Zein: The Homecoming (29 page)

On the Xonian battleship, Prince Jernli, who had left Yisli in charge of the city defence, a decision which he was now regretting was flung across the Commander’s control tower, the Commander a particularly large Xonian was himself, unceremoniously dumped on his backside.

‘Get me out of here now!’ yelled Prince Jernli.

‘But your Royal Highness, we will lose all our fighters,’ protested the commander of the ship.

‘Leave them; just get me out of here!’ Prince Jernli’s face was an angry purple, the blue scales turning an unhealthy colour. The commander knew when to cut his losses, it had taken him many termins to obtain this post and to throw it all away was not in his career plan. He had not anticipated such a ferocious attack.

He shouted orders at his helmsman and the coordinates for a hyper-jump were made. The Venings on-board computers picked up the signal and panic ensued. Some fighters near the main battleship made it back but the vast majority were too busy escaping the wrath of the Cobras or were too far away from the docking bays. When the battleship sped away, the remaining fighters were either blown away or transmitted surrender signals. In total, ten of the enemy aircraft were captured by the Elanda and their crews imprisoned. The others were all destroyed.

General Corder sat back in his chair, satisfied. They had lost two fighters, no damage and the battleship had fled. ‘Over to you, Nicolai,’ he said to no one in particular, watching the two destroyers entering the atmosphere to pave the way for the ground attack. The plan was for the destroyers to knock out the main guns on the battlements and soften up the front defences and then the
Elanda
would land on the plain.

The had listened hard to Leila’s intelligence and that had led to the attack on the battleship first before upsetting the odds by not just using the destroyers but landing the
Elanda
on the plain, thereby enabling them to use the levitation tanks to support the infantry. From what Leila was saying this would be a surprise to their hosts.

General Corder was content and full of confidence. His plan was challenged of course by the more careful Nicolai: however, the rest of the War Committee had agreed with the plan and the veteran Russian admiral had walked away muttering under his breath.

Admiral Koshkov was on the bridge of the
Manhattan
as they burst through the atmosphere of the planet. He may have disagreed with the plan, but that would not prevent him from carrying out his duties.

‘Corporal, ready our guns, remember to only fix on the outside battlements and not inside,’ he ordered. The corporal, a member of the Red Army, flicked his hands over the controls and switched on the main missile and photon machine guns at the front of the destroyer. The destroyer did not have the large Bofor type guns across its spine and protecting its flanks, relying on the plentiful photon machine guns embedded in the front of the ship. This gave it much more speed and agility but made it rely on its defensive shields.

The two destroyers flew out of the sky with the sun at their back dazzling the enemy in the early sunrise. They both released their loads at preconceived programmed targets provide by Tian. When they hit, the sky was lit up like the humans’ Bonfire Night. Another order was given and a second round of explosives was launched. The impact was immense. Plumes of stones and battlements were thrown into the air. Bodies of Xonian troops lay scattered across the front of the city.

Admiral Koshkov monitored the screens in front of him and gave a satisfied grunt. ‘Inform General Corder he can bring in the
Elanda
to offload the tanks.’ General Corder received the news well and he readied the crew for the entry of the huge ship into the planet’s atmosphere.’

The
Elanda
swooped down, more like an albatross than a hawk, its sheer size making any quick manoeuvres difficult. The two destroyers defended the perimeter by squeezing off photon machine guns further punishing the front battlements bringing much death.

When the
Elanda
landed, Kabel was on the Embankment Floor with Gemma, Tate and Belina preparing the tank crews so that they were ready for the invasion and capture of Quentine. Spirits were high. The twenty-five tanks would be supported by thirty thousand land troops, mainly Russian, US and Malacca troops. The Pod had contributed two thousand male warriors to the attack in a display of solidarity. The tanks would be split into five columns with five tanks in each column each supported by six thousand troops, with the Pod part of the last column, as they were better suited to the close urban, street-by-street fighting within the city’s walls.

Kabel was entranced when the tanks were unloading down the huge ramp, marvelling at how they glided across the floor, with the blue tinge of the zinithium power crystals faintly reflecting back off the surface. Sean strutted past him with his confident gait, flashing a “what do I care” smile, he was going to drive one of the tanks in the front column.

