Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (16 page)

              Shizta’s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of two more humans. Both new arrivals saluted the dark skinned man before greeting the other two seated humans. One was very tall, almost the same height as one of the Shenkar clone warriors. The other was roughly the same height as Shizta and somehow looked familiar. He racked his mind to think of where he might have seen this human. After several moments it came to him and his blood went cold. He knew where he had seen this human before and for the first time in Shizta’s life he experienced fear.

December 26
th
, 2013 12:23pm

                                EDF
Kraken
, Terran system, high Earth orbit

              Liam and Evan stood at attention until Admiral Kelvin looked their way. Admiral Kelvin motioned for the two to approach and they quickly stepped forward. Liam quickly saluted the admiral before he relaxed and smiled. The President and Prime Minister didn’t rise to greet them, only giving a brief hello before returning to what seemed a deep conversation. Quickly glancing into the room the two politicians sat in front of Liam saw a Shenkar warrior seated upon a bed. The Shenkar seemed to be in deep thought as well and whatever he was thinking about seemed to have him troubled. The cell opposite also held a wounded Shenkar warrior who appeared to be in serious condition.

              “He hasn’t regained consciousness yet,” said Admiral Kelvin.

              “Excuse me sir?” asked Liam.

              “The Shenkar warrior, I saw you looking at him. He has been unconscious ever since he was found aboard a damaged shuttle.”

              “Do they expect him to recover?”

              “Don’t know for sure but the doctors are optimistic.”

              Liam turned and looked back into the cell with the seated Shenkar warrior, studying him for a few moments.

              “What do we know of this one?”

              “His name is Shizta and he holds the rank of overlord with the Shenkar Federation. So far we haven’t learned much other than disagreeing in each other’s views. Although I think we might have this one doubting his own leader’s decisions. It seems the Shenkar believe that subjugating lesser technological races prevents them from turning into tyrannical races. His point of view is from generations of indoctrination. I personally think it is just a lot of brainwashing that has led to their way of thinking.”

              “But you said this one seems to be having doubts? Maybe this is something we could work with.”

              “Maybe but I wouldn’t hold my breath. But enough talk of this, I didn’t call you here to discuss Shenkar morality. With recent events we need to revise our plans for the future. It is plain the Shenkar will not give up, something we will need to deal with. For several reasons we cannot just sit back and fight off any future attacks by the Shenkar. First of all with every attack by the Shenkar we lose men and woman. Men and woman, we cannot easily replace while the Shenkar can just brew up a new batch of cloned warriors. Their shipyards, it seems, can continue to build their fleets quickly. With those combinations our defense would be slowly whittled down to nothing.

              Now our original plan, as you know, was to launch an assault against the Shenkar core worlds in hopes of liberating some of the races they have enslaved. Unfortunately this plan will need to be altered with recent events.”

              “Thanks to that French jerk,” muttered Evan.

              Liam sighed as he gave Evan as exasperated look,

              “What is it about the French that you don’t like anyways?”

              “What?” Evan asked innocently.

              “Yeah I have to agree with the commander. You really do not have a very good opinion of the French, why is that?”

              Evan looked from Liam to the Admiral and back again before giving a sigh of defeat.

              “I was in Paris for my senior trip and was treated so poorly by the local populace that I never wanted to go back. I thought maybe it was me that was causing the issue but then I witnessed a group of shop keepers speaking very rudely to a girl in French. It was clear the girl did not understand but she was attempting to speak to them in French. The key factor was she was American. So now do you see my reasoning?”

              “Have you ever been to southern France?” Kelvin inquired.

              “No, I cut my trip short and went home.”

              “Too bad, your opinion would be different. The people are southern France are very nice.”

              Evan didn’t have anything to say to this and the admiral returned to the more important subject at hand.

              “Back to our earlier subject, I plan to have Captain Dunklin take the
Kraken
into Shenkar space and launch guerilla-style attacks upon the Shenkar.”

              “Like we did last year?” asked Evan.

              “No, not quite, we will be trying to avoid hitting any of their warships. The
Kraken
will have a fully equipped division of the new
Praetorian Guard
with them. We will be hitting their shipyards, factories and supply lines. We are also hoping to contact some of the races the Shenkar have subjugated and establish some sort of resistance. I will be going along as a sort of liaison for Earth. Because we don’t know much of the planets we will be visiting, it leaves us mostly in the dark in the beginning.”

              “So where do we fall in all of this?” Liam asked, indicating Evan and himself.

              “Well, in addition to the division of
Praetorian Guard,
we will also be sending along roughly all of the
Templar Knights
as well as many of the newly trained
Paladins
as possible. Of the
Paladins
, how many would you say are trained enough to accompany the
Kraken
?”

              Liam didn’t need to think this over, he knew exactly how many and who would be ready.

