ALTERNATE TALES OF THE
STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS—THE BATTLES
OF THE MAGELLENIC AND THE MILKY WAY
Being the eighth part of
THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Act is being completed with the
Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C.
Wakefield (as usual)
ACT THREE: ISCANDAR
AFLAME
I.
A TRAP IS SET
Spacecraft
Carrier Shiryu
Space,
Near Iscandar
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1122 Hours Earth Space-Time
The Argo was
speeding to the aid of Iscandar, but, in the meantime, the horrid Black Nebulan
attack continued.
The EDF spacecraft carrier Shiryu and her escorts shepherded the battered Princess Astra back to Iscandar. After completing that errand,
making sure that the carrier was safe back in the sea near
The Shiryu had her
flight deck badly damaged in battle, so she was acting as a Fleet battleship
now, firing her guns and missiles like crazy as she smoked.
Near her, the EDF Patrol Cruiser Saint Lawrence took a dead-on hit from a Black Nebulan space
battleship, and she blew apart with a beautiful but deadly explosion as the
burning Shiryu took hit after hit
while trying to fight on.
“Commodore!” said Raful’s radar officer, a chubby young man
named Ensign Harrison Parkford. “Heavy space battleship approaching our fleet
to aft at high speed! Distance, three megameters, speed, twenty-one space
knots! She just came out of warp! A second ship just warped out behind her,
with several destroyers around…”
“Identification?” snapped Raful.
“Some of the destroyers are Gamilon, sir!” said the radar
officer. “And some are ours! As well
as the battleships! Video panel change!”
The crew of the embattled Shiryu cheered as they recognized the shape of the nearest new
arrival. “So, you guys finally got here!” said Commander Shimaseki.
“The Star Force!” cried Louisa Turrell from her post. “Oh!
Message from Commodore Wildstar!”
Wildstar’s face came up on the screen. He had on only his white and red Star
Force uniform, and he looked sweaty and stressed. Behind him, he could see that
Yamazaki had a bandage on around his head, and that at
her radar, Nova sat there with what looked like dried blood on her cheek.
“Sir,” said Raful. “You like like hell.”
“No comment,” said Wildstar. “We won out there at the
system’s edge. Did you see Ekogaru?”
“Yes…his phantom was as big and ugly as life, Wildstar. This
is one sick war. Here to back us up?”
Derek nodded. “Reduce speed and fall back and get behind us.
I’m taking command of this fleet. Then we’ll get rid of that enemy fleet and
try to relieve Iscandar. Is it under attack?”
“Yes, from many ships,” said Raful. “We’re in combat with
some of them now.”
“We
sort of got that idea,” said Wildstar with a slightly sardonic smile as he
wondered what had created the gas cloud that the Argo had just blundered into before Iscandar. “We’ve got your back,
Commodore. Don’t worry.”
Raful nodded as the screen went dark.
A moment later, the Argo
was firing her guns at the Black Nebulans like mad, combined with gunfire from
the
On her flagship, Sarda gritted her teeth. She thought, This will be a hard one until we got those
Gorbas here as reinforcements. I just have to hold the line and make sure they
don’t get down there to muck up our landing until the heavy ships show
up…which, hopefully, will be soon….very soon…
On the Argo, Wildstar
just kept on firing his guns until Domon showed back up.
In a pause in the combat, Wildstar acknowledged Domon’s
presence and said, “You take over in a minute!”
“Yessir,” said Domon.
Wildstar stood up and prepared to run to the Captain’s
station as Nova said, “No! New radar
contacts spotted! Three of them! No! Make that four! They’re huge!”
“Put it up on the video panel!”
“Yessir!” said Nova as she and the bridge crew looked up at
three Black Nebulan Gorba auto-fortresses, each of them over seven hundred
meters long. One of them was between the Argo
and Iscandar as it moved forward slowly and ominously until it almost blotted
out the view ahead of the bridge windows. Domon stood behind behind Wildstar,
who was on his feet at his post looking at the huge, ugly fortress as it sat in
front of them, and also apparently began filling space with some kind of
strange gas from some ports on the side of it that they could not see. Derek
guessed that those hideous machines were the source of the gas cloud. Derek
remembered Gamilon General Lysis had needed a natural nebula at Rainbow Cluster
back in 2200 to interfere with their radar. Now, as Derek saw Nova tuning her
radar like mad to try and get it to work…he saw that the Black Nebulans were
able to bring this sort of devilry with
them in their huge fortresses!
