by Aer-ki Jyr
It didn’t stop, so Sarah pulled herself out of the tube and skipped the dryer, walking out of the shower room dripping wet and looking at Brad and Jenn as she moved over to their wardrobe room.
“What is that?” she demanded before disappearing inside and quickly pulling on some clothes.
“Brad?” Jenn asked, but the Commando was blankly staring at the ceiling as if he could look up and see the sky through it.
“Hey,” she repeated, poking him in the ribs to get his attention. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Yes,” he said in an even, dark tone that both girls picked up on.
“Well?” Sarah asked, pulling on a shirt as she walked back into the main room.
“I can’t say.”
“What do you mean you can’t say?” Jenn demanded as the news program on the vid screen altered to a ‘Breaking News’ alert.
“Reports of the alarm you are hearing are coming in from all across the planet,” the reporter said with a confused look on her face, “but with it has come an information packet that we’re only now dissecting…”
“Change to the official channel,” Brad said, with Jenn grabbing the remote and tuning the livefeed to the Star Force news that didn’t cover the more interesting social and entertainment stuff, but their reporter wore a trim, standard Star Force personnel relations uniform and did not have a confused look on his face.
“…bad day. Something we have been dreading since the inception of Star Force has finally happened. Moments ago we received word of an invasion force entering our territory. At present we believe their intended target is Earth.”
2
“What!” Jenn and Sarah yelled in tandem, but Brad didn’t say a word. The ex-Commando was just staring at the vid screen and ignoring them both.
“Brad!” Jenn said, walking in front of him and snapping her fingers so he’d look at her. “Do you know what this is?”
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“It’s classified. I’m sorry, but I can’t say anything.”
“You knew they were coming?” Sarah asked, her jaw dropping.
“No. I didn’t know…”
“If they do come here,” the reporter continued, “follow protocols and evacuation orders. We will guide everyone when needed. Do not randomly try to flee or you will end up creating more problems. We’ve been preparing for this day for more than a millennia. There is a plan in place. Until you receive evacuation orders continue about your normal daily activities. It will be days before they can arrive here and there is nothing for you to do before then except learn about our enemy. They are known as the V’kit’no’sat, and they were the previous inhabitants of Earth over 100,000 years ago.”
“Information packets are being released to bring everyone in Star Force up to date with what our leaders have known since before the empire began, but I will go through the basics that you need to understand. This information was not released previously because we have had no contact with the V’kit’no’sat and it was possible that they would never return. Also, the people who needed to prepare for if they did have known and have been working to defend us, but the sad truth is that we are at a disadvantage. The V’kit’no’sat are still far stronger than us, but I will repeat, there is a plan in place.”
“As for who the V’kit’no’sat are and how they once owned the Earth, well that is simple. Earth was once a colony of theirs that was abandoned, but they apparently left behind a few of their servant/slaves when they departed. They were known as Zen’zat and possessed incredible powers, so much so that they were forbidden from reproducing so that they could never pass those powers on to their offspring. Only Zen’zat who proved themselves to the V’kit’no’sat were granted the powers.”
“Those Zen’zat left behind to die on Earth defied this command, and while we do not know their identities, we know who their offspring are. We are their offspring. Humanity is their offspring, and the powers they had are now possessed by the Archons.”
“As shocking as that is to many of you, that is not the primary issue. The penalty for Zen’zat reproducing is death, both for themselves and all their offspring…and that means the V’kit’no’sat are coming here to kill every single Human in existence and probably all those we have had contact with, meaning they are here to destroy all of Star Force. As to who they are, you already know. You just don’t realize you do. They were here before, and remains of the rebellion that forced them to abandon this colony have been found long ago.”
“Who are the V’kit’no’sat? Put simply, they’re the Dinosaurs…and they are both far more powerful and far smarter than Humans. They control most of the galaxy in near the core, and Earth is on the very edge of their monstrous empire. Now it looks like they’re coming back and it’s time for you to know your enemy that is soon to be entering this system.”
“Is this for real?” Sarah asked, looking at Jenn. “The Dinosaurs?”
“If this wasn’t on the Star Force network I’d think it was a joke,” she said, shrugging.
“It’s no joke,” Brad said seriously. “They are the Dinosaurs, and they are more powerful than you can imagine. Now that word is getting out my silence is no longer necessary,” he said, looking at Jenn and then Sarah. “Have a seat and I’ll explain.”
Both girls went straight to the couch and plopped down, eager to hear what the hell this was all about as Brad began pacing back and forth in front of them.
“There’s too much history to go through, so I’ll make this as simple as I can. I don’t know everything, and not all Commandos knew. I was assigned to tasks that made my knowledge necessary, but I know there are many things that they did not trust me to know. What I can tell you is this. The V’kit’no’sat are a conglomeration of different races, 193 of them, that we call the Dinosaurs. Not all of those lived on Earth, but they all had Human servants called Zen’zat that were selected out of massive populations of Ter’nat. Both are Human, but the Ter’nat have no powers. They are kept as breeding stock on isolated planets where the best of them are picked to become Zen’zat and given the powers that come with that promotion.”
