The Battle for the Ringed Planet

by Richard Edmond Johnson

Since it was mostly intact and had a familiar shape, Torian guessed what it was right away, “This is a plasma canon from a gun turret. It’s reinforced for heat from plasma bolts, so it looks like it survived burning in the atmosphere.”

  “It’s a big gun from a sky ship?”

  “Aye.”

  “Is it from yours?”

  “Hard to tell, I can’t see any identification markings. Enemy cruisers also have plasma canons.” He watched the larger smoke pillar darkening the sky in the distance.

  As he started in the direction of the big smoke, Siiri lingered for a moment and turning back, the soldier was startled to see her eyes glowing bright gold, “Hey!”

  Then her eyes returned to normal and she shot him an anxious glance, “The voices …”

  “You’re freaking me out.”

  “There is great danger ahead.”

  “From what?”

  “Sky Demons.”

  Then with an anxious look, unexpectedly, he drew his pistol, “Don’t move.”

  “What? Why?” Staring down the black muzzle of the plasma pistol she glimpsed his brown eyes in disbelief.

  “Now, undo your belt and put your hands in the air.”

  “I’m not a rebel! You scanned me before!”

  “Still, the Imperium is very resourceful at creating mutations and implants.”

  A tear of disappointed anger ran down her cheek as she undid the belt and raised her hands while he walked around behind her. “I’m not your enemy,” she pleaded.

  “We’ll see.” He held out his Con and scanned her more thoroughly, and then felt her arms, “Pull your hair up.”

  Slowly she complied and he felt around the base of her neck and skull for any indication of scarring from surgery, though the level of sophistication required to implant a scan resistant communications array would probably leave no evidence. Then again, the effect on her eyes was a dead give away.

  Defiantly she growled, “If you touch me anywhere else I’ll scratch your eyes out.”

  Ignoring the girl, he finally lowered the weapon, “All right.”

  “That’s it? Just all right?” She wiped away another tear, seething in frustration. “For now.”

  “Well what about you?” She snapped her belt back on, “Who were you talking to?”

  “Nobody.”

  “I heard you tell someone to ‘Shut up’!” Then she pointed at him, “How do I know you’re not going to infiltrate my village and destroy it all, especially the school and children like other Sky Demons on other planets?”

  “I didn’t even know the village existed, and you could still be using that as a cover story.”

  “Well, I’m not!”

  “There’s something strange going on with you.” Glancing away, she refused to reply, so he sighed and walked ahead.

  After an hour of forced silence, they carefully made their way down the streets in the empty city, passing pieces of debris causing small fires in the grass and bushes. Torian and Siiri spotted the crater billowing smoke near a small wooded area next to the Norstrom River. Inside the crater was a gigantic cylindrical blackened hulk of twisted melted metal, unrecognizable as anything manufactured, red hot.

  Torian crouched near a small rock formation examining the holo readings on his Con while Siiri sat on a flat rock away from him watching the sky, overcast with smog from the burning wreck.

  Then he slumped down on the ground and sighed gloomily, “It’s the Callisto.” Siiri turned back, “How do you know?”

  “A very faint signal from the black box; I’m reading their last few minutes.”

  She got up and stood over him watching the floating screens, trying to decipher the meaning of the numbers and words, and without emotion he interpreted, “It looks like there were 3 enemy cruisers, Emperor Class, and Callisto took out two of them sustaining heavy damage. They tried to evade the last one in low orbit, but they didn’t make it …” he swallowed hard.

  “How many soldiers?” tenderly she placed her hand on his shoulder.

  “All 500 …” he thought of his bunkmate, another LRRS tech.

  Then angrily he jumped to his feet, brushing away her hand and staring at the burning wreck. He strode up close at the same time drawing his pistol.

  Siiri immediately shied away while he shouted at the inferno, “Damn you!”

  Then he fired a succession of plasma bolts into blackened mass, “You sent me here to die! And now look at you!” He fired repeatedly, and then spoke softly; “You’re all dead …” He stood pointing his pistol and staring with wet cheeks.

