****
Screaming pierces my sleep.
Syreena’s screaming at the top of her lungs. My eyes snap open and I took at my surroundings, I take in what’s happening with a quick glance. There are men in the house, robbers? No, it couldn’t be, there’d be no way into the house without the alarms going off.
“Syreena!” I shout out her name, the screaming stops a split second after that, she knows that I’m awake.
From what I could get from my quick glance of the room I made out six shadowy figures in the bedroom alone. Who knows how many are in the house.
It’d take a lot to eliminate them all without hurting her in the crossfire. It’s only two or three seconds after I shouted her name, I roll out of bed and into the bedside table, where I keep a loaded handgun in case this very thing happened. I quickly evaluate where the scream came from and where she could’ve been moved.
I clap my hands together in quick succession. The lights come on all of a sudden, if I were looking into a mirror I’m sure my pupils would’ve contracted to the size of a pinhead instantly.
I’m ready for the light and was expecting to be blinded, the attackers however, weren’t, the room after the lights come on is filled with hissing. It feels like my heart drops into my stomach, I know who the attackers are and what they’re here for.
Hakorians have somehow found out where I live.
There’s no possible explanation for how it could’ve happened. Maybe they’d broken into the military network system and accessed files concerning previous missions. They might’ve also learned who was on those missions. If that’s the case T-Rave might be in the exact situation right now. Or maybe they’d tagged me somehow when I was unconscious back at the mining facility.
Syreena yelps again as the Hakorian that’s holding her by the bedroom door yanks hard on her hair, pulling her head back and exposing her throat. It enrages me to see her like that; I act instinctually before the Hakorian has time to pull out a blade and threaten to kill her. Although as much as I hate to think about it a knife would be unnecessary, he could most easily just snap her head to the side quickly and break her neck.
My arm snaps up and I line the barrel of the gun to the Hakorians head. I squeeze the trigger and watch as the horror begins to show in the Hakorians black beady little eyes. He drops a split second later, a huge smoking charred hole in the middle of his head. Syreenas screams stops when the body hits the floor. I don’t let me eyes register the body falling, my arm’s already arcing through the air, searching for the next target.
Hakorians are everywhere; the shot most likely drew more of them from the other parts of the house. I squeeze the trigger again; the shot hits the hulking Hakorian in the shoulder blade, well, what you’d assume to be a shoulder blade. The Hakorian drops to his knees and emanates a low growling noise, his growling stops instantly as I put another round right in between his eyes.
All of a sudden multiple areas in my breast region feel like they’re on fire. I look down, two hands are wrapped around my shoulders, the razor sharp fingers are cutting into my chest, so much pain. I can feel the warm blood pour down my front. I yell out in pain and bring my head back as fast as I can, in hopes to knock the Hakorian grasping me out cold. The back of my head strikes what would pass as a chin, although it’s sharper than the average human chin. My eyes water in pain, the upside however is that the hands let go of my shoulders.
The Hakorian near the window takes out a rifle and aims it towards me, at the same time I hear Syreena yell something. I can't quite hear what she’s saying, through my peripherals I can see her shake loose of her captor and run towards me, at that exact instant I hear a weapon discharge.
Syreenas eyes open wide in shock, she doesn’t make any noise at all, all she does is let out a small gasp as the shot impacts in her back.
My eyes open wide, I yell out her name in hopes that none of it actually happened. Syreena drops to the ground almost gracefully. A single tear runs down her cheek. I rush to her, I place my hand on her neck, I can't feel a pulse. My heart’s racing, she can't possibly be gone.
A pair of hands grasp me, before I know it Syreenas hands are being ripped away from me as I’m thrown against the wall above the bed. The picture frame above the bedframe shatters as I crash into it. I feel the glass tear through the skin on my back. I land on the bed briefly before I bounce off and onto the floor. I taste blood in my mouth; I must’ve bit my lip when I landed. My head’s right beside my bedside table, I fumble around on the table for a switch that’s installed.
I flip the switch; it’s a silent alarm that’ll alert authorities to come to the apartment.
What happens next I can't tell. Sharp pain erupts in the back of my head, my eyes go fuzzy, my last sight that I see is Syreena, looking helpless in a crumpled heap on the floor. The one time she needed me in our marriage I couldn’t help her, instead she’d done the one thing that I would’ve done; given her life to save me. My eyes water up, not from the physical pain emanating from the back of my skull though. The world works in many ways; I just discovered the cruel aspect.
Nine
Day 12: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397
Hakorian Fleet.
A vast fleet of ships is adrift in the void of space, dozens upon dozens of star fighters, frigates and control ships, all heading towards one common destination: Terra. Traveling from the planet Hakor took longer than they’d thought, the engines burned out from the immense amount of stress that was being put on them from the long flight.
Converted to the humans telling of time it’ll take at least another full period before the ships begins its touchdown, and extracts the planets natural resources. It’ll probably take only a few cycles to completely mine the planet, and by that time the mission would be completed. If it was up to Bel’Ock, the fleet would have been on the planet Terra several years ago. However, the Council voted to mobilize the fleet when they were ready to travel, mass amounts of time and energy had been put into the plan, and luckily it’s all working out well so far.
