by Peter Kenson
It was the same question he had asked himself a few days earlier. And the answer was the same, even if he could not speak it aloud. In that moment, he knew he had lost the argument.
“You still don’t know what you’d be letting yourself in for. You can’t protect Rachel, or even yourself, with a sword. Not even that ‘special’ sword that I gave you. The weapons they are using in their war are immensely more powerful. They have just killed 40,000 of her people in one attack.”
“I know. I saw the weapons the Belsi used when they attacked the palace. I saw the damage they caused but I also saw those soldiers die, just as my own soldiers die on the field of battle. If I need to use special weapons to kill them, then I will learn how to use them. You will teach me,” he added confidently.
David let out a sigh. “Very well. Go to the armoury and find an old suit of plate mail. Something that’s still serviceable but that you don’t care about being destroyed. We can set it up on a wooden post in the little quarry and I’ll show you what you’re up against.”
As Jeren hurried away, David had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was like being trapped in a quagmire. Every time he moved, he could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into the morass with the safety of solid ground always being just out of reach. He tried to think how he could justify his actions to Khan but quickly gave that up as a bad job. It seemed unlikely that ‘I love the boy’s mother’ would cut much ice with the Head of Imperial Security.
And yet Jeren’s words had given him some hope. Did Falaise look at him as something more than just a trusted advisor? His mood lifted slightly as he thought back over the last few times they had been alone together. Did she appear changed now? Was she acting differently towards him? Certainly she was happier now than when he first met her, as a hostage in Manny’s camp and then mourning the death of her husband. But that could be simply due to pride in her son and his achievements.
He dragged his thoughts back to the task in hand. Whatever Falaise’s feelings were towards him, they would definitely not be improved by allowing Jeren to kill himself, rushing to Rachel’s side. He gave another sigh and headed off towards the quarry to prepare for the demonstration.
Chapter 23 – Ystradis & Marmoros
“So how are we going to respond to this atrocity?” Rachel demanded.
The council of war consisted of Chaqi, Anise and the two local resistance leaders who were close enough to get to the meeting in person. Four other leaders were connected by secure video links via remnants of the planetary wide comms network that existed before the invasion. The links were only used infrequently for fear of detection but Rachel had insisted the council of war could not wait for everybody to travel.
“This unprovoked attack on a defenceless civilian population is nothing less than an act of genocide,” she continued. “I’m hearing expressions of outrage from all corners of the empire but nobody is proposing any action. Well if they won’t act, we shall. We will avenge the slaughter of our people on Sorinto and the Belsi will pay. We will hit them so hard, they will regret ever coming to our world.”
“The mine is the obvious target, your Majesty,” Chaqi replied. “Now that we know its strategic importance, disabling its production would not only hurt them financially, it might drive a wedge between them and Vostov. However, it is the most securely guarded installation on Ystradis and any attack would carry severe risks. So, the first thing we have to do is to get you off the planet and away to safety.”
“Safety! And where do you suggest that I go to find safety? The dome on Sorinto was supposed to be safe and look what happened there.”
“We were thinking that you should go to Galgos and petition the Emperor personally. You would certainly be safe there and your presence at court might persuade the administration to take a more active role in the situation.”
“There is no way I’m going to Galgos at this time. This is my planet and I’m staying here.”
“No you’re not, your Majesty. It is just too great a risk. The attack on the dome at Sorinto was not aimed at our people, it was aimed at you. They thought you were still inside the dome and, despite the massive death toll, they did not achieve the one death they really wanted. They will have picked up your broadcast message and they will know by now, that you are here on Ystradis. They will mobilize every soldier on the planet’s surface to find you.”
“Good, let them come. Their patrols are more vulnerable away from their base. I will lead the fight myself against any soldiers who come looking for me.”
“You cannot do that, your Majesty. Especially in your condition.”
“My condition has nothing to do with it. I am fit and perfectly capable of firing a laser rifle. The baby is not hampering my movements yet.”
“No, but it would hamper the movements of my men,” Chaqi argued. “They would be too concerned with protecting their queen. I cannot have that sort of distraction on the battlefield. Even a momentary loss of concentration can lead to casualties which we cannot afford.
“Besides, it’s not just you. You were the heir to the throne of Ystrad. Even though you have not been formally crowned, you are our queen and we rejoice that you have been found and restored to us. But now you carry the new heir to the throne inside you. You must consider the baby’s safety as much as your own.”
Rachel looked around the room and at the faces on the video screens. When she spoke again, it was so softly that they had to strain their ears to hear her.
“You do know, don’t you, that the father of this baby is not Ystrad?”
“We know,” Chaqi assured her. “There will be some among our people who will not approve. But you have told us something of this King Jeren and we have other… sources of information who have spoken of him also. He is a worthy king who has united his people and led them to victory in his land. Your son will have your blood in his veins but he will also have the blood of a warrior king. He will be a gift to our people.”
Despite her fears, Rachel managed a weak smile at that. “You seem very sure that the baby will be a boy.”
