“What happened to you after that?”
“They began to hunt us down. After we finally broke contact and retreated from Gateway, I had five-hundred people with me who wanted to fight. I divided them up into five smaller groups and sent them out to cause trouble for the enemy in the nearby towns.” He shrugged. “I never heard from any of them again.
“Our group did well for a while. We killed warriors in droves, but they just kept coming at us, like they enjoyed the idea of getting killed.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Once a group of them made contact with us, they’d stay after us until we wiped them out. They never broke or ran like humans normally would. You know, live again to fight another day? Not them.”
“So how did they get you?”
He laughed. It was a bitter sound. “I guess they finally decided they’d had enough. There were only forty-seven of us left, out of the hundred and sixty-five that I started with after I sent the other groups off. They surrounded us and just came charging in.
“But they didn’t come to kill us. They came to capture us, just like you. They hit us with those stun batons of theirs and that was that. Then they stripped us of our weapons and had us join that little procession down the main road. Most of those folks are from Gateway and the other towns north of here, although there are a lot of people here from Caitlin, the other big town to the south.
“We marched for three days, day and night,” he went on. “The Kreelans left you alone if you kept up. If you couldn’t and fell out of line, they just killed you. No whips or yelling. There was just one type of motivation. Some of the folks here had to march longer than that.”
About a third of the people in the circle around them nodded, their faces haunted by the horrors they’d seen on the march.
“And that’s when the real fun began.” Jackson looked at a party of warriors that was hauling in fresh dirt to cover up the sodden, waste-strewn areas of the camp. “They shoved us all in here, into what was nothing more than a huge livestock pen with a crude wooden fence. There were at least eight, maybe ten thousand people here when we arrived, literally with room only to stand. There weren’t any latrines, nothing. It was reeking, filthy mass of desperate people. The Kreelans just shoved us in and started closing the gates, and anyone who was in the way, they started cutting them down. That started a stampede, and I don’t have any idea how many were trampled to death.” He took a deep breath. It was the worst experience, even in combat, he’d ever endured. “And a lot of folks couldn’t take it anymore, and decided it would be better to hop the fence and have the warriors put them out of their misery.”
Steph turned to look at the fence that surrounded the camp, beyond which stood a cordon of warriors, their attention riveted to the humans in the camp.
“That’s when I gave up hope,” Jackson went on quietly. “I could feel it dying inside me. I lost my wife and two sons. My friends. Everything that I’d tried to build here. And I knew I was going to die in this stinking cesspool.” He looked at Steph. “It took me a day to work my way to the edge of the crowd. I was going to have the warriors work their sword magic on me, too.
“And then, last night, everything changed.” He gestured around him. “There were shuttles coming in all night. Some of them brought more humans, but most of them carried warriors. They and some of the others who were already here started cleaning up this pit.” He managed a smile. “I guess it must’ve been for your arrival.”
“It doesn’t matter,” a woman said as she ceaselessly twirled a lock of her dirty hair through her fingers. “We’re all dead, anyway.”
Everyone else was silent. They looked down at their feet, each a study in total defeat.
Steph turned to her. “That’s not true. The fleet’s coming.”
Only a few people looked up at her words. She glanced at Valentina, who shrugged.
“Didn’t you hear me?” Steph said, louder now. “The fleet’s coming!”
More looked up at her now, out of curiosity, not out of hope. Steph glanced at Valentina again and saw her frown. “What?”
Valentina didn’t speak until another party of alien warriors had passed, then said, “They may not be able to find us, remember?”
“Goddammit!” Steph got unsteadily to her feet. She stumbled, still suffering from the after-effects of the stun, and Jackson caught her arm to steady her.
“People, listen to me!” Anger was burning inside her. The children began to wake up from her shouting. “The most powerful fleet the Confederation has ever assembled is coming here!” She wasn’t worried about the Kreelans hearing her. In all the encounters with them so far, there had been no indication that any of them understood any human language, or cared. “It’s on its way right now, and...” She glanced at her chronometer. “...it’s going to arrive in less than six hours. They’re going to wipe the Kreelan fleet from orbit, and then three assault divisions are going to land and do the same to the warriors here on the planet.”
“Why didn’t they come already?” A man in the crowd shouted angrily as he stepped forward to confront Steph. Valentina moved slightly closer in case he decide to get violent. “Look at us!” he shouted. “Just look at us! Look at what they made us go through, how many of us have died at the hands of those beasts!” Tears were running down the man’s face now. “Why should we believe the bloody fleet’s coming now?”
“Because,” Steph said evenly, stepping right up to the man and placing her hands on his shoulders, “my husband is in that fleet.” She looked around at the other faces near her. “Some of you may have heard of him. His name is Ichiro Sato.”
Recognition dawned on almost every face. Sato’s name was one of the most well-known in the Confederation. While she was estranged from him, she hadn’t lost track of what he had been doing. She still loved him. And believed in him. “He’s commanding the most powerful ships we’ve ever built, battleships that are more than a match for anything the Kreelans have. And he’s not going to leave until every one of these blue-skinned bitches is dead.”
