Revolution of the Gods: The Battle for Sol Book Two (2 page)

“Losing him will greatly hamper our plans,” Simeon warned, with a furrowed brow.

“I know. So we are not going to lose him. Don’t worry,” Cadan said, placing his hand on Simeon’s shoulder. “You and Ben need to get on your way.”

“I guess the Raider will just have to do Ben!” Simeon joked as he looked back over at his new friend and gestured for them to return to the V33.

Cadan walked a few paces behind them, detailing how he had already programmed the coordinates into the V33’s navigational console for an automated flight to their destination.

“Based on the most recent reports from Dugway, surveillance is likely to be light as there is a mass redeployment of troops up and down the West Coast. Nevertheless, this V33 is modified with
my
detection countermeasures so you should have a smooth ride,” Cadan explained while the two men climbed into the cockpit and secured their helmets.

“Watch your back,” Simeon offered, simultaneously pressing a series of menus on the console.

“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
(I shall either find a way or make one)
,” Cadan concluded, recapturing Simeon’s full attention.

“Sic infit
(So it begins)
,” Simeon responded with a smile, realizing his friend was acknowledging the Antient Mason’s passion for linguistics. He shut the cockpit door as the engines fired up. Cadan nodded to the two men. The Raider hovered into the air performing a 180 degree turn and then darted to the south.

Cadan retrieved his flight jacket from the Valkyrie's side compartment and climbed up the foot ladder into the cockpit.

So Bracken ended up on the right side,
Cadan thought as he considered the communication he had received after taking off from Oakland. Dr. Hauer had transmitted a report to the Salton Sea facility alerting that Dugway and a large portion of the NAU military were joined into the coming confrontation against the C7.
This is a very positive development,
Cadan concluded.

T
he Ferrari sped down East Flamingo Boulevard with the C7 guards rounding the corner at the Bellagio in pursuit. Mykah and Taon were just past the old Bally’s casino when a defense pod on its roof began firing on them. Munitions exploded near the car and struck other vehicles along the road consistently requiring Mykah to redirect. Another flurry of fire erupted from the roof of the casino on the other side of East Flamingo and the Ferrari took a few hits in its rear engine.

Back at the Bellagio, Commander Reyes hovered over the crashed Helios in his V33. He did not see any signs of survival from Valik and proceeded to join the chase.

Some of the C7 guards pursuing on motorcycles had gotten close enough to the crippled Aurea to shoot at its tires. The car spun several times after the rear tires blew and Mykah could not maintain control, sliding sideways into a bank of limousines in front of the Hilton.

Mykah exited the car immediately and looked up to see the Raider bearing down on their location. Reyes honed in on their coordinates with his missile array and fired. Just as the missiles were leaving their housing, an explosion violently pushed his V33’s rear section downward causing the missiles to head off course into the sky. The commander looked behind him to see the aft section of his Raider splintering off the fuselage.

Cadan’s undetected Valkyrie flew past the falling Raider and proceeded to simultaneously destroy the two closest defense pods that were still firing down on Mykah and Taon. Cadan performed a high 180 degree turn and returned to take out the motorcycles before coming to a hover over the mangled Ferrari and activating Mykah’s data pad.

“Having a little car trouble?” Cadan asked.

“Leetayo! You have perfect timing,” Mykah greeted her old friend.

“Grab one of those limos and I will maintain cover.”

“I have to retrieve my pack,” Mykah alerted him.

“I’ve gotcha covered, let’s do it!”

Taon’s limp body gave Mykah some difficulty as she transported him to a black stretch Hummer.

“Cadan, can you help me out here?” Mykah requested, sitting in the driver seat, looking down at her data pad.

“Give me one second,” Cadan replied just before the limo’s engine started.

“I’m headed to the East Cannery. I do not believe there are any more defense pods on this route but stay close just in case,” Mykah yelled as she spun the Hummer from its parking spot.

The wreckage from the V33 was spread across the boulevard but the front part of the cockpit was still intact with Reyes strapped in it. He slowly gained his bearing and crawled from the heap. He stumbled out toward the middle of the road and flagged down an approaching C7 security truck. Jumping into the passenger seat with his bloodied forehead, Reyes ordered the driver to follow the limo.

