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Chapter 19: Space Battle
The office in the White Apartment where the previous President had lived in was notably quiet. Soft generators within the room hummed with amiable sounds. A few keystrokes could be heard and the computer sitting on top of the silvery table beeped with acknowledgement.
Day Light Saving lamps were turned on, producing this wonderful gray glow that was somewhat comfortable for the eyes. The cubicle floor was covered in artificial carpet, dark green in color. There were few trees and plants exported from other planets placed around the corners of the office.
Mak, the President of the New World Colony, sat in his air-cushioned chair with happiness. So far, everything was going according to plan. Out of thirty-six Dome Cities, twenty-two had fallen and were in his control. The other fourteen Cities were still persistent, holding out against his enormous army with their gun walls and gun emplacements, as well, with their plasma mine fields.
He sighed as he glanced at the reports while ordering an eighty-seven martini to cure his thirst. The Dome Cities that were under his power now had the word "chaos" written all over them. Crime rates were going up like a rocket shooting up into the atmosphere, and casualties were high, both from the offenses created by the citizens and from the invasions made by his troops. Mak resolved to have this kind of problem terminated from the surface of his country. He would make a wonderful leader, and he would show that to his people. But for now, he had to focus on the remaining metropolitan and then the rest of the world. With a laugh, he tossed the reports into the paper shredder.
The com sounded and Naiomi Goden came in. Mak looked at her with ardor. Her figure was still as lean yet firm as she had always been. Her black hair was bundled up in a knot now, instead of letting it hanging down loosely across her shoulders. She wore a pair of transparent glasses, and a black dress with red, high-heeled shoes.
"Good morning, Naiomi," Mak grinned like a child as he got up to greet his lover.
She kissed him on the lips warmly before drawing away and gave him the newest report on the Space Farer. She was now the Head of the New Center Com. A special privilege granted by the President himself.
"Mak, I've just received the hyper transmission coming from the Space Farer. They are now heading back to Earth, crossing the B-Two Wormhole. Brook Gyr told us that they couldn't find Jake Zero-Zero-One and Wriikaalien Quaiirhjy."
Mak waved it off. "Bah! You know, it's been almost a year already, and there is no sign of Unit One. So my guess is that a) they are dead for some unknown reasons or b) they are trapped in that sector of space."
She nodded as she said: "Yes, that's what I've been thinking as well. It's good to see that you have given up the pursuit of that brat."
"Well, I don't need him now, since I've become the President of the New World Colony. The only reason why I wanted him back alive before is because I needed him as a weapon, as a tool, to destroy the Center Com's shields, but not anymore." Mak stopped shortly. Then he continued: "And here's the best part, we are once again building another human that is even better than Jake! I think we'll succeed, and with the newest invention, we can take over the world without breaking a sweat!"
Naiomi hugged him and whispered in his ear: "We are so close of being the dominant pair of people on Earth. Soon, we'll have nothing to worry about."
Mak smiled as he kissed her over and over again. The blinds on the windows automatically lowered and blocked out the view. The door slid close without a sound.
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"Launching sequence activated. Take off in ten minutes."
The AI said smoothly as the battle cruisers were powering up. The sound was deafening. The concrete floor trembled with vibrations. Men were marching into the Alpha Prime spaceport. All of them were carrying Pulsar Assault Rifles, powerful and deadly. Around their broad chest armors were Fusion Grenades and energy packs for the guns. Their faces were serious. Nitrogen gases for cooling down the dynamos were hissing and leaking out of the hoses, adding more confusions to the turmoil.
Alpha Prime was the only anchorage for the starships on the planet Atarii. It could house more than a million different vehicles in different sizes. It took a person three hours walking from one end of the aerodrome to the other end. It was like a giant warehouse. It didn't have many defenses, considering that most of the humans and aliens on the planet all had the same common goal: to over throw the Federation.
Afren and I gripped each other's hand as our nervous minds were racing. Her claws dug into my palm. She turned and looked at me.
"Well," she said, "I guess today's the day."
I gave her a smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine."
Someone was shouting behind us. I wheeled around and saw Wriik bouncing across the hanger with three immense backpacks. He was hardy. Wriik dropped the bundles in front of our talons. His blue eyes were gleaming with energy and hype.
"What's this?" I asked as I bent down and opened the bags.
Inside were dozens and dozens of sundry guns, ammunitions, and explosives.