‘Hey Sean, don’t get too far ahead of the other columns,’ said Kabel, in warning. The other columns would stagger their attack to reduce targets for the remaining Xonian gunners. They may have destroyed most of the fixed gun towers but you could not right off a Xonian army which had conquered most of the Universe.

‘Stop worrying Kabel, when have I ever been overly ambitious?’ was the Scot’s underplayed response, making Kabel laugh.

‘What are you two smirking about?’ It was Gemma, who wrapped one of her arms around Kabel, still thrilled by the fight they had just been part of.

‘Oh, nothing, just your beloved acting like some over worried parent,’ said Sean.

‘He does have that tendency,’ said Gemma, landing a playful punch on Kabel’s shoulder.

Sean gave a quick wave and then climbed into the lead tank. Soon his column was on the move with the other columns setting off at two minute intervals. They had landed some two miles away but that distance was quickly eaten up by the levitation tanks, noiseless except for the slight hum of the zinithium crystals and the crunch of the marching boots of the soldiers. In Sean’s columns there were elements of the Scots Guards including a few pipers playing their battle song and the Russian Federation Army.

General Corder gave his orders. He told his support team to bring up the front of the city on his screen and he saw the destruction the four missiles and the photon machine gunfire had brought.

‘Admiral Koshkov, any signs of a counterattack from the Xonians?’

‘No, General Corder, small arms fire has been seen with a small element of mobile photon machine guns, nothing which our forces can’t handle.’

‘Good, good.’ General Corder again sat back in his command seat and waited.

Kabel and Gemma were in the second column and Tate and Belina in the third. Kabel was looking through his view finder as they approached the city, keeping watch for any trouble.

Then column one disappeared, all five tanks and the six thousand support soldiers. They disappeared into a massive collapsing pit, as if by magic, but in fact controlled by the grinning Yisli in a reinforced part of the city wall, the wall which Leila had stopped to watch the Oneerions working on.

Kabel didn’t hesitate, appalled by the loss of life. ‘Retreat, all retreat, it’s a trap!’ he yelled into his intercom. His driver flung his tank around, just as Yisli set the next booby-trap off. Hugh sheets of explosive ripped the second column apart, three of the tanks behind Kabel exploded, but somehow the quick action of his driver had saved them. Soldiers lay screaming where the hideous explosive mines that flung out lethal shards of metal had exploded, sending a wall of death scything through the soldier ranks.

On the
Elanda
, General Corder looked at the scenes in horror. He was just weighing up his options when an audible gasp came from Corporal Batten.

‘Sir the radar has picked up five ships.’

‘What do you mean…why didn’t you pick them up before?’ said an exasperated General Corder.

‘I-I-don’t know, Sir, the ships must have used the planet to shield the ships from our radar,’ said the equally confused soldier.

‘Lift off now.’

‘But, Sir, the men on the ground.’

‘Number one priority is to safeguard this ship, Corporal, now get us out of here and place us on battle stations,’ said General Corder.

‘Aye, aye, Sir.’ Corporal Batten pressed the necessary controls and switched on the battle stations. The ramp that had enabled the offloading of the levitation tanks slowly closed as maintenance men ran quickly back on board. Not all made it. The commanding hulk of the
Elanda
rose slowly into the sky.

We
are sitting ducks
, thought General Corder. ‘Patch me into Admiral Koshkov and Colonel Jeffries,’ he said. Colonel Jeffries was the high ranking senior office in command of the
Brooklyn
. This took mere seconds. The two officers filled the second and third screen, the nightmare of the massacre on the Skegus Plain on the first screen. The admiral’s face, though resolute, showed the strain of seeing his men, which made up the bulk of the force, at the mercy of booby-traps and the remaining guns of the Xonians. He hated being right.

‘Admiral Koshkov and Colonel Jeffries, we have five ships on our radar, take both destroyers and engage. You need to give us time to reach orbit before we can use our main weapon,’ said General Corder, causing those in Command and Control Centre to look round in shock. They knew what this meant. The three commanders stared silently at each other for a matter of seconds but these where seasoned soldiers, sometimes you made decisions which were unpalatable, though necessary.

