The Chosen Race (Space Empires Book 2)

by Caleb Selby

  The other two stopped and helped their wounded comrade to his feet. “Keep going! Just leave me!” the wounded man yelled. “I’ll cover your retreat!”

  “That’ll be the day!” the lead one retorted as he hoisted the wounded man to his feet, all the while shooting snap shots back at the Krohns.

  The three men hobbled the rest of the way to corridor H-2, narrowly reaching it before the Krohns overtook them. Once inside, the wounded man was lowered to the floor and the connecting corridor door was locked and bolted.

  “Hurry,” the leader said. “Help me mount this dampener sheet,” he said as he began to lift a blue, sticky sheet from off the floor.”

  “Why wasn’t this stuff installed years ago?” the other asked as he got under the sheet and helped secure it in place on the hatch.

  “These bunkers were never meant for a fire fight,” explained the leader. “They designed this as a place of refuge in the event that Larep was in danger of planetary bombardment. These dampening sheets and the accelerator turrets were an after thought that nobody had the time or funds to finish,” he answered as he finished clamping the sheet down to the door.

  No sooner had they installed the sheet than laser fire started pelting the door, sounding almost like rain drops from where the defenders stood.

  “How long do you think this one will hold?” the wounded man spoke up as he struggled to sit upright against the wall.

  “Hopefully longer than the last one,” the leader replied and smiled.

  They had gone through this unpleasant cycle five times now. Their squad, which had started with ten volunteers, was among the initial to respond to the first breach at the shallow bunkers. From that point on, they had been fighting for their lives in a valiant attempt to stall the Krohn advance for as long as possible.

  The leader walked over to the hatch that led to the next corridor and opened it. He could see the light at the end of the corridor. He was about to turn his attention back to their predicament when a lone figure appeared near the far entrance, dragging something large behind.

  “Who goes there?” he called up, training the sights of his rifle on the silhouetted form.

  “One friendly pulling up the rear!” a female voice from the other end responded. “I’m coming down!” she yelled and slowly trekked down the passageway, apparently slowed by whatever it was she was carrying.

  When she finally reached the end and came out into the chamber, the group awaiting her was elated at the sight of her heavy load.

  “An accelerator turret!” the wounded man exclaimed. “About time!”

  “Name’s Reesa,” she said after she wheeled the device to the center of the small room.

  “Brion,” the apparent leader said, pointing to himself. He helped steady the turret and pointed to his companions. “This here is Kakin and that sorry looking chap against the wall is Regen,” Brion said, nodding to his wounded friend.

  “He all right?” Reesa asked noting the wound on Regen’s leg.

  “He took one in the leg just a few minutes ago,” answered Brion. “We just evacuated another service corridor before you arrived. They got him on our way out.”

  “Wow! Now that’s a beautiful site,” Kakin said and gave the imposing weapon a pat. “Don’t tell my wife, but I think I’m in love.”

  “With her, or the gun?” Brion asked, giving a playful glance at Reesa.

  “Maybe both,” Kakin answered, and gave Reesa a wink.

  Reesa rolled her eyes.

  “Where’d you get it?” Regen spoke up as he treated his leg the best he could. “Didn’t know we had access to those kinds of arms down here.”

  “I sort of borrowed it from the armory,” Reesa answered.

  Brion shook his head painfully, “There’s a bad reason why it’s here and not on the front lines, isn’t there?”

  Reesa nodded. “From what I’ve gathered, the entire south-west section was overrun about an hour ago. They’ve blasted the connecting tunnels shut so it should be pretty much sectioned off now but it’s only a temporary fix. The Krohns are breaching all the sections now.”

  Kakin shook his head and glanced at the door, which was still being pelted by Krohn shots.

  “And so you’re here to deliver this?” Brion asked.

  “Not exactly,” Reesa answered reluctantly.

  Kakin and Regen looked inquisitively at Reesa.

  “What do you mean by that?” Brion asked.

