It was a bloody opening to what could have been a peaceful revolution, but that was not to be. Trouble had been building quietly for centuries, the majority of the reptilian species being kept in thrall by their patrician class. Only those from the few privileged families could expect high office, or promotion to the command of starships in the fleet.
None of this mattered to Nate, though. As he sat there, his mind wandering to the events of the last few exciting days, the shots were being fired. The mutineers aboard Sword of Mognathus were all experienced warriors, and they quickly turned the powerful weapons against other ships currently docked in the shipyard. The mutiny had begun, but the violence was far from over.
As ships were being torn apart, there was nothing but calm and serenity inside the vast space station. With nothing there to transport the sound vibrations, the noise of battle vanished into the void. Only those actually watching would ever have an inclination as to what was happening, even as the powerplant of Plethodon went critical and the ship exploded. The only sign of trouble was the bright flash outside the classroom that not one of the cadets noticed.
Until that fateful day, Nate and his friends had lived the carefree life known only to young cadets this far from home. Each had been selected from their classmates to represent the Alliance Academy in the tournament. It was to be a friendly contest with their peers in the Byotai Empire, one of many projects to cement the new bonds with the Empire. They'd been selected from the thousands of cadets in the Alliance's military schools due to their unique aptitude in a single area, that of the popular simulated arena known as Star Crusader. It was a commercial spinoff from the military simulation software and had quickly become the single most competitive sport in both Empires. Of all things the two peoples shared, few would ever have expected a computerised simulation would rise to the top.
Now Nate and his five comrades were here and aboard the Byotai starbase known as Mognathus 7 to complete in a specially sanctioned military version of the simulation. Unlike the commercial edition, this would involve the use of real physics and damage, as well as fully realised modelling of both weapons and spacecraft. Mognathus 7 was one of the major Imperial shipyards and home of the elite fleet training academy for the reptilian race known as the Byotai, a strong and reliable ally of the Alliance. This was the place where all officers underwent their initial training, and Nate and his five comrades were the first human cadets to ever set foot on the starbase; six young cadets far from home and aboard the alien space station deep inside Byotai space.
They sat at their desks, alongside the eighteen Byotai cadets who gave them nothing but irritated looks. There were hundreds of Byotai cadets at the starbase, but it was almost impossible to tell their age from just their looks. Once they reached maturity, they appeared little different to each other; their skin shed and changed their apparent look day by day. Little did any of them know that on that day in October, what started with classes on engineering and computer science, would end with death on a massive scale.
The light flashed again, and this time Nate just happened to look up. As his eyes moved up, the room flashed with the light, and he found himself looking directly at the Byotai instructor, Captain Vidsara.
What was that?
Their eyes met for a moment, and he instantly knew he should be looking back down at his assessment. The Captain was a war veteran and had seen service when Nate was just a young boy. Like all of the Byotai, his leathery skin and bony face was the first indication that he was not human. His cold-blooded species was one of the many discovered by the Alliance, and ruled a vast domain of more than fifty colonies, spread over nine distinct quadrants. They were one of the largest empires that had been discovered, and also one of the most secretive.
Nate moved his eyes to the windows, yet he could feel the gaze of the instructor burning through him as he waited for the students to finish their assessment. The alien opened his mouth, and a brief moment later the translator fitted to Nate's ear converted the sentences into something he could understand.
"Cadet Lewis, return to your work."
The mention of his family name immediately caught Nate's attention. He'd been born Nathanial Edward Lewis, but to his friends, and even his rivals, he was simply called Nate. He looked back down at the diagram of an engine intake system on his portable Secpad and sighed. The design was complex and broken apart into more than fifty pieces. Unlike the Byotai cadets, Nate and his friends were there simply as exchange students for a single semester. They were not even military cadets, not yet. First they would return home and continue their studies in other subjects before graduating; then, and only then, would their aptitudes be fully assessed and options given to them. Nate already knew what he wanted, and he'd settle for nothing less than a starship.
Maybe I should have spent more time revising, and less time at the observation window. You won't command a battleship if you can't even remember how to put an engine back together.
It was all just wishful thinking. Like any new cadet, his mind constantly moved to the thought of starships and of the great battles of the past. From the first day they'd learnt about the great ship duels of the Uprising and, of course, the one event every single military officer seemed to bring up in his presence, the death of Admiral Lewis, his uncle.
He turned his mind from the task and to the day before. It was the cadets’ first visit to the simulation centre where the Star Crusader system had been up and running. He'd racked up thousands of hours on the public system available on the Cortex, but this was something very different. The Byotai had been given access to the military version, and had taken the thing to heart. The engineering teams at the station had even created a dedicated area for the teams to compete, as well as space for the senior officers to observe. They had been given control of simulated Byotai fighters. To the surprise of their instructors, the human cadets were more than capable of surpassing the scores set by the previous students.
