Destroyer of Worlds (Alpha Ship One Book 2)

by L. D. P. Samways

  Not that it made any sense for them not trust us, especially since it was them in the first place that got us into all that trouble. I hadn’t forgotten and neither had my crew. They may have paid us off with a million-dollar credits each, but that wouldn’t buy my silence. And I hoped one day I’d be able to get one up on them. To get them back for all the trouble they had caused. For the loss of my original crew. They were good people, and didn’t deserve the fateful outcome that they had attained. I believe deep down, one day, Pilgrim Tech will pay, but I just wasn’t sure which day that would be.

  In my ignorance, I hadn’t put the two events together yet. The sudden invasion of Sector Eight, and the dogfights between the warring humans in the Milky Way Galaxy, I hadn’t put those two things together. I didn’t know that there were people out there that felt the same way as me. But then again – I wouldn’t be so quick to cause pandemonium or civil war between my own kind. So as far as I was concerned, even with what I know now, and with what you will come to know soon, there are always other ways to accomplish such a thing.

  Revolution doesn’t necessarily mean spilling the blood of others. A revolution can be sparked by peace, by common knowledge, by common sense, and compassion. Revolution isn’t always accomplished by steel, or resources – wealth - money – credits – whatever you want to call it, nor is it sparked off or generated by the blood of others.

  Since the dawn of age, and the dawn of man itself, revolution has played an integral part. There was a time where the people could rise up against a government, a government that oppressed them and suppressed their progression. But it doesn’t work like that anymore. Too much good has come out of the Earth Galactic Empire. And I wasn’t going to play no part in destroying something I sincerely believed in. And that belief consisted of two things; The freedom of moving through space, and the ability to earn a hard and honest wage.

  “Looks like we are out of danger, for now,” Teresa said, unstrapping herself and standing up.

  She then walked toward the three dead guys on the floor. Kneeling down, she started searching their pockets.

  “What are you doing?” I said, also unstrapping myself.

  “Seeing if these guys have anything interesting on them,” Teresa replied, searching all three of them and then standing back up.

  “Find anything?” Philip said, kneeling beside her while staring at the three corpses.

  “No, they’re clean. I say we chuck them out and wake sleeping beauty up over there,” Teresa said.

  Dale made his way toward her and without saying anything, he bent down and grabbed all three of them at the same time.

  He was a massive man, a beast of a man even, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t surprised when I saw him manhandle three grown men and drag them toward the poop chute. And that’s exactly what he did. Not even breaking a sweat. He loaded each one of them into the tube and then locked them in there. I walked up to where he stood and grinned at my large friend.

  “Not an ounce of compassion - just the way I like my gunners,” I said, reaching for a button on the wall and hitting it.

  A hissing sound echoed through my ears, and then a prolonged sucking sound followed. I watched through the porthole as all three of the bodies floated away into the void of darkness around the ship. Because of the speed we were going at, the three floating bodies didn’t hang around for long.

  It was a case of now you see them, and now you don’t.

  “Well, that takes care of those three, what about him?” Teresa said, pointing at the unconscious fellow on the floor, who looked as if he was about to wake up from his forcibly induced beauty sleep.

  “I guess we wake him up and ask him some questions, what do you guys say?” I said, slowly making my way toward the guy on the floor.

  I kicked his leg a few times, lightly, but it was just enough to stir him. Bending down, my knees clicking, I got real close to his face, and smiled. As his eyes opened, he flinched. His pupils constricted and his eyes became red. Veiny lines of various configurations stretched across the whites of his eyes. He sat up quickly and shuffled back a few paces.

  “What do you want from me?” The guy said, his bloodshot eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

  “All we want is some answers. And I think you’re the guy to speak to. So, let’s stop all of the shenanigans and get down to brass tacks; what were you and your men doing on Sector Eight and why did you want to kill us?”

  The man gulped suddenly, his throat must’ve been dry, and it looked as if he needed a drink. But he wouldn’t be getting anything from us until he answered the questions that needed answering.

