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)
Thanks to Gail Kopetz (Fluffy) for a plot
point regarding Talan in this tale…
ACT FIVE: UNDER THE HEEL
OF THE ENEMY…
I.
PLANNING FOR A DESPERATE OPERATION
Space
Battleship Argo
Space,
Near Planet Gamilon
Friday,
July 3, 2207: 0446 Hours Earth Space-Time
Gamilon and Iscandar were in chaos.
Communications out of the system were jammed because of a
strong jamming field that Desslok was trying to have countered; but it was
difficult.
Anti-matter missiles had hit Gamilon and destroyed two cities
in a truly deranged attack.
And the Black Nebulans had managed to land a huge, terrible
ship on Gamilon; right in the middle of Gamilstadt itself!
In the meantime, on the Argo,
another briefing was taking place in the Central Strategy Room once again.
This time, the circumstances were truly desperate.
As the Cometine and Black Nebulan attack had continued,
Desslok had stayed on Gamilon in his Command Bunker with Astrena and Dellar,
but he had sent Talan to the Argo upon
the advice of Astrena, who had also asked Aliscea to work with them to try and
devise some way to defeat the Black Nebulans and Ekogaru.
An old friend of Earth from the Rikasha Incident, General Frausky, head of the Gamilon
Scientifikat, or Science Bureau, was on board the Argo again with many message capsules of information. They had last
worked with in a battle situation in April of 2202, but they had worked with
him on and off since then.
“Commodore
Wildstar,” he said. “I have ascertained the type of weapon that the Black
Nebulans landed on Gamilon one hour ago. It is something we were working on
ourselves, but we have perfected it.”
“What is it
called?” said Sandor.
“A hyperon
bomb,” said Frausky.
“Wait, I know
a little of the theory behind that, Frausky…,” said Sandor. “It creates a wave,
that…”
“If
detonated, it creates a wave that destroys any and all forms of carbon-bearing
life within a planetary radius,” said Frausky.
“Wait!”
cried Nova. “They want to kill everybody on Gamilon?”
Talan stood
there and said, “Yes, what you tried
to do maybe…seven years ago when you attacked us…”
“With all
respect,” said Nova. “I hate to bring this up, because it is a bad memory, but
you dragged us there first! And even
then, I didn’t set out to devastate your planet, and neither did Derek or
Captain Avatar! We just wanted to escape you and get to Iscandar! These people
have a fully formed intent to wipe your people out! That makes things far
worse…”
“Mrs. Wildstar,” snapped Talan. “Genocide
is genocide! We are on the same side
now, but that does not mean I…after all, I lost my dear wife Eloise when you
attacked Gamilon. She was pregnant, like you,
Mrs. Wildstar. That was a tragedy!”
“I could
say the same myself because of that little business with my parents…” began
Derek.
“Would you
people stop this?” said Aliscea.
“Refighting wars from seven years ago isn’t going to help us now, Derek, Nova, and Talan! Desslok is
on Gamilon trying to organize the rest of his forces, but he wants us to see if
we can come up with something first…to do that, we need to make certain some
hatchets remain buried.”
“I
certainly will keep the hatchet buried,” hissed Talan, who bowed. “I pray,
Wildstar, that you are more fortunate with Nova than I was with Eloise.”
“I’m so
sorry to hear about your loss, General Talan,” said Nova as she came over and
took his unwilling gauntleted hands. “You should have told us about this
beforehand; we could have helped you.”
“Nova, I
thank you,” said Talan formally. “I am a warrior, and do not require your help
in dealing with my past. However, the thought is appreciated. I am sorry if you
are.”
Nova
nodded. “Of course we are, aren’t we, Derek?”
“Yeah,”
said Derek as he looked down at his boots. “I’m sorry….”
“Enough,”
said Aliscea. “I think we should consider the present and see how we will stop
the enemy force now. That bomb has to be neutralized.”
“On that,
we all can agree,” said Frausky. “Ideas?”
Wildstar
looked at Talan and stood deep in thought. “Do you have an invasion force
available?”
“We tried
that already, Earthling,” snapped Talan. “The bomb has some sort of energy
field surrounding it. We tried attacking it with Gamilon space tanks; we tried
bombarding it with destroyers; we tried shooting missiles at it, and we tried
sending in ground forces to attack. Nothing can get through that accursed
barrier.”
“Have you
considered SMITE?” said Frausky. “If Desslok’s flagship could SMITE mines into
the field…they could be exploded by radio…that would destroy it…”
“We tried
that already from a carrier….it did not work. The bomb has some kind of
interdict field to keep anything from warping too close to it, and…” said Talan
as Nova suddenly brightened; Derek recognized a look on her face that meant she
had caught on to something. “General?” she said. “I have an idea. Do you have
scans of the field?”
“Of course
we do, Nova,” he snorted. “I’ll bring them up…”
Talan
nodded to one of his men, who was by an Ensign at a
control console in the Argo’s
briefing room. “Here it is. The field stops, for now, at the surface, with a
few meters’ space between the bomb and the field here,
and…”
Nova
smiled. “Stop. Derek, remember that course we took
together in 2203 at the
“That!”
said Derek. “You and that so-called goofy presentation,” he smiled. “Except it
does not seem so goofy now.”
“What is
it?” said Talan.
