by Korza, Jay
The empress now stood as the emperor took his seat. “Also from the information obtained at the dig site and through your new acquaintances, Jeeves and Fouter, we know that the warriors took a great many of the Cherta captive and created a new class of slaves for the empire. The new class became advisors to the warriors and their war council because there was no more Nortes royals to lead them.”
The empress took a deep breath. “Through your briefing packets, you have learned that we had a planet dedicated to growing the warriors for the empire. You should also have all of the details we have on the security systems in place to keep unauthorized parties from accessing the planet and using the warriors for themselves.”
“If I remember correctly,” Emily began, “the system is supposedly hidden by natural camouflage caused by some sort of cosmic anomaly that I quite honestly couldn’t understand, no matter how many times I read the technical brief.”
“That’s true, Captain.” The empress looked directly at Emily and smiled. “I don’t understand it myself. I’ve always been more musically inclined rather than adept in astrophysics. Regardless, we are guessing that somehow the Cherta slaves were able to obtain the planet’s location and then get that information back to their people. There are other possible scenarios but we think that’s the most likely one.”
The president stood to address the room. “We don’t know much about the Cherta other than they were also conquerors much like the warriors and the empire they served. From the information we have, they were a much more benevolent society and did not use slavery as the Nortes did.
“But slaves or not, they were the ruling class for every society they conquered and did not live as equals with those who were taken into the fold. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want our cooperative Coalition, even with all of its flaws, turned into a dictatorship by the Cherta or any other species, benevolent or not.” The last sentence was punctuated with the president hitting the table with a closed fist.
Murmuring broke out among the gathered group with everyone agreeing with the president’s statements. Mike spoke up above the murmurs. “Okay, if these are the Cherta, then where did the warrior fleet go? We saw them amassing their ships and then departing together. During our recon of the target system and surrounding areas, we never saw the warriors or their fleet.”
One of the panel’s analysts stood. “We don’t know the answer to that question at this point. We have theories, all of which are outlined in your materials. As you may already know or have read, the warriors have a genetically created, um, firewall for lack of a better term. This firewall keeps them from knowing, finding, or going near their birthing planet. So they may be aware the Cherta have found it but they’d be powerless to stop them.
“I know that doesn’t answer your question of where that fleet went; it just kinda tells us where we know it didn’t go and why.”
The empress stood again. “Based on our knowledge of how the warriors fight, we believe that they are staging their forces between ours and the Cherta. They will want to have a jumping-off point that will allow them to fight either enemy at any given time.
“We are putting together logical guesses as to where they might be. Once we have put together a comprehensive list of systems, we will be sending out recon groups to look for the warriors. The only good thing about the Cherta becoming involved is that it will delay the impending invasion of the Coalition we’re certain the warriors were planning.”
Another ship captain stood. “Is there any possible way of aligning ourselves with either side?”
The president nodded ambiguously. “Based on what we know of the Cherta, they won’t be open to that because it would make us equals instead of a citizen group within their empire. However, we are definitely not ruling out the possibility. Now that we know who we are dealing with, we are working on the details to set up an envoy in an attempt to make contact with them and hopefully come to a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution. The information we have on them is more than five hundred years old so it’s completely possible they have changed the way their empire is run, just as the Nortes and Detrill did in that time.”
The president was about to continue when the empress added, “The warriors have a saying: The enemy of my enemy—”
Emily allowed her inner dialogue to become external and she accidentally interrupted the foreign dignitary, “Is my friend.”
“Excuse me?” was all the empress said.
“I’m so terribly sorry, Your Highness”, Emily stammered. “It’s just that we have the same saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Oh young one, if that were only true.” The empress smiled as Emily shrank in her seat, clearly put in her place for interrupting. “The warriors’ saying, if I may finish, is unfortunately not as promising. Their saying is: The enemy of my enemy, will be torn limb from limb and their hearts eaten while they still beat, to show what will happen to anyone who does not succumb to our might.”
“Yup, that’s different, all right.” Mike winked at Emily to try to make her feel just a little bit better.
Epilogue
Seth’s heart was pounding. He was running faster than a Shirka with his fur on fire. There were no more points of cover or even concealment as he retreated to the newest skirmish line his fireteam had set up. He wasn’t sure whether it was the zigzag pattern he was running in or the ineptitude of his enemy that kept him from getting shot, but he didn’t really care so long as his luck held out for another twenty meters.
“Just fucking run, Cadet! Why are you dancing out there?!”
Seth could hear Surgeon’s voice coming over the comlink but he didn’t want to waste any oxygen on a reply, quippy or otherwise. The enemy rounds seemed to be getting closer as evidenced by the heat Seth could feel passing by his face and the exposed portions of his arms. The enemy used a metal slug that was propelled so fast that it superheated the air it traveled through. The round also tended to melt right through Coalition armor and sometimes even set their targets on fire.