Cadan flew down the boulevard, low over the limo without any resistance as they reached the East Cannery. Mykah leapt out of the driver seat and sprinted inside the building to the twelfth floor as the Valkyrie hung about fifty feet in the air over the limo.

Reyes sped toward them followed by several more C7 vehicles. They were easily detected by Cadan as he positioned his ship to face back down the boulevard. He unloaded his armaments and demolished everything in a seventy yard swath across East Flamingo. Reyes and his men were destroyed with just two shots from the Valkyrie’s particle weapons.

Mykah ran out of the Cannery with her pack and jumped back into the limo with Taon.

“You need to get moving. We have more serious company,” Cadan warned.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have a Griffin signature appearing back at the downed Helios,”

Mykah had suspected that Taon’s assassin still presented a threat. She sped away from the Cannery down Harmon Avenue toward the Las Vegas Expressway hoping that Cadan could keep them safe.

Valik, with severe cranial damage and his left arm dismembered, had retrieved an intact Griffin from the Helios wreckage and resumed his pursuit. The S2 used the Griffin’s sensors to detect the limo approaching the Las Vegas Beltway.

“I am going to break off and take care of this,” Cadan communicated. “Mykah, get him out of here. I will buy you both some more time…”

“Cadan, please be careful.”

“Make sure you get him to your destination,” Cadan iterated.

“I will,” Mykah assured as she drove the limo onto Las Vegas Beltway and opened it up full throttle.

The Valkyrie veered off to the northwest to stall the approaching Griffin. 
This will be the real test,
Cadan postulated.

The two ships were now on a direct intercept course, firing their weapons and battering each other’s shields. They bolted pass by each other, coming within only a few feet of colliding before the two ships nearly simultaneously banked into high G turns. Cadan rolled the Valkyrie at the top of his turn and descended back toward central Vegas, luring Valik away from his primary target.

The defense pods targeted Cadan as he crossed back into the Restricted Zone air space. The C7 pods were now aware of his presence and were manually tracking him despite the absence of his signature on their sensors. The Valkyrie, zipping northward along the strip, surgically disabled the pods with its phase cannons.

So far, so good.

Passing over the Helios wreckage, Cadan noticed Valik’s signature flashing on the console, approaching at a downward vector above the Valkyrie. As the Griffin relentlessly unleashed its plasma cannons, steadily draining the Valkyrie’s shield, Cadan set a course for the C7-HQ at the Stratosphere Tower and fully accelerated. Valik descended behind the Valkyrie and concentrated fire on the aft shield over the engine.

With the tower quickly coming into view, the Valkyrie was just tipping 900 miles per hour and aimed directly at a much larger defense pod on the roof. Cadan was betting that the Tower's plasma cannon may be able to get off at least one shot at his current speed. His shields were about to fail and he knew the engine would be next. The Griffin tightly pursued the Valkyrie as Cadan waited for the right moment. When the cannon fired from atop the Stratosphere, the Valkyrie shot upwards before the beam could hit it and drew the Griffin into the trajectory of the weapon.

The beam clipped the front tip of Valik’s right wing causing the Griffin to spin uncontrollably, slicing through the C7 headquarters, sweeping half the observation deck down 1,000 feet to the road below. The Griffin ricocheted at high speed into the ground and exploded. Cadan’s primary engine failed after the maneuver and left the Valkyrie gliding from an altitude of 5,000 feet with only minor thruster control.

Speeding southwest on I-15, the Hummer had cleared the city limit. Taon was still motionless in the back seat as Mykah snaked the long black limousine toward southern California. Her data pad activated:

“Do not be startled,” Cadan warned.

“By what?” Mykah asked.

Just as she finished her question, the Valkyrie slammed down in the sand next to the interstate, skipping twice and landing with its left wing stuck in the ground.

Cadan jumped out of the cockpit, spent a few seconds to analyze the hull damage, and ran toward the limo that Mykah had brought to a screeching stop. Just before he reached the Hummer, Cadan pressed a small button on the front of his flight jacket and the Valkyrie exploded. Mykah watched as Cadan’s silhouette appeared in front of what looked like the surface of the sun with the fire expanding upward behind him.