One of them began shooting at the Argo like mad. Soon, the Star Force was caught in a deadly
crossfire as the
“Damned Black Nebulan Balrogs!”
muttered Domon as he recalled a popular EDF nickname for the horrible horned
black space fortresses. The term had originated after the Argo had met her first one near the end of the Rikasha Incident in
the spring of 2202, over five years ago. The Balrog was a demonic horned monster from the underworld from the Lord of the Rings book and movie series,
and it was an apt nickname for the hideous Black Nebulan war machines. “How
many of those things do they have, Wildstar?”
“No one knows,” said Wildstar. “Desslok told us that this
empire was an ally of Invidia’s and that they were almost wiped out by Ekogaru.
Why are they on his team now?”
“It’s weird,” said Kitano. “It seems that Ekogaru is drawing
every evil creep in the known cosmos into his service, and…”
“It’s frightening,” said Nova. “I’m scared to think of what
thet might pull next…I get a horrible feeling from looking at those ships.”
“Me, too, Nova,” said Derek.
“Receiving a message from the enemy command ship!” said
Homer. “Right to us!”
“Put it up on video,” snapped Wildstar as he made two fists
and gritted his teeth.
A moment later, a grey-blue Black Nebulan with a bald head
and an arrogant nose appeared on the Argo’s
screen. “Young man,” he sneered at Derek. “I take it that you are Commodore
Derek Wildstar?”
“I am,” said Derek.
“I am Baron Meldazz, Second Admiral of the Black Nebula
Empire’s fleet under Holy Leader Skaldart. We are sworn to serve Princess
Invidia and the Dark Lord she serves so willingly. This war is none of your
concern. Leave Iscandar to us, as well as Gamilon. Do so, and Princess Invidia
will be more inclined to be merciful to you when she comes to Earth at last…in
order to enforce the surrender that your sort agreed to years ago. She said she
will even show you mercy, you
professional renegade!“
“I
must refuse your offer, Baron Meldazz,” replied Derek. “We swore long ago to
aid my sister-in-law Queen Starsha after she aided Earth. Starsha is married to
my brother Alex and we would never abandon them. Leader Desslok is also our
sworn ally.”
“Yes, I know, the man who almost wiped out your race?” said
Meldazz. “That is odd.”
“Desslok realized we loved Earth as much as he loved
Gamilon, so he left the service of Princess Invidia and her father Zordar long
ago to aid us. He helped us win our freedom from Zordar long ago, as well, and
he then aided us against the Rikashans and your oh-so-omniscent master Ekogaru.
Go tell your Dark Lord that.”
“This is what I have to tell you,” snapped Meldazz.
“Withdraw and surrender now. If you do so, we will be inclined to be merciful
when we come to Earth with Princess Invidia. I say it only one more time.
Withdraw. If you like to live, that is...”
“Meldazz, I am not
about to surrender,” said Wildstar in a tone of voice that made Nova very proud
of him. There were times where Derek really annoyed her, but she loved him very
much. It was hard not to love him when carrying the children they had made.
“Good going, sir,” muttered Kitano near him.
“We’ll see,” whispered Derek. “Maybe I can get this joker so
mad he’ll mess up.”
“Meldazz?” demanded Wildstar. “What do you think? Will you surrender? You may have faith in
your leaders, but do they have faith in you?
Ekogaru and Invidia have a habit of tossing aside their tools after they are
done with them. Do you want to be the
next one they use and leave to die?”
“That
will not happen. As for you…very well,” said Meldazz. “You are an obstinate
little insect. Prepare, therefore, for your extermination.
I will be glad to see you dead and gone, along with your ancient wreck of a
space battleship. You are known meddlers. This universe would be better off
without you.”
