Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) (26 page)

I look up at him; there’s obviously been a lot that happened when I was a prisoner.

“So, I mentioned earlier that we went after you when you were captured, we were unsuccessful.”

“No kidding,” I pause to take a mouthful of food, “I don’t blame you however, the ones responsible are the ones that took me.”

“Actually, that’s not true.”

I drop my spoon into my bowl and lean back in my chair, “what do you mean?”

“Well, I was getting to that, now I’m just going to skip ahead to the more important parts. My team-”

I interrupt, “
your
team?”

“Yes, my team, after you were captured there were dozens of four man teams organized, we were doing more hit and run missions on some mining facilities that were spread across the globe. Almost a full cycle after you were captured my team was sent back to the Kelownial Forest.”

“For what reason? We already destroyed the mining outpost there, unless they decided to rebuild there.”

“They did, but it wasn’t a mining operation, what they had going there is what seemed like a small settlement.”

“What?” I look at him in shock.

“Well, in war when we’re behind enemy lines we create a beachhead. They were doing the same thing. We got Intel that there were humans in the camp, so we infiltrated it and went in to evac them out of there.”

“Where were they taken from? From our satellite images from our first mission there showed no towns or cities even remotely close to that forest.”

“They weren’t taken; our Intel that we had received was misinterpreted.”

“So…what, you are saying is that they voluntarily went into the camp?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it? Is there any explanation to why?”

“Well, from what we could tell Sir is that we encountered deserters.”

“Why would anyone want to desert and join the enemy? All they want to do is mine the planet for Thopium, and then eventually destroy it.”

“These humans that were in the Hakorians camp were there for only one reason, to make a deal that would get them off the planet.”

“And where would they go?”

“From what we have learned the Hakorians were the Akkesians, they were outlawed and banished from their home. What we can tell from this is that there were several other races that shared this world with the Akkesians, and the people in the camp were trying to barter for a way to get to that planet.”

“That makes no sense, there would be no point behind that, even if they were successful in making a deal they would be the only humans that would reside there. They would be outsiders, nothing more.”

“Well, we don’t know any of that for sure, but the leader of the group of humans that were there was an elderly man, unfortunately we couldn’t identify him.”

“Do we know if they were able to strike a deal?”

“We did get confirmation that a deal was made.”

“And what exactly was the deal?”

“We have no idea; we couldn’t get close enough for our audio receivers to pick up the entire conversation.”

I look out the window beside the table, white streaks line the viewport. What are we up to? What can we possibly have that the Hakorians want?

“The old man that went inside came out several minutes later, by the way he held himself I take it whatever they discussed went well.”

My thoughts go immediately to what happened to the camp, “did you level the place?” I ask gravely.

“You need to understand, we couldn’t let them collaborate with the enemy, whatever they had going there could have cost us the war,” T-Rave says, confirming my theory.

“So you killed possibly innocent lives because you didn’t understand the situation?” I slam my fist onto the table, “has the military learned nothing? We don’t leave our people behind!”

“You need to understand Sir; they were there on their own accord.”

“Do you know for sure that they were all traitors?”

“No, we can't be sure; General Weber thought it would be safer if we just eliminated all of them.”

My mind then thinks of a question that’ll most likely weigh heavily on me, “how many humans were in that camp?”

T-Rave sighs, “roughly two thousand.”

My heart sinks, over two thousand humans wiped out by their own kind, “you should ‘ve captured them, sorted out the traitors from the prisoners.”

“That’s what I objected to; I almost got court martialled because I was this close to disobeying orders and scrubbing the mission,” his thumb and index finger are only centimeters apart to emphasize how close he came to disobeying orders.

“So, what, did you just nuke the place?”

“From orbit yes, our job was basically to do a little recon and then tag the best sites that would have the potential to cause secondary explosions.”

“And I thought that the military was bad before, it seems as if it has deteriorated into a group of mercenaries.”

“Watch it Colonel, you’re close to speaking treason,” he warns.

“I don’t care anymore Major, when I joined the military I swore to protect the weak and innocent, my superiors apparently didn’t make such an oath.”

“Once we have rid these aliens of this planet, I will leave,” I continue, “my wife and I will leave,” I take in gulp, “if she survives.”

“They will not let you leave; you won’t be allowed to abandon your planet.”

“No, I intend to save this planet, what you do with it after I leave is your business.”

T-Rave stands up quickly; the chair that he’s sitting in falls to the ground, “you can't say that, you can't just abandon your people like this!”

I stand up as well, I stare him in the eyes, “when this war is over, one way or any other I am leaving this planet behind, and it’s corrupt government,” turning around to walk back towards the door.

“Colonel, with respect I’m not quite finished,” he says to my back.

“Well I’m through with you, no offense Thomas, but you’re too young to understand what is going on.”

“Bullshit, I’m only three cycles younger than you.”

“That is not what I meant. You will understand in time.”

I want nothing more but to look back at T-Raves face, instead I just keep walking. The door hisses shut behind me.

I don’t walk much farther, as soon as I get outside the mess hall I slouch myself on the wall. I gently bang the back of my head up against the wall. “Come on Mavrik, you didn’t even ask him about Syreena,” I sigh.