“Simple,”
said Nova. “You men all missed this in its simplicity. I did a presentation on
a similar theoretical attack problem and how it could be beaten. In theory, of
course. How hard is the rock and soil that makes up Gamilon’s surface there,
near where that drill went in…?”
“It is
workable,” said Talan who finally grasped what Nova was thinking. “Are you
thinking of…?”
Nova
nodded. “Drill under the field, and send in a small team. The team can get into
the Bomb and demolish it…just like we did with the Comet Empire, Derek!”
“We have
more than enough Marines,” said Wildstar.
“I have a
Commando Force I can send you to help,” said Talan. “They will, of course, be
briefed. Briefed and they will be prepared to give their lives for Leader Desslok….”
“No one’s
gonna die if we can help it,” said Commodore Wildstar…
II.
THE WAR STRIKES HOME
Earth
Space
Battleship
Space,
Near Planet Venus
Friday,
July 3, 2207
0502
Hours: Earth Space-Time
“Sir,” said a young woman on the bridge of the
Admiral Yamanami, Commander of the Combined Fleet, came to
attention and saluted. “General. When are we needed?”
“As soon as possible,” said Singleton. “It’s coming in very fast;
it just cleared the Moon Orbit.”
“It will take us twelve minutes,” said Yamanami with his head
bowed. “We have to clear the gravity well of Venus before we can warp. Then,
First Fleet will be eight more minutes away from intercept range at maximum
speed. Third Fleet, near the Mars side of the Asteroid Belt, is the only other
fleet that can intercept them in time. Except for the forces we have on Earth
and the automated fleet, that is.”
“So that is twenty minutes to intercept?”
Yamanami nodded.
“Hmmm…a lot can happen in twenty minutes, Admiral.”
“Let’s pray we get a chance. Where is the Argo and the
“Still in the Sanzar System. But we have not been able to raise
either of them, Admiral,” said Singleton. “All we’re getting is static.
Something has the Sanzar System jammed. We haven’t been able to reach the
Gamilons, either. And the Gamilon Ambassador tells us he is not getting
through, either…”
“Kuso,” muttered
Yamanami. “Then we fight them with what we have. Admiral Jacobi’s in command of
the automated fleet?”
The Commander nodded.
“Let’s pray he can do some damage with those things. I think they
were a big waste of tax money, sir. Especially if the enemy jams communications
in this system like they are doing at Sanzar.”
“They did work better in trials than the battle satellites,”
snapped Singleton. “As for what I think otherwise…”
“I’ll be there soon,” said Yamanami. “We’re at maximum battle
speed.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” said Singleton.
In the meantime, Invidia and Gorse were lining up to attack Earth
itself.
An officer came up to them, saluted, and said,
“Princess…General…we are twelve Terran time-units, known as minutes, away from
achieving orbit of Planet Earth!”
“The plan, Gorse, is to terrorize them into surrender,” she said.
“We will begin by blasting that small continent that we can see here on the
screen.”
“We’re not attacking the
Moon again?” he said.
“That terrorized them last time, but not enough,” said Invidia. “If they see
flame and smoke on their precious world, they will be convinced that we mean business!”
“Princess,” said another messenger. “We have received word from
Skaldart that the Argo is making a
sortie towards Gamilon with her Task Force. What they are doing is unknown…”
“Inform Skaldart he has my permission to activate the Double
Nucleus Bomb on Gamilon whenever he sees fit to do so. And tell him that we
want the Argo finished off at last!”
“Yes, Princess,” said the messenger.
A third messenger ran up. “An Earth fleet is approaching us. It
seems to be controlled by comm signals from Earth.”
“Jam the signals before they can even get to us,” said Gorse.
“This
might be amusing,” laughed Invidia.
“Last time, they tried attacking your fleet with those ridiculous battle satellites, Gorse! Let’s watch and see what
happens….”
Five minutes later, the ships of the EDF’s Automated Fleet
suddenly stopped responding to commands from Earth.
They had gotten just within enough range to start attacking, and
had gotten to fire two shots at the Eritz
Gatlantis, when the jamming field went up.
On Earth, Admiral Jacobi became very upset when he watched his automated
fleet-the space battleships, space cruisers, space destroyers, just ramming
into each other and destroying themselves.
“What happened to the uplink?” he yelled.
“Nothing is getting through, sir!” said one officer at a keyboard.
“”We aren’t able to get the wave motion radio subbands working,
either, sir,” said a female officer as she came up and saluted in her whites.
“All dead, sir. Same with the battle sateliites…”
“Sweet Mother of God,” said Jacobi with tears in his eyes. “We’ve
just failed Earth. Where’s the Defense Fleet?”
“Fourteen minutes away,” said a young officer with his head bowed.
“So….another loss,” sighed Jacobi. He shook his head in anger and
sadness and left the young officers to watch as their mission objectives blew
apart.
“We
are within firing range of Earth,” said an officer aboard the Eritz Gatlantis a few minutes later.
“Commence firing,” said Gorse.
The Eritz Gatlantis’
belt cannons began firing at Earth like mad.
In a moment, hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and
children died screaming in pain as the energy bolts slammed into
The ship fired again and again and again….devastating more and more
of Earth as it attacked.
Two, three more shots came….New Zealand was hit, followed by
The devastation was quick, and cruel. The sky over the Australian
subcontinent grew pitch-black in the night as their winter grew even colder.
