The Hidden Battle Revealed Read online

  The Tarnus commander was amazed and paused for a second as he stood confused. Devakin grabbed him by the throat and lifted him in the air as if he weighed nothing. The commander kicked and gasped for air as he tried to free himself. One of his kicks landed in his attacker’s face.

  That seemed to trigger the end of what had looked like playtime. With just one hand, Devakin snapped the commander’s neck and threw his body thirty meters back behind the Tarnus lines. His twisted body landed beside five soldiers still hiding behind the cover of the vehicles. As they looked down at the lifeless body, they realized that they had absolutely no hope to defeat this army.

  High atop the tallest building in the city, the Tarnus president stood with his wife and daughter as they looked down from the balcony of their home and watched the attack on their people. The daughter and wife were visibly shaken as they held each other. The president turned to them and said, “Don’t worry. I’ve made a deal that assures that we’ll be well taken care of.”

  As he said this, a shadow moved behind him while the veins in the whites of his eyes turned a blackish blue and then back to white.

  “What have you done?” asked his wife as realization and horror passed over her face.

  On top of the building, an intruder fighter slowed as it came in for a landing. Four armed Tarnus soldiers and the president’s assistant walked out onto the landing pad. The loading ramp of the shuttle opened, and five men walked out. The captain of the intruder army had gotten off his command ship and was now being escorted by four of his soldiers. The president’s assistant nervously approached and, with a tremble in his voice, said, “We’ve been waiting for you Maginon, sir.”

  Maginon continued on without turning to look at him. He walked through the doors on the edge of the landing pad and into the hallway that led to the president’s home.

  “No one else knows of our arrangement; is that correct?” Maginon asked as he continued down the hall, still not bothering to turn his attention to the assistant.

  “Yes, sir, that’s right,” he replied as he trailed behind like a dog begging for approval. The men entered the president’s main living chamber to find him and his family waiting.

  “It looks like all is going as planned,” said the president of Tarnus as he tried not to choke on his words.

  “Yes, it is. Thank you again for your help. Now for your reimbursement.”

  Maginon pulled a handgun from inside his jacket and shot the president through the heart. The girls screamed as they huddled together. The president’s assistant jumped in fear but took no action. The Tarnus soldiers with him also made no move to defend their leader but stood at attention. Maginon then turned to his soldiers and said, “Finish this for me,” as he walked back around the corner and down the hall.

  The women cried and huddled around the president as he lay dying on the floor. His assistant stood for a moment, staring at the family with a look of grief. He then turned and ran out of the room and followed Maginon.

  At that moment, the intruder soldiers turned and opened fire on the president’s guards. As they hit the floor, the president’s assistant turned back in disbelief. He then ran and caught up with the captain as he stepped out onto the landing pad.

  “But sir, my guards?”

  Back in the room, he could hear the women’s screams grow louder. There were two more shots and then silence. The assistant stopped and looked back in horror while Maginon’s soldiers made their way back down the hall.

  “You’ve done me a great favor. Your people will serve me well. But I don’t think that I’ll need any more of your help,” said Maginon as he walked up the ramp into his waiting shuttle.

  Still stunned by the execution of the women, the assistant nearly whispered, “But, sir?”

  “Thank you, that will be all. Fire.” Seconds later a blast came from the hull of the ship that ripped through the assistant’s chest and killed him instantly. Maginon didn’t flinch as he walked up the ramp. His soldiers followed behind him. Moments later the ramp closed, and the ship took off into the night sky.

  Meanwhile, back in the center of the city, all the citizens of Tarnus were being dragged down to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of people had their hands bound and were being loaded into various transports. Devakin stood on the wing of his shuttle as he super- vised the progress. In the background, women and children could be heard crying and screaming for help. Wives screamed for their husbands and children as they were separated and loaded into different vehicles. Some of the families wouldn’t separate, so soldiers forced them apart.

  “Continue scanning the buildings. We wouldn’t want to leave anyone behind. Especially her,” said Devakin as he pointed down to a beautiful young woman in line. “You know where she goes.”

  A solider pulled the woman out of line and away from her husband. “No! Let her stay with me!” yelled the man as he tried to wrestle her from the soldier’s grip. But he was no match for the intruder’s abnormal strength. Another soldier punched him in the face and knocked him unconscious. The woman screamed for her husband as they picked her up and carried her to a shuttle that they were loading exclusively with young women.

  Just then a very muscular man tried to defend his family against a particularly aggressive soldier. He was easily thrown aside by a soldier who then pulled his weapon and shot him. His wife screamed as she ran over and hugged his dying body.

  Devakin jumped down from the wing of the shuttle and landed beside the soldier. He punched him in the side of the face and said, “No killing. You don’t get paid anything for dead bodies.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Suddenly the planet quaked from an impact. Several kilometers outside the city, a shuttle landed. It had a massive drill bit in the center of its hull. It anchored itself with legs that impaled spikes into the ground while three more identical shuttles neared the planet.

