Legacy of the Guardians – Part 27

Legacy of the Guardians

by AJ Marks

Part 27

Admiral Dinen sat in his office, going putting the details to a plan he developed due to the latest intelligence reports. Three other races had been invaded by the Skartians, and asked for help in a newly formed alliance. His came up with a simple plan, attack them in their own territory and force them to protect themselves. When they retreated, the remaining military forces could recapture their territory.

Several of the other races wanted to invade Skartian space, and George felt a few warships from the other races could not hurt, but he didn’t want to hinder their own military operations. The alliance appeared to be working well so far.

“Sir, you have admiral Cave on the line for you.”

“Put it though,” George said, watching Jack appear on the screen.

“You wanted to speak with me?” Jack said.

“Yes sir, I have an idea for an operation, we attack Skartian space,” George said, watching Jack appear slightly shocked, before thinking about it for a few seconds.

“Hmm, totally unexpected,” Jack said. “It might work.”

“I hoping that it will cause them to recall their shi allowing them to retake their planets,” George stated.

“Hmm, you know some of them will want to participate,” Jack said.

“Yeah, we can use them, wont’ matter, in fact we might need a few more,” George said. “Not sure how much of an attack we’re going to do. Need to make it appear serious, but avoiding a full confrontation with them if they have that many ships.”

“I see, you have a drawn up plan?” Jack asked.

“Yep, I can send it to you now,” George said.

“Do so, I’ll look it over, and give it the okay, but it sounds good,” Jack said. “How long would it take for you to gather your forces?”

“Depends on who else is working with us,” George said. “But the supply ships got here so we can go any time now.”

“Hmm, I’m going to send you the carrier Hiryu, just finished repairs. Go ahead and start the preparations for the operations, any names for it?” Jack asked.

“How about R,” George said.

“All right, I’ll get to work on it,” Jack said, ending the conversation.

George sent off the file and went back to the bridge to start the preparations and inform the Ilderian military of their tentative plans. They would want to help for sure.

*****

The Skartians walked down the hallways, depressed about the latest news. All of his plans had failed and he had no idea why. Of course the last plan had partly succeeded, they had managed to successfully invade three out of the four races, but the plan against the humans and Ilderians failed.

He walked into his office, sitting down with a heavy sigh. He felt a bit tired, and wondered what he might do next. The humans had proven extremely tough, especially when he thought he had them. They seemed to find way to get out of trouble, counter plans to his plans.

It felt like they were always a step ahead of them, and he had no idea how that could be. They processed no special abilities, not telekinetic, or anything else. So why did they always win?

He froze feeling someone else in the room, and looked around. He relaxed slightly seeing no one when a shadow seemed to melt away into a form he knew well, and feared.

“You have failed, you are now expendable,” it said to him, reaching out.

“Nooo!” he screamed, too late.

*****

Jack glanced up at Steve, as he walked into the room. “How did the operation calm go?” Jack asked, referring to the mission to explain the destruction of the missiles to the population of Earth.

“The Ilderian captain did wonderfully, and the reception of the population is a concerned, warm reception. The fact he said we have too much potential to destroy ourselves was received positivity, though some are questioning their real motive, but so far, it looks like it will work,” Steve said to him.

“Good, guess I’ll be reading about that in the morning news. At least it will cover up for us for now. Did they bring the ship into the atmosphere?” Jack asked, knowing that doing something like that would only validate the operation even more, and dismiss any rumors about it being a fake broadcast.

“Yep, brought it down above the UN building in New York, millions of witnesses,” Steve said. “What about Operation R?”

Jack looked over at the clock before replying. “Should be underway now.”

They both hoped for a positive outcome there as well.

*****

Admiral George Dinen paced nervously on the bridge of the Seydlitz. They had met no resistance at all heading towards the Skartian homeworld, and that disturbed him. He expected to meet some sort of resistance by now. His entire operation was a diversion, and he needed to be discovered for it to work. The fact they had not encountered anything as much as a patrol ship made everyone jumpy. All ships maintained a high level of alertness for a possible trap.

Any asteroid field was scanned heavily for any ships hidden. Even fighters were launched to check suspicious things out. Their speed into Skartian space had slowed because of the caution.

“Any word from the fighters?” George asked, looking on as another group of fighters flew into another asteroid field.

“Nothing sir,” the reply came back from the fighter controller.

The fleet continued further into the Skartian Empire without any sign of their military. George kept them on course for the Skartian homeworld. George felt sure that when they arrived there the Skartians would finally show up, and depending on their numbers he would either fight or retreat. He had to make things real enough for them to call back their invasion fleets.

“Incoming call from HQ sir,” the communications officer said.

“Put it though,” George said, watching as Jack’s face appeared on the screen.

“How are things going?” Jack asked, not messing around.

“Weird,” George replied back to him, seeing Jack’s confused face. “We haven’t encountered a single Skartians ship, outpost or anything. Nothing.”

“Nothing? That is strange, considering reports from the other races say the operation there is completed,” Jack said. “They encountered only token resistance, and they quickly surrendered.”