"Geeze, I feel as if we are trying to attack a planet!" Afren exclaimed as she grabbed a Mark-Seventy Laser Cannon, powerful enough to punch a gapping hole in a seven-inch armor-plated tank. Her muscles bulged under the weight of the weapon.
"Well, basically we are," Wriik shrugged as his long tendrils were flipping around wildly. A sign of excitement. Then he smirked at us. "So... you guys doing anything... wonderful last night?"
Afren laughed while I blushed. I pushed Wriik away playfully.
"Get out of here! Just because Afren and I were out eating dinner together again..." My voice trailed off there. I felt my body temperature continued to rise. My blue alien friend sniggered as he gave a wink then left.
"He is never serious, is he?" Afren questioned as she helped me zipped up the bags.
"Never is," I replied as we both walked toward our ship.
Space Battleship Forty-two was bigger than the other vessels mainly because we were the leaders of this large rebel army. She held around two hundred rounds of missiles and mines, and she contained over seventy port guns and side guns. She also had four hundred smaller fighter jets in her belly, and with triple HyperSpace Engines, she could reach the speed two times more than Starflyer, Wriik's defunct ship.
In the command center, Roxan was sitting in one of the equidistant seats that were facing the main view screen. He was talking with one of his officers. When he saw us came in, he gave out the last bit of instructions and waved the man away. Grinning, he held up his hand and I took it, giving it a shake.
"Ready to see some actions, my friend?" he said
"Absolutely! It's been a while that I've traveled in space ever since that last flight with Wriik."
"Ah, don't worry. This ship is better than the Starflyer that your friend has told me before," Roxan chuckled as he gestured to the chair beside him on the right. I sat down and Afren occupied the one next to me.
There were only three more seats left and I hoped Talus and the others would come soon so that nobody would take them. People were running to and fro with orders. They were keying in the programs and some were inspecting the place thoroughly. For some reasons, I kept on seeing cool, white gases floating down from above. Though strange, but I felt cool and fresh with vim.
"Roxan, I heard that," Wriik shouted as he sauntered into view. "My ship is the best!"
The rebel leader said nothing, but grinned as Wriik laughed. Talus was following close behind with Orb by his side.
"Man, and to think that my home is big..." I heard the Cave People's leader muttering to himself. His gray cloak was once again, shrouding around his small body. Orb was staring around with his black eyes wide.
"Attention! Lift off will commence in three minutes! All personals and all troops, please aboard the ships immediately! Lift off will start in three minutes and counting!" An announcement was made outside the ship's hull.
Afren's grip around my arm tightened. I looked at her and kissed her on the cheek.
"Don't worry about it. It isn't that scary at all," I reassured her. Her face was slightly white, but she dipped her head a little to signal that she had heard what I had said.
I pressed a button on the arm of the chair and a small screen appeared below the giant central monitor. With one of the outside probes, I could see the last trail of soldiers filed neatly into the last group of battle cruisers.
"Attention! Lift off will begin in one minute!"
"Let's buckle up, people!" Roxan shouted as men rushed to get to their stations.
The whole vessel was starting to shake and Afren was literally hugging me. I looked at Wriik's frolicsome expression and shrugged. Now the engines at the back of the craft initiated their first firing flow. High whining sounds began to flow into our ears. Battleship Forty-two shuddered once, violently. All of us sitting at the command post moved with the motion. Second firing phase had entered and the engines roared.
"Take off in twenty seconds!"
I took a casual glance around and saw most people had put on their most solemn facial expression. No one was talking, no one was moving, but was holding onto whatever they could find. The starship was now shaking with a rhythm.
"Take off in five seconds and counting: four, three, two, one-"
We shot off through the opening in the hanger and blasted into the sky. The G-Force was brawny, I could feel my whole body being pressed into my seat. Afren closed her eyes as she tried to regulate her breathing. Talus was shouting with glee; this was the first space flight for him. Both Wriik and Orb were monitoring the data that was been fed into the memory drive. Two hologram screens were in front of their eyes. None of them said anything while they were checking the speed and the integrity of the armors, the shields, and the hyper engines. Orb then switched to the relay station frequencies to pick up any new information from the Federation. But for now, all was peaceful... I hoped. Roxan was checking on the other crewmembers.
"All good to go, Leader." "Make sure the bombs are secure!" "Has anyone seen my dog? I brought him on board, but he always wanders off all over the place-" "Spaceship Seventy-two, please stay on task. Don't start with the dog thing. The last thing we need is to have you asking: 'does anyone have any dog food?'" The radio sputtered constantly from the rest of the pack.
