These became the first targets for the robots. Plane after plane dropped like flies from the concentrated fire. The aircraft pushed on however, over the heads of the robots and commenced to hit the carriers. The robots’ last order was to advance, so they refrained from turning about and bringing fire upon the fighters to the apprehension of the legion behind them.
As the aircraft came in for another run from the flank, the legion turned to training for results and all fell flat on their backs with weapons pointing up – those with the mind scan continued with the move forward. They fired their weapons in quick succession, creating a wall of fire that the aircraft flew through, the hailing pulses of light hitting their targets. This caused the remaining two aircraft to come crashing to the ground, putting an emphasis and the weight of fire from the ground troops back onto the stretch of dune at which the Brightside’s forces still lay. Staying low saved the odd Reingistassi life, but as the distance closed to 300 metres, so the accuracy of the robots firing improved; the heat haze was lifting.
Jool’s canons continued to fire and maintained a high kill ratio. A legion commander on realising this raced up behind the robots and was brought to the ground with blood spurting from his chest. Another approached with the same in mind, and just before being killed, gave the robots the order to target the cannons. Blood pooled around his body as he took his last breath; and as he did so he realised his mistake.
The legion was still a good 200 metres behind the advancing robots, which now proceeded to fire at the cannons and not the troops behind the mound. The in-built communications had relayed the message along the entire front. Every robot now knew the task at hand.
Cannons started to burst into flame and smoke. Jools watched the procedure and ordered the remaining two cannons drop down below the rise of the dune, to be saved for a spontaneous crossing fire when the targets were closer and better odds of inflicting heavy casualties was evident. Robots immediately ceased firing but continued with the advance, the robots sensors picking up the electronic emission of cannons but being unable to see them, unable to bring fire to bear upon a single one. No more fire was to be received from the robots.
150 metres and the defenders firing intensified, aiming for the chests of the silently approaching menace. Legion Millennium couldn’t grasp what had happened as they were too far behind the officer to hear the order he’d given to the robots. Along the entire front the robots came under unbeatable fire, the closest any one of them came to the dune was 100 metres.
The legion had now started to fall back on realising that they still had a lot of open ground to their front and that the targets they were directly concerned with were protected by the dune. Jools held his men back until the legion had disappeared out of sight.
All around him men stood and cheered the battle won when the carriers suddenly appeared from where the Vertons had retreated. Blazing fire and splintex bolts of light now came and hit the Reingistassi hard. The Vertons had decided for a mounted assault. Many men were lost in this initial blaze of fire and positions quickly adopted yet again. Jools looked out to his right. “Get those cannons up there! Keep them Low! Everyman, rapid! Fire!”
The estimated 7,000 men of the legion were mounted on 700 rapidly advancing carriers. Jool’s force only numbered 2,800 at best; casualties inflicted upon his men during the first bout being unknown.
The cannons made short work of five targets before being smashed into the next century and hope for a victory looked poor indeed. The vehicles stopped the advance at 50 metres to allow the legion to fight through and clean up that which remained. The vehicles continued behind the ranks of legion and placed down support fire. Mind scans hit their targets well.
With all disbelief Jools turned to a cry in the distance, over the dune to his rear, and as far up and down as he could see, the other 3,000 Reingistassi of Muutampai’s personal force appeared.
Many of these were hit during the short advance upon the Legion Millennium, but not so many as the legion itself. A force, just as strong, in a better firing position, and in dire persuasion to crush the Verton war machine from limb to limb, now confronted the Vertons.
Only 40 metres separated the opposing forces. The battle couldn’t go on forever. Many of the legion now took the opportunity to give the order to withdraw. To a safe distance in the carriers they’d retreat, for a possible third assault against the line of defence. Such ideas were given up on however, for they were now too few.
The sands lay littered with bleeding corpses and pure white skinned Reingistassi – the sign of the mind scan. The fleeing legion were still fired upon and now numbered in the low hundreds; all scattered amongst 145 carriers. It was over for the time being, but the sector was not won. A good ten to thirteen thousand Verton troops were at present building fortifications along the portion of Twilight known as Sector Three, and the legion just beaten back would most definitely harbour up there in order to receive a little rest, food, and water.
The Reingistassi retreated and set up camp for a well-earned rest, but not before early warning devices were set in the sands around the newly won and held position.
PLANET EQUATIA.
THE JUNGLE.
Tiny Ballow and Mintou Ati followed close behind the scouts as they led the way along the thickest but most secure of routes into the grounds of the palace. They moved in four files with little spread between each. The files cast a line for five to six hundred metres behind the lead scouts. The going was extremely slow, slower than anticipated or preferred. A purple plant came into view and the advance gave to a momentary halt before the scouts wove themselves a path around the beautiful set flowers that stemmed from a thin stalk.
“What was that about?”
“You saw the plant with your own eyes, sir. That’s the warning that we were getting too close.”
“Too close to what?”
