War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (40 page)

She raced down the hallways to the Council
Chamber. This new threat was much worse than the Deimos
Brotherhood. Sure the Brotherhood and Kirill were a threat to her
life, but they didn't have fleets of warships. This new threat was
legitimate and could possibly be a big problem for all Orion if
they weren't stopped.

Council members quickly trickled into the
room, all with looks of concern and worry on their faces. Abdul had
no doubt told them what was going on, but they still didn't know
how bad it really was. When everyone was in the room, Hildereth
asked the first question.

"What is going on?" he exclaimed. "I heard
that someone is attacking Orion!"

"I'm not entirely sure what is going on. I
only know what I've seen and I'm having a hard time understanding
it."

"What do you know?" Alura asked.

"A group of traders contacted me from near
Ovrean," she started. "They ran into a massive fleet of ships. From
what I saw, thousands."

"Thousands of ships?" Aldrick repeated, in
disbelief. "Where did they come from? No one in Orion has that many
ships!"

"That's the weird thing. The traders told me
that they appeared out of thin air."

"Impossible!" Bertrade argued. "Someone is
scheming against us and has amassed a giant fleet in secret where
they thought it wouldn't be discovered."

Adira shook her head. "I saw the ships. They
look like nothing that is from Orion. I would know of something
like this, even if it had been happening in secret."

"I saw them too," Abdul backed her up.
"They're alien to us. The ships are twice as big as anything we
have."

"I had the traders try to make contact,"
Adira continued where she had left off. "And there was no response
from the ships. An image on the comline came up and there was
reaction from the pilot, but there was just silence."

"Could you make out who it was?" Saidi
asked.

Adira shook her head. "No I couldn't see the
image, but shortly after that, I completely lost communication with
the traders."

"Lost communication?" Reginold asked. "Did
you try to make contact again?"

"I did on my way to get all of you," Abdul
said. "There was no response from the other end after multiple
attempts."

"I have reason to believe they were shot
down," Adira took in a deep breath.

"What are we going to do?" Alura looked at
the whole Council. "We can't sit by idly talking."

"This is an act of war!" Hildereth stood up.
"We must send a fleet to meet these ships immediately!"
The others talked while the Queen listened to their arguments. Most
of them sided with Aldrick, as did she, but she wanted to hear what
everyone had to say. Adira had made her decision before the Council
had even arrived and now she knew at least Hildereth would back
her, even if the others decided not to. She interrupted them after
five long minutes of tense back and forth debate to inform them of
her decision.

"I stand with Hildereth on this," she told
them. "We cannot let this strange fleet of ships come in and attack
us. We must respond with force. Nothing less."

"We must try to talk to them first!" Bertrade
argued. "You can send a fleet, but negotiating must be attempted.
We are not equipped to go to war with this enemy if they are as
massive as you say. We are ill-equipped to go to any type of
war."

"The time for negotiation is over!" Hildereth
shouted. "They have attacked a ship taking direct orders from the
Queen! That was an act of war. They started it Bertrade, not
us."

The Queen took both of their thought into
consideration. "We will send a fleet, but before we engage in
combat, we will make contact and see if we can avoid any further
bloodshed."

She looked around the table for anyone who
disagreed. Hildereth looked discontent with the decision, as did
Bertrade, but neither one of them spoke a word of protest.

"It is done then," she stood. "I will get a
fleet ready to disembark and meet these mysterious ships."

Kirill let out a breath of frustration and
picked up his comlink to answer the incoming call. "Yes?"

"Are you working with anyone that has access
to massive fleets of ships?"

The question took him off-guard. "What are
you talking about?"

The blue figure quickly explained of the
events that had just taken place at the Palace. "The Council thinks
that fleet poses a threat to Orion."

"I only wish they were mine," Kirill
chuckled. "Do they have any guesses as to who it may be?"
The figure shook his head. "Their only guess is some alien race,
which is absurd!"
"I would say there have been stranger things than this, but that
would be a lie," Kirill said. "Do you think you can find out who is
in charge of these ships?"

"The Queen is sending a fleet to make contact
with them as we speak."

Kirill contemplated for a moment. "This may
be good for us. We may be able to make an alliance if they really
want to take out the Queen. It will help us attain our goal much
swifter than originally planned."

"Maybe. We don't even know who they are yet,
so that's pushing it a little bit."

"I will send a scout ship to observe the
outcome of this confrontation," he grinned.

"What do you think is going to happen?" the
figure asked. "Surely nothing good will come of this."

Kirill shrugged. "They shot a ship down who
was on orders from the Queen, without saying a word. Do you
honestly think they want to talk to a
fleet
of ships on
orders from the Queen?"

"The Council changed her decision to attack
immediately, which I believe is going to be a fatal mistake."

"Fools. And she is even more foolish to
listen to them." Kirill shook his head. "Keep me informed on the
details of everything. My scout will tell me the outcome of the
confrontation, but I want details from the inside."

The figure nodded and hung up the comlink.
Kirill took in a deep breath and smiled. There was finally someone
else who wanted to take out the Queen. Despite what his contact
felt, he had a feeling he could strike an alliance with whoever it
was. If they really were from somewhere else, which he had a hard
time believing, he could convince them he was a good person to have
sitting on the Throne after they destroyed the Queen. Someone
familiar with Orion who would be able to get the races to
listen.