‘We will be leaving the soldiers on the ground with no air cover?’ said Admiral Koshkov.

‘Once we are in orbit I will send Cobras to support them, Admiral,’ replied General Corder. His Russian counterpart, inclined his head to acknowledge the promise and order. Without further hesitation he and Colonel Jeffries, wheeled the
Manhattan
and
Brooklyn
around and being more agile than the
Elanda
and already in flight, they shot off to meet the incoming surprise attack.

On the ground the slaughter continued.

Morrison and his men glided down to land on the top of the impressive Oneerion Royal Palace. The sun was just beginning to sweep across the plain and as Morrison skilfully manoeuvred his sky diving parachute, he scanned the targeted building.

The Oneerion Royal Palace was one of the tallest, most striking buildings you could ever see with its gold leaf finish catching the early morning light easily, almost caressing it in the wind. The team landed and efficiently detached themselves from the state of the art parachutes, moving swiftly to the access door and silently making their way down to the communication room. There was one guard on the door and he was quickly dealt with and when they burst into the room the enemy soldiers stood little chance. They placed charges all around the key terminals as outlined by Tian, setting the timers to go off to synchronise with the attack. A pleased Morrison then took his team down to the floor where the prisoners should be and waited. It was now just a matter of patience.

Leila woke up to find that Zylar was already awake and up, in fact she had noticed that the amount of time he slept was becoming shorter and shorter, it was as if he no longer needed the rest that sleep brought to function. She slipped on a dressing robe and walked into the main lounge, where she was surprised to see two Ilsid by the door.

‘Good morning, my dear.’ Zylar’s voice still made her shudder. Flat. Emotionless. Haunting. Leila knew that she needed to keep him on her side and went to him, slipping an arm through his arm as he gazed out of the window at the dazzling sun rise.

Then she saw it. A ship, a monstrous ship with two smaller ships hovering over it, like over-worried parents witnessing their child taking its first steps. She sneaked a quick glance at Zylar’s face as a thrill spread through her body. They had received the message!

‘Looks like your friends have arrived and…,’ he sniffed the air as if he smelt an exotic perfume, ‘…and I feel the presence of strong magics.’ Again her heart gave a leap.

Tyson…Tyson is here
.

Hi, Mum
. Leila nearly stopped breathing; quickly glancing up at the impassive Zylar who showed no indication he heard her son’s words. She was assailed with multiple feelings. Fear and hope all in one thought, Zylar must not know he is here.

In the Oneerion Royal Palace basement Tyson had sent out tendrils of his magic searching for his mother. The strength of feeling surging through Leila when she saw the ships had made the connection easier, although he would have found her soon anyway.

Son, it is so nice to hear your voice
. Leila tried to keep it together but was struggling.

Are you okay? Are you injured?

I am fine, don’t worry, I am with Zylar on the eighteenth floor
.

I
am coming to get you
.

Leila struggled with her emotions and then in front of the gates on the Skegus Plain she saw the ground collapse beneath the soldiers and tanks and then the explosions rip apart another column. She gasped in shock and raised her hand to her mouth. Her eyes watched the large ship as it began to lift off and in the distance specks of other ships could be seen.

‘Thank you for inviting the Blackstones into my trap,’ said Zylar coldly.

‘W-w-what?’ said Leila.

‘You don’t think I fell for that seduction game, do you?’ said a sneering Zylar. Leila’s heart dropped. She had been led into setting a trap that her rescuers had conveniently triggered.

‘The Skegus Plan is mined and booby-trapped and soon the Xonian armada will be destroying the once mighty
Elanda
, all because you thought you could play me.’ The sneer had gone, replaced by the cold heartlessness that she was used to.

‘By the way, if you are hoping that lumbering ox of a Malacca man is going to help you, think again. I had him served up at the Xonian’s dinner table last night,’ said Zylar, with some misplaced amusement. ‘They found him more than enough to satisfy their appetite.’

Leila wrenched her arm from his grip and gulped strongly to keep down the vomit that she felt rising through her stomach and up into her throat.