  Immediately after the first shuttle anchored itself, the drill bit started to rotate and, within seconds, was several meters below the surface. On the top of the shuttle sat the control room, which was a heavily armored cockpit with small porthole-shaped windows. Inside this control room sat five soldiers. The officer of the shuttle radioed to Devakin: “I’ll need five thousand volunteers for drill duty.”

  Back in the center of the city, Devakin replied, “They’re on their way.” He pointed to soldiers loading one of the ground transports and yelled, “Five thousand to the mines as soon as they’re loaded.”

  Moments later, the intruders closed the loading ramp of the transport before it rolled out in the direction of the drill shuttles.

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  Chapter2

  On the opposite side of galaxy 55X9, the planet Helion orbited within a small binary-star system. The planet was covered in steep, snow-covered mountain ranges and beautiful green valleys. The inhabitants called themselves Helienders. Their home in a neighboring galaxy had been taken captive. People from many nations fled as refugees and came together to settle the planet they came to call Helion. When they arrived, they found it completely uninhabited, yet what they did find were ancient ruins in the form of great caverns and tunnels built underneath one of the low-lying mountain ranges.

  They thoroughly searched the entire system of caves, looking for any signs of the inhabitants. They found nothing; there were no skeletal remains or dead bodies. In fact, they found no signs of war or death at all. It looked as though they had simply decided to take everything and move. What they did find, however, was a combination of natural caves and caverns that had been masterfully connected to create a vast underground dwelling. These enormous caverns were reinforced with beautiful handcrafted st
one columns. Tunnels led deep under the mountain to large underground rivers and waterfalls. They tested the water and found it to be extremely clean and well suited for drinking. The caverns were so large that their entire new civilization was able to live in this underground sanctuary, with plenty of room to grow.

  With no one else to lay claim on the underground home, the Helienders made it their own. They were very resourceful and gifted with abilities to create and engineer in ways that allowed them to work with their environment. They blended their advanced technologies into their new home. They reinforced the ancient stone columns of the caverns with specially formulated steel alloy framing and turned the great halls into hangars for their spacecraft.

  This allowed the Helienders to hide themselves and all their people from the possibility of being found by the evil force that had driven them from their original homes. Their entire civilization was able to hide from any possible probes or satellites passing by the planet. They didn’t build any homes in the green valleys but instead confined their habitation entirely to the mountain. Some of their living quarters lined the outer parts of the mountain, which had small porthole windows that allowed sunlight to enter.

  In the deeper caverns, they built light-transfer systems that absorbed sunlight high on top of the mountain and then piped it in. This ensured that all living areas had natural light. It also allowed them to conserve energy for lighting. They used their sun’s energy to power most of their needs. They also pulled heat from deep within the core of the planet.

  The Helienders found this particularly important due to the position of their planet, as it orbited the primary star in their binary-star system. The two stars were very similar in mass and, therefore, traveled in long elliptical orbits that focused on one common center of mass. Helion orbited what they calculated to be the primary star, as its mass and gravitational pull was slightly greater. Helion was located in a very suitable position to sustain life. However, based on the combination of the star’s orbit and the planet’s orbit around the primary star, they experienced very extreme weather patterns every ten years. It was at these times that there were long periods of heavy snowfall followed by an extended time of heavy rain and cloud cover. Pulling heat from the planet’s core became particularly important during this time. The planet then emerged from this cold season with tremendous plant growth.

  At the midway point of the ten-year orbit, the Helienders’ star brought them very close to the secondary star in their system, which created more extreme heat. The melting snow from the long winter years created large lakes in the valleys below the Helienders’ mountain home. Immense green forests that crept right up to the edge of the lakes covered the valleys.

  Not long after the attack on planet Tarnus, two men riding armored military motorcycles emerged from the Helion forest trails. They raced along the path with tremendous speed and nimbleness as they glided across the rough terrain. They quickly glanced over their shoulders as they approached a small ravine. They were being followed. The ravine was thirty meters wide and had a mound of dirt that stood another two meters tall along the left side of the trail. Without hesitation, they accelerated up the mound and jumped the ravine. As they flew thirty meters through the air, they again looked back over their shoulders, trying to catch a glimpse of their pursuer, before turning forward just seconds before landing on the far side. Moments later a four-wheeled off-road attack vehicle appeared on the far side of the ravine. It was heavily armored with a dual gun turret mounted on the top and missile-launching cannons on the sides. It had open wheel wells and very large tires. Its suspension had a great deal of travel, which allowed it absorb the rough trail. It also didn’t slow down as it approached the edge of the ravine and hit the mound of dirt, launching into the air.

  The second motorcycle soldier looked down at the computer console mounted just behind the base of his handlebars. The console projected a holographic image of the attack vehicle following them as it touched down on their side of the ravine. Just then they turned a corner in the trail and found themselves out of the woods and riding across a beach clearing beside an enormous lake. There was no other trail out of the clearing, so they raced down to the edge of the water and turned the motorcycles to face their pursuer.

