Fall of Icarus (48 page)

           
Buren glared, but said nothing.
 
Turning sharply, the Uligart walked on board the
Cair Thewlis
.
 
Yen watched him disappear into the dimly lit gloom of the ship’s interior, his mind awhirl with Buren’s words.
 
Though he would have never believed it, Buren must have overheard Yen and Vance talking about the disk.
 
Suddenly, the survivor’s guilt Buren felt made significantly more sense.
 
But it also left Yen in a delicate position.
 
If Buren told others what he knew, there would be an inquiry.
 
It could ruin Yen’s reputation and career.
 
A darkness
spread its fingers across Yen’s mind, finding root in the darker recesses of his mind.
 
Frowning, Yen stared at the interior of the ship, into which Buren had disappeared.
 
Someone needed to teach the Uligart an important lesson, Yen thought.
 
Knowledge is power, but it can also be a very dangerous thing in the wrong hands.

           
Shaking away the darker thoughts, Yen stepped on board the
Cair Thewlis
, closing the ship’s rear hatch as he did.
 
His eyes quickly adjusted to the interior, which was lit by ambient red light being cast from the warning lights positioned throughout the crew compartment.
 
All of his team sat in their seats, their bodies appearing bulky under the thick body armor they all wore.
 
Large caliber rifles and explosives were strewn in the spaces between the seats.
 
Scanning the crowd, Yen made sure to make eye contact with each member of his strike force, stopping finally when his eyes fell upon Buren.
 
Even seated across the compartment from Yen, the psychic could feel the Uligart’s piercing glare.
 
Ignoring him, Yen addressed his team.

           
“This will be your final brief before we get the go ahead for launch,” he yelled into the spacious ship.
 
From over his right shoulder, a display lowered from the ceiling and began glowing.
 
Slowly, a representation of Earth appeared on the screen.

           
“As you are all aware, our team has been tasked with an important mission.
 
Once we have warped behind Earth’s defenses, the rest of the
Cair
ships will be dropping their teams in surgical strikes throughout the planet.
 
Our mission, however, is a search and capture.
 
There is a Terran scientist of great importance that the High Council wants alive.”

           
The screen behind him changed, zooming in on the eastern coast of one of the large continents.
 
The screen continued to enlarge until the team could make out specific city blocks.
 
“Our intel has provided us the location of the scientist’s laboratory.
 
It is located here, on the outskirts of a large open park in the middle of the Terran capital city.”

           
“Sir,” one of the team members asked from Yen’s right.

           
“You have a question?” Yen asked.

           
“Sir, what do we know about this park?” the Wyndgaart soldier asked, pointing at the odd architecture present throughout the park.
 
“One of those items in the park looks quite a bit like a missile silo.”

           
Yen nodded.
 
“I saw the same thing when it was briefed to me.
 
I have been promised, however, that everything in this park is harmless.
 
The square lake, the silo, the dome… they’re all artifacts of a former Terran government that ruled the continent before the Senate was created.”

           
Turning his attention away from the soldier, Yen addressed the rest of the team again.
 
“Our approach will not be easy.
 
We’ll be relying heavily on the
Duun
fighters to eliminate most of the anti-aircraft weapons along the coastline.
 
Once we get past their batteries, we’ll set down here, a few blocks from the park.
 
We can expect a resistance from the Terran home guard, but they shouldn’t cause us too much trouble.
 

“Our job is straightforward.
 
Capture the scientist and return him to the High Council.
 
Everything else is secondary.
 
While we are performing our mission, everyone else will be occupying the Terran ground forces in order to buy the couple of hours it will take for the rest of the Fleet to arrive.
 
In less than forty-eight hours, Earth will be ours.”

The soldiers erupted in cheers.
 
Yen felt their elation, knowing that he could lead the assault that puts an end to the Terran war, once and for all.
 
Yet, for all his joy, he found his gaze falling back on Buren, who glowered from his seat, not sharing in the cheering of the others.
 
Walking up the aisle, Yen passed Buren and paused at the cockpit door before turning back toward his men.

“Leaders, perform a pre-combat check on your men’s gear.
 
We’ll be launching in less than ten minutes.”

Stepping into the cockpit, Yen let the door slide closed behind him, cutting off the chatter that seeped from the crew compartment.
 
Feeling weary, Yen collapsed into the co-pilot’s chair and leaned his head back against the
head rest
.

“That was a pretty good speech,” Pelasi mentioned as he ignited the engines.
 
The
Cair Thewlis
rolled from its berth in the hangar bay and took its place among the other ships, which filled the center of the cavernous room.

Without responding, Yen stared at the closed doors at the far end of the room, the ones that, when open, would launch his entire Squadron into space.
 
A myriad of worries weighed heavily on Yen’s mind.
 
His concerns over the warp technology collided with his pining for Keryn, which quickly intermingled with his new worries over Buren and the knowledge he possessed.
 
Yen wracked his brain, searching for a simple answer that would solve all his problems.
 
His powers crawled through his skin, offering Yen the answer he needed, if only he had the strength of will to use them.
 
