Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (13 page)

“Your call. You're in charge of this place
when I leave,” he informed her. “Do whatever you think will help us
win this war. These are your races, you know them better than
anyone else.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “What about those
hallways?” She pointed.

“The ones right in front of us are
recreation and your bunker.”

“
My
bunker?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “You're the General here,
so you get you own bunker,” he led her down the hallway to the
bunker. “Place you hand here,” he motioned.

Zarah placed her hand on a pad and the door
hissed opened, revealing a very luxurious bunker. There was an
oversized bed in one corner of the room and all the walls were
lined with bookshelves. The room was filled with hundreds of books,
more than anyone would have time to read in a year spent alone.

“This bunker will now recognize your hand
and will only open to your hand. Same with the entrance. Once you
find officers to appoint under you, you can also assign their hands
to the scanner on the entrance, but no one else.”

“Wow,” she said looking around the
bunker.

“Now we’re going this way,” Pyrrhus left the
bunker and took a right. “This is the weight training and hand to
hand combat room.”

“This place is huge,” she looked down at the
floors below her. “How’ve you been able to keep this hidden?”

“This base can hold thousands of races at
once and keep them in here for months at a time without leaving.
It’s not hard to get people in here without anyone noticing,
especially at night,” he informed her. “Anyway, once you leave this
area, it's the simulation room. Good for pilots and those who want
to face different combat scenarios,” he continued through the room
without stopping. “The last one on this side is the medical room.
There's no nurses now, but I'm sure that you'll find plenty in
Thermopylae who'll be willing to help.”

“There are going to be thousands who will
want to come here,” she replied. “I'm sure I'll find more than a
few willing to work here.”

“I know you’ll find them,” Pyrrhus nodded,
going back to the Dining Hall. “But you have to let everyone know
that once they come here, they can't leave.”

“They have to stay here?”

“Yes,” Pyrrhus nodded. “The crodillians will
be here soon. We don't want them to find this base because someone
is careless and either opens their mouth or leads them here.
There’s more than enough here to house thousands for months, which
means they shouldn't need to leave, only come.”

“I understand,” Zarah nodded. “I'll let
every race who is interested in coming know.”

“Good,” he led her down another hallway.
“This is the library. Pretty self-explanatory, mostly books on war,
but some may find it worth their time to gain knowledge, though
most will probably train. There’s the Briefing Room,” he pointed at
the end of the library. “Comes with everything you'll need. There
are maps of Orion, Hermes, or any other planet you may want to see.
You'll be able to contact me or any other General from the comline
system that's hooked up. You’ve been granted full access to
anything and everything necessary to the success of the
rebellion.”

“Am I going to plan out my own rebellion
here?” Zarah held him back from moving on to the next room. “Like,
actually plan it all myself?”

“Of course not. You won't plan the entire
rebellion alone,” Pyrrhus put his hand on her shoulder. “You'll
just plan out Hermes, but you'll have officers you choose to help
you. There will be some who are knowledgeable on things like this,
and I will also have military leaders helping you with strategies
if you need it.”

“Okay,” she nodded wide-eyed. “It's just so
much to take in at once.”

“Don't worry, you'll have a lot of help,” he
walked straight down the hallway to the very end and opened a set
of metal doors. They hissed open and he walked inside, putting his
hands on his hips. “Now this is where all the cool stuff is
kept.”

The room was filled with weapons, small
ships, glider bikes, and different land to air combat vehicles.
There weren't any big warships, but there were enough weapons and
small vehicles to start a decent rebellion and have a shot at
winning.

“No one needed any of this stuff?” Zarah
asked him.

“No,” Pyrrhus rubbed his hand over his head.
“The goal was to stop the crodillians at Hera. I didn't think it
was possible, but it was my duty to try, though I didn't stick it
out.”

“You were actually there?” Zarah looked at
him. “I thought you were commanding from somewhere else.”

“No. I was there,” he looked down. “I
abandoned my ship so I could warn the remaining planetary and
military leaders not to make the same mistake twice.”

