The Cimalian Princess: Rebellion
by AJ Marks
Part 30
The guard could only stand there speechless looking on at everything he heard.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to clean up the mess you’ve left behind,” Brandy said, firing on the guard.
Meia watched as her uncle pulled a PRG from the throne and returned fire at where Brandy had been standing only a few seconds earlier. Meia pointed her weapon at her uncle who turned and pointed his at her. They stood there for several seconds, each looking at the other.
“Well, I see we have a standoff now, don’t be a fool Meia, lower your weapon now,” he said ina forceful order tone of voice. It might have worked years ago, but not today.
“For what, so you can clone me, experiment on me before putting me on trial for execution,” Meia replied back to him. “Why would I want to do that? No, I’m taking the throne as the rightful ruler of the Empire and putting you on trial for the deaths of Prince Boris and Empress Teressa.”
“And no one will believe you,” Henry said.
“Why not, the DNA will prove I’m Prince Boris’ daughter,” Meia said feeling the weight of the words.
“It won’t matter, you don’t have the courage to pull that trigger, I’ve made sure of that,” Henry said smiling at her. “Now, put down the gun!” The authoritative tone made Meia falter for a brief second.
It was all her uncle needed as he aimed and fired. Meia acted on instinct ducking into the shadows of the room even as the pain filtered to her brain that she had been shot in the arm causing her to drop her PRG. She continued to move as her uncle fired wildly at where he thought she was.
“Should have added more lights years ago, damn people waning a dark and scary throne room,” she heard her uncle mumble as he continued to fire into the corner she had first dove into. She had quietly moved to the other side holding her injured shoulder which prevented her from using her arm effectively.
Another guard raced into the room and suddenly stopped at the sight of the Emperor firing blindly into the corner of the room. The guard looked at the Emperor, the dead guard then back at the Emperor.
“Emperor?” the guard said confused.
“Get out, and make sure no one walks out of here alive but me, if they do shoot her on sight,” Henry said in an angry voice.
The guard hastily replied yes and almost ran from the room. Meia now had to figure out what to do next while holding her bleeding shoulder. Henry took out a flashlight as she forced herself not to laugh.
*****
Jezic watched as Admiral Wambu’s fleet finally arrived to push the odds in his favor. The fleet had lost a second battle-cruiser and the Alliance fleet had a clear path to the planet’s surface and palace. The returning fleet had dropped out too far away to be of use in blocking the path.
“Get me Admiral Wambu,” Jezic ordered waiting the few seconds until Wambu’s face appeared on the screen. “Admiral, engage the battle-cruisers closest to Cimalius, we can take care of ourselves.”
“Admiral, are you sure?”
“That’s an order,” Jezic growled looking at the scanners noticing one of the Alliance ships was giving a strange reading. The regular engines appeared to be going critical yet the Alliance captain was powering up the jump engines. “The captain’s a fool, trying to jump in such a badly damaged condition.”
“He’ll tear his ship apart before it even before it goes past light speed,” the Cimal captain replied back to him.
Jezic nodded seeing that the engines finished powering up.
“Um, admiral,” the scanner operator said trying to gain Jezic’s attention.
Jezic ignored the officer and looked back at Wambu. “Engage the battle-cruisers closest to the planet’s surface and destroy them.”
“Yes sir,” Wambu replied.
“Sir!” the scanner operator said in a sharp voice no one had ever dared to speak to Jezic. He turned imagining a painful death for the officer.
“What, and be quick about it,” Jezic said not really wanting to waste time with foolish things.
“The Alliance battle-cruiser, its aiming straight at us.”
Jezic turned to look at the scanners seeing the officer was right. The battle-cruiser engaged its engines and he knew it would close the distance in seconds and he had no way to stop what was about to happen.
*****
Randy watched in horror at what happened on the scanners. The Warspite jumped heading straight into the Cimalian carrier like some sort of large missile. It tore into the enemy ship with both ships exploding in a massive explosion. Silence hung on in the bridge for several seconds before Randy recovered enough to ask about the battle.
“Status of the enemy fleet?” Randy asked.
He had to wait a few seconds before Aaron managed to reply. “Enemy battle-cruiser are concentrating on the Bismarck right now. They were headed towards us but seemed to change targets.”
Randy frowned wondering what that meant. They had been trying to stop him from landing troops and destroying him to this. Only one thing remotely made any sense to him, the Cimalian admiral had been aboard the Cimal carrier and he was lost when the Warspite destroyed it. He quickly thought about how the Cimlian military operated and he might have a few precious minutes to take advantage of this situation.
“Status of the enemy bomber squadrons?”
“Only one bomber squadron, they have expended their missiles. The other squadron was on the carrier when it was destroyed,” Aaron replied.
Randy let out a breath knowing one of the more dangerous weapons was out of the fight and he could focus entirely on the battle-cruisers. They might have a chance to survive this battle after all especially as they has sent down the second wave of troops.
“Bismarck taking heavy damage,” Aaron said.