Dark clouds filled the sky, and a sudden terrible snow began to fall. But it
was not snow.
It was fallout from what remained of
And, as Invidia watched video of the destruction sent up from
recon Scorpions she had launched, she began laughing her head off.
“They’ll surrender now, Gorse!” she howled. “Look what we have
done to their precious planet!”
“They’ll be easy to gain a surrender from now,” said Gorse. “They
must be running about their Capitol in a panic about now!”
“YES!”
The Cometine officers just laughed at the devastation they had
caused.
“We’ve just lost contact with the ANZAC region!” yelled an officer
in Earth Defense Headquarters.
“Recon satellite estimates ten direct Magna-Flame Cannon hits upon
Earth!” yelled out another officer.
“Comet Empire city now in near orbit of Earth,” reported another
officer.
“Signal
coming in from the
“Put it up on the main screen,” said Commanding General Singleton
as he stood with his head bowed. We
failed, he thought. All this
fighting, all this sacrifice, and we still failed. Now our only hope is that
Admiral Yamanami can stop….that thing….
A moment later, the gloating face of General Gorse appeared on the
main screen in Earth Defense Headquarters. “I am General Gorse, the viceroy of
Princess Invidia over Earth. Your time has run out, people of Earth,” he said with an arrogant smile on his face.
“We have your capital in our sights and we can easily make an adjustment and
begin bombardment at once. We can destroy all life on your planet in a few
hours. Do not underestimate us. Our
patience with you and your resistance has run out. Which one of you is the
Commanding General?”
“I am,” said Singleton.
“I vaguely remember your face, Earthling slime,” said Gorse. “You
were one of those behind your fake surrender of almost six years ago, were you
not?”
“I have no comment on that,” said the Commander. “We surrendered
in good faith.”
“For that comment, you are sentenced to a concentration camp when
we land,” said Gorse. “Now…our offer! Princess Invidia is merciful! We give you
and your government one hour. One hour to surrender and demobilize your fleets.
Just one hour to sign a separate peace and to withdraw from this war and accept
our overlordship. I will have you know that your
Singleton bowed his head. “I need to consult with my President and
Prime Minister. We do not make these decisions alone.”
“Then deliberate, damn you!” said Gorse. “You have fifty-nine
minutes left. We expect an answer soon. The bombardment begins again if we are
attacked.”
Then, the screen went dead.
“Commander,” said General Stone. “Call Yamanami back! Make him
stand down. We have no choice but to…”
Singleton stood with his eyes closed. “Not yet,” said Singleton.
He took a few deep breaths. “Call the President, Stone. General Kohler, how far
away is First Fleet?”
“Four minutes from intercept,” said Kohler, the Intelligence
General.
“Stone, give him a chance…that Comet field is down…if they can hit
that thing with all of their wave motion guns…”
Stone glared at Singleton. “Sir, you are my superior. But I cannot agree with this.”
Singleton glared at him. “Carry out my orders; General. Call the
President!”
“Three minutes to intercept!” said an officer. “No! Second vessel
spotted. Range, nine hundred megameters from Earth and closing!”
“Put it on the screen,” said Singleton.
He did. Singleton’s heart almost stopped.
It was another Black Dreadnaught. A ship like Zordar’s. A ship
that looked just like the one that had devastated
The enemy, it appeared, had more resources than they knew of.
“Two minutes to intercept!” said an officer. “First Fleet picked
up on long-range radar! Third Fleet taking station behind it!”
“Main gun coming down on the Dreadnaught,” said another officer.
“Main siege cannon powering up…”
“They were supposed to give us an hour,” said Singleton out loud
as the President’s face came up on his small screen.
“What?” said the President as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes.
“Mister President,” said Singleton. “Earth is surrounded. The New
Comet is in orbit and has already blasted
President Mendellsohn shut his eyes. This will be a hard decision, he thought. Can I dare make it myself? But we have no time to consult with anyone
else…for better or for worse, in my hands, now…is the very fate of Earth…
III.
THE FATE OF THE
Planet
Gamilon
Desslok’s
Command Center
Friday,
July 3, 2207
0536
Hours: Earth Space-Time
In
his Palace on Gamilon, Leader Desslok sat behind a desk with a major headache.
He had left his underground bunker to face Keeling and the Council on his own
with Astrena and Dellar. He had just received an ultimatum of his own from
Skaldart, who called himself “The Viceroy of Gamilon” now. Surrender, or we activate the Hyperon Bomb on your world, was what
the ultimatum said.
“Astrena,” he said. “I thought nothing else could ever be more of
a humiliation to me than what Avatar did to Gamilon years ago. It appears I was
wrong. Invidia has done far worse…”
“Invidia is merely one of the commanders,” said Astrena as she
stood holding her crying son. “She is not the sole author of this pain and
disgrace…and we know that…”
“Sir,” said an officer as he saluted. “Talan reports that a
commando team is ready to attempt an assault on the Bomb. They are leaving the Argo in a few minutes. Commodore
Wildstar also states he is soon launching an attack upon the enemy Command
Gorba with his entire Task Force…”
“Good news,” said Keeling. He then turned to Desslok. “They had
better have timed this so that the Bomb is defused before they try to attack
that Fortress.”
