The Fight for Creation: Book 01 - Life Warrior (20 page)

• • •

The First Spirit watched the fight below and saw millions of the children being killed. He shouted, “Recall them.”

“You know it won’t do any good. The children don’t possess the ability to turn away from a life form. All they see is hunger. They can’t be stopped until all life is removed. Only then will they listen.”

The First felt something and turned quickly toward the three ships. All three hundred transports that had left to remove them were missing. The three ships hung in space. “What happened?”

“I don’t know; we were all watching the feeding.”

“Remove those ships.”

The First watched as two thousand transports moved in on the three ships. The three ships suddenly looked like small suns. The beams fired at the incoming transports hit them before they could move closer than twenty miles. The remainder of the fleet turned and moved in at high speed to overwhelm the three interlopers. Nothing got through their beams.

The First yelled, “Move the remainder of the fleet to the planet, extend the fields, and absorb the children.” The eight hundred surviving ships rushed forward but suddenly found the three ships between them and the planet. The First was an adult that could ignore the need to feed if necessary to survive, but he possessed one pattern that had been bred into his species over millions of years. No adult could abandon their children. He fought to command the fleet to escape but couldn’t say the words. The eight hundred grey forms continued to rush toward the planet and were blasted into nothingness.

Forty three Life Warriors had been killed by the Dremor. Their power cells had been overwhelmed by the numbers attacking and the destruction of the grey beings exhausted the cell’s charge. Each time a Dremor died there was a dark flicker of black light. That flicker took energy from the power cells. The Warriors that had been killed had been attacked by a much larger number of Dremor than the others.

The sky was still dark with their numbers and Jon saw that he was down to the last twenty blasters. He only noticed it absently as he continued to fight. Suddenly, the sun shone through and the grey mist cleared. The blasters stopped firing and the survivors looked around at each other.

Jon heard, “Sir, fifty thousand ships have arrived from the Realm.”

Jon collapsed to the ground and said, “Handle it, Amet.”

“Yes Sir.”

The survivors abruptly sat down and looked around. Jon said, “Put away your blasters and take a break. You’ve earned it.”

The Life Warriors sat and gathered their strength. Most just fell back on the sand. The huge Bristone Realm Fleet came roaring in and scanned the planet below. Mandel appeared on Amet’s display and said, “Tell me what happened!”

“Sir, we just had a major fight with a Dremor Fleet. We need to tend to our Warriors and I’m sure Admiral Robbins will discuss this with you later. I would recommend that you contact the inhabitants on the planet and inform them of what happened. I’m sure there is panic among the survivors.”

Mandel nodded to his communications officer and said, “Then he survived.”

“Yes sir, he did.”

Mandel punched through the call and the news went out that the Dremor had finally been stopped from killing a planet. The news spread like wildfire and the millions of civilizations in the Realm began demanding to know who had stopped them. The object of their interest was prone on the sands of the planet he saved, giving in to the fatigue that finally took him.

Pride and Vremel teleported in and arrived just outside the ranks of the weary Life Warriors. Pride looked around, “There doesn’t appear to be any remains of a Dremor.” Vremel tilted his head to the right and then leaned down and smelled the sand. He immediately stood on his back legs. Pride watched him and he smelled the sand as well. Pride jerked his head away and said, “So this is what pure evil smells like.”

Vremel shook his head, “I’m glad the odor is held in by the sand. This is the worst smell I’ve ever experienced.”

Pride absently nodded and said as he looked around, “One of my kittens comes close.”

Vremel looked at Pride.

Pride shrugged, “He has digestion problems. We made him sleep outside the community.”

Vremel started laughing and Pride looked around and said, “We made sure he was always down wind.”

Vremel fell to all fours and laughed out loud. Pride said, “Hey, it’s true.”

• • •

Jon sat up and looked at the hundred foot long Zord laughing uncontrollably. “I wonder what’s so funny.” He deactivated his helmet and immediately snapped it back on. He looked at Pride with a disgusted expression and the giant Cat said, “Hey, it wasn’t me.”

