The Battle for the Ringed Planet (35 page)

Jarlan paused, concentrating on Torian, and then after a few moments he gasped, “Are they really like that?”

“They are worse, Jarlan. You hid your people from the aliens, but the Imperium has deep core scanners, they will find them. The only way to save them is to let my side win.”

“Your people will protect them?”

“Yes, they will give them asylum on a peaceful planet. It has happened numerous times when a colony is caught in the middle of a battle.”

“Maybe Kanata? Your planet, Torian.” Siiri spoke up from behind.

Nodding, Torian beseeched the robed man, “Save your people, Jarlan! Save her!”

“And you promise they will be safe?”

“I swear it, Jarlan. I’ve seen it done before.”

“But won’t your people want to know the secrets?”

“Yes, but we are civilized, they will be treated with respect...” then Torian raised his voice, “Look, we don’t have much time, the Imperium forces are already on the move! The longer you wait, they’ll find the villagers!”

“Very well.” Jarlan conceded, “But …I am afraid.”

“Of what?”

“To lower the shield …”

“Do the right thing, Jarlan, save your people!”

“You don’t understand.”

Then Siiri spoke up, “Torian …” she hesitated, and slowly walked up, peering into Jarlan’s eyes, “He is the shield.”

Torian appeared surprised, and then slowly replied, “Well, that makes sense, I suppose. So you were the one who let me live?”

“No. I don’t know why I couldn’t kill you. Some sort of error that I missed in the design. I could see into the minds of the pilots who flew over the city. At first I would take control of their vessels by reaching out, switching off critical systems or burning out controllers, and let them crash so it looked like an accident to others. After a while I just killed them outright and shut down their space craft. All they wanted was to come here and find out our secret, and harm my people. They deserved to die. But you … no, and I could not shut down your vessel completely.”

“And May?” Siiri whispered.

The robed old man looked poignant “I don’t know…” growing silent, he looked away.

“What is it Jarlan?” Siiri sensed fear.

Turning to the girl in loose fitting fatigues, he sighed, “To shut down the city shield means I need to temporally shut down the shield in here.” he tapped his head, “They’re connected.”

“What does that mean?” Torian glanced at Siiri then Jarlan.

Quietly Siiri answered for Jarlan, “It means that he will be possessed.”

“Yes, by very angry alien entities after me for a century. I doubt you could stop me once they are inside.”

“I will have to kill you.” the military officer bore a hard expression.

“Yes, for your own protection”

Then the lanky young man had a thought, “If you are the shield …” he raised his rifle, “If I kill you now, won’t it come down?”

“No, it is set on automatic now, until I override it, killing any human that enters the city. So if I die, it stays that way.”

“So the codes Siiri memorized don’t work? She can’t shut it down from that consol over there?”

“They did in the beginning, but I changed it,” he slowly turned to the girl, speaking with a fatherly voice, “You understand Siiri, I had to do what I did, but I was never unkind to you. In fact, I loved you like my own child.” then he let out a long sigh, “I suppose I have lived longer than any man can ask …be careful young Torian McCallum, for they lie in wait …”

The old man slowly closed his eyes and Torian aimed his rifle, then everything went dark as the towering blue glowing tube shut down. It distracted Torian for only a second. When he flicked on the flashlight attached to his rifle, an unexpected guttural scream jolted him. One real eye glowed bright yellow and an unnatural growl sounded deep from inside the old man. Torian had no time to fire, his hesitation lost him the opportunity to shoot, and the possessed man reached out his hand. The rifle in the young officer’s hand exploded in a mini fireball sending him flying back.

Siiri screamed and the possessed Jarlan turned quickly, almost inhumanly fast, and in the bright light of the small flashlight on her shoulder webbing, she saw him grin. Desperately she raised her pistol but he moved with lightning speed grabbing her wrist. She screamed again, when he squeezed her arm forcing her to drop the weapon. Then he rent his robes in half easily tearing the material revealing his half-naked body, save for a pair of shorts.     

She had never seen Jarlan other than wearing a robe, the man never went swimming and she saw why. His body was part wrinkled old man in patches, part metal in his ribs, shoulders, and upper legs, and smooth youthful regenerated skin in his abdomen and arms. Her eyes grew wide in terror when she saw one natural part of his body bulging in his shorts.