  Reesa shrugged. “I’ve actually come to enlist your help for a different job,” she answered and then looked up at Brion apprehensively.

  A loud explosion suddenly hit the door, forming a small breach in the upper corner and causing dust to rain down from the ceiling.

  “Do you have orders from central command?” Kakin asked as he watched the dust settle to the floor.

  “No I don’t,” answered Reesa honestly.

  Brion looked at her in disbelief and pointed to the door. “In about three minutes, an entire squad of Krohns is going to come charging through that door,” he said passionately. “If we just up and leave our post, there’ll be nothing to stop them from going to the next chamber and then to the next. In under an hour, they may even breach through into some of the populace bunkers. And you’re asking us to leave lady?”

  “Look,” Reesa said raising her hand. “I know you don’t know me, and you have absolutely no reason to trust me but I’m telling you, what I have to do is bigger than this. Believe me, if I could do it alone I would, but the truth is, I can’t.” She shook her head. “Comparatively, you are defending one of the smaller sections. Its loss will not be as catastrophic as others. That’s why I came to you. Please help me.”

  Brion looked at her desperate eyes and then back at the door. “You got explosives?” he finally asked.

  “Just two grenades I managed to swipe from the same armory,” Reesa answered, taking them out of a small bag and handing them both to Brion.

  “Alright, we’ll help you,” Brion said and set the grenade’s timers and placed them near the door. “But you better hope you’re right, for all our sakes.”

  “So do I,” Reesa said under her breath. “So do I.”

  The Iovara’s bridge shimmered. Fedrin stood at the very front, hands neatly folded behind his back, gazing out the huge main window into the dark center of the oncoming warp-point. The Idok flew to the upper right of the Iovara. Fedrin watched as a surge of blue light from the event horizon saturated his wife’s former ship and danced merrily on her hull.

  As he watched the carefree pattern of lights, he was reminded of the blowing sand back home and the games he used to play in the dunes near his home. He remembered playing in and around them as a child, battling Refrac foot soldiers and saving the Federation over and over again from a myriad of dangers and perils. He smiled as he thought about the time he had broken his arm after tumbling down a steep dune during a daring mission. He could remember his father and mother running to his cries.

  “Climbing dunes,” remarked his father once the bone was healed, “is not among standard procedures when it comes to battling Refrac ground forces. Ask any general. He’ll tell you the same thing.”

  That was all his father had needed to say. Fedrin never climbed a dune again. Why should he? If he didn’t need the skill for fighting Refrac soldiers, then he certainly didn’t want anything to do with it.

  Fedrin shook his head as more and more memories flooded his mind. Oh, how he missed that house and the fearless childhood hero of so long ago. He was so invincible back then. No situation was too complex or too challenging for him. If only reality was as simple as his youthful fantasies.

  “You ok there?” Etana asked, walking up behind her husband and placing a hand on his shoulder.

  Fedrin looked up in surprise and then smiled, “Yeah. Just thinking.”

  “About
?”

  Fedrin shrugged. “Nothing specific. Just stuff.”

  “You’ve always been thoughtful during jumps,” Etana commented as she stood beside him, looked out the window, and studied her former ship.

  “Nothing else to do but think when you’re in a jump,” Fedrin replied with a slight smile.

  Etana stood close to Fedrin and the two gazed out the window together for sometime in quiet.

  “How are we doing?” Fedrin finally asked.

  “All ships have been reporting normal and stable jumps,” Etana answered as she casually walked back to her post to get the most updated info. “The Revenge is still reporting an energy flux in their starboard stabilizer thrusters but Commander Searle says the problem is under control. The Arbitrator is reporting a similar situation on her aft stabilizer cluster but it should be repaired soon. No danger for the completion of the warp for either ship.”

  “And the Sion ship?” Fedrin asked.

  Etana nodded to Gallo who then turned to his main screen.

