Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Colonel Sims was on his morning jog when the alarms sounded. He was about two miles outside the compound and turned immediately to head back. In the record time it took him to cover the short 2 mile run, there was already a thousand alien Fighters swooping in from the sky and firing on his compound. He thought, “This should have never happened. Our orbiting perimeter sensors should have warned us hours before anyone even got near the planet, much less inside the atmosphere. He headed down the middle of the compound dodging incoming laser blasts and plasma rounds as they tore through the buildings and his men. Half his men were in body armor 24/7 while the other half took time off. Those who had been relaxing and enjoying a little R&R were torn to pieces instantly as the assault ripped through the base. He looked out over the airfield and although the enemy fire could not penetrate the Verron Steel hulls of his fleet, almost half of them were thrown on their side or upside down from the heavy fire directed at them. He noticed no more than 15 of them make it into the air and begin to fight back against the overwhelming odds. Soon he recognized what he was up against when hundreds of the 7 foot tall Volvs came rushing into the base and opened fire on the body armored and un-armored alike. The well-trained Marines on duty were fighting for their lives and inflicting casualties on the powerful Volvs, but all around were hundreds of his men torn to shreds by the enemy weapons. His XO exited the command center and yelled, “The alarm has been sent to Verron.” It was the last words he ever spoke, as a big Volvs literally cut him in two with a huge sword he carried across his back. Colonel Sims, unarmed and wearing a T-shirt and running shorts, never felt the laser blast that blew a hole through his heart.

  King Darsai managed to reach the palace and his armory. He placed himself between his wife, sister and her new infant child. Even Princess Tiffanis and the Queen soon had plasma rifles and laser rifles firing away at the intruders. Darsai couldn’t believe how even after being hit by a laser round, the big creatures would continue to advance forward, even with gaping holes in their bodies. He saw several of the beasts that looked like pin-cushions they had been hit with so many arrows from his archers, and acted like it was no more than an annoyance. An enemy laser blast tore through his right shoulder, almost severing his arm. He dropped his weapon and was set upon immediately by a hand with huge claws that grabbed him by the neck and snapped it like a twig. He was spared from the horror of seeing his wife and sister have their hearts ripped out with the beast’s sharp claws and his year-old nephew torn in half to become a snack for their killers. The Volvs only killed those who fought too hard to subdue any other way. The rest were clubbed or restrained in chains to become livestock for future meals. Those killed while harvesting a planet were stored in meat lockers for more immediate consumption. With the military base hopelessly out numbered and the only major fortified city quickly under their control, they soon sent in the retrieval vessels to load with those they captured. They were to be transported to their base of operation and bred just like cattle. The older weaker ones would be eaten first, then the less viral males of the species. The females would not be eaten until they no longer could produce young ones.

  They were a little disappointed at the small population on the planet, but they were thrilled that it had been such an easy planet to subdue. Their commander thought, “These more primitive planets are not even a challenge anymore. These pathetic humans stop fighting and simply walk away crying, even knowing their fate.” The first two transports were already headed to the mother ship while his scout’s scoured the planet for more population centers. “Within two days”, he thought, “this planet will not have a living human on it.”

  Metsis, Lydia, the CNN News team and the Marines had just boarded the Light Destroyer when the alarm went off with an immediate notification of an invasion on Darsai. Metsis looked at Lydia as if he was trying to decide what to do. The big Marine Captain raced from the rear of the ship and declared, “The Darsai outpost is under heavy enemy fire.” The decision was made. Lydia lifted off the rooftop and accelerated across the skyline of Xhondar I. A confused Robin Meade looked out the window to the north to see thousands of spaceships racing away from the planet surface in response to the alarm. She didn’t know that she was about to become a war correspondent. Lydia and Metsis did not have any intentions of obeying the Xhondar I air traffic control rules and wait until they cleared the planet’s forcefield before they made their gateway to Darsai. They checked with the Captain for the exact location of the Marine Base and blasted through the gateway only 5000 feet above the city. Between the sonic boom and the thunderous roar of the large gateway closing, millions awoke to the sound of windows rattling in thousands of high-rise buildings. The CNN Team were confused by the sudden change of scenery as the Destroyer exited just 3000 feet about the surface of Darsai, only a half mile from their destination. Through the 40x magnification of the windshield it was obvious that the Marine base was completely overrun. The narrow streets were littered with mutilated bodies, mostly of humans, and the Fighters and Light Destroyers on the ground were piled on their backs or sides.

