Belinea

by Andrew Mack

  As Leahy had made his way back upstairs, Argo looked at his communication officer, barking orders. “All Attack Groups concentrate on the ground forces. Do not attack the C-112 transports.”

  Leahy walked over to Argo and stood next to him. He said, “The animal is out of the cage.”

  Argo answered calmly, “Is our green medical ship ready?”

  Leahy answered, “Should be taking off right when our attack groups get here. How many ships did the Valmay bring?”

  Argo answered, “Looks like thirty to forty.”

  Leahy continued. “And we got forty in each attack group. Twenty-five F-81’s and fifteen A-14 Alvator’s, One hundred twenty aircraft total.”

  Argo gave a small grin. “I like our chances.”

  Down on the landing pads near the transports, the Valkyrie that Manning was piloting got to within a meter off the ground as Kaya jumped on its side. Kaya put one foot firmly on the rail and as her hand clutched the handle-bar. She looked at the officer operating the T-11 Cannon on the back of the Valkyrie and pointed to the top of the extended bridge. Kaya yelled, “Get me to that Tower Cannon!”

  With her free hand, Kaya grabbed her rifle as the Valkyrie climbed toward the Tower Cannon, all four blades turned and rotating. She took a shot, as did the T-11 Cannon, all connecting and taking out soldiers on the wall. Without slowing down, Kaya jumped off as they reached the top, knocking the last soldier to the ground. As he tried to get up, Kaya turned her ring into a fire saber and quickly stabbed him. The soldier operating the Tower Cannon noticed Kaya, and tried to grab his pistol. But Kaya stabbed him in the leg and threw him out of the chair before he even got a shot off. After slitting the soldier’s throat, Kaya climbed into the chair and began shooting at the Majavkee below. After a moment, she looked up into the distance and saw the AuFa attack groups coming. She grabbed her intercom and said, “Octavious, we got over a hundred aircraft coming, fifteen seconds out. SPB’s now!”

  The SPB’s were Smoke Power Bombs that left a cloud of gas smoke thirty meters wide and high when activated. Octavious put on the miner ventilation mask hanging from his hip and his infrared goggles. He yelled at his fellow soldiers and said on the intercom simultaneously, “SPB’s now. Cortes, Rendon, escort the C-112 transports out of here.”

  Cortes replied, “We are not leaving you, sir.”

  Octavious replied, “EVAC them, then come back for us, that’s an order. The C-112’s are more important.”

  Within seconds the entire ground was a haze of gray gas smoke, making visual nearly impossible for the AuFa attack groups flying in. Following Octavious, the rest of the Valmay soldiers immediately put on infrared goggles and ventilation masks. As Kaya got her infrared goggles on, she began picking off Majavkee soldiers one by one on the landing pad below. The AuFa attack group, not being able to see the Valmay on the ground, began attacking the Valmay fighters and Valkyries above. Rendon spoke on his intercom, “Transports, let’s go.”

  At the Command Tower, Argo saw, through the glass, the C-112 transports slowly rise through the smoke. Getting on his intercom, he said, “AuFa attack bombers, switch to infrared and start bombing the ground area. The C-112 transports are away.”

  A voice from an AuFa pilot came back. “Lord Argo, we can’t see anything. And the Majavkee soldiers are still down there fighting.”

  Argo, annoyed, walked to the elevator with Leahy in tow. He said, “Take out everything. And someone take out that Cannon Tower firing down from the extended bridge!”

  As if on cue, an AuFa F-81 flew directly past Cortes’ ship and straight to the Tower Cannon Kaya was firing on below. It fired and hit below the cannon, throwing Kaya off of it. Cortes yelled, “Kaya!”

  On the ground, the smoke was still everywhere. Still, inside the hangar, Donovan saw a topless transport shuttle, used for ferrying miners and soldiers around the landing pads. He yelled at the miners again. “Now is our chance! Get in the transport shuttle!”

  The miners stopped shooting and got on the transport shuttle. Donovan drove them through the smoke and crossfire towards Octavious, as the miners went back to shooting at the Majavkee. Octavious turned ninety degrees to his right and saw the ground transport shuttle coming in fast towards them. One of the soldiers next to Octavious turned his rifle to fire. Octavious, squinting his eyes through the smoke, saw Donovan driving, and pushed the barrel of the rifle down with his hand. He said, “They are with us. ”

  Donovan drove behind the divider wall and jumped out of the transport shuttle. He ran up to him and said, “Octavious!”

