Richard looked at his remaining soldiers and waited until the Alliance force was seven hundred yards from them and opened fire. The Alliance troops were falling, but so were the marines. Richard could see that there were just too many. They were 150 yards from his troop’s position when an escape pod dropped from the sky between his lines and the Alliance advance and landed with a blue-green strobe flashing. The Alliance and human forces stopped firing and a human stepped out of the escape pod and waited for the Alliance representative to approach. A regimental command officer approached the human and began talking. “What’s going on sir?”
“I don’t know,” Richard said.
Tag waited for the Cainth officer to approach him and then said, “Sir, I’m going to request that you withdraw your men and return to your positions at the head of this valley. Your fleet has been destroyed and we are currently finishing with the last ten Alliance ships. If you withdraw, I’ll guarantee the safety of your men and ensure they are treated fairly as prisoners of war.”
The Alliance officer said, “Look around you, human. We are going to finish your ground troops, then take those civilians hostage, and make sure you behave yourself or we’ll execute every one of them. We may kill some just for fun, to let you know we mean business. You may have won the space battle, but we will win on the ground.”
“Sir, I ask you to please consider the lives of your men. You have lost three thousand troops today. I don’t want the rest of them killed needlessly.”
“And just how are you going to do that?” The Alliance officer sneered.
“I’m going to do it, alone. You will not harm another one of our troops. If you choose not to listen and continue this attack, then fire a blue and green flare when you’ve had enough and I’ll stop killing your men.”
The Alliance officer looked at Tag and said, “You will be the first to die.” He then went back to his lines and ordered every soldier on the front line to fire at the human on his command. Tag turned off the strobe and hoped that Atlas had given him adequate protection. The whole Alliance front line fired on him.
Tag stood in the middle of that hellish fire and felt nothing. Even the sound was muted. Heavy weapons fired at him: primary laser platforms and heavy slug throwers emptied their magazines into his force field, and he was untouched. The marines watched the firepower being directed at the single human and knew he should have been dead. He didn’t even have on battle armor, but there he stood, unmoving, at the center of what should have been instant death. Then Richard heard, “You’ve done well here, Rich. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here earlier, but perhaps I can take part now. Please have your men ready to take some prisoners.”
“Tag, get out of there. You’re too important. Men, prepare to charge. We have to rescue him.”
“Richard, it’s a little late to charge; besides, if I were in danger, I’d already be dead. Get down behind your screens and prepare for mop-up operations.”
The Alliance forces began to advance, and Richard saw Tag raise his arm and point it toward the advancing forces. Suddenly, an incredibly bright blue beam was fired and run across the front of the advancing Alliance formation. Twelve rows of Alliance troops and all their equipment disintegrated. Then that hellish beam crossed the formation again and one-third of the remaining Alliance forces were blown away. There was a pause while Tag held the blue beam slightly over the heads of the remaining alliance forces; immediately a blue and white flare was launched from the rear of the Alliance formation and they began laying down their arms.
“Tag, you never cease to amaze me. Round up the prisoners and put them in the camp. Assign some of the civilians to guard them, and then please get my wounded and me to a hospital.” With that Richard passed out, his job complete.
Chapter 29
Admiral Kosiev stood on ground that looked like blasted glass and stared at the young man in front of him. He had no answer for what had happened during the final battle. Once the general commanding the ground forces was captured, all the remaining conflicts around the planet ceased, and the Alliance ground forces surrendered. The Earth fleet was in the process of loading the prisoners onto transports taking them to a cavern prepared for them on one of Jupiter’s moons. Earth central command had sent heavy transports to Ross to take the population and relocate them to another colony. There were only one hundred forty thousand of them, as this was a young colony. There was no way they would be safe once the Alliance main fleet arrived. “We might not be safe, either,” Kosiev reflected as he stood outside the destroyed marine base camp at Rossville. All around him was the wreckage of marine and Alliance weapons. He felt he had to come down and see the site of mankind’s first land battle in four hundred years. It was important that he understand the price he would be asking the marines to pay. Some of the heavy weapon platforms were still smoking, and the remaining marines were looking for the bodies of their fallen comrades. Then he turned and said, “Would you mind explaining how and what you did down here?”
Tag had to force himself to break away from the scene of carnage all around him and said to Kosiev, “I tried to prevent some of this bloodshed, but I didn’t, Admiral, and I can’t answer your question.” Kosiev started to protest, but Tag held up his hand and said, “This is something that falls into Special Force proprietary information. I honestly can’t tell you. I am also going to request that any record or recording of what happened be sent to Special Forces Center on Earth. All of our personnel are also to be told to never mention it.”
Kosiev stared at Tag, looked around at the site of the bloodiest fighting, and finally said, “You know you saved thousands of lives down there. I don’t understand how you did it, but it ended the conflict. Thanks.”
