Edge of the Vortex Page 24

  Hulo bowed his head slightly. “As you wish.”

  Keegan took a deep breath, and look at Hulo for a second before looking back across the room to the Prime Minister. He was sitting there with a receding hairline and a bald spot on the back of his head. He was a rather unimpressive figure who had a background as a teacher and from what Keegan understood, was someone who relied too much on his counsel.

  “Mr Prime Minister. It is my opinion that the War of Succession is no longer about who controls the Empire, or what’s left of the Empire. The war that has come to our door is the result of a small group of individuals on the side of the Alliance attempting to draw the war out for political and monetary gains.” That sent a shockwave through the room. “As we speak Colonel Joe Hunt and Doctor Rhea Stokes are investigating this possibility.” He looked at Hulo who looked shell-shocked. “I believe that the Coalition presence on Earth is because of something they discovered when they dropped in their reconnaissance teams a few months ago. They found something, something that could tip the course of the war in their favour. A war that has regressed their technology and from what I have been told, driven their societies backwards.

  “I believe that if a dialogue could be established between the two factions, peace could be obtained, but there are probably too many entrenched people at the top on each side who are hell-bent on winning the war. My recommendation to yourself, Mr Prime Minister, and the other leaders of Earth is that we need to strengthen our hand first before any negotiations of peace happen. We need to liberate the planet, and that will not be easy. The fact that the Alliance forces in the system bugged out so quickly leads me to conclude that they are not willing to shed a considerable amount of blood for this planet. That concerns me greatly about the prospects of rescue. Unconventional methods may be required to achieve the result we want.” Keegan shook his head and looked around the room. “We also need to make contact with the Planetary Command Ship and Lord Soturi and Sector Prefect Dinalis who are both onboard. Both will be critical to any attempt to free this planet from the grasp of the Coalition.

  Keegan reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around the memory stick that held Ryan’s mind. “We’re running out of time, Mr Prime Minister. The longer we stay under the yolk of the Coalition, the better chance there is that things on Earth fall apart even further. Things can only get worse. Today they want one thing. Tomorrow, something else. Before you know it our planet and all its resources have been stripped to the bone. And I mean all resources. Including the inhabitants.”

  The room was silent. Hulo who was sitting next to Keegan leaned in slightly and whispered in his ear. “How do you know all of that?”

  Keegan looked at Hulo with a perplexed look on his face. “I don’t know.” He tried to think back to the last time he was on the PCS. What had Ranix told him? Or was it something he had heard during a conversation with Sector Prefect Dinalis and Lord Soturi?

  “How long do you think we have, Doctor?” General Perkins asked.

  Keegan shook his head. “Impossible to tell. The Coalition could be conducting a full survey of the planet and system as we speak, and once that is complete, they start harvesting what they need. The best we can do is be ready for the counter-attack, whenever it comes.”

  Before another concern could be raised, one of the Tohil engineers burst into the conference room waving a piece of paper hysterically in the air. “They replied!” He shouted, a giant smile on his face.

  “For Christ’s sake, Jefferson, what’s going on?” John Robert yelled at the man.

  “The drone just received a reply.” Jefferson said, the smile stretching across his face.

  “And?” The Prime Minister shot of his seat. “Read it, man. Read it!”

  The excited engineer calmed himself and looked down at the four words that he had scrawled on the paper. “Help is coming. Hunt.”

  The room fell into absolute silence. The Prime Minister sat back down in his chair, while Jefferson handed the note to John Robert. One of the general’s present leaned forward.

  “Could this be a ruse by the Coalition?”

  Hulo shook his head. “They wouldn’t waste their time with that.” Hulo looked at Jefferson. “Was Lak there when the transmission came in?” He asked, referring to his comms expert.

  The engineer nodded.

  Hulo looked back to the Prime Minister. “If my man says that it’s authentic, then it’s genuine.”

