Ashes of the Realm - Greyson's Revenge (23 page)

“And you as well, Virze?”

“I will.”

“Greyson, what about you? I’m ordering you to return to Bristone and bring your treasonous partner with you.”

“Your Majesty, I stand by my Partner. You may destroy me when we return.”

“I’m implementing your punishment immediately. Timmy and Virze you are hereby given the Royal Titles of Crown Prince and Princess and will succeed me to the Crown of the Empire. You have stood for our values even when you were faced with giving up everything of value.”

“Your Majesty, I’m not qualified for this.”

“Did you not say you would take your punishment without complaint?”

“Uh…yes.”

“Then be quiet. Nathan and James, you may join them and assist them in resolving the issue. Do whatever it takes to make sure those defenseless planets are not attacked again.”

“Your Majesty, I may need the Flyers help in freeing some of the captured colonies.”

“I’ve already ordered them to prepare before I contacted you, Timmy.”

Timmy frowned, “What if I had followed your command and returned?”

“Then you would not be the brave warrior I know you to be.”

“Thank you.”

“You deserve it Timmy. Now go resolve the problem. This will be a good time to test the Zord force field.”

The Neriff Fleet arrived back at their home world and contacted the Admiralty. The Commander sent the recording of what happened and was told to wait. He took a deep breath and knew he was in trouble. After fifteen minutes his display showed the face of the First Administrator, “So you ran and allowed my nephew to be killed.”

“No, he refused to follow orders and was killed for not doing so.”

“Your cowardice is what caused it. You could have combined and destroyed that intruder. You will be put to death for it.”

“Perhaps you would like to board a warship and allow us to see who the real coward is.”

The First Administrator grew angry and yelled, “You dare to say that to me.”

“I didn’t. I suspect it was that ship that we encountered and I do welcome you to come join us. Like them, I suspect you are too afraid to do it.”

Every warship in the system heard the exchange. There were more than eight thousand ships that had returned with spoils or were preparing to go out and attack new planets. The Fleet Commander heard, “You might want to keep your fleet outside the jump limit and witness what is about to take place. If you move toward the planet, we will treat you the same as the other fleets.”

He looked over at to his right and saw his com was on, “Attention all ships in the tenth fleet. Hold your position outside the jump limit.”

The First Administrator yelled, “You Coward. Find that ship and attack it.”

“I’m sorry, but we are not near that particular fleet but we are right above your planet. Perhaps you can now come out and play with us?”

The Administrator looked at his sensor panel and saw a large white ship parked just above the atmosphere. His fear took him and he said, “All Fleets; kill that ship.”

Eight thousand ships turned and started toward the White ship. Then the Administrator and the citizens on the planet saw disaster strike. The white ship erupted with hundreds of bright white beams hitting ships at a rate that was unbelievable. Half the ships were destroyed in less than a minute and the survivors attempted to turn and run. They were blown out of existence in less than two minutes. Where eight thousand warships were crowed above the planet, nothing remained. The Administrator was speechless. The Fleet Commander was stunned and knew he had been very fortunate indeed to have escaped.

Timmy sat at his board and gave a few moments for the magnitude of what had happened to sink home. Then he said, “I guess you won’t be coming up in a warship. I should have left one for you but forgot during the fun.”

The Administrator said, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m trying to decide if I should just destroy your planet and say good riddance to the scum that you are. However, I will allow you to live if you meet my conditions.”

“What are they?”

“You will order all your troops home and leave the planet’s you’ve conquered. You will be allowed to live in this star system; however, you may not go outside it. If you go outside of it, I will come back and finish what I’ve started. You will not have to recall the troops from the colonies of the Priven. We are going to remove them ourselves. You will have exactly thirty revolutions of your planet to make this happen or we will remove them as well as your planet.

“You’ve destroyed most of our ships. How are we going to transport them here?”