The one thing that Bel’Ock can’t wrap his mind around though is how one man could make such a dent in the plan, fortunately that one man is now in custody.
Bel’Ock twists in his chair, towards the forward viewing port that’s on the bridge. There it is, Terra, in all its innocence a fruitful planet that has everything that Bel’Ock needs, Bel’Ock and all of the rest of the general population.
“Commander, there’s a human on the communication system for you, link three,” his first officer Hakaer says in the native Hakorian tongue, why speak the humans language when no humans are around?
Bel’Ock nods at the other Hakorian; he steps into his private chambers at the other end of the bridge. Bel’Ock always likes his conversations to be in private. Bel’Ock sits down in his chair behind his desk that’s formed from a polished hardened magma formation. Lava’s the only source that’s good to use as furniture. None of the other Hakorians care though; their bodies are designed to endure tough living situations.
Bel'Ock wraps his one good hand around the edge of his chair; his other hand comes up and hits the intercom uplink. A man appears at the other end of the desk in hologram form, his face has an old look to it, well, for humans anyways. His face is covered in facial hair, which is white as the stars that shine in the night sky, giving him a very scruffy, elderly appearance. All you can see is his lower jaw; the rest of his face is covered by a hood, making him seem like the sinister type.
“We had a deal,” the human says.
“Well, you couldn’t deliver,” Bel'Ock says in the human language.
“Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I can still make good on our deal though. I need more time.”
“We couldn’t holdout for any longer, we apprehended him the firsst chance we got. You were taking too long.” Bel'Ock says curtly. “You had three sstandard yearss to complete your misssion.”
“It is not as simple as that, do you know how long it took to
locate him?”
“Don’t make excussess, there iss no reasson that you sstill can't complete your misssion.”
“Are you suggesting that I completely ignore certain rules?”
“If you sstill want the rewardss from your ssuccesss,” Bel'Ock points at the hologram, if Bel'Ock had hair like humans did his eyebrows would be in a position that some would consider to be dubious.
“Don’t worry; I will deliver the package within the next fifty hours,” the hologram of the man flickers and blurs away.
Bel'Ock sighs, it’s easy to manipulate humans, their personalities differentiated from one another, but all in all they are the same, they would do anything to get what they wanted, some go to greater lengths then others. Ninety-nine percent of them want the same things: Power and possessions, plus whatever type of currency the humans use to control their trading.
“Commander, sorry to interrupt, but the engineering lab needs you immediately, lab seven,” Hakaers voice crackles through the ships intercom into Bel'Ocks chambers.
Bel'Ock sighs as he props himself up with his good hand, then strides over to the door that leads to the control bridge. “I shouldn’t be long,” he hisses to Hakaer.
“The engineer that I spoke to said that they’ve made improvements to the power density of the reactor,” he says as Bel'Ock passes him on his way to the lift. Bel'Ock in turn gives him a slight nod.
The lift doors open by motion sensor when Bel'Ock approaches them, Bel'Ock steps inside. He depresses the button that initiates the lowering of the lift by several floors. The lift makes a silent decent through the many levels of the ship. Bel'Ock turns around; he stares through the transparent view screen in front of him. The entire Hakorian fleet can be seen through this one viewport. The tube that the lift travels down is see through, making trips in the lift very scenic. The sight of dozens of ships is breathtaking for some. Hakorians don’t usually get any type of buzz, seeing as they have no adrenal glands. It was always a major disadvantage in battle, but what they couldn’t make up in adrenaline they made up with rage and strength.
The lift starts to slow down, Bel'Ock steps out of the lift once the doors open.
The engineering lab has a ghastly feel to it, a low set arched ceiling, only slightly taller than Bel'Ock, making it a very cramped and claustrophobic working space. Bel'Ock’s the second tallest Hakorian in the fleet, making him very intimidating to others. Plus the huge scar that traces from the top of his head down over his eye socket and then finishing at his lower jaw line. The scar might’ve been worth it now, it makes Bel'Ock feel more menacing to others. Bel'Ock received that scar from when he was in the middle of The Right of Passage. It was a series of challenges involving many attributes, strength, speed, agility, and the will to survive.
The last challenge had involved battling a Crae Beast. A very large eight legged creature with a horned head and a very short temper. The battle had progressed slowly at first, after only a few short minutes though the beast had charged. Bel'Ock had been to slow in moving out of the way, death had missed him by only a hairs breathe away. Injury still managed to happen though. The horn had struck a blow directly on Bel'Ocks face, nearly decapitating him in the process. Luckily though Bel'Ock moved just far enough to avoid getting his head removed.
