The Hidden Battle Revealed Read online
Page 3
Just then the computer nearby sounded a quiet signal: “Incoming friendly transport in sector nine.”
Telgrin turned and looked at Max inquisitively. “Max, you’re quicker than our sensors. I need to do something about that.”
The computer projected a holographic image of the three vehicles as they traveled up the side of the mountain.
Moments later an older, distinguished-looking man hovered into the shop on a small transportation device. His name was Kilgron. He was the supreme commander of the Helion people and had once been a great warrior. One could see that time and service to his people had not been kind to his body. When he came to a stop, he stepped off the machine and limped toward Telgrin. Kilgron used a cane because his left leg was missing but had been replaced with a mechanical one. His entire left arm had also been replaced with an artificial limb, which seemed to make using the cane all that much more difficult. His body had been severely beaten, but his mind was all that much stronger.
“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” he asked as he crossed the shop.
“That’s them now, sir. They should be here in the next ten minutes,” replied Telgrin.
“Could you please remind my daughter to meet me in the main council chamber as soon as she arrives?”
“Yes, sir. What about your son-in-law?”
Kilgron’s face turned even more serious as he answered, “Keep him here. He would have no interest in this meeting.”
Moments after Kilgron left, the three vehicles rolled into the hangar and parked in front of the shop. Max greeted them with his typical jumping and licking.
“Hey Max. Did you miss me?” asked Lonan as he dismounted his bike and took off his helmet.
Lonan and Sevran rolled the motorcycles to their stands. As they put the bikes in position, they stepped on switches that caused platforms to come up from the floor with stabilizing arms. These platforms lifted the bikes and made them stand upright so that they could be worked on.
As Averine stepped out of the Stinger, Telgrin yelled over to her: “My lady, your presence was requested by our noble commander of military affairs.”
“What?” she yelled as she struggled to hear over the noise.
“Your dad was here. He wants you to meet him in the council chambers,” yelled Telgrin.
“Really? What about me?” asked Lonan as he shut off his motorcycle, ending the noise.
Telgrin hesitated as he said, “He thought that you would probably prefer to stay here and analyze our data.” Telgrin nervously grinned at Lonan.
Lonan ignored him as he walked over to speak more privately with his wife.
“Your father is calling you into a special meeting again? I bet I know what this is about.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll find out,” she said with a mischievous look in her eye.
“You know how I feel about these missions,” he snapped back with a deadly serious tone.
“I have to go. I’ll meet you here afterward,” she said as she walked toward the door.
Lonan lowered his head in frustration as she walked away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sevran walking toward the door. “You’re going too?” asked Lonan.
“Yeah, sorry, bro. I’ll fill you in later,” answered Sevran as he followed Averine through the door.
Lonan turned to Telgrin. “Well, I guess it’s just the two of us.”
“Great,” answered Telgrin as he turned his head and rolled his eyes.
“Why don’t you order food and have it delivered? We have a lot of data to upload,” said Lonan as he jumped into the driver’s seat of the Stinger.
“You got it,” answered Telgrin, who actually did enjoy shop time with his childhood friend but tried to act like he had better things to do—even though everyone knew that he didn’t.
Outside, the sky turned red and orange as their two suns set in the valley below. Max walked back over to the door and peered out. He looked off into the distance and let out a half bark. Something was wrong. The fur on his back stood up as he gave a low growl.
Chapter3
Averine and Sevran entered a large dome-shaped room with a window at the very peak, which flooded the room with natural light. As they entered, they were greeted by seven men and seven women seated at a round table in the center of the room. One of the seven men was Kilgron, Averine’s father. The rest were talking quietly among themselves and nodded in their direction as they entered.
The outer wall of the room was lined with tiered seating. Most of the seats were filled with military and medical officers, as well as scientists and professors from the academy. Sevran and Averine quietly slipped into seats near the front.
“Wow. The entire counsel is here. What did we do this time?” whispered Sevran.
“Relax, it’s not that. If we were in trouble, my father would’ve scolded me himself beforehand,” she whispered back.
“You don’t know what this is about?”
“Not entirely. All I know is that it has to do with a planetary security risk,” answered Averine.
“Well, I hope it doesn’t take too long. I have two dates tonight.”
“Two?”
“Yeah, two.”
Averine rolled her eyes, shook her head, and said, “Your brother’s right; you are an idiot.”
“What?” Sevran asked with a grin.
Kilgron gave them an inquisitive look from the far side of the table as they whispered back and forth. Another door on the opposite side of the room opened, and four soldiers entered and sat down.
“Now that everyone is here, let’s begin,” said Kilgron as he called everyone’s attention. “The purpose of this meeting is to discuss a very dangerous situation. I’m afraid that we have a confirmed attack and takeover of yet another peaceful planet. However,” he paused and looked around the room, “this one was within our own star system.”
There was a collective gasp in the room as everyone turned and whispered to his or her neighbor.
“General,” said Kilgron, nodding at a uniformed solider.
