Verron_Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  How they got to the battle, no one was certain. Evidently the eight of them flew through the gateway with the rest of the Verron fleet and because of their small size had gone unnoticed until they were actively engaged in the second fiercest air battle in Verron’s short history. Even King Verron felt that the sheer number of the Jhxunka and their total lack of fear in battle made for a much more difficult battle than this, but the Volvs were much more advanced and skilled and if Verron, for the first time, had not had superior numbers, it would be a totally different war. The assaults raged on for hours till finally the last of the big Battle Cruisers lay silent. Quickly the Volvs Fighters and Destroyers swarmed to protect the monstrous vessel and it seemed as if out of nowhere the firepower that King Verron had been so eagerly trying to destroy came back to life and began to fill the surrounding space with missile volley after missile volley. The main focus seemed to be in protecting the huge hanger access doors that allowed the Volvs ships to come and go as they reloaded or changed Fighters. It looked like they had an endless supply. The Allied ships continued to make runs at the missiles and cannons protecting the most vulnerable areas of the Mother ship.

  Completely unnoticed on an assault led by Tala and Katelyn’s Fighter squadron and Cali Verron’s Light Destroyers squad, were the small craft clinging to their shadows, undetected by their fellow Allied fighters and the unsuspecting Volvs. While firing thousands of rounds at the well-defended ship and flying as close as possible before pulling-up, the Allied squads nor the Volvs defenders, caught a glimpse of the eight Lyncardi converted Speeders as they blasted suddenly away from the safety of the Light Destroyers and shot right through the open hanger bay doors of the Volvs Mother ship. No one knew what they had done until they broke radio silence and began to broadcast their intent. The little Speeders could do limited damage to the shielded and armored exterior of a ship 20 miles wide, but because of their quickness and maneuverability, they could actually fly inside the gigantic ship. There was no armor or shielding inside. When the eight Lyncardi began to unleash 5mm whitematter Gatling gun rounds and foot long FTL antimatter missiles at the Volvs missile and cannon emplacements, from inside their ship, the devastation was enough to permanently silence the missiles and cannons from at least one side of the Mother ship. Unsuspecting Volvs preparing additional Fighters for battle were gunned downed by the overwhelming fire of the little ships that could fly circles inside their cavernous hanger and access tunnels. The eight Lyncardi were the turning point in the battle and were screaming with glee as they dashed for the exit and safety of the Verron Man of War after using their entire supply of ammunition inside the enemy vessel. No one could believe that what they thought could not be done had been accomplished by the least obvious Fighters in the Allied force. Seeing an opportunity created by the Lyncardi’s bravery, Paul Verron summoned the Dragon Guard to the Command ship. Those who had been in the war of Molnar knew he was about to do something to bring an end to the madness taking place in outer-space.

  Prince Hunter, Lydia and Ibrihim were the only members of the Guard on the surface of Darsai when the call from King Verron went out; the others were flying in the battle above or giving air support to the troops below. When the Dragon Guard was called by King Verron they either made a gateway to the Command ship or quickly landed their Fighters and Light Destroyers in the bay. King Paul gathered them together in the briefing room. General Zarman and General Hall were busy on the surface leading most of the Verron Marines in a bloody battle against an overwhelming force of Volvs. He had only a handful of Marines on his ships to form a boarding party. He turned to Hon IV and asked, “Your men prepared to board if the Dragon Guard goes in first to soften them up a little? I think your commandoes would fare better than any of the others in close combat with creatures the size of the Volvs. They are simply too big and too many of them for even my Marines in body armor to deal with up close and personal.” Hon grinned with his little exposed tusks and called an order to his leader of the Klelta Commandoes to stand by to board on his signal. The specially designed Klelta Man of War began to position itself in preparation to board through the now undefended hangers, thanks to the courage of eight little men under four feet tall.

  Paul continued speaking to the Guard, “We go in by gateway working in pairs. I’ll drop-in to visit the bridge along with Lydia. Hunter you begin at the inside of the hanger bay at the rear of the ship, the rest of you pair off and hit the other five boarding points.” He pointed them out with a hologram image of the Mother ship. “We clear the entry points and work our way inward. Hon, your men will board as soon as the Guard has cleared the way. We have lives to save and I see no other way to do it but to take the lives of every Volvs in the way.” Paul said a short prayer with the 14 members of the Dragon Guard and they quickly disappeared, one after the other to make way for the Klelta Commandoes.