  Creeping up behind, Siiri whispered soothingly, “I’m sorry about your friends.” She touched his gun hand, “Maybe we should put that away…” Torian did not resist as she gently guided his hand placing the pistol back into the holster.

  Walking around to face him, she stared directly in his eyes, “Were there life pods?”

  “No, they were too low in the atmosphere.” He was calmer now, “But they got a Hawkeye out. If fighters didn’t get it, the 4th fleet will respond.”

  Chapter 5: Grondalle

  After a few moments, Torian collected himself and peered momentarily into Siiri’s azurite eyes, “Thank you.”

  “How many more of your ships will come?”

  “I imagine the whole 4th fleet, 11 battle cruisers.”

  A familiar alarm rang in his earpiece and Torian glanced at his Con, and motioned for Siiri to do the same. Walking in range of their device’s motion detection function were five figures, human.

  “They’re not marines, rudimentary weapons, must be your people.”

  “How do you …”

  “Magnify it like this …”

  “Oh … oh no!”

  “Not good?”

  “It’s a hunting party from Grondalle.”

  “That’s your village.”

  “Yes. I was telling the truth, so I hope you feel bad now.”

  Annoyance showed in his voice, “What are they doing here?”

  “Hoping to scavenge new Sky Demon stuff.”

  Torian gripped his holster, “Then they get to meet a live Sky Demon.”

  Siiri followed the off-worlder as he surveyed a good defensive location, which was not hard considering the impact of the Callisto had flattened trees, dislocated rocks and overturned boulders. In a small depression behind some stones and uprooted trunks, he rested his foot on a flat rock shoved up against a twisted oak and watched as the men approached unaware. The girl concealed herself behind a cracked boulder next to Torian.

  The villagers were dressed in an assortment of thick leather tunics dyed green and brown camouflage patterns with a variety of helmets, including a modern flight helmet salvaged from a spacecraft and a hockey helmet. The soldier transferred all the targets from his Con to his GR-27 plasma pistol.

  Stepping out from against the twisted tree trunk Torian raised the pistol and called out, “That’s far enough.”

  Startled, the lead man with the flight helmet froze while the others gasped, “A Sky Demon!”

  “So it would seem.”

  One man in the back raised a crossbow, a curious weapon with a box over the bow section. Torian was impressed with the weapon, having never seen a repeating crossbow before. The young man in the navy blue flight suit raised his voice with almost disinterested confidence, “I can kill all of you in one shot. So lower your bows or die where you stand.” Nervously the men complied, pointing their sophisticated yet rudimentary weapons at the ground.

  “Brant!” Siiri hissed poking out from behind the large rock and standing next to Torian, “You can shoot that one!” She pointed to the young man with the hockey helmet.

  “Siiri!” Brant exclaimed, “You’re alive!”

  “Surprised?” She folded her arms.

  The lead man remarked contemptuously, “Well, a Demon Spawn with a Sky Demon.”

  Turning briefly to the angry young girl in the faded dirty blue dress wearing a fleet issued utility belt arou
nd her waist, Torian kept one eye on the villagers, “Perhaps some introductions Siiri, before things get heated.”

  Pointing to the lead man, “That’s Riku, the constable, Lothar, metal smith, Bjorne, carpenter, his son Mikael, and Brant, lower than a rat. Shoot him!”

  Waving with his free hand towards the crater, the tall young flight specialist forced a smile. “I’m Torian, and that’s my ship or what’s left of it.”

  “Why are you not dead, Sky Demon? None survive once they land here!” Riku glared at Torian.

  Training the pistol on the leader, Torian shrugged, “I dunno, but I’m here.” Then glancing quickly at Siiri, “What’s the deal with the hockey star? Nice helmet, Bauer 9000, a little old, but lasting …”

  “Brant was my betrothed, until he raped me! He promised we would escape together if I slept with him, and then afterward he turned me in!”

  “Raped? You seduced me!” Brant replied angrily.

  “I did not! You betrayed me!”