‘If you think you are going to be rescued, don’t bank on it.’ I have eighty thousand Ilsid warriors from all the races and the Xonians have also provided me ten of their destroyers to travel to Earth and lay the groundwork for the invasion.’

Leila was numb with shock.

‘Yes, my dear, thanks for warming my bed but you have just signed the death warrant of over six billion people. I couldn’t have asked for more.’

That was enough, Leila ran through the bedroom and into the bathroom to retch into the toilet.

What had she done?

Tyson in the basement monitored the horror of what was happening from others’ thoughts and the blue force-field sprang into life, the rage rising in his body, his face a cold mask but hiding every unpleasant emotion he could suppress. Amelia immediately saw the change, as did Bailey.

‘What has happened Tyson?’

‘Enough waiting, we are going, the attack was a trap and our forces are being killed for fun.’ There was increased determination on the seasoned soldiers’ faces; they had many friends in the ranks of the attacking forces.

‘What do we do?’ It was Bronstorm, his face white from the picture that Tyson had painted, shaking him. Tyson knew that meant nothing, Bronstorm would not hold back.

‘We follow our plan and rescue the human prisoners,’ said Tyson. There were no dissenters, with Zebulon rising from where he had rested, along with his personal guard.

Tyson led the team from the basement, and onto the ground floor. There were not many guards, with the majority on the front battlements. The few which were on guard, Tyson killed with precision.

‘Take us to the prisoners, Tian,’ he asked. Tian pointed to a door off the main impressive hallway, which was studded with some of the rarest jewels in the Universe and had the most exquisite floor and ceiling structure.

They headed for the door to the passage when a patrol of Xonian warriors halted their progress.

‘We will handle them, Tyson, just go,’ said Hechkle, gruffly. Bronstorm moved to the warrior’s side and a number of the other soldiers peeled off to support. Tyson acknowledged the gesture and the rest of the group continued on their way.

The patrol swelled as other Xonian soldiers seemed to materialise from the other rooms. Hechkle and Bronstorm did what their training taught them, they charged, taking the Xonians by surprise. Soon, with the small number of US Marines, they were deep in a struggle for survival.

The rest of the group made their way to a lift via a discreet doorway, though it didn’t look like a lift, simply a platform that was on the outside of the building, covered by a glass front. Tyson thought the lift would send them hurtling up but nothing like that happened. Tian entered some numbers and the usual teleporting pull experience engulfed them. Before they knew it they were on the eighteenth floor.

Tyson launched himself out of the lift, straight into four Xonians. Before any could react, two were dead, then the other two were taken out by Bailey and Amelia.

There she was!

Leila, now dressed, was under the escort of two Ilsid soldiers. Zylar was in front of her when Tyson came hurtling around the corner.

‘You,’ Zylar snarled.

Tyson didn’t reply, sending his razor-sharp seckle directly at Zylar’s head. He easily ducked and fired a number of shots, two which caught the soldiers flanking Tyson. Both fell to the floor dead.

Bailey let go two shots, which the two Ilsid fended off. Zylar ordered them forward and he grabbed Leila’s wrist and dragged her to one of the lifts – similar to the one they had travelled up in.

Zylar pulled her onto the platform, leaving the two Ilsid to defend, closed the door and set the co-ordinates to match with the floor where you could access the Transportation building.

Tyson ran forward, raising his right hand seckle to block an attack by one of his adversaries and then plunged his second seckle into the Ilsid’s side, killing him. No sooner had he completed this move, his right seckle had cut the throat of the second Ilsid.

The rage was bubbling within him and he let out a great roar when, having flung the lift door open, he found his mother and Zylar gone.

He turned to Tian. ‘Do you know the coordinates to where they have just gone?’

‘They can only go to the floors programmed in the lift. You can track the last floor where the teleport occurred.’ The Oneerion didn’t wait for the order; he knew it would come and looked at the readings, ‘Its level two, which takes you onto the connecting corridor to the Transportation building.’

‘Right, we need to go after them,’ said an increasingly angry Tyson.