  He stuttered slightly, so I slapped him across the face. It was just a shock tactic, and it did just that, because both him and Dale, who was standing next to me now, looked a little off put by my actions. I suppose I don’t come across as the violent type, but when my crew and myself are in danger, I fully rationalize violence. After all, how else am I supposed to survive?

  “If I tell you anything, they’ll kill me,” the guy said, sweat starting to drip down his face.

  I rolled my eyes, stood back up, and turned around, my back facing him.

  “I don’t think you fully understand what I am asking of you. I don’t care if the people you work for, or fight with, or whatever you do with - kill you. All I care about is the safety and well-being of me and my crew. You don’t factor into this at all. You are our prisoner. And you know what we do with prisoners if they don’t talk? We make them talk. So I suggest you get flapping your gums or I’ll flap them for you. Understand?”

  I turned back around to face him. He was now looking up at me, his eyes watery and wide like a newborn puppy that just crapped on the floor. I could tell that he had remorse in his soul.

  I didn’t know if he regretted the fact that he was the bad guy in this or if he regretted the fact that he was the bad guy that just got caught. Either way, I was planning on playing on that remorse of his. Because violence is half the battle when it comes to extracting information from someone not willing to give that information to you. If you can find their weakness, then violence isn’t always necessary.

  But I had a feeling that this guy would be hard to crack. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t give it a good go though.

  ***

  Commander Korr of the Annex Rebel Fleet was seething in anger. He couldn’t quite believe that his plan was falling apart. This whole mission seemed fragile to him. Like the foundations of it was made from wool and yarn. And all it would take was one pull of a loose thread to untie and unravel everything that he had been working for. Things were going just fine before those damn Snake Pit Fighters showed up. Just thinking about them made his blood boil. And the very fact that he had to retreat wasn’t making the matter any more bearable.

  If he and his people; the Annex Rebel Fleet, were going to win this thing, then they would need to remain steadfast in their resistance against Pilgrim Tech and its subordinate slaves, the humans of Earth. Running away at the first sign of danger wasn’t going to win him any battles. But Commander Korr wasn’t an idiot. The Commander was wise, wise beyond his young years, especially since most of the men he would be fighting against, the ones at the top just like him, the suits of Pilgrim Tech, were in their fifties and sixties. Years and years of experience had seeped into their wrinkly and haggard skin. While Commander Korr himself was fresh-faced - yet he held a secret weapon.

  And that was a fiery passion in his heart. A passion that he planned on transforming the world with. Earth could no longer be governed by such corrupt immoral powers. There needed to be a revolution, and Commander Korr and his men were that revolution.

  The men and women fighting for Pilgrim Tech may have won the first battle, but the Commander was aware of the bigger picture at hand. And that picture was a messy picture. Like dirty watercolors smudged on the canvas of life, this battle was not all that it seemed.

  And even though the Commander and his men had retreated, they
had learned something valuable from this excursion. They had learned that Pilgrim Tech was scared. They were frightened of the change that the Annex Rebel Fleet represented. It was a change that would affect everybody on Earth. A change that would right the wrongs of the past and divert Earth’s and mankind’s progress into a new era. An era where everybody was equal. Where everybody had the power to change things beyond their previous reach.

  And change was very much the mantra of the Annex Rebel Fleet. But to enforce that change, and to usher in their vision of a new era, there would need to be blood spilled.

  Battles would need to be won. Men would need to be cut down to nothing. And authority figures would need to be destroyed. But before any of that could happen, Commander Korr and his men needed to let Pilgrim Tech know what they were in for.

  “Sir, unfortunately the unidentified ship warp-drived away from us before we could intercept it with a missile. One of the Snake Pit Fighters shot down the missile, and the ship got away. I was able to get a better scan of the ship and picked up the soldier identification number emanating from the signal within the vessel. They have four of our men, three of them are dead. Their identification chips are pronouncing them as KIA. As for the remaining soldier on board, life signs suggest that he is fit and healthy. I’m not sure what they want with him, but I fear that they may be able to extract valuable information if they press him hard enough,” X-O Zutor said, standing next to Commander Korr as he surveyed his schematic map of the battlefield.

