Torque stood up first. He slipped slightly
on the wet floor then rebalanced himself and pulled up Jaeda. The remaining
soldiers stood and steadied themselves then turned to stare at them.
Jaeda looked at the bedraggled men. Five of
them that she could see. “Is this all of you?”
One of the men stepped forward. “I’m
ranking soldier here, ma’am. Most were caught outside the door when the attack
occurred, including the chief. When those creatures showed up, the alarms
sounded and everything shut down automatically. We’re still functional for the
most part but we’re all grunts here and aren’t trained, beyond the basics, on
the heavy equipment. So we’re really glad to see you.” He eyed Torque
suspiciously as if not sure about trusting him. “The facility is being bombed.
What do we do?”
“It was just a diversion, so we could blast
through to the armory without the Egesa knowing that we’re here or figuring out
what we’re doing. Commander Koll can operate the heavy guns. Isn’t that right,
Torque?”
“No doubt. Show me what you’ve got.”
The soldier seemed to relax and nodded.
“This way.” He led them through a door and into a large, open area with various
sections that housed the different onsite weapons.
After Torque toured the cache, he frowned.
“Is this all?”
“We’ve been trying to pick off those small
fighters with the IDM missiles. Little to no luck with those,” the soldier told
him. “We’ve had slightly more success with the surface-to-air, rapid-firing
rockets. But there are too many ships and we’ve hardly made a dent.”
Torque looked around. He walked over to a
super-large firing tube. He touched the metal and studied the controls. “What
about this?”
“That’s not a weapon. Well, not an attack
weapon. It’s a laser used to push asteroids into a new orbit. It’s slow to aim
and maneuver, so not much use on those fighters.”
“I’m not interested in the fighters. I want
to shoot down the fucking mother ship.”
“You’d need exact coordinates, Sir.
Unfortunately, our tracking computer is offline. And you’d need an additional
energy supply. Our main source is almost tapped out. There’s not enough power
left to feed into that system.”
“Jaeda! Find out if Kirk located an
alternate energy source. And can your people get us the coordinates of Daegal’s
ship? I’ll need to hit the power core in their engineering section for this to
work.” It was hell of a bad luck that the shifter’s splitter ship wasn’t
powerful enough to take down Daegal. But this monstrosity might just do the
job. If they could take out Daegal’s ship, the Egesa would be plunged into
chaos just as he’d planned. While vulnerable, and before they could reorganize,
the Xylon fleets, along with Jaeda’s ships, could attack in force and destroy
them all.
Jaeda looked at the laser weapon. “Once you
redirect energy into this thing, and if Daegal is scanning for concentrated
power sources, it will register big-time.”
“Can your people provide a diversion?”
Jaeda took the comm device off her belt. “We’ll
see.” She stepped away and spoke to her contact. A few minutes later she
returned and handed him the coordinates he needed. “When we’re ready, they’ll
send down some pre-programmed drones to shoot out the oil refineries recently
established at both poles.”
“Daegal’s not going to fucking care about oil
refineries.”
“All we need is a small window of
confusion. The explosions will register and draw the Egesa’s resources and
attention in opposite directions, even if just for a brief moment. You’ll have
one shot at this, Torque. If you miss or if it doesn’t work, they’ll most
likely destroy this facility, regardless of the information and technology it
holds. I’m headed down to talk to Kirk about the additional power source.”
“Shit. This better work.” He turned toward
the soldier. “Help me get this fucker set up and ready to fire.”
* * * * *
Leila had ducked behind some rocks near the
tracking facility when the explosions started. It was currently surrounded by
Egesa who now looked in a panic as they ran back and forth. From their
reaction, she got the feeling that they hadn’t been the ones who set off the
charges.
She feared a lot was going on inside the
facility. And it couldn’t be good. But there was no way she would be able to
get back inside. “Now what?” She didn’t know the location of the warrior
substation in the area and her vid-cell wasn’t working. At least she’d gotten
away from Daegal and she was alive. But she didn’t know how to get in contact
with anyone who could help.
“Leila!” a voice whispered urgently.
Shocked to hear her name, she spun around.
A familiar face. “Halah?” She rushed over to the woman and they hugged. As if
realizing their actions odd, since they were far from friends, they separated
quickly and stepped back. “Sorry. I was just surprised to see you. Daegal said
the ship was destroyed. I thought you were dead.”
“Daegal? You spoke to him? Are the others
still inside the facility? What the hell is going on?”
“I was captured and transported up to
Daegal’s ship but I managed to get away. I think Torque is still in the
facility from what Daegal said. He told me our ship had been destroyed.”
“Unfortunately, yes, it was. Frost
materialized me out of there before it blew up.”
“Frost? What is she doing here?”
