Into the Stars (Rise of the Republic Book 1)

by James Rosone

  Nina nodded, then motioned for Justin to follow her, and the two of them crept out of the forested area and headed toward the worn trail the prisoners used.

  *******

  Nina strode out of the tree line and covered position they had all been gathered in, walking through knee-high grass and underbrush until she was on the trail. She walked toward the unknown with such confidence and bravado, it caused the Special Forces soldiers to take notice. She had a swagger like this was just an ordinary day on the job.

  The duo walked maybe a hundred meters down the path in the morning light until they came within thirty meters of what they suspected was the camp entrance, where the trail ended and entered the camp. Nearby was a guard shack of sorts, where two of the large blue aliens sat.

  One of them spotted the two of them and immediately stood up. It said something unintelligible to its friend, who also stood up and reached for its weapon, which it had placed beside the guard shack.

  Nina took that as her cue to say something. She had a small universal implant in one of her ears that had been updated with the best interpretation of the languages of the human-looking aliens and these big blue aliens. Knowing they didn’t have such a device, she raised a small electronic device to her mouth and began to speak loudly into it so the audio would carry to them. Since they hadn’t established a very good working understanding of the bluish aliens’ language yet, she was going to rely on the human-looking aliens’ variant of Chaldean.

  Nina spoke confidently into the device. “Hello, my name is Ambassador Nina Chapman. We come in peace. We would like to speak to your leader.”

  The two blue aliens looked at each other, seemingly unsure what to make of what she had said or the clothes she was wearing. To them, she would have looked like the prisoners they kept watch over, but she wasn’t dressed anything like them. They said something in their own language, and Nina’s translator said it was something about how she looked like one of the prisoners that had somehow gotten out of the camp.

  Nina quickly countered in a loud voice, “We are humans. We are from a different planet than here. We come as explorers. We wish to speak with your leader.”

  One of the aliens called out to them in his world’s version of Chaldean, telling them not to come any closer. “We will summon our leader. Do not make any sudden moves.”

  One of the blue aliens then took off into the camp and disappeared while the other guard continued to stare at them. It kept the weapon in its hand pointed at the ground, clearly unsure if they posed a threat.

  A few minutes went by before a group of seven aliens walked toward them. They all wore uniforms, and they were all armed.

  Nina spoke again. “Hello, my name is Ambassador Nina Chapman. My friend and I are explorers. We come in peace and would like to talk with your leader.”

  The aliens looked at each other, then they talked amongst themselves, too softly for their translators to pick up. Eventually, one of them stepped forward.

  “I am T’Tock. I am the leader of this camp. If you are not escaped prisoners, then how do you speak their language?” the large bluish alien asked. His words came across as harsh, unnatural, as if it was difficult for him to speak this language.

  “We have observed you and the prisoners for several days,” Nina replied. “Our computer was able to translate the prisoners’ language so we could communicate with you.”

  Now the group of blue aliens looked nervous. They held their weapons a bit tighter.

  “You have observed us for several days?” T’Tock asked, clearly concerned. “That means you have a starship in orbit of this planet. Where are you from?”

  “Don’t tell him specifics,” hissed Justin, nudging Nina.

  Ignoring him, Nina announced, “We are from a planet called Earth. It is very far from here. We have come to this planet as explorers. We have come in peace and would like to have further discussions with you if that is possible.”

  “In what star system is this planet Earth you speak of?” T’Tock asked in an accusatory tone. “We have not heard of it before.”

  “We can discuss that in more detail later on if you would like. May we approach you and continue to talk and get to know each other?” Nina asked calmly. She was cool as a cucumber, but she could see Justin’s hand shaking through his suit.

  “You may approach us,” called out another one of the blue aliens.

  The aliens had begun to spread themselves out a bit, holding their weapons low but ready should they feel they needed them.

  “Follow me,” Nina said, and Justin followed her toward the aliens.

  When they had gotten within five meters of the blue aliens, the leader said, “You look, talk, and appear to be just like our prisoners. How do we know you are not just a group that escaped?”

  Nina smiled. “If we were escaped prisoners, would we come back here to try and talk with you?”

  The question caused a couple of the guards to look at each other as they waited for what their leader would say or do next.

  T’Tock raised one of his four hands up and stroked his braided hair. Nina observed the beast’s hand and saw what looked almost like talons in place of fingernails. It sent a shiver down her back, thinking about the damage this thing could probably do in a hand-to-hand fight.

  “If you came here from this planet Earth, then you came here in a starship,” T’Tock said. “How many people are in your starship? How many of your people are down here now, on Clovis with us?”

  Nina’s brow furrowed. “Clovis? Is that the name of this planet?”

  With a wave of his hand, the beast brushed aside her question. “The name of this planet is irrelevant. Do you have a single starship in orbit? How many others are down here with you…Ambassador?” T’Tock seemed to have trouble pronouncing her title.

  “Is Clovis your home world?” Nina asked, redirecting. “What are your species called? We are called humans.” She was persistent.

  T’Tock lowered the hand that had been rubbing his hair. “No, Clovis is not our home world. We are also from a system far from here. This planet is part of our empire. It is just one planet of hundreds that we control. You said your name is Ambassador Nina Chapman. What kind of name is this? What clan or tribe are you from?”

