Ellat fighters were soon on their way to the surface of the planet with the pilots of the legion dispersed evenly amongst the macebearers so that tactical positioning could be organised and a chain of command recognised. The importance in this assault was to hit hard and cut the fighting forces of Alza Ningh by as much as possible, an easy target for the Legion Millennium to exploit in the best manner possible.
They slowly descended upon what was thought to be an unprepared force, in readiness to inflict one of the biggest blood bathes ever before experienced in the history of the legion.
On the surface the rain had continued to fall with no sign of relenting, a blessing in disguise as this would help the ground defence guns in seeking their targets. These had been built for such specific conditions as heavy rainfall. It was also a known fact, that the ellat’s weapon system was affected by extreme weather conditions such as torrential rain, the laser-seeking rays only capable of partial penetration in concern to the spectrums of light forged by such a downpour. An ellat was built with space in mind, and nothing more.
PLANET ALZA NINGH.
ALMAGORT.
Bob Neil looked over to Ozrammoz with a concerned expression set on his face. “Are you sure that the attack will go as planned? Are you sure that the surprise we hold will be our key to success?”
“I’m positive. I’d bet the life of my mother on such a matter.”
“What if the probe was fired on before it had a chance to transmit?”
“You worry yourself too much. The Vertons wouldn’t be stupid enough to open fire on an unarmed probe without first checking it for its purpose.”
“I can’t help to be anything but worried.”
“Rest assured, my friend. The probe wouldn’t have been disintegrated before time.”
PLANET BASBI TRIAD.
SECTOR THREE.
The Darkside launched its attack. 1,000 robots came out of the drizzling snow, unaffected by the cold. Weapons paved the line of assault as they gained valuable ground on-towards Sector Three.
The Brightside’s force of 10,000 was spread out over the ten kilometres of weak perimeter, firing accurately but bringing little casualty to the machines that refused to take cover. Like the legend of the Erulstinan Stamai ape, they seemed to have nine lives. A robot was hit in the arm three times in rapid succession before the metal limb fell to the white carpet of snow, a fine spark of electric current spitting out into the cold air of the Twilight. The robot bent down and picked up his arm that still had grasp of its weapon. It pushed the exposed wires back up into the position from which they had been torn and a current powerful enough to operate the firing mechanism completed its circuit. With the arm held in place by the other he continued with the advance. He was finally brought to a crippling halt after a fourth shot had hit him in the centre of his armoured plating, piercing the logical thought processor, short circuiting the power to a nuclear operated chip, consequently blowing the machine up into a dozen sizeable pieces.
The information was passed along the line in time enough to bring another dozen robots to obliteration before they had reached one of the ionised defence gun positions. These sat in a molten, unrecognisable mess. From this position a lone robot turned to fire along the outstretched line of defending troops that had commenced to break under the accurate fire of advancing robots, and behind these, the concealed legion.
A Brightside warrior raced up from the right flank – behind the robot – and thrust out a satchel that he held in both hands. The magnetic slats of the explosive slammed onto the robots back and the cord to the side of this was pulled, instantaneously detonating and delivering the robot from a moulded infiltrator of metal, into a heap of scrap. The warrior also brought the same burden upon himself as he was torn from limb to limb.
More and more of the seven defence points fell to the Darkside and a firing line of withdrawal was adopted by Muutampai’s guerrilla formation. The robots stopped in their tracks and continued with the barrage of lethal shots. Their orders hadn’t included that of a follow up. Their orders had been quite specific.
A message that the area had been secured was transmitted and 10,000 legion emerged from cover some 200 metres from behind the fight and moved up to the firing line.
A warlord took the initiative and ordered the robots to continue with the advance. Benai was soon informed of the breakthrough and ordered another 10,000 troops to assist in the forming of a new front. He maintained the flanks for security and forced the spearhead forward with the troops he had on the ground; these now followed up the advancing 867 robots.
Within half an hour fresh legion commenced with the widening of the front, firstly taking a strangle hold on the Twilight’s flanking forces – which stood with less numbers but intact defences – and then continued with the ferrying of troops into a position behind the advancing forces. The vehicles remained out of firing range of Darkside weapons and deployed into attack formation with the fire support of the vehicles when required. It was a bloody mess for Muutampai and a flying victory for the Vertons; even sectors to the West were being taken with little resistance, for the size of the force encountered by the legion was smaller in number.
A just report was received from the 2,000 robots that had landed behind the lines. They had lost 200 on infiltration and another 400 who had landed in their ships, set the explosives timer into count, and then lifted off again to land into a position which was closer to enemy units. The move was made too slowly. Their debris now littered the ocean of sand like freckles on a Negabban’s face. The remaining 1,400 however, delivered good results. After two hours of fighting the guerrilla forces only 300 robots had malfunctioned and proceeded to shoot at their own kind. By late afternoon they had created a sizeable dent in the Brightside’s forces, although the robots themselves had been completely annihilated.