“A prey of the jungle. It doesn’t matter. I may explain one day. It’s not as bad as the yellow flower. Let’s hope we don’t come across any.”
The conversation had come to an end before it even had the chance to start. It wasn’t until a week later that Tiny learnt of Mintou’s family. They had been killed by the jungle’s trap, but no explanation was entered into.
It was late afternoon before they came across a very narrow, low gap, between two large boulders in the side of a cliff face. Above this, a thick sheet of solid slate jutted out ten metres, concealing the entrance with shadow and foliage. The short pass through the dark cavern was very tight and the boulders were covered in a strange smelling moss, an antiseptic type medicine found only on Equatia. The area around was so overgrown and contrast by shadow that it had been obscured from visual detection ever since Mintou could remember, and to the other side of this, past several bushes, the palace could be seen in all its glory of architecture.
Legion forces must have been spread thin as little movement could be seen. This news was good. If they were careful enough, an entry through the doors of the palace could be undertaken without detection, but the line of macebearers was so drawn out behind them that Tiny realised it would take far too much time for all of them to achieve a break for the palace.
It took a good one hundred minutes now for orders to be relayed from group to small group, all the way down the line. During this time the door to the palace was observed. Nothing had occurred and no one seen since their arrival, although a full frontal view was impossible from where they stood. They were also unaware that a ‘crow nest’ of two legion soldiers lay above their heads, positioned high above the natural wedge of rock which jet out from the mountain’s side. These two had good visual all around, though they were unable to see anything below the carpet green tops of the trees that covered the entire circumference of the palace for some 500 metres.
Walking silently, but fast, they made good their approach to the palace doors whilst still maintaining their formation. They turned into the entrance and immediately came face to face with two guards who opene
d fire, alerting the legion from around of the macebearer presence. The guards were killed with only one loss inflicted upon their own.
Ten men broke the door open and were through in seconds with another twenty close behind, each ignoring the convulsions of the macebearer just hit by the guard’s weapon. Covering fire from the doorway was now offered to the others as more men raced from the narrow opening in the rock face and through to the palace itself.
Legion had now commenced to return fire from the jungle in front of the palace, preventing any further macebearers from making it to the palace entrance. The remainder retreated back into the jungle’s thickness. Forty-three of the queen’s men had secured entry to her palace and shelter from the swarming legion outside.
The entrance was now covered and sealed from the inside, this being the only entrance to the palace. Verton guards inside only numbered twenty, all of which were shot for refusing to surrender. The firing of their mind scans against a member of the Mildratawa was also a crime.
General Nort had given up his security for the comfort of privacy and seclusion. He was found huddled on the floor of the main dining room, shaking for his life. He was literally dragged and thrown into the lowest cell found and the Queen Druad Asti was released from her bondage and given the comfort of her friends’ encouragement and a meal to eat.
Tiny was more surprised to find the queen here as was Mintou and her stories of the atrocities were sickening to the point. A macebearer was given responsibility for her safety as both Tiny and Mintou toured the premises to decide on its fortification. Although it seemed a pointless sanctuary, there was nowhere else to go and nothing more that could be done. At least this way the Vertons outside may concede to the wishes of Tiny in the belief that hostages had been taken along with Nort, but Tiny was quickly told by Mintou to ‘wake up to yourself – sir.’
A long night was now had by all, security pickets ran 24 hours and the macebearers outside counted their blessings as they sat in the dark of the jungle’s throat. They were lucky to achieve such a good break, through the confines of the vines and undergrowth around them, and at present were swearing on the vengeance that they were going to inflict upon the Legion Millennium.
CHAPTER NINE
PLANET EARTH.
SPACE.
On the third day after the assault upon the sphere being a success the more powerful of nations of Earth took to the immediate evacuation of the human populace from spaceports nation-wide. The civilian population was the first to go in a majority of the cases, a tedious task that was provided for well by the military. In all cases, men and women of a political or more domineering position of powerful intellect were the first to be given boarding passes onto first class vessels, along with the added privilege of being crowned with the status of VIP.
Only a few persons were detained for trying to stow away in the cargo bays of these earlier flights, and in one particular case a religious sect of Saudi Arabia hijacked a ship to aid them in their escape from their government and the planet’s surface. These persons were taken captive and had their hands cut off for theft. The laws of some countries hadn’t changed in thousands of years.
The surface of the moon also harboured much life, all of which existed in buildings, formed by solid metal structures with glass-domed roofs. These were 100 metres in radius and contained many specimens of plant life. Daffodils, cacti, fungi, shrubs, trees and even grasses were given life through an ecological system that practically sustained itself with little need for human intervention. The central structure of each contained atmosphere processors that manufactured nitrogen and other gases into its correct proportions for the maintenance of life. The human hand factor was only present to ensure that the equipment on board didn’t fail, these were the mechanical engineers – and they knew nothing of botany. Botanists were seldom found on the surface of the moon. They made their visits from Earth but once a month as directed by their contract, and other than that maintained their work program of trying to eradicate all of the pollution that the acid rain over the years had forced into the soils of Earth. There was also allowance for the sun. Artificial light sources, containing the same nourishment as the sun’s rays, would turn on automatically if instrumentation detected the plants requirement for such in the aid of forming particular proteins and the like. And water, that was taken from the beneath the surface of Mars and transported to the moon, from ice sheets buried at the poles.
