E.D.F Chronicles : Eye of the Dracos

by Ian. J. Smethurst

  ***

  Michael, together with the rest of the party on the surface, were beginning the walk back toward the shuttle, the funeral service having been concluded and having observed a two minute silence for the fallen sergeant.

  He knew what he saw was no meteor strike or asteroid, the combined firepower of the fleet in orbit would have either destroyed it or at the very least, diverted it away from the planet. No, that was a ship, but which one? Something had happened in orbit, and he was anxious to get to the shuttle so he could contact the Liberty and find out.

  Taneth, Kallos, and Aelthris all sprinted toward the base, then they picked up the thermal signatures of Michael’s party and instantly flattened to the ground, their black shapes virtually invisible as they stooped so low amongst the undergrowth. This was it Kallos thought, the hunt would soon be over, and he would be victorious; he would be the one who claimed the Eye of the Dracos for his people, and rid the planet of this alien scum. He would return to Corvandris a hero, one who had done what that fool Drax could not. He would have to be careful though, this new species were a worthy adversary, and dangerous. He respected them almost as much as he hated them.

  The trio crept closer to the group, strolling toward one of their own landing craft, it looked a poor comparison to the Dracos assault landers Kallos was accustomed to.

  The party was making slow progress, hampered by an injured female with a slight limp, they would deal with her in their own time. This would make the final kill all the more easier Kallos grinned, he was going to enjoy what was to come.

  The three Kallan patiently crept to within thirty feet of their target, like big cats stalking their prey, still the humans had not noticed them. Aelthris readied her eviscerator rifle, Kallos drew his pistol and waited for a clear shot with his silencer.

  The time had come, and with a silent nod of his dark battlehelm, Kallos began the assault.

  Virtually silenced by the noise of the winds, three eviscerator discs slammed into the back and neck of the closest commando, he fell without a sound as his head was efficiently severed from the poor man’s body.

  The only sound that was audible were the impacts of the ammunition slicing into the fateful commandoes body, a noise similar to a cleaver slicing through thick meat.

  Before the patrol had even realised what was happening, Kallos had dispatched another with a well aimed shot to the spine, the paralysed commando simply crumpled to the ground, this however the party did hear.

  “Holy shit!” Michael shouted as he whirled around at the sound, and saw the two bodies laid in front of him not six feet away.

  “Get to the shuttle, NOW!” Vargev barked, “We’ll deal with this.”

  Taneth was first into action, leaping high into the air as he fired round after round into the commandoes, one was shot through the leg, another lodged in his upper arm. The soldier screamed as the acid took its effect, yet battled to remain focused despite the acute pain. Unfortunately his focus ended as Taneth landed, blade first, on top of him.

  The Dracos warrior kicked out at the other commando almost immediately, sending the trooper clattering to the dirt. Nikolai, however ended his marauding killing spree, by gunning him down mercilessly with his Armschlager, the heavy assault rifle bucked as high velocity slugs tore through the Kallan warrior, almost sawing him in half, at that range Vargev could not miss, and Taneth collapsed into a bloodied mess just yards from the colonels feet.

  Michael, Kathryn, and Logameier were nearing the shuttle, Michael knew Nikolai was in trouble, the colonel could not possibly hope to win alone. He knew he had to help his friend, but also that he could not leave Kathryn either; he was torn, and not for the first time in his life.

  Logameier clambered quickly inside and began to power the shuttle up for immediate liftoff.

  “I’m okay, go!” Kathryn said as she hobbled toward the shuttle boarding hatch.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, GO!”

  Michael un-slung his own pulse rifle, and charged into combat to help Nikolai; sprinting back toward the colonel, there was only him and a badly injured commando left.

  Kallos and Aelthris both leapt from their position into action, Aelthris unleashed a fusillade of fire into the already injured commando, a dozen blades jutted out from the soldiers body, and he also fell to the ground in a heap.