  “Don’t know,” Gallo responded frankly. “I thought I spotted her a minute ago but it turns out that it was just a small Asar Freighter in the warp-point several hundred marks behind us.”

  “Wonder what a Asar Freighter is doing way out here,” remarked Etana. “Don’t they know there is a war going on?”

  “It’s probably a Branci ship,” Gallo suggested. “Asar Industrial sold them a dozen of their older models a few years ago.”

  Etana shrugged. “Maybe, but why are they here?”

  “Didn’t Kesler and Tarkin contact the Branci for help?” Jonas asked.

  “Yeah, but I think they were shot down,” Gallo answered. “Something about the Namuh wanting to turn the rest of them into slaves

  “Maybe they had a change of heart,” suggested Etana.

  Jonas shrugged. “I don’t know. Those Branci are pretty stubborn.”

  “I asked about the Sion ship, not this Branci freighter,” Fedrin interjected.

  Gallo shrugged and glanced back at his station. “I think it may have sped past us, but I can’t be certain. Our instruments can’t track it accurately. It has a stealth quality that suppresses EM and radar sweeps.”

  Fedrin shook his head as he turned away from the forward window and walked toward the center of the bridge. “And how long till we clear the warp-point?”

  “About forty minutes,” Etana responded promptly.

  Fedrin nodded as he took his seat. “And how are my Sion transmitters? Will they be ready?”

  Etana glanced at an engineering monitoring screen and then nodded. “Each ship should be able to send up enough Sion EM signatures at the right pitch to appear like a formidably sized, cloaked Sion Fleet.”

  Jonas leaned over the railing and commented. “According to Sion engineers, the Unmentionables won’t be able to tell they’re fake signatures until they get close. That should hopefully buy us enough time to get situated in the system without worrying about Unmentionables obliterating us.”

  “Hopefully,” Etana emphasized.

  Fedrin nodded as he pondered the merits and risks of his newest plan. Should it work, his humble fleet might have the time needed to penetrate deep enough into the system to get to the moon and the all-important Grimsin Tree. If it didn’t work, they would hardly have time to dwell on it.

  “Captain Carter is on the link,” Etana spoke up. “He said he is answering your request to contact him?”

  Fedrin nodded and turned to his small viewing screen. A moment later, Carter’s face appeared.

  “What can I do for you, Admiral?” Carter asked.

  Fedrin motioned forward out the front window. “We’ll be in Namuh Prime space in under an hour Captain. I want you to assemble a new team and prep to head down to the planet with the entirety of our remaining tactical units. I want to launch a counteroffensive against the Krohn incursion.”

  Carter looked at Fedrin in disbelief. “You do know that the Krohns have an army on the ground, right?”

  Fedrin nodded. “I do.”

  Carter scratched his head. “And even if we send down everyone in the fleet, from the cooks to the janitors, it won’t even be a tenth of the size of their force?”

  “We have to do something,” Fedrin said definitively. “Innocent men, women and children are undoubtedly getting butchered there even as we speak. We will send what we can. We have a duty to them. Understood?”

  Without another word in protest, Carter shrugged. “Then I better get to it.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Fedrin said sincerely. “I realize the task won’t be easy but I know you and your men will make us proud...as always.”

  Carter signed off.

  “What happens if we get into the system and the Clear Skies system targets us?” Etana asked as Fedrin looked up from his transmission screen.

  Fedrin shrugged. “We’ll die.”

  “Oh,” said Etana, who had been prepared to enter into a discourse about the topic. “I hope General Darion has that fixed then.”

  Fedrin nodded. “Yeah, so do I.”

  Darion stopped in the middle of the open street and nervously looked around. A quick pat of his pocket confirmed that the invaluable data device with the Clear Skies program was still with him, a thought that gave him both a sense of accomplishment and yet great urgency.