17,000 Brightside prisoners were captured and only 5,000 of these summarily executed as no transport was available at the time to have them taken to prison camps inside of the Darkside’s borders. This death was a surprisingly lucky gift as those that were taken to the camps were given no cold weather clothing and the walls to the huts of the camps were made from nothing more than thick wire mesh. They all froze to death inside one hour of capture, those in refuge, deep under the cover of other corpses, living the longest.
QEM-GATE ALZA NINGH 1.
OUTER FRINGE.
Commander Moore sat next to the communications officer as they watched the bleeping screen.
“It would appear that we have no contact with the probe, sir. It simply doesn’t exist.”
“That’s good enough for me. It has to be the Vertons.” Moore pressed the transmitter and the code word flashed on all screens of the other portenium cruisers. Within minutes they were travelling at parsec, approaching from the outer ridge of the gate and then down into the rear of the Verton battle cruisers. They’d been in wait ever since their withdrawal from the Verton ambush that had crippled their move into Quadrant Three.
The five porteniums brought five enemy cruisers to the end of their days and another message boomed out to the far reaches of space, to the very flanks of planet Alza Ningh.
The devastating fire alerted the Verton commanders to the ambushing porteniums. A further two ships were hit as the battle cruisers set about to turn and bring their main armament of neutron fire to bear on the ambushing enemy ships.
During the manoeuvring of the Verton cruisers, on board explosions continued to inflict mounting casualties amongst the decks. Before long several battle cruisers were so badly damaged that they commenced to drift in an uncontrollable spin. The spreading flame crippled the crew and very few ellats were capable of making good an escape, although those that did streaked off into parsec before consulting the computers. The burning cruisers began to spiral down towards the atmosphere of Alza Ningh, and the soft metal of the ships erupted into balls of flame due to speed and angle of approach. Hitting the planet’s surface below created a proportional
damage as that compared with a meteor of one hundred metres in diameter.
Three more portenium cruisers came in from either flank, interlocking their arcs of fire, completing the act of the ambush, the final battle cruiser turning and then entering the atmosphere, streaking down to the planet’s surface in a ball of flame.
A broken transmission reached the speakers on Muriphure’s ellat at the same instant that the first macebearers were blown into showering scrap by Alza Ningh defence guns. “Commander Nang, transmit. What’s going on up there Commander? Give me a situation report now! That’s an order!” It remained silent. “To all battle cruisers, to all battle cruisers; report, report. What’s going on, damn you?”
The situation was grim. No communications. Vetty thought: ‘The broken transmission, he said— ‘an ambush’.’
The assault continued as he turned to report to his battle cruisers. The monitor came under scrutiny. Nothing was present. ‘No battle cruiser – no victory.’ He pushed in a code button and the realisation of the enemy cruisers hit home. Eleven enemy craft were now moving into a position to cut off the withdrawal of all ellats.
“All legion turn to security code immediately.” The rain continued to fall, heavier and heavier. The transmission was breaking up. Four other ellats acknowledged on the new frequency. “This is Warlord Vetty, I say again, this is Warlord Vetty. Break off the assault and head to point 23, 0, 4, 0, 9, 1; acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged, sir.” Four ellats confirmed the reference point in turn. Vetty keyed the panel to his front as he came into view of the portenium cruisers and out of atmosphere. He leapt into parsec.
THE DEAD ZONE.
SPACE – NO SPECIFIC ORIGIN.
Muriphure maintained his watch over the computer screen of his ellat, nothing. Time had come to pass. Only he and two other ellats seemed to have made good an escape, though others could have evaded the fight without his knowledge due to the problems with transmission and monitoring. They drifted in space far out of reach of any portenium cruiser, and the map of the galaxy scrolled through the computer to what Vetty was searching for. “I’ve found our escape route; a passage out of this quadrant which is clear of any Mildratawa force or probe.” He spoke into the microphone for all to hear. “Listen to me carefully. The probe we have just passed is a Mildratawa probe, patrolling the outskirts of this quadrant. It would have sent our location to the appropriate authorities. I see no alternative but to head into the Dead Zone.”
“My lord. I must object.”
“If you protest then I shall have you blown from your ellat. This is for all our benefits. There’ll be a search party looking for us. We only have enough thrust in power to travel at parsec five by point two. We can’t out run anyone, except in a QEM-gate, and that would mean certain detection, imprisonment, and then death.”
“But to enter the Dead Zone; that’s suicidal.”
“Not if we keep our heads, travel slowly, and watch our monitors on a rotational basis. But we must stay together. Only then can we succeed in our passage.”
The Dead Zone was a cosmic body of unfolded space. To go through such a body of collapsing matter could only bring death. Many centuries ago a hundred probes had been sent through a Dead Zone at top speed resulted in a journey of nearly a hundred days. To otherwise have travelled via the gates would have resulted in a mere 20 hours due to engaging parsec through planet systems and exposure to QEM-gate forks; this was also dependant on the curving and folded space between one celestial body and the next. Only three probes were ever known to exit a Dead Zone.
