by Unknown
“Vorn military have detonated charges to bring tunnel roof down and cut off route into city. System still has power, but Grod did not want to take time to clear all of debris, it remained unused. System runs right into cloning facility. It used primarily to send troops from main cloning facility to compound.�
“How fast is the rail system?� asked Wynn. “Baeth Periege is nearly one thousand miles away.�
“It is frictionless magnetically suspended rail car system. It will travel approximately six hundred miles per hour,� said Daooth.
“That’s pretty fast. It wouldn’t take us long to get there at all,� said Tiet.
“Yes, but Grod already has the jump on us,� said Orin. “And where is the break in the system?�
“Break occurs approximately one hundred and fifty miles from city perimeter,� said Daooth. “Only problem how to clear debris and pass through in time to stop Grod. Defenses of Baeth Periege will not hold him long. He has massive clone army and Vorn military already very weak in their resources.�
“I think that with our kinesis we might be able to clear the debris, but we will need time to work,� said Wynn.
“My people long for freedom,� said Daooth.
They all shared the sentiment. They gathered the explosive charges necessary and followed Daooth through the various side passages to access the magnetic rail system. But the thought lingered for Daooth and Wynn that with Grod defeated the next enemy would be the mighty Baruk.
The_Chronicl-ir_to_the_King
VIII
IT did not occur with the fanfare Ranul had expected, but the fleet had successfully passed through the Transdimensional Rift. The passage was surprisingly quick and uneventful.
Estall’s cruiser the Esyia took the lead of the group. Ranul scanned the area for other ships, but found none. They had no contact with the Saberhawk, which he had always guessed would be the case—but there were not any ships within scanning range at all, not even in orbit of the planet.
Kish k’ta had boasted of a space fleet on their way to wipe out the remaining people on Castai, but there was no evidence of it at all. Even from the Vorn computer records, Ranul had expected to possibly find a battle between the Barudii sphere and the Vorn; but there was nothing. Nothing.
“There isn’t much to see out here, is there?� said Estall.
“I know. That’s what bothers me. I suppose we better head for the planet and see if that’s where the action is. If Orin and Tiet are still alive there will be something going on.�
Ranul signaled to the helmsman, “Let’s proceed to the planet.�
The ships glided forward on course for the strangely familiar planet.
“Let’s get those shields up,� said Estall to one of the control technicians. “If that Barudii sphere weapon is out here somewhere, I don’t want it mistaking these Vorn ships for targets.�
“I agree, but we don’t know if it’s here or not. The Vorn fleet was not responding to Kish k’ta’s messages, but we don’t know why. If the Sphere is in the vicinity, it could be cloaked from our sensors. The Barudii on this planet built it right from the schematics I have here.
“That thing could very well have already destroyed the Vorn fleet Kish k’ta spoke of. I don’t know if it would have attacked the Saberhawk or not. It’s a computer, so I would expect targeting intended targets only, but who knows.�
“If the Saberhawk didn’t face anything out here, I bet they would have gone straight for the planet,� said Estall. “I don’t know any warrior who wouldn’t rather face a fight on the ground, than be cooped up inside a space ship.�
“According to the records the planet is now inhabited completely by the Vorn. They have colonized it since wiping out all the other Castillian clans there. We’ll have to get closer to the planet before we can scan the surface.�
VOLLEY after volley of pulse fire blazed across the sky toward the perimeter defense shield surrounding the Vorn city of Baeth Periege. General Grod watched with great satisfaction as his forces mounted the assault upon the city. “How long will it hold?� asked Grod.
“Probably another twenty hours at the rate of replenishing.�
“Good, that gives us plenty of time. Is the team ready?�
“Yes sir. They’re waiting for you to join them for the assault.�
Grod headed away from the firing line toward an area to the south. The pulse cannons continued to pound away at the defense shield as the city’s gun systems attempted to repel the attack.
He made his way to a work site away from the main group. Malec was waiting for him with three hundred warriors outfitted for battle. The work site was relatively hidden from view of the city; just as Grod had planned.
“I’ve sent an advance team ahead of us, sir, to begin the breach on the tunnel barricade.�
“Excellent Malec. The intercepts on the local transmissions show that the Baruk may have already answered their distress calls. They could be here within the twenty hours it will take to breach the perimeter shield.�
“Once we have come into the city from this position we will be very close to the cloning facility. We should be able to disable the shield and allow our forces to continue the main assault while we begin the regeneration process,� said Malec.
“Let’s go.�
He moved to the head of the group and into the tunnel they had been working on. It went down into an old magnetic rail system tunnel that had previously connected the city to the compound now controlled by Grod’s forces hundreds of miles away. Once inside, the Horva warriors began their rapid move to enter the city beneath the perimeter shield.