  Nina tried to suppress a smile at the mention of a tribe or clan. The thought of a galactic empire still having clans felt very Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica to her. “My given name is Nina. My surname or family name is Chapman. The government of my planet has given me the title and job of ambassador. It means I have the authority to speak on behalf of our government and our people,” she tried to explain.

  The aliens stood there, listening very intently. Their interests were clearly up now; they wanted to know more.

  “I am T’Tock of the clan D’Shawni. I am from the planet Shawni, one of our core worlds. Our people”—he waved two of his arms around—“are called Zodarks. If you have traveled to this planet, then you must have traveled here on a starship. How many starships are in the orbit of Clovis? How many of your people are down here on the planet?”

  “When we first discovered this planet, we did not know it had anyone living on it,” Nina calmly replied. “We sent several ships to this planet. Our intent was to establish a colony here.”

  “You have come here to claim this planet? This is a Zodark planet! It is part of our empire. How many ships have you brought? How many soldiers do you have on the surface already?” T’Tock roared angrily at Nina. The guards behind him scanned the area, looking for possible threats.

  She held a hand up to try and calm the alien beast. “No, T’Tock. We have not come here to conquer this place. We have come here in peace. We just want to talk.”

  T’Tock cut her off. “Then answer my question. How many starships are in orbit? How many soldiers have you already landed on the planet?”

  Nina shook her head. “I can’t answer that right now.”

  T’Tock cut her off with a wave of his hand.
He then looked up, as if he was trying to spot their starship in orbit, before he returned his gaze to her. “You are not answering my questions. Perhaps you do not want to talk like you say.”

  T’Tock then said something to the guards around him. The group began to spread themselves out until they had formed a U shape around Nina and Justin.

  Sensing the change in the aliens’ mood, Nina offered, “T’Tock, perhaps we can agree to speak again later today. Maybe when the sun is at its zenith?”

  The large alien looked at her, and then he laughed. “No, I do not think so. I think you will come with us, and you will tell us more about your starship and the system your people are from.”

  Then the aliens finished closing the circle around them as they moved in.

  Without taking her eyes off the leader, Nina said over her com link to Captain Hopper, “Captain, now might be a good time for you to get us out of here.”

  *******

  Royce, have your squad show yourselves, but do not engage. See if your presence will get them to back down so we can get the ambassador out of there, Captain Hopper said over the NL.

  On it! was Royce’s quick reply.

  Seconds later, the twelve soldiers of Third Squad emerged from the trees and underbrush not more than sixty meters from the Zodarks. Several of the aliens turned, surprised by the sudden appearance of what were surely soldiers. One of them said something in an urgent voice that didn’t sound friendly. Then T’Tock roared something as one of his arms lunged at Justin, Nina’s aide. Grabbing the man by the neck with one of his large hands, he lifted him off the ground and turned to head into the camp at a quick trot.

  In the blink of an eye, another Zodark grabbed Nina before she knew what was happening and turned to follow T’Tock into the camp.

  The remaining Zodarks raised their weapons and proceeded to fire their blasters at the twelve exposed soldiers before they could react to what was happening.

  Diving for cover, Royce landed behind a clump of underbrush just as several blaster bolts slammed into the ground and trees where he had just been standing.

  Rolling to his right, he came up in a kneeling position with his rifle scanning for targets to shoot. At this point, the ten Zodarks were steadily retreating into the camp while they continued to lay down an onslaught of blaster fire at them.

  Royce took aim at one of them with the help of the targeting AI built into his HUD and pulled the trigger. His rifle sent a single blaster bolt right at the large blue alien before him, hitting it squarely in the chest. He was already traversing his rifle to find the next target when he heard the most horrifying noise of his life.

  Charging toward their positions from the right flank were fourteen additional Zodarks, firing their blasters into their position. Leaves, branches, and underbrush all started kicking up all about the human soldiers.

  “Second Squad, shift fire to meet that threat on our right flank. Get that SAW on them now! First Squad, open up with those heavy guns and take ’em out!” Lieutenant Crocket yelled over the platoon net.

  The soldiers manning the M91 HBs let loose a torrent of blaster fire that cut down half a dozen of the attackers in the first couple of seconds. The four other soldiers with SAWs joined the fray, adding their own volume of fire into the charging enemy soldiers.

  Turning to look to his right, Royce saw one of his guys get hit by a couple of blaster shots and go down. Another one of his guys yelled out in pain when his left leg was ripped off by a blaster. Cries for a medic began to echo as blaster fire and shouting filled the morning air.

  “Frag out!” yelled one soldier as an object flew out toward a couple of Zodark soldiers trying to flank their heavy weapons.

  Crump.

  The fragmentation grenade landed near a cluster of them before going off, throwing several of the Zodarks through the air like rag dolls.

  A sudden whirring sound emanated from inside the camp, and then a pair of drones, two meters in size, emerged. One of the drones turned right toward Royce’s squad and opened up with a rapid-firing blaster. Before Royce could even yell a warning, three of his guys got cut down by the flying killing machine.