  Octavious was astonished. “Donovan, what are you doing here?”

  Donovan, breathing very hard. “We escaped, they held us prisoner, for helping you. Quickly, Octavious, you need to shoot down that green ship.”

  Donovan was pointing to a transport ship on top of the main building that was about to take off. Octavious yelled back at Donovan, “It’s a transport. It’s probably not military.”

  Donovan yelled back. “The Majavkee Lords are on it. All of them!!!”

  Octavious’s face gave a double-take. “How do you know?”

  Donovan yelled back. “I just do. There is no time. We can end this whole thing now!”

  Octavious just stared at him, as another bomb went off near him. He looked at a couple of soldiers next to him. “Anyone got any rocket launcher rounds left?”

  The soldiers next to him shook their heads, as one of them yelled, “I am all out. I got some grenades.”

  Octavious looked up. His F-81 Fighters were mostly gone, escorting the C-112 Transports out. He knew none of them could turn back. Even if they did, there were now five times as many AuFa F-81’s in the sky. He turned to the soldier next to him and said, “Give me the grenades.”

  Octavious slung the satchel of grenades around his shoulder and ran ten meters to a transport truck. Jumping on top of it, he ran the length of the truck before jumping again to a Valkyrie that was hovering five meters above the ground. Both hands caught the foot railing, and he immediately swung himself up to get next to the pilot, who looked astonished. Pointing, he yelled, “Get me up. I need to get to that green transport ship!”

  As the Valkyrie turned all four rotor blades towards the green transport, Kaya got up from all fours. She was bleeding profusely from a contusion on the side of her head, and her shoulder was severely injured. Grabbing her rifle as she stood up, she noticed the cannon was destroyed. She saw fighters still zooming overhead. Looking back down the extended bridge, she could see another Tower Cannon towards the main building. Through the billowing smoke from fifty meters away, she saw Octavious, flying on the side of a Valkyrie towards the main building. Clearly in pain, she jumped down on top of the extended bridge and began running towards the other Tower Cannon.

  Octavious still had a firm grip on his handle of the Valkyrie. He yelled again at the pilot. “Any more missiles? “

  The Valkyrie pilot shook his head and yelled, “No!”

  As the green transport was now airborne, the Valkyrie was almost on top of it. Octavious grabbed a cable hanging from the side attachment and clipped one end to the side handlebar. He took the other end and clipped it to the belt of his uniform on his hip. He yelled at the pilot, “Keep shooting! And stay with the transport!”

  Octavious jumped ten meters off the Valkyrie and on top of the green transport. The T-11 cannon from the Valkyrie kept shooting rounds, but they were barely penetrating the armor of the transport. Octavious ran towards the front of the green transport as it picked up speed and altitude. The cord still clipped him to the Valkyrie, but the slack was giving way quickly as the Valkyrie tried to keep up. As he got to the cockpit, he grabbed the handle on the emergency door hatch and opened it. Reaching into the satchel, he activated a grenade and dropped it inside the transport. Almost simultaneously, the cable ran out of slack, jerking Octavious backward off the ship. As h
e flew through the air, the green transport cockpit exploded, sending the ship straight to the ground. Octavious just missed the Valkyrie’s blades he was clipped to, falling past it towards the ground below. When the slack ran out, Octavious jerked again, this time swinging from the cable below the Valkyrie. As he was dangling, he saw the green transport crash and explode a kilometer away. The Valkyrie flew over the transport truck he jumped from, and, from five meters high, he unclipped himself, falling on top of it. Grabbing his intercom, he yelled, “Cortes, get down here now.”