Nate smiled to himself, recalling the last round of the simulated battle, where the six of them had defeated last year's Byotai graduates in a free-for-all dogfight, all as part of the warm-up for the main event. It was his first battle with the safeguards removed, and he found exposure to real world physics exhilarating.
That was a good game, a very good game. Now, if only we can do the same in the contest.
Nate didn't particularly enjoy the studies, and much of it reminded him of the military school he'd been sent to back home. With his family gone, his guardians sent him, like so many other youngsters, to join the Alliance sponsored Academy programme. Though run by the military, it was not a direct path into military service, but intended to the lay the foundation of a general advanced education, one that would be suitable for enrolment in both public and private sector service.
Unlike the majority, he'd shown an aptitude in one specific area, one that the Academy placed great value, in space combat. Only a handful had passed the tests to join the exchange, and that meant travel to strange and exotic worlds as he trained with the new allies of the Alliance. It was all a far cry from his early years back on Kerberos, growing up in the household of a long-established military family. Now it was only him, and Nate was determined to succeed.
What’s going on?
Something odd caught his attention, and he looked to his left where the entire side of the room was filled with large, slightly curved windows. Outside, the inky blackness of space, interspersed with the gantries and docking arms, reminded him this was no mere starbase, but a military outpost. This was a Byotai station and with a strong military presence. There were not just Byotai warships in the shipyard; there was also a small Alliance fleet, flying the flag for politicians back home.
Nate had spent the last ten minutes trying to piece the system back together, and as he moved his finger on the device, he noticed the instructor moving to the window. He appeared nervous and was speaking into the communication's unit implanted in his forearm.
What is goi
ng on out there?
He recalled the public information films he'd been shown back at school. Even though he was only seven or eight years old, the videostreams had bordered on something close to a horror show. Back then the information film was on what to do if you were attacked by the dreaded Biomechs and their ground troops. He had never seen this enemy, but the information film had stuck with him after all this time.
Look for your exits, and plan your escape.
The words came back to him as if he'd been watching it five minutes ago. Nate remembered the imagery showing black shapes that were supposed to be the ships of the enemy. As they moved over a city, the children were seen running to shelters or to secure parts of their homes. It was frightening, made all the more terrifying by the news reports of the constant defeats against the dreaded enemy. Nate looked to his left, but there were only the windows, so he turned to the right of the instructor where the main doorway in now seemed so far away.
"What is it?" Cassandra Hurley asked.
Nate glanced over to her, noticing that as usual she seemed more interested in what the others in the group had to say. He pointed to the window.
"Something's going on out there."
He felt a pain in his shoulder and turned around to find Rex Hampel pulling back his arm. Though the same age as Nate, he was much bigger built, with a pale complexion and vivid blonde hair. He lifted his eyebrows in an attempt to intimidate Nate into reacting.
"Yeah?"
Nate shook his head but then spotted another door off to the far corner, partially blocked by four metal cases. It was a smaller doorway, one of the older bulkhead doors that linked many of the compartments together. Rex looked away and pointed at the windows just as another flashed lit up the room. This time, the yellows and reds of explosions were all too obvious. Some of the cadets rose from their seats and moved to the windows.
Each of the Byotai cadets stayed close to DuFarl, the alien group's star pupil and highest scoring pilot in the simulation contests. He looked over to the human cadets and muttered something in his own tongue. His words were so fast that the translator circuits failed to understand. Nate looked back to the others.
"I think we should..."
"Should what?" Rex snapped back.
Nate rubbed at his forehead, knowing too well that he was once again going to be ignored.
"We should get out of here."
Rex walked over to the window and began laughing. Nate was still sitting down when he heard the sound of shouting coming from off in the station and behind the main door. The instructor moved away to examine, and Nate jumped up from his seat.
"What the hell?" Rex said.
He looked back to the group but at no particular individual.
"There's a fight going on out there."
He turned back and watched as more lights flashed back and forth, like a massive firework display for their eyes only. The lights and colours betrayed the different types of weapons, and from their experience in the simulated combat, they knew exactly what they were. In the last round they fought a battle between two groups of matched Byotai fighters and a single cruiser. It was their first real exposure to the weapons used by the alien race, and now Nate was seeing them with his own eyes, right outside the station.
"Who is it?" Billy asked.
Rex looked back and watched the display of weaponry with morbid fascination. The energy weapons were impossible to see without some medium to reflect the light. Luckily for him, there was enough small debris and dust to do just that.
"Kinetic rounds, phased plasma...and what is that? Proximity missiles?"
He stumbled backwards as a volley of phased plasma struck a ship moving slowly away from the station. One flash after another marked the impacts, yet still the ruined vessel continued to move away. Rex shook his head in astonishment.
"Those are Byotai weapons."
Rex then looked back to the others, but while the humans seemed shocked by what was happening, the majority of the Byotai cadets appeared almost disinterested.
"Something weird is going on out there."