“I am sure they are,” said Desslok. “To be sure, let me contact
Wildstar myself….”
Astrena turned to Desslok and said, “I have something to tell you
about the plan, Desslok.”
“Yes?”
“It was devised by a bright and devious mind…almost as an
afterthought.”
“Oh?” said Desslok. “Do tell. Who devised this plan?”
“You might find this interesting,” she said. “This is what I sense
the plan is, and…”
On the Argo, which was
in space near Gamilon, Homer twisted his head about just a few minutes later.
“Commodore! Message from Gamilon! They’re somehow getting through the jamming
at short range!”
“Put him on the main screen,” said Wildstar.
The
bridge crew came to attention and saluted as Desslok’s familiar visage came up
on the screen.
“Leader Desslok,” said Wildstar. “They just left the ship.”
“Who is in command?” said Desslok.
“Talan and Frausky took command of your team,” said Derek. “My own
Commander Sandor is in command of our team, along with Lieutenant Commander
Paul Rosstowski from the
“A wise choice,” said Desslok. “We only ask you to hold off on
attacking Skaldart frontally until the bomb is defused.”
“We’re not planning a frontal attack,” said Wildstar. “We’re
attacking one of those Cometine fleets behind Gamilon as a diversion. That
should give the team time to get into that bomb and shut it down.”
“I pray that our plan works…the fate of both our worlds rests in
the hands of our warriors at this point…Nova…Astrena tells me you helped
formulate this plan?”
“Yes, I did, Desslok,” said Nova with a nod from her post at the
Cosmo-Radar.
“It is an odd strategem…but a good one,” he said. “I compliment
you on its simplicity and deviousness.”
“Thank you…even though I won’t be doing that much to carry it out
from here on the Argo…”
“Except supporting the operation. That is important. Commodore
Wildstar, see to it that you are in position soon…we will keep you posted on
the team’s progress.”
“Thank you, Desslok,” said Derek.
Soon,
the Argo’s screen went dark.
A moment later, Nova’s screen began to bleep. She tapped her space
boot with a release of tension as she looked down at her screen and began to
analyze the situation within two seconds.
“Enemy objects detected!” she said. “Approaching Task Force at
high speed from starboard bow at thirty degrees! Range, eight megameters,
speed, thirty-two space knots! Tracks and pattern indicate torpedoes! I think
they were fired from subspace submarines, Derek!”
“Good analysis, Nova! Mister Kitano!” snapped Wildstar. “Hard
about forty degrees-comb the torpedo tracks! Bando, open up subspace sonar! Homer,
open channels to the rest of the Fleet! Domon, Nishina, ready all weapons!
Yamazaki, ready engines for maximum power! Nova, Eager, continue scanning!”
“Yessir!” they all snapped.
At that, the Argo and
her task force turned. Just as the landing boats carrying the commandoes
launched, the Argo and her escorts
were back in battle once again.
But, they were tied down; unaware of the peril to Earth herself…
Near Earth, one minute had run out.
On the
The
Earth fleets made formation as Yamanami had commanded. The Second Squadron of First
Fleet, led by the Andromeda-class
space battleship Phoenix, was the
first to come to position with her other battleships and cruisers to commence
the attack.
“This is Commodore Richland,” said the skipper of the
“Prepare to face enemy fire…you’re the vanguard of the fleet,”
said Yamanami as he made a hand motion for his helmsman to stop. “I’m getting
under it to attack it from the bottom…”
“Energy level eighty percent!” said
“Enemy Dreadnaught spotted!” cried the young woman at the
“Hopefully…we’ll get them, too,” said
“So, they’re trying to be desperate and fight to the last ship and
the last man?” said Gorse. “Princess, I think the time has come to just blast
their capital! Then to blast their damned planet! They are too dangerous to be
allowed to live a moment longer! That Ekogaru was right!”
“And leave ourselves open to attack?” snapped Invidia. “I may be
young, Gorse. Do you think I am that stupid?
Commence counterattack upon enemy fleet!”
“Princess,” said Gorse.
Invidia glared at him. “Do not forget who is still in command
here, Gorse! Commence counterattack upon…”
“Princess! Dreadnaught spotted in effective firing range!” said an
officer as he ran up. “Its siege cannon is pointed right at us! Along with its
main guns!”
“Who…?” hissed Invidia.
“Signal
from the Dreadnaught,” said a lower-ranking officer. “Requesting to speak
directly to the Princess!”
“What?” hissed Invidia.
She looked down at the deck screen as a familiar face came up on
the screen. “Radnar?” she screamed.
“I recommend you stand down,” said Radnar. “Unless you want us to
finish you off first!”
“Never!” barked Invidia.
“Good, Heretic! Let it be on thy own head! MAIN BATTERIES, OPEN
FIRE!” yelled Radnar. “TARGET, ERITZ
GATLANTIS!”
And, at that, the Purification
majestically turned….
…and loosed all of her main guns at Invidia before Commodore
Richland could quite figure out what was happening!
Gun turret after gun turret went off, over and over and over
again!
The
Eritz Gatlantis began to take heavy
damage right before a shocked Commodore Richland’s eyes just as a small fleet
was spotted coming forth from it.
“What the…?” he said.
“Sir!” barked his Executive Officer, a young man known as Captain
Ryan Morell. “The enemy ship is firing…at their
own ship? Estimate if we fire the wave guns now, we will hit them!”