The tunnel had been barricaded at the city entrance, but the small team ahead of the main group would have it breached by the time they arrived. It was imperative to Grod to get to the cloning facility in time to complete the regeneration process before the Baruk could arrive on the planet. If he was to have any hope of success against that fierce race, he would need the advantage of the Barudii kinesis.
The tunnel was dimly lit by the emergency lighting that was still powered by the city. Main power to the entire system was split between Grod’s compound and Baeth Periege, but with the tunnel collapsed many miles from the city perimeter; it had been left abandoned.
Grod’s forces moved swiftly toward the perimeter barrier that had been put in place by the Vorn military. The demolition team Malec had sent would have everything ready by the time they arrived. They were going to use some old salvaged Barudii technology to get through the barrier. It involved dispersion fields and would, with the power they were supplying to the device, completely vaporize the barricade in a moment of time.
It took them about twenty minutes to make it to the position where the demolition team was waiting.
“Is everything ready?� asked Grod.
“Yes, sir,� said one of the team, “we can remove the barricade at any time.�
“Excellent. My brother Horva,� said Grod to the entire group of warriors, “it is time for us to go beyond the designs of those who created us as improvements of themselves. We shall remake our own image with a far greater power than we have known before. We shall conquer our oppressors and be free. And if the Baruk should come, we will defeat them as well.�
It was on everyone’s minds that the Baruk were going to come in response to the uprising now that Grod and the Horva were beyond being defeated by the Vorn military. But they would not arrive in time to save their principle base of power here at Baeth Periege.
“As soon as we are beyond the barricade and come into the open sq
uare of the city I want my team, with the scientist Varen, to accompany me to the cloning facility. We will take it and begin the regeneration process, while the rest of you attack the main power couplings for the perimeter shield generators. With the shields down our brothers will swarm in and the city will quickly fall. We need not worry if any ships try to escape. It is the city and the cloning facility that we want, not Vorn prisoners. Their time of rule is at an end no matter what.�
He turned to the demolition team and gave the final order. “Detonate the device!�
They complied and up ahead a brilliant blue burst flashed down the tunnel at them. The entire barricade to the rail system tunnel was engulfed in the dispersion field flash, causing the metal and stone to disassociate every molecular bond within the field. The light of the sun shone into the tunnel, and the troops immediately rushed ahead toward the opening.
As they came out of the end of the tunnel and crossed the semicircular smooth crater left in the tunnel floor by the dispersion blast, they could see the rail system’s above ground system of magnetic rings that were spaced out along the remainder of the distance to the cloning lab compound. The rings allowed the rail cars to continue above ground while still being propelled magnetically.
Grod’s group maintained its push down the track toward the cloning lab with Malec personally bringing Varen. Acting as both protector and jailer to Varen, Malec carried the cryo-pod that held Tiet’s genetic samples for use in the regeneration procedure that Varen would be performing on Grod and his Horva.
The hinder group, composed of the remaining two hundred Horva warriors, was splitting off to attack the shield generators. They were already coming under fire from the Vorn military and many of the Vorn’s brutish Horva clones coming in for the fight as well.
The shield attack group laid down heavy firepower as they advanced steadily; blasting many along the way. Clearly the Vorn military had not expected to be attacked from behind their own positions at the city perimeter, allowing the attack team to make steady progress towards its goal. The pulse fire from without the city continued to batter upon the perimeter shield as thousands upon thousands of Grod’s Horva warriors waited to enter Baeth Periege.
Grod and his team met very little resistance in getting to the cloning lab complex entrance. Only a few of the brutish Horva slaves had stood between them and the entrance to the facility. He did not enjoy the fact that they had to be killed. He really did pity the poor creatures. But as they could not be brought from the loathsome state they had been created in—as brutish dumb beasts to be exploited by the Vorn—he thought that truly death was better for them.
Grod and his one hundred warriors rushed into the complex and quickly secured the lab facility they needed for the regeneration. Varen’s identification card, which remained active, had allowed the group quick access to the interior of the facility. Malec gave the cryo-pod to Varen and led him to the control boards.
“Varen,� said Grod, “remember your family! I want this done perfectly or they will suffer.�
“I understand, General,� said Varen with a nervous voice.
Varen tapped the controls and a multitude of the cloning pods opened up, allowing Grod and fifty of his warriors to climb into the horizontally situated units. They first removed their weapons and battle gear with the respective items of clothing and then positioned themselves individually within the pods.
The remaining warriors would ensure that no one interfered with the approximately three hour procedure. No doubt, the shield attack team was getting all of the attention within the city.
