Bowing slightly in respect. Blake also nodded and turned to Rom and Xera
“We need to get those charges planted along the canyon, can you guys do that while I secure the Temple?”
Rom nodded and motioned for Xera to come on.
Blake turned to the lizard
“Is there a private place where I can have a moment for… meditation?” He asked,
and Gruntou nodded leading Blake into the Temple.
Rom and Xera made it to the far side of the canyon in minutes running as fast as their enhanced limbs would carry them.
The Specter was already gone, but there was a locked crate where it had been.
Rom punched the code, and the lid slid back revealing large brown squares with small screens on them. He picked up several and motioned for Xera to do the same.
“What are these,” she asked looking one over.
“It’s an antimatter bomb. Basically, it’s one-sixteenth of a gram of antimatter that is introduced to the same amount of matter surrounded by the case you are now holding produces something like 12-20 Terajoules of force. It will be enough to bring down that canyon wall without destroying the canyon. It’s an oldie but a goodie”.
Rom said with a chuckle. Xera looked at him curiously
“How do you know so much about bombs?”
He just looked up at her innocently
“What, I like to blow things up, it’s not as bad as it sounds.”
Xera shook her head and walked down the canyon reading her optical screen for the locations to place the bombs. She looked over at Rom after thinking for a moment.
“Hey Rom, I am not a whiz at math, but that kind of force sounds like it would destroy this canyon!” She yelled at him.
Rom stopped what he was doing and walked over to her.
“Normally it would, but look at your sensors these canyons, aren’t canyons they are pretty much a straight deposit of ferrous metal right under the surface of the canyon dirt,
probably what the beings that brought the captains people here were looking to mine,
the whole planet is lousy with it. We need an amount of force that will not only shatter the deposit but bring it down further into the canyon narrowing the path”
he said looking at his own readouts.
Xera nodded, it made sense, kind of but she was still nervous. As they began placing bombs Xera finally couldn’t resist asking the question she had been holding onto
“So, Rom, I have to ask, I know why I am here, trying to protect the temple and all, but what the hell are you doing here, I mean do you have any skin in this game?” Rom smiled,
“You have been hanging around the captain and Kree too long, you are starting to talk like them,
but to answer your question, The Empire is my enemy, and I have pledged my loyalty to the captain, it is a sacred thing among my people,
I could no more leave the captain to die then I could shoot myself in the head.
It would dishonor my ancestors;
besides I get to play with bombs”
the big bull said holding up an explosive and grinning.
Xera smiled and shook her head.
It was as good an answer as any.
Blake sat silently in the darkroom and began to breathe deeply, letting all thoughts slip away from him. After a moment, he smelled the hint of Jasmine and opened his eyes,
he was back in his grandmothers living room with that same strikingly beautiful woman sitting across from him.
“Hello Morgan,” he said with a smile.
She nodded and handed him a glass of scotch,
“I thought you would come to see me” was all she said as she sat, as always erect in the chair waiting. Blake wasn’t sure how to say this, in fact, he had been trying to find a way to say it for a day now, thus why they were having this conversation in the temple and not on the ship.
Finally, he just figured, out with it and opened his mouth to a flood of words
“Morgan, we are probably going to die out here, but you don’t have to, I can remove you and hand you to the Temple initiates who can get you back safe to the ship to be paired with someone else.” He paused to gauge her reaction.
Morgan smiled, a small smile
“Captain, are you worried about my safety? “
she asked her smile getting a little wider.
Blake just put his hands against his forehead and spoke though muffled
“I am just saying you don’t have to end here, you can survive, it doesn’t look good for me,
but you have a chance.”
He raised his head out of his hands to look at her, she was beautiful,
damn she had chosen that form right he thought. Again, she was smiling and waiting,
he felt like an idiot, a fool he was trying to save her, and she was treating this like a joke;
finally, his anger got the better of him.
“Dammit Morgan, I am going to die on this planet, think about yourself for a fucking minute,
I can save you, you don’t have to die with me!”
He suddenly realized it was true,
he hadn’t thought about it or recognized it until now, but he would probably die on the surface of this planet. He really didn’t know how that made him feel, he wasn’t panicking, or sad or mad.
Just here and that worried him the most.
Was he resigned to his death?
He looked deep within himself and realized he was not, that there was still hope,
and he would cling onto that for as long as he could.
“Morgan, I am serious, we need to try and save you.” Morgan just sat silently, thinking and in a low voice spoke
“Blake, I will not leave you at your time of need, that is not how we work, but know this should you fall, and I am in danger of being captured, I will self-destruct, I will not let myself be captured for information or use.” she finished solemnly.