  Aiming at the drone, Royce flipped his selector switch from blaster to magrail and fired a short burst of 5.56mm slugs at the drone. The magrail slugs ripped the drone apart, and it fell to the ground in a heap.

  The other drone started taking evasive maneuvers now that it had detected a threat to its existence. It fired a torrent of blaster fire into Second Squad’s position as they continued to fire on the charging Zodarks. A couple more of his soldiers went down before they could react to the new threat.

  Royce brought his rifle to bear on the second drone and started firing short burst after short burst at the drone, to no avail. It just kept ducking and dodging, all the while firing on his soldiers.

  Then a couple of small explosions happened near the drone. One of his soldiers had fired his 20mm smart munition at it. The killer drone took a few hits, which slowed its movement just enough for Royce and a few others to slam it with a few dozen magrail slugs, destroying it.

  As the ruins of the drone fell from the sky, another roar came from the camp entrance as close to thirty of these blue aliens charged forward, heading right for Royce’s depleted squad. The AI in his helmet told him he had only moments until the big beasts would be on top of them at their current speed.

  “Fall back to rally point Charlie!” came the urgent voice of Captain Hopper over the platoon net.

  Royce flicked his M85 back to the blaster and let loose a string of shots at the charging Zodarks. He hit three of them outright before they dove for cover.

  Royce jumped to his feet and ran over to where a medic was treating one of his wounded troopers. “We need to go!”

  The medic looked up at him and nodded. He grabbed his aid pack and rifle and took off for the rally point, leaving the soldier lying on the ground. Royce glanced down as they ran away and saw that the guy had bled out from whatever had hit him.

  Grabbing a grenade from his vest, Royce pulled the pin and threw it at a cluster of Zodarks that had just resumed their charge toward him. Flickers of light from their blasters were zipping all around him, hitting trees and other underbrush as he retreated into the woods.

  Royce heard the explosion of the grenade moments later and hoped it might slow their pursuers down a bit. As he raced past several trees, Royce saw two of his guys leaned up against a pair of tree trunks, raising their rifles. They cut loose a string of blaster fire at whoever might still be pursuing them. When they had fired off thirty or so shots each, the two of them fell back until they came across a couple of Deltas who had two of their SAWs ready to cut loose as soon as they got out of the way.

  As the two Deltas ran past him, the group with the SAWs opened up. It sounded like a buzz saw as their heavy blasters tore through the entire area, spitting out more than a thousand bolts a minute, shredding trees, underbrush, and the handful of Zodarks who had continued to pursue them into the woods.

  Looking around him, Royce saw the rest of the platoon was still falling back to rally point Charlie while the SAW gunners laid down covering fire. They had another two hundred meters to go.

  Royce scanned the area in the direction of the camp and fired all six rounds of his 20mm smart munition into the general area those aliens were charging from. He wasn’t sure if he’d hit anything, but at this point, he just wanted to slow them down or hopefully get them to withdraw.

  Once it looked like the enemy had stopped chasing them, Royce ordered everyone back to the rally point. When they arrived there, the remnants of Second and Third Squad had a wide perimeter set up, giving them close to a hundred-meter circle to work with. Fourth Squad, which had been watching the shuttles, broke up and sent one of their fire teams to join them. These Zodarks might have caught them off guard and taken a few of them out, but the Deltas weren’t ready to give up just yet.

  Captain Hopper was already on the radio to the Voyager
, requesting the Quick Reaction Force or QRF to deploy to where their Ospreys were. The fire team still guarding the site would work on clearing out some trees to create a bigger landing zone. Hopper had also recalled the three other platoons of the company. In a couple of hours, they had nearly a hundred additional Deltas ready to go back and recover the ambassador and take that alien camp out.

  Lieutenant Crocker walked up to Sergeant Royce. “Detail off a few guys to get our wounded back to the Ospreys. I want to get them taken up to the Voyager for some proper treatment. We can also have the Osprey ferry down some regular Army soldiers to help us out. I have a feeling this next engagement with these bastards is going to be a bit tougher of a fight. They know we’re here.”

  “That’s a good call, sir. I’ll have the guys from Third Squad handle it. They need a short break from the action after this last attack,” Royce replied.

  Royce then walked over to where the platoon’s medics were treating the wounded. They had a total of six guys injured and another twelve KIA. When they went back to attack the enemy camp, they’d recover their bodies. The fighting had evolved so fast they hadn’t had the time to grab the dead before they had to get out of there.

  Looking down at the wounded, Royce almost winced at their injuries. A few of them had blaster wounds, but many more had deep gashes across their arms, chests, or faces from the aliens’ talon-like fingernails. There was only so much their medics could do down here with their limited kits and training. They needed to get them to the higher-level trauma treatment center on the Voyager.

  The area around their perimeter continued to stay quiet. Lieutenant Crocker had their remaining surveillance drones launched to aid in monitoring the perimeter. In a couple of hours, they’d have plenty of reinforcements, more than enough to take the alien camp and liberate the prisoners. Then they’d recover the ambassador and her assistant, assuming they were both still alive, and try to piece together who these aliens were.