“What are we...,” Anlon started to ask, before he was cut off.
“Just get to Ovrea as quickly as you can and we'll answer all of your questions when you get back. Travel is safe again in Orion, and that's all that you need to know for the time being.”
Anlon nodded and hung up the comlink. He quickly left the room he was training in and rushed to the cockpit of the ship where Falcone and Nimesha were bragging to each other about their pasts. He pushed his way in-between them and cleared his throat obnoxiously when they didn’t respond to him.
“What do you need?” Nimesha asked. “When I said it was going to be a while before we got there, I meant it.”
“We need to initiate sonodrive now,” Anlon told them.
“I'm not initiating sonodrive until I get a response back from another pilot. I’m not going to be locked up in some crodillian cell so they can eat me.”
“It's fine,” Anlon assured them. “They've asked for peace. We can travel safely now.”
“The crodillians asked for peace?” Nimesha laughed. “Who told you that?”
“Alura just called me and told me the Queen sent out a message for peace all over Orion,” Anlon said. “Alura said we need to get the information from the Elders as quickly as we can. Time isn’t something we have to waste anymore.”
Nimesha looked to Falcone. “That was unexpected. Why does Alura want us to get the information so quickly? If they want peace, does it really matter how long it takes us?”
“I don't know,” Anlon shrugged. “She won't tell me anything else until we come back with information.”
“Well,” Falcone looked to Nimesha and shrugged. “Initiate sonodrive. We're about to find out what's on the other side.”
Nimesha chuckled and pressed the button to activate sonodrive. Drakos Mavros lurched forward and white lines streamed past them through the cockpit window in blurs. Anlon turned around and took a seat close to the cockpit. He knew it wouldn't be much longer until they arrived on Ovrea now that they were using sonodrive and he wanted to be ready to go as soon as they touched down. He didn't trust the crodillians would be peaceful and didn't want to take any longer than he had to get this information.
Chapter 7
Pyrrhus and Prime Minister Gidon called everyone into the Debate Hall to discuss battle plans. Many gathered already knew what was going to be said because the leaders present during the call had told others and it’d spread like wildfire. Still, there were some who didn't believe and the meeting had to be called to make sure everyone was on the same page.
Pyrrhus stood on the stage behind a podium with the Prime Minister close by his side. Leaders were quickly filing into the room, trying to get the best spot possible to see those on stage. All the tables and equipment that had been scattered around the room were now moved out of the way to create as much space as possible. Once Pyrrhus saw that leaders had stopped entering the room, he got ready to make his speech.
“A lot of you already know what's going on, but I still have to make sure that everyone us up to date,” he started. “I’ve talked with the Council and they’ve sided with me in not attacking the crodillians right now, as those who were present can confirm. I did tell them that we’ll eventually attack, but a few things must be done first.”
The room darkened and a screen came on behind Pyrrhus. He moved over so that everyone could see a map of Orion displayed. It was zoomed out, making every planet visible. Several areas were marked red, Demeter being completely crossed out, and a skull in Hera’s place.
“The crodillians have taken over four planets already and will take over the remaining planets very soon, including Ares. I’ve decided that instead of waiting around for that to happen, I'm going to start getting rebellion forces established on as many planets as I can,” he pulled out a laser and pointed to a planet. “Hermes will be the first planet I travel to following this meeting. It hasn't been conquered yet, and there is a concealed base in the woods where all rebels will be safe. My plan is to get there before the crodillians so I can get as many races moved as possible,” he looked around the room to look for any who were against his idea, but found none. “After Hermes, I’ll go to Gaea. Though it’s already been conquered, the crodillians have said that peace will ensue on every planet. I know an excellent base where survivors can gather without crodillian knowledge. From there, I’ll travel to the remaining planets and set up base after base until I feel we are strong enough to put up a fight.”
“If the crodillians find out, they'll kill you and anyone that’s planning to rebel,” someone in the audience said.