“That’s not my problem. You have six hundred ships I’ve not harmed. Use them and those that are not here. For the moment, I am removing all of your military installations on the planet and the factories that produce their ordinance. I will be back in thirty days to see if you have complied with my instructions. If you are not here, I will find you. Do you understand?”

The Administrator was visibly shaking. All he could do was nod.

“Greyson, do you have them plotted?”

“Yes, I do. Are you sure you want to destroy those facilities? There will be a huge loss of life.”

“Look at what this planet has done to those they’ve conquered. It has no soul and perhaps by destroying their capacity to make war they will know we mean business. I’d rather destroy those facilities than have to destroy the planet. This should make sure they listen.”

“Will you do that if they don’t comply?”

“Greyson, is this not an innocent planet?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve scanned it. Every place celebrates their conquests with banners and posters. Look for yourself.”

Greyson scanned the planet. “We should just destroy them now. They’ll never change.”

“First we allow them to get their troops home. They can do it a lot faster than we can if we are forced to go do it ourselves. After that, they can live in splendid isolation. I suspect they’ll destroy themselves if there are no other targets for them to go after. Or they’ll violate the border we’ve imposed and we’ll remove them. This is a hard decision but we have to be willing to make it. This cancer cannot be allowed to spread.”

Greyson began firing at the planet’s surface and the Administrator watched his display as thousands of facilities were destroyed. He slammed his arms on the table in frustration. Then he heard, “I’ll be back in thirty rotations.”

The huge white ship disappeared and he hit his com, “Commander Losel, dispatch your fleet and start moving our troops back. We don’t have much time.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, but you have condemned me to death. My fleet will not follow your directives. Find someone else to carry out your orders. We’ve been attacking planets at the direction of you and your council for years and we will no longer take part in your crimes.”

“Surely you are not going to allow our world to be destroyed. We must have your assistance. Please.”

“Fleet Control, are you listening in to this conversation?”

“Yes we are.”

“The only way we will assist is after you have arrested the Administrator and his assistants and put them on a ship and send them out of the system to us.”

“But that ship said I’ll be killed if I leave!”

“Let us hope you’re good at hiding. You have my conditions.”

“We will do as you ask, Commander. You are now the Leader of all our forces. Please make the return happen as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll leave when he leaves.” Losel waited for an hour and saw a small ship leave the planet and head toward the jump limit.

Fleet Command commed, “If you will leave a ship to escort them out, you can start moving our forces.”

Losel watched his monitor and sent a destroyer in to meet the ship. He waited until it arrived next to the small ship and said, “You will turn on your video and show me who is on board that ship.” The video came on and he saw all of the Leadership Council. He activated his com, “Carry out your orders.”

The destroyer fired on the small ship and blew it into six pieces. “We will now start moving our troops. Contact them and tell them they are ordered home. I suggest you find new leaders that will make us work together.” The fleet jumped away.

Virze and Grace looked at their scans of the planet below and saw thousands of soldiers on the surface forcing the population to work at hard labor stripping raw materials. “How many sites do we have to handle?”

“I count more than a thousand with a hundred or more troops at each.”

“Some of those troops are mixed in with the workers, Grace. It’s not going to be easy to hit them from space.”

“No, we’ll have to depend on the Flyers.”

“That’s going to require them to come close to their targets. We’ll lose some if we’re forced to do that.”

“Vring and Kreej have developed a mechanism on the Rider’s guns that may prevent that.”

“Oh?”

“You know the guns are powered by a small red generator.”

“Yes.”

“Well, they’ve added a force field that will surround the Zord and Rider once the gun is activated. It will turn off to allow the sparks to fly out and then reactivate. The Flyers will only be exposed for a very small interval. It should reduce our losses.”

“So how do we do this?”

“I’m teleporting five riders to each site and fifty over the capital. You and I will send the ships parked in orbit home to assist them in getting their troops off the other planets.”

“Do you think they’ll go?”

“I’ll make an offer they can’t refuse.”

