The Fight for Creation: Book 02 - Scout Warrior (26 page)

It took another four hours for the rankings to be done. The contacts being made behind the scenes slowed the process considerably. Finally the Oldest said, “Here are the top ten. We will allow them fifteen minutes to lay out their case.” Six more hours were wasted. No one stuck to the fifteen minute limit. Finally, the oldest said, “Are you ready to vote?”

The first General to speak said, “I was at an unfair position. Everyone had the opportunity to challenge my views and I couldn’t respond.” Several of his supporters agreed with him.

“Then how would you want us to even things up?”

“Give each of us five minutes of rebuttal but do it in reverse order.”

The Oldest said, “We’ll do that but that will be it. There will be no more delaying this decision. However, we’ve been at this for a long time. I need a break. We will take one hour before we start this process again.”

Five hours later the vote began. All of the potential candidates were contacting as many as possible before the vote was taken. Just before the voting began the youngest said, “Are we allowed to write in a name?”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“All these ten have done is convince me that I don’t want any of them. I’ve been contacted by all ten and had promises made if I would support them. I’m sure the rest of us have as well. After all the sordid details they’ve told on each other, I don’t want to vote for any of them. If I had to choose, I’d vote for you. At least you kept this process open.”

Thirty other Generals said they would also choose the Oldest. The ten candidates were furious. It took ten more hours before they were convinced that they did not want one of the others elected. There would be consequences to their verbal attacks. They all agreed the Oldest should lead them. Before they could officially vote, their displays went dark.

• • •

“Alright, we’re going to play a role in this mission. There are fifty six cities on the planets that have a population of more than eight million. We are going in cloaked and will expand our force fields over the inhabitants outside those cites. The rest of you will join the fleet in taking out their fleets. You will hold that force field until the Pack Forces around the inhabitants are eliminated. Check with Eyes and he’ll give you your assignment. Do not extend your force field until the Life Warriors arrive. Timing is going to be critical so stay tuned to your ship’s scanners. Once the Pack is eliminated, join the fleet.”

“Sir, do we have permission to take out any of their forces on the planet before we join fleet operations?”

Sam thought about it and said, “Why do you ask?”

“I know they have nukes. We’ve got to prevent them from using them.”

“If you detect nuclear weapons, remove that threat before you leave.” Sam thought a moment and said, “Eyes, are there nukes on any of those planets?”

“Pride says that ten of them have set up nukes outside the blasters.”

Sam said, “The four of you without assignments will go in cloaked and take them out on four of those planets with the arrival of the Warriors. The six of you assigned to the smallest of the large cities will go after the nukes at the other six cities. That was a good suggestion. Can any of you think of anything I’ve missed?” There was silence on the channel and Sam said, “You have your assignments. The attack will begin in four hours. Go to your locations.”

• • •

Jessica Brown looked at her assignment and knew she could not hit the heavy blaster with her beam. If the blaster exploded it could kill thousands of the closely packed civilians. She had to take out the warriors manning the blaster and teleport it to the assigned coordinates. She wondered why they just didn’t jump in and teleport them and not worry about the warriors but after checking her data system she discovered the teleport field couldn’t be reset fast enough after arrival to do it before the blaster fired. She pulled up her heavy hand blaster and narrowed the beam to its tightest setting. She would hit the warrior on the trigger first.

• • •

Sam hoped he hadn’t bit off more than the Realm could chew. The coordination of this mission was beyond anything the Realm had ever done. He prayed there wouldn’t be a blood bath of innocent civilians. He watched the countdown and thought, “Jixie, it’s time to go.” He reached forward and pulled the steering wheel in, focused on the melody, and felt himself disappear into a being that was part ship and part human. The music swelled in volume and the small ship disappeared.

T
he Pack Colonel looked over the million civilians sitting on the ground under the hot scorching sun. His subordinate said, “I understand there is talk of leaving and combining our forces.”

“There is.”

