Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (17 page)

Pyrrhus followed Moran into the building to
an elevator shaft that was missing the elevator. Moran stepped into
the shaft and began down a makeshift ladder into the darkness.
Pyrrhus followed his lead, hoping the ladder was sturdier than it
looked. It took them awhile to reach the bottom, but when they did,
Pyrrhus was amazed to see how many survivors were gathered
underground.

The place was huge and every space was
crammed with races that’d survived the attacks. He saw holoscreens
displayed on some of the walls and races were looking at them
intently, watching every move the crodillians made. Women were
tending to children, and some of the men were working on weapons.
Everyone seemed to have a job and it was fairly quiet for as many
races that were crammed down here.

“This is amazing.”

“We're running out of room,” Moran replied.
“If Xiphos really is still up, everyone here will be happy to get
out of here. Every day it get more cramped.”

“But still,” Pyrrhus looked around. “It's
really amazing how many lives you've saved. If you hadn't have
brought them here, who knows what would've happened to them.”

“I couldn't leave them to die,” Moran said.
“I heard of rebellions before the crodillians attacked, but I knew
that was dumb. I gathered as many as I could get to listen down
here. It wasn’t many, but that changed after the invasion.”

“It was definitely smarter than
rebelling.”

“Pull up images from the outskirts of
Hassental,” Moran ordered one of the races working with
holomaps.

The race immediately switched the image from
a crodillian camp to the outskirts of Hassental. She started to
slowly move adjust the frame until Pyrrhus put a hand on her
shoulder.

“That's it,” he said. “That's Xiphos.”

“I'll start moving races from here once
you've left and are on your way back to Ares.”

“I can't go back to Ares now,” Pyrrhus said.
“I still have rebellion bases to set up on other planets.”

“Don't worry about it,” Moran said. “I have
plenty of ex-military here that know of bases that can be used on
other planets. I'll have them go out and start establishing bases
elsewhere on Gaea and other planets.”

“No,” he protested. “I have to do it myself.
I have to make sure that it gets done. This is my
responsibility.”

“And it will get done,” Moran assured him.
“But Orion also needs a military commander who’s faced the
crodillians before. You got lucky here, but don't think you'll get
so lucky on the other planets. Sooner or later someone will
recognize you that’s not on our side.”

“Are you sure your men can get the job
done?”

“Yes,” Moran nodded. “They're well trained
and none of them are big military commanders, so they shouldn't
raise any questions when traveling to spaceports.”

“I thought that would be the best way.”

Moran held his hand up. “It was the only
way, but the crodillians may be ready for you next time. Orion
doesn't need to chance their commander getting caught doing
something others can do. This galaxy needs you getting everything
ready for the rebellion.”

“I'll keep you updated on what's going to
happen,” Pyrrhus said. “Get all of the survivors to Xiphos safely,
and once you do, prepare them for what's ahead. You're now an
important commander too. Stay safe, General Borislav.”

Donnchadh opened his bunker door to see
Kellagh standing with his arms crossed. He didn't look pleased, in
fact, he looked like he wanted to rip his head off of his
shoulders.

“Is everything alright?”

“We've arrived at Erebos and I've led the
ships to where you told me to go.”

“Is there resistance?” Donnchadh quickly
stepped forward.

“Quite the opposite,” Kellagh said. “And I
don't like it, as do none of the others.”

Donnchadh quickly made his way to the
cockpit of the ship to see what Kellagh was talking about. He found
out within a couple of seconds what had him so upset. The entire
Deimos Brotherhood was waiting outside for the crodillians to exit
their ships. They weren't attacking, nor did it appear as if they
would, they were just standing there. He hadn't expected the entire
Brotherhood to be waiting, and definitely not outside where they
could be killed so easily.

Kellagh came up from behind him. “They knew
we were coming, Donnchadh. Why did you contact them without
informing me of it?”

“I didn't contact them,” Donnchadh lied.
“They must’ve caught word of us coming. They have men stationed all
over Orion, one of them was bound to send word to Kirill.”

“Don't lie to me,” Kellagh glared.

“I'm not,” Donnchadh moved to within a
couple inches of his face. “They have technology in that base that
can detect incoming ships and spies that are trained to get secret
intel. Once they saw our ships, their intel was confirmed and they
came to meet us.”

“Then why surrender peacefully when they
could've struck us by surprise or just leave?”

“They know when they’re outmatched.”

“I’ve told the other ships to wait for your
command. What do you want to do?” Kellagh asked.

“What do I want to do?”

“Are we to attack them?”

“No!” Donnchadh left the cockpit. “Tell them
to land their ships and to wait inside. I'm about to find out
what's going on here.”

Donnchadh quickly ran to the hangar and
found a glider bike he could use to ride over to the Deimos
Brotherhood. He got on and as soon as the ship landed, he lowered
the ramp and sped towards them. The dry wind stung his eyes as he
approached Kirill, who was standing in front of the Brotherhood
with his hands on his hips. Donnchadh stopped his bike in front of
him, but didn't get off.

“What are you doing, Kirill?”

“We're surrendering, like you told me to,”
Kirill answered.

“You gathered the
entire
Brotherhood,
when I said that we only wanted
you
?”

Kirill grinned. “They didn't want to leave
me to die.”