              “Roughly one thousand should be ready, barring any that might have died in the recent battle. I haven’t received word of the seriously wounded or KIA for the
Templars
or the
Paladins
. Also, Evan’s wife will not be going as she is pregnant.”

              At hearing this news the Admirals eyebrows rose in surprise. Then he frowned slightly as he thought of something.

              “I was under the impression that none of the enhanced could get pregnant, something to do with the body viewing it as a foreign invader and would automatically terminate the pregnancy.”

              “So we thought, but it seems the scientists were incorrect. Needless to say Evan doesn’t want Crystal going. Of course I would love to be a fly on the wall when he tells her that,” Liam said as he looked over his shoulder at Evan.

              Evan frowned slightly before he spoke.

              “Oh, I think she will understand.”

              “Did you marry another Crystal recently? Because, if not, I think we might need to check you out.”

              “Check me out? Why?”

              “Because you must have gone and suffered some sort of head injury if you think Crystal is simply going to let you go fight against the Shenkar without her.

              Evan snorted indignantly as he folded his arms across his chest.

              “I am fully capable of convincing her to see reason in this.”

              “Uh-huh,” Liam said as he turned back to the admiral.

              Admiral Kelvin only smiled slightly, not wanting to get involved in the debate. Evan didn’t say anything more except to make an annoyed sound in his throat. Ignoring Evan, Liam spoke to the admiral.

              “So we will be going as air support for the ground incursions?”

              “Yes and no, all of the
Paladins
will be of course but I would prefer to use the
Templars
in another capacity. We will supplement some of our normal pilots to fill the pilot ranks alongside the
Paladins.
With their advanced military training in combat and tactics we would like to integrate the
Templars
with the
Praetorian Guard
to serve as officers. Personally I would feel a lot safer with several of your kind along to protect me.”

              Liam nodded his understanding of the admiral’s explanation although he hid his annoyance at the reference of “your kind”. He knew the admiral meant no offense but it still reminded Liam that he would never be viewed as “normal” ever again among the human race.

              “So who will be in overall command of the
Praetorian Guard
?”

              “General Maks Leonid, formally of the Russian Federation, now commander of the newly formed
Praetorian Guard
. I don’t know much of the man, other than he is rather loud, boisterous and has a great love for vodka.”

              “That should be interesting,” Evan mused.

              “You will need to recruit a few men to lead the guard. Mostly Sergeants, as they were the largest number of men and woman that were killed when the
Phoenix
was hit. Terrible thing to happen to all of those men and woman when the section of the ship they were in was hit by an enemy torpedo. Blew out the entire section, vented them all out into space,” the admiral explained.

              Liam nodded but otherwise said nothing.

              “If you need anything else feel free to let me know.”

              Liam thought this over, not thinking of anything he turned to ask Evan if he could think of anything they might need. But Evan seemed not to be paying attention as he looked past Liam. Following Evans, gaze he found that he appeared to be looking at the Shenkar warrior that was being interviewed. But no one was speaking at the moment as the Shenkar warrior stared directly at Liam. Both, President Sheehan and Prime Minister Denshire, stood and moved back away from the door. Clearly both politicians had moved back to allow Liam to move forward. Taking his cue, Liam stepped forward to stand directly in the doorway to the cell. Studying the Shenkar Liam swore he could see fear in the Shenkars eyes. Both human and Shenkar stared at each other for several minutes, neither speaking. Liam was considering returning to the admiral to ask more questions about the upcoming mission when the Shenkar spoke. At first Liam had thought he had imagined it as it had been barely louder than a whisper.

              “Excuse me? Did you say something?” Liam asked.

              “Dala Dvierik.”

              Liam thought he had misunderstood as he didn’t understand what the Shenkar warrior had said. This shouldn’t be the case as the nanites throughout Liam should automatically translate the Shenkar language. Brow furrowed, Liam turned his head and looked over his shoulder to the four men behind him. Just looking at all of their faces Liam already knew the answer to his question before he asked it, but he asked it anyways.

              “Did anyone understand him?”

              As Liam expected no one understood what the Shenkar had said.

              “You do not understand because the words do not exactly translate into anything specific in your language,” said a mechanical voice.

              All five men turned to see the Meshtrell known as Jaera walking down the passageway towards them.

`              “Excuse me?” asked President Sheehan.

              “There is nothing wrong with your translators. There are rare occasions when a language will have a word or phrase that will not translate exactly or rather it could have multiple meanings. In this case the translators will not automatically translate it and you will hear the un-translated word or phrase.”

              “Oh…like the word Shelecore? I always wondered why that word never translated. It means emperor doesn’t it?” Evan asked.

              “Close but not exactly…it is closer to supreme leader or emperor so you just interpret it that way. Another word you have found that doesn’t translate is
Sheeata
which best translates into honor challenge,” explained Jaera.