  Robin Meade had been in the Command Center watching a 21 year-old Full-Bird Colonel Command a battle of over a hundred thousand ships. She sent her photographers to photo the celebration taking place in the hanger when the eight little heroes arrived and wondered why King Verron called Princess Amber away from directing the battle. Amber turned over Command to another Colonel on the Bridge and did a jump to the briefing room. Robin managed get to the room the old fashioned way, she walked. Just as she was entering the room, she heard King Verron’s orders to his Dragon Guard. She stared on in wonder as 14 of the bravest people she had ever seen willingly prepared to enter an enemy ship still filled with thousands of Volvs to make the way for the boarding party. On Earth, a Commanding General would send in his commandoes to make the way for him to follow behind after it was perfectly safe to do so. This King was leading the mission himself and his closest friends and family members were going along with him. Robin had seen just what the newest and smallest of the Dragon Guard was capable of, she wondered just what the others could do. In a blink of an eye the fourteen warriors were gone.

  There was panic and surprise when two humans in body armor appeared on the bridge of the Volvs Mother ship. The Commanding General of the Fleet was a giant of a man, at least a foot taller than the average 7 foot Volvs. He and the twenty Volvs in the command center were quick to draw their swords. Lydia had her Light Sabre in the ready position when blood, guts and bones exploded all over the room. She blinked when she dodged some of the flying debris. When she looked up there were none of the commanders left on the bridge. Paul informed her, “Never fight an enemy on his own terms. These big guys thrive on engaging in combat with smaller opponents. Use The Power whenever possible and remember; you are smaller and weaker than these beasts, but that is irrelevant when you use what they don’t possess, The Power.”

  The other members of the Dragon Guard had experienced enough hand-to-hand close combat to know that it was better to destroy an enemy from a distance than it was to allow them to get close enough to possibly inflict bodily harm. From every entry point of the Mother ship, pairs of humans in body armor were being attacked by giant-sized flesh-eaters looking to destroy every opposition. The Guard was armed and ready as they carried their Light Sabre and Dagger, but like Paul had shown Lydia, these men and women were hurling plasma balls, whitematter and even lightning bolts combined with telekinetic bursts of sonic vibrations that threw the Volvs hard into the bulkheads, crushing their bones against the immovable objects. They also carried an assortment of golf-ball sized plasma grenades that they used to destroy the defending cannons and missiles from the inside, melting the launchers and cannons as they incinerated hundreds of Volvs trying to defend the access points. Clearing the access portals, the Guard continued forward toward the center of the ship. Immediately behind them came the thousands of well-trained Klelta Commandoes. For the first time in their history, the 7 foot tall Volvs were facing an enemy that was bigger, stronger and better armed than them, they suddenly weren’t as brave and bold as before and with no commands being given from the General or his staff, their discipline began to fall apart.
The powerful Klelta weapons fired rounds that didn’t just make holes that could be repaired in the Volvs; they literally cut them in half. Some of the Volvs were foolish enough to engage the Klelta with their huge sword. It had always been enough to cut a man in half or at least knock him off his feet from the impact, what few swords actually made impact just clanked off the heavy body armor, the powerful swing of a Klelta steel sword cut through armor, flesh, bone and even the steel bulkhead of the Mother ship. Many of the Volvs believed themselves safe behind a wall or a closed door, only to be skewered by a four-foot sword jammed through the inch thick wall.

