Inherited War 3: Retaliation (15 page)

Nixa defense ships maneuvered to meet and hail the newcomers. They were met with silence then violence. The Roche fleet far outnumbered the Nixa fleet and it was no contest. The Administrators watched as the massive amount of Roche ships plowed into their system and systematically wiped out all of their defenses. The Roche ships looked like they were about to fall apart to the casual observer but they were nearly the opposite. The mish mash patchwork of their hulls were a trophy display. Every ship that was destroyed by the Roche got cut up and welded onto the outside of their cruisers. Those ships never made planet fall, so they didn’t need to be aerodynamic. Some of the older ships had many different layers or skins of defeated ships and that made them a little more difficult to kill. Today would see many Nixa ships cut up and welded to the hulls of the Roche fleet.

The Nixa forces tried their best but they were overwhelmed in the end. All space assets were destroyed, and the Roche took up blockade positions around the home planet of the Nixa people. Silence descended on the chamber floor as the General’s location was targeted and destroyed by the Roche fleet.

That was it, less than one hour for the Nixa to fall in defeat to their enemies. A slight crackle squawked over the com system, and then a face appeared on all the screens. The face was a sickly green with a large nose and beady eyes. Its skin glistened like it was either wet or covered in a thin film of slime. Overly large teeth filled its mouth and apparently the thing had just eaten, because large bits of food were still stuck in its mouth. Revulsion and disgust filled the Prime—to be beaten by the lowest of the low. It shamed him.

The Roche commander, one had to assume that’s who it was, opened its mouth to speak and suddenly vanished from the screen. He was replaced by an even worse visage, an Esii.

“You have been defeated. Unconditionally surrender now and your pathetic world will be spared. We are here for two reasons. The first is food; we lack enough food to feed our people. We require one hundred thousand beings to be readied to transport to our ships. Two, we require the location of the Human base. If either of those demands are not met, we shall unleash the Roche onto your world and all of your colony worlds as well. The Roche number in the trillions and are currently surrounding all of your worlds. Some few of your species may survive, but not enough to rebuild. You have twenty-four hours to comply.

The image of the Esii vanished from the screen and was replaced by a low cackle from the knot of police near the exit.

“You laugh at your own doom, Fire?” the Prime asked.

“No, I laugh at me slipping through your fingers,” he responded, and pushed his way forward, parting the stunned officers.

“I don’t see how?” the Prime responded.

“I doubt the Worlder scum is going to tell the Esii where to find the Humans, so I will. Of course, I will only do it if all charges are dropped and I am set free with all my holdings, properties, and credits. Please remove my restraints,” Fire told the officer next to him with a smile.

CHAPTER 8

Hi, umm, not sure what I should do here. This is Eric West, Sergeant Major Human Forces. I found this log, well, it was shown to me by the bases AI. It, I mean Bain, suggested I keep up with Cole’s logs while he is down and out. First a little about me. I was born on Earth—Clinton, Iowa to be exact. Joined the Army fought in a few battles overseas before being kidnapped by aliens shortly before the Earth was blown up. After being held hostage for a few months (not sure on that though, had no way to measure time), I was rescued along with the last of our race by aforementioned Cole Smith, McLeod, I always forget that. I met my beautiful wife on that planet and now have two girls that I have barely seen. Right now, I am waiting in the med bay, my best friend Cole is unconscious, and his girlfriend and a creature that looks an awful lot like an angel are inside his mind trying to drive out whatever us making Cole crazy. Oh! And I can’t leave because I have a few feet of det cord wrapped around Cole’s neck incase Sky and the angel can’t get whatever it is out of Cole’s head. I hope they can because I really don’t know if I can hit the button and take off my friends head. Crap, this is pointless. How do I erase this?
RECORDING ENDS.

The ship floated silently through space. No one had been in this part of the galaxy for nearly twenty-thousand years. No scavengers, pirates, or treasure hunters had dared even stop anywhere near this quadrant of the galaxy since the attack.

“That’s the last of them,” Hal said over the com channel.

“Thorough, if nothing else. The Esii were very thorough in keeping beings out of this system. We believe it is time to go in and see what there is to see,” Split responded to Hal. Split, who had returned to his former small size after switching back with his brother, had been given very specific orders after the battle of the Twin World’s.

“Split,” Cole had said, “the stories you told of before the war while we waited for rescue on Esii struck a chord with me. I need to send you back to see if there was anything left behind by my people. Take Hal and a long-range shuttle, go to the system that held the capitol, and dig around for me. Be fast but thorough and bring back what you find to me at Home.”

Split had agreed without hesitation. This was the man that they had waited, what seemed like an eternity, to arrive and lead the galaxy back from the brink. They would slit their own throat if Cole ordered it. Hell, he had gotten them off that accursed Esii home planet, hadn’t he? Besides, Split had been living on borrowed time for centuries.

“I thought the planet had been destroyed?” Hal asked as they pushed through the wreckage of the final Esii defense platform. For any other ship, or fleet of ships for that matter, the defense grid around this system had kept everyone, even the Esii, out of it since the end of the Purge war. For a nimble human shuttle with heavy shielding and pinpoint accurate weapons, it was merely difficult.

“No, they never brought the Sun Eater here.” Split had always liked the name’s Cole gave to ships, be his own or other beings.  “The surface was sterilized but they never landed. They were too afraid and had other things to worry about. After the attack, the system was said to be cursed and bad fortune or even death would strike those who tried to enter. We believe those rumors more than these defense platforms kept the other races away,” Split said.

“We don’t like the look of that starboard wing; will it handle an atmospheric reentry?” Split asked Hal.