“I told you that we’re going to rebel!”
Donnchadh hissed. “You're going to mess everything up! The
crodillians are second guessing me now because you were already
waiting for me. I’m losing their trust.”

“Ahh,” Kirill grinned wider. “It seems your
crodillian friends want to talk to us too.”

Donnchadh turned around to see Kellagh and
the Captains approaching on their gliders. The rest of the
crodillians were quickly approaching from behind on foot with
weapons raised.

Donnchadh whipped around. “Just play
along!”

Donnchadh waited for the others to reach him
on their gliders. None of them looked happy and now he would have
to try to repair the trust the Kirill had just severed.

“What are you telling them?” Kellagh
asked.

“I just asked them to surrender peacefully,”
Donnchadh replied. “They’ve all agreed and, in fact, had already
decided on surrender when they saw the ships coming in.”

Kellagh looked to Kirill. “Are you the
leader that Merikh wants?”

“I am,” Kirill nodded. “And I’m also
surrendering, like Donnchadh just told you.”

Donnchadh didn't like the tone of voice he
was using and knew the man was up to something. The rest of the
crodillians were closing in, and he wondered if Kirill was waiting
for them all to come in close so he could attack them somehow.
Everything seemed off, this wasn’t the Kirill he’d come to know so
well.

“But,” Kirill continued. “It's not quite
like Donnchadh just told you.”

Donnchadh slowly turned to Kirill and saw a
grin flash across his face. He immediately knew Kirill was about to
use him to gain the trust of the crodillians and there was nothing
he could do to stop it. He’d already lost whatever trust he’d
gained when Kellagh saw the Deimos Brotherhood waiting for them
upon arrival.

Donnchadh pushed his glider straight ahead,
full throttle, away from the Brotherhood and the crodillians. He
knew that he’d most likely die out in the grey wasteland, but it
was better than being taken back to Merikh as a traitor. He'd
rather take his chances out here and hope they didn’t come after
him to kill him. The glider screamed as he continued to push it
forward, further into the wasteland he knew would be his ultimate
demise.

“Go after him!” Kellagh ordered his men.

“Don't,” Kirill put his hand up. “He’ll die
slowly out there. Nobody lives out there long without any survival
gear. The fool left with nothing but a bike that’ll take him so
deep he’ll never be able to return.”

Kellagh held his hand up to stop the
crodillians. “And why would you betray your own man like that?”

Kirill shrugged. “He was no longer one of my
men and he wanted to betray someone that I want to become allies
with. I couldn’t let him mess that up.”

“You want to be an ally of Merikh?”

“Yes,” Kirill nodded. “That’s why I chose
not to attack you like Donnchadh wanted and waited for you where we
did.”

“Just because you surrendered, doesn't mean
he'll let you live. Merikh does want to kill you after all.”

“But you must take me back to him alive, am
I correct?”

“Merikh does want you taken back alive,”
Kellagh nodded. “And you’ll go back alive.”

“Then I’ll be able to talk to him once we're
on Hera,” Kirill grinned. “My men will also come along peacefully.
If they resist, you may kill them all.”

Kellagh chuckled. “Your men are with you all
the way?”

“Yes,” Kirill said. “We’ll be a strong ally
for Merikh and every one of us wants the opportunity to fight for
him.”

“I'll take you and your men back to Hera,”
Kellagh said. “Merikh is a hard one to convince, I will warn you
now, but you’ll get your chance.”

“He won't be able to turn down an alliance
with the Deimos Brotherhood,” Kirill stepped forward. “With us,
Orion will bow down to him.”

Anlon and the others waited for Falcone to
get in the cockpit and lift the ship. Anlon and Kanti immediately
pulled up the weather and were relieved to see they’d made it to
Drakos Mavros
just in time. The storm was a mere minutes out
and looked larger than the one they’d got stuck in.

Anlon looked out of the window and saw huge
black clouds forming in mere seconds before his eyes. Soon after
the sky was entirely black, ferocious winds hammered the ship and
snow began to pound the metal. Nimesha jumped in the seat next to
Falcone, and Anlon, Kanti, and Camillus all strapped into seats
behind them.

“Hang on!” Falcone shouted over his
shoulder. “This is going to be a rough ride. Luckily, you all have
me piloting or you’d surely die.”

Anlon prepared himself for the ride as
D
rakos Mavros
rose in the sky, rocking violently back and
forth. It was clear it took all of Falcone's concentration to keep
the ship from veering off path from the strong winds and blinding
snow because his he was leaned forward in the seat and totally
silent. The guard had been right when he said they wouldn't get
caught, but he might not have been right about them escaping. The
storm was definitely more violent than any of them had
expected.

Falcone put the engines at full throttle and
pushed the ship forward, looking out for any crodillian ships as
they broke through the clouds to get above the raging storm. They’d
seen plenty of enemy ships roaming the skies on their way to
Drakos Mavros
, but it seemed that they’d all left the area
for the incoming storm. After a couple of minutes they exited the
planet, but were confronted with an even worse sight than the
storm. Hundreds of crodillian ships surrounded them and another
huge ship that was directly in front of them. They’d just exited
Ovrea into a fleet of surprised crodillian ships who were clearly
prepared to blow them out of the sky. Anlon turned to Kanti who was
already unstrapping herself from the seat. Camillus tried to pull
her back down, but just missed her as she ran to the cockpit and
stood over Falcone’s shoulder.