  John Robert lit up another cigarette and blew the smoke towards the ceiling. “I’ve never been to Kansas.” He said with a smile on his face.

  The chief of the army looked at the PM, then down at the guests. “The plan is to link up with the US First Infantry Division and plan a strike on the structure that the Coalition set up not far from their base.”

  “Watch it turn out to be a weather tower.” Sergeant Wilson said dryly.

  The general shook his head. “Doubtful, son. The Yanks have had eyes on this thing since the day of the invasion. They say that it is well defended and that it gets frequent visitors from orbit. Possibly maintenance teams.”

  “Kansas.” Keegan said under his breath. He looked at Hulo and then over to Doctor Stephenson. “I guess we’re going to Kansas.”

  The convoy bound for Fort Riley, Kansas had departed in a line of four 18-wheelers, two that had come down from the Tohil facility, plus two additional trucks loaded with equipment for the 2359 kilometre drive. Communications between Ottawa and the headquarters of the First Infantry Division had been suspect at the best of times, but the Pentagon had reassured Doctor Beck that there would be a reception committee waiting for them in Kansas.

  Keegan had ridden in the lead vehicle with John Robert and Doctor Stephenson. They needed a fourth for bridge and enlisted the help of one of the Canadian soldiers to help them stay entertained for the roughly twenty-hour journey. The Alliance troops had been spread out evenly among the four vehicles, along with the rest of the Tohil engineers and scientists.

  As the hands of cards had been dealt, Keegan hadn’t stopped wondering where the road they were on would lead them. Was salvation near at hand, or were they going to spend the rest of their lives waiting for something that was never going to come?

  44

  Earth Orbit/Australia

  12 April

  Sajoba was warming to his new position incredibly quickly. He always liked being in command, and he also detested having to ask for permission to get things accomplished. It almost reminded him of his days on Rancor when he had his own ships and could free-lance however he pleased. Now that Varus was side-lined as his second, he had full sway over his own system. Once Casix had departed, he ordered all available survey assets to complete a full scan of every planet, moon, or rock in the system to double and then triple check for value. If there was something there, he wanted to know about it. Imperator Casix had been clear that once a full accounting of the system had been completed, mining ships and other resources would be deployed to help harvest what was on offer.

  That left him with discovering the actual value of the blue ball that was floating in space in front of his command ship, but before he ordered a full-scale exploitation survey of the planet, a redundancy, he remembered that he had inserted some Wind Stalkers into some remote section of the globe. He loved the idea of biological weapons, but he couldn’t remember what happened to his little side project. Walking over to a monitoring station on the bridge, Sajoba asked for a real-time image of the section of the world where he had deployed the eggs.

  “Can you bring up the inception zone?” He asked.

  “Real-time or previous footage?” The operator asked.

  “Playback from initial inception.” Sajoba ordered.

  The footage from all points of interest on the planet was of the highest quality, and he could clearly see the dropship cut down from orbit and land at the pre-designated coordinates. He watched as the eggs were positioned with care by the droids. The process took longer than Sajoba exp
ected, but he enjoyed watching the droids go about their methodical business. Eventually, the robots boarded the dropship, and disappeared from view, returning to orbit.

  “Scroll forward until they hatch.” Sajoba instructed.

  A few seconds later he was looking at the queen, which was the alpha, as she hatched from its shell. It took more time than Sajoba had expected for the rest of the creatures to hatch. He was told that they should all be combat ready within a very small window of each other. No matter, he thought to himself. The beasts didn’t leave their hatching zone until all the Wind Stalkers were out and ready for movement, and once they were, they moved off with purpose towards the coast and the nearest inhabited town. Just like he had planned.

  Once the Wind Stalkers got moving, they raced west and hit their first town with the speed and ferocity that he had expected. They tore through every domicile tracking down every living organism and making it dead without mercy or second thought. After they cleared the town, they moved off again towards the next town, but here something unexpected happened. They met armed resistance.

