A Line in the Sand

by Ryk Brown

  “Why don’t you just go out there with her?” Dylan asked Nathan as he tapped commands into Jessica’s station in her absence.

  “I think the Earth has had enough surprises for one day,” Nathan explained.

  “Right,” Dylan replied. “I’ve tied General Telles’s helmet camera into your overhead display.”

  Nathan reached up and flipped down the small view screen in the overhead panel, turning it on. As promised, the view from the general’s helmet camera appeared as Miri and her protection detail prepared to disembark. “Protect my sister, General,” Nathan called over comms.

  “I protect everyone,” the general replied.

  Miri and the others assembled at the top of the ramp. General Telles, Jessica, Corporal Vasya, and several other Ghatazhak had formed a protective ring around her, preparing to move out.

  “As the rightful president of Earth, you have ultimate authority on this world,” the general told Miri. “However, I would strongly advise you to do exactly as we say, when we say it. It is the only way that we have any hope of protecting you.”

  “Don’t worry,” Miri assured him, her eyes wide with fear. She looked at the general, his face amazingly calm and confident. “I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I?”

  “In my experience, the Scotts always do,” the general replied, his comment followed by a rare smile. “Shall we make history?” he added, gesturing toward the ramp.

  Miri took a deep breath, summoning up all her courage. After a moment, she turned toward the ramp. “Let’s do this,” she stated.

  “Move out, gentlemen,” the general ordered.

  In unison, the circle of Ghatazhak, with Miri and General Telles at the center, headed down the ramp. Miri flinched repeatedly as incoming weapons fire from the very men who should be swearing their allegiance to her slammed into the Voss’s shields, causing them to flash brilliantly at each point of impact. All around her, Ghatazhak soldiers were firing their wrist cannons, showering the charging UEA security forces with stunner energy. Despite the strength of the Ghatazhak position, the security forces continued to defend theirs with fervent dedication.

  The circle stopped midway down the ramp.

  “Now,” General Telles told her.

  Miri reached up, fumbling for her comm-set control just above her left ear. She tapped it, then cleared her throat, her cough echoing through the Voss’s external loudspeakers. “I am Miranda Scott-Thornton, daughter of the late President Dayton Scott, and I am here to claim my legal right of heir-to-office! I hereby order you to cease fire and stand down! If you do not, my forces will subdue you, with deadly force if necessary! I beg of you to obey my command! All I wish to do is to present a DNA sample to prove my identity to all! Please! Cease fire!”

  In the distance, she could see Admiral Galiardi as he came out of the main building, EDF spec-ops on either side of him.

  “Destroy them!” the admiral ordered his men.

  Miri wasn’t the only one who spotted the admiral. “Nathan, we have a problem,” General Telles warned over comms.

  “This is insane!” Lieutenant Commander Perrin exclaimed, watching the events outside from the capitol complex control center. He stepped up to the comms officer’s console. “Get me local spec-ops command,” he instructed.

  “Aye, sir,” the comms officer acknowledged. “Commander Tetz on the line.”

  “Commander Tetz, this is Lieutenant Commander Perrin in command. I need you to order your men protecting Admiral Galiardi to place him under arrest and detain him for multiple violations of EDF regulations and acts of treason against the United Earth Alliance constitution.”

  “Perrin,” the commander replied. “Do you realize what you’re asking? Do you know what’s going on out there?”

  “I do!” the lieutenant commander replied. “And if you don’t do as I’m requesting immediately, my next call will be to UEA security to do the same. Then your men will be fighting two sets of enemies. Do you really want to be the man who started a war between the civilian authority and the military that is supposed to serve it?”

  “Two destroyers off our port beam,” Kaylah warned from the Aurora’s sensor station. “Five clicks and closing fast. They’re locking their main batteries on us.”

  “Helm, hard to starboard. Show them our aft shields,” Cameron instructed. “They’re the only ones that are still at full power.”

  “The Chennai is launching missiles!” Kaylah warned. “Twenty seconds.”