“Yes,” Pyrrhus nodded. “But it is only a matter of time before the crodillians break their promise of peace and start killing innocents again. When they decide to do that, we'll be prepared. Either way, we're going to strike them, so if you’re not with us, I suggest you leave now and find someplace where neither of us can get to you. The Queen has bought us time for one reason, and one reason only. We’re going to fight. We’re going to take our homes back.”
“How soon will we strike them?” Another member of the audience asked.
“As soon as we can,” Pyrrhus told them. “We're gathering information right now on possible ways to defeat them. By the time that's done, I should be close to finishing the establishment of bases. We won't strike as soon as I'm done because we'll have to get a battle plan in place, but we’ll attack soon after I’ve wrapped up,” he looked around the room for anymore questions. “Prime Minister Gidon will be in charge while I'm gone. He knows what the Council wants, so don't push for things that won't happen. When the time to strike comes, you will all know. Be patient and don’t give up hope.”
Pyrrhus stepped down from the stage and made his way through the thick crowd of leaders. He exited the Debate Hall and headed directly towards the hangar without a word to anyone. When he arrived, he saw his ship already fired up and ready for take-off. He boarded and sat down next to the pilot.
“Where are we headed to?” The pilot asked.
“Take me to Hermes,” Pyrrhus answered. “We have a rebellion to start.”
Anlon stood up when he felt Drakos Mavros decelerate from sonodrive. He quickly ran up behind Falcone and Nimesha to see if there were any enemy ships already at Ovrea. All that loomed before them was a bright white and blue planet.
“Well,” Falcone said. “Looks like we got lucky. No crodillians in sight.”
“You're saying,” Nimesha smiled and let out a laugh. “There's not a ship to be seen for miles, but that could change at any moment.”
Camillus and Kanti approached them from behind. They both looked out the window over his shoulder and were also surprised that there were no ships. The area was lifeless, silent. It was the complete opposite of the rest of the galaxy, but Nimesha was right, it could change in the blink of an eye.
“Now that we're here, where do we go, Camillus?” Falcone asked. “It was your idea to come here, now tell me where to land this beauty.”
“It's right there,” Camillus pointed to the South end of Ovrea covered in the whitest snow. “Just land there. I'll direct better once we're in Ovrean airspace.”
“Alright,” Falcone piloted the ship in the general direction Camillus had pointed. “I hope you know what you're talking about. I don’t want to be flying all over the place because you don’t know where they are.”
Anlon stared out of the window and watched as Ovrea got closer. The closer they got, the whiter it seemed to get, already making him feel cold. Once Falcone entered the planet, the ship was swarmed with grey clouds and visibility was near impossible.
“Got to love Ovrea,” Nimesha said. “They have the best weather. Snow all year long with the harshest blizzards you’ll ever get stuck in.”
The ship rocked slightly as winds picked up, but Falcone had no problems. Once he flew out of the clouds, blankets of ice laid before them. Miles and miles of pure, white, ice and tall mountains with peaks that were enveloped by the clouds.
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“Where am I going now?” Falcone asked. “All I see is a bunch of snow and mountains to maneuver through.”
“You see those mountains over there?” Camillus pointed.
“Yeah, there’s only a few of them,” Falcone nodded sarcastically. “Right over there, and there, and there’s some more over there.”
“Go to those,” he pointed to a cluster of smaller ones. “We won’t be climbing any of the others you see around us.”
Falcone piloted the ship to the mountains and intensity of the storm picked up dramatically. Nimesha looked over to him to see if there was anything she could do to help, but it was obvious Falcone didn't want to be disturbed. He circled around the mountain, looking for a spot to land, and after finding no place on the mountain, worked his way to the base. He took the first clear spot to put the ship down.
“This is one hell of a storm,” Nimesha said. “We should probably stay in the ship until it passes. It’s not a good idea to try climbing in this.”
Camillus shook his head. “It's not going to pass anytime soon. I'm looking at the radar and this storm could last for hours. It’s massive.”