Halah shook her head. “Who the hell knows
for sure? You can’t believe anything she says or anything Daegal says. I think
they’re both power-hungry, unstable assholes who deserve whatever we can bring
down on their heads.”
“Brianna and Sam left the facility before
it was attacked,” Leila told her. “I don’t know where they are. My vid-cell
isn’t working.”
“Did Torque organize the local warriors?”
“No. The substation was abandoned. The
station head made his way here though. He, along with our Earth contacts, are
also still in the facility.”
“Shit.”
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. Let me think.”
Leila watched Halah as she looked toward
the facility. Even if they could get inside and locate the others, they’d never
be able to get back out. Without communications they were pretty much screwed
because they had no way to coordinate anything.
Halah voiced the exact same concerns. “The
Egesa took out communications. But I’m sure the humans are working to restore
it, just like Xylon is working to restore ours. Still, without knowing where
anyone is, our options are limited.”
“What if the Egesa find the others and
transport them up to Daegal? They’ll be killed. We have to try to get them out
of there before they’re discovered.”
“Agreed. But they might already be gone,
Leila. It’ll be near impossible to—”
“Look!” Leila pointed toward the main gate
of the facility. “The Egesa are bringing some people out.” She studied each
face, hoping to see someone familiar. “I don’t see them.”
“Me either.”
The Egesa shackled the humans and loaded
them onto a transport vehicle. Several soldiers stayed behind and manned the
gate, while the others drove the humans off. Probably to some holding camp.
Leila sat down behind the formation of rocks.
Halah sat beside her. She grabbed her
vid-cell and fiddled with the controls. “Nothing. Maybe we should try to make
it to the substation. They’ll have current comm devices. We can check if
Xylon’s grid is back up.”
“Not if they took their equipment with them
when they fled. Besides, do you even know where the substation is?”
“I remember from when Brianna called it up
on the computer. It’s a bit far to get to on foot.” She again looked toward the
facility. “I don’t feel good about leaving this place though. If the others are
brought out, we’d have a chance to free them. If I draw you a map, do you think
you could make it to the substation by yourself?”
“I don’t think we should separate. We’re
stronger together.”
“I can move faster and easier on my own. If
I have to worry about you, it’s going to change my strategy.”
“So, don’t worry about me. I’m not going to
slow you down. I can take care of myself.” When Halah frowned, she continued,
“If you were here on your own and needed to get into the facility, what would
you do?”
“Well hell, Leila. That’s easy. I’d just
walk up to the gate and tell them to let me in.”
Deep Space
Braden sat staring out the front portal of
the orbiter. Despite the gravity of the situation, he was still able to
appreciate the beauty and vastness of space. It held a calming silence that he
always found comforting during stressful times.
Erik sat quietly by his side. They hadn’t heard
any additional news about Kam yet and still had no idea where the man had gone.
Maybe Alexa’s death had affected him more than any of them had realized. If not
for his own responsibilities in leading this mission, he might have disappeared
also. Though he found it hard to believe that Kam would abandon Halah and
Laszlo—while he was so ill—without a word of explanation. Something was going
on. He’d bet his last credit on it.
When Erik grunted, he glanced to the side.
The man hadn’t said much since he’d revealed that the Egesa had captured Leila.
He’d been continuously checking on the comm grid, which was almost completely
restored now. If Earth could hold out just a little while longer, then they’d
have full communications and reinforcements there to help.
Maybe he could find the rest of his family.
He needed to connect with his brother and especially his twin sister. But
mostly, he needed to know that Daegal was dead—not a prisoner who would still
be able to live out his lifetime at a penal facility or be in a position where
he might someday escape to torture and kill more innocents.
Dead.
“Got it!” Erik’s voice rose in excitement.
“The grid is back.”
Braden’s heart leapt in his chest.
Communication was vital for the success of this mission. “Contact Torque via
vid-cell. I’ll contact the other squadrons that left ahead of us. They should
be approaching Earth’s orbit about now, if they’re not already there.” His mind
raced. He wished that Erik had taken his own ship. Being together limited his
options. He suspected Erik had known that and had wanted to make certain that
he didn’t try some outlandish suicide mission.
As such, it would be a lot harder to
destroy Daegal’s mother ship. He couldn’t ram the orbiter into its power center
as he’d planned, which would have blown their internal controls. Not with Erik
aboard. He puffed out a breath of frustration. It would have been an honorable
way to go—sacrificing his life for the life of his people. Fate apparently had
other plans for him.
Daegal’s sting fighters wouldn’t be a
problem. Xylon’s fighters could take those out. Daegal’s mother ship was much more
powerful and would be hard to destroy without ramming their engineering section
or utilizing the fire power of a Mag10-orbiter. None of those more powerful
ships remaining in the fleet had been functional yet upon their departure from
the Ice Moon.