“Why, Meldazz,” replied Derek with a smile. “I was about to
say the same thing…about you.”
“I hope you enjoy being dead,”
said Meldazz as he cut off.
The attack began at once as a vicious crossfire blasted into
the Argo from three sides.
Derek ordered the refitted main guns fired, hoping that they
had more punch than they did five years ago when they had last fought one of these ugly war machines, but all the plasma fire
did was skip off the armor of the Gorbas like arrows against the hide of some
ancient and hideous elephant.
The Argo, needless
to say, was in a very tight spot along with the other Earth vessels.
And the ring was closing slowly around them like a vise…
II.
ISCANDAR BESIEGED
Planet
Iscandar
Thursday,
July 2, 2207: 1214 Hours Earth Space-Time
Queen Starsha was in a deadly battle for her life…possibly her
very soul.
Ekogaru was reaching towards her and Iscandar.
The Dark Lord was attacking her with every bizarre psychic weapon
at his disposal.
Weird, nightmarish visions.
Psychic pain.
The thought of Alex dead, and the thought of her daughter Astra
dead, along with the nauseating image of Sasha being tortured in a sphere of
energy somewhere.
Starsha was also in severe physical pain because he had flung her
against the crystalline walls of a chamber of her palace several times.
Starsha had fought back, shooting energy at the phantom of Ekogaru
from her fingertips at least six times. He screamed, he howled, he almost
seemed once for a time to be dispelled into smoke, but he came back on the
attack each time like a wild bulldog.
And, each time he attacked her, he forced horrible thoughts into
her mind as he toyed with her like a cruel panther playing with its prey….
You
are worthless, he forced her to think.
Your
hope to revive Iscandar was a fool’s hope.
Your
world was and is dying; I am only putting it out of its misery…
I
will break you unless you kill yourself…
“Kill myself?” muttered a weakened Starsha as she shot energy at
the Dark One, for a seventh time.
What Ekogaru was hiding from her was that this psychic battle was
beginning to hurt him, as well.
This monster knew that if she called to Astrena or Aliscea for
backup, he might well be beaten at last.
Ekogaru whispered, as he devised a new, sick form of torment for
Starsha. “Give up. Drop this, and go below and destroy Iscandar. My forces are
beating you. If you want to remain free…it is time to…DIE!”
Ekogaru’s phantom shot energy at Starsha and laughed as she
writhed in pain.
“Maybe,” gasped Starsha. “Maybe…you are right…”
At the same time, the Princess
Astra had just sailed up to the quay at the edge of
The difference was that the Princess
Astra was horribly battered and she was still actually smoking in several
places as she finally dropped anchor and came to a stop.
Admiral Alex Wildstar left command of his battered flagship to
others until it was repaired enough so she could fly again. He walked out on
the foredeck with Jonathan. The 14-year old was still in shock at his loss as
he walked slowly with his black boots scraping the deck, and he asked, “Alex? Sir?”
“Yes,” said Wildstar in a monotone. Alex was concerned about him,
but he was also looking up at the twisted guns and battered deck plates and
superstructure of his ship. I stink as a
Captain, he thought. I got the Paladin shot out from under me eight years ago
today, and now, when they give me a new ship, I almost get her shot out from under
me, too. And I took a hell of a lot of people to the grave with me, he
thought morosely as he saw some medics taking a body bag off the ship, followed
by another.
Something that he and his brother shared was a tendency towards
depression and blaming themselves for things that were actually beyond their
control. Alex was too angry at himself to see that bringing this ship home was
a miracle, especially for a ship like this, built to a 2201 EDF design over six
years old. Alex never knew that there had been some nights on Iscandar where
Nova and Starsha had bathed together and then had looked up at the stars from
their warm bath and exchanged notes on Alex and Derek and saw that, in many
ways, the two brothers were very similar to each other.
Jonathan saw a man who was sulky and incommunicative as he boarded
a jetboat for the brief ride across the cove and then the lake that would take
them to
Alex
and Jonathan finally got into an aircar and they rode up the high hill past
burning buildings, and they saw spots where small battles were going on.