He would just be using them, of course, but
they had what he lacked. If they were as powerful as his contact
had made them out to be, he would undoubtedly get his spot on the
Throne. As many ship as possible of theirs would be preserved
before betraying them and ridding Orion of them, but that would
come later. First he had to gain their trust and strike an
alliance. If he could make it all happen, he was confident he'd be
able to infiltrate them from within and wreak enough havoc in order
to seize control of their fleets. If he could do that, no one in
Orion would dare oppose him once on the Throne. He would rule with
an iron fist and every race he deemed worthy to live, would never
think of defying him.

Falcone parked the cruiser near the spot that
Bimisi had marked on the holomap. They were surrounded by grey dirt
and a lake of lava encircling two mountains. Anlon looked over to
Falcone after several minutes of silent waiting.

"There's nothing here Falcone. Are you sure
you came to the right place?"
"Yes," he nodded. "Bimisi marked the
exact
location right
over the lake of lava in the mountains, but I don't see how we're
getting over there. There's nowhere to land the cruiser once we
cross and I don't see entrances anywhere."

"If no one can get over there then there
surely can't be anything worth our time here."

"Bimisi marked this location for a reason, he
knows what he's doing. We'll wait here until something happens.
It's not like we have any other leads to follow right now. Unless
you'd like to go back to Kremiville and start over."

Anlon leaned back in his seat. "I'd rather
wait around here until something happens. I'll be very impressed if
your friend was right about this spot."

"Well, doesn't look like we have to wait long
to find that out," Falcone pointed at the mountain. "There's
something coming out of the mountain there."

"It's some type of dock," Anlon squinted.
"There's a ship coming out on it which means Bimisi was right! He
was right!" Anlon jumped forward in his seat. "We've done it!"

"And you thought you couldn't trust him,"
Falcone smirked. "Now you'll know to listen to me more often."

"I still think we should wait to see if we
can gather anymore intel," Anlon said. "The more Adira has, the
better."

"Look kid. It's the Deimos Brotherhood and
that's all we were sent to look for. We need to get off of Erebos
and give the Queen this location now. I'm sure she already has more
than enough intel on them to execute a successful mission. If it
comes to it, she can just blow up the entire area to wipe them
out."

Anlon nodded reluctantly. "Okay. Let's
go."

Before Falcone could start up the cruiser,
the distinct humming of a glider bike raced towards them. Anlon
looked around the grey wasteland and saw a cloud of dust quickly
approaching them.

"We got company!" Anlon pulled the laser
pistol off of his belt. "Nimesha is back from the dead."

Neither one of them had time to aim before
she was firing on them. Falcone jumped out of the cruiser, flipping
it and using it for cover. Anlon followed his lead and crouched
next to him. He hoped that it was enough cover to keep them safe
from the barrage of fire that they were taking because Nimesha
wasn't letting up. Anlon peeked over when the firing stopped, just
in time to see a grenade flying towards the cruiser.

"We have to move!" he yanked Falcone. "The
cruiser is about to blow up!"

Seconds after leaving the cover of the
cruiser, it exploded in flames, knocking them both from their feet.
Anlon landed in the face down in the dirt, quickly scrambling to
his feet to find Nimesha. She too lay on the ground from the
explosion and he dropped his pistol, running towards her before she
was able to rise to her feet. Anlon struck her with a roundhouse
kick, knocking her down as she was getting up and pounced on top of
her, putting her in a chokehold.

Falcone walked up and put his pistol on her
head. "Don't shoot her!" Anlon held his hands up.

He lowered his gun. "She just tried to kill
us! Why am I not allowed to kill her?"

"She may have some important information that
we can use."

Nimesha blinked her eyes open and saw Falcone
in front of her with his pistol. She struggled to break free for a
split second, but stopped. Anlon loosened his grip while Falcone
raised his pistol back up.

"We killed you on Gaea," Anlon said. "I
watched you die in that explosion."

"Really?" Nimesha chuckled. "I must have
forgot I was supposed dead."

Falcone loaded his gun, not wanting to hear
another word from the Feleen assassin. "Don't kill her Falcone!"
Anlon demanded.

"She's going to kill
us
if we don't
kill
her
first!" Falcone insisted. "You can't trust
her."

Anlon stared at him until he lowered his gun.
"Is that the Deimos Brotherhood's base?" He pointed, not getting a
response.

"That's a yes," Falcone said. "Now let's kill
her and get out of here."

"We can't kill her. It will make us no better
than Kirill."

"He kills innocents. This Feleen isn't
innocent. She just tried to kill us."

"He uses anyone he can get a hold of so he
can achieve his goals!" Anlon looked to him. "I bet she doesn't
even know what his true plans are."

"Kill me kid," Nimesha sided with Falcone.
"Kirill will kill me slowly if you don't, so you'd just be delaying
the inevitable. I'd prefer a quick death over a slow death. Just
get it over with."
"Why do you work for him if you're afraid he's going to kill you
for failing him?" Anlon asked.

"He picked me up and let me in the
Brotherhood when I was seventeen. I had no home and I was barely
surviving. He said he saw potential in me, so I worked for him to
survive."

"Did you know what he did when he rescued
you?"

"I had heard rumors," she shrugged. "It
doesn't matter though, he saved me. I owe him a debt."

"You know he used to be the Queen's
husband?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I know and she attempted
to have him assassinated. Just a bunch of political stuff that I
care nothing about."

"Do you know why she did that?"

"Probably something to do with him being
power hungry and trying to take the Throne from her."

"And you still work for him knowing that?"
Falcone asked disgusted.