Virze laughed, “You’ve been watching some old videos.”

“I found them in the learning center. Are you ready?”

“Yes, start sending them.”

“Anglo, this is Grace. I’ve sent you the coordinates for the Flyers. Please start them coming now.”

“They’ve been getting impatient. The first five hundred groups will arrive in thirty seconds.”

“Grace, let’s go talk to some ships.”

The Commander of the military transports in orbit above the planet sat in his chair eating a meal and suddenly heard over his PA system. “Good morning, please continue you meal while I tell you what your next actions are going to be. You will take your ships back to your home world and assist them in moving troops back home from the planets you’ve conquered. You have exactly one minute to start moving toward the jump limit. I’ll kill any ship that doesn’t follow my instructions.”

The Commander looked sharply at his Communications Officer, “There is nothing on my scanner.”

The Commander looked at his display and said, “I cannot leave without direct orders from the First Administrator.”

“Well, unfortunately, he and his entire Leadership Council are now deceased along with the eight thousand warships that were there. I really don’t want to make an example of one of your ships to prove I mean what I say, however, I will.”

The Commander yelled, “Raise all screens; power the weapons.” The Commander watched the force field form around his ship and then saw a bright beam blow it apart.

“My next shot will not be at the edge of your force field.”

He looked over at his scanner and saw that the beam had not been slowed or reduced in power. He watched as all one hundred ships had their force fields blown away. “Get underway, start moving toward the jump barrier!”

“That is very wise,”

“What about my troops on the planet.”

“You’re talking about the ones that murdered almost half the planet’s population. We’ll remove them. You don’t have to worry about them.”

The Commander felt a cold shiver go up his spine. He knew that they weren’t talking about relocating those troops. The Communications Officer looked at his board and said, “The General Officer of the military forces on the surface is demanding to know where you’re going.”

“Ignore him. I suspect he’ll know in a few moments.” He looked at his navigator, “Get the fleet to maximum speed.”

Higlon leaned right as Mraak banked hard right and screamed in from high altitude. The young Cainth Rider locked in ten sparks and set the gun for blaster-organic. He left his second gun in the holster on the bindings and listened as the gun’s tone announced that targets had been acquired. Mraak banked in on the large crowd gathered around the small rail cars that were transporting the gold ore they were being forced to load. Fifty troops stood and watched with their blasters in their hands as the workers struggled shoveling the huge mound into the cars. Higlon pulled his trigger ten times and Mraak banked hard left. Higlon held on and turned to watch. He saw his partner come in right behind him and fire ten more sparks. As they banked left two more flyers came screaming in at high velocity from the opposite direction and barely missed hitting them head on. Forty more sparks were released as Higlon banked back and fired ten more sparks from his second gun. All fifty guards were hit in less than ten seconds and were burned into small piles of ash.

The workers laboring over the huge load were stunned at how quickly the guards were killed. One of them picked up one of the blasters that had fallen to the ground and ran over to the mine entrance. Fifteen more workers joined him and stood to either side of the entry way. Twenty five guards ran out of the mine. They heard the screams from the burning guards and knew something was happening outside. They rushed out and were blasted by the waiting workers.

Higlon turned off his Zecka and flew in and landed next to the mine. The workers were shocked at the size of the creature coming in to land and initially raised their blasters until one of the workers yelled, “They must be the ones helping us.”

The workers lowered their weapons as Higlon and four other Riders dismounted. Higlon said, “We’re going after the other guards in the mine. Set up a defensive perimeter around the mine and get out of the open.”

One of the older workers started yelling instructions. They all gasped as the five beings disappeared. The Zord watched the workers and as the crowd scattered toward the forest, they heard in their minds, “We are freeing you from the invaders. Please get undercover and await further instructions.”

The workers looked at the huge winged creatures and then they disappeared as well. The leader yelled, “Get into the tree line! Those with blasters set up coverage from the mine.” The thousands of workers ran toward the forest.