I opened another channel and saw shuttles after shuttles were launching off and pursuing behind us. We were like a giant black snake, making our way to Earth. Our fangs, our venomous, were sharp and were dripping with lust and hatred. The ground fell away from us rapidly. We were at eleven hundred thousand feet and climbing. Soon, all was hazy as we passed through the cloud layers. The ship had stopped shivering. Then with a gasp from Talus, we were in space.
Tiny flashes of light were appearing here and there all over the view screen. Far away, a super nova was exploding. A vortex on our right with mixed colored was swirling around freely.
"It's... beautiful!" Talus sucked in a deep breath.
Wriik guffawed as he slapped Talus on the back. "Welcome to the real world, my friend."
"This will be an excellent story to tell to my people back on Detarii!"
"By the way," I turned and faced the little alien. "What happened to Dantri and Traven?"
"Oh, they are on the other shuttle because after all, we don't have enough seats in the command center here," he gave me a smile.
"Ah, okay," I nodded.
After three hours of flight and seeing some magnificent views of other planets and space distortions, we entered into the hyper phase where we unerringly jumped between space. Half more hour had passed before we saw the wormhole. It was as lavishing as ever.
"Set the preprogrammed course, in beta coordinates," the pilot mumbled into his mouthpiece as he switched on a toggle switch.
"Warp core holding. Increasing the speed by one-third," the chief of engineering reported in from the engine room. "You want to open the manifold field now?"
"Yes. We need to make the velocity constant."
"Affirmative. Opening the field now."
A small shudder traveled throughout the ship. Afren chuckled nervously. I smiled and stroke her orange hair.
"Jake, there's a slight problem," Roxan tapped my shoulder as he gave the reports to his officers. "It seems that we are not able to gather more than ten radiation suits. So that means only ten people can get to the Burnt Land and retrieve the nuclear weapons."
I groaned out loud. "God... We'll be too vulnerable to defend!"
Roxan grunted grimly as he faced away and continued on his briefing with his men.
"Jake," Afren gripped my right arm. "You are not going to go there along with the others, are you?" Her eyes were filled with worries.
"Can't be helped," I said. "I have to go. This is also my battle, and I intend to wipe out the Federation with my own bare hands."
"Then I'll come with you."
"No. You can't. It's far too dangerous. If only we can have at least fifty suits, then I would consider letting you go with me. But now the situation has changed. I cannot put your life in danger because of me."
She shook her head as she leaned closer. "I'm coming, and that's final."
"Afren, you can't come! I won't allow you to do such a dangerous stunt! You won't pull it off!" I raised my voice as my mind was racing with panic. I must not put her life in peril.
Angrily, she got up. Before I could say a word, she tossed the sentence: "Just because you are a guy that doesn't mean a girl can't be useful in anyway!" She stomped away.
I sighed then I noticed Wriik, Talus, and Orb were staring at me. They saw me looking daggers at them and they hurriedly got back to their work. Though I knew Roxan had heard it all as well, but he pretended that he hadn't listened to a single word between our little quarrel.
When we had intruded into the wormhole, sensors picked up triangular locking devices dropped by the Federation ship to keep the limitless void stable. Therefore, this time, our journey through the space paroxysm was unruffled with little turbulence.
The fare took two days and seventeen hours. During the long period of flying through contorted colors, Afren kept herself to her room. She didn't look at me, nor did she talk to me when she saw me. I felt pain, sorrow, tucking at my heart. Later on, I stopped trying to arouse a conversation out of her. She was mighty pissed. The mood of the whole ship had changed as well. I could never understand why women always acted like this.
By twenty-one hundred hours, three days after leaving the rebel planet, the alarms were set off. With everyone standing by his or her station, the view screen showed a large space battleship blocking our way. We were near the Earth, only seven light years away.
The enemy ship was larger than what I had expected. It was the same ship that had attacked Talus' home planet. It had a black, shiny armor, and the whole thing shaped like a spear.
"The strangers are hailing us, Roxan." The communication officer stated as he toggled with the touch screens.
"Open a channel."
"Channel open."
"This is Roxan, the leader of the rebel force, who are you?"
A picture of an elderly man appeared. He was in mid forties but his eyes were like knives, impending. "Ah... the oh so famous Rebel Force. I was wondering when you guys might be showing up!"