Bel'Ock had already walked all the way to the end of the room without even realizing it, he was lost in thought, and day dreaming was not very common among Hakorians. It was known to happen from time to time when reliving ones most achieving moments. That particular challenge that Bel'Ock was sponsored in was one of the most dangerous, all you had to do was survive for a certain amount of time. Bel'Ock however had survived the time longer than any other Hakorian and had ever done. That one act that made him commander among the fleet was that he killed the beast, which usually never happened in those arena fights. It had made him a legend. Only four Hakorians in the entire recorded Akkessian history had ever slayed the Crae Beast. Each kill separated by hundreds of years.
“Commander,” a voice comes from a desk that’s illuminated by a glowing object, “over here.”
Bel'Ock twisted around to look where the voice originated from. He walks in to the faint orange glowing desk, “you called me down here to show me something.”
“Ah yes, come, come. Let me show you something that you might find interesting,” he says.
Bel'Ock steps in front of the desk; the object that’s glowing is a metal cylinder. The cylinder’s roughly the size of Bel'Ocks forearm. “Is this what you wanted to show me?” He asks.
“Yes, take a look at how these molecules react to each other in the proper environment,” he says eagerly, “here take a look through this,” he gestures to the electroscope on the desk that’s directed at the object. Bel'Ock peers into the socket where you look into. The scope magnifies the image several thousand times, Bel'Ock’s no scientist, but what should have made his jaw drop just makes him stare in confusion. All that he can see are small round things that are bouncing off each other, continuously colliding with multiple molecules.
“I don’t understand. What exactly should I be seeing?”
“You are seeing it. These molecules are the building blocks of the liquid gas Thopium. When they collide they create mass amounts of friction. And with friction comes heat, and this type of heat creates the type of raw energy that we need in order to complete our drive cores,” he explains.
“If this energy is so powerful then how is it not eating its way through the container?” Bel'Ock asks.
“That is a good question, the reason for that is because the casing is pure Iridium. Even highly compact liquid Thopium can't eat through it,” he pauses and extends his hand and taps the container. The container shines so bright that it illuminates the entire room, blinding the two of them in the process.
“You couldn’t have warned me about that?”
“I already experimented with that earlier; it didn’t shine that bright last time though,” his hand is still raised in front of his face to help block out the brightness.
“You still could have warned me.”
“Do you have any idea to what this will do for the drive cores?”
“I’m a Military Commander not a Scientist or an engineer, so please; enlighten me,” Bel'Ock says.
“Well, from what we have recently figured out is that our Star Drive cores have been burning out far too quickly to be considered useful. With this new formula of such densely packed energy molecules the energy output has increased almost a hundred fold. Now, the materials that it took to make this one core used up all of our reserves. For the pure mass of the ships that are in the fleet and that we are planning to take through hyperspace need at least ten of these cores per ship. We must have three minimum in order to supply the proper power requirements.”
“And this is why we have deployed mining operations to extract more Thopium?”
“Correct, the Thopium that is contained in this container is what's left of what we managed to harvest from the gas nebula. We have experimented with small amounts of Thopium over time with different quantities, recently we have been on the verge of a breakthrough, just before we had left Hakor we finally overcame the problem. The results are before you now.” He gestures to the container again.
“How much more Thopium will you need to produce that many drive cores?”
“To put it short we will have to completely rip apart the whole planet in order to get the right amount.”
“What would we be able to do with this one core?” Bel'Ock inquires.
“Well there is a small chance that we would be able to implement it into one of our Phantom class recon ships. One core would be more than enough that for several jumps worth. It would be enough to send a message.”
“That is all that we wanted to do at first anyway. Not an actual message though, is there any way you would be able to rig the core to explode if the container got breached? Say, by high velocity impact?”
“Hmm,” the Hak
orian scratches his chin, “there would be no possible way that that container could be penetrated by just impact alone, if it got hit by weapons fire the chance of it exploding is relatively high.”
“Slow down, are you saying that this stuff is highly explosive?” The hard shell like skin above Bel'Ocks eyes moves up.
“It can be if you add the right ingredients. These materials are flammable, only if you introduce another form of explosion into the mix. If I rig another explosive in the Phantom to detonate milliseconds after impact, don’t you agree that that would send the perfect message?”
“I do agree, get it done. That’s an order.”
“Yes Sir, but might I add that there is no guarantee that this will even work?
“In what way?”
“Well, several things could go wrong; the explosive might not detonate, the core drive might malfunction or explode as soon as it jumps into Hyperspace. The variables are numerous in numbers. Even if the ship does successfully get to its desired destination the effect that the blast could have on the city could be minimalistic.”
“The purpose of this mission is to deliver a message, and with that message comes a warning. The effect doesn’t need to be very physical, or deadly, but rather mentally. We need to let the inhabitants know that we are returning home, and that nothing will stop us from achieving our goal,” Bel'Ock finishes his speech. Vengeance gleaming in his eyes.
“Then why wouldn’t we just send them a hologram recording saying that we want to destroy and take over them all?”
“And destroy all the fun in the process? You don’t have to be so blunt in your threats. I must get back to my duties. Get it done; I expect a report sent to me within ten hours.”
Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) Page 16