  On the extended bridge, Kaya was still thirty meters away from the next Tower Cannon. An AuFa soldier on the wall tried to shoot her while she was running on top. But she rolled, popped up with her rifle, and got off three perfect rounds, killing him instantly. The soldier in the Tower Cannon chair was firing on F-81’s above and never saw Kaya. From a kneeling position, she re-focused her scope. She exhaled and took three shots. The third one hit him in the face, as he slumped down and rolled off the chair. Kaya, so focused on the shot, never heard the roar of the engines. She turned almost all the way around to see an AuFa F-81, hovering in front of her. The pilot was ready to shoot, as Kaya rolled from her knee. The shot went over her as she kept rolling. Popping up, she sprinted four steps and jumped off the extended bridge, landing on the nose of the F-81.

  Kaya crawled less than a meter, grabbed her ring to make a fire saber, and pierced it through the glass bubble cockpit. The F-81 turned violently left, as to try to shake Kaya off. The blade, however, was now through the pilot’s torso, giving her something stable to hold onto. As the F-81 was spinning, Kaya pointed her rifle at the engine with her other free hand. She connected on five shots that sent the fighter into critical failure. Kaya dropped her rifle and reached for her cable gun on her hip. She shot it towards the building, where it connected on the roof and snapped into place. As she pulled the fire saber out of the cockpit, she jumped toward the building, using the cable line as a swing. The F-81 continued spiraling towards the ground as Kaya crashed through a glass window and rolled up on two civilians lying on the ground, ducking for cover.

  As Argo and Leahy made it downstairs, they entered a hangar and looked at the fight outside. Leahy pulled a device out of his pocket with a button on it and looked at Argo. “My Lord?”

  Argo saw the device and said, “Not yet. Wait.”

  Both men grabbed their rings and turned them into silvery swords. They sprinted into the smoke and immediately engaged in a fight with two Valmay soldiers with red fire sabers. After a moment of fighting, Argo and Leahy pushed them back and killed the Valmay soldiers almost simultaneously. Noticing Octavious’ group, they ran towards the divider wall.

  Flying above them and seeing the fight below, Cortes said on the intercom, “Octavious, there is no place to land.”

  Ocatvious grabbed his soldiers. One by one, the seven of them got in a giant circle, all firing out. They took out their rings and turned them into fire sabers. Octavious yelled at Donovan and the miners, “Get in the middle, all of you.”

  As they did, a wall of fire came out from the sabers of the soldiers. It extended out some twenty meters around them, disintegrating everything in sight. Argo and Leahy were twenty meters away as the wall of fire came towards them. They both immediately kneeled and turned their silvery swords into two-meter wide shields. The fire never penetrated them.

  Cortes got her Assault Ship right above them in the middle of the fire circle. First, the miners jumped in, followed by the Valmay soldiers. Octavious was the last one to hop on. He touched his intercom and yelled, “Cortes, go, go, go…”

  As the flames disappeared, Argo and Leahy stood back up. Argo and Octavious locked eyes as Cortes flew the ship away. Octavious noticed another transport loading some of his soldiers on the ground a hundred meters away. Octavious spoke into his intercom again. “Cortes, let’s provide cover for that transport, we leave no one behind. Anyone seen Kaya?”

  After going through the glass, Kaya’s bleeding was even worse. She got to her feet and ran towards the stairwell at the end of the room. Reaching the top, she went outside, next to the entrance of the Tower Cannon. The soldier she shot from her sniper rifle was bleeding out on the ground as she climbed into the cannon’s chair. Focusing, she saw the Valmay ships in the distance leaving. Kaya noticed two AuFa F-81’s flying around them. She wiped the blood from her face and began shooting.

  Cortes had her ship hovering, so the soldiers operating the cannons could provide cover for the other soldiers boarding the transports. She said into the intercom, “Octavious, no sign of Kaya, but we gotta get out of here.”

  Octavious watched the last two soldiers board the transport. He shouted into the intercom. “Cortes, punch it!”

  The two ships began to fly away, now flanked by two Valmay F-81’s. From a distance of about one hundred meters, Kaya saw the four ships leaving. Still profusely bleeding from the contusion on her eye, she focused on the AuFa F-81’s with her other eye. Hearing a bunch of AuFa soldiers coming up the stairs behind her, Kaya aimed carefully. She fired, and missed badly. The AuFa F-81 was right behind Cortes’ Assault Ship as Kaya heard someone below her say, “Freeze!”