Vremel laughed even louder.

Jon announced over the general frequency, “Whatever you do; do not deactivate your helmets.”

Jon heard, “I wish you had told me that earlier.”

The statement was followed by a chorus of, “Amen.”

• • •

Jon sat at his desk and Molly Masters stood at attention in front of him. She didn’t know why she had been called into his office and she was starting to get nervous as the Admiral punched keys on his computer terminal. Finally Jon looked up and said, “I notice that you left your position in the grid on eight occasions.”

Molly knew she was in trouble. They had been ordered to maintain their positions during the fight, “Yes Sir, but I believe I left it nine times.”

“Why did you disobey orders, Lieutenant?”

“To save my Warriors who were being overwhelmed by the Dremor.”

“Did you save them?”

“All but one.”

Jon smiled and said, “I have learned a valuable lesson in our fight, Lieutenant. Do you know what that lesson is?”

Molly was surprised by the question and said, “I’m sure a Lieutenant doesn’t have the wisdom of an Admiral, Sir. I have no idea what you could have possibly learned.”

“I learned that I should never restrict the movements of my Warriors. Your actions confirm that lesson.” Jon paused, “I also learned that it is impossible to direct the actions of three battalions while commanding one of them.”

Molly tilted her head and said, “I’ve wondered how you were able to do that.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Molly snickered, “I know what happens when a Lieutenant tries to tell an Admiral how to run his ship.”

Jon said, “Touché. However, I hope you learn that you should at least make the effort to listen in the future in order to improve the performance of the regiment. I hope you’ll listen to your junior officers and actually seek their advice.”

Molly said, “What junior officers?”

Jon said, “You are promoted to Colonel and will be assuming command of the First Battalion. I insist that you make them perform as well as you have, Colonel.”

Molly panicked, “Sir, I’m not qualified to do that. I’m just a Lieutenant.”

Jon said, “You are connected to the trace we hear in ways that astound me. Even if I had doubts, the creator of the melody has singled you out. Your action during our last combat operation has confirmed my decision. Congratulations and I expect your best.”

“But…”

“Dismissed, Colonel.”

Molly saluted and left Jon’s office. She knew the other officers were going to resent her rapid promotion. This was going to be impossible. She walked through the ship wondering how she was going to be effective. She arrived in the assembly room and found the first battalion assembled in ranks. Major Umdel said, “Attennnshun!”

The thousand Life Warriors came to attention and Major Umdel saluted Molly, “All Warriors present and accounted for, Sir.” He saluted and Molly returned his salute. She was too shocked to speak. Major Umdel said, “Sir, we want to take a moment to welcome you. We’ve seen what you did during the last battle and we want you to know that we are yours to command.”

Molly smiled and said, “I’ll give you my best.”

The thousand Life Warriors cheered their new commander.

Jon watched the battalion on his display and saw that Molly was a good choice. He thought about it and realized that his father had also seen it before him.

• • •

Jon, Tegen, Dern, Molly, Mandel, Vremel, Newton, Root, and Pride were sitting around a table in Bristone Castle discussing what had been learned about the Dremor. Jon said, “It is clear that a high energy blaster can kill the Dremor. However, I now believe that we were very lucky to have survived.”

Newton said, “Why?”

“During the attack, I had a sense of the intelligence of the Dremor that were attacking us. It could best be described as limited.” Jon looked at Newton, “I’ve read the report on the Dremor that attacked your fleet and they withdrew without going after the planet. The ones that were attacking us didn’t possess the necessary intelligence to make that decision. They continued to attack when they could not survive. That tells me that there are different levels of Dremor.”

Root said, “When we fought the Realm in our first war, our adolescents were unable to develop into adults because of a lack of nourishment. They were little more than voracious appetites. Are you saying that the Dremor you fought were just Dremor young?”

Jon looked at the Elder Algean and said, “I guess that would be as good a description as any. If they possessed even moderate intelligence, they wouldn’t have massed against us like they did. I suspect the next fight will be against their adults.”

Newton said, “You think there is going to be another fight?”

