Authors: Barlow,M
April 14, 2031
The next morning, Mara set to commission infiltration training. Her first stop was General David’s office. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but he looked like he’d been up for hours.
“You have a minute?” Mara asked.
“What can I do for you?” He asked and motioned her to take a seat.
“I’m fine. I need a large airship for training. It doesn’t have to be functional.”
“When do you need it?”
“Now.”
“We don’t keep any airships on base for security reasons,” General David said and thought for a moment. He got up from behind his desk. “They decommissioned a few ships in Arizona. I’ll ask the base commander to send us one. Give me a couple of hours.”
“Thank you!”
Mara left the room and took the elevator to the surface. Snow covered the ground around the building, but it was a thin layer of ice that would melt before midday.
The Navy Seals were doing their morning training. She approached the commander of the unit. She greeted him and got straight to the point.
“Commander, I want to start an infiltration training campaign. Your men are prime candidates if it’s okay with you.”
“Of course, how many do you need?”
“Five at a time.”
“You got it.”
Minutes later, she hovered above the freezing desert next to the base with five soldiers. They were the first enhanced team of US soldiers. They were Navy Seals which Nick claimed was a big deal.
“I chose you because of your Close Quarters Combat experience,” Mara said, looking at their calm faces. “This is the start of infiltration training. You will not fight from the safety of your battleships. You will get into the enemy’s ships and take them from the inside.”
Small micro expressions gave away the tension that’d been building up as she spoke. They hid it well. Mara recalled her conversation with Nick last night.
Be assuring. Smile.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll start with a simple mission. I will go inside a large airship. I want you to rush in through the open door and get past me. Your target is to grab a small flag from behind me. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” the soldiers yelled.
“It’s Mara, but it doesn’t matter as long as you can get the flag.”
“Where is the ship?” The leader of the small band soldiers asked.
She put on a serious face and pointed to the space behind her. “It’s in front of you. I cloaked it to simulate actual combat experience.”
Their eyes widened. They tried to figure out how to break into an invisible ship.
Mara smiled. They were priceless. “The ship will arrive in half an hour,” she joked. The soldiers chuckled nervously.
Once the ship arrived, Mara walked into the door with the flag. She planted it at the rear of the ship, then she hovered facing the door. When a minute passed and nothing happened, she exited the ship where the soldiers lined up outside the way she left them.
“What are you waiting for?”
“A signal,” the team leader said.
She shook her head and gritted her teeth. “What’s your name, Captain?”
“Dean, Ma’am.”
“Dean, once I enter the ship, you attack.”
The soldiers activated their defensive shields. They exchanged nervous looks before they made up their mind. Mara headed back inside the ship. This time, they followed her. She could hear their hasty steps on the sand, then the metal before the five of them rushed inside. They raised their hands and attacked her with power waves from every angle. The attack was precise, powerful but didn't take her down.
“Remember, you can’t catch the flag if you destroy it. And if you blow up a ship in space, you die.”
The men formed a tight, defensive formation and sprinted toward her. They attacked her with smaller, more focused power waves. They used a form of jumping, punching, and kicking. It looked potent, but proved futile.
A clever distraction.
Four soldiers attacked her while the fifth snuck in to her right. He was a meter away from the flag when she saw him.
A part of her was impressed the soldiers devised a simple, yet effective strategy on a short notice and commended them. The other part didn’t like losing and wanted to crush them.
Mara blazed to the end of the ship. She pushed her palm through the soldier’s chest. The power wave knocked him back to the small door where he entered the airship.
She pushed her hands forward and sent power waves toward the rest of the team. As her attack caused them to lose balance, she generated orbs that tracked their bodies and burst, rendering them unconscious.
Not bad. Other soldiers rushed into the combat area to carry their comrades’ limp bodies away.
Mara landed on the ground and walked toward the rest of the unit. “Next team.”
She’d expected the result. It was hard to imagine five recently enhanced soldiers could take her on in straight combat.
One team after another failed to reach the flag. When the day ended, she contacted Gabriel Wu in Australia and asked him to send a unit of well-trained, enhanced soldiers to the US.
*****
Next morning, Mara faced the same unit. She concocted a new strategy. After yesterday’s trials, she decided to start small and put the soldiers in a more realistic scenario.
“Today, you’ll go against each other,” Mara said. “Inside the airship, ten well-trained Australian soldiers are waiting. I need you to go in, five soldiers at a time, and get the flag.”
Five soldiers split from the unit.
Mara smiled. She gave them these colorful bruises yesterday afternoon. They had the spirit, but did they have the tenacity and ingenuity to get the job done? Only one way to find out.
“Go,” she said, her voice calm.
Manakaris’ ghost ships carried a few soldiers. Their battleships carried hundreds of soldiers. And their Imperial ship carried at least a thousand soldiers on board. They weren’t likely to match the Manakaris numbers. She had to be cunning. Five or ten trained soldiers could be a force to be reckoned with. They could take down battleships in minutes.
A soldier’s body was tossed outside the airship. There were still four inside the ship. Another got thrown out. Three left. Scratch that, two left. Unless there were only two Australian soldiers left standing inside the airship, the Seals’ cause was lost. Another body flew out, and a second later, the last one joined them.
Okay, maybe these five soldiers weren’t ready to storm battleships, yet.