Seth dove into the rock formation the rest of his fire team was using for cover, and as he did so, an enemy round grazed his right boot and melted a good portion of his boot’s heel. “Damn. I just broke these in”, he said through ragged breaths.
“If you’re done resting over there,” Joker started in on him, “we could use another rifle on our one-two corner.”
Seth was about to retort that he hadn’t brought one when he realized that Jenson and Boddie were lying near the one-two corner, dead. Seth had two rifles to choose from; there always seemed to be an extra rifle lying around lately—too many in fact. Seth picked up Boddie’s rifle and took all of the extra ammunition he could from both of his dead friends.
Surgeon was walking the inner perimeter to check on his men and also the status of their current positions. The war was taking huge tolls on the Coalition; fighting on a multitude of fronts against two superior forces wasn’t going to last very long. Today they were fighting the Cherta, or at least the Cherta forces. Surgeon had gotten a glimpse of the alien enemies earlier but he didn’t recognized their species. Luckily, they were fairly horrible soldiers and couldn’t aim worth a shit. Days like today sometimes gave Surgeon just a smidgen of hope that the Coalition could pull out of their funk and win a major engagement or two and turn the tide in their favor.
Surgeon opened his comlink to his wife’s team. “Daria, I hate to bug you, but we’re getting our asses kicked out here. Do you have any sort of time frame for me?”
Emily answered for her friend. “I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t. The fact that the Cherta forces are pushing so hard for this moon makes me even more certain that I’m right it contains something very important to them.”
Surgeon had fought alongside Emily for more than eight months now and had seen her evolve from a science geek to a truly impressive combat line officer, but she still needed to be reined in once in a while. “Ma’am, I understand that it mig
ht be valuable to them, but we have no idea if it will be valuable to us. It might just be something extremely culturally important, a religious icon of some sort. Something that won’t have any value to us in this war.”
“I know what you’re saying, and I’ve thought of that, but I know I’m right. I know that we can use to our benefit whatever is in this chamber. I was here when I was sixteen; I wrote a doctoral thesis on this chamber. It’s important. We need it. I’d bet my life on it.”
“You already are, Captain.” Surgeon paused before he spoke again. “We’ll back your play, Emily, but at some point we have to leave even if we don’t get what we came for. Otherwise, we may get into the chamber but we’ll never get back to the fleet to use it.”
“Understood. I trust you to decide when we’ve crossed that line. Let me know when it’s time to go.” Emily ended her side of the conversation.
To the rest of the fire team, Surgeon said, “The captain needs more time. We need to hold this line for as long as possible. If she makes it in to the chamber, then we’ll head out in our scout craft and drop a tactical nuke behind us as we leave. Our ships in orbit are still engaged with the enemy and keeping them from landing at our six, so we still can’t get orbital fire support from them. I’m open to suggestions other than keep shooting and don’t die.”
The warrior who was on the firing line next to Fang spoke up first. “My personal shield will be fully charged up in less than five minutes. Give me four grenades and strap some explosives to me. I can make it to their center before my shield goes down and then set off the explosives. It will take a lot of them out and cause a bit of mayhem.”
Surgeon looked at their newest soldier and realized that his suggestion just removed any lingering doubt Surgeon had about his allegiance to the Coalition, or at least to the soldiers he fought alongside of. This warrior had left the dogfight against Daria’s team when they stole the ancient warrior ship from the dig site at the abandoned base a little over a year ago.
A month ago, the top brass had decided to put the warrior in the field with Surgeon’s team to see whether he truly had changed sides. The warrior had answered every question posed to him and even gave over much more information than he had been asked for, all without any nudging or torture required. The warrior had said that there was something wrong with him, that he hadn’t been grown correctly, and that defect gave him the ability to think outside of his genetic programming. He wanted to be a part of the Coalition and what it stood for. So they let him. At this point, they didn’t have much to lose.
“Thanks for the suggestion, Baldylocks, but I’m not throwing away a soldier to buy us only a few minutes. Anyone else?” Surgeon turned to look at his other flank of soldiers.
The waHillsteprrior looked at Fang. “Humans.”
“Tell me about it”, Fang snarled. “I’d send you out there. Sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Right?!” The warrior fired a few more rounds. “And I thought my new name was ‘Cue Ball’? What does Baldylocks mean?”
Seth came up beside the warrior. “I’ll explain that one later. For now, give me your shield. You gave me an idea.”
“What have you got for me, Cadet?” Surgeon was watching his protégé hurriedly working on his idea.
“We’re going to put the shield on our combat mule and load its payload wagon with explosives.” Seth was moving fast on his idea, getting the pieces in place. “We run the shielded mule past their front lines, drop the wagon, send the mule on a wide return course, and blow the explosives.”