  She had not, however, counted on Michael now charging into the fray, as right behind where the commando had fallen, the Liberty captain stood. His pulse rifle aimed directly at her, and with her leaping through the air towards them, she could not change her direction. Michael simply squeezed the trigger, and blasted her straight through the mid-riff, she screamed aloud in agony and fury combined as she slammed hard into the ground, a second shot silenced her for good.

  Nikolai was fighting Kallos, both putting up an even battle, the Kallan swung his wristblades in an effort to behead the colonel where he stood, though Nikolai managed a block with the body of his weapon, though only barely. The Dracos then performed a graceful backflip kick, catching the Russian just under the jaw, cracking the glass on his breathing apparatus, and sending the commando tumbling to the ground heavily.

  Kallos though, like Drax before him, had made the same fatal mistake; in his fervour for the imminent final kill, he had broken one of the fundamental rules taught to every Kallan warrior. He focused solely on the opponent ahead of him, on Nikolai, thus had not even noticed that Michael was fresh from dispatching Aelthris, and was now levelling his own pulse rifle directly at him.

  “Hunting seasons over!” He whispered as he pressed the trigger.

  Kallos’s head burst apart in a thick spray of crimson froth, his body crumpled to the ground next to Nikolai.

  With a smile, the Liberty captain proffered an outstretched hand to Vargev, who was still lying dazed, face up after landing hard.

  The colonel took Michael’s hand and gradually got to his feet, he was bleeding slightly as the force of the blow caused him to bite into his bottom lip, the blood stained his chin. He held his breath as he took off his cracked mask, wiped the blood with his sleeve, before putting it back on again. The mask was leaking oxygen slightly, but it was better than leaving it off.

  “Cheap shot,” the colonel muttered.

  “That’s another you owe me,” Michael said with a grin.

  “Who’s keeping count?”

  “I think its time we got off this hellhole of a planet, for good.”

  “Couldn’t agree more, lead the way comrade.”

  The two of them made their way back to the shuttle, to be greeted by a relieved Kathryn, and Logameier who had by now fully powered up the craft.

  The hatch slowly sealed behind them, and the gravitic engines kicked into life with their customary whine, gently raising it off the ground before its main engines took over, and the small craft soared skyward.

  The colonel took off his breathing mask, relieved at having finally rid himself of the stuffiness inside the damaged apparatus, and dabbed at his now swelling lip as he looked down at the sight of the wrecked craft on the surface, the massive crater left by the Eisenhower, and the enormous focusing pylons of the eye, and he said, “you know, I’m going to miss it here.”

  Michael smiled, “we could always set her down again.”

  “Heck no; besides too much of a good thing is always bad for you anyway.”

  The shuttle gently climbed through the thick methane cloud cover, through the upper atmosphere, and toward the flotilla waiting above, now a ship lighter.

  With the inter-connecting corridor so badly damaged, Logameier had to attempt a ‘hard dock’ with the Liberty, a manoeuvre that was tricky in the extreme. He had to align the rear of the shuttle in such a way as to line it up exactly with the Liberties still functioning starboard docking hatch. Taking into consideration the shuttles own engine pods overhang the top of the rear hatch by about a metre. The only way to do this safely, and without wrecking the engines was to dock the shuttle
inverted, so that its engines were clear of the warships hull.

  Lieutenant Logameier manipulated the controls, rolling the craft gently so that it exposed its underside to the Liberty. Slowly and very carefully, he reversed the upside down craft, metre by metre, inch by steady inch until the rear hatch gently locked into position with the Liberties hull.

  With a sigh of released nerves, he magnetised the docking coupling clamping the shuttle secure.

  “Welcome home,” he said as he released the rear hatch with a whoosh of escaping air, revealing the battered interior of the Liberty.

  “You know, that was some top notch flying, you sure you don’t want to study as a pilot?” Michael asked as he clapped him on the back.

  “Nah, I’m happy just tinkering around in the ships engine room.”

