Starfire and The Planet Killer

by Christine Westhead

  "Seventy minutes," answered Thirty Seven.

  "We'll see you up there," began Starfire. "Little dragon out."

  "Time to divert some attention, Captain," said Thirty Seven in Rimek's voice. "A full base inspection is what is needed here, I think."

  "A good idea, Commissioner," answered Delta Ten.

  Chapter 18

  From his position on the edge of the rim on Pinnacle Flats, Raan lowered his powerful light intensifying binoculars and nodded with satisfaction at what he saw. It looked like the Galactic Police, with their usual arrogance, had decided that another attack on their ships would not be forthcoming as they had not increased the guard or taken any other steps to protect their diminished fleet from another assault. It was almost three in the morning, local time on a dark, cloudy night and Raan was about to stir up the guards. He ducked back down below ground level and squatted with six others on the narrow ledge. He smiled at Rigondal, his teeth gleaming white in the darkness. She had resisted all attempts to get her to stay behind in the camp and was dressed as Starfire, holding a grenade pack in a determined grip. Promising faithfully to obey every order without question, she looked just as grim and determined as the other young people who waited in the cold darkness on the side of the dead volcano.

  "Okay then, nothing fancy, we don't want to risk any more lives. I'll go first and skirt the pinnacle so I can come in from the far side. Like we agreed, give me two minutes and send out the next man. Princess, you go last." He sensed, more than saw her open her mouth to object and leaned forward. "I said, you go last. Do you have a problem with that?"

  "No, sir," she answered, quietly. They had planned to skirt the edge of the Pinnacle at equidistant spaces. By going last, Rigondal would be nearest the tunnel entrance and have the least distance to cover before reaching safety when it all kicked off.

  "It isn't that I don't trust you, Princess. I know you want to fight but I don't want to put you in any more danger than I have to," explained Raan, taking her hands in his own. "When this is all over, your people will need a leader more than ever." He ruffled her short hair, "Okay, Lieutenant?"

  "Yes, Captain."

  "Good," Raan stepped back. "By oh three ten we should all be in position round the edge. We attack together at oh three fifteen in a circular pattern. Don't bother picking out any targets, just loose off your grenades and high tail it back to the tunnel. They set their wrist links and Raan set off, making his cautious way around the edge of Pinnacle Flats.

  On the other side of the valley at the Galactic Police camp, Raemond was giving his troops their final briefing before the assault on the Compound, just outside the city gates.

  "Right, men, they have four drone guards covering the perimeter walls, just like we thought. We need to knock those out before we can do anything." He looked up at the two men and two young women who had been given this task. "You guys all set?" They all nodded and fingered their heavy rifles. These had been looted from the Galactic Police and were very effective at mid range. The rebels melted off into the night to stalk their chosen targets. Raemond consulted his wrist link. It showed the time as oh three five.

  "Ten minutes to go," Erion tapped the young guide on her shoulder. "This is far enough for you, Jensie. Go back and wait for us at the entrance." She squatted in a cold, damp tunnel with her group and smiled as the young girl received slaps on her back and whispered complements by the assembled men as she scuttled past them in the confines of the stone passage. According to the girl, who was a distant cousin of Raemond's and the newest recruit at the Palace, they should come out in one of the old cells in the palace dungeons. Cold, damp and dirty, they no longer housed criminals, but were used for storage by the palace staff and little Jensie was constantly in and out of the cave-like rooms as she fetched and carried wine and vegetables. She had stumbled across the old tunnel system and, like any good Katraian, cherished her little secret, carefully oiled all the hinges and made a map. Erion eased open the stout wooden door and it swung silently open. She aimed her movement sensor through the opening and stepped cautiously forward when it showed nothing. Still scanning with the instrument in her left hand, she used her right to motion the others into the dungeon.