While Rex and the others seemed more interested in the battle, Nate was much more focused in what he could see inside the classroom.
They know something. What the hell is going on here?
"Then we need to move...fast!" Nate said.
He was already on his feet and at the secondary door. The boxes were light, but as he moved them, he found his path blocked by a security panel and coded access unit. He placed his finger on the black pad and pushed the button, only for the hexagonal inner section to flash red.
"Nate, move it!" Rex yelled.
With a rough shove, he pushed Nate to one side and began to strike the panel, all the while the sounds of violence continued to increase in volume. An alien voice called out loudly, and Nate turned left. The instructor waiting with them. His mouth was open, and he was taking in more air than normal. His eyes were bloodshot, but Nate already knew the signs.
He's worried.
"Let me open the door," said the electronic voice in Nate's ear.
Nate grabbed Rex by the arm and pulled him away.
"I said, get out of the way!"
Rex stumbled, and the instructor moved in, pressing buttons in a bizarre sequence. The mechanism clicked, but the door remained shut.
"Now we're in trouble," moaned Cassandra.
All of the human cadets were there now. The instructor pushed the door, and it hissed open. Rex stepped in first, activating the lamp on his portable Secpad to check the way. As always, his right-hand man Jack was there to watch his back. Wherever Rex was, Jack was always somewhere nearby.
"It's an access shaft."
He stopped and looked back. The main door clicked but refused to open. Voices called out in the Byotai language, and even though neither Nate nor his friends understood the words, they could easily tell from the tone they were not there to help.
The instructor, he's locked us in.
Nate began to talk to the old warrior, but then he spotted DuFarl and two of his friends heading to the main door. They were calling out to whomever was on the other side.
"No, DuFarl. Don't do it!"
The Byotai youth looked back at Nate and lifted his arm to point. He said several words that were clearly insulting, and then moved his hand to the pad next to the main door. A pair of the students leapt on a third, one of the older Byotai; Nate recalled him being from one of the patrician families that had fallen on hard times. He hadn't wanted to be in the military, but without money, his family had little choice.
"Go, run. You have no time," said the instructor.
Nate looked at the face of the wizened old instructor. He'd never talked about his past life, but his exploits in the last war were on public record, and Cassandra had made a great show of presenting her findings to the entire group. He was descended from one of the old patrician families and had fought as a marine in the same great space battle as his uncle.
"Come with us."
The Byotai pushed Nate so hard that he stumbled into the complaining Cassandra. She tripped but righted herself before hitting the smooth wall. Nate took three steps and heard the door groan. It pulled back towards the frame to seal down shut. The computerised voice of his translator spoke again in his ear.
"If you want to live, hurry! This is a revolution."
The group of six were now inside with Rex and Jack at the front, and the rest staggered behind. The shouting turned into gunfire, and Nate glanced back. The old instructor was still there, blocking the doorway, and with two holes in his stomach. He looked to Nate and muttered one word before pushing himself against the door and sealing them inside.
"Hide!"
The door seemed to close ever so slowly, giving Nate the perfect view of the approaching villains. He stood there speechless as he watched the group of heavily armed Byotai moving into the room. The instructor lifted something from his flank and then came another bang. This time it was c
loser, and the shouting increased. The Byotai scattered and then returned fire. Their shots were erratic and panicked, while the instructor took careful aim, firing two shots at a time.
He's fighting them.
These were not uniformed Byotai marines of the kind frequently seen patrolling the station. They looked like regular Byotai, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying military weapons. Nate swallowed, and it felt as though something the size of a golf ball had become lodged down in his throat. Even worse, he could see the Byotai cadets seemed to be running about helping them. DuFarl called out and waved his arm at the door just as it locked shut, and they were trapped in utter darkness, temporarily making them safe from the intruders. The gunfire continued, and every few seconds a round would strike the blast door or the nearby bulkhead walls.
"Keep moving," he said.
They inched their way along, stepping carefully over the cables and pipes that ran along the floor of this section. It was perfectly big enough to walk through, but with so little light there were more than enough obstructions to cause a fall. After what seemed an age, they reached an intersection with passageways leading off in four directions. In the middle was a hexagonal space, big enough for all of them to stand in. At the centre of the space was a raised plinth, with a ladder hanging down to stand just a metre from the floor.
"What now?" Cassandra asked.
She lifted up her Secpad and aimed the light to the ceiling. The shaft continued upwards before vanishing into the blackness.
"Keep moving," said Rex.
Nate looked to Cassandra and activated his light on his Secpad unit. He'd never been this close to her, and her long hair dropped down over his shoulder.
"I...uh...we need to get out of here. Get help."
Rex moved into view.
"Yeah, brilliant idea, Nate. You saw the Byotai out there. Something is going on and they are after us, and anybody that helps us. Who on this station will help us now?"
"The marines," Nate said, trying to sound confident, "There is a single squad here as part of the exchange."
Star Crusader: Hero of the Alliance Page 3