“No!” she cried stepping backwards.   

Grunts followed a wicked grin as the possessed half man half machine grabbed the girl lifting her off the floor laughing. Then he bent over slamming her hard on the floor, knocking wind out her body. Coughing she raised her hands as he undid her webbing belt and threw it aside. Siiri cried out and screamed, trying the kick at him but he was much stronger, whether from his mind power, or his artificial parts, he forced her legs down with his knees pushing her hands against the floor. With tears of frustration and anger, she spit in his face, but he only laughed, a deep disturbing otherworldly sound. She could only see by the flashlight still attached to the webbing on the ground as he tore off her armor, ripping the military fatigue shirt and started for her pants.   

In the shadows, her eyes glimpsed a form jump behind Jarlan and recognized Torian with a bayonet coming down. The young officer stabbed the half man half machine between the shoulder blades, but it did not go deep, caught up in metal parts. The possessed Jarlan then stood up, angry at being disturbed, and turned to Torian, who, in the dim light, looked unscathed from the explosion. The lanky young man swallowed as the alien creature possessing Jarlan raised his hand to deliver a deathblow.

Suddenly the possessed man stiffened, and a glowing red hole appeared on his mid section, burning flesh and turning metal inside his body red hot. Then a second burning hold appeared through the metal ribs and the possessed man turned to Siiri who was holding her pistol.

“His head!” Torian shouted and she complied, blasting his cranium apart. The figure crumpled to the floor, blood, wires, and brain matter splattering.

Instantly Torian ran to Siiri while she held the pistol, shaking, and he held her as she whispered, “I thought you were…”

“The prox shield held.” he whispered back and then checked her over helping her with the buttons on her shirt, “Are you all right?”

“Jarlan … it was a monster …”

“Aye, and powerful. I suppose we got a taste of what happened to the people here.” Siiri then clamped her arms around his neck and sobbed a little bit

After a few moments holding her he whispered, “May’s Con is destroyed.” He pulled the small black device from her webbing as well as the pistol and extra clips, “But yours looks good.” The young man brought up some screens from the small black device, “It’s scanning.”

“Let’s find a room with a door that’s secure, I don’t want to be here anymore.” she began to stand up.

Nodding, he picked up her backpack with the bedroll, and then ascending the stairs. Torian bent over May’s stiff corpse and pulled a few items from her bullet riddled backpack. Siiri wiped away a tear while he attached a spare flashlight to his shoulder webbing. Close together they wound their away through the dark corridors, climbing stairs until they found a mechanical room with a cot in a building engineer’s office. After difficulty sliding the steel door open he threw off the backpack and unfastened the sleeping bag checking the mattress, which was moldy.

“I’ll take care of that, Torian, you call.” she offered and laid the sleeping bag on the floor pressing the controls to prepare it.

He observed the huge chambers outside the small office, “Hydrogen generators...haven’t seen those in years …”

“Call.” she sighed rubbing her head.

“Sierra Two this is Hunter One, over.”

An excited Neil answered immediately, “Torian! We were worried! What is your sitrep?”

“Sierra Two, one KIA, but we think that the shield is down.”

“Who? Who did you lose Hunter One?” he knew the major was worried about Siiri.

She shot him a sad look as Torian replied, “Private Xiong was gunned down by a Sentry bot.”

“I’m sorry Hunter One. Are you positive the shields are down?”

“We think so, Sierra Two, but we can’t confirm with a scan.”

“Right, nobody can.” There was a worried sigh on the other end, “Warlord Alpha Two actual, do you copy?”

There was a pause at the other end as the monitoring Con operator in the marine unit spoke to the marine platoon leader, and the unmistakable voice of Lieutenant Kat Martine broke in, “Warlord Alpha Two actual, we are ready, over.”

Torian linked his Con to the battle fleet in orbit and got a holographic panoramic view of the city. On the south side, a hovering column of armored carriers, flanked by huge deadly M-35 Main Battle Tanks bristling with guns, began moving towards the edge of the city on the parkway. He noted that four infantry fighting vehicles, Kat’s platoon, drove ahead of the others.

