by J. K. Mabrey
All he had left was his Etanu dreadnought and one Red Moon dreadnought. Zavik took an inventory of the U.E.F. fleet and counted four StarCruisers, one battleship, and one destroyer. Numerous fighters were still engaged in combat around them.
The Etanu dreadnought continued to lay heavy fire down across the line of ships, more an effort to keep them at bay than anything else, Zavik thought.
Suddenly the sensors detected a number of ships entering the system. They poured out of the Earth portal. Reinforcements had arrived, though Zavik wondered if they were really necessary. They had won. Varin was not going to surrender, it was never really an option, but he would run, as Zavik always knew he would. They had saved Garos, the reinforcements were just icing on the cake.
Varin broke into their communications and said, "It appears that you were more prepared for me, that I expected."
"You've lost, again," Zavik said. "Surrender so that we can take you to the Council."
"We both know that will never happen," Varin said. "If I surrendered to you, right now, would you really hand me over, or would I simply disappear? Hmm...I think I know the answer. We're not so different as you think, we're both passionate beings, and when we've been wronged, we like to settle such scores personally. I know I do, and I think you would agree with that."
"I'm nothing like you," Zavik said. "You're an animal, and you should be caged like an animal. You've lost, the Council already knew you were back, they're prepared for you."
He laughed. "Are they know? We shall see. I imagine by now, my forces have taken at least five systems. Soon I will control the entire Outer Spiral. From there it is only a matter of time before the entire Galaxy is under my rule, under the rule of the true Chokmnd Empire."
The U.E.F. ships approached the battlefield and Varin's fleet ceased fire.
"You've lost," Zavik said. "Give it up."
"You may have won this battle, but I shall leave you with a parting gift to remember me by."
Zavik's face turned to horror. The Etanu dreadnought began to fire its heavy weapons at the surface of Garos. Zavik watched frozen as red lasers burned through the atmosphere and scorched the pristine lands. The ships turned, firing at the U.E.F. forces and the planet. They began to move away from the surface of Garos, and Zavik saw a trail of black on the surface through the thinning clouds. He gripped the controls of the Rinada, but Dani placed her hand on his shoulders. She just shook her head and closed her eyes.
The next instant the two ships flashed their engines. A bright light with a hint of purple flared from the exhaust. The two ships disappeared, leaving a trail of light purple dust in their path that reached out to the stars.
Zavik took control of the Rinada from Dani who was frozen, still staring at the scorched path of destruction. He pushed the Rinada into the atmosphere of Garos, traveling much faster than safety regulations allowed. The shields glowed reds from the strain and an alarm sounded, but Zavik ignored the warnings. The ship passed through a cluster of clouds and Zavik slowed its descent.
Thick black smoke rose slowly in the air in front of them. Below the trail of smoke a steady fire roared in a forest below like an uncontrolled torch. Ahead of them was the main campsite of Garos. Zavik let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding since they entered the atmosphere. The campsite was not hit by any of the blasts. Another thick plume of smoke rose north of the campsite, but Zavik couldn't see where it originated from. Below them, hundreds of people were running around.
The Rinada touched down on the fresh grass. Zavik, Dani, Brax and Charra walked off the ship. A faint smell of smoke immediately hit Zavik in the face. A thin haze had sat in over the camp. He looked behind the Rinada and could see the smoke still billowing from the forest fire. Several colonists were running that direction, and some speeders flew past them.
They ran to the command center and found General Walters pouring feverishly over a map of the planet.
He turned around when they approached him and said, "Khan! What the hell was that?"
"Sir?" Zavik asked.
"That ship! Those ships! What the hell were they?"
"Varin's fleet," Zavik said.
"Varin?" the General asked, his face sullen and weak. "So that's why the fleet showed up. They only said they were here for added security. There had been threats against Outer Spiral systems and Earth was taking precautions."
"There were threats," Zavik said, "they came from Varin."
"We saw his ships flee, but they rained down on us pretty hard."
"Was anything damaged in the attack?"
"We're still assessing what was hit," the General said. "A few of those blasts hit near this camp. The ground shook with such furry. If it were to have hit the camp, we would be nothing more than a crater of charred remains. We were lucky."
"He was just shooting to do whatever damage he could," Zavik said. "There's no honor in what he does. He just wants to kill humans, and take over the Galaxy."
"With that ship, he might be able to," the General said.
"That will not happen," Brax said. "Varin can not be allowed to control the Galaxy. He would destroy all that we have worked to build."
"He's already done that," the General said. "Report shows one of our crop fields was hit." General Walters threw down a datapad he was holding. It shattered on the steel floor.
"Sir!" a cadet said as he approached the General. He saluted and said, "Raven camp was hit."
"My God," General Walters said. "How bad?"
"We've gotten no response from our communications. Fleet surveillance says it looks bad."
General Walters looked at Zavik and said, "I've got to go see it."
"We'd like to go with you," Zavik said.
The General nodded. "Accepted, let's go."
They ran to a transport ship and climbed aboard. The General went to the cockpit and the ship rose from the ground with a jerk. Dani sat next to Zavik and Charra and Brax sat across from them in a narrow hallway. The General stood between them and the cockpit looking out the window. They were in the air for only a minute before the General slid a door open. His hand immediately went to his face and he buried his eyes behind his fingers.