“How could he be otherwise? But even a girl with such a lineage, would be a terrifying prospect as I understand, some members of your council found out to their cost.”
The smile vanished from Rachel’s face as Anise tried, too late, to hush her husband.
“I’m sorry…” he started to say before Rachel waved a hand at him.
“I may have terrified the council as you put it, but I didn’t kill them. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss how we are to avenge their deaths. Now, I hear what you have said about my involvement in the actual fighting.”
Rachel raised her head to look directly at Chaqi. “I will not be the cause of unnecessary casualties among your men. There is a second delivery of supplies due in three days. When the smuggler leaves, I will go with him. But I’m damned if I’m going to leave this planet, my planet, without firing a shot in its defence. So, Military Commander, you may put whatever security measures in place that you feel are necessary but, at some time in the next three days, you will find me somewhere to stand with an assault rifle in my hand and a Belsi soldier at the far end.”
There was a stunned silence around the table. Suddenly the sound of a handclap came through on one of the monitors. Startled they looked at the screens to see one leader after another, stand and applaud. Around the table, the other leaders got to their feet and even Anise stood to join in. After a second, Chaqi bowed his head in defeat and added his handclap to the others.
“It will be as you command, your Majesty. I will arrange a turkey shoot for you.”
***
Jeren arrived at the quarry with Baltur and Carl in tow, and a small wagon loaded with various bits and pieces of weapons and armour.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted so I brought a selection,” he explained to David.
“What I want is something that even Carl would have trouble denting with th
at axe of his.”
As Carl hammered a post into the ground on one side of the quarry, they rummaged through the wagon and pulled out the heaviest pieces of tournament plate mail.
“This is thicker than battle armour so it will be more of a test,” David said.
They dressed the post with a chainmail hauberk, over which they attached the chest and back plates.
“Okay Carl, take a swing at that.”
The big man looked doubtful. “There’s no point. I’d bruise the wearer; maybe even crack a rib but no more. Much better to go for the arms and legs.”
“Humour me,” David insisted.
Carl loosened his shoulders and swung the battle axe with all his strength. The sound of the impact echoed around the quarry but the only damage was a large v-shaped dent in the breastplate.
“Told you,” he grumbled. “Now I’ve got to put a new edge on it again.”
“Right Jeren, it’s your turn. Aim for the spot where Carl’s weakened it already.”
Jeren drew his sword and pushed the stud on the hilt so that the blade glittered blue. He swung the sword into the vee that Carl had created and was rewarded by a crack across nearly half the breastplate. The chainmail underneath appeared undamaged.
“Okay, now let’s go over to the far side of the quarry.”
David led the way to where he had stacked a small assortment of weapons from the shuttle. “Now we’ve seen what you can do at close quarters. What can you do from here?”
“Well I’ve seen Bern put a bodkin arrow through a piece of plate at a hundred paces but there aren’t many archers like Bern,” Jeren replied. “Best I could hope for, would be a lucky shot into one of the joints between the plates.”
“Right, so from this sort of distance, there’s not much you can do against an armoured enemy with your current weapons. If I take you to Rachel, the enemy she is fighting will be armoured in battle. It may not look like that suit of plate mail but it will be a lot more effective. And they will also have weapons that are designed to penetrate that armour and kill at a distance.”
He picked up one of the larger weapons from the stack. “This is called a railgun.” He cracked open the magazine to show them the projectiles. “Think of these as arrowheads. Now watch.”
David replaced the magazine and flicked the switch on the powercell. The railgun began to emit a quiet hum and after a couple of seconds, a green light showed on the stock. He cradled the gun against his hip and aimed at the plate mail across the quarry. There was a slight whirring sound and the armour shook violently as a small hole appeared in the breastplate.
“This is a very heavy weapon because of the weight of the ammunition, the arrowheads it fires. It’s not usually carried by an individual soldier although Carl could probably manage it. More often than not it’s mounted on a vehicle like those flitters, the flying sleds the Belsi used when they attacked the palace.”
He handed the railgun to Carl and showed him the power switch. “When the light is green, it’s ready to fire. If the light is yellow, the power is low and if it turns red, you need to replace the powercell. Try it.”
Carl hefted the weapon in both hands and pointed it at the target armour. There was a whirring sound as he pressed the firing stud and a lump of rock exploded off the face of the quarry behind the target.
“I think we need to practice your aim a little bit,” David chuckled. “How does it feel?”
“It’s not that heavy. I can handle it,” the big man said confidently.
“Good. Bear in mind that you’ll have to carry some spare magazines and possibly a spare powercell but I think that’s a good weapon for you.”
David selected another weapon from the stack. “Now this is the standard laser assault rifle which most soldiers will carry. It’s much lighter than the railgun because it doesn’t have all that heavy ammunition. Instead, this will fire a pulse of energy that will burn through almost anything.”
He flicked the power switch, raised it to his shoulder and pressed the firing stud. The armour crashed to the ground as the supporting post collapsed.
“Okay, let’s see what that did.”