  After a brief walk; Michael, Kathryn, and Nikolai made their way to an elevator, and were quickly deposited on the bridge. Logameier waved as they parted ways, he returned to engineering to help with the emergency repair effort.

  “Been having a little trouble with the bad guys, I see.” Michael said as he took over the central chair.

  “Just a little,” Kinraid smiled, “The Arizona managed ‘t’ pick up te’ majority of the escape pods, survivors ‘ave been distributed amongst te’ fleet. We ‘ave tree crowded little ships out there, so we ‘ave, and we’ve managed ‘t’ replace our own losses.”

  “Good work commander, have one of the Eisenhower survivors pilot the shuttle back to the Arizona immediately, so we can engage plasma drive and get the heck out of here, I don’t want to delay.”

  “Right wi’ ya’ cap’n” Kinraid said as he took over the auxiliary sensor officers station from Lieutenant Hicks, and quickly began compiling a list. Just a single name came up, Ensign Andrews, Quinn contacted the ensign to let him know of his orders.

  Michael smiled as he looked toward Eldathar ahead, “Well I believe we should be getting underway, plot a new course back to charlie gamma base, bearing zero-eight-five degrees, elevation minus twenty-one. Initiate plasma drive as soon as the shuttle is secured, and contact the fleet to do the same.”

  “Understood captain,” a relieved Eldathar replied.

  “All ships are standing by,” Quinn said.

  The tiny shuttle successfully detached from the dark outer hull of the Liberty, and Michael watched the tiny craft gently fly out towards the much larger Arizona, waiting patiently alongside them.

  The first rays of sunlight shone through from the curved edge of the planet below, illuminating the command structure and dorsal laser turrets of the cruiser, as well as the silhouettes of the Ghandhi class destroyers to either side of it. It looked almost as if a new dawn had come to Auriga III, and in many instances it had, it was no longer a forgotten world, and the Dracos were no longer a forgotten race either.

  “Shuttle is safely secured aboard.”

  “Then let’s get the hell out of this crap hole!” Nikolai said.

  “You heard the man,” Michael smiled as he looked at Eldathar.

  “Goodbye sergeant,” Kathryn whispered as she stared at the planet below, “you will always be in my heart, rest in peace my love.”

  The fleet slowly came about, firing their inter-system boosters with a great roar before activating their plasma drives and disappearing through the swirling multi-hued morass that was the plasma wake.

  The Aurigan sun shone out brightly as they left, a fitting tribute to the brave, gentle hero they had to leave behind.

  14. Reflections

  The return trip to Charlie gamma base had taken two days, for the Liberty alone it would have taken but a matter of hours, yet had to keep pace with the slower vessels of the E.D.F flotilla.

  In that time Kathryn’s leg had come on a long way, she had taken some much needed time to rest, and could walk with only minor discomfort.

  The worst of the damage had been repaired, although the ship still looked rather battered, the micro-fractures in the ships hull and the great twisted rent near the ships engine would require the services of a major naval yard to fix fully.

  Nikolai paced about the ship as usual, being a commando there was one thing the Russian hated, and that was having to sit on his hands. He had been informed that his own Stockholm class lander had been picked up by the Yukon while out on patrol, and was being transported to the base, he was pleased to know it would be there by the time he arrived.

  Michael had a sense of pride at how his ship and crew had performed, they had faced a powerful and relentless enemy, more powerful even than themselves, and defeated it. Though both he and Nikolai had a new found respect for the Kallan’s capabilities in battle, he wondered how the Dracos would fare now that the galaxy knew of their existence again. He guessed that they would simply become more isolationist than they were before and that saddened him. Yes the Dracos were brutal and aggressive and sadistic, despite this the galaxy could still learn a great deal from the technology and skills they employed.

  Kinraid had grown in stature immensely, his handling of the incident with the Eisenhower had shown that he was a capable commander, and Michael suspected that his name would feature highly on the list of possible commanders of the future Valley forge.