“Would you let this go unpunished?”

Mandel said, “Where do you think they’ll strike?”

“They’ll go after one of our major planets. Either Ross or Bristone would be my guess.”

The entire room started speaking at once and Jon waited for them to finish. Pride had remained silent and finally said, “You have a plan to prevent that.”

Pride’s statement silenced the room. Jon said, “I know a way to stop it.”

Pride smiled, “Please go on.”

Jon pushed a button on the remote control on the table and a picture of a planet surrounded by huge rocks in orbit appeared. Jon said, “This is an image of the home world of humanity during the war with the Algeans. Those orbiting forts were covered in Coronado Power Cells and they powered a force field that surrounded the planet. That field was not electronic but an extremely hot energy that burned anything that tried to penetrate it. I know it’s ancient technology, but it will stop the Dremor.”

Root said, “So it’s back to bows and arrows.”

“An arrow can still kill. Sometimes it’s the simple solutions that work best.”

Newton said, “Do we still have the ability to manufacture those cells?”

Root said, “We can construct the facilities rather quickly. It’s not going to be done overnight.”

Admiral Mandel said, “We’ll have the asteroids selected and moved to be armored. Getting enough power cells will be what slows us down.”

Tegen said, “The designs of the last forts used are still in the military database. They’ll be easier to build this time because we didn’t have teleportation capability when they were originally developed.”

Pride said, “Then we will adjourn this meeting until after we can start building the forts needed to defend our major worlds. I’ll contact you and give you your assignments.”

Root disappeared immediately. Newton said, “We need this technology to defend our main ships. I’ll see what we can come up with while you’re working on this.”

Mandel said, “Planets first.”

Newton said, “I know, I know.” And promptly teleported out.

• • •

Molly watched Jon during the meeting and was impressed with how he handled himself among such high ranking members of the Realm. What surprised her was the way they all listened to him and followed his suggestions. He was something else.

Mendel stood up and Jon said, “I don’t know if you’re aware, but Earth still has the forts around it and they’re still active. You might want to go move them to Bristone now. I’m sure they will agree to let you do it if you promise to replace them as soon as possible.”

Mandel looked at Jon and said, “How do you know that?”

“I contacted them and asked nicely.”

“Why didn’t you suggest moving them to Ross? That’s where your family is.”

“The Queen is on Bristone and the defense of the Realm comes ahead of every other consideration.”

Mandel stared at Jon and nodded. He teleported out leaving the three brothers and Molly looking at each other. Teg said, “This is just a temporary fix.”

Jon sighed, “I know.”

Molly said, “If the forts will stop them, why do you say it’s temporary?”

Teg said, “Because they will enlist the aid of one of our enemies to remove the forts. Those forts can’t stand up to modern beam weapons.”

“Do they have the properties of our armor’s skin?”

“The last power cells did. Why do you ask?”

Molly looked at Teg and said, “Why can’t you have a new field built into the skin of the fort that will stop modern beams. You can even move in power units that take up more room than the rock they’re put in.”

Jon looked at Molly and shook his head, “I’ll contact Root and make the suggestion. That’s a great idea, Colonel.”

Molly said, “Admiral, if you’re going to address the other two colonels by their first name, I request you do the same with me.”

Jon smiled, “Molly it is. And you can call me Jon.”

Dern said, “But only in informal situations.”

Molly said, “I know that.”

J
uliette sat in her room looking at her mother’s messages and saw an announcement come in. She jumped up and saw that Jon was given supreme authority over all other commanding officers. She also saw that his regiment had defeated a Dremor attack and the Realm was all gaga over him. She wondered how her mother was going to take that. Then she saw another message and her heart sank. William Dodd demanded to know when the wedding was going to take place. She looked up from the computer and saw a vision of James snarling at Janie. She turned the terminal off after she erased the message and decided that one thing about this Royal Family that was different from the ancient families was that no one could be forced to marry anyone when they were of age. She had been forced to attend multiple functions with James and she saw how ugly he was inside. Why was her mother forcing this?