“A battle between their own forces?” said
“Yessir!” said Morell. “Cease wave gun firing sequence! Repeat! Cease wave gun firing sequence! All
ships, open all guns! Commence attack on the bottom of the Eritz Gatlantis and the rotating belt! Make preparations to inflict
maxiumum damage before it raises its shields!”
And, at that, the
TEN
MINUTES LATER….
On
Planet Gamilon….
Talan and Rosstowski’s team landed only about two kilometers away
from the Hyperon Bomb on Gamilon as the sun began to come up.
“We’re going to split up,” said Talan in a whisper as he huddled
with the group. “Sandor…Rosstowski…your group will go in at the southern side.
My group will take the north. Our plan is to meet in the middle here, inside the fusing chamber,” he
said as he pointed to a blueprint of the device that Frausky and Aliscea had
acquired from a combination of physical and psionic scans. Aliscea leaned
against Paul as she heard the instructions. She was tired, but she and Sasha
were needed in case the enemy had any R’Khell R’jkharraz psionic warriors waiting for them inside the infernal
device.
“Whichever one of us gets here first turns it off,” said Sandor as
he nodded at Rosstowski.
Talan nodded. “We had a little bit of a time getting in here
because of those Tripod Tanks they have. Luckily, our Rotjager squadron fought its way in, aided by a flight of your
Deke nodded at that. I
didn’t particularly want to come back here after that crap the other day,
he thought. Now, I’m fighting with these
guys…to free Gamilon! Oh well, guess I can’t choose our allies. And I don’t
like the green and mechanical guys any more than the Gamilons do. We can all
agree on that.
“Let’s go,” said Rosstowski as Sasha leaned against Deke, made
sure her gunbelt was secure, and felt the heft of the unconventional Pellian
sidearm she had been issued. She had been told it had a bit more range than a
usual EDF Astro-Automatic. This would prove to help her later on….
They went in a moment later. They began to drill, using laser
drills wielded by the EDF Space Marines on their side and the strongest of the
Gamilons and Garumans on Talan’s side.
Aliscea Rosstowski herself wielded such a laser drill. It took a
while, and she was tempted to just use her Pellian abilties to help them. However, she thought as she smiled at
her lifemate Paul, I’ve been using so
much energy to help shield the Argo and
Not
far away, 500 killometers directly overhead in orbit, as a matter of fact, the Argo and her Task Force were in quite a
battle with an unseen enemy as they fought a squadron of R’Khell and Cometine
space submarines that were busy attacking them.
An EDF and a Gamilon destroyer were already lost in battle as
torpedo after torpedo slammed into the Argo
and the
“So where are they?”
asked Wildstar.
“I’ve picked up two squadrons on sonar,” said Bando. “One is half
a megameter off at RPX-225, the other is off to starboard at WRA-105 one megameter
away. They’re closing in fast…”
“Torpedoes coming in from RPX-224,” said Nova. “Enemy confirmed at
that point!”
“Aiming wave missiles at that point,” said Nishina.
The Argo’s hedgehog missiles
locked on to that point and were ready to fire. The deck tubes opened, and
Nishina fired.
The missiles fired, and four R’Khell submarines surfaced.
“The enemy’s surfaced!” said Eager.
“Lock main guns on that point!” snapped Commodore Wildstar.
The
Argo’s guns turned and locked on.
“Main guns locked!” said Domon.
“FIRE!” barked Wildstar.
The main guns went off, shooting deadly energy right at the
submarines.
Not far away, the
Then, a moment later, Nova cried out, “Enemy fleet approaching!
Range, nine megameters! They just executed a warp! Identified as Black Nebulan!
Four space battleships and twelve destroyers!”
“Pinned down,” said Wildstar as he slammed his Captain’s desk with
an angry fist. “Domon, fire at will!”
“We’re going as fast as we can,” said Domon. “Request permission
to switch Turret One to Wave Cartridges for the heavies!”
“Granted,” said Wildstar. Then, he turned to Homer and said,
“Homer, call the other ships…execute Seven Bravo!”
“Roger that,” said Domon.
A moment later, as the
“Thank Destiny for small favors,” said Derek with a small grin.
Nova grinned back before turning back to the task at hand.
This battle was going to take a while…
And
what, thought Wildstar…what if
those Gorbas show up again? Why are they holding them back?
IV.
THE DISASTROUS
Over
Planet Earth
Friday,
July 3, 2207
0549
Hours: Earth Space-Time
The
On the
In the meantime, the
The city-ship’s gun belt had taken damage from several wave motion
cartridge hits; enough damage to temporarily still the heavy Magna-Flame
cannons as technicians, mechanics and slaves frantically worked inside the
massive ship to bring the heavy guns back up on-line.
With the gun-belt stilled, the city-ship’s heavy lower turrets
were taking up the brunt of the defense of the ship as the Earth Defense Fleet
blasted at the bottom, while Radnar and a few EDF planes attacked the top of
the ship.
Within the Eritz Gatlantis,
an officer handed a report to Gorse. He nodded and turned to Invidia.
“It will take them twelve time-units to get the main belt
repaired, Princess and get the gas shield back up. We cannot re-ignite the
Comet and crush Earth unless that field is up protecting the towers of the city
from the reactions. If Radnar gets the Earth Fleet to withdraw so he can use
his Siege Cannon on us, we’ll be done for after maybe five or six hits.