  “Approaching Charlie gamma base captain,” Eldathar pointed out.

  “Understood, contact the fleet, tell them to drop out of plasma drive on my mark.”

  There was a brief pause before Kinraid announced, “fleet confirms, all ships standing by.” He kept an audio-link open so that the other ships could hear Michael’s orders.

  “Mark!”

  At once bright white flashes heralded the return of the flotilla, with the battered Liberty at its head.

  The numerous twinkling lights of the outer structure of the small naval yard and research facility were plainly visible in the distance. A Lincoln class supply vessel drifted out from the station, no doubt just completed its latest supply run. Its inter-system boosters fired up and glowed brightly as it headed away from the station.

  “Gentlemen, we’ve come back home.” Michael gave out a slight sigh of relief as he said it, the mission had been a brief but gruelling one.

  “Wherever home is,” Kinraid replied.

  Michael smiled at the sentiment, it was true, the Liberty was one of the most well travelled of all ships in the navy. Home was wherever they happened to be at the time.

  “Increase power to main engines, lay in a standard approach vector.”

  “Aye captain,” Eldathar replied, a smile broke out across the Solarians own blue tinged features, he was also relieved to finally leave that place, the whole thing had been a great wrench on him personally.

  “Contact Charlie gamma base command and control, and request permission to dock.”

  “Aye, sir.” Kinraid carried out the order with his usual level of light hearted professionalism. “Charlie gamma base confirms, we’re cleared for approach, ‘tey also say welcome back, Liberty.”

  “Good to be back,” Michael replied with sincerity.

  The matt-black hull of the warship, slowly glided into the small sub-orbital dockyard. Michael watched as Eldathar expertly guided the ship in, thinking that the small, cramped interior of the relatively remote facility seemed to close over them, as though protecting them, the thought gave Michael a measure of warmth as he continued to watch.

  The interior lights played along the black and silver hull of the ship as it gently drifted further inside, highlighting the crumpled twisted port docking hatch, the site of the damaged inter-connecting corridor.

  The giant searchlights continued to inspect the flotilla as they all slowly glided inside the facility in close formation, it showed up the horrific jagged rent in the Liberties aft section, a painful reminder of just how powerful those Dracos warcruisers really were. If they could do that to the Liberty, a typical E.D.F vessel stood no chance.

  Finally, the small warship came to rest, as its starboard docking hatch clamped onto one of several terminals
with a dull ‘thunk’, Michael breathed a final, relieved sigh; it was over.

  ***

  A few hours later after grabbing some much needed rest, Michael returned to the command and control deck of the facility and submitted his official mission report to Commodore Valente, who thumbed through the information on the data navigator in his office.

  “We took quite a beating out there, fifteen of the sixteen scientists and landing party dead, over twenty commandoes, five on the Liberty herself, another fifteen on the Eisenhower, as well as the losses of both the Eisenhower and the Copernicus.”

  “Aye sir, total casualty count stands at three hundred and forty five, all told.”

  “Well at least we managed to drive those damned Dracos back into their own territory again, how is Kathryn anyway?”

  “She’s pretty shaken up sir, she has been through a lot on this mission.” The understatement of the year, Michael thought, but said nothing.

  “I bet she is, poor woman. You’ve done one heck of a job captain, in very difficult circumstances, once again the Liberty has done us proud.”

  “If I may sir, I have requested that Sergeant Heinrich Rachthausen of the 69th Sicarian guards be honoured with a posthumous citation for bravery. If it wasn’t for his sacrifice and leadership in trying to keep those around him alive, even when faced with such a threat as the Dracos, I don’t think we would have found anyone down there, sir.”

  “Noted, I will take a look through the mission report in more detail with regard to that. If he fought as you say he did, then a citation should be the least of his reward. By the way captain, Admiral Mason sends his congratulations on your success.”