Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (18 page)

The rest of the team was searching the building for intelligence. Cort and the wolf turned a corner in the front of the building as a large bug emerged in front of them. Before Cort could react, Bane leapt at the surprised insect, knocking it to the ground and tearing one upper limb from its body. When his victim began to chirp, Bane crushed its skull and ripped it from the prothorax. He only stopped attacking when Cort called him off.

Cort wiped the wolf’s muzzle and praised him as they stepped into the office to find Bravo team at work on the equipment. “What have you got?”

“Quite a bit, sir. I would like to take the equipment with us, but I understand your reasons not to. As it is, I will be able to recreate the software and data once we copy the machines, but it will take time.”

“Good. How much more time do you need?”

“Two minutes.”

AFS
Taurus

After all twenty-seven planets were raided, the other one-hundred and twelve Marines transferred to his ship, while the other ships took station to monitor transmissions to and from the planets. On the
Taurus
, the tech teams compared their data, while the assault teams swapped stories, insulting and making light of the enemy’s lack of defense and preparedness. Cort knew this was an important time for the men and women who carried out the assault, so he didn’t interrupt or speak except when he was asked direct questions. Most of those were related to Bane’s actions, so Cort played the video for everyone to see. Three other wolves also saw action during the series of attacks, but none were as vicious as Bane had been; they left their victims’ heads intact.

“Now that we’ve all swapped lies and tactics,” Cort began after the techs rejoined them, “Remember something. They weren’t expecting us. You will never take part in an action again that goes this easily. We attacked a sleeping, unarmed enemy. A human baby would have put up more of a fight. Don’t get me wrong, we executed flawlessly tonight, and I’m proud of each and every one of you. Not a single person in this room did any less than what was expected of them, and some of you went beyond those expectations.”

“But have no doubt, the enemy will be armed next time. No species gets to where they did without learning from their mistakes. Every single planet they have will be guarded from now on.” Cort stood up and went to get himself a cup of coffee. “Now for the kill count. We killed twenty-seven planetary Supremes, fifty-four secondaries, and a hundred and eight tertiaries in line for leadership. But that won’t matter to them. What will matter is that we killed a hundred and thirty-six queens. As you know, their society is run by males but controlled by the queens. The politics on those planets will be in turmoil once they realize the extent of our attack. Right now, they don’t even have anyone with the authority to contact the species Supreme.”

Turning to the leader of the technical teams, Cort said, “Lieutenant, do you have anything to add?”

Lt. Kate Williams stood and said, “Not much, sir. I need some time to analyze the data we stole, but Argyre did well. The equipment they gave us worked perfectly.”

“Good. Pass that on. Let’s wrap up, folks. The techs will be dropped at Argyre in thirty minutes. After that, the rest of us will head to Solitude. There will be small celebrations for us at both locations. I don’t like the idea, but apparently the Admiralty wants to use your success for recruiting. So go along with it. We need more people. And enjoy yourselves, because you earned it.”

Unknown Planet

“Supreme, we have been attacked," Weela said.

“We are being attacked every sun, Weela,” Supreme Cupla said.

“We have been attacked more directly, sir. We are being contacted by tertiaries on several worlds. Their supremes, secondaries, and queens have been assassinated.”

“Impossible. No tertiary would contact us. It is against our way.”

“I am aware, sir. But with their queens also killed, they could not assert new supremes. Without precedent, they risked violation in order to make us aware of the attacks.”

“How many planets?”

“Eleven that we know of, sir. But I have ordered that all planets be polled to determine if any other worlds are so disrupted.”

“We should assume it is the humans.”

“That is probably true, sir, but it has not been confirmed. And no incursion was detected at any planet.”

“That would represent a problem. How could the humans enter our systems without being detected?”

“Our scientists are working on that, sir. We must also consider the possibility that the attacks were from an internal source. All of the attacks took place on planets that have expressed discord.”

“How many queens were lost, Weela?”

“Thirty-six so far, sir.”

“We have never armed our own, Weela. Now you are suggesting we may have to do so. What does your thorax tell you?”

“I do not know who the enemy is. It is probably the humans, but we cannot discount any possibility. Regardless, we must protect the queens.”

“Agreed.”

Solitude

Two months later, Cort was asleep with Kimberly next to him when his comm chirped.

“Addison,” he said groggily as he put the comm in his ear.

“Admiral Jones, sir. I’m sorry to disturb you, but my intel people have information we need to act on, and we need to hurry if we are going to be ready to do so.”

Cort slipped out of bed, and walked to the kitchen as he said, “Okay. What’s up?”