A moment later, the city was lit up like the very End as the Dark
Nebulans dropped a bomb from a fighter just a few hundred meters away from the
Palace.
“They’re trying to break us,” hissed Alex. “Goddess! How is
Starsha taking this?” he asked as the ground shook again from a second bombing
a moment later.
“Watch out!” cried Jonathan as a Dark Nebulan shot at them. Alex
was slow on the draw, but, luckily, Jonathan had a sidearm and he was quicker.
He shot the Black Nebulan with gritted teeth and said, “We’re not losing…are
we?”
“I don’t know,” said Alex. “But, where’s Desslok? Where’s the Star
Force? They should have stopped this by now!”
When they got to the coutyard before the Palace, Alex had to shove
Jonathan down a few times over to personally exchange fire with some Black
Nebulan and Cometine troops with his
sidearm. The invaders were almost at his own front door now, and he prayed to
destiny that none of them had gotten into the Palace. His black peacoat was
soon dusty as he finally made his escape with a few guards.
In the Palace, a lady-in-waiting ran up and said, “Lord Consort,
sir! The upper works of the Palace have taken some damage. Queen Starsha awaits
you below, in the caverns. She says she has some bad news for you…”
Alex nodded and took a confused Jonathan with him.
“Starsha!” said Alex as he ran up to Starsha, whom he had finally
found in a cavern many hundreds of meters deep beneath the palace.
Queen
Starsha was standing before a control panel that had had a crystal dome over
it. She was weeping, and repeatedly pressing a large, glowing pink button. “It
doesn’t work!” she sobbed. “It
doesn’t work!”
“What is it?” said Alex.
“You don’t want to know,” sobbed Starsha. “My powers have been
compromised by Ekogaru. He has beaten me at last. This was the last-ditch
effort to keep ourselves free…at least into the next world, I…but it doesn’t work!”
“Starsha, what is it that doesn’t work?,” said Alex. “And have you
gone mad? This room is hot. You know how close we’re getting to the Iscandarium
deposits in this…this deep cavern. It’s not safe to be down here for so long…”
“That’s where the detonator is,” said Starsha. “Please forgive me
for not telling you, Alex. I would have told you to get to safety. I could not
reach you. So I would have taken you with me, but…”
“Taken me…with you?” said Alex. “Starsha, is this…?”
“Iscandar’s last defense,” she said. “This was connected to a
hyperon bomb detonator unit placed many kilometers below Iscandar’s surface. It
is an ancient defense of ours in case the Gamilons ever got the bright idea to
invade us. It was a doomsday weapon that would have blown apart both our
planets by exploding the Iscandarium deposits deep in Iscandar’s core.”
“You…you would have killed all of us? After we’ve been fighting
for you?” said Alex.
“I
am sorry…I am so sorry…please forgive me, Alex! I felt so desperate, and maybe
death is better than capture and enslavement. Or have you not noticed they are
in
“I saw them,” said Jonathan.
“You see, then?” sobbed Starsha as she pushed Alex away for the
first time ever as he tried to comfort her. “We failed. Utterly. Why? Because
our last effort…it doesn’t work
anymore!”
“That’s because I have disconnected
it,” said a mocking voice near another control panel as someone suddenly
appeared out of thin air.
Alex was shocked to see a man in an EDF Space Marine uniform
standing there sipping from a can of Cosmic Cola as if he had a perfect right
to be there. The man had red, glowing eyes, and he didn’t quite look sane.
Then, he smiled and threw the soda can on the floor and stomped on it, not
caring about the trash he was leaving around the
“You’re…” said Alex.
“We have met before, Alexander,” said the Being sharing Stovall’s
body with the withering mind of Michael Stovall. “Ekogaru the Great. I, am far older than Starsha’s dynasty. Bow before me and
worship me, young man. Then I might be merciful. Oh, Starsha. I am back. Here
in person, I can finally make you give up.”
“You’ve been hurting her?” snapped Alex.