"Roxan, the enemy ship has a greater fire power than our army combined together! What should we do?" The weapon expert commented as sweat rolled off his face. When he received no reply, he asked again: "Roxan? What should we do?"
"Rebel Force, hear me! I'll give you five minutes to surrender! More than that, and you die!"
I heard men around me laughing. At times like this, I wished that Afren was beside me but she was still in her chamber, sulking.
Roxan cackled. Then he smirked. "We have four hundred thousand cruisers right now and you are only one. How can you destroy us? We'll make a cheese out of you with our missiles and turrets."
"Fool! You have no idea how powerful Space Farer is! Very well, we'll make a sport out of you morons!" The screen went blank.
"Sir! They're powering up!" One of the soldiers shouted. "Shields to full! Send a message to the rest of the group behind us, now!"
Suddenly, our ship thundered and shook. Sparks exploded and leaped across the floor panels. Talus got jolted out of his chair. He slid past me and bumped into Roxan's feet.
"What the hell!" The little midget screamed with rage. "Why are they attacking us? Are they Federation?"
People were now running all over the place. Another blast slammed against our shields and more consoles along the walls discharged into a fine showers of yellowish embers. One person got a severe burn on his face and needed medical attention.
"Jake!"
I turned around and saw Afren running through the metal corridor. "Afren!" I got up and hugged her.
"What's going on?" She shouted over the roaring noise.
Two more detonations occurred and the whole vessel bounced up and down. Several wires hung loosely from the ceiling. Cups and discs littered on the deck.
"The Federation is attacking us!" I answered as I tried to cover her head from the debris with my body. She clung onto me tightly.
"Oh my god!" One person shrieked as he pointed at the main screen in front of us.
Through the flickering lights on the bridge, I could see one of our spaceships erupted into a giant fireball. Pieces of the shuttle's hull shot away from the center of the flames and struck the nearby ships, causing a chain reaction and brought down six more. A shock wave was expanding out from the radius. It wiped through several other crafts and disabled their engines. More than seventy thousand troops were now drifting away in space with no power. Their cries were echoing through the radio.
I squinted and saw the Space Farer spreading its massive bullets at us in wave after wave, like the waves on the ocean water. Twenty of them penetrated the shields and impacted our inner armor. Loud plinks and clangs and booms could be heard as the hull was dented significantly. More sparks flew.
"Gunners! Target their targeting systems!" Roxan bellowed as he held onto the rail behind the chair. "FIRE!"
From the visual monitor, I could see a line of missiles firing away from our position. The raven ship was hit dead on. Its shield twinkled a few times but no significant damage. No effect. Not even one detonation was occurring on the other side of the buffer.
"No good! Our weapons are too weak!"
I saw one large torpedo hurling at us. Its red-orange energy was radiating from the core. Just by looking at it, I knew that this one was big.
"Watch out!" I yelled as I pulled Afren down with me.
With one loud roar, our shields were shattered. Everyone got blasted away from the controls as blue-colored electricity licked across the motherboards. Half of our power was drained.
"Damn it! EMP Torpedo!" Wriik thumped on his touch pads as he pulled Orb out from underneath him. "That shot took out most of our auxiliary powers! One more blow like that and we're goners!"
I gritted my teeth as I blamed myself for not being able to help. But I was only good on ground attacks, not in space. I could only stay around and see how things go. Perhaps we might be dead today. Just our luck, we were so close to reach planet Earth, only to be stopped by an invincible battle cruiser!
"Roxan! More than one-third of our force is eliminated!" Dantri's voice appeared through the speakers. "We must retreat!"
"To where?" The leader snapped back. "We can't retreat! Not like this!"
Another rocket flew past us and struck the spaceship behind right in the belly. It exploded. The shields were like cheap papers; they were pervaded so easily. The blast radius reached us and impaired one of our main engines.
"... Honored Elder... " Dantri's voice appeared once again. This time, I detected a tone of... sadness? He spoke in his native tongue.
The people who were still conscious were blinking with confusion as they tried to translate the strange language. I could understand every bit of it, Afren too.
Talus looked up from his hiding place: under the chair. "What? What is it?" He too, spoke in his own language.
"Elder, I am happy that you have raised me for so many years. I respect you very much, and hopefully, our people will flourish like the spring flowers back on our home."
"Dantri, what are you talking about?" Talus' voice quivered.
Afren sobbed beside me. Her face buried against my chest. I squeezed her shoulders as I felt my eyes starting to water.