“They are then assigned to serve a race and spend the rest of their lives doing so. It is from information that we recovered on Earth that we built Star Force. Self-sufficiency isn’t something we invented. The V’kit’no’sat can also live forever, and many of them have. Some of them are over a million years old.”
“Bull shit,” Sarah said, not believing a word of it.
“I wish, but it’s true. And over such a long time even a little bit of training improvement will build up to insane power levels. We are badly outmatched, and until now the only thing that kept us alive is the fact that they didn’t know we existed. Now that they do they’ll come and keep coming until we’re all dead.”
“What are trailblazers going to do?” Jenn asked, referencing the highest level military leaders in Star Force.
“What they’ve been building the military for since the beginning. They’re going to fight and take as many of the bastards with us as possible.”
“You’re saying we’re all going to die?”
“I wouldn’t count on that. We know we’re going to lose, but there are evacuation plans in place to run us out towards the Rim where the V’kit’no’sat have no presence. I don’t know the details, but the idea is to fight and hold them long enough to evacuate people out. When they give the word, we go and we don’t look back. I’ll stay with you both, but I have no idea when that will be. We can’t evacuate the system very fast, so our troops are going to have to hold them off for a while.”
“And if they can’t?” Jenn asked, her voice straining a bit. “We get stomped on or eaten?”
“No. They won’t eat you. They’ll shoot you or pick you up with their telekinesis and rip your arms, legs, and head off, but they won’t eat you.”
“Is that supposed to be funny?” Sarah asked.
“I wasn
’t joking. When I was told I was shown video of them doing it to others to underscore the point of them being vicious and unforgiving. We can’t negotiate and we can’t surrender. Fighting is our only option.”
“But we can’t win?” Jenn repeated.
“Not unless something has changed since I got out.”
The two girls exchanged glances as Brad reached over and switched off the vid screen, quieting the room to a deathly stillness.
“What is this?” Sarah finally said.
“The truth,” the ex-Commando said firmly. “You didn’t need to know before so you weren’t told.”
“Dinosaurs?” Jenn repeated, still not believing it. “With telekinesis?”
“And a lot more. They can also read minds, but not Humans’ unless they touch you. It’s an immunity given to Zen’zat that the other races in Star Force won’t have. If they get close enough, they can even take control of their minds.”
“No,” Sarah said shaking her head.
“I wish it wasn’t true, but it is. We have some armor to block that ability so our troops won’t start shooting each other, but if they get close enough to you they could make you jump off a building or other stuff to kill you. And if they get close enough for their telekinesis to work, they can reach inside your body and crush your internal organs, killing you instantly. That’s why the military has to keep them away from the civilians.”
“Oh shit,” Jenn whispered, cradling her head in her hands. “Shit, shit, shit..”
“This has to be wrong,” Sarah said, almost yelling. “There is no way…”
“Stop!” Brad said firmly, getting both of them to snap out of their current thoughts and look up at him. “This is real, this is happening, and we have to work the problem. You may not be Commandos but you’ve had combat and evacuation training in the maturia. Remember back to that. What good does panic do?”
“None to you,” Jenn said slowly, repeating from memory those lessons drilled into her mind long ago, “but it helps your enemy greatly.”
“So don’t panic. There is an evacuation plan in place. The best chance we have of living is to stick with the plan. The Archons have been working on this their entire lives. There is no way we can do better than them, so we stay put, follow orders, and work the problem as it presents itself. There’s a fight to be had here before they can ever set foot on Earth, and it’ll be at least a few days before they can get here no matter how fast their gravity drives are. We have a little time to prepare.”
“What do you want us to do?” Jenn asked as Sarah was still locked up in stunned silence.
“Follow normal routines until otherwise instructed. Get the panic out of you today so that when they do get here the shock doesn’t paralyze you. That’s probably why they’re telling us now instead of waiting for them to show up in orbit.”
“Why the alarm then?”
“Those of us who know who the V’kit’no’sat are know that alarm, and the moment it sounded they started running off to do the things necessary to prepare. It wasn’t meant for you.”
“Why aren’t you running off then?” Sarah finally spoke.
“I’m not a Commando anymore. You may think I’m fit, but I’m a lot slower and weaker than I used to be. I haven’t been doing enough training even if I wanted to fight. The most I can do now is stay with you two. I’ve got a stinger pistol in my quarters. It won’t do much good against the V’kit’no’sat, but if people around here forget their training and start to panic it’ll be useful. Security is going to have much bigger problems to deal with, so I’ll make sure you two stay safe from whatever nonsense may break out here. Hopefully it won’t, but this is something none of you have faced before.”
“And you have?”
“I’ve seen war, but on the level of what’s coming our way? No. Not even close.”