“If you hadn't made that choice, none of
this would be happening right now,” she said. “You know them better
now and we'll defeat them this time. We've all lost friends and
family we love. We've had to leave things behind we never thought
we would. Now we have to come together, forget the things we
regret, and keep our loved lost ones in our hearts. They’ll help us
through this. Even if it’s hard to believe, they’ll give us the
strength and courage we need to endure the coming months.”

“You'll lead these rebels to victory Zarah,”
Pyrrhus put his hand on her shoulder and looked at the weapons and
vehicles parked in front of him. “The crodillians will be here
soon, but they'll never see all of this coming. Not until it’s too
late.”

Anlon and Kanti laid on the cold ground,
snuggled up tightly, trying to share body warmth and avoid freezing
to death from the frigid temperature. The storm had taken a turn
for the worse, making it impossible to reach the peak of the
mountain in one trip. Camillus had stopped them, telling them their
only chance of survival was to try and make it through the night.
They hadn't been prepared to stop so long, leaving them all
underdressed for the intense storm. Luckily, they’d found a small
cave large enough to fit all but one of them and Camillus had
offered to be the odd one out. It wasn't any warmer inside, but
they were protected from the whipping winds and pounding of
snow.

Anlon woke up to a nudge in his side and saw
the sun was peeking through the white clouds. He got up from the
ground and left the cave, relieved to see the snow had stopped
falling.

“I think the storm has finally passed over
us,” Camillus said.

“I don't think the others are ready to move
yet. It was a rough night.”

“We don't have a choice,” Camillus said.
“There may be another storm rolling in, but I'm having a hard time
telling whether it will fall apart or not.”

“I guess I'll wake them up,” Anlon moved
towards the cave.

“We're close to the top,” Camillus said over
his shoulder. “They’ll have shelter much better than what we have
right now.”

Anlon nudged the others awake and waited
next to Camillus as they all crawled out. They came out one by one,
stretching out all the soreness from the rocky ground, looking to
Anlon and the humanoid groggily.

“Already time to go?” Falcone asked. “We
didn't even get a full night's rest. How do expect me to run on
that?”

“We're close to the top,” Camillus ignored
the sarcasm. “The quicker we get there, the faster you'll be
somewhere warm. Not to mention safe from any further storms.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Kanti asked.
“Let's get moving.”

“You heard the lady,” Falcone walked to his
glider. “Let's get moving.”

They all got on their gliders and followed
Camillus to the top of the mountain. He hadn't lied when he said
they were close, Anlon just hadn’t been aware how close they’d been
to finishing the trip. It was only about a twenty minute ride, but
he understood Camillus’ decision to pull over. They couldn't see
well in the storm, but the path had slowly narrowed the further up
they’d traveled, and now, it was very clear. If they hadn’t have
made the stop, he had no doubt one of them would’ve fallen off the
side.

Camillus stopped and hopped off his glider,
motioning the others to make the walk with him the remaining way.
When they reached the peak, an ancient building was visible in the
center of a small canyon. It was a dark grey stone, native to
Ovrea, and there were multiple age cracks spanning several feet
long on the building. There were different sculptures scattered
around yard and a well-kept path leading straight to the ancient
building's entrance.

“Wow. This place is amazing,” Nimesha said.
“It looks nothing like the rest of the planet.”

“It's considered sacred ground,” Camillus
informed them. “Very few are privileged to come here and very few
know of its existence.”

“How'd you find out where it was at then?”
Kanti asked.

“He knows everything. He's the
know
all
humanoid,” Falcone chuckled.

“No, I don't know everything,” he glared in
Falcone’s direction. “This is one of the places the Queen implanted
in my memory. When she had me built, she thought it was important I
know of this Temple.”

“Well, we're all lucky she did. And soon we
may find out just how lucky,” Nimesha walked up the path to the
Temple. “If we’re really lucky, they’ll have a weapon that can wipe
all the crodillians out in one swoop.”

“If only we were that lucky,” Falcone
replied.

