Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (17 page)

Fifty thousand soldiers of the Republican
Guard converged towards the Nestorian Senate from all directions land and air.
They were dressed in green and gold and carried long laser guns. They walked
down the streets of the capital towards the Senate building. They were
accompanied by tanks with a big laser cannon out front used to blast doors and
walls. These tanks hovered a couple of feet in the air and carried a few
soldiers on either side. From air came laser gunships with two laser cannons in
the front and one each from the side. They were piloted by republican guards
and also carried airborne soldiers for insertion from the sky.

    The Nestorian Senate was surrounded by
a large wall made of a metal alloy that could withstand severe laser blasts. It
was manned two thousand soldiers of the Republican Guard itself but who were
loyal to the Senate. The wall had an elevated walkway allowing soldiers to take
positions behind the wall and defend it from attack. They also had
anti-aircraft laser guns which were parked in the circular lawn of the Senate
and anti-tank laser cannons which they entrenched behind the four gates that
were vulnerable to the tanks.

    “Halt,” ordered the capitan of the
senate guards but the republican guard kept moving forward now taking position
behind tanks and other vehicles. The tanks aimed their cannons at the gates and
opened fire. The soldiers inside the wall opened up with lasers and the
republican guard let loose on the wall protecting the Senate. The sky was
filled with gunships striking the Senate building and anti-aircraft lasers on
the ground started targeting them.

    At that very moment Chancellor Augus
was meeting VC Remus and Opposition Leader Senator Solus to discuss the
impending alien invasion when their attention was brought to the events
transpiring outside by the splattering off of airship lasers from the Senate
building and the emergency alarm that started blaring at a loud pitch.

    “Is that the sound of laser blasts?” VC
Remus walked away from Chancellor’s desk and walked to the window. He could not
believe the scene outside. A laser from an airship struck near the window and
he ducked below. But the window did not shatter as it was made of a strong
reflective glass and the building itself was reinforced with resistant metal
alloy. Senator Solus walked behind him and looked out the window.

    “Unbelievable, there is a war going on
out there,” Solus said.

    “But who is attacking us?” Remus
wondered.

    Chancellor Augus stood up from his
chair behind his desk and his eyes bulged out, “What are you two saying?”

    “The senate guards are fighting off an
invasion force,” Remus said, “and they are firing anti-aircraft lasers from the
lawn at the hostile airships. But where is the Republican Guard that is
supposed to protect us?”

    “That might be the Republican Guard out
there,” Solus cleared his throat.

    “I don’t believe it,” Augus said, “We
are on the verge of being invaded by aliens and we have a civil insurrection at
hands.”

    Suddenly their door flung open. They
had locked it from inside but Capitan Krotus, the leader of senate’s guards,
walked in with the two soldiers who had laser blasted the locked door from
outside.

    “I am sorry for this intrusion,”
Capitan Krotus said, “But we have to get you three out of here. We can’t hold
much longer.”

    “Call the Republican Guard,” Augus said
to Krotus.

    “Chancellor!” Krotus starred at Augus
with eyes wide open for a few seconds, “Republican Guard is staging the coup.”

    “Oh no,” Augus’s eyes popped out, he
slumped back in his chair and clutched his chest in his hands.

    “I told you not to trust the officers,”
Solus turned to Remus, “the officers are staging a coup.”

    Remus ignored him and turned to Krotus,
“Can you establish a connection to General Vegus who commands the battleships
in the orbit?”

    “No use,” Krotus said, “Republican
Guards staged a surprise raid on the battleships and now control them. They
have also taken over the ground laser and rocket batteries.”

    “And the officers just handed them over
without resistance,” Solus scoffed.

    “Solus, it is the other officers who
are going to stop this,” Remus said, “General Bakus is gathering battleships.”

    “General Bakus huh?” Solus looked at
Remus closely, “I know he is your friend and he is the only general who
commands enough battleships to overpower Nestor’s ground defenses. Do you think
the Republican Guard would dare stage a coup without getting him on board? Or
maybe he pushed for it.”

    Remus was angry and his fist clenched.
He wanted to dock Solus in the face but he resisted the urge. He had known
Bakus all these years and yet… Solus’ words had a certain logic to it.
Republican Guard couldn’t expect to hold onto the government without the
support of a battleship fleet.

    The two soldiers with Krotus had walked
over to the Chancellor’s chair and were about to help him to his feet when he
rebuffed them.

    “Leave me be,” Augus said.

    “Chancellor,” Krotus said, “we keep a
fast spaceship for emergency evacuation. We can get you three off the planet in
minutes.”

    “I am not leaving,” Augus said morosely
staring down at the floor.

    “But…”

    “That is an order, your chancellor’s
order,” Augus said, “All these centuries, and it is me who failed the Republic.
It is under my rule that a coup took place. What have I done?” Augus put his
face in his hands.

    “Chancellor…” Remus began to speak.

    “You and Solus go,” Augus said.

    “Without the head of the state it makes
it easier for them to claim legitimacy,” Solus said, “Augus is right, Remus you
should go.”

    “And what about you?” Remus asked.

    “I will try to stop them.”

    “How,” Remus asked.

    “When the Republican Guard storms through
the gates, the officers won’t put themselves in the front,” Solus said, “It
will be the soldiers, who are just the people within uniform and I am the
people’s senator. I will appeal to the soldiers and the people to stop the
coup.”

    “I do not recommend that Senator,”
Krotus said, “even if they don’t deliberately target you, a stray laser could
hit you.”