  “Helm, prepare to jump us ahead five hundred clicks,” Cameron instructed.

  “Aye, sir.”

  “That will put us in range of Port Terra’s defense batteries.”

  “Can’t be helped,” Cameron stated. “Besides, if they wanted to be in this fight, they could have launched jump missiles at us long ago.”

  “Ten seconds to missile impacts,” Kaylah warned as the ship rocked from weapons fire striking their aft shields.

  “Any time, Mister Dorsay,” Cameron urged.

  “Jumping in three…”

  “Four gunships just jumped in dead ahead!” Kaylah warned. “Line abreast! Blocking our jump line!”

  “Two…”

  “Thread the needle, Mister Tala,” Cameron instructed, fighting to remain calm.

  “Threading,” the helmsman replied, changing their course ever so slightly.

  “Hold jump,” Cameron added. “Your call, Mister Tala.

  “Holding jump.”

  “My call,” the helmsman acknowledged.

  “Five seconds,” Kaylah warned.

  The helmsman watched his tactical display out of the corner of his eye as he steered the massive warship in between the approaching gunships. Suddenly, their jump line on the display switched from red to green, and he took his hands off the flight controls as he said, “Jump!”

  “Jumping!” the navigator announced as the blue-white flash washed over the bridge.

  There was a thud and a violent shake, followed by quiet.

  “What happened?” Cameron wondered, looking to Kaylah.

  “Our shields brushed theirs,” Kaylah reported.

  “Comms, contact the Voss,” Cameron ordered. “Find out what’s taking Miri so damned long! Things are getting ugly up here!”

  “What is that?” Josh wondered, watching the same camera feed as Nathan.

  “I’m not sure,” Nathan admitted, “but it doesn’t look good.”

  A second later, whatever it was fired, lighting up the Voss’s aft shields.

  “Holy crap!” Loki exclaimed. “That thing just sucked about twenty percent of our aft shield strength!”

  Jessica sprung into action, breaking from formation and moving across the line of Ghatazhak to get a better angle on the cannon that the EDF spec-ops were firing. She fired with both wrist cannons as she ran, but the spec-ops cannon had a shield of its own, and she wasn’t getting through it anytime soon.

  “Shields are down to forty percent!” Nathan warned over comms. “Two more hits, and we lose aft shields!”

  Another blast slammed into the Voss’s aft shields, causing them to flash brightly.

  “All Ghatazhak!” General Telles called over comms. “Target that cannon! Shoot to kill!”

  “Aft shields at twenty percent!” Nathan warned. “Get Miri back inside!”

  “Spec-ops at the bow!” another Ghatazhak warned over comms. “Deploy the front ramp so we can get Sane inside!”

  “I’ll give you covering fire!” the Voss’s nose gunner announced over comms.

  Another cannon blast struck their aft shields, causing the emitters across the back of the Voss to explode in showers of sparks.

  “Aft shield is down!” Nathan reported.

  His warning was unnecessary as the incoming fire from the UEA security forces that had been bouncing off the Voss
’s shields was now slamming into the shields of the Ghatazhak lined up just inside the shield perimeter.

  “Maximum force!” General Telles barked, stepping out of the circle of Ghatazhak protecting Miri as they started backing up the ramp to get her back inside and out of harm’s way.

  With the shield now down, Jessica wasted no time. She charged forth, firing both wrist cannons of her mark two combat armor at full power. “Capsi!” she barked as incoming fire bounced off her personal shields. “Micro jump! Just behind the enemy lines! On my mark!” she instructed as she charged toward the enemy line just outside the main building.

  “Incoming fire is rapidly draining our power,” her suit AI warned. “We may not have…”

  Jessica took a running leap into the air. “NOW!” she commanded. In an instant, she disappeared in a flash of blue-white light, reappearing two meters off the ground behind the spec-ops cannon position. She landed in a tuck and roll, coming back up with most of her momentum still intact. Two more steps and she was at the wall behind the cannon position. The spec-ops operating the cannon turned, pulling their sidearms to take her out, but she was too fast.

