“And I hear that the worldwide broadcast is about to start any second. Here we go.”
The picture cut to a large room. It was the Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street. Four men were sitting in a row at a long table, facing the camera.
The men were the Prime Minister, Agamon, Mulciber and Slater.
“Good morning,” said the Prime Minister. “As you are aware, this video feed is being broadcast to every nation on Earth.” He paused. “First of all, I must apologise. When the British and American governments first learned about aliens, we were determined to hide their existence. But obviously that became impossible after the public dealings of Moonstone. And now we are in even worse danger.” He turned to Agamon. “Please.”
“My name is Agamon.” He was not in disguise. His hair was white and his eyes were bright purple. “And, yes, I am an alien. This is Valdragor Slater, and this is Mulciber King. We belong to a race known as the Axis Lords.”
“We are here to give you a warning,” said Slater. “Our people—the Axis Lords—are seeking to destroy the Earth. Their reasons are complicated, but I will try to simplify. There used to be a prison on Earth, a secret Axis Lord prison. My people seek to destroy the prison, along with the rest of the planet.”
“We hope to stop them,” said Mulciber. “We are raising as much support as possible.” He paused. “But we will not give you false hope. The Axis Lords are powerful. We will try to defeat them, but it may not be possible.”
The Prime Minister sighed. “You will have seen it reported on the news, recently, that Britain and Russia were stockpiling arms for a future war. In truth, Britain and Russia have been working together. We hoped to gather enough missiles between both countries to use against the Axis Lords. But it emerged that the missiles would not be adequate.”
“The Axis Lords have excellent shields,” explained Agamon. “Even with my modifications, the missiles could not harm them. The only way to defeat the Axis Lords is to battle them according the ancient laws of the Axis Lords.”
“There is certainly nothing any human can do to help,” said Slater. “So it is important that all of you stay indoors until further notice for your own safety.”
“The human race has never faced such a great danger,” said the Prime Minister. “Without these Axis Lords sitting next to me, we certainly would not stand a chance. If we do survive this, it will be thanks to Agamon, Mulciber and Slater.”
“Like Mulciber said,” Agamon went on, “the chances of defeating the Axis Lords are tiny. But we will try. I promise that we will do our best to save you. The Axis Lord ships will not harm you until the outcome of the battle has been decided. If we win, the Axis Lords will leave you alone. All we can do now is pray to the Wheelmaster that we will be victorious.”
Martin glanced at Darcy and Tommy. Unlike the other humans, they couldn’t sit back and watch. They had to fight.
*
The three teenagers were sitting in Valiant Star. Slater was in the control room, and they were waiting in silence.
“I’m scared,” said Darcy.
Martin took hold of her hand and squeezed it tightly.
“Then stay behind,” he said. “Please stay behind.”
“The selfish part of me really wants to stay,” said Darcy, “but I just can’t. I’m not going to let you go into battle alone.”
Martin sighed. Before the worldwide broadcast, Agamon had managed to contact the Axis Council again. They had agreed to settle their dispute on the battlefield.
The battle was due to take place on an artificial battle island created by the Axis Lords. Axis Lord battles were quite different to human ones; the rules were very strict and formal. Each side was only allowed 100 fighters, and the terrain was carefully agreed in advance.
The battle would decide the fate of the Earth. If the Axis Council’s forces won, the planet would be destroyed. But if they lost, the Earth would be spared.
Tommy sighed. He had been clenching his fists since climbing aboard the ship, and his knuckles were white.
“We’ll get through this,” said Martin, not feeling as brave as he sounded. “We’ve been through difficult things before.”
“This is different,” said Tommy. “When we defeated Moonstone that was just one Axis Lady. But there are 100 Axis Lords coming for us.”
“But we’ll be prepared!” said Martin. “We have 100 fighters on our side as well. And I’m sure Slater will have a few tricks up his sleeve.”