Joker had started helping Cadet with his plan as soon as he saw what was being done. “Sounds good to me. The mule can run faster than any of us can so he’ll get more use out of the shield than we would anyway. And, maybe he’ll be able to get far enough away that the explosion doesn’t rip his mechanical hide to hell. If he gets away, we’ll still have the shield and mule as assets.”
“Good plan. Let me know when you’re ready to send it. We might be able to plow the path for the mule so it will take less shield damage.” Surgeon grabbed his own rifle and got into a firing position.
The mule was released and sent downrange, much to the surprise of the enemy. It took at least thirty meters before the shielded robot began to take any fire at all. The mule ran through the front line, taking out one of the alien enemy along the way. Fifteen meters in, the mule dropped its payload wagon and began to arc away from the explosives. Once Seth thought the mule was at a good enough distance, he detonated the charges.
“Nice!” Reaper was patching up a small shrapnel wound on Fang’s leg.
“Captain.” Surgeon opened his comlink again. “We just bought you a little more time, but don’t take it for granted.”
“We just got through the door!” Emily’s excitement could be heard even through the muting effects of the comlink. “We’re making entry now. If it’s safe, we can fall back to the chamber interior and close the door. There’s no way they’re getting through it.”
“Copy that. We’re ready to fall back, sooner rather than later would be nice.” Surgeon added to himself, They can’t get through it unless they have the key. They did build it, after all.
The mule returned a few minutes later and Seth retrieved the shield from it and gave it back to the warrior. “Here you go, Cue Ball. Thanks for the loan.”
“I really don’t care what you pink hairless monkeys call me, but pick one name and stick with it.” The warrior fired a few more rounds from his plasma rifle, indicating he was done with the verbal exchange.
“Apes, Baldylocks. We’re pink apes, not monkeys. Totally different species.” Surgeon hadn’t heard back from Emily yet but he wasn’t going to wait any longer. “All right everyone, we’re falling back to the chamber. Get your asses moving, regardless if it’s primate or genetically engineered.”
The fire team performed a textbook peel-off into the tunnel system behind them. With his shield back in place and mostly charged, Baldylocks was the last man through the entrance, taking rounds that harmlessly deflected off his shield as he moved backwards. Once they reached the chamber’s entrance, Seth announced over the team push that friendlies were coming in.
Once inside, they were greeted by Jeeves. “Hello sirs. I was left here to close the door after your arrival. You seem to be missing three men. Shall I wait for them or will they not be joining us?”
Surgeon would never get used to losing men, and the relief he felt from not losing more during any given mission always made him feel worse. “Close it. They aren’t coming.”
“Yes, sir.” Jeeves began to turn to carry out his orders when he paused. “And sir, if later we could discuss the tactical use of the combat mule to deliver an explosive payload...”
“No, we can’t, Jeeves. And now’s not the time to discuss AGAIN how you are different from the automatons we use in the field. I wouldn’t send you out there like that, you should know that by now.” Surgeon was almost at his limit with the robot. He would need to see whether Bloom could correct some of the “issues” Surgeon had been noticing lately.
“Now what?” Joker was looking around the small room they were now safely occupying.
Outside they could hear enemy gunfire hitting the chamber door. The aliens were obviously trying to shoot the door open. Based on the experimenting Emily’s team had done during the several weeks prior to the Cherta attack, Surgeon knew that even the advanced enemy weapons wouldn’t make a dent in the door.
“We go find the rest of our team and see if this chamber was worth it.” Surgeon motioned to Seth to take point and the rest of the team to fall in and move out.
To Be Continued...
About the Author
Jay was born in California and moved to Tucson with his family when he was seven. At eighteen he joined the United States Navy and became a Hospital Corpsman. Jay worked in the Emergency Room at the Navy Medical Center San Diego (dubbed “The Starship of Navy Medicine) in California. After four years of service, HM3 Ko
rza took his leave and went into the private medical sector, a decision he has regretted more than once.
Jay has managed a private medical practice, worked on ambulances in Tucson and Massachusetts, and has been a paramedic for the US Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons. In 2000 he started his career in law enforcement and has ever since been elated with being a deputy.
Jay currently has thirteen years of law enforcement service and seven years on the SWAT Team. He is currently assigned to a specialized support operations unit as well as being a medic and sniper for the SWAT Team.
In his spare time, Jay also teaches at the local college’s paramedic program and he has desperately been trying to finish this book. If you’re reading this, then he finally has. For more information about the author, please visit his website at www.1393productions.com . Any and all feedback or questions are always welcomed.
And join the conversation on Twitter with the characters from Extinction.
@Bloom_1393 @Daria_1393 @Davies_1393 @Emily_1393 @Jeeves_1393 @Jockey_1393 @Reaper_1393 @Seth_1393 @Surgeon_1393 @Snake_1393 @Warrior_1393 @Wilks_1393 @Scan_1393
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