Galactic Defenders- Endurance

by Michael Mishoe

  ​As the officers exited their craft, Cha’Hawk finally spotted Stealth Combatant Mi’Kel, who was coated in an inky-black coating that covered most of his body, signifying his rank and position as an experienced Stealth Combatant. Cha’Hawk had first fought with Mi’Kel at his side during the Third Fight of Mektar, a city on their world that had been overtaken with those that rejected the rule of Tael’Cyrel Tak’Tora, the current leader of the Ribiyar. During that battle, Mi’Kel had disobeyed Cha’Hawk’s orders, who had stayed behind alone to give his squadron time to fall back, and returned to assist him. If it hadn’t been for Mi’Kel, Cha’Hawk would have likely been overtaken by the advancing rebel troops. Ever since that battle, Cha’Hawk and Mi’Kel had slowly developed a strong trust between them, as they fought more and more battles together and protected each other throughout them. Mi’Kel spotted Cha’Hawk in the crowd, and he walked over to where he was waiting.

  ​“Tactical Analysist Cha’Hawk. It has been too long since I have seen you.”

  ​“Too long indeed, Stealth Combatant Mi’Kel. I have missed having your distinguished experience to rely upon.” Though both of them would have preferred addressing each other without having to include their lengthy titles of rank, protocol demanded that they do so, at least while they were in the presence of other officers. “These children just don’t have the experience I’m used to working with.” Even though Cha’Hawk and Mi’Kel were fairly young, only about three-hundred-ten years old, it was common place to refer for Ribiyar under the age of eighty as ‘children’, considering members of the species can live well past one-thousand years, and beyond. Unless, of course, the warrior is slain by his enemies in battle.

  ​“I have noticed the majority of our attack force are among the younger generations of our people. But, Tactical Analysist Cha’Hawk, I know you didn’t request that I transfer to this ship just so we can talk about the condition of the troops. What is really going on?”

  ​Cha’Hawk began to walk to one of the entrances of the hanger, motioning to Mi’Kel to follow him. “Come, Stealth Combatant Mi’Kel. We have much to discuss.”

  Location: Unnamed Island in the Atlantic Ocean.

  ​Standing on the boarding ramp of one of the fighters, Chief Lexton watched in horror as Jack slammed into the bottom of the hill, hitting it with enough force that she felt the ground shake from the impact. A cloud of dirt flew up into the air, blocking her view of the crash site.

  ​“JACK!!!” Lexton yelled, but he didn’t respond to her call one responded to her call. She began to make her way down the hill to retrieve Jack, when Olo grabbed her arm.

  ​“Chief Lexton, we don’t have time to retrieve him. We have to leave while we can.”

  ​Doctor McGriffen approached Lexton. “Chief, he’s right. We have to go. He knew the risks when he stayed behind.” Lexton was about to reply, when Ribiyar fighters began shooting out of the water near the shore of the beach. A lot of fighters, at least forty ships flying toward the hill, accompanied by an army of Ribiyar warriors now emerging from the waters and quickly moving across the sand and deeper into the island.

  ​“Everyone, to the fighters! Now!” Olo yelled as he led Chief Lexton and Doctor McGriffen into the one of the three oval-shaped fighters. After they boarded the ship, the ramp automatically rose behind them, sealing the fighter shut.

  ​“Ensign Mathews, can you get the fighter started?” Lexton asked as she moved around Olo and Doctor McGriffen, the only other officers aboard the fighter besides Ensign Mathews, and reached the front of the fighter. At both sides of Ensign Mathews was a Recon Drone that had attached themselves to the fighter’s computer, their mechanisms purring softly as the ensign feverously tried to get the fighter moving.

  ​“I don’t know, sir.” Mathews responded. “I have given the drones the location of the Ocean-Walker supplied by Lieutenant Oakland, and they should be programming the fighter to take us to your ship, but it is taking longer than anticipated.” Though the officers could manually pilot the fighters themselves as the holographic interfaces had been translated into an English language, there had not been enough time for anyone to learn how to control the ships during flight, which left Jack and the Recon Drones as the only ones who could effectively control the ships. “It is possible that Jack’s… injuries may have disrupted the drone’s computer systems.” She said cautiously, not yet wanting to give up hope on Jack’s survival, however unlikely that was.