The Australian team left the airship—all ten of them. Months of training paid off. The Australian soldiers improved. Americans would, too.
“All right, in light of this less than ideal outcome, I want ten soldiers to storm the airship this time.”
Once the Navy Seals were comfortable taking on the defenders, she’d stack the odds against them again.
*****
Shara looked at a hologram of the first US battleship. Everything was to the designs she provided except for one small detail—small yet important.
“What do you think is wrong with this design?”
The engineer lifted his shoulder for a second before he relaxed them when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the ship. “Nothing, I guess.”
“How do you plan to fire the antimatter launcher?”
“Well, I don’t really know—”
Shara’s eyes smoldered, but she contained her anger and pointed at the cannon. “This weapon right here.”
“I suppose one of the—”
“You overlooked the retractable plate. Once they fire the weapon, it will destroy the ship.”
The man slapped his forehead. “Sorry I don’t know how—”
Her eyes were lighting up again. She motioned him to stop talking. “Fix it.”
The engineer nodded and left. He was so nervous he almost hit Alissara on the way out.
Alissara walked in and gave the engineer a sympathetic look. “Why didn’t you just shoot him?”
“I have considered it. He neglected to add a retractable plate for the antimatter launcher.”
Alissara’s brows lifted for a second before she shook her head. “I guess he had it coming! Have you been here the whole time?”
“Yes, I have so much to do. The ship production is behind schedule, and I still need to figure out the teleportation mechanism.”
“No, you need a break. Come with me.”
“Are you insane? I’m not going anywhere.”
Alissara scowled. “Do you want me to throw one of my tantrums?”
The idea was terrifying. Alissara’s last tantrum destroyed her lab on Korr.
“Fine. Where are we going?” Shara asked with a don’t-you-dare-do-it smile.
“We’re taking the night off.”
“An entire night? Maybe you should throw your tantrum. It’ll take less time to rebuild.”
Alissara grabbed her hand and dragged her outside the room. “Reno. Mara is there.”
“I thought she was training the soldiers.”
“She was, but she, too, hit a wall.”
“So she left?”
“Yes, she is meeting her friend which is better than yelling at poor, overworked engineers.”
Shara glared at her. “Don’t we need disguises?”
“And passports. I’m young, not stupid. I have you covered. Now, stop asking questions.”
Shara closed her eyes and gave up. Whatever Alissara wanted, she got. She followed Alissara into her room. On her bed there were pants and sweatshirts.
“Do we have to wear these?”
“Yes, Mara wears those when she goes to the city, and I have makeup to make you look like the girls in Reno.”
“I’m sure the Manakaris are shaking.”
Alissara’s eyes glowed. “Hush!”
*****
“I’ll meet them before I head back. I have a test tomorrow,” Nick said.
Mara smiled. “That’s fine, but first, look at this.”
“Five hundred dollars? You need to cash out. Don’t give it back to the house.”
“I don’t know who the house is, but I won’t,” Mara said and cashed out her small fortune. Her first winning night, and she’d make sure it stayed that way.
“C’mon, I’ll walk you to the cashier.”
They made their way to the cashier area. Five glass windows with people sitting behind them. She slid her ticket in a small opening at the bottom. The man handed her five hundred dollars.
Mara waved it in front of Nick.
He smiled. “Well done. Now, you’re lucky.”
She handed him the money. “You are, too.”
He pushed her hand away. “No, that’s your money. You can’t give money away.”
“I don’t need it. Spend it on Dana or give it to your family.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes,” Mara said, “and if you say thank you, I will do to you what those Australians did to your Seals.”
He took the money and put it in his wallet. “Frigging Aussies!”
“Mara!” Alissara’s voice came from behind her.
Mara turned around and grabbed her sister’s hand. “Nick, this is my youngest sister, Alissara, and the grumpy one that’d rather be working is Shara.”
Nick smiled and shook their hands. “Wow, you’ll never pay for drinks in this town.”
Alissara raised her eyebrows. “Huh?”
“It means you’re beautiful,” Mara said.
Alissara laughed. “Oh, thank you.”
“I hate myself for saying this, but I really have to go,” Nick said. “It was nice meeting you.”
He left, and Mara called the waitress. “A pitcher and three glasses, please.” Then she turned to her sisters. “Alissara, good job. I didn’t think you’d tear her away from the base.”
Shara crossed her arms above the table and buried her head in them. “I’ll stay awake tonight, plotting your death.”
Mara poked her head. “Shara, try to have fun.”
“Nothing is going to plan,” Shara said.
“It will work out. Keep pushing and when you get tired, take a break.”
Shara lifted her head. “What is the point?”
“What do you mean? We have to get justice for our people and protect this world. We can’t let the Manakaris win.”
“That’s the disheartening part. I don’t think we have the time or the resources to prepare this planet for war.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Mara said. “You improved our space travel drives and defensive shields a hundredfold. You developed our planet destroyer and our antimatter launcher. If there is one person who can tip the scales in our favor, it’s you.”
“I’ve never worked alone. I had a large team that helped me out.”
“Then don’t,” Mara said.
Shara didn’t comment.
“You can have a team here, too. Tomorrow morning ask David to assemble the brightest minds in the country. Then hand them our designs for the weapons, the ships, and the guardians. As long as you’re giving them menial jobs, they won’t be much help. You need to trust them.”