Varen secured the pods once they were all situated inside and removed the Barudii genetic material from the cryo-pod. He inserted it into the matrix chamber that housed the parent cloning material during normal procedures and inserted a command disk containing the necessary changes in the standard processes to bring about the automated sequences for a regeneration of the already cloned tissues and the very genetic structures that were embodied within them.
The material within the matrix chamber would be used as an enhancement of the cloned warriors within their own bodies. Once the data was received by the automation system, Varen activated the program and the process began even as the thunderous battle continued to rage within and without the city.
Grod drifted off into a medicated sleep as the system prepared him and his warriors for genetic enhancement and regeneration. His drifting thoughts were of the glorious spectacle he had witnessed in his battle dome of the young Barudii warrior skillfully vanquishing all the combatants, Horva and robot alike, that had been arrayed against him in the dome; even the teragore beast itself.
WHEN they arrived in the rail system chamber they found minimal power available. Daooth located the grid controls and brought the system online. The rail cars were kept in a docking bay apart from the magnetic propulsion tunnel. Daooth brought one of the cars from the bay on a loading arm as Wynn and the others brought the explosives into the loading area. It was quite a bomb they had rigged; almost too much for the hover carrier to support. It consisted of two containers of inert chemicals that became volatile when mixed; Zanthium 424 matrix and B7 accelerant.
“Two of us will need to go ahead of the car with the explosives and begin clearing the rubble from the tunnel,� said Wynn. “After that, one person needs to accompany the bomb in case there are any other obstructions in the tunnel.�
“Tiet, why don’t you go with Wynn and I will take the explosives on through after you,� said Orin.
“Are you sure Orin?� asked Wynn.
“I’ll make sure nothing interferes with the car reaching the facility,� said Orin.
“Daooth can load the cars into the propulsion tunnel and send us through from the control chamber here, so you will not need to operate the rail car yourself, but you will have to escape after it comes above ground inside the city. The rail system becomes a series of magnetic rings that are spaced along the track until it enters the cloning facility. However you will be inside the city at that point so you will have to be careful. Grod’s forces have undoubtedly already begun their assault.�
“What about our rail car that will be setting in the tunnel?� asked Tiet.
“Daooth can move our car into a passing cell located at different positions along the tunnel. They allow for cars to be displaced while others pass,� said Wynn. “We will go on ahead in this car and then I’ll communicate with you when its time to come through with the explosives.�
Wynn and Tiet climbed inside the rail car, which was quite long. It must have measured nearly thirty yards in length. Tiet and Orin exchanged glances as the door closed on the car. Orin tried to look reassuring.
He knew if anything happened to him, that Wynn would be able to continue Tiet’s training even beyond what he had been able to accomplish with the boy. But he had no intention of riding that rail car to his doom. He did wonder what would be waiting for him in a city full of Vorn military and potentially a Horva army led by Grod. Hopefully they would be so busy with each other that they wouldn’t even notice him.
The door of the car secured itself in a locking position as they sat down and fastened their seat harnesses for the trip. Daooth worked the controls causing the hoist arm to move the rail car into the propulsion tunnel. Once inside the mouth of the tunnel, a safety door constricted into place behind the car so that the magnetic field would not harm anyone in the loading area. The field was powerful enough to pull a person with any metallic garment into the tunnel and potentially to their death.
The safety door sealed and the rail car was bathed in a magnetic field. The hoist arm released the car, which was then suspended within the magnetic field.
He hit the send command and the car began to propel forward down the tunnel, rapidly increasing speed to six hundred miles p
er hour. Within the car, Wynn and Tiet noticed little effect from inertia because of the damper systems in place.
“The trip will take a little over an hour to complete. I would suggest we both try to get some rest before we arrive. You’ll need it.�
“If you say so.�
The journey from his home on Castai seemed like an eternity ago and Tiet had gone nearly the whole time now without much sleep. He was glad they had at least had the opportunity to eat some food and clean up back at Wynn’s base in the caves.
He didn’t like being separated from Orin, but he had to stand on his own at some point, and he sensed it may have even been done on purpose when Orin sent him with Wynn. He rested his head back, noticing that Wynn already looked like he was asleep. Within moments he had also drifted into much needed sleep and not even his old nightmares could break through his exhaustion.
Orin made his way to the car holding the device. He boarded and found a seat, unconsciously glaring at the weapon as though it might blow at any moment. Daooth watched him from the control booth and manually closed the car door so he could secure it with the boom arm for loading into the tunnel.
Daooth noticed an odd power fluctuation on his panel. It was something he had seen before but he couldn’t…wait they’re monitoring the system!
“Orin! I have to send you on through quickly,� his voice came through on the rail car intercom.
“What’s wrong?�
“They’re monitoring the power emanations back at Nagon-Toth. If they’ve already noticed it they’ll be sending a squad to investigate. Strap yourself in, we’ve got to hurry.