  Lydia wasted no time taking command, telling Metsis, “Drop the Marines and give air support.” With that statement she made a jump to the surface right in the middle of a small group of Marines who were barely able to defend their position. As Metsis brought the ship lower for the Marines to leap out and join the battle, Robin cringed at the sight of a tiny little 13 year-old girl racing for the dozens of heavily armed giant dog-like creatures, then gasped as the little whirlwind slashed through the monsters, leaving beheaded and mutilated bodies in her path. Once she no longer had the element of surprise from her rear attack, the beasts turned their attention to their new enemy. Lydia had studied well and knew exactly where their two hearts were located and knew that they could not continue with a severed head. Robin’s news team was filming the vicious attack, the vicious attack of Lydia on the Volvs, not of the Volvs on her. Soon the Marines from the ship, armed with whitematter rounds, began to open fire on the attacking Volvs. In flashes of light, one by one, the beast vanished, because of their size, often leaving a foot or other extremity behind.

  Metsis was a marvel to see, as he took out target after target with his ships weapon system and destroyed the Volvs Fighters that were coming to the aid of their ground troops. The new two tap system was working perfectly and the new power supply used in the body armor and ship forcefields were not being interrupted by the disruptor rounds being used by the Volvs. Before long the Marine base was secured and the Volvs invasion halted. Over 1000 of the Marines had lost their lives. Only the ones who had been fortunate enough to have on their armor survived. Then they took a look at their rescuer, suddenly realizing she looked a lot bigger as she was hacking away at the Volvs with a Light Sabre and Dagger. None of them had ever seen such a display of violence as this child had just brought on their enemy. Lydia Xhondar was officially a heroin of the Darsai Marines. To their amazement, she asked, “Do you have enough pilots to man your remaining ships?” Several of the pilots looked at her as if she had lost her mind, but then noticed the overturned ships begin to float and turn into an upright position. This child was placing their ships back right side up. Realizing the ships should still be able to fly, 26 pilots raced toward the Fighters and Light Destroyers followed by their crews to join the battle. Robin looked at her lead cameraman and asked, “Did you get all that?” He just nodded; he too was overwhelmed by what he had just witnessed.

  Prince Hunter was onboard the USS Carl Vinson when the alarm sounded. His two stealth transports had just departed for Africa under the leadership of Prince Chase. He had just confirmed that Prince Daniel and Ibrihim were leading the soldiers stationed in Mississippi on a raid in the jungles of Columbia where there was a suspected terrorist training camp. Hunter commanded his two cousins to make immediately to Darsai and abort the current mission. He made a gateway directly to Darsai and King Darsai’s palace. He quickly realized he was too late. The bodies of his friend and his wi
fe and sister lay brutally murdered where they had taken position to defend their home. There were no living humans in the palace, everyone had either been killed or captured. He hurried out the door to face a courtyard filled with over a hundred Volvs loading their livestock onto a shuttle back to the Mother ship. As soon as the Volvs heard the cries of those they were herding onto the ship, screaming, “The Dark Knight!” they turned to face the lone man in body armor who dared to stand against them. Their commander signaled for ten of his men to take care of the meddler. In a rage, Hunter beheaded them in seconds and remained standing in defiance in his blood soaked armor. The people of Darsai began to cheer, only to receive hard blows from the Volvs huge fists. Another 20 Volvs raced toward the man, firing their laser blasters as they approached and in a flash, the twenty exploded in a bloody mess. The intruder hadn’t even raised a weapon. The Volvs commander ordered his remaining 50 warriors forward as he climbed aboard the shuttle with as many of his captives as possible, leaving hundreds behind.