She raised the passenger door and Cadan stuck his head inside. “
That
…” he replied, smiling and sitting down.

“Did you take care of our friend?” Mykah asked, watching Cadan put on his seatbelt.

“I’m not certain. Either way we need to get moving.”

Mykah spun the Hummer back into motion.

“So, what is the real reason you popped up in the middle of the strangest day of my life, flying what looks like some kind of star fighter?” she asked, now 
certain that her mission must be related to his appearance.

When her parents were killed in the automobile accident, Cadan was the one that took Mykah to her grandmother in Hotevilla. As far as she knew, he was simply a friend of her father, Qion. She had been under the impression that Cadan was some type of special operations soldier but never learned any details. He visited two or three times every year since she was twelve years old to check up on her and Kele, encouraging Mykah’s development in various disciplines. She had always thought of him as a big brother, a sentiment also shared by Cadan. She even had her own nickname for him – Leetayo – the Hopi word meaning ‘fox.’

Cadan decided that the time had finally come for him to reveal the complete truth to Mykah.

“I had planned to tell you this when we arrived at our destination,” he admitted.

“What do you know about our destination?” she queried.

“Mykah, with the events that are about to transpire it is time you know the truth about your parents – the truth about what is happening.”

Mykah glanced over at Cadan with her forehead crinkled.

He continued, “Your father was actually my uncle. He met your mother on an expedition to northern Arizona to meet with Hopi elders almost thirty years ago. They were married shortly after that,” Cadan chronicled, inserting details that were completely new to Mykah’s ears.

“I knew how he met her but why didn’t you tell me you were my cousin?” Mykah asked louder.

“For your protection. Mykah, your father was not in a car accident – at least not one caused by him. He and your mother were both murdered. The predecessors to the C7 forces that we now face were the people that hunted him down and blew up their vehicle.

“The people who killed your father were aware of your mother's existence but knew nothing of you. Qion protected your indentity with his life. My father thought it best to continue your protection by placing you in the care of your grandmother. I am sorry Mykah, but your mother was an innocent victim in a shadow war that has played out on your planet for millennia and we did not want you to be another casualty.”

“What do you mean by shadow war?” Mykah asked with confusion consuming her. “And I have an uncle?” she added.

“There are two factions on Earth which have been here from the beginning of your civilizations. But we are not originally of this Earth…”

L
iving up to their name, the twenty-four Razor tanks were slicing their way through the first US division confronting them. The Razors’ massive plasma cannons were obliterating the inferior US tanks and other land vehicles helping Lindherst’s forces create an inward bulge toward the surface entrance to the underground facility. Some of the US tanks were slowly weakening the Razors’ shields but not enough to prevent their advance.

The air battle however leaned more in favor of the US forces with the F-35s and Griffins already reducing their opposition by half. This performance allowed General Tucker to safely launch the two Helios Cruisers which were now tasked with halting the Razor advance. The weakened Razor shields failed quickly when the cruisers barraged the tanks with much larger plasma beams. Observing the destruction of half his aircraft and all of the Razors, Lindherst ordered his Cruisers to back off even further.

His numbers are significantly higher than I calculated,
a stunned Lindherst realized.

C
olonel Osborne had ordered everyone into Dr. Leroux’s personal lab that was located one section past the personal quarters. After restraining the general’s family, Dr. Leroux, and Riggs, he began establishing a secure communications link using Leroux’s computer console. But Osborne was not contacting Lindherst this time.

“Go ahead Osborne,”
Prime Delegate Pike ordered.

“Sir, Lindherst’s offensive is failing. I have initiated our contingency plan. Bracken’s family has been acquired and I’m on my way to the command level to order a stand down,” Osborne informed his superior.

General Bracken was standing just outside his office observing the dozens of wall viewers that lined the command deck, displaying different sections of the surface battle. The general’s desk viewer signaled an incoming message and summoned Bracken back into his office before he could notice Osborne’s arrival on the command level.