped talking mid-sentence. But why? Was she dead. Had I just heard her die in front of me?
“TERESA!” I screamed.
But there was still no answer. Just even more silence. I stood there, laser cannon in hand, gripping the rounded cylinder shape tightly, squeezing with both my hands. I was just about to cock it when I realized I’d already done so. That, and the safety was on. I tilted my eyes toward the cannon in my hands and tried to search for the safety switch.
But then I felt a change of temperature around me. Like one minute it was ice cold. And the next it was strikingly hot. I dropped to my knees in pain, grabbed at the back of my head. I felt blood pouring out of a wound. I’d been shot! I’d been bloody shot! I frantically tried to get to my feet, but I couldn’t. Something had a hold of me. My hands batted at the darkness. They felt for whoever, or whatever was holding me.
But nobody was there. It was all in my head. But I still couldn’t move. It was like I’d been poisoned. And then I felt the barb. A small dart was lodged in my head. It was still stuck in there and was what was responsible for my head wound. I ripped it out and screamed. The wound itself wasn’t fatal. But whatever I’d been shot with was making me woozy. I didn’t understand what was going on. But I had to fight. I just had to. There was no way that I was going to allow myself to be bested again. Not after the month I’d just had.
So I got up, even if it was slowly, and sluggishly. Fortunately, once I was on my feet, I felt a little better. I flicked the switch on my cannon and turned around. I shot a blast up into the ceiling, hoping to momentarily illuminate my surroundings. And sure enough it did. For three seconds. Long enough for me to see what I was dealing with.
“What the heck?” I said groggily.
Standing meters away from me was a female holding some sort of blow pipe in her hands. She was tall, dressed in leather and wore a long trench coat. She had fingerless gloves on and what appeared to be a cape. Her hair was red and spikey and her neck had what looked like a dog collar on it. One of those ones with triangular plastic spikes protruding outwards.
“Aww, he’s awake. The last one standing. And there I was thinking that I’d have a little fun with you first. But it looks like the fun is about to end … for you at least,” the weirdly dressed woman said.
I stood there shaking. I didn’t know what to do. She was human. She was one of us. Not that there was any of us left standing apart from me. I just didn’t understand what was going on.
“I can’t shoot you. It’s a Galactic crime to kill one of your own,” I said, blinking hard. But it was no use. The light from the laser blast had long gone and only darkness was left.
“Don’t worry honey. You don’t need to do any killing around here. Just leave that to me,” the woman said.
Suddenly, the hot flashing pain returned. This time it was not in the back of my head. But my chest. It forced me to drop the laser cannon. It clanged on the floor. I nearly joined the weapon for a nap, but my will to live and fight stopped me from collapsing. I put both hands on my chest and found the dart. I quickly pulled it out, but not quick enough. Before I even heard the scurry of running footsteps coming toward me, I’d been tackled to the floor. She was now on top of me. Her hands were firmly locked around my neck. She was squeezing tightly. The combination of whatever I’d been shot with and my breathing being restricted was making me fade out fast.
Permeant darkness was seeping in. But not for long. I heard a thunk. Her grip loosened on me. And then she let go. My eyes opened wide as I tried to get as much air into my lungs as I could. My breathing was raspy and my heart was pounding in my chest. My rib cage was tightening. I sat up, and winced. I started to cough, but I didn’t have enough time to worry about how my health was doing. I was searching for the leather-bound girl. I needed to find her and find her fast. She was far too dangerous for me to take lightly. But instead of finding the girl, I found Teresa. It wasn’t exactly hard. She was standing over me, holding her hand out. I looked up, a little disorientated.
“Is that you?” I said, my speech slurred, like I was drunk out of my mind. But I wasn’t. I’d been drugged though, so not too far off. Plus it was dark, so my eyes weren’t helping me out much.
“Yeah, it’s me you soppy so and so. Get up. We don’t have time to frolic around. The star port is being attacked.”
I started to laugh.
“I’m done for the day. I’ve had enough frolicking around,” I said, standing up. “Where’s the girl,” I asked.
Suddenly, I tripped and fell on my face. I scrambled back up to my feet, grabbing the laser cannon and aiming it at the floor.
“Looks like you found her!” Teresa said, pointing to a lifeless body on the hard metal floor. I cautiously prodded the motionless corpse with the barrel of the laser cannon. She didn’t move. She didn’t flinch. I then saw the blood pooling around the corpse and noticed the rather large combat knife stuck in the back of her head.
“Holy heck! Did you do that?” I asked, half frightened, half surprised.
“Yeah. She was all over you. Couldn’t let the competition live,” Teresa said. The way she was casually joking about this was making me a little wary.
