by Ivan Kal
“Dakar! We are receiving a communication from the alien ships!” A Taskmaster called out. Finally! Vit’r’an thought to himself.
“Put the message through the translating software, I want to know what they said.” Vit’r’an said.
The Taskmaster looked uncomfortable and confused at the same time.
“What is it?” Vit’r’an asked annoyed.
“It isn’t a message Dakar… It’s a request for a video channel, using our protocols. It’s live.” The Taskmaster said.
Vit’r’an frowned, that was disconcerting. Having their protocols suggests that they had been watching them long enough to learn them.
“Engage the translators, and open a channel.” Vit’r’an said. Then a few moments the main screen on the forward wall turned on and showed the video link from the alien ship. Vit’r’an and his crew stared at the screen stunned. Disbelief and shock spread among his crew. The alien on the screen was a human. Vit’r’an couldn’t explain what he was seeing. The bridge looked clean and bright. Holograms could be seen above the humans manning their stations. The humans were focused on their stations, not looking at Vit’r’an and his crew. All except one. A single human, a female, was sitting in what humans called chairs. Around her holograms were displaying information in human language, but the middle was clear giving Vit’r’an a clear view of her. Vit’r’an immediately noticed everything on the bridge, and if there were no humans it would look unnervingly close to the command room on Ra’a’zani mainline warships. Vit’r’an had spent a lot of time in human presence, and he could see hatred in this human’s eyes. She watched him for a few moments, and Vit’r’an studied her in turn, not able to quite believe what he was seeing.
The human opened her mouth and spoke too softly for Vit’r’an to hear, and then a moment later a computerized voice rang out, speaking in Ra’a’zani. “Did you lose your words Ra’a’zani?”
The translation was not done with a Ra’a’zani translating computer, Vit’r’an knew that immediately when he heard it. It was the humans who had translated their words into Ra’a’zani.
“What are you? What kind of trick is this?” Vit’r’an growled out. The human just cocked her head, and Vit’r’an heard his words translated into the human language.
“I am Fleet Commander Johanna Stern, and I am human. There is no trick Ra’a’zani.” She said.
Vit’r’an showed his teeth. “I don’t know what you are playing at, or how you managed to hide ships from us. But your people will pay for this!”
“We are not playing at anything, my ships are not from the Solar system. And the only ones that will pay are you and your people. You will pay for what you have done to the Earth, and you will pay for what you have done to the human people. But we humans are not like you. Monsters and slavers. So I offer you this one chance. Order all your people in the system to lay down their weapons. Power down your ship and surrender. And I promise you that I will let your people live. Imprisoned yes, but they will be alive. Your fate I am afraid will not be the same, as the one who ordered the deaths of countless human lives, you will be executed for your crimes.” The human leaned forward, “Do the right thing, surrender, and give yourself up. You have my word your people will be spared.”
Vit’r’an barely contained himself as he listened to the human speak. “You dare threaten me!” Vit’r’an growled out, spit flying from his mouth. “I will feast on your flesh slave!”
The human had the gall to look unconcerned, she shook her head sadly. “I had little hope that you would accept. But then again, you Ra’a’zani are savages.”
Vit’r’an gripped the railings that surrounded him and squeezed until he could hear the metal cracking. “I will end you human!” Vit’r’an bit out, trying to calm himself down.
The human looked at him thoughtfully, and then said loudly in a near fluent Ra’a’zani. “No Dakar Vit’r’an. The only one that will die this day, is you.” With that the channel closed.
Vit’r’an slowly unclasped his hands from the railings he looked to his crew who were silent. Taking a big loud breath through his nostrils, Vit’r’an calmed. He realized that the human was antagonizing him on purpose. He pulled back and reflected on the facts. The ships were human. They came from outside the system, using technology that allowed them to enter it inside the hyperspace barrier. They knew about him, about the Ra’a’zani, their language, what they have done on Earth, and since two of their ships were on their way to the belt, they knew about their mining operations. That meant that they were in contact with the people on Earth. Logically, this all also meant that there were humans living in other systems. When he discovered Earth, and when they arrived everything about Earth suggested that it was the human home world. And even with the evidence that there were humans outside of Earth, Vit’r’an still believed that Earth was the place of their origin. Too much history was there for it to not be their home world. Which would mean a colony. The humans had a presence in space before the Ra’a’zani arrived. But had abandoned their installations in the belt. They had a few satellites in orbit, but most of them were old. The level of that technology did not show him anything that might suggest a race that could colonize other star systems. Obviously there was something that Vit’r’an had missed, but he had no time to figure out what.
Based on the facts, he knew that humans had at least one colony that was in contact with Earth. But why not come sooner? Vit’r’an wondered. Perhaps they didn’t have the ships? He was sure that their ships couldn’t stand up to his. He needed to capture one of their ships, and find out where these humans came from. But also get the technology that allowed them to travel inside the hyperspace barrier.
Vit’r’an looked up as one of his Taskmasters spoke, “Dakar, the human ships are accelerating.”