    “Capitan Krotus,” Solus said to him,
“you have your orders from the Chancellor; he wants you to take Remus to
safety. As for me, he can’t really order me, unlike Remus I am not part of the
state administration. Now if you will excuse me, I have a coup to stop.”

    Senator Solus pushed away the open door
and walked out.

    “What’s with him and the officers?”
Krotus asked.

    “Don’t take it personally, it’s just
his politics,” Remus said.

    “Anyways, let’s get you out of here,”
Krotus said.

    Krotus left the two soldiers to watch
over the Chancellor and he personally led Remus to the basement of the building
where a superfast spaceship was being guarded by a few soldiers while being
boarded by the senate staff.

    “Can you fly this Vice-Chancellor?”
Krotus asked.

    “I am a certified space pilot,” Remus
replied.

    Krotus helped Remus up the ladder to
the pilot’s cockpit and summarized a few technical details as there would be no
time to read the manual and familiarize oneself with the display and the
controls. Then Krotus started back down the ladder.

    “Are you not coming with us?” Remus
asked.

    “Before I was transferred to the
Senate’s protection,” Krotus said, “I was friends with Commander Nolfus in the
Republican Guard. Senator Solus may not be able to talk sense to his soldiers
but I will try to reason with him as an old friend.”

    “Take care Capitan,” Remus said, “I
hope one day your loyalty can be rewarded.” If they survived the coup attempt,
Remus decided he would personally advocate for Krotus to be appointed the new
Commander of Republican Guard.

    Krotus got down the ladder and stood
aside. The staff was finished boarding the spaceship and Krotus gave a hand
signal for them to depart. Senate had a traffic control built in but they
weren’t sure if Airships outside had sensors to intercept their signals and
whether they had managed to commandeer spacefighters from the battleships.

    Remus taxied the spaceship down the
runaway that slowly ascended up. They were under the Senate’s lawn now and
Krotus pulled a switch and the ground above them opened as a metal flap under
the grass pulled back.

    Remus launched the plane straight up in
the air and it rose vertically like a helicopter pushing down air below to
provide it an upward thrust. A couple of airships controlled by republican
guard started firing lasers at their spaceship and they splattered off the
shield. Remus was glad they had no spacefighters because their lasers were far
more powerful.

    Remus turned up the nose of the
spaceship towards the sky and accelerated. A few airships broke off from the
aerial attack on the Senate and instead took up the pursuit, but to no avail.
Remus’s spaceship was too fast and once it reached above the atmosphere the
airships had to return.

    He saw one battleship in the orbit out
of his window and three more were visible on his scanners. He was glad they
still hadn’t managed to launch any fighters, perhaps the officer pilots were
determined to not cooperate with the coup.

    Remus accelerated his spaceship at the
maximum rate it could bear and put its path as far from planet Nestor as
possible. He decided to make straight for General Bakus. Nolfus and Republican
Guard had cut off all the communications from Nestor. If the alien fleet
arrived in the midst of the coup there would be total bedlam. He had to
convince Bakus to abandon his plan to use Nestor as the bait and instead get
him to intercept the alien invaders in their path.

    His gravitron scanner started beeping
and he looked at it. It was either a very large spaceship or a cluster of
spaceships flying very close in a battle formation. His heart almost stopped for
a few seconds. His spaceship was still inside the gravity field of the star and
no way could they accelerate away before the alien spacefighters intercepted
them.

    Then he received a signal from that
location. Starship Conquistador of the Starfire Empire demanded the identities
of all abroad this spaceship.    

    The battle underway on the grounds of
the Senate was not going well for its defenders. The airship lasers had
destroyed most of the anti-aircraft batteries. The tanks laser cannons had
blasted away all the four doors. The anti-tank lasers inside had destroyed a
few tanks on their way in but they had been overwhelmed and tanks had
established a beachhead inside the walls and Republican Guard soldiers poured
in. The senate’s guard had taken heavy casualties and the survivors had fallen
back to the main building which they were preparing to defend. The Chancellor
was inside and till he gave the order to surrender they were going to fight it
out.

    As the soldiers stormed in from behind the
tanks they had expected to take fire instead they were stunned to see a podium
set up in the middle of the lawn with megaphones on both sides and a man in a
suit standing there smiling at them with his arms stretched out on both sides:
it was Senator Solus.

    “Soldiers, Peoples,” Solus began, “I
implore you to consider my words carefully. I know you have your grievances.
This is a government of the elites, generals and officers. Officers who use you
soldiers as pawns. I hear you, I sympathize with you, but this is no way. The
Republic belongs to the people and must not be trampled and overthrown on the
orders of the officers.”

    The soldiers stopped and looked at each
other and the tanks shut off their engines. A capitan fought his way through
the soldiers to see what the commotion was about and then called Commander
Nolfus on the radio.

    “What the hell is Senator Solus doing
up there,” Nolfus yelled on the radio when informed by the capitan. A soldier
tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around and saw Solus on a big screen
outside a store on the street leading to the Senate.

    “Soldiers, you must not listen to the
man who has put you to this,” Solus continued his speech, “We have a better way
to solve our problems and that is an election. Next time do not elect fools and
lackeys of bosses and officers to the Senate. That is the way to end people’s
grief. Elect those who care for the people. Soldiers, if you wish to end the
republic, end my life first.”

    “Damn it,” Nolfus said and lifted the
radio, “Capitan, order all troops to advance on the Senate but I don’t want
Senator Solus hurt and I don’t want riots on the streets. Force him off the
podium and detain him but do not harm him.”

    “Yes sir,” Capitan said and ordered his
troops to march ahead. The Republican Guard advanced on the lawn, sporadically
exchanging fire with the senate guards but mostly the two sides withheld their
fire.