“Helm, new course, engage the enemy as close as we can, inform Hood to follow us,” Randy stated as Hans relayed the information.
He watched the scanners as the Akagi and Hood turned heading towards the Cimalian fleet.
“Six missiles heading towards the Bismark,” Aaron said.
Randy knew such an attack was something the Bismarck would not survive. The missiles streaked towards the battle-cruiser before seeing two fighters heading in to engage. One, then two missiles vanished from the scanner and he could only think of John. A third missile was destroyed quickly followed by a forth. With so many destroyed he felt confident the Bismarck would survive the attack.
“Concentrate on the missile launchers,” Randy said. “Any word yet from the surface?”
“Still nothing sir,” Hans replied back to him.
Randy spared another thought to the surface hoping that things were going well even as the second wave of shuttles entered the atmosphere. He hoped they would be able to give him some information about what was going on.
*****
The flashlight came to life illuminating the opposite side of the room from where Meia stood. She couldn’t see her uncles face but knew it probably held a frown. She noticed a trail of blood and wondered if it was hers. She spied the dropped PRG on the ground and knew it was hers.
She looked over spotting the PRG on the guard only a few feet away now. She made a decision and gathered up her remaining strength, jumping towards the body and the weapons. With her good hand grabbed the PRG as she hit the floor but managed to roll despite the pain and came up with the weapon pointed at her uncle who had turned around and faced her.
For several seconds they stared at each other. Meia understood what would happen this time, one would fall even as her uncle smiled at her, that same arrogant smile he always had for her as if he thought less of her because of who she was. Her decision made she pulled the trigger as her uncle fired as well.
Meia felt het impact sending her tumbling to the ground as her other arm was struck and she dropped the PRG again. Looking up she spotted her uncle, a shocked looked on his face as a red stain spread across his shirt indicating her aim had been better than her uncle’s.
“I was to be great,” he said trailing off before falling flat on his face.
Meia exhaled knowing she had done it but there was a next step to take now. The Empire would be in chaos if she didn’t do something about it now. Forcing herself back to her feet she started towards the door before stopping and recalling the order her uncle had given. She tried to think of something which might help and not get her shot on sight.
Looking around the room she paused seeing something in the corner which the flashlight, dropped by her uncle, illuminated. Her blood went cold as she realized what she saw, a bomb. It would decimate the interior of the room easily and with the boost in adrenaline moved thought eh doorway even as the explosion knocked her into the far wall causing her to almost black out.
“Freeze Alliance rebel,” a guard said pointing a weapon at her. “Check the room for the Emperor.”
She had to clear her mind from the fuzziness from the blast and hitting the wall before she could think straight again.
“If you mean my uncle, he’s dead, like he killed my father,” Meia replied watching as the guard hesitated for a few seconds.
“Then you’ll die for killing an Alpha Supreme,” the guard stated raising his weapon again.
“I am Alpha Supreme, daughter of Prince Boris,” Meia stated watching the guard hesitate for a few seconds, which was good as it meant he probably wouldn’t shoot her right away.
“Prince Boris didn’t have a daughter,” the guard said before turning around. “Someone get the Emperor’s daughter, she’s now the Empress and will take care of this traitor.” He paused, looked at her before back at the others. “The Alliance terrorist attack has killed the Emperor.”
Meia paused as he had turned and noticed a blue patch on the man’s shoulder. Before she could say anything else more gunfire erupted around them.
“Seems as if your friends are coming, well, it won’t matter as you’ll be dead, just like Brandy said you would be. I’ll be considered a hero, and newest captain of the Palace guard,” he said to her. “I’ll also receive a reward from the Empress herself for disposing of you.”
Meia watched as the guard raised the PRG when his eyes registered shock before slumping forward and landing on top of her.
“Sorry ma’am, got held up a bit,” a familiar voice said as the dead guard was pulled off the top of her to reveal the commander of the ground troops.
“What’s the situation?” Meia asked, as a young man with a red cross on his shoulder came walking up.
“We hold a good portion of the palace, General Porkins and reinforcements are landing as we speak to help solidify our position,” the commander said.
“Good,” Meia said shifting slightly and rising up a bit. “I need to make an announcement.”
“You need to allow me to do my job ma’am,” the medic said trying to look at her wounds. “Both shoulders are damaged by PRG fire, and you’ll need some time in the med bay as soon as possible or you might lose some function in one or both arms,”
“I’ll take the risk,” Meia replied back. “I have more important issues to deal with.”
Meia looked at the medic for several seconds before he finally shrugged his shoulder allowing her to go.
“Good, now commander, did you take anyone alive?” Meia asked.
“Over here,” he said as they walked over to a group of people sitting down. She noticed several were guards, a few looked like citizens and were probably Beta class citizens. Off to the other side she spotted the members of the resistance waiting to hear.
“My uncle is dead,” Meia said to them. Their faces showing a range from shock to fear about the future. The captured people showed a bit of defiance to her words as if they didn’t believe her at all. She knew they would discover the truth soon, but for now she had an Empire to get control of.
End part 30