He nodded toward the civilians and said, “What are we going to do with them. It would be foolish to leave them. They could eventually become an enemy.”

The Colonel looked at the massive crow and said, “If we leave them here much longer, we won’t have to worry about them.” He paused and said, “Either way, we won’t leave them alive. I enjoy seeing them suffer.”

“You don’t think they’ll rush the blasters.”

“Let them. Watching them burn would make my day.”

“Then why haven’t we already done it?”

The Colonel shook his head, “If we don’t leave, we’ll need them to do the dirty work for us. If it were left up to me, I’d vote to leave. I hate this stinking planet.”

“Where will we go? Our home worlds are gone.”

“I’m sure we’ll pick a place that’s better than this hell hole.” The Colonel paused and said, “There is also the consensus that the only reason this planet hasn’t been destroyed is because of the civilians we’re holding hostage. The enemy broke off an attack at a planet because we killed the inhabitants of the planet the fleet left to defend our forces. I suspect that is the real reason we’ve not killed them yet.” The Colonel said, “Notify the blaster crews that the inhabitants are getting restless. Make sure they’re ready to fire.”

The subordinate left and the Colonel looked up at the sky. That’s when he was vaporized and the cloud of ash blew away in the gentle breeze that suddenly appeared. The nine thousand blasters surrounding the civilians were hit with an intense beam followed by six more beams. The seven members of the Pack Military manning each blaster were gone in less than two seconds. Only one blaster managed to fire one beam and a hundred civilians died. That was the only beam fired.

• • •

Sam released cloaking field and expanded his ship’s force field over the four million civilians on the vast ground outside the large city. He then fired the ship’s beams at the wide circle of heavy blasters surrounding the massive crowd. The blasters started exploding on each side of the force field and started blowing up like two long strings of fire crackers. The massive explosions were prevented from harming the inhabitants inside the force field and the blasts were over in four seconds.

• • •

Jessica Brown arrived at her assigned blaster and killed the blaster operator and the one to her left as well. She fired six times with each hand and both blasters were no longer crewed. She knew that the warrior next to her could have managed to kill his assignment, but she was ambidextrous and enjoyed using both hands in combat. She saw confirmation of the destruction of the blasters encircling the civilians and immediately teleported to a Pack Missile launcher two miles away, as six other Life Warriors arrived with her and they beamed the launchers into massive explosions. She teleported to a Pack mobile armor unit and launched the eight remaining hornets that were still in her armor when she retired and felt good that they were allowed to finally perform their function. She saw another confirmation that all the projectile units had been destroyed. She joined the other eight thousand Life and White Warriors as they teleported into the city and began removing the Pack Warriors still there.

• • •

Sam looked at the smoking remains of the ten thousand heavy blasters and knew that not having to use warriors to remove them allowed the Realm to use them at other locations. He kept the force field in place and began targeting Pack forces scattered around the city. His ship was hit with hundreds of mobile missiles, but it shrugged them off. His beams began exploding all Pack launchers around the city and after thirty seconds the missiles and explosive shells stopped.

He used his scanner to look at the city fifty miles away and saw huge explosions. He scanned the city at his location and saw that all of the Pack heavy weapons were burning. He teleported to the other city and in two minutes all Pack forces were dead. He teleported back to his original location just as thousands of Pack Warriors charged out of the city toward the civilians. He burned them before they had covered half the distance. He scanned the city and saw thousands of Pack Warriors hiding in the city. He lifted Jixie’s Ghost and hovered over the city and began firing beams that were as small as his index finger. The small beams left small holes in the buildings and dead Pack Warriors. Moments later he teleported to the other side of the planet and assisted the Life Warriors against a major Pack assault. The fight continued for two hours, but the end was certain. He absently noticed on his command system that thirty six planets had already reported in clear. The others were cleared an hour later. The Pack Fleets were removed within thirty minutes after the Life Warriors arrived. The Pack became a small foot note in the sector’s history. History was not nice to the Pack but there wasn’t one of them left to challenge it.