“Well, I’ll have you know she was only all over me because she was trying to kill me. Bitch had her hands wrapped around my neck! Not to mention that she shot me with poisonous darts – twice! I need to get myself checked out.”
Teresa started to laugh.
“I know, I’m not stupid!” She said, patting me on the shoulder. “You’ll have to wait till we get back to the ship to get yourself checked out. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we seem to be stuck in the middle of an invasion!”
I coughed.
“Invasion! What are you on about?”
Teresa tutted and gently pushed me.
“Get a move on. We need to scram. There must be more of them.”
I started to move and so did Teresa. We made our way to a doorway. I still couldn’t see at all that well, but luckily my vision was getting used to the pitch-blackness that surrounded me.
“Where’s everybody?” I asked.
“Dead. Looks like they’re at a stalemate. But believe me, the stalemate won't last long. Before you know it, this starport will be teeming with the bastards. We need to get to the shipyard, and vacate before it’s too late,” Teresa said.
She began to jog down the hallway in front of us. The hallway was brighter. Light was coming from the huge bay windows on each side. Windows that were usually reserved for star gazing and admiring Earth. But when I craned my neck to the right sided window as I kept pace with Teresa, I noticed that Earth was barely visible thanks to the dense sea of warships surrounding the planet. A full-scale war was about to erupt. And we were directly in the eye of what surely was to become a massive storm.
A storm of nuclear ability, coupled with weapons capable of splitting planets in half. This wasn’t going to end well.
“Let’s hope we can make it off the port, or we’ll have a front-row seat to the end of the world,” I said, struggling for breath as we both made our way to the shipyard in search of the Alpha Ship One – in search of a safe way out of this mess.
***
EARTH. MARINE DEPLOYMENT CENTER. NEVADA. OLD USA. 18.27 HOURS.
Marine Sargent Keller stood in front of his squadron of fighters. They had been informed of the predicament that Earth now found itself in. And none of them were happy about it. They had all dreamed of the day an invasion would happen. Like in the movies of old. Ugly aliens coming to their planet in huge battlecruisers. But this was nothing like the movies. In fact, it was the opposite. That’s what was making the Marines angry. If they knew how the first official invasion of Earth would go, they’d have gotten a better night’s sleep the evening before.
"Okay gentlemen, it seems like we have a little problem. I've just received word that Earth and its immediate su
rrounding area, including the spaceports above our planet, are being attacked by a homegrown militia. Apparently, they are calling themselves the Annex Rebel Fleet. Records show that the Annex Rebel Fleet are a contingent that originally splintered off from the Letoral fleet, and as most of you know, the Letoral Fleet were best known for being homegrown terrorists. These former terrorists decided to put down their arms a long time ago, and since then, we haven't heard a peep out of them. But times have changed my friends, and these people are back, and no matter what they call themselves, they are still terrorists," Marine Sgt. Keller said, eyeing his men up as he stood in front of them.
His men stood in a line, staring back at him, eyes wide with intrigue as the information that they were receiving slowly seeped into their heads. It had been a chaotic night, the night before. Most of the Marines that stood in front of Keller were supposed to be on leave. Their six months were up, and last night they had been enjoying a much-needed break. And unfortunately for Keller and the old USA Marine Corps, the first night of leave usually involved heavy drinking.
Looking at the men in front of him, Marine Sgt. Keller could plainly see that they had taken advantage of that first night of leave. Red eyes looked back at him - bloodshot and dry - the direct result of copious amounts of alcohol and very little sleep. But none of them could have foreknown about today’s events, so grilling them on their antics wouldn’t get Keller anywhere, anytime soon. It would be a pointless exercise, and the Marine Sgt. didn’t make a habit of partaking in such pointless pursuits.
"I know that a lot of you are not best pleased regarding your current situation. For most of you - you were only a few hours from seeing members of your family. But, I'm afraid the security and well-being of this planet far outweighs your paternal need to see your children and kiss your wives’ goodnight. Earth is being attacked, and the only way that any of you will see your family again is if you fight and destroy Earth’s imminent threat.
“There can be no substitutes. There will be no substitutes. Failure is not an option, and I suggest that the lot of you grow some bigger balls. You’re going to need them. This Annex Rebel Fleet contingent isn’t something that you should take lightly. These guys know how to fight. Their fathers were born terrorists and savages. They know how to use their weapons, and they know how to be very effective with them. So I expect that every single one of you will pay it forward so to speak,” Marine sergeant Keller said, squinting as he scrutinized the men in front of him, standing in the middle of the airplane hangar, a hangar that stretched on for miles, from left to right, there was nothing but space, space for all the air vehicles that had been summoned to the strip, and were now being boarded by their pilots.
Destroyer of Worlds (Alpha Ship One Book 2) Page 2