Tommy shrugged. “I hope so. It’s just… Fire Opal’s still in Italy. If I die in the battle I’ll never see her again. I wish I’d spoken to her first.”
Martin put a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Come on, don’t talk like that. We will survive this!”
“I hope so.”
Eventually, the ship began to slow down. Martin glanced out of the window. He could see the ocean beneath them.
Suddenly, the water began to be disturbed. Something was rising up from the sea. It was land. Martin watched as the green island pushed its way up out of the water.
Martin pointed. “Look. That’s the island. That’s where the battle’s going to take place.”
Darcy and Tommy stood up to look. As they watched, artificial clouds began to appear over the island.
“Terraforming clouds,” said Slater.
They turned around; nobody had heard him enter.
“The battlefield is being prepared,” he said. “We must wait.”
Two more ships were approaching from the north.
“Ah,” said Slater. “Some more of the troops have arrived.”
“Who else is fighting?” said Tommy.
“Agamon, Mulciber and Aurora are all coming in the Helios, but they have not arrived yet. I believe Mulciber’s friend, an Axis Lord pilot, is also coming.” He pointed to one of the ships. “Fifty more Axis Lords from the City of Serenity are on board that ship—we only picked the strongest.”
“What about the second ship?” said Darcy, pointing at a red saucer.
“Pendulum Officers. Mulciber managed to get hold of them somehow; he reprogrammed them to make them fight for us.”
“So we’ve managed to raise the full one hundred troops?” said Martin.
Slater nodded. “I believe so. Oh, that reminds me.”
The Axis Lord took his pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket and spoke into it.
“Now,” he said. “The Valiant Star is hovering above the Battle Island.”
“What are you—” Martin began, but with a loud pop, two people appeared on the ship.
Martin recognised the man.
“Levanté!” he said.
“Hello!” said Levanté. He was holding hands with the young girl that had appeared next to him. “This is Stone,” he said.
Slater smiled at Levanté. “It’s good to see you!”
“Good to see you too, uncle.” He paused, his eyes darkening. “I just wish we could have met in more pleasant circumstances.”
“Well, thank you for coming,” said Slater.
Slater shook Stone’s hand. She was a young girl of about twenty. Her hair was tousled and messy, but her eyes were bright blue.
Martin glanced out of the window again. The Battle Island was now covered in snow. Slater peered at the island.
“It’s time,” he said.
Slater left the room. Martin, Darcy, Tommy, Levanté and Stone stood in silence. A few seconds later, Valiant Star began to slowly descend.
Then they landed on the Battle Island.
*
They climbed out of Valiant Star. The Battle Island was essentially a large snow-covered field. It wasn’t snowing anymore; the terraforming clouds had vanished.
Martin looked at the sky; it was white and overcast. Two more ships landed next to Valiant Star. The first opened and fifty men marched out. They were tall, muscular Axis Lords. The men stood to attention on the snowy field.
The second ship opened, and fifteen Pendulum Officers clim
bed out.
Darcy turned to Slater. “How long do we have?”
“About three hours until the battle starts. I expect that Agamon will want to go over our battle strategy when he arrives.”
The Battle Island had been designed so there was nowhere to hide. There were no mountains, no convenient rocks or wooded areas. It was just a wide stretch of barren white. All they could do was stand, waiting, in the snow.
Eventually, the sound of another engine filled the air. They all looked up. It was Mulciber’s ship, the Helios. The craft landed; Mulciber stepped out first, followed by Aurora.
Martin ran to his grandfather and mother.
“Mum. I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Of course,” said Aurora. “I could not stand by and do nothing.” She stroked Martin’s head. “Don’t worry—I’ll try not to get myself killed.”
Agamon and a young man Martin didn’t recognise stepped out of the ship. Martin guessed he was the pilot Slater had mentioned. The man shook Martin’s hand.
“Good to meet you at last,” he said. “My name’s Jaspin Zegrak. I met Mulciber when I was co-pilot on his prison ship.”