  Sajoba leaned forward until his face was only a short distance from the screen. “What the!”

  Sajoba stood upright and stormed back to his command chair shouting towards the rafters. “Ready my shuttle!” He barked at no one in particular.

  “Sir, you need to review these.”

  “Silence. My shuttle!”

  He cut off the junior bridge officer and walked off the bridge, leaving a rather stunned crew, with the exception of one: Sector Commander Varus had been sitting at an engineer station for the last few hours looking over information being fed to the command ship regarding mineral deposits and whatnot found in the system. He had watched Sajoba as he took an interest in the Wind Stalkers he had deployed against Varus’s wishes. Varus knew that Sajoba was reckless. Now it was a question of how much damage he’d create after his ascendency to the throne of the Sol System.

  The shuttle was already prepped, and the journey down to the planet’s surface did not take long. Sajoba had stopped to put on his light-weight body armour and grabbed a helmet that would allow him to breathe on the surface. Inside his mind, he was raging with anger. This planet was now his, how dare the local insects oppose his reign?

  The town of Mundaring had never garnered global attention, and perhaps in this post-alien invasion world it never would, but it had just been the first place on the planet to successfully repel an alien attack without Alliance assistance. But they were about to discover that with success comes notoriety, and that can sometimes spell doom.

  The shuttle touched down in the middle of the intersection of the Great Eastern Highway and Stoneville Road. Those locals that hadn’t fled deeper into the bush after the attack on Sydney, and then the Wind Stalkers were going about their usual business when the red colour spacecraft landed in the intersection. There was hardly any vehicular traffic moving, but there were enough people to cause a small gathering when the shuttle finally cut its engines.

  Superintendent Chalmers was taking his dog Raleigh for his morning foot patrol of the town with one of his deputies when he saw the shuttle touching down. The town had just repulsed an attack by some form of horrible alien monsters. He suspected that retribution would follow.

  Chalmers walked over to the Dome Café and headed inside, ordered himself a coffee, then proceeded back outside, and joined the gathering of town folk around the shuttle. His deputy, Sarah Ferguson was standing behind him, her hand on her Glock 22 in her hip holster.

  “It’s red, boss.” She said, leaning forward. “Bad guys use red, boss.”

  Chalmers nodded. “Take Raleigh.” He said, passing the leash to Ferguson.

  “Coffee’s ready, Teddy!” Came a shout from the café.

  Chalmers looked over his shoulder at the young owner who was waving his coffee in the air.

  “Sarah. Keep an eye on that thing. I need to fetch my coffee.” Teddy Chalmers said calmly, giving the stationary shuttle a final look before walking back towards the café to retrieve his coffee.

  Inside the café, patrons were all glued to the action that was happening outside. They were all armed with rifles and shotguns. They were a strong people, Teddy thought to himself, taking his coffee and dropping a few dollars onto the countertop. “Cheers, Lucy.”

  Teddy took his cup of coffee and blew on it softly before taking his first sip. It was just how he liked it. Giving Lucy a wink, the 54-year-old Superintendent turned around and walked outside, coffee in his left hand, his right hand on his gun belt, just a few centimetres from his .38 Special Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolver.

  When he finally pushed his way through the gathered crowd to where he had left Sarah and Raleigh, he discovered that the shuttle’s hatch had opened and two skinny machines had emerged. They were mostly red in colouring and carrying some form of weapon in their hands. Teddy knew from the news prior to the occupation that they were robots. No doubt. Not the big version like the famous Sentinel Commander, but probably just as dangerous.

  After a brief pause, a figure finally emerged from the shuttle. Wearing a crimson coloured suit of armour, with a black and red cape that trailed behind him, the figure moved away from the shuttle and tossed a small object into the air.

  “Terrans!” The voice came from the object that was floating just a metre away from the figure dressed in the armour. “Where are my Wind Stalkers?”

  Teddy took a sip of his coffee. The English coming from the metal ball was nearly perfect. Bravo whatever alien put that together, he thought to himself.