Starsha nodded, clutching her chest. “We have been in battle for
the past hour. He is beginning to beat me, and he showed me that Death is the
only…hope…now…”
Alex’s response was to grit his teeth and to prepare to fire his
sidearm at him. He was attacking his adopted home and he had just injured and
possibly deranged Starsha. How far would this demonic creature go?
There was only a subdued clicking noise, and Alex was aghast to
see that his Astro-Automatic had just been turned into a child’s water pistol
in his hand! Jonathan tried the same thing with his sidearm, but he found out
all he also had was a water pistol.
Two streams of water hit Stovall’s boots in a dribble, but nothing
else happened.
Alex then found a large ceremonial sword on a wall hanging in the
cavern, and he howled like a samurai as
he swung it at the Dark Lord’s head, meaning to take it off as Starsha sat
there sobbing.
Alex found he was just hitting Ekogaru in the neck with a string
of frankfurters!
“You know, this can be rather amusing,”
said Ekogaru as Starsha shut her eyes, meaning to attack him psychically with
the last of her waning strength. Ekogaru raised his hand and smiled as Starsha
intended to shoot an energy force at him. Instead, all that happened was her
hand lighting up.
“Oh, how pretty,
Starsha,” mocked Ekogaru as he grinned, smiled…
….and threw Starsha across the room psychically with a finger
uplifted. The Queen of Iscandar hit the wall with a horrid smacking noise. It
was about the fifth time she had hit a wall in the past hour.
Queen Starsha lay on the floor with her gown slightly up and her
sandal-clad feet showing as she sat there with a dazed look on her face. Alex felt
nauseated as he saw that Starsha’s legs were actually bruised from Ekogaru’s
vicious attacks.
“I can do things to her that are rather indecent,” purred Ekogaru.
“But since the lad is here, I’ll spare him the sight of anything intended for
mature audiences.”
Alex knelt beside a dazed Starsha and said, “You are sick…”
Starsha bowed her head and said, “Ekogaru, you can have it…”
“What?” said Ekogaru as Alex sat there in shock.
“Iscandar. Spare us, please,” said Starsha. She sighed, “You can
have it. Peacefully. I surrender. Please stop this fighting and leave us and
the Gamilons alone. You can take me first. Just stop this! For the sake of the
little children here on Iscandar being born from what is left of our race and
the Pellians, just stop this! I’ll take off my shoes and worship you, Ekogaru,”
said Starsha as she pulled off her sandals and prepared to kiss the Dark Lord’s
feet.
What Starsha got for her pathetic humility and seeming pacifism
was a brutal kick in the face from Ekogaru that cut her lower lip open.
“I can read your pathetic little brain like a book,” hissed
Ekogaru. “You’d surrender and then try to kill me, right?” he said as Alex realized how desperate his mate truly was
to stop this as he tried to stop the bleeding from her lip.
Starsha nodded like a lost little girl, dazed from her smack into
the wall, and drained by trying to fight HIM.
“You people make me sick,” said Ekogaru. “I go now. Call for me
again through Skaldart when you and Desslok are really ready to surrender!” He laughed and vanished.
“Starsha, I..” said Alex.
“You see how desperate we are,” she said in a depressed voice. “My
mind is ready to snap…”
“The Star Force is still on its way,” said Alex. “Let’s go back up
in the Palace. Maybe we can see them and Desslok stopping this.”
Starsha nodded dully and allowed Alex to walk her out of there
with a hand placed on her shoulder. She would never come back to this cavern
again as long as she lived as she locked the door on the way out with a code
only she knew.
She was battered, hurt, slammed, stunned…
But
not beaten, she thought. Alex, please
forgive my temporary lapse. Desslok, forgive me, for I would have cast Gamilon
into our sun and out of orbit had I destroyed Iscandar. What was I thinking? I almost
destroyed everyone myself…because HE made me do it…
Queen Starsha was not the only one who was having problems.
Desslok
arrived back over Gamilon to find many buildings near his own beautiful palace
in rebuilt Gamilstadt also burning as the Black Nebulans bombed. Black Nebulan
and Cometine troops had also landed in his city, and they were being just as
cruel and vicious to the populace of Gamilon as they were being to the
Iscandarians.