“We should wait it out,” Falcone said. “Going out in this could cause more problems than it's worth. I’ve been caught in stuff like this before and I’d rather stay someplace warm until it’s calmed some.”
“We can't wait anymore,” Kanti said. “We have to hurry and find out what the Elders know. Orion is depending on us. This is just a storm, we’ll be fine.”
“They Elders will still be there if we wait a couple of hours and the crodillians have said they’ll be peaceful,” Nimesha said. “There’s really no rush right now.”
“We'll be able to travel through it fine,” Anlon said. “It's just snow. How bad could it be?”
“And it's freezing cold. This isn't your typical Gaea winter where a jacket keeps you warm,” Nimesha crossed her arms. “Plus, who knows what's lurking around out there. We’ll hardly be able to see what’s in front of us, we could be attacked by wild animals.”
“We have to go now,” Anlon urged. “We've taken our time long enough, we'll be able to travel through it.”
“It's quite a long way to travel,” Camillus told them. “It's at the very top of the mountain. If we wait for this to pass, there's no guarantee it won't be followed by another storm just as big. Anlon and Kanti are right to want to leave now.”
“Well, Nimesha, looks like the ones with some common sense are outnumbered on this one,” Falcone chuckled. “Bundle up warm because if you don't, you're going to freeze in places you never knew could freeze.”
Anlon and Kanti walked up the stairs and went to his bunker. He opened his closet and pulled out two long sleeve shirts and two pairs of pants similar to his suit. He changed into his shirt and pants, instantly feeling warmer. Anlon looked over to see that Kanti was still changing into hers and he rummaged through his closet some more, pulling out some heavy sweatpants, gloves, masks, and coats. He walked over to Kanti and handed pairs of each to her.
“Just in case the suit can't keep up with the cold out there,” Anlon smiled.
Kanti took them from him. “I can already feel the cold coming off the walls of the ship. I'm sure that it's more than freezing out there.”
Kanti was right, he could also feel the temperature of the ship rapidly dropping. The metal was emanating the cold from outside. He put on his pants, coat, and gloves and waited for Kanti to finish getting hers on before walking down to the deck with her.
“Everybody ready?” Falcone asked. “The ship is reading a temperature of negative forty out there. It looks like we came on a good day.”
“Ohh I'm ready,” Nimesha purred. “I don't know about you humans, and bird, but I'll be warmer than all of you.”
“Actually, I think Camillus over there will be the warmest since he doesn't even know what cold is,” Falcone smirked.
“Very funny,” Camillus walked past him. “But unfortunately, the technology inside me is sensitive to temperature this cold, so I’ll be feeling it in a different way than you, but I’ll feel it. Now let's go before it gets any worse out there.”
Falcone opened the ramp of the ship and all of them were hit with a blast of frigid air. Anlon quickly found out that the suit wasn't designed for weather this cold, as chills ran down his whole body and his skin began to prick. He put his mask on and walked out of the ship into the knee deep snow.
“I think the armored cruiser will probably be our best bet,” Anlon said. “It's at least covered so we’ll be provided some protection from this.”
Camillus shook his head. “If we're going to use anything to get up this mountain, it'll have to be the glider bikes. There's places where the cruiser won't be able to travel and walking in this isn’t the best idea.”
“Great,” Kanti said. “We're all going to freeze to death. Remind me to listen to you next time Nimesha”
“Ahh come on, it won't be that bad,” Nimesha smiled. “It'll only feel twenty degrees colder flying on that thing.”
Falcone walked down the ramp as the gliders were lowered from the compartments. He closed the storage areas by hand and hopped on one of the gliders. Nimesha walked over and got on one of her own, as did Camillus. Anlon got on the last one and Kanti boarded behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
Anlon started up his glider and looked over to Camillus. “Lead the way!”