Blake shook his head.
“Dammit Morgan, you don’t have to, I can get you safely away before the battle”
he was trying to get her to see,
she could be saved she did not have to die with them. What was the deal, she was a machine?
or was she? They had conversations and shared jokes, how would he know if she was just a machine or a sentient being.
He remembered watching the movie,
it was boring for him, but everyone else seemed to like it, he tried to remember it was called
‘The Imitation Game.’ Some guy built some crazy computer, but he had a conversation in that movie and mentioned something it was the same as the title and then later when he told someone they said ‘Turing test.’
Something about talking to someone without seeing them and if you could not tell if it was a machine then it had passed the sentient test.
He groped for more, but it wasn’t there,
but he thought back, he had conversations with Morgan, and jokes and more had he not known what she was he could have mistaken her for a person, did that make her alive,
or just cleverly programmed.
He didn’t know, but still, he thought she deserved saving so while the thoughts in his head wrestled with the concept of a living machine the captain tried once more to convince her to accept his offer, of which she refused. She would follow this through either to victory or death along with the others. He would still try to get her out along with the others if the time came,
if they were losing to the point of dying,
he would have them take her from his head and retreat while he held them off.
He would not lose any of his crew,
this he vowed to himself
Blake came back to reality in time to see Rom and Xera entering the temple,
the explosives were placed, and now all they had to do was wait for the guests of honor.
Blake had sent an initiate to reinforce his message to the Croatoan’s not to interfere,
he didn’t want any more deat
h on his conscience.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE
THIRTYNINE
Hammer and the Fist
The Empire fleet with their many ships erupted from slip space like a school of sharks prowling for prey as they entered into the Kilgar system. Engines fired casting yellow over the fading red overtones of slip space as ships reoriented themselves to the flagship and began to move towards the fourth planet.
Craylor had waited impatiently for weeks, reviewing all the information they had on the planet and on the Captain and his crew,
though now no longer worried about them using the Nismel since by all reports it was beyond salvage. After the space station,
he wondered if they would even show up,
if they would find another ship and try and stop them, or even if they knew he was here.
He smiled if they didn’t, they would get a surprise once he had the information from the drive,
he would find out where they were,
and where the machines were and finally have everything, he needed to ensure the dominance of the Empire and the gratitude of a thankful Emperor. More importantly,
the backing of his grandfather when he asked to be put in charge of the family upon his demise.
He could already feel the power that he would wield, the entire family afraid of him and as the patriarch, he would wield the power of the Emperor and the family making his line the most powerful in the Empire itself.
His black eyes shifted over the bridge and as his mood improved so did the pallor of his oily green skin. He shifted his large bulk in the chair and called up the Colonel of the Empires Fist,
the full battalion of the most experienced Soldiers in the Empire.
Rachart answered the hail, knowing full well who it was, his gunmetal grey fur bristled a little as the picture of Craylor with those beady black eyes and wide-set mouth came over the holo.
“Colonel are we ready for the assault,”
Craylor asked, as if it was, he who had planned and would lead the assault himself,
Rachart didn’t even think Craylor knew his name aside from the title of Colonel.
Rachart forced himself to look at the camera instead of rolling his eyes or pinning back his ears as he wanted to do every time this thing came on the screen. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out. “Yes, your eminence, we are prepared for the coming battle, please inform me when you wish us to launch,” Rachart said cutting the transmission. He turned to the young feline female who was still seated at his desk.
He smiled as he looked her over, they had been friends for as long as either could remember and it was threatening to bud into something more, Rachart shook clear those thoughts,
this was not the time for that,
this was the time for professionalism,
they would have a chance to talk about that later. “Do you understand what I am asking you to do?” he said leveling those knowing yellow eyes at her. In contrast, she had a white coat blotched with large brown and black spots with intelligent brown eyes that seemed to look directly into you when she leveled her gaze in your direction.
Her name was Captain Elvera, and she was the top intelligence officer for the battalion,
there was no one better for quiet infiltration.
She seemed small in the chair next to Rachart’s towering height and girth,
but she was very capable and aside from Rachart’s known experience using her for clandestine missions she had glowing recommendations from her previous superiors.
Elvera looked at him with those knowing eyes and nodded once.
“Alright check out your gear, you will launch under cover of the initial invasion attack on the planet” Rachart recited from the briefing notes he had in his hands and dismissed her.