Reaching for his hand she peered nervously into his eyes, “I never liked her, but I don’t want her to die.”

“I know.” He watched as dozens of Starhawks flew well over the city out of shield range on the holo. One of the armored vehicles charged ahead and Siiri gripped his hand tighter as they watched the drama unfold. It kept on going at a steady pace on the parkway. On the north side huge fireballs shot into the sky as the “God of War” battle cruisers began to force rebels under their tunnels and defenses, disrupting their monitoring activities.  

Then the holo was replaced with a pretty coffee skinned woman, her dark visor flipped up wearing camouflaged fatigues sitting inside an infantry fighting vehicle, sporting a wide grin, “This is Warlord Alpha Two actual, we are through, I say again, we are through, the shield is down!” A cheer rose from other channels linked in. The tall brown haired young man turned and gave Siiri a tight hug, both experiencing wave of relief.

“Congratulations Hunter One, the mission was a success. Hold tight, we will be coming for you. While you were trying to take down the shield, the enemy fleet counter attacked and they took heavy losses. We have air superiority.”

“Roger Sierra Two, we will wait on you, over and out.” The ‘God of War” class battle cruisers halted their merciless bombardment of the rebel lines as numerous Starhawks began bombing runs and on the holo multicolored flashes of light began to dominate the north side of Kaarina. Still, despite the horrendous rain of plasma from Starhawks and marine artillery, the rebels were able to fire back and on the armored convoy.

The exhausted officer reached into the backpack, “Urban fights are particularly nasty.” He commented dryly, “The Imperium is known for their expert tactics.”

“Are we safe?”

“Here, yes, for now.” He pulled out his water bottle and offered her a drink first.

“Thanks.”

“Are you hungry?”

“A little, but more tired then anything.” Explosions rumbled in the distance on both sides of the dead city as Torian prepared some coffee from their rations.

He noticed that she eased herself with a wince on to the sleeping bag, “You’re injured?”

“In the ribs, they are starting to hurt. Jarlan, or whatever he was, shoved me down hard.”

Kneeling beside her with a look of concern, he reached into the pack for a painkiller, but she touched his arm, “No need, Torian, just lie here with me. Maybe you can help me with these ill-fitting awful boots.”

Grinning he reached down and untied her black combat boots and pulled them off. Turning momentarily to sip his coffee, he began to examine the Con and edit some of the voice and holo logs of their conversation with Jarlan. After a few moments of sorting though files, he glanced over to Siiri and saw her eyes shut, her head resting against the inflated pillow, totally out. Then he sat against the wall and turned out the flashlights, watching her lovely oval face slow breathing by the dim glare of the Con.

Chapter 26: The 4
^th
Fleet

Torian must have dozed himself because Kat’s voice startled him and he slowly rubbed his eyes, “Hunter One, this is Warlord Alpha Two actual, we are approaching your position, over.”

He was slow to respond, shaking his head trying to concentrate, and Kat called again, “Hunter One, are you there?”

“Roger Warlord Alpha Two, all quiet here, over.”

“Hunter One, stay put, we will meet up shortly, we have you on scan, over and out.” Curt and professional Torian thought as he brought up a holo of the outside watching armored carriers and tanks spread out securing positions around the university. In the south, other columns of armor and infantry were fanning out and Starhawks in pairs soared overhead. The Imperium marines were quiet. He glanced at the sleeping girl and stroked her sticky blonde hair. Moments later marines disembarked from the carriers and began to enter the main campus buildings.

“Hey …” he whispered close to Siiri’s ear, and she stirred, “Cavalry is here.”

“What’s that?”

“Boys in blue riding horses, let’s get your boots on.”

“Horses?”

Torian chuckled, “Well, titanium ones.” He helped her up and she brushed aside a clump of hair.

“I need a bath.”

“You smell like a soldier.”

“I don’t want to do this ever again.” Watching Torian, who needed a shave, she liked the way the short brown facial hair highlighted his strong jaw line, “Is your tour almost finished?”

“Three fleet days …” Torian lowered his eyes and there was an awkward pause before he peered into hers, “You…ah, you can come with me if you want.”

Nodding quickly, a little shy, “I’d like that … but I’m scared ... it’s so big out there …”