  With the innocent people of Darsai out of his way, Hunter released a plasma blast that incinerated the remaining fifty. He looked around at the small crowd of people he had rescued; there couldn’t have been more than 100. He asked, “Where are the others?” One of the women began to weep, saying; “Gone. They’re all gone. This was the last shuttle. The rest of the city has been taken away.” As Hunter stood looking at these devastated people, the sky exploded with the sounds of thousands of Verron ships and her allies arriving on Darsai. He could hear and see the battle that was quickly underway as the ground battle between Volvs and Humans began. Hunter had no idea of the scope of the situation until King Verron’s ship arrived and Paul exited the ship. He informed Hunter, “There are hundreds of thousands of Volvs scattered across the planet herding residents of Darsai into shuttles. I’m going to lead the air battle on the ships they have parked in orbit. I caught a glimpse coming in and it appears to be one of those huge Mother ships Chase and Daniel encountered at Tramlaw, except this time there are a dozen support ships at least as big as our Man of War. Amber is already on sight with Dalhia, I need you to take command of the ground effort.” With that, he was back in his Fighter and on his way.

  Amber was sitting in a Quantum Physics class at the Air Force Academy in a heated argument about the principle of traveling faster than light and instantaneous teleportation from one star system to another when her com-unit blasted out the alert so loud that the professors last statement could not be heard. He was about to reprimand her for having a cell phone in class, when she stood-up and said, “Excuse me, I gotta take this call,” then vanished from class. Normally there is very little notice when a gateway is formed, a slight movement of the surrounding air, maybe a slight breeze from varying temperatures from one realm to the next. But Amber decided to showboat for the arrogant professor. With a flash of light and enough wind to blow papers from the surrounding desks, she left the classroom for her command ship on Verron.

  Katelyn and Tala were just departing for a firing exercise in the two Interceptors. Major Susan Brown was commanding the ship under Katelyn’s supervision and it was Brad’s turn to command this firing run under the supervision of Tala. When the call came in for the invasion of Darsai, the girls formed simultaneous gateways to the upper atmosphere of the planet. When they exited on Darsai, there were air-battles and ground battles everywhere. The two Earth ships quickly joined the chaos. Pavel Verron, Ilna, Cali, Camil and Hon IV were on a mission to the Mars research center. Admiral Samantha Sullivan was at the controls when the emergency alarm went off simultaneously on five individual com-units. With Mars on a visual approach, the ship was suddenly headed toward a huge Verron Man of War in the orbit of Darsai. Amber was already at the helm and authorized the shuttle to land in the hanger bay of the ship. The crew couldn’t believe that a vessel as big as the Space Shuttle could easily fit inside the much larger ship then they looked out across the skyline at the 20 mile wide Volvs Mother ship and her accompaniment of a dozen ships bigger than the Man of War. Admiral Sullivan hoped she lived to tell the world about what she had just seen. She didn’t realize she hadn’t even begun to see the amazing things that would happen this day.

  The tourists on Verron were enjoying a beautiful day of shopping, skiing, surfing, whitewater rafting, mountain climbing and sight-seeing when the alarms went off all over the planet. In seconds, thousands of store clerks, restaurant employees, medical center staff and government officials, even farmers and fisherman, took off racing for the gateways in the travel center to the restricted gateway marked, “Air Base.” There were vacated positions in virtually every business on Verron. Soon there were droids, drones and cyborgs tending to the needs of the tourists as they looked around in worry and fear about what had just happened. Suddenly, there was a loud scream, then another, as tourist after tourist looked to the Northeast to see thousands of spaceships racing toward the heavens. It seemed like the flight continued for a good hour as more and more ships departed Verron. In a short while, as terrified guests of Verron speculated about what was about to happen to them, a voice came over the outside public address system and every video monitor on the planet showed an image of a handsome young man who introduced himself as Prince Michael Verron. He informed them, “There has been an invasion of one of our allied planets in a star system over 40,000 light years away. The people of Verron are in no danger. The gateway to Darsai has been closed since they are the nation under attack. What you have seen is the reaction of the Nation of Verron when called for assistance by our friends and neighbors. Please pray for the swift victory of our forces and the safe return of those who have chosen to fight for freedom and justice for all worlds. I will continue to deliver updates as I receive more information. Visitors of Klelta, Xhondar I and Tecalna have no doubt seen the same mass exodus of ships from those planets as well. We are united in our efforts to defeat tyranny in any form. Thank You. Please enjoy your day and I apologize for any inconvenience you may encounter due to the obvious shortage of staff.”