  ​“We don’t have much time to wait for the drones to get these ships moving,” Olo said. “But there might be a way to buy a little more time.” Bringing his wrist communicator to his face, he spoke, “Captain Syvon, this is Lieutenant Oakland. I am surrounded by Ribiyar on the hill in the middle of the island and have boarded three Ribiyar fighters with my team and some other officers we found here. I’ll explain that later, but I need you to buy us some time to fly to safety. Please, help us, sir.”

  ​Lexton began cautiously but hurriedly reviewing the ship’s controls, trying to figure out how she could fly the ship, but the controls were just too alien for her to safely guess how it worked.

  ​“The Ribiyar will be here in approximately… ten seconds!” Mathews reported after quickly checking the ships sensors. Lexton found it odd that it was taking the Ribiyar so long to arrive, considering they could have been here moments after emerging from the ocean, but she realized the Ribiyar were likely toying with them, and allowing them to experience as much fear and ill-conceived hope as possible before violently ending their lives.

  ​“Sirs!” Ensign loudly exclaimed when one of the consoles began rapidly flashing red, “A large number of incoming projectiles are coming our way!” Now Lexton knew for certain that the Ribiyar were simply making a big show of the event, considering only a few shots from their energy cannons were likely all that was needed to destroy the fighters. One of the computer consoles displayed the data collected from the visual sensors, and showed small silver spherical objects deploying from the fighters’ armor. The sphere’s shape quickly reconfigured itself as three wings deployed, and the sphere smoothed out and elongated to create the form of a sleek, deadly missile.

  ​A swarm of over twenty missiles sped toward the fighters on the hill, intent on reducing their prey to ashes. Just before the projectiles reached the fighters on the hill, the crimson-red fury of a Laser Array destroyed the missiles in a fiery explosion. A ship with bird-like wings suspended on its sides suddenly appeared and positioned itself in front of the fighters on the hill, absorbing the Ribiyar fighters’ energy blasts with its metal hull plating covering the ship and shooting down more Ribiyar missiles with its machine guns placed around the surface of the ship. The sky once again lit up in crimson-red as the ship attacked the fighters with an enormous barrage of laser fire, instantly shredding many of the fighters to pieces.

  ​“This is Captain Syvon of the U.S.S. Thunderfox,” the captain’s voice produced through Olo’s wrist communicator and echoing sternly through the fighter. “We will hold off the Ribiyar for as long as we can, but be warned that the U.S.S. Ocean-Walker will soon begin its barrage on the island. You have three minutes to get out of there while you can. Captain Syvon, out.” The channel closed, leaving the ship noiseless, besides the commotion of the battle taking place outside the fighter.

  ​“Chief Lexton, have you had any luck trying to find the helm controls on this thing?” Olo asked as he moved to the front of the fighter to examine the consoles that lay before the Chief.

  ​“I believe I have found the console that controls the ships flight, but I can’t give you any kind of guess on how to fly the ship. We’re more likely to crash into the side of the hill than getting anywhere near this ship of yours.” Just before Olo was able to respond, the Recon Drones produced several chirping noises, startling the officers, and moments later, the fighter’s engines began to roar to life as they activated, and the location of the Ocean-Walker appeared on the flight console. It appeared that the drones had
finally roused from their slumber and were finally taking command of the fighter’s flight controls.

  ​“Lieutenant Oakland,” Chief Lexton said after she recovered from the surprise of the drones’ timely assistance, “I want you to inform Captain Syvon about our officer stranded near the bottom of the hill. Ask them if they can locate and retrieve him.”

  ​“What about Victor?” Doctor McGriffen asked as Olo transmitted the message to the Thunderfox. “We can’t just leave him here.”

  ​“As much as it pains me, you’re right,” Olo said after a moment of thought. “I’ll ask Captain Syvon to try to contact Victor and tell him to try to reach your friend and get aboard the Thunderfox. I’ll also inform the Ocean-Walker that we’re traveling in these Ribiyar fighters. We don’t want them to think that we’re Ribiyar trying to attack the ship.” Olo turned to Chief Lexton. “Chief, I never did get the name of that officer that stayed behind to buy us time to escape. Who is he?”

  ​ Lexton took a deep breath as she quickly tried to think of something to say, but, deciding that lying wouldn’t benefit anything, she told him the truth, as unbelievable as it was. “That man is Jack Vade, my former captain of the U.S.S Atlanta. And that wasn’t a military combat suit he was wearing. That is him.”