  Torchlight bounced off the vaulted ceiling and the stone walls as four men stepped silently into the room behind her. Erion walked to another door on the far side of the dark room door and eased it open to reveal a long, stone corridor lined with burning torches and several similar doors. If Jensie's information was correct, and she had every reason to believe it was, the east corridor should lead to the underground room that Rimek was using as a base of operations. She knew they would never get near enough to do any real damage, but that was not her intention. The fact that they had managed to get into the palace undetected and place charges in the cellars would be enough to rattle Rimek. Erion checked the time on her wrist link and turned to a short, stocky man standing just behind her.

  "Got the charges ready, Corporal Kadie?"

  "Sure, Major."

  "Then let's go."

  Out on Pinnacle Point, seven wrists raised to seven faces and seven mouths silently counted down to zero. The ragged whoosh of seven grenade launchers shattered the still night and seven green tracers arced from the edge of the rim towards the centre of the launch pad. As soon as the grenades exploded above it in a shimmering rainbow umbrella, Raan knew that the launch pad was shielded and they had been betrayed. He raised his wrist and yelled into the com link.

  "It's a trap! Scatter!" He looked down from his ledge into the inky blackness and imagined he could see the forest canopy a thousand feet below him. Giving a resigned sigh, he turned his wrist link torch to 'full' and pointed it downward. It was going to be a long climb. The sound of laser fire caused him to look up at the rim but he knew there was nothing he could do to help his men. A blinding, white beam illuminated him and a face appeared above him. Raan froze, looked up into the blinding torch beam and saw a Galactic Police guard in full, grey metal space armour leaning over the edge. The torch beam belonged to the sight of his hi-res, short range repeating rifle, and the little red sighting dot drew a bead in the middle of Raan's forehead.

  "Give it up, Katraian scum," sneered a voice from above. Raan slowly un-slung his rifle and the launcher from his shoulder and placed it gently on the ledge at his feet. "That's right. Now get up here!"

  Far under the Palace, Erion led her group forward, trying to shake off the feeling that something wasn't quite right. She raised her right hand and the small line of men came to a halt.

  "What is it, Sir?" asked her second-in-command, a tall, laconic Captain from the Palace Guards called Jakoral.

  "I'm not sure, Jak," she answered. "There should at least one guard. It's too quiet."

  "All the better for us then," the young man grinned, but she could see his grip tighten on his rifle. He knew what she meant but he didn't want to un-nerve his men.

  "Get the men to plant their charges here, Captain, then let's get back ASAP. I have a funny feeling about this."

  "You heard the major," drawled Captain Jakoral, slipping the rucksack off his shoulder. "Let's get to it."

  "Just lower those bags, nice and easy," called a voice from just in front of them. The torches in their cressets flared to full power and the arched corridor was ablaze with light. The cell doors along both sides of the corridor opened and armed guards swarmed out. It didn't take long for the group to be disarmed and they were marched along the corridor with their hands on their heads. They came to a large, circular room with a vaulted roof. The stonework had been painted white and several computer terminals were active along one half of the wall. Farrell was seated behind a large metal desk and he rose from his chair and smiled with satisfaction at his prisoners.

  "Welcome once again, Lady Erion," he bowed low. "I'm afraid you have made a bad choice of ally. When Rimek returns, he will surely want to discuss your political leanings at greater length. For the moment though, you'll have to sample so
me of our more rudimentary accommodation." The smile left his lips and he snarled at the Captain of the Guards. "Take them to the cells."

  "Wait," called Erion. "How did you know about this?" Erion knew that there were two types of captors. Rimek would have had them thrown into the slammer without a word, but Farrell looked like the gloating sort. If she played this right, she would learn much from the young man. Prince Farrell ignored her, but cast an arrogant gaze over the prisoners, addressing them directly.

  "You will learn that the Federation is not the great monster that you have been led to believe." He hitched one hip onto the side of his desk and took a delicate sip of wine from a long stemmed glass. "Your commander here deliberately withheld medical attention from one of your wounded colleagues rather than risk this operation; an operation that was never intended to succeed. Isn't that right, Major?" He took another sip of wine. Erion stared straight ahead, but she could see Kadie out of the corner of her eye looking doubtful.