“Oh, right,” said Martin.
Dr Peter Ackerman also stepped out of the ship. He looked very pale, and his hands were noticeably shaking. Martin smiled at him; Ackerman returned the smile unconvincingly.
Martin greatly respected Ackerman for turning up for the battle. Martin hadn’t thought him a very brave man, but it had turned out that he was.
Another Axis Lord stepped out of the Helios, along with a young girl. It was Laser Wolf and Fire Opal.
“What the hell are you doing here?” said Tommy, running over to the ship.
“Hello, Tommy,” said Fire Opal.
“You shouldn’t have come,” said Tommy. He looked like he was about to cry. “I didn’t even tell you about the battle because I wanted to protect you.”
“She insisted on coming,” said Laser Wolf. “I couldn’t stop her.”
“When we found out about the battle I knew you’d fight,” explained Fire Opal. “I couldn’t risk… risk anything happening to you before I had seen you again.”
Tommy kissed Fire Opal, and she blushed.
“You still shouldn’t have come,” said Tommy passionately.
“What else could I do?” said Fire Opal.
Everyone looked up as more men climbed out of the Helios. They were humans. There were fifteen of them, and they were all wearing body armour.
“SAS men,” explained Slater. “Those twenty men are the most highly-trained fighters on the planet.”
Darcy glanced around at the troops. She’d been counting. She turned to Slater, frowning.
“There are only 98,” she said. “We were supposed to have an army of 100.”
Slater smiled. “Remember when I left you after we had visited Wormwood? I told you that I was going to find an old friend.”
“Levanté?” said Martin.
“Levanté got in touch with me himself when he learned about the battle. No, I went looking for someone else. And I found him.”
At that moment, the sound of another engine filled the air. An enormous ship began to descend; it was a bright golden colour, and it was so large that it cast a shadow over the assembled troops. The ship landed a few metres away from Valiant Star. And then an Axis Lord stepped out.
Martin could hardly believe it. It was Falcon. Martin, Darcy and Tommy ran towards the alien. He beamed when he saw them.
“Martin, Darcy, Tommy,” he said. “How good to see you all again!”
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” said Martin. “Agamon told me that you had escaped, but…”
“I know, I know,” said Falcon. The alien ran a hand through his white hair, surveying the army. “We are one soldier down.”
Martin suddenly realised why. “We called Abaddon using a recall device,” he said. “Agamon and Mulciber must have allowed for him when putting together the army. But he hasn’t turned up.”
“A great pity,” said Falcon. “Abaddon would have been of immense use to us. Anyway, never mind that. Look!” Agamon was gesturing to the crowd. “I think he wants to gather us together.”
Falcon ran to the other Axis Lords. He embraced Agamon, Mulciber and Slater in turn. Then he pointed towards his ship. The soldiers began to move towards Falcon’s craft.
*
Martin, Darcy and Tommy stepped inside the ship; the rest of the troops slowly made their way through the entrance. As soon as they passed the threshold, all of the snow from their shoes vanished.
It was obvious why Falcon’s ship was so large; it had been set up to accommodate a large gathering. The ship was decorated all in black, but powerful directional lights cast an white glow over everything. There were 100 black chairs in ten rows. All of the chairs had a hologram projection of a name. Martin, Darcy and Tommy sat down on the chairs bearing their names.
“It’s like a school assembly,” Darcy muttered.
“Except school assemblies aren’t usually followed by a battle,” said Tommy.
There was a raised black platform at the front of the ship, and the chairs sat facing it. Falcon, Agamon, Slater and Mulciber made their way over to the platform; they climbed up the steps and faced the troops. The four Axis Lords were wearing glossy black armour.
Martin glanced at his friends. They were still wearing casual clothes; Martin was wearing a thick coat over his jeans and sweater.
The Axis Lords from the city were wearing a kind of silver armour.