• • •

The Admiral was meeting with his leaders trying to convince them that attacking the planet that had invaded was not a wise thing to do. The Chancellor said, “I don’t care. Someone is going to pay for that planet’s sins.”

The Admiral said, “The Dictator that made the attack on us has been killed by the civilians there. The Chancellor wasn’t going to yield. The Admiral said, “Your excellency, that being told me that he would not tolerate an innocent planet being attacked.”

The Chancellor said, “That planet isn’t innocent.”

The Admiral shrugged and said, “The people inhabiting it are.”

An orderly ran in and said, “The Gothes have just sent a message that every Pack Planet has been liberated and not one member of the Pack species remains alive.”

“Who did it?”

“The ones flying the small ships; they used more than forty million armored warriors and six million giant warships. The Pack was destroyed in less than six hours.”

The Admiral said, “It appears they are stronger than the sixty ships we’ve observed.”

The Chancellor stared at the Admiral and said, “I will go and communicate with their leader.”

The Admiral smiled, “I think that is wise, Your Excellency.”

Ten years later, the two planets joined in a common union that made both of them stronger. The Union became a model for other warring civilizations to follow. Outside the Capital building a model of a small sleek ship was constructed to honor the one that forced peace on them. Over the next two hundred years, they were attacked by other civilizations and the Union defeated them. Those that were vanquished eventually joined the Union and the spark that was kindled years before became a fire.

• • •

“Jason, I want to thank you for making this work.”

“We learned a lot, Your Highness. Now that we know we can do it, it’ll be easier to do it in the future.”

Sam smiled, “How’s Lyla?”

“She’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her. Our third child is the one that has her heart. She loves them all but that one really has wormed its way into her heart.”

“Tell her I’m so proud of her.”

“Sam, that will mean more to her than you know.”

“She deserves it, Jason. I’ll stay in touch.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“There’s a rather nasty civilization that’s starting to expand in another galaxy and I’m going to try and convince them to stop it.”

Jason laughed, “Do you think they’ll listen?”

“None of them have so far, but you never know.”

“Good luck, Your Majesty. The Realm is also proud of what you’ve done.”

“Thanks, Jason.”

• • •

Jessica Brown appeared in her living room and deactivated her armor sending it back into storage. She watched Lawrence stand and she rushed forward and kissed him with a passion he hadn’t seen in years. She took his hand and began pulling him out of the living room. Lawrence said, “You need to be called up more often.” Jessica laughed out loud.

• • •

Jixie felt the connection fade as the Senior said, “Thank you. You have helped us immensely.”

“I’m glad I was able to assist. I’ve learned so much. Reality is so complex and I never imagined all of the forces that operate in it.”

“There are some missing functions that we still need to understand but we’re starting to get close. What are you going to do now?”

“I need to go see mother and then I’m going back to my playmates.”

“I really wish you would stay. We need you here.”

“I’m not ready to start my study but thank you for saying that.” The Senior nodded and Jixie went home. “Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t stop by first. It’s so good to see you. I’ve learned so much.”

“Jixie, how’s my overachiever doing?”

“Oh Mom, you’re just too nice.”

“No Jixie, I mean it. You’re all your hatching talks about.”

Jixie sighed and said, “Well, I need to get back and I wanted to see you first.” Jixie immediately saw her Mother’s expression change. “What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Jixie, do you know how long you’ve been gone from your playmates?” Jixie felt something inside her tighten as she stared at her mom and shook her head. “You’ve been gone for ten of their years.”

Jixie collapsed to the ground, “How long!?!”

“Ten years, Jixie.”

“Oh no! How could that much time have passed?”

“The Senior didn’t tell you about the time required?”

“He said it wouldn’t take very long.”

“Jixie, how long is long for us?”

“I’ve got to go!”

Her mother slowly shook her head, “Jixie, I’ve been watching your playmates.”