Working together, their FC-orbiter
squadrons might be able to concentrate enough firepower to at least disable
Daegal until some warriors could materialize over and take control. Then he’d
be able to terminate Daegal’s life with his own hands. That held appeal. But
they really wouldn’t know exactly what they were facing until they got to Earth
and assessed the situation.
* * * * *
Underground, Planet Xylon
Alexa sat in the dark, cradling her babies
as best as she could. She’d never felt so alone. She was as far back in the
cave as she could go and behind a small rock wall to conceal their presence.
When she’d heard the Def’mal drag off Tara,
she’d hidden their supplies and squeezed through a small opening in the back of
the cave into another chamber. She’d covered her tracks the best she could. The
opening would be too small for a Def’mal to get through. It had almost been too
small for her. Since then, she’d been praying that Pitch and Josella would
return. The longer she waited, the more her hope faded. “What do I do if no one
comes back?” she whispered to her son.
He grabbed a hold of her finger and the
contact calmed her. Still, she couldn’t sit here indefinitely. She smiled down
at her girls as each one slept. So at peace. She felt grateful that all three
of her children had stayed relatively quiet throughout the entire ordeal.
Falling pebbles from the rock walls drew
her attention. Every little noise caused her to jump and her heart to beat
wildly. “Where are you, Braden? I know you must be searching for us.” She tried
to feel for him through their connection, but it rarely worked and now was no
different.
Her son squeezed her finger tighter than
she thought should be possible. That’s when she heard it, or maybe she felt it.
A presence nearby. She placed her babies behind her, grabbed a light stick and
a large rock. If anyone somehow made it through the opening and came up on
them, she would switch the light on high, blind them, then bash them in the
head with the rock and hopefully knock them out.
If that didn’t work, she still had the pain
inducer that Erik had given her. It wasn’t an effective weapon when trapped as
she was. She couldn’t zap anyone then run away while they were momentarily
stunned. Not with the babies. Even at full power, it wouldn’t be able to down a
Def’mal completely. The males were too big. But it was better than nothing. She’d
do whatever she had to in order to save her babies.
“Alexa?” a voice in the darkness whispered.
She hesitated a moment, identifying the
voice. “Josella?” she whispered back, getting to her feet.
“Yeah, where are you?”
“Back here.” Alexa engaged the light stick
but kept it on low. Then she saw Josella. She looked behind the woman. “Where’s
Pitch?” She squeezed through the opening.
“Where’s Tara?” Josella asked at the same
time.
“The Def’mal captured her. Pitch?”
“The blow to his head did something to him.
He got dizzy and almost passed out, so we had to stop to rest. The Def’mal
found us and he told me to run. I didn’t want to but…” She visibly held back
her tears. “I don’t know what happened to him.”
“How’d you find your way back here?”
“After surviving on the Sand Moon, you
learn to pay attention to where you’re going and where you’ve been, or you end
up dead. We have to find him.”
“And Tara too.”
“Yes.”
Alexa had no idea how they were supposed to
do that with the babies in tow. “Do you have a plan? What should we do?”
“We’ll do a section-by-section search,
starting from where they came across me and Pitch. It’s the best way.”
“What about the triplets?”
“They’d only have to be alone for short
periods of time. We can look while they sleep.”
Alexa stared at Josella stunned. If it were
a choice of searching for their comrades or staying with her children to keep
them safe, it wasn’t even a contest. “Not happening, Josella. I’m not leaving
them alone. Not even for a minute.”
“Alexa—”
“No.”
Josella frowned then sighed. “Fine. I’ll do
the search. But without a lookout, it’s going to be a lot harder and slower
going. And if I’m captured, you’ll be alone.”
“It’s a chance that will have to be taken.
My babies are, and always will be, my first priority.”
“All right.” The look of frustration on
Josella’s face gradually eased. “Let me draw out a map in the dirt of where
I’ll be searching. If I don’t come back from a specific section, then you’ll know
that Def’mal were in that area and found me. I’ll be useless to help you from
then on out. Stay clear of that section.”
Alexa nodded. She hated to put all the work
on Josella, but she had the skills to do it and there was really no other
choices in the matter. If the young woman did get caught though, then she would
be on her own as Josella had said. What would she do then? “I have a pain
inducer. Do you want to take it?” She felt better with the weapon in tow but
she also felt that she needed to offer it to the woman, given what she was
about to do.
Josella stared at her a moment. Then her
eyes softened. “No. You keep it. I’m used to surviving without.”
* * * * *
Nav-Control Ship FSMF-36, Earth’s Orbit
Frost stood with her second-in-command.
Anxious to hear his news, she prompted him instead of waiting for his report,
“Did Daegal agree to the meeting?” If she could get him into position, then she
could finally eliminate him, plunge his followers into fear and take over as
planned.