Vit’r’an looked at his terminal, “Let us meet them. We need to capture one of their ships.”
With that, his crew went to work, they designated the earth ships numbers from 1 to 10, and Vit’r’an started planning on how exactly to capture a human ship.
***
As soon as the communication channel between the Monarch and the Ra’a’zani ship closed, Johanna leaned back in her chair. She was breathing heavily, her hands shivering. She had tried to keep it together, to make the Ra’a’zani think she wasn’t afraid of him. But she was. This battle would decide the fate of her home world. And she was terrified that she would fail. She knew that she was being stupid, her ship outnumbered her foes ten to one.
Johanna took a deep breath, and looked at her c-board. On it, she saw the scans of the Ra’a’zani ship. It was a bit bigger than her battleships, but almost half smaller than the Monarch. The hull had no weapons visible, but she knew that they were retracted into the hull. The rest was unknown, their scans were not good enough to give her any more information. She reached over to the holographic interface of the c-board with her hand, she highlighted the fleet and ordered them forward.
Almost immediately her fleet started accelerating. She watched as the Ra’a’zani ship did the same, it started accelerating straight for her fleet. I guess that I managed to goad him into attacking us. Johanna said. She couldn’t imagine attacking a force that was ten times bigger than hers. Reaching to the side she toggled a comm channel. With the Ra’a’zani ship now fully committed, the rebellion on Earth could finally begin. She sent the signal.
Chapter Twenty Four
A signal came through a comm channel on the Olympus explorer ship Star Gazer. Immediately Jacob stood upright in his chair. He had waited for this moment for so long. Immediately he turned to Tamara on the comms.
“Contact Earth, operation “Freedom” is a go.” Jacob said. Tamara nodded and immediately started sending the message to Earth using the Olympus FTL comms. They had given an FTL comm to every Resistance leader on Earth. All of them would get the message at the same time.
“Message sent!” Tamara said.
“Send the go signal to our people.” Ja
cob said, the people they had in wait at the mining sites were ready to start the attack. “Mathias, get us underway.” Jacob added. For the first time in more than sixty years the OES Star Gazer turned on its drives. The ship pointed itself towards its target and started on its way.
***
Anissa Novak sat in her chair on the CIC of the Lord. She was in the Pacific Ocean about 1000 kilometers from Hawaii island group. She looked to her subordinate on the FTL comms, and waited for the signal from Jacob to come. They knew that the Olympus ships had arrived in system, and had moved towards Earth. They had also learned that the Dakar Vit’r’an has boarded his ship in orbit. Now they only waited for the signal from Jacob that the Ra’a’zani ship was engaged with the Olympus fleet, and the attack would begin. Anissa’s sub was close to the surface, waiting to unleash fire upon the unsuspecting Ra’a’zani bases. Eldritch had arranged for power losses in several bases, and sabotage of defense systems in the bases where he managed to get someone close to the relevant systems. For a few bases they couldn’t be sure that their sabotage would work, so they had teams of people close, in Concordis military transports waiting to assault the bases that manage to survive. Some of the bases were too far away from the Lord for it to attack them, so they would be taken out by the Colorado in the Mediterranean. But the Earth was too big for just two subs, no matter how advanced and powerful their missiles are. Other bases that were outside of both of their reach would be destroyed from the inside, by Eldritch’s bombers. Or if they couldn’t get anyone in, by a physical assault on the base by their people.
“We got a message from Star Gazer!” Her subordinate exclaimed, “Operation “Freedom” is a go! I repeat operation “Freedom” Is a go!” She yelled out.
Anissa took a deep breath, “Begin the firing sequence.”
***
The Coalition submarine Colorado, was just off the shore of Italy. Its main target was the Ra’a’zani headquarters for Earth. The Colorado had a lot smaller amount of missiles, as it was much smaller than the Lord. It would fire missiles towards four bases, all in the Europe and the Middle East. But most of its load would go to the Ra’a’zani headquarters. Then, they received the signal. The message from the Star Gazer went out to every Resistance command center across the planet at the same time. Within minutes, all the attacks began, almost simultaneously. The commanding officer of the Colorado immediately issued the order for the firing sequence.
***
Eldritch received the message from the Star Gazer, and immediately his own teams sent out a worldwide message using their own FTL comms. Within seconds all of his people knew that the attacks were about to begin. The sabotage teams executed their assignments immediately, they were all ready, waiting only for the go signal from Eldritch. His teams triggered bombs, some destroying the power generators of the bases, others sabotaging their defense systems. Some even blowing up entire bases. The time had come, the fight for Earth had begun.