  ​“Wait…what!?” Olo exclaimed. “How can that be Jack!?” Olo said as he grabbed on a computer console to stabilize himself as they began to lift off.

  ​“I’ll try to explain it to you later,” Lexton replied as she grabbed onto one of the computer displays on the wall. “It’s a long, and complicated story.”

  ​As the world exploded above and around him, Victor was left with a difficult choice. He had just retrieved the Phantom Blade, which had landed twelve feet below his perch on the hill, when he heard the sounds of an armada of fighters approaching the island, and the roar as dozens of projectiles were launched at the fighters on the hill. Victor had been debating running away from the hill and into the island’s thick vegetation, with the hope that the vegetation, combined with his armor’s stealth capabilities, would keep those blasted alien’s from finding him, when none other than his employer, Captain Syvon, had appeared in his mighty battleship and engaged the Ribiyar forces. Victor had been about to make his way aboard the ship when Syvon contacted him, ordering him to retrieve Jack, the one person so far during this journey that had actually given Victor a challenge. Sure, fighting of dozens of aliens, while dogging un-relenting barrages of weapon fire, could be challenging to anyone, but Jack had been able to take Victor on all by himself, a task that few people would dare try, and even fewer able to live to brag about it.

  ​And, as Victor saw it, he had three options. First, he could go with his original plan and flee into the thick vegetation of the island, hoping that the Ribiyar wouldn’t find him, though, admittedly, it probably wouldn’t work out for him, since either the Ribiyar forces would find him, or he would be wiped out by the imminent bombardment from the Ocean-Walker. His second option was to return to the U.S.S. Thunderfox without trying to retrieve Jack, but if he did that, it was likely that Captain Syvon would lock him away for insubordination, no matter how important he was in the fight against the Ribiyar. His last option, was to follow his orders and retrieve Vade, and leave the business of repairing him to the people who actually cared about his wellbeing.

  ​Sighing heavily, Victor jumped down from his perch to the crater of Jack’s crash site. Using his Dark Serpent armor’s sensors, he was able to pinpoint Jack’s exact location, several feet below the rock and dirt. Victor activated the Phantom Blade, and with the precision of a skilled surgeon, cut through the rock and dirt around him, exposing the majority of Jack’s beaten body. Victor deployed his tail, and sent it slithering across the ground and latching it onto a nearby tree as he climbed into the hole that he had cut out, and grabbed onto Jack. The Dark Serpent’s tail began slithering up the tree, and slowly pulled Victor, reluctantly holding Jack in his arms, out of the crater. As Victor let go off him, letting him fall to the ground, he could tell that Jack had taken heavy damage in the crash, and that it would take a lot of work to repair him, if he was repairable at all.

  ​Though tempted to finish Jack off for good while he was in his weakened state, Victor decided against it, for now, and contacted the Thunderfox. “Dark Serpent to Captain Syvon. I have retrieved him. Now, I need you to get us out of here, sooner rather than later.”

  ​“We hear you, Victor.” Captain Syvon responded through his comm system. “Stand by. We are attempting to position the ship over you now, but it may take a moment. It is difficult to maneuver with all these fighters buzzing around us.” Above Victor, the sky continued to explode as the Thunderfox continued to attack the fighters with its Laser Array and the other weaponry that it possessed. Slowly, the ship began to maneuver above Victor. Once the ship was above him, a hatch opened in the bottom of the ship, and three ropes were dropped with to the ground. Victor tied two of the ropes to Jack, and he grabbed the last one for himself.

  ​The ropes began to lift them up toward the ship, but when they were half-way to the ship, several Ribiyar troops emerged from the islands vegetation and opened fire on Victor, blasting several dents in his armor. Refusing to allow himself to be beaten by the invaders, Victor activated the Phantom Blade and launched several energy blades at a fighter that was attacking the Thunderfox. With the precision of a lightning strike, the blades sunk into the craft’s hull, cutting it into several pieces. The fighter fell to the ground on top of the Ribiyar warriors, erupting in a blazing fireball. Grinning with satisfaction, Victor deactivated the Phantom Blade and placed it on his belt as he and Jack were lifted into the bottom of the Thunderfox.