“Good morning,” said Agamon, and the room fell silent. “Thank you for coming. Now, we all know why we are here. The members of the Axis Council wish to battle us. If they win the battle, this planet—along with all of us—will be destroyed. If we win, they will leave us in peace. The British Prime Minister wanted to fight alongside us, but we asked him to stay behind. The people of Earth need him at this difficult time. However, he did send 20 highly-trained human soldiers.”
“The Axis Lord ships are placed strategically all over the planet,” said Falcon. “If we lose this battle, they are already poised to destroy the Earth.”
“Now,” said Agamon. “It is important that we go over our strategy. The most important thing is that we will be adopting a completely defensive strategy—at least at the outset.” He glanced at Mulciber. “Mulciber will use his power to cast a shield over us; he does not know how long it will last, but it should give us at least a few minutes.”
“The plan is no good!” Mulciber blurted out. “I’m sorry, but it’s true. If we stand any chance against the Axis Council we need to strike pre-emptively. We need to have weapons ready for the Axis Lords, so we can attack as soon as they land!”
Agamon shook his head. “No. We will only show aggression if absolutely necessary. When the history of this great battle is written, it shall not say that we fired the first shot.”
“What good are history books if we are all dead?” said Mulciber.
Falcon put a hand on Mulciber’s arm. “Please,” he said.
Mulciber fell silent.
“We will adopt a simple line formation,” said Agamon. “There are no pawns or kings in this chess game. None of us are more important than the others. We will all stand and fight together—if we win, we shall live together, and if we lose, we shall die together.”
“Now, please raise your hand if you have brought your own weapons so we can make an inventory of our exact arsenal.”
About half of the soldiers raised their hands. All of the SAS men had their own guns, but they were useless against Axis Lords. The weapons were all quickly swapped for Blazing Diamond guns.
Tommy and Darcy began to whisper about something. Martin swung his legs under his chair; his foot came into contact with something hard. Martin picked it up. It was a book that was bound with black leather. The title, which was embossed in gold, was written in an alien script. But there must have been a translation mechanism built into the boo
k; as Martin watched, the letters dissolved and were reformed into English words. The title read:
BATTLE CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT AND NOBLE AXIS LORDS
Intrigued, Martin began to flick through the book. It seemed like a brand new copy; all of the pages were clean and the spine wasn’t creased. There was a satin ribbon bookmark in one of the pages. Martin opened the book at that page; the alien letters melted away and English ones took their place. Martin began to read.
CHAMPIONS: THEIR FUNCTION AND HISTORY
One of the Battle Decrees established by Dominus, First Emperor of the Axis Lords, introduced the use of champions in battle. Historically, a battle—either galactic or terrestrial—generally entailed many casualties on both sides. Dominus viewed this as wasteful and unnecessary. Therefore, the use of a champion was strongly encouraged in any war.
The principle was extremely simple. A champion—either self-nominated or chosen by a committee—would represent the entire army. One champion from each side of the battle would fight to determine the final outcome of the battle.
To initiate a champion battle, both sides of the army would have to agree to select a champion. If only one side of the army wished to select a champion, their selection would be void. Champions were usually trained for centuries in advance to ensure the best chance of victory. There are, however, a few recorded instances of surprise champions. Any member of an Axis Lord army could choose to volunteer as champion, and providing a member of the opposing army also stood as champion, the champion battle had to go ahead. Champions could be replaced only once during a battle, and only in the event of another soldier agreeing to take their place. In a way, Dominus’ establishment of the champion principle helped to democratise Axis Lord battles.
Of course, opting to fight by champion could sometimes be a foolish strategy, particularly if the opposing force had an especially mighty warrior. For this reason, after the death of Dominus the use of champions largely fell out of favour with Axis Lord generals. Of course, Axis Lords in the modern day have renounced war, so do not generally engage in battles of any kind.
Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) Page 13