The Raygin War

by Larry S. Gerovac

  As they were moving back to the wall with the holes in it, eight armed bugs entered the passageway. The soldiers scurried past the humans who were now hiding in the shadows. As the bugs headed for the operating room, the three friends ran to the tube wall. As they climbed out on the other side, they heard a screaming, “NIK, NIK, NIK” sound.

  “Shit,” said Mac. “That must be an alarm. We can’t make it up the sloped pathway fast enough. They’ll catch us long before we get out of here. You two go on. I’ll hold them off at the corner.”

  Still holding his aspirator Tews said, “I’ve got a better idea. He began to aspirate the bug poison near the wall. They watched the tiny vapor droplets get sucked into the tubes. Mac and Spaz stood at the ready with their rifles pointing at the openings, but the noise soon died out. They didn’t have to fire one shot. Tews reloaded and emptied his last bottle of Raygin poison.

  As soon as the three of them exited the cave entrance, Mac requested a report from Tinker.

  “Current status,” said Tinker. “The shuttle is in the air and taking the women and wounded to the Constellation. Mahpee tells me the Wasp is flight ready, and Dagger is overhead in case we need some firepower. Captain Tal reports there are hundreds of Raygin at the crash site, but they are not leaving their ship. First, Second, and Third platoons are ready to repel an attack.”

  “Good work Tinker. We will arrive at your location in 25 minutes. The cavern contains a Raygin breeding facility. We may have killed a few thousand Raygin. Admiral, are you listening?”

  There was a slight pause followed by, “Yes.”

  A clear violation of protocol, but Mac didn’t care. In fact, he had violated rules often to help him and his troops. “Good, send some troopers down to the derelict ship and capture all the Raygin you can find. Did your chemist talk to Ruth Bernardo?”

  “Yes, we made three thousand liters of poison and put together a delivery system.”

  “Good work Admiral.”

  “Tal, are you listening?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “When we have all the prisoners and everyone is clear, drop a couple torpedoes on the bug ship. I don’t want to leave them anything they might be able to use.”

  “Aye sir. Torpedo the Raygin ship after all are clear. And sir. Nice work.”

  Mac looked at Spaz and Tews. “I don’t know what the hell that means.”

  “I am afraid it’s my fault, sir. In battle situations we always transmit our vids live. I transmitted our activities. It was so natural I didn’t give it a thought. They watched the live recording from our visors and they received any vids in storage. I’m sorry, sir,” said Spaz.

  Mac’s head dropped. “Thank you, Tal.” Mac looked at Spaz. “It’s my fault I didn’t think about conflict of protocols. They would all have seen the videos soon anyway, so no harm was done.”

  “Tinker, make sure everyone has all the videos.”

  “Will do, Mac.”

  “Is anyone else listening?”

  “Warhammer is monitoring commodore.”

  “The Cruiser Starburst is monitoring commodore.”

  “Wasp is also monitoring.”

  He smiled when he heard the voice from the Wasp. It’s Dreng– I mean Ayashe. I’ll never get used to her real name? Everyone is listening. “We need to modify our ships with all the upgrades from the People’s Nation. At least it will give us a fighting chance. If I were the invasion commander, I would attack now to negate the intelligence we obtained. Let’s finish here, head home, and prepare for war. Our enemies are no longer coming. They are here.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Maneuvering for War

  Before the Wasp left for Nokomis, Mahpee, Mac, and Ayashe sat down and talked. Mac got to hear the story about the scar on his wife’s chest. He learned about the Tellers, and what had been foretold. Ayashe heard for the first time, the story of her cleansing and healing. Her father cried when he talked about her mother. All three came to a better understanding about each other. There would be no more rebellion from Ayashe.

  Mac neither believed nor disbelieved certain story parts. He could see both Mahpee and Ayashe believed them to be true. It was good enough for him. After all, he had heard a lot of folklore on the planets he had been on during his military career. Who was he to say what was true or not true? A few months ago he wouldn’t have believed a story about bugs fighting space battles in great ships of war! Or even there being an advanced race of females having orange eyes and an ability to disappear.