I won’t ask him about Syreena, I won’t ask any of the people on the ship. I’ll just wait and find out for myself what her condition is. I already know of course that she’s alive for the moment and in a coma, but that was a report that was received before I was rescued.

All I have to do now is wait for the ship to reach Terra, according to what Major Foxx said it’s going to be another few days. I know that these upcoming days are going to feel longer then my entire imprisonment. It’ll be worth it though, seeing my wife again. It’s definitely going to be worth it.

Day 32: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397

“Everybody find a seat and strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. ETA until touchdown is fifteen minutes,” Major Foxx says over the ships intercom.

I’m in my quarters when the intercom goes off. My body’s on the edge of the bed, twitching in anticipation. It’s been so long since I’d seen any other humans, even with fellow humans on board I didn’t want to make much contact with them.

Major Foxx is the one that I’d talked to the most in the past few days, she’s been a small comfort in some of our conversations that we had, most of which were about hardship and struggle. Major Foxx had been captured in one of her first missions; she went down in her scout ship while patrolling deep within enemy lines. From that moment on she had spent over a year in custody. That was all she had decided to share with me thus far though, I must have been a really hard time for her if she didn’t want to share it. This was of course before the time of the Hakorians, she had been captured by a different threat altogether.

I leave my quarters and walk through the many corridors that lead to the cockpit. I got used to the white corridors in my time spent here, it almost feels like home.

The cockpit hatch hisses open after I depress the button.

Major Foxx’s head turns to me, “glad you could join us, re-entry is something you don’t want to miss.”

I look out the viewports, Terra floats before me; an urge to reach out with my hand and touch the glowing orb overcomes me for a split second.

“Wow, that’s beautiful,” my jaw opens in pure awe.

“That it is. You might want to take a seat.”

I sit down in the seat behind Major Foxx.

I peer out the viewport again, the hull of the ship is beginning to glow a bright orange.

“Outside hull temperature is raising rapidly, power the shields on,” she says calmly like it’s no big deal.

Sargent Watts spins his chair around towards the shield monitor and control system, his hands fly so fast over the screen and activates the shields before I can blink twice. “Shields are operating at a hundred percent, serious strain on them though.”

A blue energy field closes around the ship like a bubble.

“These shields can withstand weapons can they not? How come they can't take a little heat from an atmosphere?” I point out.

“Shields are designed to take burst of firepower and absorb them to a certain degree, entering an atmosphere however is constant strain, which drains the power rapidly,” Sargent Watts answers.

“How long will these shields hold then?”

“Long enough,” is Major Foxx’s short reply.

“Seems like a major flaw.”

“Well, this is only a prototype; this is the first space craft that’s currently equipped with this technology.”

“Ah, that explains.”

“Enough chatter boys, this requires a lot of concentration,” major Foxx says.

The intercom crackles for a second or two before a voice comes through. “Unidentified aircraft please transmit IFF to verify your identification.” There was a few seconds of silence before Sargent Watts typed the correct codes into the console in front of him. “IFF received; welcome home HS-C One. Follow the coordinates to the proper landing sight.”

After a couple more seconds the orange glow dissipates around the ships shields. The ship passes through the atmosphere directly over the ocean that lies to the east of the city, clear blue sky is revealed as we pass through the clouds. It takes several more minutes until the city comes into view. The minutes are passed in complete silence.

“HS-C One?” I ask.

“
Hornet
Series Class One,” Major Foxx says.

“Ah, kinda long isn’t it?”

“Just a little bit.”

The T.A.R. Skytower comes into view; it looks exactly like I remember.; tall with thousands of windows. The pad on top opens up, another ship that’s unfamiliar to my eyes is launched from the roof.

“What is that?” I point at it.

“That’s a
Protector
Class scout ship. Its matte black finish and sleek design -which is similar to this ship- makes it almost impossible to see and detect on any form of satellite.”

Sargent Watts is right, it’s very similar to this ship. I only got a brief glimpse at the layout of the ship from the terminal, but from what I can tell it’s almost a perfect replica. I look at the cockpit at the front of the ship; I can see only one head inside.

“That ship is a lot smaller than this one isn’t it?”

“Quite a bit, like I said, it’s only a scout.”

The T.A.R. Tower whizzes by us, “did I miss something or did we just fly by our LZ?”

“You didn’t miss anything; we aren’t going to T.A.R. Headquarters. It’s just not safe there anymore.”

“Why were we using it then in the beginning? What changed?”

“The Hakorians Tactics are what changed. They started doing kamikaze runs on all major cities. T.A.R. Headquarters is one of the tallest towers in this city, making it one of the best targets.”

“How come it is still standing then, even if we aren’t going there it would still present a target would it not?”

“In short answer, we abandoned it.”

“And that’s why they don’t attack it then? Because there’s no life forms in it?”

“Take a look Colonel, these buildings are all mostly standing. We abandoned the whole city.”

Now that piece of information shocks me, “what do you mean, ‘the whole city’?”

“We moved underground to avoid bombardment from orbit.”

“Oh, that seems a bit extreme. You should have stayed and put up a fight.”

“We couldn’t Colonel, they leveled entire cities to the west and north, we were next in their path. Instead of getting annihilated we decided to go underground.”

I look at the Sargent, everything that he’s telling me makes perfect sense, most of it anyways. “How did you just ‘go underground’ I’ve never heard of any underground complex’s in this region.”