  The holographic map revealed that the Snake Pit Fighters had also retreated, along with the majority of the Annex Rebel Fleet. Most of the ships, his ships, were warp driving away from the battlefield, back to their headquarters. They had set up base on a far planet on the fringe of the Milky Way Galaxy, but the planet wasn’t known to the people of Earth or Pilgrim Tech. The reason that the planet had remained a secret was because it had been cloaked with an invisibility device.

  It had once existed to Earth and its astronomers, most likely as a star, a star that comes to its supernova end, but now, now it was their home base. A base that was far away from Earth and its surrounding planets, but close enough to mount a sizeable attack, an attack that would be effective - they wouldn’t have enough time to see them coming – and that was the idea.

  “Look, I’m aware of the circumstances regarding the man on the ship and the missile that missed that ship. I’m not stupid, I was standing right here watching as it happened. You may be my right-hand man, but I don’t need a play-by-play commentary on the battle. I can use my own eyes, eyes that can see just as well as everybody else’s. So I suggest that you drop the act, stop playing Star Trek, and do something useful. Get Admiral Thisk on the line. We need to clear a few things up,” Commander Korr said, his scathing remarks making X-O Zutor’s face flush beet red.

  “Yes sir, right away,” his second-in-command said, ignoring the hot flushes that were causing him to sweat profusely.

  And even though he’d just been chewed out in front of the majority of their crew, he knew that this operation was causing a tremendous strain on the Commander. A strain that most of the Annex Rebel Fleet staffers were feeling. But unfortunately for X-O Zutor, some people are better at suppressing their feelings than others.

  The Commander wasn’t one to suppress anything.

  “I’ve requested the linkup, according to the servers, they have received our request. I’m awaiting their response,” X-O Zutor said, looking down at the computer tablet in his hands.

  The others waited with bated breath around him. Most of them were anxious. Anxious to hear what Earth and Pilgrim Tech thought of their posturing so far.

  “They’ve accepted Sir, patching you in,” X-O Zutor said, swiping at the screen and projecting his tablet to the big monitor so everybody else could see.

  A few seconds passed and then a static image appeared on the big screen, which everybody on board was now gawking at. The static image was the insignia of Pilgrim Tech, and below that insignia there was some writing flashing every few seconds. The writing simply said “connecting”. The Commander found himself staring at the flashing word, the image beginning to ingrain itself into his retinas, but then the flashing stopped and the static image disappeared.

  Now the screen showed an uneasy looking man staring directly into the lens of the camera in front of him. His eyes were moist with emotion. And his hair was damp with sweat. He stared at the screen and then attempted a gratuitous smile. But the smile spoke a thousand truths to the Commander, and within those thousand truths was the one greater truth. And that was the fact that Admiral Thisk was scared.

  The Annex Rebel Fleet had managed to rattle the cage of Pilgrim Tech, a cage filled with exotic birds of prey. Birds of prey that had ravaged the scorched lands of Earth, biting and chewing at the carcasses of human progression. And now that that cage was firmly rattled, it was time to crush the structure with the birds inside it.

  “I take it that you were impressed with our display of aggression and formidable force?” Commander Korr said, breaking out into a smile, a smile that did nothing but rattle the Admiral even more.

  But Thisk tried his best to put his game face on, but there was no fooling the Commander or his men. They could see straight through Admiral Thisk’s facade. And it did nothing but sicken the Commander, sicken him that this so-called leader of men was quaking in his boots. Where was his spine? Where were his balls? Where were his damn guts?