***
Aileen adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She didn’t know what had happened, but the Ra’a’zani were distracted, Dakar Vit’r’an had taken the shuttle up to his ship in the orbit leaving Tra’r’an in charge. Aileen suspected that perhaps another convoy arrived unannounced. But it didn’t matter what it was, it gave her the chance to slip some supplies. It had been weeks since she last managed to slip away, so when she saw the chance she took it. She walked the dark streets, the only light coming from the base. The last time she came through these streets, they were filled with people that were warming themselves around fires. Now there was no one, the cots on the streets were empty. She picked up the pace, walking faster towards the Father’s building. After a couple also empty streets, she reached the old gray brick building. She entered expecting to see people inside, during the nights the building was always full with people. But it too was empty, just like the streets. Looking around she wondered about what could have happened. Did this have something to do with why the Ra’a’zani were so distracted? Seeing that there was no one there she decided to turn back. She couldn’t afford to be gone for too long. Then as she turned she heard voices deeper inside the building. Relieved that there was someone present she walked toward the voices. She reached the doors leading into the room from which the voices came from. As she approached she could understand what they were saying.
“- moment please.” She recognized the Father’s voice.
“We need to go, there is no more time.” Another voice said. Aileen slowly reached the door and stepped in.
“This is the last thing, we can leave now.” The Father said, Aileen saw him reaching over to a bookshelf taking a large book from it and putting it in his bag.
“Father.” Aileen said hesitantly, she could see another person was there, but the room was badly lit and she couldn’t make out anything other than a large human form. The Father turned around immediately, and recognizing her his eyes widened. Then something blurred in front of Aileen, and she felt herself pulled forward and then slammed into a wall, her bag slipping from her shoulder and onto the floor. Her sight darkened from the force and she lost her breath, something pushed on her throat. She managed to open her eyes and was met with a gun shoved in front of her face. It was like no gun she had ever seen, but it was still recognizable.
“Stop!” She heard the Father say. “Don’t kill her.”
Aileen, already frightened, felt her blood freeze over. She managed to focus and look past the gun. She saw only a glass like plate instead of a face.
“She has a red armband. That means she is one of the trusted ones.” A voice came out of the plate. Aileen struggled to breathe as Father reached over and placed his hand on the thing’s shoulder.
“I know, but she has been helping us. Sneaking out supplies, medicine and food.” The Father said.
“Then why is she here now?” The voice asked.
“Look down, she brought supplies.” The Father said.
The head of her attacker moved slightly to the side and down. Then it released her throat and let her down, it moved back still keeping its weapon pointed at her. Aileen took a deep breath and scratched her neck.
“What are you doing here?” The voice asked. Scared, Aileen glanced at the spilled contents of her bag. “I- I was bringing supplies to Father.” Slowly Aileen managed to rasp out.
“Your timing is fortunate.” The voice commented. Then Father moved to stand in front of her.
“You think that they would send her here alone if they knew anything?” The Father asked, “If they knew, we would be swimming in Ra’a’zani strike teams.” The Father said, and Aileen swallowed hard. She realized what was happening. The Father was a member of the Resistance. Aileen tried to move but the man followed her with his gun.
“We should kill her.” The voice said.
“No!” The Father yelled out. “This is the house of God. And she is a good person.”
“We don’t have the time for this Father. So either we kill her, or she comes with us. We can’t let her go back to the base. If things go bad she could give them at least some warning.” The voice said.
Father nodded, and then turned to Aileen, “Child.” He said softly, “I know that you are confused, but you must come with us.”
“You are with the Resistance.” Aileen managed to say.
Father nodded, “Please child, I need you to trust me.” He said, his voice pleading. He didn’t wait for her to respond, but grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, the thing that kept her at gunpoint stepping in front of them. Seeing it in the light of the hallway, she realized that it was a human wearing some kind of armored suit. Before she realized what was happening they stepped outside the building using the back door. To the right she saw the base out in the distance, the light of it barely reaching them. She turned left and saw a vehicle parked there, it was unlike anything she had ever seen.
“I can’t go with you!” Aileen said. “If they want, they can track this armband, they will find me, and kill both of
us.” Aileen stopped in her tracks.
The Father grabbed her shoulders trying to make her move, “Child please, you have no idea what is about to happen. If you go back you will die for certain.” He said. Aileen was about to ask him what he was talking about, when suddenly the courtyard was enveloped in darkness. Aileen tried to look out towards the base, and saw only its outline against the starry night.
“Damn. We are out of time.” The armored man said, he stepped forward and picked up both of them. Carrying them effortlessly and quickly to the vehicle. Aileen struggled to get free but the grip on her was too strong. Then both she and the Father were thrown behind the vehicle, the armored man kneeling above them. Aileen managed to get her head up just in time to see the light of the base come back up, and immediately a bright globes of light exploded out of the base. She had never seen the defensive turrets on the base fire, but she knew that it was what those were. A second later she heard three loud explosions and light coming over the buildings from the other direction of the base. Then several streaks of light flew over her head too fast for her to count them.
“Heads down!” She heard an instant before she was roughly pulled back down, a hand coming over her head. Then several earth-shattering blasts sounded all around. Aileen felt her ears hurt from the force of the blasts, the ground shook, and whiteness shone through her closed eyelids. A moment later a shockwave came through shaking everything. Aileen screamed, but couldn’t hear herself. Then the light abated but everything still shook. The last thing Aileen remembered before passing out was the buildings around them coming down, and a blazing hell where the Ra’a’zani base once was.