  Adjusting to the wind and smoke, she got off two shots from the Tower Cannon that connected with the AuFa F-81’s engine, sending it to the ground as Cortes’ ship flew away. Kaya tried to grab her ring, but was pierced right in her leg by a silver sword from an SS officer. She turned, but the SS officer immediately hit her across the head and knocked her out cold.

  The four remaining Valmay ships burst into high speed away from the Processing Center.

  As Argo and Leahy stood on the landing pads and looked around, they saw the damage done. An AuFa officer walked up to him and said, “Lord Argo, I have the Majavkee Lords. They want to speak to you now.”

  Argo, looking dismayed. He touched his intercom and said, “Admiral Holland...”

  After a couple of seconds, Argo heard on his intercom, “Lord Argo, this is Admiral Holland.”

  Argo wiped his forehead. “You got a signal on those Vait transport ships?”

  After a pause, Holland replied, “Yes, sending you the tracking device data now.”

  Argo and Leahy looked down at the tablet the AuFa officer just handed him. They could now see the four blinking dots of Rendon’s stolen C-112 Transports heading towards the mountains. The other four blinking dots had just left the Processing Center, bearing the same direction.

  Argo then replied, “Holland, have Attack Group One, Two, and Six follow those dots and tell them to wait for the signal.”

  Holland quickly replied, “Which will be?”

  Argo looked at Leahy, who pulled out the device with the button on it from his pocket. Argo replied, “One big fucking fire.”

  Over to the side, two SS officers were dragging Kaya’s body across the landing pads, her hands cuffed in front of her. They were flanked by four Majavkee security soldiers. They dropped her body in front of Argo as he asked, “What is this?”

  The SS officer replied, “A little present, My Lord.”

  The other SS soldier tossed Kaya’s ring at Argo, who caught it. With a small grin, Argo said, “And who does this belong to?”

  Kaya was still lying face down. There was a trail of blood left behind her, as she was now bleeding from her leg as well as her head. One of the Majavkee security soldiers kicked Kaya underneath the ribs and yelled, “Answer the question, bitch.”

  Argo stepped forward. He kicked the leg out from the Majavkee soldier and simultaneously struck him across the neck. It knocked him to the ground and had him gasping for air while holding his throat with both hands. Argo softly said, “Anyone that touches her, and it will be the last thing you do.”

  Argo tossed Kaya’s ring to Leahy. Argo squatted down and pulled Kaya’s chin up. Her entire face was covered in blood, and the wound to her eye looked particularly gruesom
e. Softly shaking his head, Argo said, “Not the handcuffs I envisioned for us.”

  As she barely came around, Kaya let out a barely audible “Fuck you….”

  Argo gave another half-grin before replying. “Your unwillingness to concede is admirable. Foolish…., but admirable.”

  Kaya attempted to spit on him, but only a thick blood trail made it out an inch.

  Argo gave a tiny chuckle and shook his head. He heard the message from Leahy’s intercom. “Captain Leahy, this is Admiral Holland. The first four dots have stopped moving.”

  Leahy responded, “Copy that, stand by.”

  Leahy and Argo looked at each other. Argo held up his other hand, and Leahy tossed him the device with the button. Looking back at Kaya, Argo said, “Bitch, you can spit, talk, cry all you want. I do not want you dead. I want you to suffer.”

  Argo held up her head higher and showed her the device. “See this, you cunt? I want you to take a good look at it and think about your precious little brother.”

  Kaya tried to squirm, but to no avail, as Argo had a very firm grip on her chin. He continued. “Yes, think long and hard, because this is the last breath he will take.”

  Argo held the device in front of her and pushed the button.

  At the Valmay base, Rendon was on the side of a forklift that was carrying one of the Vait crates down the ramp from the giant C-112 transport. All four of the stolen C-112 transports had just landed to the cheers of all the Valmay soldiers at the base cave. They stopped and lowered the crate. Opening it up, Rendon noticed there was no Vait in them. Instead, the crate was full of C-4 explosives. Rendon said, “What the fuck?”

  All four C-112 transports exploded immediately inside the Valmay Base headquarters in the cave. Simultaneously, the other four stolen C-112 transports exploded, right next to the escorting convoy of ships led by Cortes and Octavious.

  Belinea - Episode Five

  Lovarri