  Seconds later the attack vehicle emerged from the trail and rocketed its way across the sandy beach, heading directly toward them. It came to an abrupt stop in a cloud of dust just two meters from them. The men sat on their motorcycles and watched as the left door of the vehicle popped open and lifted vertically into the air.

  “How was that?” called Averine from inside the vehicle as the engine stopped.

  “I’m impressed,” came Lonan’s muffled voice from under his helmet.

  The two soldiers dismounted their motorcycles and took off their helmets.

  “Who taught you to drive like that?” asked Lonan as he walked toward the open door of the attack vehicle.

  “My brother-in-law,” she answered with a grin.

  The second man, Sevran, laughed as he crouched down and examined his motorcycle.

  Lonan reached down into the vehicle and kissed his beautiful young wife.

  “Is that right? Fine. Get out of my way, I need to examine the control panel.”

  Lonan playfully pulled her from the driver’s seat and climbed into the vehicle.

  “If you want driving lessons, just let me know,” said Sevran as he pulled water bottles from his backpack.

  Averine smiled as he threw her a bottle.

  “Driving lessons from you? No thanks,” answered Lonan as he tried to examine the vehicle’s onboard computer system.

  “Averine, how did it handle?”

  “It was great.”

  “You hit some of those mounds pretty hard.”

  “You said you wanted me to test it out.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” said Lonan as he stepped out and walked toward her.

  “You’re so protective.”

  She reached over and kissed him on the cheek while he continued to examine data on the removable portion of the onboard control module.

  “Yes, I am.” He looked up from the screen for a second and gave her a very serious but loving look.

  Sevran splashed water from his bottle onto the side of the engine of his motorcycle.

  “Oh no! I’ve got a major leak on my bike.”

  Lonan nearly threw Averine aside as he ran over to see the problem. “What? Where? Where’s it coming from?” he asked as he franticly examined the engine.

  “Oh, maybe from my water bottle,” said Sevran as he began to laugh.

  “Idiot! Go get the refueling equipment,” ordered Lonan as he cleaned the water off the engine of the motorcycle.

  Sevran smiled as he walked around the back side of Averine’s attack vehicle, which they called the Stinger. He opened the back compartment and took out a large case that he delivered to his brother. Lonan opened the case and set up his equipment. He took one hose from the side of the case and threw it out into the lake. He then took two other hoses from the other side and plugged them into his bike.

  “This should only take a couple minutes. The vapor re- collection system is working fine; I just want to top off the tanks and test the system,” said Lonan.

  “How long for the Stinger?” asked Averine.

  “Five minutes, tops.”

  “It’s so good to get out of the med bay,” said Sevran as he looked around and enjoyed the beautiful sun-drenched scenery.

  “Yeah,” agreed Averine. “Thanks for making us come with you.

  I needed this.”

  “I don’t understand how you two can stay cooped up in those labs and exam rooms with all those sickos.”

  “So compassionate, as usual,” replied Averine.

  “We call them patients,” added Sevran.

  “You know what I mean—all those germs and blood.”

  “It’s OK, big bro. Not everyone is cut out to do what we do.” r />
  “Why don’t you get to work on the sensors?” asked Lonan.

  “You got it, boss.”

  Sevran flung the last of his water at Lonan as he walked again to the back of the Stinger.

  “I’ll help you,” said Averine as she followed behind Sevran.

  While Lonan continued to refuel the vehicles, Averine and Sevran carried toolboxes to a small tower just into the forest beside the shore. There they went to work on one of the many security sensors that had been strategically placed across the planet.

  The lake was a beautiful deep blue, and the sun shimmered off small waves created by a calm breeze. It was a peaceful setting. The far side of the lake jumped directly up into the side of a tree- covered mountain. As the three completed their work, they were completely unaware of the fact that they were being watched from deep within the tree cover on the far side of the lake.

  Back at the base, Lonan’s dog, Max, walked through the door of the main hangar and looked out over the sun-covered valley below. As he looked out, his ears went up, and he gave off a half bark.

  “What’s going on, Max? Do you miss our friends?” asked Telgrin, Lonan’s fellow engineer, as he stood at a mobile computer station punching some keys. He took a pen from behind his ear and wrote something on an electronic pad beside him. He was working in one of the labs that they referred to as “the Shop,” which was located on the side of the main hangar. This is where they implemented many of their inventions and did a lot of their testing. At times it became a dangerous place.

  Telgrin was a faithful friend to Lonan, Sevran, and Averine. They had all grown up together and shared a lot of history. Telgrin and Lonan had studied engineering together at the academy. They each had their strengths. Telgrin was more technical and precise, while Lonan was more creative. Everyone loved Telgrin even though he was a little socially awkward. The fact that he hid himself in the lab didn’t seem to help that awkwardness.