Desslok gritted his teeth in rage at the sight of some Cometines…and
R’Khells in their evil red uniforms, busy nailing one of his generals, a
General Kliendienst, up to a cross in one of the squares of his city. Even the Cometines were never that vicious
and barbaric before…thought Desslok in rage as he ordered a landing
operation to try and save Kliendienst and to save civilians that Desslok
noticed were also besieged. They must
have learned the sick art of crucifixion from the R’Khells…or from Ekogaru
himself.
“Leader Desslok! They have landing boats over the Ancient
Palisades!” said an officer as he came up and saluted.
“Very well!” snapped Desslok. “Talan, send the Fourth Squadron
there and have them bombard the enemy ships! For the sake of Astrena and
Dellar, this has to be stopped, and now!”
Soon, Gamilon vessels broke off from the main fleet and went into
battle over the
Now, the fighting covered two planets.
Ekogaru appeared to Invidia at 1300 Hours Earthtime.
“How is the attack proceeding?” asked Invidia.
“Very well. Starsha is close to suicidal. Desslok is being driven
into a frenzy because he sees his precious city being burned.”
Invidia put up her hand and giggled at that. “I’ll bet it is so
amusing!”
“Yes. Our Confederation is teaching them that to live, they must capitulate,”
said Ekogaru.
“Bad news!” said a staff officer to Invida with a salute. “It’s
the Star Force! They have just broken out of the trap that Meldazz was about to
crush them against!”
“What?” hissed Invidia. “NO!”
III.
BREAKING THE SIEGE
Near
Planet Iscandar
Space
Battleship Argo
Thursday,
July 2, 2207
1303
Hours Earth Space-Time
“Dodging missiles!” barked Kitano on the Argo’s
The Argo evaded a group
of torpedoes fired from one of the Gorbas.
Wildstar had goaded them to fire by attacking the side of the
Gorba with the Number One Main turret. He knew it wouldn’t do much, but it was
meant to get the enemy to fire torpedoes at them.
While they had the torpedo ports open, Kitano brought the ship
back up on an even keel while Domon and Nishina worked hard with Number Two and
Number Three Turrets. Soon, they were trained on the torpedo ports.
“Ready to fire!” said Domon.
“FIRE MAIN GUNS!” snapped Commodore Wildstar from the Captain’s
station.
They fired; but these guns were loaded with six deadly wave motion
cartridges.
The cartridges blew into the guts of the Gorba and they blew it
apart.
Domon laughed and made a fist. “Good one!”
“Reload all guns!” snapped Wildstar.
A moment later, Homer said, “Commodore, Captain Venture seeks
permission to attack the second Gorba. He says, and I quote, “Hey, Derek, you can’t get all the glory for
yourself, you space cowboy!””
Nova rolled up her eyes with amusement as Derek snapped back,
“Homer, send following message to the
On the
“Yessir,” said Paul with a grin as Aliscea gave him a thumbs-up
from her station. “Mrs. Venture,
would you be so good as to turn this tub around ten degrees to starboard?” he
said.
“Sure, South Philly,” said Holly with a wink as she looked at
Rosstowski. “To port, ten degrees!”
The
It fired torpedoes; one of them missed the
Now under the command of Commander Ember Tyson, the repaired and
refitted patrol cruiser
However, one torpedo flew on and it struck the Argo.
Hard.
The Argo took the hit to
her starboard side, and took some heavy damage to the Mechanical Engineering
area.
The Dynamic Do-All unit in the ship’s interior took major damage,
stopping right in the middle of the production of some badly needed replacement
missiles for the Black Tigers and Trojans.
But, the hit was felt all the way up to the
Kitano was on his feet, looking over the control panel to manuever
the Argo towards the last Gorba;
Meldazz’s own command ship, which had its fleet gathered around it; just as big
and ugly as sin.
When the Argo shook, he
fell down and smacked his head…hard…against the edge of a control panel.