"Elder, please tell my family that I love them very much. I..." Dantri's voice trailed off softly.
Traven's voice appeared next. "I know that I am in no position of saying anything, considering that I was once part of the Federation. But ever since that manslaughter made by the bastard Brook Gyr, I've finally seen the light. Through all the confusions and everything, I hope that all of you wonderful rebels will understand that not all men and women on Earth are as baneful as you think. Our ship and its crew, have devised a way to stop the Space Farer."
More bullets pounded against our armors. Our hull integrity was down to thirty-five percent. More of our shuttles were taken down by the intense firepower coming forth from Space Farer. We were losing before the actual war even began.
"No! Traven! We need you! What are you thinking?" This time, I shouted without realizing it.
Roxan was puzzled. "What's going on?"
I didn't hear him. I couldn't hear him. I didn't want to hear anything else. I didn't want my friends, my partners, to sacrifice themselves just because of a scoundrel. The captain of the Space Farer was not worth the loss of six thousand people, both aliens and humans.
"Jake. I'm glad that you think highly of me. I'm glad that you people, most of you anyway, have accepted me as part of your group. And because of that, I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of the others. Dantri has thought so too, and so do the rest of the brave souls standing around me right now."
"You guys can't be serious!" Now Roxan shouted into the mike. "You guys better not do this to me, you hear? Otherwise, you'll have a severe penalty!"
All of us heard the soldiers on the other side of the communication line were laughing. Finally, they terminated the connection.
"No!" Afren shouted, as she dashed toward the screen where it showed the floating ship. So small, so fragile...
"Afren-"
"No! Dantri! Traven! You guys can't do this to us!" She cried as she pounded the monitor angrily. I only could stare. The shock was too overwhelming.
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"You ready?" Dantri asked as he steered the ship in a wide arc around the battlefield. They were coming from behind the large, spear-shaped Federation craft.
All of them nodded gravely. Traven placed his arm around the little alien as he grinned. "At least we died for a good cause," he said happily, trying to make a joke out of the staid circumstances.
"Yeah. Hey, how about we sing while we go face our destiny?" One of the crewmembers inquired. "I'll start:
"Oh lonely night, flying by, seeing sight, and beauty light,
Flying through the sky...
Oh fighting fierce, the swords pierce, enemy fears, and hatred kneels,
We die with a cause..."
The Space Farer's titanic engines drew into view. The small rebel ship edging in slowly. In its cargo bay, four limpid mines were armed. Dantri's lips were dry and cracked. His face was white. His hood was drawn back and everyone could see his appearance clearly. Traven's smile wavered as the afterburners of the Federation Starship Zero-One loomed closer and closer with each second passing by.
"Why... Oh why, you have to de-sert me!
Why... Oh why, we can't see our fam-ily!
Why... Oh why, you have to se-prate us!
Why... Oh why, we have to go di-fferent way!"
The voices continued to sing out loud.
"Hey, Dantri," Traven nudged his new friend.
"What?"
"It's nice knowing you."
Dantri laughed as he sighed. "Me too. I was planning to show you our underground world you know?"
"I've seen the top..."
"Bare and hot like hell," they both said in unison.
Finally, all of them cheered themselves on as the ship crashed into the melting opening of the four HyperSpace Engines. The whole place burst into the biggest fireball ever witnessed by men. The whole sector of space twisted and wheeled as the atoms were split and disintegrated. The mass was erased. Everything was engulfed in a white, glowing light.
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From afar, we could see our chivalrous men collided with the back of the Space Farer. First, the shuttle exploded. Then, a line of mini fiery orbs cut through the Federation orbiter horizontally. The transportation was detonating from within. Soon, a line of yellowish-white beam appeared and sliced through the black, infinite space. A milky sphere formed and extended miles and beyond. Every single vessel of our army shook with intense palpitations.
As soon as it happened, it was over.
The only sounds that I could hear while standing in the same place, in the same position, were the cries and moans of the heart-broken people and of the wounded ones. I slumped onto my knees as I stared at the empty cosmos. Six thousand people were dead and two of them were my friends.
"All right... Let's get back to work people," Roxan's rough voice was like an alarm, shaking people out of their misery.
Afren was still weeping. One of her best friends was dead. I got up and walked to her slowly. I embraced her, pulling her to me.
"They're gone! Gone!" She wailed. I patted her back, trying to comfort her.
"We'll get them, Afren," I whispered into her ears. "We'll get each and everyone of them."
~End Chapter 19~
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