“But why didn’t the Confederation come earlier?” the man asked. “Why did they wait so long, until now?”
“Because they couldn’t,” Valentina answered. “We’ve been fighting and losing battles on almost two dozen colonies. President McKenna is taking a terrible gamble on this attack by pulling ships away from every one of those systems to put together an assault fleet big enough to beat the Kreelan forces here. She’s even stripped Home Fleet over Earth down to the bone.” She stared into the frightened, desperate faces around her. “If the Kreelans attacked Earth in any real force, we could lose it. That’s the risk she’s taking.”
“Too bad for them,” someone sneered. “They’ve had it easy.”
“Too bad for humanity, you mean,” Valentina answered icily. “If we lose Earth, we lose the war. And you should know better than anyone what that would mean. Every colony would be exterminated.”
“So what are we going to do?”
The question came not from the crowd of adults, which by now had become a thick ring of hundreds of people, trying to hear and see what was going on, but from the voice of a tired teenage girl. Allison.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Jackson said quietly. “We just have to...”
“Bullshit,” Steph snarled. “We didn’t go through hell getting down here just to give up.”
“Steph,” Valentina interjected, “we don’t have a lot of options. The radio’s gone. There’s no way to communicate with the fleet. Mills and the others...”
She bit her lip, unable to say what she knew must be true. That Mills was gone.
“I don’t care,” Steph rounded on her, eyes blazing. “I am not just going to be herded into one of those rings and slaughtered like Ichiro’s first crew was!” More than anyone else, she understood the nightmare that her husband had endured as a young midshipman when humanity had made its first contact with the Kreelans. He still had nightmares, at least the last time they had shared a
bed, months ago now. She bitterly shoved the memory aside, wishing more than anything else that he was here right now to hold her.
But she knew he was coming. And that was enough.
“If we’re going to die,” she went on, “then let’s die doing something worth dying for.” She looked at Allison and the other children who were riveted to the ongoing discussion. “At least we can try and get the children out of here.”
“She won’t let us go now.” Allison’s face, for once, displayed outright despair. While it had been a nightmare in many ways, it had been nothing compared to this awful-smelling place, surrounded by warriors, and knowing that death awaited all of them.
Steph moved over and wrapped her arms around the girl, who returned the gesture, holding on tightly.
“It doesn’t matter what that warrior wants,” Steph said, her conviction growing with every word. “Somehow, we’re going to-”
At that moment a deep gong reverberated through the camp. It was a mournful sound, and it sent a shiver down Steph’s spine.
A cry arose from near the entrance to the camp as the gates opened and a phalanx of warriors marched in. Without further ceremony, they grabbed the nearest twenty people before they could run, then herded them out, the gates closing behind them.
Running to the fence near the gates, Valentina, Steph, and Jackson watched the prisoners and their escorts move down the trail that led to the arena complex at the town square. From where the three stood, the top of the large stone construct at the center was just visible through the trees, but they couldn’t see the arenas themselves.
Then they heard it, the low murmur of a great number of voices, coming from the direction of the arenas. It had been masked by the moaning and bustle in the camp. But the humans had fallen silent after their fellows had been taken, not wanting to draw attention to themselves as they moved toward the rear of the camp’s enclosure.
The Kreelan warriors in the camp continued to work, but all of them periodically glanced in the direction of the arenas.
Fifteen minutes later, as the sun rose full above the horizon, the gong sounded again. Valentina, with her sharp eyes, could see that it was affixed to the top of the stone structure, rung by a single warrior.
Another warrior stood there, silhouetted against the brightening horizon, a cloak fluttering in the light morning breeze. Valentina knew without a doubt who it was. The warrior, the one who had nearly torn Valentina’s heart from her chest with nothing but a thought, was looking right at her.
As the sound of the gong faded, the warrior turned away to face the arenas, and a bone-chilling roar from thousands of warriors, unseen beyond the trees, filled the air.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Ku’ar-Markekh stood upon the Kalai-Il, her eyes fixed upon the unusual human female who held much promise as a challenge to Ku’ar-Marekh’s skills. She had decided to face the human animal with only sword and claw, for this would bring the Empress the greatest glory, and would also give Ku’ar-Marekh a chance for an honorable death.
But she would save her own combat until her most junior warriors had blooded themselves against other humans. Those of Her Children who had not yet had a chance to fight one of the animals had been cast first in the lottery of the Challenge. Once they had fought, Ku’ar-Marekh would take to the arena against the female warrior and perhaps some of her companions. Anything less would be no contest at all.
Turning away from the human who stared back at her from inside the holding pen, Ku’ar-Markh faced into the rising sun as the last echoes of the gong faded.
The warriors roared, their excitement over the coming combats pulsing through the Bloodsong.
She gave them a moment to express their anticipation, for Challenges such as this were rare in the Empire outside times of war. The battles fought here would be to the death, and every warrior wanted her chance to fight for the honor of the Empress.