  Some nanobots making up Mahpee’s grandfather stayed with Mac and Ayashe. The rest of him went to Nokomis on the Wasp. Dwain was heart-broken at Nidawi’s departure and yet at the same time excited too. The two agreed to see each on Nokomis during Dwain’s next leave. The improvement in his attitude was obvious for everyone to see.

  The nanobots began upgrades on all the remaining UFC ships. They also started working on the promising tachyon com device the humans had started. After two near disasters the crew worked out an agreement with the nanobots. Both humans and nanobots were learning to adapt to each other’s needs.

  Mac gave Ayashe access to the federation memory banks on the Constellation. She began to analyze possible attack scenarios. Day after day she poured over the data. She reviewed tons of information, including: the number of ships of war, the number of transports, and the number of trained personnel. The list went on and on. She even looked at unusual reports submitted within the last twenty-five years. She assessed any significant data that could help her evaluate their vulnerability status.

  On day four, Ayashe came out of her executive cabin looking exhausted. She asked Mac to set up a war council meeting. Within one hour everyone sat around a virtual meeting table on their own ships.

  Mac addressed the group. “Those of you who don’t know my wife, this is Ayashe. She is the liaison between our people, and hers, the lost Indian Tribes of old Earth. They call themselves, the People’s Nation. Because of some evolutionary peculiarities, they became brainy. So, if they tell us anything, we should listen. My wife, amongst other positions…” Mac looked at her and smiled, “was trained as a war strategist. She wants to give us some insights. Please listen and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Ayashe, it’s all yours.”

  “I’ll get right to crux of my concerns. Mac believes more Raygin nests exist than the one he destroyed. I agree with him. After studying the data, I believe they have infested many planets inhabited by humans.”

  “Ayashe,” interrupted Tal, “I am the Dagger’s captain. There has never been a reported sighting of aliens on any planets I am aware of. What proof do you have?”

  “By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the universe’s rings. We are the dominant species in the newest ring. The Raygin are dominant in the second ring. I believe the Ogarii are from the third ring and are at war with a race in the fourth ring who are called the Drahce. We know the Raygin have been in the first ring for at least twenty-five standard years. We also have solid intelligence they want to attack Esharra, the home of your civilian leader. I went twenty-five years back into your records and looked for anything out of place.”

  Ayashe tapped a control at her table. A holograph appeared at each attendee’s table depicting the universe as known by humans. Esharra stood at the map’s center surrounded by thousands of stars. She tapped the controls again and inhabitable planets were displayed. “Each planet shaded in red reported abnormal operations of their planetary satellites over a three-year span. The three years were between 22 to 25 years ago. This in itself is nothing to worry about. But, a closer look shows the satellite failures were exclusive to unpopulated remote areas. This represents an un-probable event. The intermittent failure didn’t draw any real investigation, or at least none were ever documented.”

  The leaders watched Ayashe tap the controls again. The map became pie shaped with Esharra still at the center. A few red plants changed to the colors red and purple. She said, “The red and purple color represents planets
with advanced monitoring capabilities. They reported minor seismic activity in the planet’s remote areas 22 to 25 years ago. It would be the type of thing we might see if someone were creating an underground nest.” Tapping the controls one more time, Ayashe zoomed in.

  The admiral’s eyes went wide. “How could we have missed all this?”

  “The Ogarii have proven to be patient, and even clever, Admiral,” said Ayashe. “The Raygin infestation is designed, at least in part, to cause a distraction. Parts of our human fleet would have gone to assist the unprotected planets. The now obvious path you see will be the route the Raygin take to Esharra.”

  “Do you think we can stop them?” asked Tal.