He checked over equipment manifests and gear load outs to ensure his soldiers had everything they needed when he saw a discrepancy he fired a note off to the supply officer to ensure that it was taken care of before launch.
The ships were still hours away from launching the attack, Sensors were actively pinging as the system viewers populated, filling in friend or foe icons for everything in the system that was not natural,
so far nothing was coming back.
Rachart settled into his chair,
he had heard about the human and the crew of the Nismel and read the reports from the station,
no one could move that fast,
or be so deadly against trained Creaton soldiers. However, reports had come in from the freighters out at Hisvah, and they claimed to be wiped out by an unknown being,
the emperor’s prize taken.
And if the reports were to be believed one matching the description of the prize was seen with the crew on the station.
Was he to believe that a few unknown beings on a stolen ship wiped out an entire battle-hardened platoon of Creaton soldiers.
Impossible, the reports had to have been embellished to make the commander seem less incompetent, Rachart had seen it before.
Some commander makes a mistake and blames the amazing skill of the enemy for the defeat.
Six hours later the ships reached the outer atmosphere of the fourth planet and settled into orbit. Craylor transmitted a message to the temple demanding the unconditional surrender of the temple and its property to the Empire.
The response that came back was of a light colored five-digit hand with one finger raised,
the middle one.
Craylor looked confused at the screen and then at the com officer
“What does that mean” he asked.
The com officer looking even more confused, shrugged
“A denial of the demand?” he asked more then said.
Craylor settled in his chair and then after a moment steeled his resolve.
He punched the console on his chair to reach that Colonel
“Ready the attack, ensure you have the equipment to take that temple intact,
failure will not bode well for you or your men,
is that understood.” Craylor said in a menacing tone leaving no doubt in Rachart’s mind that if they failed the entire battalion would be left for dead or those that survived execution or prison.
“Sir, will we have support from the ships,
I might need to call down surgical bombardments if needed,” Rachart asked.
Craylor thought for a moment
“As long as it does not endanger the temple, yes you will have support from the fleet”
Craylor ended the call and stared at the planet, so close to having everything,
just a little while longer now.
The sensor officer cleared his throat, and Craylor focused those Black eyes on him
“What is it” he asked annoyed.
The sensor operator seemed to blanch a little but continued
“Sir, there is evidence of recent demolition in the canyon, as well as there seem to be three beings set up at the entrance to the temple, just waiting there.” He seemed confused,
but Craylor waved his hand
“Probably mining on the planet,” he said and waved him off. The Captain of the ship looked from the sensor officer to Craylor and then seemed to set himself to a decision
“Your Eminence, this might suggest a trap of some kind, permission to contact the Colonel and let him know of this development”
Craylor thought about it and then waved a hand. “Yes, yes that’s fine,” he said already moving on to dreaming about the riches he would have.
Rachart received the message as the troops were getting into the transports and nodded to the captain “Thank you, captain, this is important” Rachart sat down at the head of the transport and brought up the scans of the area,
the captain had been right, the recent demolition had choked the canyon creation a death corridor for any who entered.
Rachart thought for a moment and then turned to the supply officer
“Captain, I need you to pack the elec
tro-shields, now!” The Supply officer having completed outfitting everyone was just starting to relax.
At the request of the Colonel,
he snapped back up and began ordering his men about. It took about 25 minutes,
but the gear was loaded, and the transports were ready to launch Within the hour Craylor called down
“It’s time Colonel, launch now.” The transports left the safety of the launch bay and entered the turbulent flows of the planet’s upper atmosphere. Like great snakes of fire, they descended into the lower atmosphere to settle into a course that would take them to the mouth of the canyon.
One small ship broke off from the group and seemed to streak towards the surface,
once getting about a houses level from the ground it pulled up and raced across the surface of the planet to a different destination,
and mission. Within the hour the transports had landed and unloaded the troops, once, offloaded the transports rocketed back towards the fleet.
The one that stayed was filled with sensor and communications equipment and became the command center for this invasion.
His troops had done this many time sometimes even under fire, as soon as they unloaded and checked their gear the soldiers quickly and efficiently lined up for inspection.
Two of the platoons set their men on the outer edge creating a perimeter in case of attack.
The landing zone and Command and Control were set. Rachart called upon his platoon commanders, and within moments all 5 were standing in front of him crisply at attention.
He laid out his plan with them,
a few questions were asked but never in contradiction, only to ensure they understood. After years of subjugating worlds,
there was no force more efficient than his.
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