Zavik saw a scorched crater. Thick gray and black smoke filled the air outside the transport ship. The ground below still burned. Zavik counted six small fires in the crater. The grass outside the crater burned and was spreading. He remembered seeing the campsite set up before, but it was now unrecognizable. Twisted metal was thrown from the center of the crater into the fields. It lay burning and red hot. The remains of half a building stuck out of the ground, the other half was obliterated by a laser strike.
The transport ship lowered to the ground and touched down outside the crater. General Walters walked off the ship and looked over the destroyed campsite.
Zavik and his crew followed him. Zavik stood at the edge of a ring of burning grass. He brought his boot down on a small fire as it tried to spread. He saw a garden tiller laying half in and half out of the crater. It looked as if it was trying to escape the crater, attempting to save itself from a terrible fate. There were so many people that didn't have that opportunity. No buildings remained standing, and most were utterly unrecognizable to Zavik. He saw what he thought was a colonist's quarters, but it was flattened and charred. A tilled and cultivated section of the ground was now rippled and filled with debris.
The campsite burned and crackled. A small gas canister exploded on the opposite side of them and sent metal and dust flying into the air. A faint cry broke through the active destruction. Zavik instinctively ran forward as Dani cried for him. He heard the cry again, just to his right. There was a thin silver wall leaning against a speeder. He looked under and saw a small girl pinned down by the wall. Her right arm was broken, a small shard of bone stuck out from the torn flesh.
"Hold on!" he said.
She coughed and coughed, but no words were able to escape. Zavik shouted for help and the others ran down to his side. They
all pulled up on the wall, but even put together they could only budge it a couple inches. Dani reached under and pulled the girl out. She sat on the ground and held the girl in her arms. The girl cried and Dani buried her face in her shoulder. Zavik remembered seeing her when they first visited the camp. Her name was Tracy, and she was so excited and full of life then.
Zavik tried to speak but coughed instead. He swallowed and said, "We need to get out of this crater."
They climbed back up to the top, Dani carrying the girl the whole way. "Your name's Tracy, right?" Dani asked.
Between sniffles, she said, "Yeah."
"Can I see your arm, Tracy?"
The girl held her right arm out and grimaced when Dani touched her wrist.
"We're going to fix that right up for you, ok?" Dani said.
"My...my mom."
"Where was your mom?" Dani asked.
"She was inside our room. Is she..."
"We'll look for her," Dani said. "What about your dad?"
"He was..." She began to cry and held her left hand up to her eyes to catch a stream of tears. "He was standing in front of me. The fire took him."
Dani wrapped an arm around her tight. She looked up at Zavik and just shook her head.
He knew they weren't going to find many, if any, other survivors in the campsite. Poor girl. She looked no more than seven. She was already living on a strange planet, and now her mom and dad were dead. He had no words to say, none of them did. They needed to leave, to let a rescue crew sweep through and see if there were any survivors, and to begin salvaging the campsite. There was nothing that was going to be usable, but it still needed to be cleaned out.
The girl looked up at Zavik, her eyes locked with his and no one else's. She asked a question, directed at him that he knew he'd never forget, but knew he would never know.
"Why? Why did this happen?"
His face grew hot and his stomach tightened. He came to the sudden realization that his actions over the last five years had led to this. That, while he had to get involved, and that stopping Varin five years ago was necessary, it led to this attack, this bombardment of the campsite. It led to the death of her parents. He felt guilty and ashamed. He thought if she knew what he had done to make this moment happen she would lay as much blame on him as she would on Varin. Was she right? Was he responsible for Varin's actions? No, but he was responsible for not stopping him. He knew he would come back, but he wasn't concerned about that enough. No one was. The entire Galaxy was more than happy to push Varin out of their minds, and get back to the lives they were leading before his rebellion. Now he was going to give them no option but to focus on him. This time, Zavik was going to kill him. There would be no banishment, no leaving in exile. He had to pay for his crimes, and he had pay with his life.
He opened his mouth to speak. His throat was dry and his voice shallow. "I don't know why he did this, but I promise that he will be brought to justice for his crimes."
The cadet who piloted the transport ship approached them.
"What is it?" General Walters asked.
"Sir, command said to tell you that Earth has relayed a message. Three other planets in the Outer Spiral have gone dark, and a single ship returning from Soltin reports the planet is under the control of unidentified capital ships."
"This can't be happening," General Walters said.
"He's taking over," Zavik said.
"He won't stop at the Outer Spiral," Brax said. "He won't stop until the entire Galaxy is under his control."
"We need to get back to the Rinada," Zavik said. "We have to get to Earth."
"Why?" General Walters asked. "What are you going to do?"
"Varin's just declared war on the Galaxy. It's time we stopped him, for good."
"How?" Dani asked.
"By putting a blaster through his head."
About the Author
J.K. Mabrey discovered he had a passion for creating stories at an early age. He wrote his first book for a school project in elementary school and continued to develop his craft for storytelling while pursing a degree in engineering. His focus has been on sci-fi stories where influences from all manner of media can be detected, but there are many other ideas brewing inside his head. While maintaining the outward appearance of someone who is sane, he's managed to achieve a dream of publishing his work.