  “My guess is they want to take out human leadership in the hopes of a fast surrender. Mac believes the Raygin will attack immediately. It will cancel out any advantage we may have obtained with our new intelligence. All we know is the Raygin fleet is big by our standards. I suspect you can either save millions of people on the infested planets or save the leadership and save the human race but probably not both.”

  The admiral looked at Mac. “Is this your assessment also?”

  “Her speculations about the Raygin invasion are sound,” said Mac. “But, I have learned a battle is always fluid. We have already forced the Ogarii to move up their invasion plans. Can we throw enough surprises at the Raygin to give the people on Esharra time to escape? I doubt it. But we have other options. We can try to neutralize their ground forces. They don’t know we know their plan. We can lay a few traps along the way, but no matter what we do we will lose many human lives.”

  “Commodore, we are at war and you are in the field of battle. It means you are in charge. Your orders outrank all others, even the planetary president. How can we help you?” asked the Admiral.

  Mac saw a few smiles at hearing he was in charge. “I need help from the medical staff. Tell me why the Raygin approaching the pool on Imperial Station became dizzy and didn’t enter the pool area. Use our prisoners as test subjects. We need to warn Esharra and the planets Ayashe identified on her map of the possible infestation. Finish updating the computers, shields, and our weapons. The engineers need to find the frequency the Ogarii are using to transmit to the Raygin. We need to jam it. Has anyone seen Mahpee’s grandfather?”

  A body appeared next to Mac. It had the metallic smooth face of a robot with black orbs for eyes and a metallic body. “I am here Commodore McCormack. Since it would be meaningless for me to be Uzumati without Mahpee being here, you may call me Apeiron.”

  “As in limitless?”

  In human fashion, Apeiron’s hand reached up and stroked its metallic chin as its face watched Mac. “We estimate the odds of any person knowing the meaning of my name to be one in twelve billion two hundred fifty-two million three hundred eighty-seven thousand. What do you suppose the odds are of the one being here?”

  “With hindsight I’m guessing one hundred percent.”

  “Clever, Mac. May I call you Mac?”

  “Yeah, go ahead, everyone else does. Tell me, how is the war effort going?”

  “All modifications on the shields, weapon systems, and drives will be complete in thirty-eight point seven hours. We are still working on improving the tachyon communications system. It is proving to be more difficult than we anticipated.”

  “Have you come up with any new weapon systems that might prove useful in the war with the Raygin and Ogarii?” asked Mac.

  Apeiron’s shiny shoulders slumped as if in disappointment. “Alas, you have hit on our weakness. We seem to have little to no capacity for new creative thought. If you design weapons, we can improve them. If you fly it, we can fly it better. If you create fast computers, we can create faster computers… you see where I’m going?”

  “Yes. I guess it’s up to us to come up with new ideas you can improve on. We will make a good team in the long run.”

  Apeiron stood straight. “Yes, I am beginning to understand it now. You are right, we enhance each other’s talents – we are a team.”

  Mac looked at the other leaders in the room. “Captains is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “We understand Lieutenant First Grade Phlop is a traitor,” said Tal. “We have to assume there may be other spies. We have seen you fight, but you can’t see everything with all the distractions. You need an armed escort, sir.”

  All the captains nodded in agreement.

  Seen me fight? He remembered the videos. “Okay. I guess I can do that. Anything else?”

  The captains nodded their heads no. “Okay, thank you all. Make sure your crews install all the upgrades while I will work on our war plan.”

  First, Second, and Third platoons became Mac’s personal protection. He needed Tinker for special projects, so he put Dwain in charge of escort duty and everyday activities. Spaz being a sergeant posed a problem. He didn’t want to return him to the ground pounders on the ship. The problem was Spaz outranked everyone left in his original three platoons.

  He came up with a solution. Offer Spaz a field promotion to ensign, for his heroic accomplishments while held captive on the enemy ship and for his performance inside the Raygin nest. Spaz jumped on the promotion and became the liaison between ship’s personnel and Mac’s team. It was his dream job.