Tag continued to stare at the ground around the Marine camp that had been hit with so many blaster beams that the surface looked like glass. There was no vegetation in sight and the entire valley looked like the surface of the moon. He heard that Richard was on board a hospital ship and was severely wounded. He prayed that his friend would make it. He continued to stare and ponder the destructiveness of war. “Did any of the Alliance ships surrender?” he asked Kosiev.
“Actually, their flagship War Weapon did. We also forced the crew to leave the ship individually in spacesuits. We picked them up with one of our freighters and moved them away from the dreadnought. I had their senior officer put one of their lifeboats in a launching tube and set it for remote control. You were right; the Alliance officer launched the lifeboat and the dreadnought self-destructed, taking the lifeboat with it. Those Alliance sailors have a different point of view now about their leaders on good ol’ Cainth. If they are ever sent back, they are going to cause the clan leaders some problems. They are also being transported to Jupiter’s moon. I believe it’s Europa.”
Kosiev’s com buzzed and a voice said, “Sir, you have a call from someone named Danielle Gardner asking to speak to our hero of the month.”
Tag was snatched out of his reverie and said, “Uh oh, does she know what happened?”
“When you took the escape pod down and ordered me not to go after you, I called the Director to ask for instructions. Your wife was there at the time, and they both demanded a video feed on what was taking place groundside. They also ordered me to disregard your instructions and to send whatever force was necessary to withdraw you from danger. You, however, handled it before I could organize any kind of response. But to answer your question, they saw everything you did during that final battle.”
The button was flashing on Kosiev’s com and Tag only stared at it. “Admiral, could you please tell my wife I’m indisposed, that I’ll call her later?”
“You forget, Tag. She can see the truth,” Kosiev said, smiling at Tag’s discomfort. Here was a man who took on an Alliance regiment without flinching, and now he was frightened to face his wife. Kosiev transferred the call to Tag’s com and smiled.
Tag picked up the com and said, “Hello, dear.” He then moved the com a foot away fro
m his ear, and even Kosiev could hear Danielle yelling at him.
“Ahh, there is always payment for the risks we take,” Kosiev thought. He then laughed out loud at the expression on Tag’s face. The voice on the other end of the com doubled in volume, and Tag said, “That wasn’t me! No, I don’t think this is funny.” Kosiev left whistling, leaving Tag to the chewing-out he so richly deserved.
Richard Wiseman was asleep in a hospital bed onboard the Saint Theresa hospital ship. He had lost a lot of blood and was developing an infection in his leg. He and his wounded marines were being jumped back to Earth for emergency care. Doctor Chen had tried to treat some of the marines, but none of them would accept it until their commander was taken care of. Doctor Chen finally had to beam a video to their beds showing Richard asleep. “He’s being kept asleep until we arrive at Central Medical,” Doctor Chen said. “There’s nothing we can do now but keep him stable. Now you soldiers lie still and let us help those we can.” When he tried to turn off the video, the marines threatened to show the doctor what hand-to-hand was really like. So Chen left it on. “What did this man do to get such loyalty?” he asked one of the marines.
“He kept the faith, he kept his word, he fought for us, and he kept the civilians safe. He showed us the meaning of semper fi, doctor. Don’t let him die.”
Chen looked at the marine and said, “He won’t, not on my watch.”
General Dorg sat on the human transport and thought about the week’s events. He along with all the sailors watched as the dreadnought self-destructed as the lifeboat was leaving. It was a sight he couldn’t get out of his mind. He didn’t know the Cainth war ships were programmed to self-destruct and take the crew with them. He wondered if his transports were programmed the same way. The humans had addressed him and his men once they were onboard and told them what was going to happen. “You are going to be transported to a moon circling one of our planets called Jupiter. The moon is named Europa. We have carved a cavern and have put environmental systems in place to maintain its atmosphere and temperature. We have stocked it with enough provisions to clothe and feed you. There are living facilities for you also. We will not be guarding you. You will set up your own form of government and rule yourselves. If this conflict between us and the Alliance ends peacefully, we will transport you home. Obviously, we can’t do that now. We’ll be fired on even if we tell them you’re on board. There will be a com set up for you to contact us if you have any needs. Are there any questions?”
“What are you going to do with the ones that executed the prisoners?” one of the soldiers asked.
“If one of our commanders ordered that, he would be summarily shot. However, you come from a different culture that places no value on any race but your own. We understand that orders given you are inviolate. You carry them out or you’re killed. Our anger is directed to the leaders that gave the order. Not the ones that carried it out. We do not kill our captives nor do we cause them unnecessary discomfort. Settle in, gentlemen. We’ll have you at your new home shortly.”