  "It's true!" shouted a high pitched voice from a side door. Tomas marched into the room, his finger pointing at Erion and his face contorted by hate. "She wanted to let Marcan die. I was on top of the column and I heard every word. These attacks are just for show, to get Commissioner Rimek off guard. She risked your lives for nothing!"

  "He's right, of course," Farrell patted his lips with a folded napkin. "As soon as we heard about poor Marcan, I dispatched a medical team with Tomas, to your base in the Labyrinth."

  "Oh shit!" Erion closed her eyes and the prisoners growled and moved forward. The guards immediately raised their weapons and the men put their hands back on their heads, glaring at Farrell and Tomas.

  "You don't understand," began the youth, earnestly. "They saved Marcan. Everyone at Labyrinth who surrendered was allowed to leave. It was part of my bargain."

  "And what about the people who didn't surrender?" growled Corporal Kadie. He was older than most of the rebels and had a wife there. Tomas set his jaw and faced the men, head held high.

  "Someone had to stop the war. If I had to do it again, I would." Farrell smiled at the defiant youth.

  "What about the rest of my crew and the other rebels?" asked Erion, wanting to learn how much Farrell knew.

  "The attacks on Pinnacle Flats and the Vehicle Compound have been averted," he smiled. "We shall shortly have all the rebels in our custody. You will be pleased to note that Commissioner Rimek has decided to let you all live. Your way of life will not be put in jeopardy, despite the treacherous actions of a few rebels. You will be given the chance of serving the Federation by building and manning a new Information Retrieval Centre here."

  "No, that's not what we agreed," Tomas rushed forward to be held by two burly guards. "You said they would be set free!"

  "I lied," said Farrell gleefully. "And you believed me, you idiot." He motioned to the guards holding the distraught youth. Throw him out, but make sure everyone knows he sold out all his people to save his brother." Tomas turned his panic stricken face towards Erion, who shook her head gently.

  "He said you would all go free; he promised!" His high pitched voice faded to nothing as he was dragged away. Farrell raised his glass to eye level and twisted it to survey the light sparkling through the wine. "You must all learn that the Federation is not to be trifled with. We will not tolerate activity against the Federation, once we are fully in control after my Coronation. Commissioner Rimek has gone to fetch a new weapon. Once you see its power, you will not want to risk it destroying your beautiful planet.

  "He's gone to Norbus!" gasped Erion, her normal composure shattered for a brief moment.

  "Yes, my dear," Farrell slid off the desk and raised a hand to stroke her cheek with a gloved hand. "He's gone to bring back the Planet Killer."

  The ledge around the Pinnacle Point sloped downward, so Raan's head and shoulders were at ground level from the guard's point of view and he jerked the muzzle of the rifle upward in a clear indication that he wanted Raan to climb up top. Raan heaved himself over the edge with apparent difficulty and appeared to stumble to one side. The guard moved the muzzle of the gun to cover him and that's when Raan grabbed the end of the barrel and heaved with all his might. The guard's scream was lost in the battle noise as he flew past Raan and hurtled downward to disappear into the blackness.

  Raan slid back over the edge, listened to see if anyone had heard the brief scream then scuttled away from the battle. He realised that whoever had betrayed them would probably know about the hidden tunnel through the mountain and he could already hear footsteps running toward the cave entrance. He wasn't going to get down the mountain the same way as he went up it. There were probably guards in the tunnel already, waiting to capture any stragglers. He remembered Raemond telling him about another ledge like this one on the opposite side of the flats and headed out along the edge, away from the cave entrance. Much as he wanted to know what had happened to his men, he knew that he would he captured as soon as he showed himself.