  Sitting in a meeting room on the Admiral’s ship, Mac reflected on the odd chain of events bringing them up to this point. He hated to think the entire universe was at war with each other. So far, the federation had lost over a hundred thousand people. It could have been much worse if not for the Mahpee and the People’s Nation. With the loss of Imperial Station, the win at the battle of Rayne would help boost morale. He needed to talk to the Admiral about getting some vids released for public viewing. It would help the population to understand what they were up against. The military also needed to increase enlistments.

  Mac sat in the conference room waiting for his next meeting. He jerked up in his seat. What the hell? He swore he saw a wolf enter the room. It looked side-to-side and disappeared. It couldn’t have happened. The armed guards outside the room would have warned him. Two seconds later Ayashe entered the room. Mac blinked his eyes hard. Was it a daydream? The Teller story must be playing with my sub conscious mind.

  “Did I catch you sleeping my love?” asked Ayashe.

  “I don’t think so, well, maybe. I’m not sure.”

  “Mac, are you okay. Maybe, I shouldn’t be keeping you up so late. You have so much to do, you need to rest.”

  “Are you kidding? I sleep like a baby,” he looked at her and grinned. “Don’t worry I talked to a doctor. She said to keep doing what we were doing every night. It helps the male body to relax.”

  Ayashe walked behind him and began to rub his neck in a gentle fashion. “As my father would say, you must need to go to the bathroom.”

  Mac’s eyebrows furled together. He spun his head around. “What?”

  “In other words, you’re full of shit.”

  As Tinker walked in he saw Mac and Ayashe laughing. “Let me guess, you were talking about joining?”

  Mac and Tinker both started laughing. Ayashe gave Tinker a look of disgust.

  She walked over to him, grabbed his right ear and dragged him to the seat next to Mac. “You have been working with my husband too long.”

  Before Mac or Tinker could respond, an escort stepped into the room. He led Captain Cutter, Tal, Ruth Bernard, and Tews into the room behind him.

  Captain Cutter nodded at his nephew and Ayashe. He looked at Mac and said, “Hello commodore, looks like an odd group of attendees. I can’t imagine why you brought us together.”

  This made the commodore smile. “Hello everyone. Take a seat, and please call me Mac. To answer the question you’re all wondering, you are here because you have proven to have the ability to think in an imaginative way. To me, you are each priceless. During my life, I have studied many battles. Many victories occurred due to a single, shrewd, and unexpected action. It’s what I am
asking you to give me. A list of unexpected actions we can use against our new enemies.”

  “Nothing is stupid or out of bounds. I want ideas you would consider to have a chance of success. We are fighting the Raygin. They represent a force with near unlimited numbers. We also have the Ogarii, a race of technologically advanced life forms wanting to enslave us. If we fight a traditional war, we will lose.”

  “Mac, some of us have no engineering background, we are not developers, designers, or scientists. Do we need to work with engineers or others as appropriate to evaluate the feasibility of our concepts?”

  “Good question, Tal. The answer is no. I am more interested in your ideas. Don’t get too complex at this point. I know many weapon systems, drive units, ship designs, and so on all came from laymen with no engineering background. Keep it simple. I will let Apeiron evaluate if the concept can be brought to realization. If we don’t use some creative methods of attack we will lose the battle and the war.

  The team looked overwhelmed as the seriousness of their plight was driven home. War is hell and people die, but I don’t want them afraid to voice their ideas. I need to get them to relax. When he saw Tews he knew what to do. “Tews. Do I need to warn them?”

  Tews looked Mac in the eye. “No sir. I’m back on my meds. Though, I should tell the team what happened in case someone can use the information.”

  The whole team started laughing. Tews looked confused.

  “Come on, Tews,” said Mac. “You going to tell me a smart guy like you didn’t think Spaz and Smitty wouldn’t tell everyone they know about you and your escapades? Your abilities to stop bugs dead in their tracks has made you famous.”