One of the four soldiers that had entered was General Crine. He was second in command, after Kilgron, over all military activities. He stepped up to a small podium and punched some keys in the console. A hologram appeared in the center of the round table. The first image was of the Helienders’ binary-star system. It showed their two stars in orbit and highlighted the planet Helion as it traveled in its elliptical orbit around the primary star. The image then zoomed out to reveal their neighboring star systems and continued until it showed all of galaxy 55X9, which was shaped like a spiral with four very distinct arms. The computer then zoomed back into an area that was within the same arm as Helion. It highlighted a large planet and continued to zoom in until it reached Tarnus.
“Our scouts have reported that the planet Tarnus has been completely overtaken. They’ve found several hundred dead and thousands of captives working newly drilled mines. The invaders have already begun to strip the planet’s core, and more drill shuttles continue to arrive. The rest of the population has been taken captive, but we do not know where.”
As General Crine spoke, the computer scanned around the surface of the planet and showed, in outline form, what he was describing.
With this report, everyone in the room shifted uneasily in his or her chair.
“Needless to say, we’re very concerned about the close proximity of this attack,” added Kilgron.
Sevran leaned forward and put his head in his hands and quietly said, “You can say that again.”
“The force that’s operating the mines is a Nemaron detail.” Sevran asked, “What would a raw-materials company like Nemaron be doing taking over a planet?”
“The other question is, how would they have the man power to do so? Tarnus was a large and well-defended planet,” added General Cline. “The answer is that they had help. Many of the smaller mercenary armies that we normally rescue captives from are now on the Nemaron payroll.”
“It sti
ll doesn’t seem like that would be enough soldiers to take over Tarnus,” said Sevran.
Kilgron spoke up: “Nemaron has grown tremendously as of late. They not only sell raw materials and minerals, they also have begun energy sourcing and selling integrated weapons systems.”
“Some of the most disturbing news is still to come,” added General Cline “I’m sure that this will be a source of much discussion—it always seems to be—but it appears that one of our greatest fears has been realized. The Nemaron Corporation has apparently joined forces with a mysterious Leviathan army.”
One of the young science officers interrupted: “You can’t take those accounts seriously. An army of super powered, unstoppable soldiers? I find it to be nothing more than delusions from badly wounded survivors and ancient fables.”
This prompted Averine to interrupt: “Sir, with all due respect, the survivors’ accounts that you are referring to can be taken seriously. The patients have not shown any indications of posttraumatic delusions. All our instruments indicate that they’re telling the truth.”
As a high-ranking medical officer, Averine’s opinion was held in very high regard throughout Helion.
Just then, a very old professor from the academy spoke up from the back. His voice was weak and frail, but the intensity of his words pierced everyone’s ears.
“Any possible accounts of Leviathan being near must not be taken lightly.”
Everyone turned and looked at the man has he slowly rose from his seat.
“None of you have enough years to have spoken with those who saw the Leviathan as they drove us from our homeland. If the Leviathan have reemerged, we must take great caution.”
“The fact is,” interrupted General Crine, “our scouts brought back reports of a small unit of soldiers that fit the description: massive, heavily armored men who have tremendous strength and speed.”
The young science officer interrupted: “How do we know that they’re human? Maybe they’re an alien race that we haven’t yet encountered.”
“What difference does that make? They’re still extremely dangerous,” added Sevran, who had a hard time hiding his frustration.
“We were able to trace their path out of our star system,” interjected Kilgron. “For that, we should all be very thankful. However, we’re particularly disturbed by what we’ve found. Normally the mercenary armies relocate captives to other planets with mines and work them until they’re dead. But now that they are joined with Nemaron, the captives have been relocated to a facility that we have never seen before.”
“Our scouts weren’t able to get close enough to give full reconnaissance. But they could see that it was not a mine. They are doing something else with these people,” added General Crine. He then turned to Sevran and Averine and asked, “You and Lonan were successful in upgrading all of the sensors on the western mountains, I trust.”
“Yes, sir. Everything is in place and working perfectly,” answered Sevran.
“Good, because we’ve retracted all our satellites. We don’t want to call attention to ourselves. All security will be doubled from this point forward.”
“Now the question that we must discuss is, what are we going to do about this?” asked Kilgron.
General Crine said, “It’s my opinion that we need to complete another rescue mission. That would allow us to save many of those taken captive and get a closer look at this new threat. I would like to send my best soldiers as a security detail.”
Kilgron responded, “This is a decision for the counsel, but we want the input of our chief military, medical, and scientific leaders. If any of you think that we should not move forward with a rescue mission, please speak up now.”
There was a long silence until the young science officer spoke up: “I highly doubt the existence of these fabled Leviathan, but I would be eager to examine any samples of specimens that the team brought back to me.”
Kilgron said, “This would, of course, be a voluntary mission.
How many of you would be willing to take part?”