Recommend that we withdraw.”
“Warp out in our moment of triumph?” said Invidia.
Gorse nodded as another readout came up. An officer explained,
“General! The Second Squadron is pulling back. Radnar is changing position, and
the rest of the Earth Fleet is coming about. They must be coordinating
resources to fire their wave guns at us…”
“Recommend we warp out,” said Gorse.
Invidia gritted her teeth and then snapped. “All right! Warp us
out!”
“Destination?”
“Edge of the Sanzar System! We need to make repairs!”
Gorse nodded glumly.
A
moment later, before the shocked eyes of Radnar and Yamanami, the Eritz Gatlantis warped out.
It was 0552 Hours.
Incredibly, Earth had managed to scare Invidia off…with the help
of other Cometines!
Yamanami closed his eyes and thought, We’ve won this. But what is that Dreadnaught going to do?
“Stand down, sir?” asked Yamanami’s XO.
“No…not until we know what they want,” said Yamanami as he gestured
angrily towards Radnar’s ship. “Just a precaution, of course…”
The XO of the
Planet
Gamilon….
0620
Hours, Earthtime…
Sandor
and Rosstowski’s team broke the surface at about the same time that the
Gamilons broke through at the same side.
They were safely in…on the other side of the shield, just as Nova
Wildstar had postulated.
Not far away, what seemed like hundreds of Black Nebulan troopers
were firing, to try to keep them down as they went up ladders into the Bomb like
rats.
Sasha gritted her teeth as a Marine right beside her was struck
down and fell screaming to his death.
Behind Sasha, Deke climbed up the rope and rod ladder, and he got
onto a terrace of the Device just as the enemy fired at him and Sasha. He used
DJ, his old Shetland, to pump holes into several Black Nebulans at close range
when his AK-01A Laser Carbine froze up.
“Cheap piece of crap,” he muttered. “Give me my old weapon any
day…”
“You’re sure attached to that thing,” Sasha said.
“It’s saved my life more times than you care to know about,” he
snapped back.
“Life takes us to crazy places, doesn’t it, Deekee?” she
whispered.
“It’s that way,” said Aliscea as she ran up in her yellow and
black Living Group uniform. Deke thought he was looking at Nova for a split
second until he realized that Aliscea had a slightly different (and somehow
more alien) stance than his youngish Aunt had.
“We’re agreed,” said Sandor. “Rosstowski! GO!”
Paul nodded, and he hunkered down and threw a very big grenade.
They ducked as it went off and blew a hatch.
They ran into the mysterious, darkened corridors of the Bomb,
followed by their Marines and pilots.
“This place gives me the creeps,” said Rosstowski.
“You’re not the only one,” said
“Aliscea!” cried Sasha as a strong impression came to her. “Look out!”
“What?” said Aliscea as she looked around.
Then, a hatch opened up below her booted feet, and she fell down
into a hole.
“ALISCEA!” cried Paul. “ALISCEA!”
He tried to jump in after her, but the manhole hatch slammed shut
before his face. He slammed his fist against the hatch and roared in utter
rage.
“A SETUP!” he yelled. “Sandor, sir, I’m goin’ after her!”
“No,” said Sasha in a suddenly strong voice.
“WHY NOT!” he barked.
“Don’t you dare speak to my mate like that!” roared back Deke as
he got a sudden impulse to smack Rosstowski’s head in.
“She’s needed down there,” said Sasha. “She’ll do her best and
make her way back to us. Just trust me.”
“How do you know that?” said Paul.
“Because I have my own appointment with Destiny,” huffed Sasha.
“Or, rather….we do. C’mon, Deke. I’ve
had dreams about this…”
“Dreams about what?” said Sandor.
“This morning,” said Sasha. “Some of them are nice. Some were
very, very, very bad.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” said Deke.
“Be very glad Auntie’s not running around in here with us,” said
Sasha. “If she had been pigheaded enough to come on this little tour despite
her delicate condition, I’ve already dreamed that she’d be leaving Gamilon in a
box carried by six guys. For obvious reasons, I didn’t tell her or Uncle about that dream…”
“Oh, nice,” said Sandor.
“Who else have you had dreams about?” said Paul.
“None of your business,” said Sasha as she walked along with her helmeted
nose up in the air.
Rosstowski shook his head in disgust as he followed Sandor.
Aliscea fell into a darkened room. The reddish lights came up as
soon as she hit the deck.
She recognized the sickening aura of the Person in the room at
once.
“Nice place to run into you, your Lordship,” she snapped.
“I’m so glad to be here,” purred Ekogaru as he came up in
Stovall’s rotten body. The body of the treasonous Marine already looked five
years older. “Aliscea, dear, you and I need to talk.”
“About what?” she
sneered as she tore off her helmet and let her longish hair fly free.
“Surrender,” said Ekogaru. “You, of all people, should know what I
offer you and the others. The offer is still valid. Call this a family quarrel,
my dear.”
“Your Princess Invidia just failed near Earth and she’s running
home to you like a mangy cur bitch with her tail betwixt her legs,” sneered
Aliscea. “Your plan to trap us here didn’t work. Earth fought her off without
us. And Radnar is back. You don’t know what to do about Radnar, do you?”