“Yes. Actually, it was a bit odd. His
representative contacted us, through our private ship-to-ship channel here,
about a meeting right before we contacted them?”
“What?” Her senses went on alert. “How’d he
know what channel to use? We’re still cloaked and electro-shielded, aren’t we?”
“Yes, but our other ships, the ones
disguised as supply vessels, are visible. Somehow, he must have figured out the
comm-link.”
“My ass. Someone tipped him off.” And she
thought she’d eliminated all his spies before they’d been able to transmit any
data back about the rest of her fleet.
“Perhaps. But he wants a meeting, so it
doesn’t really change things or hurt us, does it? If he’d wanted us destroyed,
he would have already attacked.”
Of course it hurts us
, she thought to herself. That meant there was someone under her
that she couldn’t trust—someone she’d missed who’d given Daegal specifics about
her fighter ships. And if he hadn’t attacked yet, it only meant that he thought
he had the upper hand. She’d have to proceed very carefully from here on out.
She needed more details but she needed other information too before she
finalized what she wanted to do. “What about those explosions on the planet
where you said that Halah set her materialization coordinates?”
“In and around Earth’s top tracking
facility. The Egesa have surrounded and infiltrated the place. They obviously
want something or someone who is inside. Also, something interesting…”
“What?”
“I’ve received reports of Egesa in ground
fights with the human military who are now dying at an accelerated rate. Not
from their wounds but from something else.”
“Like what?”
“Unknown at this time. Also, we can’t
access this section of Earth’s orbit.” He pointed to the screen in front of
them. “We continually get collision warnings. There has to be several cloaked
ships here.”
“Xylons?”
“Again, unknown at this time.”
“All right. Where are we meeting Daegal?”
“I was told that he will only meet on his
ship. He won’t materialize down to the planet.”
Frost began to pace. She didn’t like the feel
of this. Xylon had been betrayed. She had been betrayed. Daegal was obviously
worried about being betrayed. Rumors abounded about double and triple spies
everywhere. If she met him on his ship, it would be like giving her life away.
“Certainly he knows I won’t agree to that.”
“His representative said that they have the
firepower. If you won’t meet and forge an agreement, he’ll consider you the
enemy. If you get in his way, he’ll blow our ships out of orbit.”
“Forge an agreement? Sounds to me like he
expects a surrender.”
“We may not have a choice.”
Her eyes narrowed. “There’s always a choice.”
A soldier rushed into the room. He paused,
but looked like he was about to jump out of his skin.
“What is it?” she asked, irritation made
her spine hurt.
“Xylon’s grid has been restored. We haven’t
been able to pick up their messages yet but we’ve registered the power source.
We need a warm thumbprint from you to access their channels.”
Maybe those cloaked ships out there were
Xylon fighters after all, waiting for reinforcements. She wouldn’t put it past
the warriors to have a hidden squadron nearby. Luckily, she was still able to
access a small subset of their systems. She placed her thumb on the handheld
tablet her soldier had with him. “Keep me posted.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The soldier rushed back out.
“What do you want to do about Daegal?” her
second in charge asked.
“Delay the response as much as possible.
We’ll combine our power with Xylon’s to defeat Daegal and the Egesa.”
“You’re siding with the warriors? Why?”
“Only long enough to get Daegal out of the
way. Once that’s done, the Egesa will need a new leader.” Certainly she could
outmuscle any Egesa commander who got in her way. She had a large following
already. The rest would follow once she promised them riches and the
destruction of their enemies.
“You?”
“Me.”
“So this truly was about more than just revenge
against Daegal?”
“Revenge is a poor motivator…after a while.
Power lasts forever.”
“Xylon will never allow it.”
“They’ll allow it if they don’t know about
it. Until it’s too late to do anything.” Halah could prove a problem though,
because the woman had already figured out her plans. But, with luck, she
wouldn’t be able to relate those plans to anyone in time for the warriors to
stop her. She’d hoped to attain her power through control of Braden’s
offspring. That plan had failed. Controlling the Egesa would not gain her as
much power but it was a start. And once Kam was by her side…
“Monitor all outgoing messages. I want any
remaining spies caught and executed. As soon as Xylon fighters are detected in
orbit, cloak our ships that are disguised as supply vessels. Let Daegal think
we fled when we detected the incoming squadrons. He’ll then be too busy
fighting the Xylons to spend energy looking for us. From the back, when he
least expects it, we’ll cut off his escape route and ensure his destruction.”
“As you wish.”
* * * * *
Planet Earth, State of Colorado, U.S.A.
Underground Tracking Facility
Torque entered one of the private quarters
in the armory section. He’d been told that Jaeda had come back here to rest. He
had a suspicion that she’d actually come back here for privacy to contact her
people.
She stood up from a small desk as he
entered. “Torque? What are you doing here? Is everything all right?”