Averine and Sevran quickly raised their hands, as did all of the military officers. Kilgron looked at his daughter with love and pride mixed with concern as he said, “The council will now discuss the issue and vote. We will tell you of our decision at a military briefing at 0500 hours tomorrow morning. Until then we want this to be off-limits to nonmilitary personnel. Is that understood?”
Everyone responded, “Yes, sir,” and then filed out of the room as the council members continued to discuss.
Back in the shop, Lonan and Telgrin continued to work on vehicles. The last bit of orange sunlight was disappearing as night took over. Lonan was working on the two motorcycles as Telgrin lay on the floor under the Stinger when Averine walked in.
“It’s about time. That was a long meeting. What’s going on? I’ve seen more patrols outside,” said Lonan with an agitated tone.
“Sorry. Your brother and I stayed back to talk to General Crine after the meeting. Let’s go home and talk about it. You can hit the bag and work out while I fill you in. You know how I love to watch you work out,” she said as she pulled him to the door and manipulatively grinned.
“Great. This doesn’t sound good. Telgrin, can you clean up for me?” asked Lonan.
“But I have plans with Sarah,” Telgrin answered as he scrambled out from underneath the Stinger.
Lonan and Averine both stopped and looked at him in surprise.
“Really?” they asked in unison.
“Well, not yet. I was going to call her—never mind. I’ll clean up. I have nothing else to do,” whined Telgrin as he crawled back underneath the Stinger.
“No, wait. If you have plans, I’ll stay and clean up.”
“No, I—I’m sure she’s busy.”
“Are you sure?” asked Averine. “I’m sure that, if you call her, she’ll say yes.”
“No. I changed my mind.”
“OK, let’s leave him alone,” said Lonan as he pulled Averine toward the door.
Later that night in their living quarters, Lonan was beating on a punching bag. He threw a few punches and then some kicks. He hit it so hard that the bag looked as though it would tear from the ceiling. Their home was modest. They didn’t need a lot of space because it was just the two of them. They had talked about having children, but Lonan was somewhat reluctant, while Averine was beginning to apply some pressure. Most of their living area was dedicated to study. They each had large desks with multiple computer screens and walls lined with books.
Lonan had several prototype models of projects he was working on at his station. The rest of the home was made up of a kitchen, an area to eat, and a small bedroom. Because their quarters were in the center of the mountain and not along the side, they didn’t have any windows. But they did have a solar distributor light in the center of the living area that pulled in light from outside during the day. It was a cozy little area that they kept neat and clean. Averine’s side of the study area was a little cleaner than Lonan’s.
She had just finished explaining everything from the meeting. The intensity with which Lonan was hitting and kicking the bag showed his level of frustration.
“You know how I feel about these rescue missions. I don’t know why you, my idiot brother, and the counsel have to get involved with other planets,” he said as he continued to hit the bag.
“How can you just stand by and let them suffer? It’s not just men; they take women and children too. How can you not care?” she asked as she leaned against the wall of their little workout corner.
“I do care! You know that. But—”
“But what?”
“But what good is one little rescue mission? Do you know how big this new Nemaron army must be? If they took over Tarnus, then they could crush us,” he said as he landed a particularly hard punch. “It’s pointless. Just leave them alone, and they’ll leave us alone. What good can our little planet do against such a massive force?”
“Some! We can d
o some good,” she said as she stepped toward him. “We have to do what’s right. Even just a little help is better than nothing.”
As she walked closer to Lonan, he stopped punching and turned his attention to her.
“I still think that it’s unnecessary, reckless, and foolish, and I don’t want you to go.”
“Well, I’m going,” she quickly replied.
“Well, I’m not!” he fired back.
“I didn’t ask you to,” she said as she softened her tone a little.
He punched the bag one more time, paused, and then asked, “Is my brother going?”
“Yes.”
“Idiot! He and I are going to have a talk.” Lonan paused and thought for a moment. “You know that I’m not afraid.”
“I know that. I never said you were,” answered Averine.
“You two are all that I have, and…”
“I know. You’re just looking out for me,” she said as she reached over and hugged him.
That night as they slept, Lonan slipped into a strange dream. He found himself in an unknown city. Everything around him looked warped. He couldn’t make out the place or faces. The air had a reddish-orange haze, and it seemed to swirl around him. He could hear women and children crying and men yelling. He could barely make out massive soldiers that looked like black shadows killing men off in the distance.
Above him, black winged beings flew and circled him. He looked down and saw his wife holding a crying little girl as they hid in a corner. Suddenly one of the winged beings landed in front of them. As it did, it surrounded them with its wings. Then he heard something that turned his stomach and chilled him to his core at the same time. A deep, gravelly voice called out, “Gruuunaaack, Looonnaaan.”
Chapter4
Lonan woke up and sat bolt upright in his bed. He looked over to see his wife still sound asleep beside him. He reached down and felt goose bumps on his arms. He tried to lie down and go back to sleep, but he was so shaken that he had to get up and get something to drink. Instead of going back to bed, he sat down in the living area and tried to process what he had just seen.