The Round Table (Space Lore Book 3) (26 page)

The few people who watched the group disembark from the vessel all whispered to anyone near them. It took mere seconds for the entire contingent of workers, every alien species and every army, to stop what they were doing and behold the fighters everyone had heard stories about but had never actually seen. Not only had they arrived, they had done so in a ship that looked outdated but was probably full of advanced weaponry, just like the soldiers it had brought.

The Gur-Khan had arrived.

Letter Home
, by Mike Peluso - Ink

65

From the other side of the field, Morgan watched the ten Gur-Khan soldiers walk down the ramp of their ship. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

The Gur-Khan were known for two things: they never fought away from their own planet and they never lost a battle. For thousands of years, the Gur-Khan had lived a peaceful existence on a planet with a name Morgan had never been able to pronounce correctly. They were the only advanced species in the entire galaxy that had never gone to war amongst themselves nor traveled to another planet to do battle there. The only time they did fight was when an invading army attempted to expand its territory.

There were only ten Gur-Khan warriors at any one time. Never more, never fewer. And yet no invading army had ever defeated them. In fact, no invading army had ever lived to talk about their failed conquest. Every single ship belonging to invading fleets, every single soldier and android, was destroyed.

There was a period of time, between fifteen hundred and two thousand years ago, when competing rulers coveted the Gur-Khan home world as a prize to be won for no better reason than because of the challenge it presented. Each ruler had sent their forces to conquer the planet and none of them ever heard from their generals or saw their ships again. In time, the Gur-Khan’s reputation was such that only the occasional ill-informed warlord would try to extend their territory by defeating the ten soldiers. They too were never successful.

It was rumored the Gur-Khan had advanced weaponry that no one else in the galaxy had even thought of. It was thought that they had battle tactics that the most logical military minds couldn’t begin to fathom.

The truth was that not much was actually known about them beside the fact that they never lost battles and were not motivated to conquer other worlds. They were a solitary race, neither welcoming others to their world nor leaving their planet to live elsewhere in the galaxy. No one was even sure what a Gur-Khan looked like. Some people said the Gur-Khan were smaller than their battle uniforms made them look. That they had large, bulbous eyes and a small mouth and almost nonexistent nose. Others insisted the Gur-Khan could communicate with each other telepathically and that this was one of the reasons they always had an advantage in battles. But this was only how storytellers portrayed them. None of it could be verified.

Morgan blinked in amazement. As long as other civilizations had known about them, the Gur-Khan had refused to fight in anyone else’s war. And yet, here they were.

Between their appearance and Hector’s participation she wondered if she had misjudged Vere’s message. Each time she tried to assess how they had gotten to this point, all she could see was the young woman she had met back in Eastcheap, sitting in a dark corner with her friends, drinking and thieving. Someone who had run away from home rather than face her problems. Someone who had been handed every opportunity in life, even a royal name, and had bungled it all. Morgan thought of how she had risked her life for Vere and instead of being thanked she was having her kingdom dissolved before her eyes.

By the time she got to this last thought, she was so angry—at herself as much as at Vere—that she growled without realizing it. Hector turned to look at her to see what was going on. Her junior officers had become accustomed to such moments and, rather than face Morgan’s wrath, would usually leave the tent and give her time to calm down.

“Vere’s message got the Gur-Khan to fight for a kingdom that’s doomed to vanish anyway?” she muttered.

Hector nodded. “It appears that way.”

The entire galaxy was going mad. This was all the proof she needed.

66

Mowbray’s Athens Destroyers came to a stop at the other end of Dela Turkomann’s portal.

Half of his generals had told him to expect an ambush as their ships appeared through the energy field. They predicted space mines would be arranged to explode when Destroyers appeared and that the first dozen or so ships that went through the portal would be damaged, if not completely lost. Or a small pack of CasterLan forces would be there to cause havoc as Mowbray’s ships entered the sector.

“Fine,” he had told them. “If you are afraid of mines or a few Llyushin fighters, I’ll go through first.”

Some of his generals looked down at their hands rather than question their ruler. A few cringed, unable to hide their concern. Only one said he thought a different ship should pass through first.

Mowbray listened to the general’s advice, but still ordered his crew to take his Supreme Athens Destroyer through the portal without any further delay.

His generals were succumbing to the fear that came with knowing various armies were uniting against them. It was normal to have concerns upon hearing the Vonnegan fleet no longer had a superior number of ships or any kind of advantage in might. His generals didn’t realize it, but Mowbray was reminding them that they were invincible. Anyone in his fleet who secretly doubted their chances would see that Mowbray had no concerns and would then follow his lead.

In truth, he was also eager to pass through the portal because he was losing patience. More than anything else, the loss of his command ship had enraged him two years earlier. It had amused him when the fat drunk had tried to shoot him from afar. And anyway, his Fianna had done their duty admirably. It had tested his patience when the dirty Basilisk had grabbed his throat, but the reptile had gotten far worse in return. However, seeing his Supreme Athens Destroyer reduced to scrap still made his purple face darken. Even though he had won the battle, losing that vessel had been unacceptable. That was part of the reason he had sent Vere to the Cauldrons of Dagda to suffer rather than simply executing her.

While the rest of the Vonnegan fleet watched, Mowbray’s Supreme Athens Destroyer vanished from one sector and then appeared above the desert moon he had visited two years before.

No explosions were triggered. No alarms sounded. There was no trap.

“Send a message back through the portal,” he told his comm officer. “Tell them we’re fine.”

“Yes, my lord,” the officer said.

Almost immediately, another Athens Destroyer passed through. It was untouched as well.