  Jessica leaned back slightly as she took two steps up the wall, flipping over and firing both wrist cannons at the spec-ops officers as she landed, killing them both. She immediately turned to open fire on the rest of the UEA forces when an officer came running out of the building, yelling.

  “HOLD FIRE!” Lieutenant Commander Perrin yelled as he came out. “HOLD FIRE!”

  UEA security forces, as well as the remaining EDF spec-ops who had recently joined them, began receiving new orders over their helmet comms, which seemed to match the orders being shouted by the newly arrived EDF officer. As instructed, their fire began to trail off.

  “Cease fire!” General Telles yelled over comms.

  The Ghatazhak were far better trained, and their fire stopped instantly, yet each of them stood their ground, crouched in combat positions with wrist cannons still trained on their targets, their weakened personal shields still glowing faintly.

  Jessica froze, down on her knees with both wrist cannons trained on the nearest spec-ops soldiers. “Don’t make me kill you, boys,” she stated confidently.

  Admiral Galiardi couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “What the hell are you doing?” he exclaimed. “Their shield is down!”

  “Admiral Galiardi,” Lieutenant Commander Perrin stated as he walked up to the admiral. “I’m placing you under arrest…”

  The admiral couldn’t believe what was happening. He glanced at the Voss, seeing that Miranda Scott-Thornton, the cause of all his problems, was headed back inside.

  “Admiral!” Lieutenant Commander Perrin shouted. “Hand over your sidearm!”

  “You fool,” the admiral replied, pulling his sidearm and taking aim at Miri.

  Her eyes still locked with those of the spec-ops soldiers before her, Jessica moved her right arm a hair to her right and fired a single shot.

  A single bolt of energy streaked past the spec-ops soldiers, passing behind the other UEA security forces, and finally finding Admiral Galiardi, striking him in the side of the head and knocking him over.

  The spec-ops soldiers tensed up, raising their weapons to take aim on Jessica.

  “Nobody else has to die today,” Jessica urged, bringing her right wrist cannon back to bear on them.

  Lieutenant Commander Perrin ran over to the admiral’s body, kneeling beside him and rolling him over. At first, he was taken aback. The entire side of the admiral’s head was missing, the other half scorched and nearly unrecognizable.

  “Sir?” one of the UEA security officers asked, stepping up beside the body. “What do we do?”

  Lieutenant Commander Perrin slowly rose to his feet. He looked around briefly. Before him were nearly one hundred UEA and EDF troops, weapons at the ready. Fifteen meters away were twenty Ghatazhak, clad in the most frightening-looking black, high-tech combat armor he had ever seen.

  “Sir?” the UEA officer repeated.

  Lieutenant Commander Perrin looked at Miranda Scott-Thornton standing at the top of the Voss’s cargo ramp, still surrounded by loyal Ghatazhak. “We welcome the true leader of Earth.”

  “Twelve gunships just jumped in to port,” Kaylah warned. “They’re on attack vectors.”

  “Twenty-three Super Eagles are coming up from the surface,” Lieutenant Yuati reported. “They also appear to be on an intercept course.”

  Cameron felt as if the situation was rapidly spinning out of her control. Her actions had already caused the loss of at least thirty-two lives on the Nagoya, likely more.

  “Gunships are firing,” Kaylah reported.

  “Port shields at thirty-eight percent,” Lieutenant Yuati warned. “Shall I engage the gunships?”

  “Where are the Gunyoki?” Cameron asked.

  “Grid Two Seven Five, engaging Super Eagles and more gunships,” Kaylah reported.

  “Captain!” Ensign Keller called out. “I’m picking up encrypted flash traffic from fleet command. It’s going out to all ships!”

  “Can you break the encryption?” Cameron asked.

  “It will take time,” the comms officer warned.

  “Gunships are breaking off,” Kaylah announced.

  “Every EDF ship on my tactical display has stopped targeting us,” Lieutenant Yuati added. “This may be a cease-fire, Captain.”

  “God let’s hope so,” Cameron exclaimed with relief.