“Everything proceeds as I have foreseen,” said Ekogaru. “Yes, this
body I am in; it is dying. I have several fine possible replacements in mind.
Another two or three Space Marines. A Gamilon or two. Your dear Auntie Nova, if
I can break through her stubborn love for that stupid Samurai Captain of hers
and corrupt her soul. And, last of all, a new fellow who is almost in my hands
already.”
“Who?” said Aliscea.
“Hartcliffe. Your dear drunken friend Bryan Hartcliffe. He is
young. Younger than this one. Dissolute, and really stupid, too. But a good
pilot, an expert warrior. All too easy to corrupt him. I’d rather work on Nova.
She’d be more of a project. She’s so innocent. So sweet. Corrupting her soul would be lots of fun. And I hate her more.
But, any port in a storm, shall we say?”
“If that is what you get pleasure from, you make me sick,” said Aliscea as tears ran down
her face…and she realized she was crying for the Dark Lord!
“Enough talking,” said Ekogaru as he yawned…and then extended his
hands. “Let’s have a discussion, shall we? This place is, shall we say, too big
for both of us?”
“I agree with you, you son-of-a-bitch,”
said Aliscea with a grim smile as she extended her own hands….
Sandor and his team fought off a few more Black Nebulans as Sasha
began to get a weird feeling about this place.
Finally, they were in a large room before a big black cylindrical
object.
Sasha and Deke jumped as someone came out of the shadows, and then
put up his hand in a Gamilon salute. It was Talan.
“The area is secured,” he said as he motioned Frausky up.
Sandor looked at his readout and said, “It’s here.”
Frausky nodded. “The detonator switch is behind that hatch. Sasha,
would you like to do the honors?”
Sasha nodded and waited as Frausky and Sandor undid a latch and
opened up a large round hatch.
She was looking at a large amount of machinery as she took off her
helmet to see better and also removed her space gloves to work better.
“Where
is it?” she asked.
“There,” said Frausky as he looked at a blueprint. “That small
primer unit unscrews at those two points. Unscrew it and you shut this thing
down.”
Sasha nodded as she worked the device. She put her slender hands
up, and undid the device.
It took only a moment, but she took it out.
She smiled at Deke as she held up the small device and then tossed
it to the deck and smashed it neatly to scrap under her black boot.
Then, all the lights in the room went dim, and several hatches
slammed shut.
Fiendish laughter filled the room as a deep voice said, from the
shadows, “Welcome to Black Nebulan capivity, my dear friends! As you can see, you think you turned it off. Wrong. I
have another device in my command ship that I can use. But, first, I am going
to take a few captives, and…”
Then, a figure strode forth and laughed at Sasha.
He
was tall, blue, bald, and very ugly as he stood there in red and white robes.
“Skaldart,” said Talan. “I recognize your ugly face from that
arrogant communication you sent Leader Desslok!”
“I am not here to deal with you, yet, Gamilon,” Skaldart sneered.
He snapped his fingers and twelve Black Nebulan guards appeared from the
shadows and pointed weapons at the Gamilons and Terrans. “Sasha, my dear
Princess,” he said as he levelled his weapon at her. “Ekogaru is dealing with
Aliscea. I have been given the task to deal…with..you…first….kindly surrender, would you?”
Sasha smiled at him, dropped off her gunbelt, and then acted as if
she was going to hand him her gun….
…and then, she kicked out at him, kicked his own sidearm from his
hand with a high-kick move her Aunt Nova had taught her, and then she grabbed
it and flew behind a panel, ducking and rolling as Skaldart shot at her with another
sidearm he took from one of his own men.
“SASHA!” yelled Deke in rage as he jumped to her aid with DJ up.
“SASHA!”
Down below, in the Bomb, the room where Ekogaru and Aliscea were
was filled with flame and smoke as the two psychic paladins shot energy and
flame at each other. Both of them were scorched, singed, and had their clothes
hanging off them in burned tatters as they tried their best to kill each other
at last.
Aliscea snarled as she shot flame from her hands in Ekogaru’s
face. The Dark Lord screamed as Stovall’s features were marred by the fire, but
he recovered and shot blue flame at Aliscea, setting her hair on fire.
Aliscea jumped in the remains of her boots, which looked as
tattered on her feet as battered legwarmers. She jumped and rolled, putting out
the fire as she grunted, absorbed the energy, and then fired again and again.
Ekogaru’s pants were practically burned off of him as Aliscea hit
him in the crotch. He screamed in agony as Stovall was practically emasculated
by the fire, but he shot back, shooting flame into Aliscea’s face.
One of Aliscea’s eyes was blinded and some of her bangs were
burned off as she absorbed the flame in agony, snarling with rage as she came
up and began to strangle Ekogaru barehanded. She kicked him down and ground the
bare, soot-blackened toes of her right foot into the Dark One’s face and then kicked
him twice in the head with the ball of her foot.
Ekogaru roared like a beast and wriggled out of what remained of
his clothes. Naked now, he made Stovall’s body gleam with light as he transformed
him into some sort of Beast, a monstrous Thing with black fur and rending claws
that looked like a nightmare cross between a bear and a gorilla. He went to
tear out Aliscea’s throat with his fangs, but she twisted her head and instead
caught his fangs in her near-naked shoulder, screaming in agony and rage as
blood spurted from her wounded shoulder and back.