‘Tyson, what about the prisoners and the Oneerion royal family? We have to rescue them?’ said Amelia, holding Tyson back. His mind was not on the other prisoners or royal family.

‘Tyson, you promised Kabel…Delilah?’ was Amelia’s questioning approach. The soft play of her words breached the fog of anger and he remembered back to his promise to Kabel. He made a split second decision.

‘Okay. Bailey and Amelia you go with the rest of the troops and free the prisoners and take them to the level two floor. Zebulon, you and your guard come with me. Tian, can you key in the coordinates to the floor attached to the Transportation building?’

‘Yes, I can also collect and take King Yi and his family to a safe haven, once I send the prisoners down to the level two floor,’ said Tian. ‘He is unlikely to be guarded but I may need a weapon,’ he asked. One of the soldiers passed him a spare gun.

‘We shouldn’t split, Tyson,’ Amelia pleaded.

‘I am going with you, mate,’ said Bailey.

Tyson shook his head as he climbed into the lift with the Changelings. ‘Look after my girl, Bailey,’ said Tyson, firmly and Bailey relented, remembering his vow to his friend. Within seconds Tyson had teleported to the coordinates Tian had programmed. The rest of the group, led by Bailey, made their way to the floor above.

Bailey climbed up the stairs with two of the remaining soldiers beside him, and as they turned the second corner they came face to face with a gun. The shock was only fleeting as the resolute features of Lieutenant Morrison were behind the gun, which dropped to his side once he saw who it was. His eyes scanned the group.

‘Where is Tyson?’ Bailey brought him up-to-date with what was happening with the attack. Morrison shook his head at the news, and then quickly made up his own mind.

‘We continue as planned. There are only two men guarding the human prisoners, with another six soldiers down the hall in the guardroom.’ He split the team up, with Bailey and Amelia attacking the two men guarding the prisoner quarters and Morrison leading the attack on the guardroom.

‘Go,’ he directed. They went round the last corner at a run. Bailey took aim and took one of the guards out immediately, the other managed to return fire, before one of the SEALs caught him with a fatal shot. Morrison went pelting past the door and crashed into the guards piling out of the room at the end of the corridor. He
took two men down and then the rest of soldiers were on top of him and he reverted to his knife, which he used to good effect.

Bailey blasted the prison door open and raced in, only to be met with a wall of screams that stopped him in his tracks. There were many women in the room and he noticed children.
Children? What?

‘Delilah, is Delilah here?’ said Amelia, who stepped from behind Bailey into the room and dropped her weapon to her side, Bailey did the same.

‘Bailey, Amelia, is that you,’ said Delilah. Both Bailey and Amelia were dumbstruck. They had not seen Delilah since the battle at the Southern Palace but the change in just under a year was amazing. They faced a beautiful young woman, her face framed in silky black hair, a face so open, vulnerable and pure that Amelia was initially stunned. She heard Bailey suck in his breath; it seemed it just wasn’t her who was struck by the change in Delilah who ran to her and gave her a big hug. Amelia returned the hug and then gently pushed her away.

‘Hi, Delilah, we are here to take you to Kabel.’ The young woman’s face lit up at Kabel’s name and Bailey found a little jealously creep into him, until he realised it was more a sisterly fondness that he saw.

‘Kabel? Where is he? Is he alright?’ said Delilah.

‘Yes, looking forward to seeing you again. Now can you all pack up, we need to get out of here as soon as possible.’

The prisoners didn’t need to be asked twice. There was a mad scramble as they packed a few clothes and items. Amelia noticed the three young toddlers and like Bailey was surprised. Delilah saw the look and shook her head, making Amelia hold asking the questions she wanted and not make any comments. There would be a time to catch up later.

‘I’ll take that,’ said Bailey, removing the bag from Delilah’s hand. Delilah gave him a winning shy smile and Amelia, watching the exchange, missed nothing.

They all exited the room. Morrison and the other soldiers joined them after overpowering all the other guards and Tian took the group to the nearest lift to teleport them down in two groups. Tian waited until all had teleported safely before pulling out the unfamiliar gun from his waistband and travelling down to where his King and family were locked away.