  He was literally a stone’s throw distance from the main gate of the capital building on one side, and the burnt out remains of the defense complex on the other. He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his shirt pocket and glanced at it again. Sure enough, this was the rendezvous spot agreed upon by Reesa and himself. He shook his head as he analyzed his situation. Why had they agreed on such a conspicuous location? What had they been thinking two days earlier when deciding this? He eventually gave up trying to remember the reasoning and instead looked for an opportunity to make his move.

  He waited nearly fifteen minutes for a break in the heavy Krohn foot traffic before limping to the directed spot. He waited and waited until he felt sure something was wrong. Perhaps Reesa was hurt? Perhaps she was dead? He was just about to go back for cover and wait for another opportunity when a small squad of Krohns rounded the corner of a large building a short distance down the street. Darion nervously stood his ground. He breathed deeply as he raised his trusty weapon from his side and waited.

  The Krohns were halfway across the intersection when they spotted the lone figure standing in the middle of the street. Two of the Krohns quickly spread out to cut off retreat routes. They did this quietly so as to not draw attention to the fact that they had found a fresh meal to the scores of other hungry Krohns. Then, without a word between them, they began to charge in their typical, hunger driven recklessness.

  Darion quickly took aim and fired a single shot, narrowly missing the lead Krohn. The ravenous bipedal lizards stopped dead in their tracks as the lone shot from Darion’s weapon echoed throughout the street. Darion looked at his weapon and then back at the Krohns who were now timidly standing in the lane, unsure of how to proceed. Darion had seemingly stopped a charging squad of Krohns with one missed shot. Perhaps his reputation at the research center and transportation station had preceded him? Darion smiled at this notion and fired again, striking one of the Krohns in the chest but causing no serious injury.

  As a group, the large reptiles continued to cower back. Darion was beginning to enjoy this. He was just about to fire again when several high-powered volleys erupted from behind him, tearing the Krohn patrol to pieces, literally.

  Darion turned and hit the ground, assuming that a Krohn weapon had missed its mark. He was wrong, and never happier to be so! In front of him was a large enclosed elevator platform that had ascended from beneath the avenue. Within the platform were four figures poised for battle. Their disorganized appearance gave them away as not being professional soldie
rs, at least none that Darion had ever seen before. In the center of the platform a large weapon was mounted on a tripod behind which stood Reesa, looking fierce and beautiful as ever. She was firmly holding the weapon and motioning with her hand for Darion to join them on the platform when she suddenly looked past him in complete horror.

  Darion slowly rose to his feet and glanced over his shoulder just in time to see hundreds upon hundreds of Krohns charging down the street! They had been drawn to the area by the noise of weapons fire and were now filled with rage and hunger as they came down on the heavily armed platform with blind tenacity. They bounded over the dead bodies of their comrades with fury burning in their eyes!

  Darion started to run toward the platform, momentarily forgetting the pain inflicted on his ankle with each stride. Shots raced past his head, going both directions, as he dashed toward his goal as fast as he physically could.

  Reesa let lose with anther lethal volley from her weapon, pulverizing the first wave of charging lizards. The others on the platform drew up their weapons and picked off Krohns one by one as fast as they could pull their triggers. Yet, the Krohns pressed on! Faster and faster they ran until they were so close that aiming was no longer necessary. Holding down on the triggers, Reesa and her companions swept their weapons back and forth, bring down Krohn after Krohn until piles of writhing reptiles and severed limbs literally filled the lane with blood.

  As Darion dove onto the platform, a shot skimmed past his head and slammed into one of the defending men’s chest. The man looked at his wound and then at Darion for just a moment. He then dropped his weapon and slumped to the platform’s floor. Without hesitation, Darion grabbed the dead man’s more powerful weapon and turned back to the onslaught of charging Krohns and fired as fast as he could.

  “Take us down!” Reesa screamed. “Now!”

  The platform trembled and shook but did not move. “The chains are jammed!” yelled someone. “Give me a minute!”

  “We don’t have a minute!” yelled Reesa as she swept across the street with her mighty weapon, trying desperately to keep the enemy away.