“Get me to Edsall Dark,” he said. “Immediately.”

“Yes, my lord.”

All around him, he could feel the ship’s pressure rise slightly as it began to hurtle through space as fast as its engines would take it. They would arrive at Edsall Dark in a matter of hours.

67

Vere and Hector stood over a map of the surrounding land, which noted the Forest of Tears, the fields of Aromath the Solemn, and the giant wall bordering the capital. On either side of them stood a general. One was from Kaiser Doom’s army. The other was from Baron Von Wrth’s. On the far side of the command center, Quickly spoke to Surrey in whispers so as to not distract anyone. Traskk stood in a corner by himself, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in the scents around him—an attempt to detect who might be a traitor.

When the tent flap opened and the first of the Gur-Khan appeared, Vere and the others stopped talking and stared at them as all the soldiers in the field had. One of the new arrivals surveyed the room, scanning from left to right. After he finished, the entire group moved forward in unison, none leading and none following.

The Gur-Khan were not the least bit apprehensive about being in an enclosed tent with so many different types of armed military leaders. Vere had the impression that the one soldier had scanned the room for the entire group, and that in that single moment, each of the Gur-Khan had fully assessed every possible threat in the tent as well as precisely how to deal with it. As a result, they moved with a rare confidence.

A small part of her was curious to see how the Gur-Khan would have reacted if Quickly or Traskk or one of the generals had pulled out a blaster and aimed it at them. She had heard all the same stories everyone else had heard about the undefeated Gur-Khan, who never left survivors. If someone had made a wrong move at that moment, she didn’t expect she would ever have had the opportunity to tell anyone else what she had witnessed.

“Greetings,” Vere said. “Thank you for coming.”

None of the ten Gur-Khan moved or made a sound.

Morgan entered the tent and took a position beside the main battlefield map, next to Hector.

Vere motioned for the Gur-Khan to come closer. “We were going over a battle plan. Please, join us.”

All ten Gur-Khan took two steps forward. At the same time, all of their visors turned to look at the map. For a few seconds, there was perfect silence in the tent. From their silence, Morgan was beginning to believe the rumor that the Gur-Khan were able to communicate telepathically with one another.

The battlefield map they were looking at was divided into three zones. With their backs to CamaLons’s main perimeter wall, looking out across the field at where the enemy would be approaching, zone one was the right region of the battlefield. Zone two comprised the middle of the fighting. Zone three was the left side of the round table’s forces.

When one finally spoke, Vere had no idea which of them it was because the voice came from the helmet speakers of all ten. “We take zone one,” they said.

Vere had already committed her army to being in the middle zone, along with Kaiser Doom’s forces. Three other armies were positioned at either side. Some groupings had hundreds of soldiers. Some had thousands. The ten Gur-Khan were suggesting that they perform the same task as thousands of soldiers from other kingdoms.

“That’s insane,” Baron Von Wrth’s general said. The battle was still hours away but both he and Kaiser Doom’s general were already wearing their officer’s armor and helmets. “I’ve heard all the same stories about the Gur-Khan as everyone else, but we’ll need at least a full battalion of soldiers in zone one.”

“We work alone. None else nearby,” all ten Gur-Khan said. “Not safe for them.”

Kaiser Doom’s general laughed. “I appreciate your bravery, but your strategy leaves much to be desired. You’ll be eaten alive by Mowbray’s forces. There won’t just be hundreds of his troops coming in your direction. There will be thousands. Probably with limited air support on our side and a lot of heavy armor land support on their side.”

“We take zone one,” a Gur-Khan voice said from all ten helmets.

Quickly and Surrey had stopped their discussion to watch what would happen. Traskk, sure that this could be the perfect opportunity for someone to betray Vere, took a step forward.

“We take zone one,” the Gur-Khan said again. “Not safe for others to be near.”

“Yeah, yeah, we heard you,” Baron Von Wrth’s general said.

Vere looked back at the map. As they spoke, thousands of soldiers were setting up emplacements on the region of the battlefield that made up zone one.

The Gur-Khan said, “Make sure all things and equipment gone from there. Not safe. Be destroyed.”

The way the Gur-Khan spoke, with almost no breaks in between words, gave Vere the impression a computer was translating their true native language into Basic on their behalf.

Vere looked at the map again, then at Hector and Morgan. Both of them shrugged.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll send out the order now.”

Without saying anything else, all ten armored soldiers turned and filed out of the tent.

“Thank you,” Vere called after them, but they were already gone.

“Those guys aren’t messing around,” Morgan said.

Even Hector was impressed by how resolute and dispassionate they had been: “They didn’t waste a single word. Just in and out.”

Baron Von Wrth’s general said, “You aren’t really going to leave an entire third of the battlefield to ten soldiers, are you?”

Just as Morgan and Hector had done, Vere shrugged. “They’re the Gur-Khan,” she said. “They work alone. And they never lose.”

Kaiser Doom’s general laughed, but there was a tinge of violence in the sound. Both he and Von Wrth’s general excused themselves so they could report this development back to their respective rulers.

“You did the right thing,” Hector assured her.

Vere turned to make sure the only people remaining in the tent were those she trusted. “Quite frankly,” she said, “I’d have considered giving them the entire battlefield if they had asked for it. They’re the Gur-Khan.”

The others couldn’t help but nod.

68

The next four hours were hectic. The other two sections of the battlefield saw soldiers from every military filling sandbags, building defensive walls, and moving equipment. The trench machines, which normally dug paths through the dirt at ground level or just below the planet’s surface, acted more like tunnel makers. Each unit ran without stopping, digging tunnels underground in various directions and depths.