  ​“Sir! Both officers have been retrieved, and the search party has successfully returned to the Ocean-Walker,” Commander Ton reported to Captain Syvon from his station on the bridge. The bridge was shaped like a triangle, and on the base of the triangle was a window that gave the crew-members a view of the front of the ship. To protect bridge personnel during combat, metal plating automatically lowers down in front of the glass when the ship entered combat status, and a projector would then activate to show the events occurring in front of the ship. Captain Syvon, wearing the magnetic boots that would keep him attached to the floor while the Thunderfox made its various flight maneuvers, sat in the center of the bridge, where the captain’s chair was positioned.

  ​“About time,” Captain Syvon muttered as he began to give out new orders. “Commander, inform the U.S.S. Ocean-Walker to begin their barrage at once. Helm, take us out of here, maximum speed. Reroute power from the Laser Array if necessary. Tactical, cease fire, all weapons. Let’s save whatever ammunition we can.”

  ​“Aye, sir!” The officers reported as they scrambled to fulfil their orders. Syvon gripped the edge of his seat as the ship raced forward, intent on getting away from the island before the Ocean-Walker began its assault with its barrage of explosives. The remaining fighters resumed their attack as they chased the Thunderfox while it traveled across the island to where the Ocean-Walker was anchored. On the display in the front of the bridge, the image magnified the main deck of the Ocean-Walker, showing the cannons on the ship aiming toward the island, the Ribiyar forces encamped beneath the water, and the fighters that were pursuing the Thunderfox.

  ​“Helm, execute maneuver Syvon Alpha-Five! Now!” Syvon felt his stomach travel down to his feet as the Thunderfox veered upwards, traveling out of the line of fire of the Ocean-Walker’s cannons. Seconds later, the Ocean-Walker opened fire on the Ribiyar forces, gradually obliterating the Ribiyar fighters, and whatever troops that may have been stationed on the island, or in the surrounding ocean water. The bridge crew cheered as the Ribiyar fighters were blow out of the sky, though the mood did somber as they watched the island burn in flames. Though regrettable, the cost of the wildlife and resources on the island was preferable to what would have happened if the Ribiyar had been able to ambush the fleet as the other ships arriv
ed.

  ​As the barrage began to cease, Lieutenant Lucy Kael, a short, redheaded officer that served as the communications officer, reported, “Sir, the Ocean-Walker is requesting further instructions.”

  ​“Inform Captain Whitefield to remain on watch for our allies’ arrival, and that further instructions will be relayed once the fleet arrives,” Captain Syvon ordered. “Also, instruct Lieutenant Oakland and the other officers involved in the search that I want a briefing aboard the Thunderfox as soon as possible. And tell Victor to get to my quarters immediately. I want to know what happened down there.” Captain Syvon then stood up from the captains’ chair, left the bridge, and traveled to his quarters to await Victor’s explanation of recent events.

  Location: Onboard the Ribiyar Warship Ji’Co, in orbit of Earth.

  ​“Do you now understand why Ki’Ra must be stopped?” Cha’Hawk and Mi’Kel had returned to Cha’Hawk’s work center, and quickly locked down the room, sealing the door, ensuring that they would have total privacy as they discussed his plans. Cha’Hawk had used his data module and inserted it into a port in Mi’Kel’s right arm, which their minds together and allowed Cha’Hawk to show Mi’Kel everything that he had experienced since the invasion had begun within mere seconds; everything from discovering the Ra’Ta’s survival, Ki’Ra’s refusal to listen to Cha’Hawk’s report, and the apparent reactivation of the Ra’Ta’s systems by the organic lifeforms of the planet.

  ​“While I may not completely agree with the extreme measures you intend to implement,” Mi’Kel responded, “I do agree that something must be done about the High Order. We have the warriors needed to wipe out these organics swiftly, and we could have done so the very day that we arrived at this world, and yet High Order Ki’Ra has restrained our forces to attack only in small, meaningless skirmishes. And all the while, the organics continue to grow bolder, and stronger. They are adapting to our attack strategies, finding weaknesses in our defenses, and apparently now possess one of our Ax class cruisers. The organics must be purged from this planet now, before they do more damage than they already have.” The communication system in the work room emitted a paging sound, startling the warriors into drawing their weapons from their holsters. Two energy pistols, small spherical objects that produce rapid-fire energy pulses from an emitter on the surface of the spheres, ejected from storage compartments in Mi’Kel’s arms and Cha’Hawk grabbed a battle staff from his back, which was an eight-foot long pole that could perform well in a verity of different battle scenarios, whether by deploying three blades along the two sides on the pole, or by utilizing the ordinance launcher at the end of the pole that fired small explosives loaded into the staff.