Master of Violence – Part 27

Master of Violence

by AJ Marks

Part 27

Angie looked up at the night sky while lying on her back.  The ground wasn’t that comfortable, but she had gotten used to it, or at least as much as she hoped to get used to it.  Above her the moonless sky twinkled with stars.

She could imagine that one of them was the sun which Earth orbited around and wished she was there instead of here.

“You still awake?” Heather asked beside her.

“Yeah, can’t sleep,” Angie replied hearing Heather laugh a bit.

“Ya know, I’d kill for a razer about now,” Heather said.

It wasn’t what Angie expected to hear and turned slightly to look at her friend.

“Why, the ones who need a shave are the guys, all of them have beards, and Ben, well, he just can’t grow on very well,” Angie said.

That caused them both to chuckle again.

“No, despite my protest, I’d like to shave my legs,” Heather said.

Angie thought about that and realized her friend was right.  Despite all their protests about it, jokes and such, there was something which she associated it with being civilized.

She looked back up at the sky going quiet again.  The forest was quiet and under the night sky she could see the stars quite well.  Taking a second she frowned, and looked again.  It appeared there was a few lights which were moving, and it seemed strange.  She started to say else when a slight vibration startled her causing her to sit up straight.

“What?” Heather asked but Angie ignored her while quickly trying to fish the phone out of her pocket, a slight sense of excitement coursing through her.  She fumbled with it a bit and finally managed to turn it on.

The screen came to life and there it was, a text.

“Jack, Ben, everyone!” Angie yelled causing everyone to jump up.

“You trying to get us killed Angie?” Jack asked rushing over.

“They’re here,” Angie replied, showing him the screen.

We’ve arrived, await instructions.

*****

Joe Niewen waited in the seat of his fighter as the Enterprise counted down to exit hyperspace.   His mission would be to launch and establish control of space for the landing troops which would be heading down to the surface of the planet.  No one had any idea what they might expect around the planet.

He felt the familiar vibration of exiting from hyperspace as the dampeners of the artificial gravity would not keep up with the deceleration of the ship before the announcement to launch was received.

Joe launched with the rest of his squadron finding himself out in space and, surprisingly, rather empty.  He fully expected to see more than what he saw.

“Two hostile ships in sector six B,” the report came.

“On it,” his squadron commander said, as they all turned and headed in the direction of the ship.

The scanners identified it as two smaller ships, neither one really should pose much of a challenge to the fleet.  Both ships appeared motionless in space as they advanced and Joe wondered if they even knew they were there.

He lined up with is wingmate, Carl, as they headed on their attack run.  Both the fighters and the enemy ship seemed to open up at the same time.  He concentrated on his attack hitting the enemy ship rapidly even as he pulled out and tried as many evasive maneuvers as possible.  Carl was right with him as they moved away and the fire died down before looking on for another attack run.

“Enemy fighters,” the report came.

Joe looked down at his screen and noticed the fighters coming up from the surface of the planet.  He turned to engage along with the others as the fleet continued to close in on the planet and the two enemy ships.

Part of him wondered what the fighters were like, as they had yet to engage them.  None of the attacks had yet encountered such a ship, now he moved in and attacked.  Carl stayed with him and he noticed something almost right away, they broke apart, all acting as single individuals.

He lined up his first boogie and quickly destroyed him before Carl added a second one.

“Joe, noticed anything strange?” Carl said as they turned to line up another one.

“Yeah, they all operate individually, no coordination at all,” Joe replied.

“Let’s take advantage of it,” Carl said.

“No problem there,” Joe stated as he fired destroying another enemy fighter.

He took a moment to look at the organization of the enemy, they seemed to just be moving and firing with no plan or anything else.  He wondered if they ever faced such an opponent before, or were such tactics enough to defeat other races?  He knew such tactics would never be used in any such fight on Earth, it was a recipe to lose the battle.

“Command wants a corridor cleared to the planet’s surface,” the instructions came.

“Roger,” Joe heard his squad leader say.  “All right, let’s sweep the space.”

Joe turned again taking out another fighter even as he watched one of his own be destroyed.  Turning he went on the hunt.  They turned and spiraled in battle.

“You picked one up, don’t stop turning,” he heard Carl say.

Not breaking from the one in front of him he continued on the hunt before hearing the tone lock and fired.  His weapons opened up destroying another enemy as he turned his attention back to behind him.

“Break hard left, now!” Carl’s voice said.

Joe turned hard feeling some g’s slam into him but trusting what Carl said to him.

“Clear,” Carl said.

“Thanks.”

He heard Carl acknowledge it before heading back into the battle.

*****

Mark watched as the fight continued on for supremacy in space.  Gaining and holding that would prove critical for the invasion part later on.  The fleet had closed in on the two enemy warships, both appeared to be smaller ships which they had not yet encountered, nor had the rebellion encountered.