  “Flash traffic from the Voss,” Ensign Keller announced. “We’re being ordered to cease fire but maintain combat status for now.”

  “Then it is a cease-fire,” Cameron surmised.

  “There’s more,” the comms officer added. “Miss Scott-Thornton has assumed the office of president!”

  Cameron slumped back in her chair in complete disbelief. Seven months ago, when she made the decision to defy orders and take her ship to the Pentaurus sector to help Nathan, she was certain she would never see Earth again. Now it loomed large on her main view screen, and there was a pretty good chance she wouldn’t be facing a court-martial.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dom Mogan stood proudly on the command platform in the middle of the Ton-Mogan’s central command center. All around him were nearly one hundred officers and technicians, sitting in concentric circles, monitoring the countless systems and weapons of the massive battle platform. This was the heart of the beast, the most potent weapons platform ever devised, and it was under his control, as were the other two that flew alongside it.

  Pentaralom Jung-Mogan rarely showed his face in the command center. As the leader of his caste, his place was not to command the Ton-Mogan or any other ship. Admirals commanded battle platforms, not doms. However, this was an auspicious occasion.

  “We will arrive at the attack point momentarily,” Admiral Korahk reported.

  “There were no signs of detection?” Dom Mogan asked, already knowing the answer.

  “None,” the admiral assured him. “They are completely unaware of our presence.”

  “But we cannot be certain,” Dom Mogan commented.

  “Our cloaking fields obscure our sensors as well,” Admiral Korahk confirmed.

  “Then they could be waiting for us, ready to pounce.”

  “We have been in their system for several hours,” the admiral stated. “Were they aware of our approach, I suspect we would have been fired upon by now.”

  Dom Mogan sighed. He had been waiting for this moment for more than seven years. Millions had died on Nor-Patri and Zhu-Anok. Many of them he had known. Some he had even cared about. But more importantly, the honor of his empire had been damaged. Patrian blood had been spilled, and the code of the warrior castes demanded vengeance.

  The code of the warrior castes. It had ruled Dom Mogan his entire life. It had dictated his every m
ove, every decision. Honoring it meant honoring his people, his world. Yet everything he had fought to protect all these decades was about to be lost. Trillions would die in the next few hours; trillions upon trillions more in the coming days and weeks. Those who were left would live out their lives in horror, as witnesses of an apocalypse surpassing the bio-digital plague itself. Just as the plague had once done, the Tonba-Hon-Venar would not only restore Jung honor, but excise both sectors of space of all the ills that had brought them to this point. It all made perfect sense. Sometimes the only solution was to tear everything down and start again.

  The logic had always seemed flawless. Harsh, yes, but reality often was. But that logic was predicated on the belief that the worlds of the Sol and Jung sectors were all that existed, or at least were all that mattered. What few worlds existed beyond were of little consequence. Hunter-gatherers barely surviving. Agrarians toiling away in the fields with oxen and plows. Such worlds had little hope of continued existence.

  But the jump drive had revealed the truth: that there were more human-inhabited worlds out there than anyone had imagined, and that many of them were quite advanced. The mere fact that these advanced civilizations did exist had caused him to question his own beliefs. They had even caused him to question the logic of the Tonba-Hon-Venar.

  Dom Mogan forced himself to set aside all of this. He was the leader of the most powerful warrior caste in all the empire. If he did not complete the Tonba-Hon-Venar, the Kirton or Zorakh castes would, and his failure would be remembered as vividly as their success. If all was to fall, better it was the Jung-Mogan caste who returned honor to the empire.

  “Are we prepared for the attack?” Dom Mogan asked the admiral.

  “All platforms reported full combat readiness,” the admiral assured him. “All fighters, gunships, and frigates are manned and ready for deployment, and all missile tubes are loaded and ready for launch.”

  “Very well,” Dom Mogan replied. “We will target Port Terra first,” he instructed. “Once her defenses are disabled, we will send in our assault teams to capture a jump shuttle. Once that has been accomplished, we will destroy the entire asteroid, along with the Earth itself.”