“First, we now know they call themselves by the name of their Supreme Ruler. Currently they are called Cuplans, because the current species Supreme is Cupla. He has ordered his planets to send all their queens, save one per world, to the core planets. One queen must remain on each planet to allow assertion of new supremes, but all others are being moved to a secure location.”

“I take it you know that location, JJ?”

“Yes, sir,” Jones replied. Cort could almost hear the smile in the Admiral’s voice.

“What do you need?”

“How many Marines are ready now, and how many more can I have in two weeks?”

“I’ve got a small brigade available for duty. Maybe thirty-six hundred. Another four hundred in two weeks.”

“How many of those can I have right now?”

“I want to leave at least a small company here, so you can thirty-five hundred. How soon can you have some transport for us?”

“Four hours, sir.”

“We’ll be ready. Addison out.”

After alerting the base, Cort started coffee and began making breakfast. He heard the wolves stir and turned in time to see Kim step into the kitchen. The darkness of the other room framed her nude form in the doorway. “My god, you are winsome,” Cort said.

“Winsome? What does that mean, baby?”

Cort said, “It means beautiful.” He kissed her and turned her around in the doorway, pulling her closer as he ran his hand across her breasts and down her swollen belly. “It means you are beautiful.”

“Say it again.” She leaned against him and moved her hand between their bodies.

“You are winsome, Kimberly. You are the most winsome woman alive. In over three centuries, you are the most winsome woman that I have even seen.”

Kimberly realized that his statement included a comparison to Angela, Cort’s love of three hundred years prior. “Prove it,” she said, as her hand wrapped around him. It was thirty minutes before they restarted breakfast.

--

“JJ, I think you should reconsider your plan,” Cort said over the comm channel two hours later.

“Why, sir?”

“Because if we kill all their queens while they are moving them, they will know we have broken their comm system. I recommend you constantly monitor the system they transport the queens to, using stealth ships. Put a team on the ground once in a while to keep tabs on things. In the mean time, we can look at other options.”

“I hate to have to use ground troops sir. I only want them if they are necessary for boarding parties. We know their colony ships don’t have weapons, so it’s an ideal time to take them.”

“But there will still be a lot of queens out there, and they can use those queens to breed more.”

“They will be able to do that, anyway, sir.”

“How long do you have to make your final decision?”

Jones noticed that Cort had made it clear it was still her decision to make. He wasn’t ordering her to stand down. Somehow, that gave his advice more weight. “We need one day to get in position, so I can keep everyone on alert and make the decision anytime in the next fourteen days.”

“Okay. Will you give me five of them to work something out?”

“Of course, sir. You could just order me to stand down.”

“I’m not willing to do that unless I have a better idea JJ, and right now I don’t.”

“Okay, I will keep everyone on alert and leave my listeners in place for now.”

“Listeners?”
Cort asked.

“The ships I have monitoring their comms. I call them listeners. I will have to pull them three hours before the op. Please give my planners all the time you can, sir.”

“I will. Thanks, JJ. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Yes, sir. Phobos out.”

--

Cort ordered the
Taurus
to System 641 to retrieve Heroc. She arrived an hour after his talk with JJ.

She stepped off the
Taurus
’
s
shuttle to see a double line of Marines in dress uniforms. Cort stepped forward and greeted her. “Welcome to Solitude, Heroc.”

“Thank you, General. And thank you for the respect you have afforded my visit.”

“May I introduce you to my mate, Kimberly Point?”

Kim stepped forward and nodded her head while reaching out to take Heroc’s proffered limb. “Welcome to my planet, Heroc. It is an honor to have you here.”

“Thank you, Queen Kimberly.”

“I suppose that title is apt by your custom,” Kimberly said as she fell in beside Heroc. Cort was on the other side listening to their conversation, while Bane walked warily behind them, with Coke and Zandra at his heels. “An irony occurred to me as we waited for the shuttle to land, Heroc”

“Oh?”

“Your species’ nomenclature. If H’uum is your Supreme, then the occupants of your colony are H’uumans. We too, are humans.”

“Yes, Kimberly, that is ironic. If only such a thing as a name were enough to bring peace.”

“You sound as if you are less convinced of your species’ position.”

“We cannot continue as we are. Our ways force us to expand, and our expansion brings war.” She turned toward Cort and said, “War against General Addison is does not seem to be a war that my people are capable of winning. So we must adapt.”

“Not even our own people could win such a war, Heroc,” Kim said.

“So I understand. To be able to grasp one’s own species with force is often more difficult than doing so against another.”

“May I show you around the area, Heroc?”

“It is a lovely world, Kimberly. I had hoped to see it someday. The primary of the transport which brought me here allowed me to view the planet from orbit,” Heroc looked at Kim’s belly. “Are you also carrying eggs?”