The others followed her up the path to the
building. Before they could reach the doors of the Temple, they
were stopped from behind by an Ovrean.

“Why do you go there?” His voice boomed
through the mountains.

“We've come to speak to the Elders,” Anlon
answered.

“If the Elders wanted to speak with you,
they would've sent someone for you,” the rock man responded.
“Seeing as they didn't, you need to leave.”

“We're not going anywhere until I say so,”
Kanti stepped forward. “We're going to talk to the Elders and
you’re going to take us to them.”

“You will leave this Temple immediately or I
will force you to leave.”

“Do you know who I am?” Kanti asked,
obviously knowing he didn’t know that answer to the question.

“No,” the rock man answered her. “It doesn’t
matter who you are. If the Elders haven’t asked to see you, you’re
not welcome here. This is sacred ground and I'm asking you to
respect my request to leave peacefully.”

“I'm the Princess of Orion,” she ignored
him. “My mother couldn't travel here due to unfortunate
circumstances, so I’ve traveled in her place. If you don't know
already, Orion is in a little bit of trouble and we've been led to
believe the Elders may be able to assist us.”

“The Elders have said nothing about the
arrival of a Princess,” he replied, standing his ground firmly.

“Ahh,” A voice came from behind the Ovrean.
“So it is true. Queen Adira has a daughter. She did an excellent
job of concealing you all of those years. I must admit, she had
even myself fooled for some time.”

A smaller Ovrean appeared from behind the
guard. He looked frail and old, with brittle cracks on his light
grey body. His cane tapped on the ground until he reached Kanti’s
feet.

“And what is your name, young Princess?” He
asked.

“It's Kanti,” she smiled. “Who are you?”

“I am Zimran,” he bowed. “It is a pleasure
to finally meet the Queen's daughter. We never believed you died,
but we had no proof of your existence, so we had to accept it all
these years. We’ll make sure to go back and change the records now
that we know otherwise.”

“You believed she was alive?” Anlon
asked.

Zimran nodded. “We’re the keepers of
knowledge. We know most everything that happens in Orion, even
things that are supposed to be hidden. We’ve bestowed it upon
ourselves to make sure the histories are recorded correctly with as
little information lost as possible. Someone must to it, so we take
it upon ourselves.”

“Excellent. That’s just what we wanted to
hear,” Falcone said. “Then you'll be able to help us.”

“Come in. Come in,” he ushered them. “We can
talk more inside of the Temple. It is much too cold to be speaking
out here. It hurts my old body being out here for too long. I’ve
become sensitive in my old age.”

They followed Zimran up the stone steps and
to the red wooden door. Zimran easily pushed it open and motioned
them all inside. The interior was made of the same stone, as if
they were in a giant hollowed out rock. The floors and walls had
been polished to give it a shine, but other than that, it was
natural, unaltered stone. Long banners hung from the ceiling with
the emblems of all past leaders.

“Come,” Zimran motioned. “I will take you to
the guest chamber.”

They followed him down the hall into a large
room filled with more doorways. The part of the room they were in
now appeared to be some type of lounging area with a table and
couches they could sit on.

“You all can stay here as long as you need.
Our doors are always open to the Princess,” Zimran told them. “This
is where you can eat and relax. The other rooms are for you to
rest. There is not much here, but it should be enough to suffice
for a short period of time. If we’d known of your arrival, we
would’ve prepared something more elegant.”

“It was very last minute and we didn’t have
time to wait for word to get to you. We don't plan on staying here
long either,” Anlon told him. “We came here to see if you had some
information that may help us.”

“Hmm,” Zimran thought aloud. “And what
exactly are you looking for?”

“How to defeat the crodillians,” Kanti
replied. “They’ve come back to Orion and are killing everything in
their path.”

“And you believe that we can help you defeat
them?”

“We didn't travel through that cold for
nothing,” Falcone smirked. “Pretty nasty weather you guys got here.
I’m definitely marking it off my list of possible vacation
spots.”