  As soon as the Space Shuttle landed in the hanger bay, 99, Ilna, Cali, Camil and Hon IV jumped into Fighters awaiting them and headed out to join the other ships in the space battle that covered thousands of square miles. The Volvs were determined to protect their Mother ship and between the 12 two-mile long battle cruisers and the hundreds of thousands of Fighters, it was shaping up to be a long battle. The Volvs were skilled pilots and their Fighters were equally as fast and almost as maneuverable as the Verron fleet. They had excellent armament but soon realized that the Verron ships had better armament and their weapons technology was penetrating their previously impenetrable forcefields. For the first time in their military history their Fighters and Battle Cruisers were taking casualties instead of inflicting them. Chase and Daniel created the answer to penetrating the Volvs shields with their own two-tap system and there was no longer any enemy fire hitting the Verron ships because of the improved forcefield that could no longer be disrupted. Some of the allies were not so lucky. The new two-taps and improved shields had not been incorporated in every allied ship. Many of the allies were lagging behind in updating their fleet. Fortunately King Verron had demanded that all ships be made of Verron Steel. Even Fighters and Destroyers taking direct fire, were not taken out of commission. But it was difficult to be effective when you were constantly being rattled by enemy fire.

  The firepower of the Volvs Battle Cruisers was exceptionally accurate and effective. If not for the improved forcefields and superior structure of the Man of War and Gljarne Class Destroyers, the incoming missiles, photon torpedoes and laser blasts would have destroyed them. As it was, the volume of fire focused on the Verron Air Force and her allies was so great that the ships defenses could not destroy all the incoming rounds. No one had ever seen such a continually high flow of missiles. They were being fired almost as fast as a machinegun, with 200 to 500 missiles per minute. The big Verron ships were constantly shaking from the impact of round after round.
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  Amber soon had the Fighters and Destroyers pair-up; the ones with the two-tap missiles and Gatling guns were paired with those allied ships that did not have them. As they began to focus their fire systematically at the gun torrents and missile launchers on the Battle Cruisers and the Mother ship, the result became obvious. The shield disruption lasted just long enough for two to three allied pilots to launch heavy fire at the enemy ships. Little by little they began to wear them down. Then a major breakthrough happened when Chase Verron managed to place a two tap with a Gut Bomb into one end of a Battle Cruiser. Working as a team, Daniel managed to do the same at the opposite end. The devastation was incredible as the super-heated fire rushed through the two-mile long ship, incinerating everything in its path. Now that the allies realized that the big ships could be destroyed, they began imitate the same strategy as the Dragon Guard. One by one, the big ships began to fall. It seemed as if when one was destroyed, the efforts of the others increased, making each consecutive ship more difficult than the last to eliminate. While the Destroyers, Fighters and Man of War were focused on the Battle Cruisers and the Mother ship, over a hundred thousand Fighters were engaged in combat with Volvs Fighters both in orbit and in the Darsai atmosphere. Vicious battles raged all over the planet surface and above it. The more the Volvs were pressed, the more vicious they became. Many would actually crash their Fighters into an Allied ship as it dove toward the vessel with its guns ablaze.

  King Verron was leading a squadron of Fighters in attacks on the Mother ship. He did not want it destroyed; only defenseless. There were an estimated 500,000 people from Darsai onboard that ship and the only way to free them was to slowly remove every obstacle between them and the prisoners. Focusing their fire first on the navigational antenna and reactor stacks, then targeting hundreds of missile and cannon emplacements, King Verron and his men were gradually clearing an approach to the Mother ship.