3
June 11, 3602
Solar System
Earth
Sarah got off work after a very dead shift. No one was interested in shopping while an invasion of the star system was ongoing, but she and pretty much everyone else was still going about their daily activities as instructed then rushing off to somewhere they could watch the news vids.
So far Earth hadn’t been attacked, but there had been major battles elsewhere in the Solar System. The big defense satellites had been moved in near the star to ambush the Dinosaurs when they arrived, but it hadn’t been enough to stop them. Star Force had destroyed some of their ships there, but then the huge enemy fleet went through and systematically busted up all of the satellites using their biggest ship that was near 200 miles wide.
All of their ships were huge, dwarfing Star Force’s much smaller fleet, but Star Force had many more ships that ended up looking like bees stinging the bear that was coming to steal their honey. In this case that honey was Earth, which she’d been told held the most aggressive defenses of any planet in the system. Maybe that was why they hadn’t…
Sarah stopped walking as she heard a roar from a cupola off the promenade she was walking through. There was a large crowd there and not many people walking about, so Sarah headed over and took a look at the huge hologram in the center that showed the ongoing battles wherever they were being fought…except this time it was showing Earth with what looked like the entire Dinosaur fleet in orbit.
“Oh shit,” she whispered as she turned and ran down the promenade, keeping up the pace all the way back to her quarters where she found Jenn and Brad camped out on the couch watching the news feeds.
“They’re here,” Jenn told her as Sarah sat down with them.
“Where are we supposed to go? What are we supposed to do?”
“They haven’t said yet.”
“So we just wait until they’re on top of us?”
“Relax,” Brad urged. “The V’kit’no’sat aren’t thinking about us right now. They’ve got to get through the planetary shields first, and our fleet along with them. They tried with their big ship from range but it wasn’t enough. We’ve got a lot of…there,” he said as the fighting really ticked up as they came in low over the planet and huge glowing beams of energy shot up from the surface and hit the Dinosaur ships in orbit as they simultaneously fought against the tens of thousands of Star Force vessels moving in to confront them.
“What are they…” Brad said, ignoring the girls and trying to figure out what was going on, then he realized what they were up to. “They’re concentrating fire on the shield to create a breach. It means our ships basically have a free shot at them right now because they’re focusing most of their firepower on the planet.”
“Where?” Sarah asked.
“Over Antarctica.”
“Why there?”
“Clan headquarters and a lot of other valuable stuff, but your guess is as good as mine,” Brad said offhand.
“Just be glad they’re not shooting at Europe,” Jenn added. “Are they going to get through?”
“Probably, but I have no idea how strong our shields are and that big ship is firing a superweapon. I can’t remember the name, but it’s something too advanced for us to build and too big for their other ships to carry it…”
“Whoa!” Jenn yelled as a huge explosion ripped apart a building in Antarctica as the shield began to fail and spots opened up letting bits of weaponsfire through. One moment the building was there, then a second later the top half of it was gone and a hurricane of dust and debris mushroomed out to cover the impact site.
“They’re starting to break through. Once they get a clean shot they’ll target the shield generators and open up a permanent hole. This is bad.”
“Are the people down there evacuating?” Sarah asked.
“I hope so. I assume so,” he corrected. “When they saw where the shield was being attacked they probably evacuated the area underneath immediately.”
“That was only minutes ago.”
“Which is why if we’re told to move, we go instantly,” he said firmly. “No bags, just out t
he door to wherever they send us. Stay with me when it happens.”
“You can count on that,” Sarah confirmed as the three of them continued to watch the battle unfold.
As Brad had predicted, the shield generators got hit once big enough gaps in the protective energy layers covering the entire planet allowed pinpoint accurate attacks from the Dinosaur fleet to target them. Each generator had backup shields covering it, but those only delayed the inevitable. The generators nearest the attack zone eventually were destroyed and a vulnerable dot on the map opened up, allowing the enemy fleet to shoot all kinds of things on the planet’s surface, but oddly they didn’t target much, for once the hole was opened they turned their attention to the Star Force fleet that had essentially been punching them in the gut the entire time.
When they did it became an unfair fight, and even with the weaponsfire coming from the big surface-based guns it was clear that Star Force was losing and the closest of those guns were getting picked off through the hole in the shields, creating a safer route down to the surface for the group of ships that broke off from the main fleet and dove into the atmosphere heading for the hole.
“They’re landing ground troops,” Brad said, pointing to the tiny markers indicating the massive ships, but displayed along with everything else in the combined two fleets they still looked small.
Jenn grabbed Brad’s hand and squeezed it hard, but was still watching the battle intently as the main camera angles shifted to a different part of Antarctica as a massive explosion rocked the surface far away from the hole in the shields.
“What the hell?” Sarah asked. “Who’s shooting over there?”
Brad didn’t have time to answer before a huge beam of orange light reached up from the surface and hit the largest of the Dinosaur ships as additional explosions continued to detonate around its origin point.