He led the way across to the target. The post was still standing but it had been snapped off at chest height and the top was smouldering. The breastplate had a fist sized hole punched through it, as did the chainmail hauberk. The back plate had a slightly smaller hole where the laser pulse had exited.
“Wow!” Jeren exclaimed, dropping to one knee and reaching out for the breastplate.
“Don’t touch it,” David warned. “It’s still going to be very hot. Now modern armour is going to be more resistant than this but you can see what these weapons can do. Jeren, Baltur, I have two of these assault rifles for you to practice with, and also two smaller pistols that can be fired one-handed. They don’t pack as much punch but they can still be useful. Carl, you start with the railgun but you need to be able to use the assault rifles as well. So let’s rebuild the target and get some practice in.”
***
At much the same time as Jeren was receiving his training, Rachel was lying on her stomach in an isolated valley on Ystradis with a very similar assault rifle in her hands. She aimed the rifle at a stunted tree on the opposite side of the valley and pressed the firing stud. The tree stood there completely unmoved but a small patch of grass to the left suddenly began to smoulder.
“Try to control your breathing,” Chaqi said as he lay beside her. “You’re snatching at the shot. Take your time, line up the shot and then gently squeeze the trigger.”
Rachel took aim again and this time was rewarded by a black circle in the centre of the trunk.
“It’s not very impressive,” she complained.
“I dialled the power down to the minimum, your Majesty. We couldn’t risk drawing attention to ourselves by starting a wildfire in the hills. Let’s up the power and try for something a little more difficult. The first branch coming off to the right of the trunk.”
Rachel shifted her aim slightly and squeezed the trigger. There was a satisfying crack as the branch separated from the tree and fell to the ground.
“Good shot,” Chaqi said. “We’re done here. Let’s go and see if we can find you a turkey to shoot.”
He helped Rachel to her feet, just as a low whistle came from further up the hillside. They looked up to see Osman lying just below the crest of the ridge and making a complicated series of hand signals.
“We’ve got company,” Chaqi announced. “Two flitters approaching, flying a search pattern. You may see some action sooner than we thought.”
“How do they know we’re here?” Rachel asked. “We’re all wearing the shielding helmets.”
“They don’t,” he replied confidently. “If they knew we were here, they’d be coming straight for us. They’re searching for something or someone else. Let’s go and take a look.”
They scrambled up the slope to where Osman was lying and cautiously peered over the ridge line into the next valley. The two flitters were still some distance away and were very low down. The larger of the two was flying a zigzag pattern from one side of the valley to the other. The smaller flitter was heading straight up the centre of the valley, but was moving very slowly to keep station above and behind its larger companion.
“What are they doing?” Rachel whispered, despite the fact that there were no Belsi within earshot.
“It’s one of their aerial survey teams,” Chaqi replied. “They’re searching for our tunnels. The big flitter, the one doing the zigzags, will have ground-penetrating radar along with acoustic and electromagnetic sensors. The little one is an armoured gunship, just riding shotgun.”
“Can we take them down?”
“Too dangerous, your Majesty. We can take out the big sensor platform; it’s slow and carries very little armour because it would interfere with the sensors. The trouble is, as soon as we hit it, that little gunship will be all over us like a rash.�
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“Can’t we hit the gunship first?”
Chaqi shook his head. “Too risky. I might chance it, if it was just my men but this is definitely not a turkey shoot.”
“How many of those sensor platforms have they got?” Rachel asked.
“Three that I know about. This is the only one in this sector though.”
“Then it’s too good an opportunity to pass up. Taking out that survey craft will not only hurt the Belsi, it will help to protect your people if they can’t find the tunnels in the first place. Now I said that I would do nothing to endanger or distract your men. The entrance to the tunnel we came through, is just along the hillside to the left here. I will stand right by the entrance while your men hit the gunship. You won’t have to worry about me at all. If anything goes even slightly wrong, I will be the first one into the tunnel.”
Chaqi shook his head again and looked round at his small group for support. Osman and Anise looked doubtful but the others were carefully keeping their expressions neutral, waiting for their leader to make the decision. He was about to refuse once more when Rhamani came hurrying up the slope towards them, his face beaming. He was carrying two large, heavy cases, one in each hand.
“I’ve brought the rocket launchers,” he announced with a grin which faded slowly as he looked at the faces of the others. “What?”
Anise gave a wry smile as she put her hand on Chaqi’s arm. “Go and set up the attack. I will stay with the queen and get her to safety if necessary. Just be careful, my love.”
Chaqi gave his wife a quick kiss and led the men along the hillside away from the tunnel entrance. He took one of the rocket launchers from Rhamani and positioned himself closest to the oncoming flitters. The rest of the group took cover along the crest of the ridge behind him. They had several minutes to wait as the survey team slowly made their way up the valley.
The gunship was much smaller than the sensor platform but it packed a considerable punch. There was a nose-mounted pulse cannon, two laser turrets on each side and a twin barrelled railgun sited underneath the gunship on a swivel mount. The sides and underbelly of the ship were armoured and he could detect the faint shimmering of an energy shield as it approached.