General Dorg didn’t want to like these humans, but he could not help but respect them. “This race is not a danger to us,” he thought. “We’re the danger to them.” He knew that this conflict between his race and the humans was stupid. His brother was paranoid about these humans and he had bought into his fears until this defeat. “We would have killed all the survivors instead of treating them fairly,” he realized. The wounded would have been killed first, but the humans actually were treating them in their medical ships and sending the severely wounded to Earth to receive more extensive treatment. “How could we have gotten so paranoid that we don’t even look to see if a danger really exists?” he wondered. He had a lot to think about, and it looked like he was going to have all the time he needed. He looked at his troops surrounding him in the freighter’s hold and saw the anger they felt over the self-destruction of the dreadnought. He shared the same feelings and felt their fear of possibly never seeing their world or families again. Well. “Maybe we can hope this madness ends peacefully,” he thought. In his heart he knew that the only way it could would be for the humans to win the conflict. “They may have a lot more prisoners to join us before this is over,” he decided. He stood up to talk with his men. “It’s time I take responsibility,” he thought.
Kosiev spoke into his com and asked, “Has all the wreckage been destroyed?”
“Yes, sir,” Captain Mikado answered. “The bigger derelicts were pulled and sent into the sun. All the others were hit with beams and disintegrated.”
“What about the Alliance transports on the ground? “
“They are basically unharmed, sir. We left them there.”
“Okay, have all our ships form-up on Washington and set coordinates to jump back to Earth. We’ll be joining you shortly from the surface. Have the Cleveland jump in system and relieve the Saratoga. I want to see what happens when the main Alliance fleet arrives, and I also want to see the number and type of ships in their fleet. Prepare to have the fleet execute the jump upon our arrival back on board, Lieutenant Kelley.” Thirty minutes later the Earth fleet moved toward the jump limit and six hours later disappeared from the Ross system, leaving only the evidence of a failed Alliance attack on the planet below.
“Admiral Dorg. We have been unable to contact the fleet at the human colony planet. They are not answering our communications.”
Admiral Dorg felt a sick feeling and suddenly felt fear for his brother. He said, “How long until we can jump?”
“All of our ships have just now arrived from the extermination and have to rearm their stores.”
“How long, I said?”
“Two rotations, minimum, sir.”
“Get on it. Send a dreadnought and escorts from Cainth to go look and see what’s happening at the human colony. Have them report to me when they find out. My brother was the leader of the ground forces and I want to know how he is. If there’s trouble when they enter the system, have them record what they can and jump out.”
“Yes sir.”
Admiral Dorg was worried. There were too many unknowns. It could be that the comet disrupted communications and everything was fine. Somehow, he really didn’t think so.
Tag sat in his quarters aboard the Washington facing his view screen, where five men and two women were sitting in a comfortable room back on Earth. The Special Forces team had commed him right after Danielle. Thank the creator he was able to get off the com with her. Even she understood the importance of their call. Her last words were, “Don’t think this is over!”
“Good day, gentlemen. How may I be of service?” Tag asked.
“Mr. Gardner, the Director has sent us some video footage of your run in with an Alliance ground force. We thought we would ask how you were able to accomplish what you did. No shield small enough for a single human would have been able to handle the weapons fired at you. Further, analysis of the weapon you used has come up empty. We as a group think that what you used was of Alfont origin. Nothing else would explain what we saw.”
Tag thought, “Atlas, are you there?”
“Yes, I am,” Atlas replied.
“Do I tell them about you?”
“What are your thoughts?”
“I don’t want anyone to know about you, but these men can be trusted.”
“Then try to avoid answering first and then use your best judgment.”
“By the way, I didn’t know if the screen you gave me would hold up under attack like it did, but thanks for giving it to me.”
“Tag, no one has a weapon that will penetrate your screen. They’re waiting for an answer.”
“Gentlemen, I can’t answer your questions concerning those two issues,” Tag said out loud.
The leader of the group stood up and said, “Why? Do you think we can’t be trusted?”
“Sir, please do one thing before we go any further. Discuss among yourselves what would happen if we had access to Alfont war technology. Primarily look at what
it would do to us, not other races. I’ll stand by for your call.”
The seven Special Forces team members looked at each other and the video screen went blank.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Atlas asked.
“I don’t know, but those people are the brightest and smartest on the planet. I hope they see things as I do.”
An hour later, Tag’s screen came on and the Special Forces team appeared back in their cozy room. “We’ve discussed what would happen, and our conclusion is that humans must never come into contact with that kind of technology. They also must never know of its existence. It would ultimately destroy our culture and way of life. There is a better-than-even chance that our society would revert to what it once was during the world wars. We would become the rulers of the galaxies simply by force of arms. That temptation is too high to place in front of us. We are directing all video of your ground encounter be destroyed immediately and all witnesses to it sworn to secrecy. Further, we withdraw our questions and trust you will be more discrete in the future in the use of your psychic skills. That will be our answer for anyone looking to explain what happened. Technology, anyone can use. Psychic skills, only the one born with them may use them. Our choice of you has once again proven to be wise. Contact us if you need us.”
Annihilation: Love Conquers All Page 28