  The Dragon Guard’s main objective was to locate the people herded from the planet below. Level by level, the 14 killing machines made their way to the lower decks where they assumed the holding area was for those captured on Darsai. The Volvs closed and secured heavy doors to block the advance of the enemy boarders, only to find that they were cut through instantly by a Sabre or melted to a flowing liquid by a plasma ball which usually continued down the corridor and destroyed those waiting for the intruders. The smell of burned Volvs flesh was permeating the entire ship. Paul knew that there would be no surrender; it just wasn’t something these creatures were bred to do. He knew that they would fight to the last man. Their resistance was growing weaker and their numbers were dwindling as they made their way deeper into the ship. The majority of the crew was focused on the boarding Klelta and the enemy ships surrounding them. Paul, Lydia, Hunter and Ibrihim were the first to arrive at the well-guarded holding area. There were at least 100 Volvs walking on catwalks high above the holding pens below. Paul realized he had been low on his estimate of how many people were in those pins, it had to be closer to a million.

  As soon as the rest of the Guard arrived they all carefully selected a group of Volvs to target and made a jump to their position. Screams of excitement went up from the crowd when Volvs body parts fell into the holding pits below. Voices cried out, “The Dark Knight has come and he brings others. Cheers went-out so loud that it was deafening as it echoed off the metal walls. The Dragon Guard secured the position and protected the helpless humans from the steady assaults of Volvs attempting to regain their possession of the holding area. They died in their valiant effort; or possibly foolish efforts. After about another hour and a half the ship fell silent. The captives were terrified to see giants even bigger than the Volvs emerge from the corridors where there had once been a wall of resisters. King Verron gave Prince Hunter the privilege of announcing that the Volvs onboard were dead. He then told them, “Please be patient. There are still thousands of them on Darsai. We need to make the surface safe before you return to your homes. If any of you need food or medical attention, I will have a crew from medical board the ship to see to your needs.” While he was speaking, a Light Sabre cut through the massive locks on the holding pin doors. He continued, “Please stay in this area. There are areas where the ship’s hull has been breached and they are unsafe for anyone not in survival gear.” With that comment, King Verron and the Dragon Guard stepped into the corridor and made a gateway back to the Command Ship, it was time to clear the planet.

  Paul replaced the Klelta with a team of Marines to search the ship carefully and be certain there were no more Volvs and no more captives on board. With the Mother ship now in Verron’s possession and completely surrounded with both Man of War and Gljarne Class Destroyers and hundreds of ships from Klelta, Xhondar, Tecalna and Beriya-Haven, it was time to put everything that could fly or walk on the surface to rid Darsai of the infestation of Volvs. They were scattered from one end of the planet to the other and, with no way home, had become determined to hold their position until help arrived. There were at least another 2 million captives being held in cities all over two continents. With the Fighters and Light destroyers using their life-form identification and targeting system, they were able to systematically locate the determined Volvs. Paul and Hunter wanted to free the citizens before the Volvs began to get hungry. They knew that untold numbers had already lost their lives and they had no desire to add collateral damage to the count. He had the Marines and other ground forces from Tecalna, Klelta and Xhondar switch to 5mm laser rounds when engaging Volvs near humans. The whitematter rounds would easily kill the Volvs, but also vaporize those humans close by. He sent his best sharpshooters into the congested areas and teamed them with at least one Dragon Guard. It was the Dragon Guard’s duty to jump into the middle of the congestion and thin it out. It was amazing to see the big Volvs scatter when five foot Tala or four-foot eleven inch Lydia made a jump right into the middle of their defenses. The armed Marines outside were soon forgotten when body parts began to get severed by the demonic little creatures. They were gunned down by the waiting Marines as they fled the hailstorm from the Dragon Guard in their presence.

  For two more days the Allied forces searched every inch of Darsai. The CNN War Correspondence were allowed on the surface after King Verron deemed it safe, but even then he had a full Marine escort with Robin, Tim and the camera crew at all times. Robin and Tim stayed busier helping the devastated population of Darsai than they did making film. It didn’t go unnoticed how she would often shed tears as she helped some battered child look for their parent or even someone they knew. Chase and Daniel loaned CNN some of the military photo equipment when they panicked over running out of storage space on the cameras they had with them. The Verron equipment had far better resolution and limitless storage capacity in a very small flash drive. When Paul realized how intrigued the head cameraman was with the technology, he told him he would see to it that he got one of his own before he left.