Instead, Yen closed his eyes, squeezing them tightly together.
 
He remained in that position until the radio crackled to life.

“Commander Xiao,” Captain Hodge called.
 
“You are a go for launch.”
 
She paused, as though pondering whether or not it would be appropriate to continue.
 
In the end, she cast aside her doubts.
 
“May the Gods watch over and protect you.”

Yen flipped a switch, activating his Squadron communications channel.
 
As the Commander for the entire group of invading
Duun
and
Cair
ships, Yen’s transmission was carried over multiple Cruisers.
 
“All ships, we are a go for launch.
 
Proceed with caution to the coordinates.
 
Never forget that we are now past the Demilitarized Zone and well into Terran space.
 
Expect anything.”

At the end of the room, the door cracked open, revealing a sea of stars beyond the open bay of the
Revolution
.
 
One by one, the fighters first, the ships poured from the
Revolution
and all the nearby Cruisers.
 
Yen looked cautiously left and right as the
Cair Thewlis
launched into space, half expecting a Terran ambush to be waiting around every corner.
 
To his amazement, the space as far as their scanners could reach appeared empty.

The Alliance had selected this launch point for many reasons.
 
Not the least of which was that, at full acceleration, a Cruiser could reach Earth in just over twenty-four hours.
 
Were it not for the distractions that pulled the Terran Fleet away from Earth, the Alliance Fleet would have never been able to approach so close without being engaged.
 
As it was, the Alliance had a clear approach to the Terran’s greatest stronghold.

The Squadron spread out, filling the nearby space with its small ships.
 
They seemed insignificant against the dark velvet of deep space, but carried a massive arsenal capable of leveling the major cities throughout the Terran home world.
 
In these small ships, death for the enemies of the Alliance sat in each of the pilot’s seats.

Yen could feel sweat beading on his brow and he clenched and unclenched his fist.
 
The next step in their battle plan was obvious, but scared Yen badly.
 
Try as he might, Yen was unable to shake the mental images that he had seen in the mind of the warp technology scientist: twisted animals and dismembered bodies.
 
That damnation was only a push of a button away for his Squadron.
 
As much as they stood a chance at raining death down upon the Terrans, Yen stood an equal chance of sending all his men to their deaths.

“Squadron Commander,” Captain Hodge called over the radio.
 
“Is there a problem?”

Yen ignored her call and, instead, switched his channel back to the internal Squadron net.
 
“All
ships,
activate your warp generators.”

Across Yen’s field of vision, hundreds of small, red wormholes appeared, hovering only a few dozen feet in front of each ship.
 
Yen gripped his chair tightly as Pelasi activated the
Cair Thewlis
’ warp generator.
 
A soft hum rolled through the ship, quickly followed by a pulse of energy.
 
The pulse washed over Yen, leaving his body feeling alternately numb and charged with energy.
 
In front of the ship, a red wormhole exploded to life, the event horizon open angrily like the hungry maw of a giant monster.

Taking a deep breath, Yen activated the radio once more.
 
“All
ships,
move forward and enter the wormholes.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

           
Keryn skimmed the
Cair Ilmun
over the surface of the desert planet, watching intently toward the distant horizon and the small outpost town that marked their final destination.
 
Below the ship, the exhaust from the engine kicked fine dust into the air and swayed the thick, resilient shrubbery that grew on the inhospitable surface of Pteraxis.
 
Everything, from the clay-like dirt to the fine sand to the scraggly weeds, was cast in light tones of red, a result of the swollen red sun hanging bloated in the sky.

           
Even on board the ship, Keryn could sense the sweltering heat outside.
 
Mirages rose from the desert’s surface.
 
Wavering images of distant lakes flickered near the horizon, only to disappear in the hot, shifting winds.
 
A few rocky plateaus jutted from the desert floor in the distance and it was near the base of one of these that Keryn was heading.
 
The unnamed town where Cardax had taken refuse sat in the spanning shadows of one of these plateaus, stealing whatever reprieve was offered from the oppressive heat of the afternoon sun.
 

           
With the engines burning hot, Keryn quickly covered the distance to the plateaus.
 
As she grew closer, the face of the planet changed.
 
Within the shadow of the plateau, she saw more green grasses and small trees surviving in spite of the external temperatures.
 
Living off the meager morning dew, the sturdy plants gleamed like a green oasis amidst the scrub brush and dirt that covered the rest of the planet.
 
Flying closer, Keryn could see the shadow of the plateau shrinking as the bloated sun rolled toward the far horizon.
 
Still in the crux of the shadow, buried into the base of the plateau’s cliff face, a small town of two story clay buildings appeared, their upper floors overburdened with wooden railings and balconies overlooking the streets below.
 
The town stretched only a short way, consisting of fewer than fifty buildings and bearing only a pair of parallel roads leading lengthwise along the cliff.
 
As Keryn scanned higher up the cliff face, she could see a switchback trail leading up toward the top of the plateau, though the trail was well concealed when viewed from a distance.
 
Along its route, Keryn could see small cavern
openings which
she could only assume were the entrances to mine shafts.