  “You put it into words so perfectly, Commander. As you said, what you just did was definitely a show of aggression and formidable force. But what you don’t seem to understand is that humanity and the people on our wonderful planet can see through your villainous acts. You do not scare me Commander. And your fleet of terrorists do not scare the people of Earth. If anything, you make me sad. I have pity for you and your men. You are leading lives of treasonous redemption. And even though you go against your own people and your own planet, your quest for redemption will never be fulfilled. We outnumber you Commander. We outgun you and your men. And believe me when I say this; we outsmart you too. There will be no victory on your part. There will only be sorrow and death. So, I suggest that you retreat back to wherever you came from, and stay there. Because if you return, you will be destroyed. And destruction is something that humanity has always been very good at,” Admiral Thisk said.

  The Commander stood there on deck, staring at the screen, contemplating his response. He had assumed that the Admiral had been shaken up by their very presence, and his cage had been firmly rattled. And even though he still stood by his original assumption, another thought had crossed his mind. What if the Admiral was so frightened that he did something stupid? It wouldn’t be the first time that a leader of men had overreacted, and overplayed his cards. It happened regularly in the past. The last thing he wanted to do was cause the complete and utter destruction of the people on Earth.

  The Commander’s quarry wasn’t with the innocent; it was with the government that overburdened them. Deep in his mind, he had flashes of terror erupting within the depths of his brain. Terror brought on by the established government in response to the Annex Rebel Fleet’s attempt at a revolution. He didn’t want the people of Earth to suffer at the hands of the government some more. But he couldn’t allow Pilgrim Tech or its leaders to know of his compassion toward his fellow man. All they would do is use it against him. And the Commander was aware that it wouldn’t take a lot to stop him in his tracks. If the people of Pilgrim Tech decided to threaten the people of Earth with mass extinction, then the Annex Rebel Fleet would most likely cease its operations. But he wasn’t going to tell Admiral Thisk that.

  He wanted the Admiral to think of him as a villain. A villain that wanted nothing more than to overthrow the government.

  It’s not uncommon for the rich at the top to be so blinded by their own success that they assume that everybody wants to be just like them. And he wouldn’t be surprised if Earth thought that the Annex Rebel Fleet wer
e motivated by money. In this case, the Commander had no issues with letting them assume that. They could think what they liked. But that wouldn’t stop the wrath of the Annex Rebel Fleet from crashing down on everyone percenter on planet Earth.

  “Admiral, you can continue to think your thoughts of treason and redemption. But don’t you dare assume that we are just common terrorists out for mass blood and mass wealth. For we are more than that, and I think you are fully aware of our reasons. All you have to do is look deep inside of your heart, somewhere beneath the dark, putrid, black ooze that coats your soul, dig deep down within that, past the vile wretchedness that is your personality, and then maybe you will be enlightened as to what our cause is truly about.

  “But don’t boggle your mind with such trivial matters. For there is much more to think about. You shall become aware of our reasoning’s in time. But for now, I would just like you to focus on staying alive. Because believe me, Admiral, your life is very much in danger,” Commander Korr said, breaking out into a maniacal laugh, and waving goodbye at the screen.

  The Admiral was about to retort when the Commander cut the feed. His message had been sent. He wanted Pilgrim Tech to fear the unknown. And messing with their heads was very much a part of Commander Korr’s grand plan. A plan that was so complex and so well thought out that even he didn’t quite understand it.

  But he did understand this; the preservation of Earth and its people was the only reason he was willing to go to war with such unadulterated evil like Pilgrim Tech.

  ***

  I swing my fist back, clenching it hard, and then extend it forward, hitting the prisoner on the jaw. The sound of the punch was loud and foreboding. There was a crunch and then a crack as the prisoner spat some blood out onto the deck. He was on his knees and I was standing over him while Dale was restraining him. I continued to land blow after blow on the mysterious intruder. As I said before, I’m not usually a violent man. But for some reason, the idea of this man prowling on my ship, along with his Three amigos, waiting for us to board the vessel with the sole intention of killing us, was angering me beyond belief.