  Raan walked quickly along the ledge until he came to the rough steps cut into the rocks, half way round the mountain. If Raemond had not told him, he would never have found them, but there they were; not so much steps as a series of narrow ledges leading up to the Pinnacle Flats, now quite far above him. He slung his rifle across his back and started to climb up, hoping that the traitor did not know about the other path, or there would be someone waiting there to catch him. Raemond was right, there was another ledge; wide enough for a man to walk, but not wide enough for two. He pulled himself up onto it and, keeping one hand on the face of the mountain, he walked slowly along in the darkness.

  The firing had stopped and Raan could make out the sound of raised voices, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. His torch picked out a small depression in the rock face and he huddled into it, trying to get as much of his body into the hollow as possible to escape the cold up-draught of air from the forest floor far below. Too many nights spent in cramped, noisy cockpits, in cargo bays under fire or behind enemy lines in imminent danger of discovery had enabled Raan to grab his sleep where he could. After a fruitless attempt to contact Erion and Raemond, he believed that they had also been betrayed. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to help them at this time, he gave a resigned sigh, pulled up the collar of his jacket and within seconds, he slid into a dreamless slumber.

  He awoke with a start and peered up at the dark sky. He had set himself two hours to allow for the heat to die down, but still be dark enough to escape undetected, but a look at his comlink showed that he had been asleep for less than half an hour. He sat still and quiet, trying to work out what had woken him. Then he heard it! A slight chink of metal on stone, coming from his right. He moved his hands carefully under his coat and activated his left wrist torch with his right hand, careful to keep the beam pressed to his thigh and invisible for the moment. He had moved his holster to the left side to make his blaster more accessible while he was huddled on the ground and his right hand slid across his stomach to grasp its comforting butt. He heard the noise again, nearer this time. Someone was creeping towards him and Raan chose the moment when he thought his assailant was no more than ten feet from him to whip out both hands and point them towards the faint sounds. The torch beam caught Rigondal full in the face as she scuttled towards his position and it took all of Raan's self control not to pull the trigger of his blaster. Instead, he dropped the weapon and hurled himself forward, catching the girl's flying coat as she reared backwards and almost fell over the edge. Shock caused the scream to catch in her throat and Raan pulled her quickly towards him and placed his hand across her mouth to stifle any further outcry.

  "Easy, Princess, it's me," he hissed, mouth close to her ear. The girl relaxed in his grasp and Raan released her.

  "Raan!" she gasped, her relief plain to see in the torch light. She scurried towards the depression with Raan and they settled back to whisper in the darkness. "What happened?"

  "They were waiting for us, Princess," muttered Raan, darkl
y. "They knew we were coming." The coldness in his tone was accusation in itself and Rigondal clutched his hand in her own.

  "Raan, I swear we never told a soul."

  "Well, I'm damn sure Erion didn't sell us out."

  "I don't understand," Rigondal sounded close to tears. "We didn't even discuss the plans with each other." A sudden thought occurred to her and she tightened her grip on Raan's wrist. "What about Raemond?"

  "I don't know, honey. I haven't been able to make contact."

  "We have to do something," hissed the girl, making as if to rise. Raan pulled her back into the hollow a little more harshly than he had intended.

  "You tell me what we should do, Princess and I'll get to doing it!" The girl clenched her little fists in frustration then she visibly relaxed and leaned towards him."

  "All right, Captain," she gritted, "What do you think we should do?"

  Chapter 19

  "I am most displeased with the standard of efficiency on this base, General." Thirty Seven, in his guise of Rimek, stood looking down at a computer screen where the image of General Colfax could be seen, trying not to show any emotion.

  "Commissioner, I assure you..."

  "I wish to review all troops on this base within one hour. I shall present myself at the main courtyard at that time and I shall expect to see a significant increase in the turnout of these miserable individuals. I was not to have informed you, but High Commander Roland himself is on his way here for a surprise visit to see the Planet Killer in action. I informed him before he left that all would be ready for his arrival. I hope my faith in your abilities is not misplaced, General."

  "I won't let you down, Commissioner." The General's face had turned a strange shade of grey as the one thing he had not thought of had come to pass when he told himself his day could not possibly get any worse. The screen went blank and Thirty Seven switched off his computer.