Hans figured the ship to be some sort of patrol ship and not a regular warship.  The fighters had been a bit of a shock to them, as they had yet to encounter such ships but the engagement appeared to be going in their favor at the moment.

They had already contacted Earth to let them know the battle was engaged, and Victoria kept them up to date with how things were going.  So far there appeared no reason to retreat from the mission.

“First enemy ship is going critical,” Mark heard one of the bridge officers say.  He looked down at the scanners and noticed indeed the ship having problems before it was lost on the scanner.

“Enemy ship destroyed.”

It left the enemy with just one more ship and the remaining fighters.

“Any contact with the surface?” Mark asked.

“Yes, we got a message, they are ready for whatever we need,” Joaquin replied.

“Good,” Mark said.  “Go ahead and inform them where we need them.”

It was a risk, but they were to be the spies on the ground looking for where they might be able to land easier in the city once they began to head down.  He had no idea how far away they were, or if they could even reach the area before troops began to head down.  The battle was progressing faster than he expected and a corridor for the troops was almost established.

They had no idea what type of resistance they would find upon their arrival, and it was actually smaller than he thought it would be.  Now the fleet concentrated on one enemy ship, something he wanted to eliminate rather quickly so he could focus on defense and a possible retaliation strike.

The fighter groups seemed to be having no problems with the enemy fighters, and received minimal losses.

It took a while longer but finally the reply came they had a clear path.  He looked on seeing the enemy ship was still under attack and the few fighters were almost gone.

“Send the first wave, inform the group on the ground,” Mark said.

“Yes sir.”

*****

Angie made her way through the clearing once they received the message.  It energized them all to know that fleet of ships from Earth was in orbit and fighting the O’krad in an effort to free them.

The next message had been instructions to head towards the city and wait for further instructions.  They had quickly packed up and headed in the direction while looking up.  At one point Angie thought she saw a large flash in the sky and wondered what that was.

They had not received any new messages and she hoped it wasn’t one of their ships being destroyed.  The group reached the outskirts of the city faster than anticipated, which Angie figured was due to the fact they were excited.

“Now what?” Heather asked as they reached the city.

“Let’s see what they are doing?” Aku stated, and send that back up to them.

“Okay,” Charlie said.  “I’ll stay here with the women, we’ll make a central base here to operate out of.”

“I can be just as stealthy as they can,” Crystal said.

Angie wasn’t going to complain, she would rather wait here than go on down and had a feeling Heather felt the same way.

“All right, then you can go with them, I’ll stay here with the other two,” Charlie said.

“And you two are all right with that?” Crystal said.

“Yep,” Angie said.

“Come on,” Sven said.  Angie watched as they slipped out into the darkness.  Off in the distance she noticed the lights and what appeared to be a lot of new construction.  Gone were the familiar buildings she had grown up with seeing and now, a series of strange, short interconnected buildings from what she could tell, to go with one tall, needle-like structure.

She looked on, holding her phone waiting for it to buzz again.  Time seemed to pass slower now that they were at the city waiting for the next instructions.  Had they done the right thing in heading out to investigate what was going on?

Charlie shifted as the sound of branches breaking reached them.  To her relief Jack appeared and quickly sat down next to them.

“So, what’s going on?” Charlie asked.

“Well, Sven and Ben are heading to check out off to the east, while Aku and Crystal went west,” Jack said to them.  “From what I could tell, there is a lot of confusion going on down there.  A lot of guards, they are rounding up all the prisoners and herding them off somewhere, couldn’t tell.  Sven and Ben went in that direction, hopefully we’ll know more when they return.”

“Are they expecting a ground attack then?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah, but their defenses looked rather strange,” Jack said.  “They are standing out in the open.”

Angie heard the confusion in Jack’s voice, and even she knew you got into a defensive position and cover from watching TV and movies.

Jack took the phone quickly sending off a text message of what he saw and waited a few moments.

“Well, it went through, but no reply,” Jack said.

“Could be busy,” Charlie said.  “I mean, after all, they are in a fight up there, been watching it for a while now.  Still seeing small flashes up there.”

They looked back up in time to see a larger one, similar to the one Angie had seen earlier.

“Looks like a larger ship was destroyed,” Charlie said with little emotion in his voice.

“Yeah, but which side?” Jack replied.

The comment left them all sitting there wondering at least until the phone vibrated.  Looking down there was a new message on the screen.  It appeared that the landing forces were about to begin down to the planet’s surface and wanted to know where they were.

Angie watched as Charlie took the phone and quickly tapped out a reply to the message before looking at the others.

“Well, it appears this is what we’ve been waiting for,” he said to them.

Angie looked back up in an attempt to see if she could see the first of the landing craft.  Things were about to change, hopefully for the better.

End part 27

Continued in part 28

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