  The crew had grown tired of photographing the dead and destroyed. At his best estimate Hunter Verron-Hall determined that over 2 million men, women and children had been killed by the Volvs, including their entire 10,000 man Militia, the King and the royal family. Robin finally got to film something less depressing when the transports began to shuttle the captives back to the ground and other transports took them to their homes. Admiral Sullivan was even using the NASA Space Shuttle to bring thousands at a time to the surface of Darsai. It wasn’t until it was time for them to go back home that Paul realized that the Interceptors and their crews had been flying assault missions since the beginning and had downed hundreds of Volvs Fighters and destroyed even more enemy ground targets. He then recognized the Terrorist Elimination Unit and their specially designed transports gathered in conversations with Verron Marines they had befriended while training on Verron. Paul walked over to tell Hunter, Chase, Daniel and Ibrihim goodbye before they had to return to Earth. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Bentley, in his usual manner, asked “So you boys do this sort of thing often? Prince Hunter claims you do and these squirts, pointing at Chase, Daniel and Ibrihim, said it was just part of the training for your men. I’d personally prefer to go up against a few hundred thousand towel-heads. I have never been as scared in my life and I heard you guys went right into the belly of the beast.” Paul smiled and made a simple statement, “Well, somebody had to do it and I sure wasn’t going to ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself.”

  Just after Paul had said his goodbyes and given his gratitude to those from Earth who had participated in their first interstellar war, a group of freed captives approached King Verron and Hunter. Hunter immediately recognized Duke Boris Abarnikov. He hurried to the man and embraced him emotionally. He held him at arms-length, saying, “I thought you were dead. After I left the palace I assumed no one from there had survived.” Boris was in tears grieving for the loss of his wife and child. He cried on Hunter’s shoulder a moment and pushed one of the men with him forward to speak in his stead. He stammered a little but declared, “We represent what’s left of the elders and leaders of Darsai. With the King dead along with the royal family and the only heir, we have decided to turn the Kingdom over to the man who has now saved it twice.” The group began to chant, “All hail King Hunter – All hail King Hunter” Hunter looked at Paul and had a disturbed loo
k on his face. He had never intended to become King. Paul knew that Darsai was in dire need of stable leadership and would be totally dependent upon Verron and the other allies for some time. Before he could speak however, Hunter exerted himself, saying, “If I am to become your King, I must make it perfectly clear that I am subject to King Verron and that Darsai would officially become a Verronian State under King Verron’s rule and King Verron’s law. We will work to rebuild Darsai and move it toward the modern society that now exists on Verron.”

  Turning to Boris, he added, “I will not reside here and as a state we will need a Governor General. I would like to appoint Duke Boris Abarnikov to the position of Governor General. He has already been instrumental in developing Darsai and, with the aid of Verron, will make Darsai a great asset to her sovereign Nation of Verron.” The leaders agreed that it was a good arrangement. Paul placed his hand on Boris’ shoulder and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, “On this day, I, King Verron, declare Darsai to be a wholly owned protectorate of the Nation of Verron and swear to serve and protect Darsai with all resources available to me. I further declare Duke Boris Abarnikov to be Governor General of Darsai and the King’s Hand in all matters.” Turning to the group of leaders he told them, “Welcome to Verron. I will keep my promises to your people. You will become a vital part of the united allies who defended your planet this week.”

  The victorious return to Verron was dampened by the announcement of the deaths of over 1000 Marines stationed on the planet. King Verron continued to tell the people that millions of Darsai’s citizens had lost their lives and that Darsai was now officially a sovereign state of Verron. He let the people of Verron know that millions more were still alive today because of the valiant efforts of the Allied Forces. Then, he had 8 little Lyncardi escorted onto a stage before the billions of people watching on the various allied news channels and declared that these eight men represent everything good, brave and honorable that Verron fights for. He let the world know that without even being part of the Allied military system, that these men joined the battle and managed to turn the tide of the entire war with their bold attack right into the Volvs Mother ship. He awarded them each the Verron Metal of Valor and the Distinguished Flying Cross and declared them each to now hold the rank of Captain in the Verron Air Force. He then said, “These men have paved the way for their people to develop their own militia and become part of the allied armies.” The little Lyncardi really didn’t totally understand what just transpired, they only knew that they believed in what the Verron flag said and what they had been taught since they first saw it, “Serve and Protect.”