With her waning strength, Aliscea boosted the power of her slender
form and tore the Beast off of her. Ekogaru transmuted his form again into
something weird, green, and reptilian as he went for Aliscea with a mouth
filled with pointed teeth.
Aliscea found a stick and jammed it into the sickening monster’s
throat and then shot lightning right into his eyes. The Monster form of Ekogaru
roared with animalistic rage as he stood blinded, and then used his senses to
blast energy from his taloned hands into Aliscea’s heart.
The energy burned Aliscea’s uniform off even more, but she somehow
kept her heart beating, as, with a howl of rage, she called upon all of her
remaining energy and the knowledge of her ancestors through the Matrix of
Pellias to shoot the energy back at the Monster.
Ekogaru’s monstrous form burned like a torch as he screamed…and
Aliscea grabbed hard at a small Sphere of crystal she saw in his taloned hands.
“NOOO!” he roared as he almost, almost lost the Sphere, the locus
of his power, to Aliscea. He kicked at her, ripping claw marks into Aliscea’s
almost-bare stomach with his clawed toes as he threw down the Sphere. Before
Aliscea could grab for it, he made his essence, the ka of the corrupt body he indwelt, shrink down into the globe and
he then made it disappear.
Aliscea fell to the deck, grabbing at the Sphere with her fingers
as Ekogaru made it vanish.
“DAMN YOU!” she roared as she slammed her fists into the deck in
utter rage. “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!”
Aliscea cursed, cried, and screamed as she flashed out in a
fearsome blast of energy as she used much of her remaining power to transform
into pure energy for a moment. She thought of reforming her body, and she
emerged, a moment later, healed, whole, but still blackened with soot, naked,
and suddenly very cold as she vomited up her breakfast with the effort of
getting up.
Aliscea blinked her reformed eye as she shivered and found the
remains of the black sleeved cloak Ekogaru had been wearing. She pulled the
smelly robe around her naked body as a sole garment to hold in her body heat,
tied it shut with a small bit of what remained of Stovall’s web belt, and then
she got up on her trembling bare feet, leaned against the wall, and began to
cry her eyes out in exhaustion and frustration.
I
almost had him, she thought. I ALMOST HAD HIM! OH, PAUL! Aliscea thought through her bond with
her mate. Damnit, I almost had him!
“Aliscea?”
said Paul in a whisper as he then watched the scene before him.
Skaldart fired once at Sasha, who ducked behind another panel.
Beautiful and desperate, she fired back at him with her captured Black Nebulan
sidearm, hitting the Black Nebulan leader in the stomach.
He roared at her, and fired.
The beam would have hit her, except for
“I’ll apologize later,” he snapped. Then, he popped up before the leering
Skaldart like a jack-in-the-box. “Say Hi to Zordar for me, you son-of-a-bitch!”
he yelled.
He then blasted several holes in Skaldart’s body with DJ and then
blasted the remainder of his clip into the Black Nebulan’s head. It exploded in
a mess of machine parts, bone, gristle, flesh, and brain matter that splattered
over one of the panels.
Talan nodded, and his Gamilon guards turned on the Black Nebulans,
sharpshooting them into trash in about twenty seconds.
Finally, there was silence, broken only by the sound of a
thunderclap as Aliscea reappeared in their midst, hung onto Paul, hugged and
kissed him, and then said, “Nice job, Sasha. But HE is still alive.”
“Ekogaru?” Sasha said.
Aliscea nodded. “I almost had his damn globe in my hands to break
it. It is the foundation of his power now. You smash that thing, you finish him.
For good. Is the Bomb turned off?”
Sandor nodded. “I think
it is,” said Sandor.
“Hello?” said Wildstar’s voice, suddenly very clear, over Sandor’s
headset.
“Wildstar! We’re picking you up clearly now! What happened?”
“The jamming field is gone,” said Derek. “It’s because the enemy
just ran.”
“Hmmm?” said Sandor.
“They warped out; the Gorbas, their fleet, everything, Nova just
said so. When they warped, the field came down. They gave up. We think. Why?”
“Ekogaru…is gone…” said Aliscea. “Not dead. But Skaldart is dead.
Sasha and Deke got him. And I messed up Ekogaru something good. He left the
system a moment later, presumably aboard that command fortress. He must have taken
the rest of his fleet with him. It’s over. We won. We drove them off.”
“What about the bomb?” said Sandor.
“I’m scanning it now,” said Nova’s voice over the speakers. Sandor
thought he detected a smile in her voice as she said, “The last carrier wave
connecting to that thing just turned off. It’s shut down! They abandoned it! Why?”
“Yes…why?” said Sandor. “It makes no sense…”
“Ekogaru was augmenting the link with his power,” said Aliscea as
she shut her eyes. “He’s too far out of range, so it shut down. Talan, I’d
recommend that you get your men and Frausky’s men to dismantle every last piece
of electronics in this device before they can reactivate it. Then blow it up.”
“We will do so,” said Talan as he saluted. “Once again, my
friends, Gamilon owes you a debt. Thank you for liberating us.”
“Just a day’s work,” sighed Deke as Sasha held onto him. “Just
another day’s work….”
TO
BE CONTINUED….
To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here