  The figure moved a few paces forward, looking at the crowd with eyes and a face that was hidden behind a mask. “I am your ruler! You will kneel before me!” The figure brought its arms up towards the sky.

  That was just about the time that Teddy had heard enough. He turned around and handed his coffee cup to a local, then looked over to Sarah Ferguson. “Take care of Raleigh for me.”

  Teddy covered the ten metres to the crimson armoured individual with confident strides. His boots giving off a distinctive sound when they struck the pavement. The figure in the armour took notice of his approach and dropped his arms to his side.

  “You have come to surrender your town?” The figure asked.

  “Nah, mate.”

  The first shot was from the hip. Teddy drew, then fired, before bringing the revolver up to a more proper firing position. He hadn’t practised his quick draw in years, but it came as second nature to the experienced law-man. His second shot came as he was bringing his revolver up, this one hit the alien in the mid-section, the third round came when Teddy had the pistol up, and his right arm fully extended, the sights on the pistol in-line with his right eye. The fourth shot hit the red-clad alien in the faceplate of the helmet.

  For whatever reason, the visitors to Mundaring hadn’t expected a gunfight. The droids that Sajoba had brought with him didn’t know whether to protect their leader or fire on the local shooter. It didn’t take long until there was a second shooter, firing more rapidly on their position. Sajoba brought up his right arm to shield his face and started stumbling backwards as the fire continued to intensify.

  “Kill them!” He shouted inside his helmet. The droids reacted quickly and with the lethality and proficiency that their makers would have been proud of.

  Within fifteen seconds of the order being given, every human within the line of fire was dead. Sajoba dropped his arms back to his side and surveyed the carnage. There was a sense of rage flowing through his veins. This was his world, it was his to control and to do with as he pleased. Oh, they’d suffer for their transgressions. The entire miserable continent. They might have killed his Wind Stalkers and made a fool of him, but he’d return and repay the favour ten-fold.

  “We’re leaving.” He ordered, turning back to the shuttle just as a .303 round hit his right shoulder, spinning him down to the ground like a top. He smacked into the pavement hard. He could hear the Light Sentinels returning fire
, and when he finally got back to his feet, he walked to the closest machine and screamed at it. “You’re supposed to anticipate attacks and pre-empt the attack!” He slammed his fist into the torso of the soulless hunk of metal and alloys.

  Looking around the intersection, he spotted a small four-legged, fur-covered animal sitting on the ground next to one of the dead humans. “That!” Sajoba pointed at the animal. “Kill it!” He shouted and stormed off towards the shuttle.

  The machine moved towards the creature and pointed its large blaster at the animal and was about to pull the trigger when a command override prevented the discharge of the weapon. What Sajoba didn’t know, and had never bothered to do once he had been given command of the fleet, was to check and modify all command overrides that had been put in place by the previous commander. Unable to eliminate the creature, the machine joined its duplicate and went back to the shuttle.

  Once the droids had boarded the shuttle, the hatch sealed itself, and the vessel was moving skywards. Just as quickly as it had gone supersonic, Sajoba was on the comms net back to the Lone Hunter.

  “What is the update on the slavers that Imperator Casix promised?” He asked his head of operations.

  “They are expected shortly.” Came the reply.

  Sajoba cut the channel. Excellent. He had found his source of the slaves he was going to sell.

  45

  Mella II

  17 April

  Joe and Val-Lar had gone over their attack plan for Earth dozens of times and had jumped back to Traxis to pitch to Admiral Taark. They had worked the numbers on assets required and got it down to what Joe saw as the bare minimum number of ships needed to retake the planet. Admiral Taark had agreed to accompany the Colonel to pitch the operation to fleet command on Mella II. Taark had cautioned Joe to hedge his expectations.

  “We’re not taking the Seven?” Joe asked when they reached one of the hangars on the station in orbit over Traxis.