Information recorded on Dead Zones was extremely vague and lacking in proof but it was a certain fact on one subject and that was the existence of black holes being numerous. Many other unexplained details had eluded scientists for literally hundreds of years; a standstill in the progress of science being struck shortly after the development of all things related to QEM.
“Where do we head for, my lord?”
“Planet Arambay in Quadrant Ten. There’s a planet there that can sustain life. The other planets in the region are inhabited but don’t contain oxygen as yet. We won’t be found there, that I can promise. We’ll depart immediately and I’ll lead the way. The journey could be long or short, don’t use your emergency food pills unless in absolute agony from hunger. Do I make myself clear?”
All acknowledged and thrusters pushed them on, into the depths of the Dead Zone.
PLANET ALZA NINGH.
SPACE.
The strike on Alza Ningh continued with great losses being inflicted upon the Verton force. Portenium cruisers had spilled their cargo of tron fighters and these in turn had soon positioned themselves into a melee that favoured them in the downpour.
It grew apparent that Warlord Vetty must have been hit during the assault. The new commander of the Verton force now spoke to several of the less potent leaders who’s knowledge and inspirations on the tactical side of things put fear into the minds of the legion rather than encourage them.
Several ellats were then summoned by the new commander to retreat to the battle cruisers and inform them that more fighters were required nearer the surface to force a victory as the macebearers were causing little damage to the Alza Ningh defences. It didn’t occur to the assaulting Wing Commander why the ellats were overdue with returning with reinforcements, and that the reason behind this was that they had seen the threat of the portenium cruisers on their emergence into space and immediately tried their luck at an escape.
Their assaulting force was cut by half before the portenium cruisers transmitted a message for the unconditional surrender of all Verton forces over all frequency bands, only then did the overall situation become evident.
Macebearers were quick to submit to the transmissions but the Vertons had other ideas. It had been obvious from the start that if the war were lost, war crimes against their planet and people would be put into effect at the first opportunity. The legion controlled ellats turned from the fight in pretence of admitted defeat, and as they came exposed to the portenium cruisers each switched to the on-board computers in preparation for a jump into parsec and escape.
The scanners aboard the portenium cruisers picked up the shift in computer mannerisms and proceeded to eliminate all craft that came exposed to the outer regions of atmosphere. For the Vertons, swarming away from the planet’s atmosphere below in union gave them their only chance of escape. This was a mass exodus. Computers in most cases took time in finding a safe trajectory through gravity-affected folds of space; these were eliminated immediately. Some took the chance of making the jump without consulting their computers and consequently met with death. A vast number still emerged unscathed, more than 30 ellats being able to secure a flight path to varying corners of the quadrant.
PLANET BASBI TRIAD.
ZANE DESERT-WEST.
Jools had in hand a force of 3,000 Reingistassi troops. He’d managed to convince Muutampai to give him control of these so as to pressure the advance of the robots from Sector Three.
He and his men departed the comfort of the transporters, having gone undetected by any radar source. The heat grew heavy, the last few kilometres towards the invading robots being covered by foot.
He positioned his forces behind a low twisting sand dune that had formed with the aid of a crack in the crust of the planet a million years before. This stretched out for over a hundred kilometres.
The exact line of approach was unknown but visual sighting expected at any moment, he lay in wait, his troops covering a frontage of only six thousand metres.
Twelve fighters, a couple of kilometres to his rear, were the only fighters on the planet of Basbi, all others had been converted to scrap due to a shortage in fuel and in the prevention of them being used against themselves by the Darkside.
Ten portable heavy cannons were positioned five to a flank and facing the suspected line of approach. These were also readied for easier deployment to wherever the point of assault seemed to inflict the hea
viest fire once the enemy force came into view and the battle had commenced. These were spread at 200 metre intervals.
They now waited patiently with all of the platoon leaders peering through binoptics.
A sighting had been confirmed as Jools shifted his gaze to the slight right of his position. Enemy forces were advancing to near enough the line to of approach they’d expected – their position would suffice.
A fine line of robots was seen with more following these, moving oblivious to the shattering heat, and behind these – land cruisers filled with the reported Millennium.
“We’ll wait until the distance closes, stay low.” Men shifted slightly so as to bring their silhouettes out of possible view. ‘Two minutes should do it.’ He called for the fighters to prepare for flight on his command.
Lifting his head now he saw that the distance to the advancing forces was within range of the cannons, the binoptics giving a flashing reading of 600 metres. The cannons were effective up to 1,800 but the dunes between the two opposing forces suggested they wait for a more beneficial target of opportunity.
Making a fist and inverting his hand, he punched the thick hot air, up and down repeatedly. All weapons were lifted and sights brought to bear on their targets. He fired his weapon and all cannons followed suit, bringing the first row of robots to a crumpling mess. Still advancing the robots scanned the area to their front, unable to pick out a target due to the heat haze that Jools hadn’t considered as an ally. Another volley of shots from the weapons brought about the same effect.
The legion ran from their metal coffins as the twelve fighters flew over the heads of the Reingistassi and towards them. These aircraft now lashed out with the first of their self-targeting weapons.
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