Each domed plant haven was painstakingly prepared for the evacuation from the surface of the moon – if there was going to be no one on the surface of Earth, then there wasn’t going to be any protection for the forest.
Only now, in the face of desertion, did a collection of specialists finally get together in preparation for the flight ahead. Each of the platforms had to be connected to a stem – symbolic to its task in providing the sustenance that the domes required for space travel. The stem was a larger elongated vessel, like a stretched out peanut, that would house the mechanical engineers, botanists, and scientists.
One by one thrusters were fired and the domes were lifted off of the moon and secured to the stem itself. They were connected so that there were eight domes to each, four to either end, with the central portion of the stem containing the living quarters and science labs for the continuing study concerning all areas. So many cures for human disease and illness came from plants. Only now in the face of planet exodus were those studies being brought back into existence; for a many varied world was to be a part of the wide disseminating colonisation; some of which had never seen the face of man before.
The first of the ten stems was ready to depart the moon’s space boundary within the allotted time – eighty domes. Each of the stems had a different destination. No one really knew how the plant life would react to the different suns throughout the quadrants, or if they would be affected by parsec speed or QEM-gate travel.
There was only a minute possibility that the plant’s seeds would be capable of securing themselves a successful transplant into the soils of the new planets destined for. This would depend strongly on quarantine restrictions set by the different governments, except in the case of the two planets Palmier and Arambay of Quadrants Nine and Ten, respectively. These were uninhabited planets.
With different destinations set aside, the earth’s species of life would automatically create themselves a better mathematical equation for survival.
Engineers prepared the domes of one stem for the jump into parsec as they slowly drifted through space, slowly orbiting the moon. Their destination was planet Vudd, a planet that held representation within the Mildratawa but had refrained from giving sacrifice to the battle in Nicaragua, or that that lay ahead on Basbi Triad. They did send some materials for the battle but these were little in tonnage.
Vudd had given permission for the people of Earth to use a small portion of its uninhabited surface. The air was breathable but somewhat lacking in particular proteins essential to some plants. For this reason genetically altered cacti were chosen for the journey ahead.
It took several hours before the thin metal plate coverings for the spheres were placed over the forward face of each. This was to protect the glass against the shock of any minute paint chips that may exist within other areas above planet surfaces as compared to that of Earth. So long as the existence of space junk at the destination was known a precaution had to be taken.
And it was up here, in the orbit above the moon of Earth, that some of the fleeing Verton ellats had appeared. They sat monitoring the busy engineers from a distance before deciding on their move.
Flying in from beneath the central portion of stem, they secured themselves to the docking hatch, which in turn opened up to a passage within the interior of the elongated station. Their approach had been concealed well, as most workers, at present, were busy attending to one of the farthest of the four domes to one end and atop the structure.
The Vertons moved through the magnetic operated hatch, for as soon as doc
king procedure was secured this opened automatically. They then proceeded towards the main hold. Only one human of Earth was seen here, supposedly monitoring the workers progress on the screens to his front, though he actually sat reading a book, ferociously attacking his fingernails with his teeth as he turned each page.
A Verton turned amidst the blaring radio that sat nearby and smiled with a grimace of distaste to his comrade, before shooting the earthman in the head. They then waited until the metal cloaks had been positioned over the domes and the workers were on their way back to the main hold of the stem before flicking the controls on the panel to their front, allowing the computer to jump into parsec as pre-programmed, towards Vudd. The Vertons were happy that the computer allowed such a jump to proceed, for it meant that all was safe, though they didn’t know the destination until their eyes fell over information detailing such.
The mechanical engineers, botanists, and scientists were ripped from their holds on the trellis work of the structure, or simply watched in surmounted aghast as they drift across the expanse between sphere and stem under jet-pack fuel. These people knew their fate now, for they were a kilometre above the surface of the moon, helpless, little oxygen remaining in their tanks. There was no rescue. They died knowing the outcome, and this alone provided little solace.
PLANET EQUATIA.
PLANET SURFACE.
Ozrammoz received intelligence reports from the Mildratawa the night before. All situations appeared to be in their favour. The only Verton battle cruisers to be in existence were those around Irshstup and Basbi Triad, and although the ground forces in these areas were large in number, they were weak in spirit and morale. Intelligence authorities from all over were also overwhelmed to hear that the Vertons had been beaten back from Alza Ningh and that many prisoners had been taken; it would appear that the hired mercenary forces from Quadrant Three loved life more than their jewels, diamond, and pearls.
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