At last raising her arms, Ku’ar-Marekh commanded them to silence. Thousands of warriors knelt as one, crashing their armored left fists over their right breasts.
The litany the priestess spoke was older than the Empire itself. Its words were simple and brief, the core of every warrior’s heart.
“As it has been,” she began as the human prisoners were brought forth, four of them to the entrance of each of the five arenas where the first challengers already waited, “and so shall it always be, let the Challenge begin.”
“In Her Name,” the warriors echoed solemnly, “let it be so.”
A single human was forced into each arena. They were shown a table that held a variety of edged weapons, and the waiting challenger was honor-bound to choose a similar weapon. They only had a single turn of the small hour-glass that Ku’ar-Marekh’s new First, Esah-Kuran, held to decide upon a weapon.
Two chose swords, two refused to decide, and one tried to flee the arena. The one who tried to run was cut down by a shrekka.
This prompted the two humans who had not chosen weapons to do so.
Ku’ar-Marekh nodded in approval. They could die like meat animals, or they could fight for their honor. Should a human survive, they would be allowed to rest until the other humans had taken a turn in the arena. Then the survivors again would have to fight.
All would eventually die, unless The One came forth. But Ku’ar-Marekh did not believe that would happen here.
Nor, in her cold heart, did she care.
Another human was brought forward to take the dishonored one’s place. This one, seeing its companions in the other arenas, made the choice of honor and chose a sword.
Stepping down from the Kalai-Il, Ku’ar-Marekh took the place that tradition demanded atop the dais at the center of the middle of the five arenas.
Looking out upon her warriors and their reluctant human challengers, she bellowed, “Begin!”
* * *
After Valentina and the others had been taken, Mills had taken the risk of running across the fields to beat the group of warriors carrying the women and children.
As he neared the woods, he could hear the pitiful moans and cries of the human prisoners, and his nose was overpowered with the stench of human waste. He forced himself to slow down as he entered the treeline, moving slowly to remain silent.
When he came within sight of the camp, he unslung the sniper rifle and took a closer look. He saw what must have been thousands of people milling around inside an enclosure bounded by a very crude wooden fence. Outside of that stood a cordon of warriors.
As he watched them, he noted that they never turned around to look back into the woods. Their attention was entirely fixed on their prisoners, thinking there was nothing to fear behind them.
"You've got that a bit wrong, dearies." During the run from the barn, Mills had been thinking of different plans he could set into action to help free the prisoners, depending on what he found.
Looking at the camp, he settled on one of those options. A little explosive diversion that he would light off when the time was right.
He had eight grenades, which could be set to detonate a variety of ways, including by remote. He had used them against the Kreelans before during the fighting he’d seen after the original Saint Petersburg operation, and the aliens had never interfered with the detonation signals like they did with other tech like the comm and data links.
Leaving the sniper rifle behind a tree, he crept forward to the trees nearest the Kreelan guards. Moving parallel to what he took to be the rear of the conpound's fence, he set seven grenades at roughly equal intervals, keeping a single grenade in reserve. He didn’t expect they would kill many of the warriors, but it would give them a nasty surprise.
He placed the last grenade and was making his way back to where he’d left the sniper rifle when he heard a commotion at the far side of the camp near the entry gates.
Taking out his binoculars, he watched as warriors brought in Valentina and the others, setting them down under one of the newly built shelters. His stomach knotted up at the
sight of their limp bodies carried in the aliens’ arms, but he told himself that they must still be alive.
Forcing himself to stop lingering and watching for movement from the women and children, he focused on finding a spot in the woods that gave him a good view into the camp, but that wasn’t right on top of the Kreelans.
It wasn’t easy, but at last he found a small knoll a couple hundred meters from the camp that had a narrow but clear view through the compound up to the gates. He could see the shelter that Valentina and the others were in, and watched tensely through the scope on the sniper rifle the crowd that had gathered around the newcomers. He saw a rustle of movement among the people around the shelter, then saw Steph’s face briefly through the mass of bobbing heads.
Then the crowd seemed to flinch back, with some of those closest to the women and children actually falling backward. Mills couldn’t help but chuckle as he saw Valentina leap to her feet, her hands raised, ready for a fight.
“That’s my girl.” He felt like a spring steel band had just been removed from around his chest, such was his relief that she was alive.
He saw the two of them talking to a black man for quite some time, then Steph became agitated and was shouting something at the people clustered around them.
He could only wonder what was going on, but he felt another wave of relief as he saw the children awaken, and smiled when he caught a glimpse of Allison.
Then the gates opened and a group of warriors came in, seizing a bunch of people who were unlucky enough to be in easy reach. The unlucky prisoners were frog-marched out the gates, which closed behind them, disappearing along the trail that led toward the big stone structure and the arenas.
“Hell,” Mills whispered. This is what must have happened at the end on Keran, he thought. The survivors of the initial slaughter were used as unwilling opponents in the arenas. And when the last had been killed...
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