Anlon followed Camillus as he began up the steep, white, mountain. The frigid air pierced his eyes through the mask he was wearing, causing his vision to blur. Camillus was traveling up the slope steadily, but very carefully, watching out for any danger. Anlon could feel Kanti start to hug him tighter, but he wasn't sure if it's because she thought she was going to fall off, or if she was trying to get warmer.
The further they traveled the mountain, the colder the temperature became and the harsher the storm raged. It wasn't unbearable yet, but Anlon had a feeling that it would be very soon. The raged with fury, and soon, keeping Camillus in sight wasn't easy. Anlon stuck to him as best he could, but the storm was becoming blinding. Getting stranded alone on this mountain would be sure death, and a cold one at that.
Jahdiel walked into the reception room to see if Merikh was there keeping up with news of the conquered planets. It didn't take her long to see him absorbed in one of the screens, talking to a crodillian on the comlink. It sounded like everything was going just as planned, which would make what she was about to request that much easier. She stopped once she was behind him and lightly tapped his shoulder with her finger.
“Merikh, I need to ask you something,” she said. “It’s about the fleets.”
Merikh spun around in the chair. “What is it? Why aren't you with them right now?”
“I wanted to see if I could conquer multiple planets at a time.”
“No,” Merikh said without a second thought. “You’ll use two fleets per planet like we discussed and you’ll be present for everyone.”
“But I think it'd be better if we just used one per planet,” she insisted.
“No, Jahdiel,” Merikh repeated. “Two fleets per planet. One will always stay here and another will stay on standby in case of an emergency on another planet.”
“Merikh,” she kept pushing. “If we only conquer one planet at a time, it could take weeks to conquer the remaining planets. We could speed things up by doing it my way.”
“It's too risky to send one fleet alone. I won’t do it, not now. We’ve won and I won’t take any missteps because you want to speed things up.”
“But if they're not going to rebel, what's there to worry about?”
“Don't be fooled into thinking they're not going to rebel,” Merikh warned. “If we conquer the planets with one fleet and there is a large scale rebellion at the same time you're trying to conquer another planet, then we're in trouble. If we come with two, they won't think to rebel against us, and with another on standby, there is no chance they'll succe
ed.”
“They have nothing left,” Jahdiel urged. “There’s no reason to be cautious now. We haven’t been up to this point and look where it’s gotten us.”
“Ahh,” he held a finger up. “And that's why they'll rebel. They have nothing left to lose. Their Queen just told them to surrender, and what choice do they have but to surrender?”
“None. It’s their only option if they want to live,” she answered. “And that's exactly why more than one fleet is unnecessary.”
“All it takes is one rebel. That lone rebel could persuade an entire planet to rebel, then an entire galaxy. On top of that, we don't know if they hid ships from the Queen. We know nothing about any of these races except that they're desperate. Desperate races do desperate things. If they decide to give in to that desperation, I’ll have fleets ready to wipe them out.”
Jahdiel held her breath and looked at one of the screens directly in front of her. It was of Gaea and she could see that the fires had finally settled. There were a few races roaming the streets and crodillians were watching them with weapons at their sides. There were other races cleaning up the streets and repairing buildings that had crumbled. It was weird to see the crodillians not killing, but it wasn’t because they didn’t have the urge, they feared their leader, and they respected him. She knew it wouldn't last long and the crodillians would become bloodthirsty, and of course, so would Merikh, and when that happened, Orion was doomed.
“Okay, Merikh,” Jahdiel gave up. “One planet at a time with two fleets.”
“I'm glad you understand the importance of being cautious,” Merikh turned back around in his chair. “What planet are you going to take first?”
“We'll go to Ovrea,” she responded. “It's a quiet planet, but it’ll be a quick planet to conquer and it’ll discourage races from retreating to the outer reaches of Orion.”
“Then go,” Merikh motioned with a flick of his claws. “The quicker it gets done, the less chance the races have to think about rebelling against us, if they are foolish enough to think about it.”
Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) Page 7