  Mikael, about the same age as Brant, turned to the other young man, “Really? You slept with the Demon Spawn? Did her eyes glow when you did it?”

  “Mikael!” Bjorne whispered harshly and Siiri turned away red with humiliation.

  Brant added, “So now you’ve taken up with a Sky Demon!”

  The metal smith, Lothar, slyly began to raise his repeating cross bow, but Torian was vigilant watching from the corner of his eye, “Don’t try my patience!” The villager quickly lowered his weapon while the Sky Demon focused on Brant, “She’s not taking up with me. I found her this morning. You left her to the wolves and where I am from that’s called cold-blooded murder. I should shoot you all.”

  “She’s a Demon Spawn, and needed to be cast out!” Riku insisted, “She’ll bring destruction to our village! You should know, Sky Demon.”

  “I’m getting tired of this demon thing. I’m a human, and I scanned her twice, and she’s a human too.”

  “You appear to be human …”

  “Didn’t you search the dead bodies of other Sky Dem … off-worlders? Weren’t their body’s human?”

  “They could have kept their human form when they died!” Riku continued, “Clearly she has sought you out and beguiled you with her womanly charms!”

  The off-wordler glanced at the blonde haired girl and she turned away feeling ashamed, “Now, now, I don’t hook up with the first Demon Spawn that comes along … I take things a little slow … maybe a nice dinner, a show at the holotorium, home to meet the folks, to church. Besides, she smells bad and needs a bath …”

  “You smell, too.” Siiri muttered.

  Torian countered, “Hey, I took a nice long shower before my suicide mission; I even cut my toenails to impress the autopsy nurse …”

  “You go to church?” Brant piped up.

  “It’s a demon church, they must do ritualistic sacrifice …” Mikael remarked.

  Sighing, Torian growled, “It’s a Lutheran church! Listen, you morons, all I want is nice place to hold up until the rest of my Sky Demon fleet gets here …”

  Suddenly a beeping in his earpiece caused him instantly to react, “Crap!” Torian spun and grabbed Siiri by the waist twisting her away and then forcefully shoving her into the depression. He covered her with his own body and clamped his hand over her mouth. “Don’t even breathe!” He warned urgently and she complied, frightened by his forcefulness.

  There was a rushing sound above them and cries of alarm from the villagers, then a whining sound and a flash of light. Torian kept his eyes shut, squeezing them, hearing the familiar hum of his personal shield as debris rained down on the pair tightly pressed against the ground. A moment later, he released his hand from her mouth and she inhaled frantically.

  “Stay down,” he ordered and slowly raised his head pushing away smoldering dirt and branches and other things that may have been human. Torian spotted two small red and black space vehicles with sweptback rear wing structures flying in a wide circle around them.

  “Ok.” He whispered and Siiri peered up glancing where he was watching.

  “What are they?”

  “Solvairs, enemy fighters, deadly …”

  “They’re flying over Kaarina.” Siiri remarked.

  Both star fighters began to bank for another run, but suddenly began to stall and rapidly descend. From one of the small vessels, with a bubble canopy over a tube-like fuselage near the front, the pilot ejected and a parachute opened suspending the figure in the air. The two fighters, with shark teeth painted on the front on a black background, slammed into the city streets in fireball explosions. The pilot in the parachute hung limp, floating slowly down to the expressway and crumpling motionless.

  “Don’t look over there.” Torian shielded her eyes with his hand from the charred flesh where the villagers had stood.

  “Are they dead?” She swallowed.

  “Yeah, plasma canons got them. We were spared because the Prox shield distorts targeting trackers, especially from a distance.”

  The blonde girl turned away, choking back tears, “I didn’t want that to happen to them.”

  “After what they did to you?”

  “I grew up with Brant and Mikael. We were in the same school grade and the others … what they did to me… because of the voices … they just follow orders from Father Jarlan.”

  He tenderly gripped her shoulder and whispered close, “We have to go.”

  “Where?”

  “How far is the village?”