From her post, Nova screamed, and, to Derek’s shock, with utter
disregard for her own safety, she ran up from her post to look at Kitano.
“Lieutenant Commander!” barked Derek. “Back to your post!”
“He’s hurt!” cried Nova. She swabbed Kitano’s forehead with a cold
cloth as he moaned, and said, “You’re okay?”
“Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, but…”
“Take my station and sit down!” ordered Nova as she bandaged his
head. Then, the Argo shook again from
another hit from a Black Nebulan space battleship.
Yamazaki was almost thrown from his chair as the ship keeled over
to port in a horrible roll.
Nova threw herself into Kitano’s vacant chair and pulled back on
the helm yoke as hard as she could with gritted teeth to force the Argo back onto an even keel. She turned the ship about hard to starboard
and then relinquished the controls to Eager, who was acting as Assistant Pilot
as she ran back to the Tactical Radar and said, “Derek! Huge wave of missiles
approaching! That fleet is gathering to get us first like ants from some
anthill!”
“Throw us into warp, Eager! Short warp to forty-five degrees, half
a megameter away from that Gorba!”
“Then?” said Eager.
“Then, we clear the fleet out, stop all engines, and hope we can
pierce that thing’s hide in one shot!” snapped Derek.
The Argo warped, to
repappear behind Meldazz a moment later.
“They’re at our blind side!” snapped one of Meldazz’s officers.
“We don’t have a blind side!” roared Meldazz.
“We did ever since those two Gamilon battleships rammed us!
Torpedo ports five through seven are jammed open, sir! And the thrusters are
damaged!”
“Spin us about!” roared Meldazz.
“It’ll take one hundred seconds!” he roared.
“Report to Invidia!” roared Meldazz. “Tell her my operation may be
endangered!”
On the Eritz Gatlantis,
a depressed-looking officer came up to Invidia and reported, “Major reverse at Operation
Iscandar. Meldazz is reporting that the Gamilons and Earthlings may force him
to retreat to a more optimum position. They’ve destroyed two of the Gorbas with
their cursed wave motion cartridges and they have Meldazz on the run!”
“NO!” hissed Invidia.
“It is not as bad as we think,” purred Ekogaru.”They can’t go on
forever…”
“Princess!” snapped another officer as he clicked his heels.
“Visuals live from the battlefront near Iscandar!”
“Put
it on,” said Invidia as she shook her head.
Invidia gritted her teeth as she watched the screen filling with
light from a feed from one of their recon satellites. Then, she hissed in anger
as she saw the Argo firing her wave
motion gun at some target.
Then, staticy audio-only came in from Meldazz. “Princess
Invidia…they caught us with some trick…
Then, there was a loud blare of static, and silence. The satellite
showed the Argo’s engine firing again
a moment later, and showed her cruising on...towards Iscandar.
“We are losing!” said Invidia. “Three Gorbas destroyed in less
than an hour, and…” she read a report handed to her by another officer.
“Sarda’s fleet almost destroyed in a rout…and the Gamilons also just got a
Gorba…just Skaldart’s ship, two more Gorbas, and one hundred twenty warships
left? We must withdraw! The damned Star Force is handing us defeat on a silver
platter!”
Ekogaru then showed up, and dramatically picked up Invidia by her
neck.
“What?” whispered Invidia.
“You cannot give up now!” roared the Dark Lord. “You almost have
them beaten! Not much longer, and they will be finished! Press on! Press on! WE
MUST WIN!” Ekogaru then screamed and laughed as he tormented Invidia and shook
her by her neck. “WE MUST WIN!”
Then, he flung her to the deck like a doll. As she grovelled, he
kicked her twice before the shocked Cometine officers. Then, he screamed,
“Invidia, do we understand who truly rules here?”
“Yes, Lord,” gasped Invidia. “I…”
“Order them to fight on!” he roared. “Do it, or I will kill you!
ARE WE CLEAR?”
Invidia nodded as she said, “I..will order…Skaldart…fight on…”
“Good,” hissed Ekogaru in satisfaction. “Very, very good!”
TO BE CONTINUED….
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here