“No, I have the repair nanites on it. Should be fixed up enough by the time we get to the planet.” Hal started streaming the damage control information to Split. “We got a bigger pounding than I thought we would. We lost that starboard shield for a moment when that coupler failed.”

“Yes, we were nervous. But you handled it well. And we are not going to the planet,” Split said.

“Wait, I thought that was exactly where we were going?”

“Eventually yes, but first we stop at the moon. Everyone thought that Jarrod only used the moon as a trap to ferret out the traitor, but we believe there was something there he wanted to get, something he never could. We look there first, then on to the planet.” Split found the moon on their forward cameras and zoomed in. Cole would have seen a familiar sight in that moon. It was bright white as it reflected the rays of the sun it orbited. It was pocked with impact craters both large and small and was nearly the same size as the lonely moon that no longer had a planet to orbit back in the Sol system.

“Once we are in range, begin a full spectrum scan. Broadcast on all frequencies the human access codes we have and keep sensors at maximum for incoming ships,” Split ordered.

“Gotcha,” was Hal’s reply. Split didn’t demand military bearing, so Hal didn’t give it to him.

Split settled in for the long wait, and kept their eyes peeled for any sudden warp activity in the sector. They weren’t too worried though. The Esii had new things to worry about these days.

Thalo sat on the steps of the Administrators complex on the capitol of the Nixa people. He hung his head between his shoulders and rested his chin on his chest. They were rapidly burning through their twenty-four hour grace period and as far as he could tell, nothing was happening. He couldn’t even raise Jeth on a com system. The damn invaders were interrupting any over-the-air transmissions. He looked up at the dark sky. Stars covered the heavens from horizon to horizon and other lights co-mingled with them. The moving lights of orbiting ships, Roche ships. There wasn’t a friendly in the night sky at the moment. Those that could, ran, those that couldn’t had been streaking across the atmosphere as bright meteorites as their broken bits and pieces burned up in the upper atmosphere. At least the stuff that burned up wouldn’t be added to the trophies already adorning the invaders ships.

Thalo sighed then looked up sharply and smiled. Without looking he said, “It’s good that you are back.”

Jeth grumbled something unintelligible before lowering his massive bulk onto the steps beside his brother.

“I didn’t catch that. What did you say?” Thalo asked with a grin.

“I said,” Jeth grumped, “what are you doing out here?”

“Waiting for you; waiting to die. I figured I would meet the Roche here, a final stand at the steps of the capitol. War banners waiving in the breeze, a band playing a rousing march. Legions of females watching with baited breath as I stood alone against the hordes. You know, the usual,” Thalo spoke with a passion of a true believer.

“Hah,” Jeth’s laughter rumbled from deep within. “I assume that you also noticed none of those things here, except you, that is.”

“I know, but a guy can dream, can’t he?” Thalo said as he looked to the empty streets of the capitol. “At least the Nixa are at home with family and off of the streets.” He paused a moment. “It’s going to be a blood bath,” he whispered. “You were raised on the same stories as me, our people barely survived a Roche invasion and that was because someone came to rescue us. No one is coming here. So I wait out here, to meet my fate head on. I am glad you arrived, we should do this together.”

“Are you finished?” Jeth asked.

“With what?” Thalo replied.

“Feeling sorry for yourself,” Jeth answered.

“No…why?” Thalo could feel a faint trace of amusement in his bond mate. Odd considering they were all about to die.

“Get up, follow me.” Jeth levered himself off the ground and yanked Thalo to his feet. “You won’t die out here this day, brother.” Jeth shoved Thalo forward gently, and followed him up the steps. They entered the great building and were suddenly surrounded by a vast silence. Where the hell was everyone, Thalo thought, then he saw Snow. She was standing by a door waving at them to come to her. Jeth again motivated Thalo with a slight shove to get going. A few paces brought them to Snow.

“Took you long enough,” she quipped.

“This one was getting maudlin on me and started to bemoan his fate,” Jeth said.

“Maudlin? Jeth do you even know what that word means?” Thalo said, then deftly avoided a swat on the head from his brother.

“Just because he is quiet doesn’t mean he is dumb,” Snow said with a frown on her face.

“Girly, calm down. Me and the big oaf here have been baiting each other since before you were born.  Now, what are we doing?” Snow looked at Thalo as he spoke and realized she was letting her nerves get the better of her.

“Of course, I am sorry. Nerves I guess. As to what we are doing…” She reached her hand out as she spoke and opened the door. They walked the length of the hallway to the last room, her father’s office. They entered unannounced to find it empty of living beings.

“Where the hell is everyone? Did the government cut and run?” Thalo asked.

Snow ignored the remark and moved to a blank section of wall where she swiped her hand across a seemingly normal patch of wall. As she did, a section of wall swung open to reveal an elevator.

“I found that years ago, never followed it to see where it went,” Ghost said directly behind Thalo, who proceeded to jump a few feet in the air and let out a squeal of surprise.

“Damn, I told you not to do that,” Thalo said and gave the small being a nasty look. “I am old; I could die.”

“Hardly, besides I need you alive to hold up your end of the deal.” The electronic sounding voice seemed worse for the wear. Either that or Ghost was worse for the wear.

After Thalo composed himself, he waved Jeth, then Snow, and finally Ghost onto the lift. Thalo looked at it dubiously. “I don’t think I can fit.”

“One way trip, you go with us now or stay here. This elevator isn’t coming back,” Snow said.

“Ugh, make room then.” He walked in, shoved, and prodded until he had wedged himself in as good as possible. “Get going. Where are we going, by the way?” Thalo wheezed out his compressed lungs.