  “Please, not there …”

  “Siiri, there’s going to be a fight. We have to warn your people. The rebels are probably going to send other cruisers.”

  “My people will try and kill us.”

  “I’ll deal with that. What about your parents? Do you want them harmed? They can’t think you’re a Demon Spawn!”

  She lowered her eyes, “No ...”

  “Then we have to hurry; the enemy may land troops.” Firmly Torian took her hand and began to lead her through the torn up terrain, keeping close to areas that could offer cover, and glancing anxiously at the sky.

  The pair skirted around the burning mass of twisted charred metal that used to be an enormous warship, moving north with the river to their right until Siiri pointed, “If we follow along the river there are some falls ahead and a path that the scavenging parties use.”

  After ducking under uprooted trees and hunks of metal, the trees thickened, and many broken branches and chipped bark bore evidence of the flying debris from the Callisto. They cut though an opening and found a path lined on either side with tire ruts.

  Pine and fir trees blanketed the path and blocked the view of the Norstrom River, but Torian noted the water was rushing faster, “Are there rapids nearby?”

  “No, falls, the entrance to Grondalle.”

  Striding further along the path, through a gap in the trees, Torian spied a magnificent waterfall, at least one hundred meters tall. Rocks lined the banks, worn away by the fast moving white water. Inching closer he gazed at the mist rising from the chasm below.

  Then he sighted a long wide green valley in the distance, “Very scenic.” He remarked, “How do we get down?”

  “The path goes the long way around, but there is also a tunnel that goes down to the village and also leads back to Kaarina. That’s where they dragged me.”

  Placing his hands on his hips, surveying the valley and the falls, he turned to the girl frowning, “So, do you hear the voices a lot?”

  At first she hesitated, but then relented, “Sometimes once a week, maybe more.”

  “What do they want?”

  “Just to do things, like stand by the river and feel the water, or smell flowers, weird stuff like that.”

  “And you don’t know who they are?”

  “They have names...” fleetingly glancing away her voice trailed.

  He decided not to press her, instead studying the valley below, he pulled out the binoculars, “Is the village down there?”
r />   “Yes.”

  “I don’t see any buildings.” He checked his Con, “Just fields of wild wheat and barley, some herds of sheep, cattle, no people.”

  “Didn’t you say you were a reconnaissance specialist? You’re not doing it well.”

  “You sound like my flight sergeant. Ok, trees line the valley walls. You said you lived in tunnels. That’s clever, with the trees camouflaging the entrances.” Torian looked up in the sky; the smoke from the wreck was dissipating where they had traveled, “Hard to see from orbit.”

  “Father Jarlan designed everything so that we would be hidden from the Sky Demons. There are sentries posted, alarms and underground shelters.”

  “He must know why I am here, because I sure don’t.”

  “Can’t we just go back to the city and hide waiting for your fleet?”

  “No Siiri, that’s probably where the fight is going to be. Battle cruisers can level entire cities, believe me, we don’t want to be there.”

  “There will be a fight down there when they see you.”

  “Well, maybe I can reason with them.”

  “Then I hope you know what you’re doing. The tunnel down to the valley is over here.”

  Through the pine trees and blueberry bushes was a thin perfectly rectangle entrance. Siiri picked some berries, and then offered him some as she swallowed a handful, which he accepted with a grin, “Those are good.”

  “Mmm, come on then, let’s get this over with.”

  The tunnel was manmade and the walls stone and perfectly smooth, “Hey, it’s lighted?” Torian glanced up at the small round embedded lights in the ceiling.

  “Of course.”

  “How are they powered? I didn’t see any energy fluctuations in my scans.” The thundering noise of water plummeting into the abyss drowned out their voices when they came close, so Torian had to shout when he saw an object spinning behind the falls, “A generator!”

  “What?”

  A long cylindrical drum the length of the waterfall across with curving paddles on the surface spun continuously with thick black cables protruding from each end, “You get power from hydroelectricity and the force of the waterfall masks the signature of the generator!” Torian scanned it with his Con, “You don’t know what I’m talking about?”