“A trap?” George asked. “Should we call off the mission here?”

He watched Jack think about it for a few seconds, before making a decision. “All objectives have been completed, but there is a mystery here.”

“Should we continue on?” George asked, nervous about the entire situation.

“Yes, proceed with caution to their homeworld, if they start to attack retreat at once,’ Jack ordered to him. “Patrol, gain intelligence.”

“Understood sir,” George said, as the screen went dark. “Get me Captain Ahmed of the Boston. He only had to wait a few minutes until the man’s face appeared, having taken over on the battlecruiser when the last captain was injured during the last battle. He was someone who had experience in what George needed done.

“Admiral,” Ahmed said.

“I need you to take the Boston and patrol up ahead and report back to me on what is going on,” George said. “The operations has been successful, but we now want to know why we haven’t seen anyone yet.”

“Understood sir, anything else I should look out for?” Ahmed asked.

“Only Skartians, or anything else that might look like a trap for us,” George said. “And take a couple of destroyers with you, the Sampson, Adams and Lucus.”

“Very well sir,” Ahmed said, as the screen went off.

George looked down at the scanners once more, wishing he knew what was going on.

*****

The Boston moved forward along with the three destroyers, heading towards the Skartians homeworld faster than the rest of the fleet. Patrolling ahead they were looking for anything unusual, or any sign of other ships.

“Captain, I’m getting something on the scanners” the officer said, causing everyone to look over. “It looks like wreckage from a battle.”

“Destroyer Adams, go investigate and send your finding to the Seydlitz, the rest continued forward and look for any signs of movement or ships,” Ahmed said, nervously.

The Adams turned and moved towards the spot with caution to get close scans of the debris. After a few seconds it was confirmed debris from a battle, and that the ship was most probably Skartisn. The other bits of wreckage they were not sure, and sent the details to the Seydlitz, which sent it back to Independence Station.

“Captain, getting signs of an escape pod, and life signs,” Ahmed heard the captain of the Adams say.

“Captain, scanners show life forms ahead, looks like an escape pod from that battle,” the scanner operator said.

“Bring it on board,” Ahmed replied, hoping that whoever was on board would give them some information about what was going on around here. “Security to the hangar.”

Several minutes later he was waiting in the hangar bay as the pod was brought aboard. He noticed it was Skartians, and as guards waited nervously the door opened. A wounded Skartian stepped out, stumbled to the ground and looked around in amazement.

“Who would have thought I would be rescued by humans,’ they heard him say. “Can you even understand me?” he asked them.

Ahmed watched as the lead guard told the Skartian yes. After a few seconds Ahmed stepped forward.

“Who attacked you?” he asked, watching the Skartian struggle for a second before saying anything.

“I don’t know, only that they mean to wipe us out, they are headed to Sartar,” he said, mentioning their homeworld. “They came out of nowhere, fighting like demons, and ignored out pleas to surrender.”

“You’ve never seen them before?” Ahmed asked.

“No, never, we were overwhelmed before we even knew what hit us. I barely made it to the escape pod before the ship was destroyed, and I watched as they destroyed escape pod after escape pod. Somehow they missed me,” the Skartian said, and seemed to suffer from shock.

“We almost missed your escape pod, is life support systems are damaged, probably why they overlooked you,” Ahmed said, knowing without rescue he would have died long before making it to a nearby planet.

“Take him to med lab to be treated, I’ll be in my office,” Ahmed said taking off. Things seemed to be getting real strange, an unknown attacker, one who seemed to have no conscious in killing survivors. Even though the Skartians and humans did not like each other, they never did that after a battle. He sat down at his desk informing the bridge to continue on to the Skartian hoomeworld then quickly called Admiral Dinen.

“Captain, what’s the situation?” Dinen said, answering the communications on the bridge of the Seydlitz.

“We discovered something, that’s for sure,” Ahmed replied, wondering how the admiral would take this next part. “We stumbled upon some wreckage, and found a life pod and an injured Skartian. He said they were attacked by a race he had never seen before. They were headed straight to the Skartian homeworld. We’re on our way there and keeping our eyes open for anything,” Ahmed told him.

“That’s not good news,” Dinen replied, scratching his chin in thought. “Continue on your way, we’re continuing behind you, be careful captain.”

Ahmed signed off before sighing. He rubbed his temples to relieve some of the pressure that had built up lately. He had no idea what to expect anymore. A simple operation had turned into something far more complex than anyone had imagined. He stood back up and headed to the bridge to check on the progress. Nothing else had been encountered.

“Captain, the Skartians homeworld is coming into range, still no sign of enemy ships,” the scanner operator said, sounding a bit nervous. Ahmed sat down in the command chair, knowing the attitude he portrayed would feed to the others and willed himself to not be nervous.

“Any signals?” Ahmed asked, getting a no in reply from the communications station. “A strange mystery indeed,” he said more to himself. Getting this far into Skartian territory confused him tremendously. If there was an unknown enemy attacking the Skartians homeworld he expected to hear some communications. “Concentrate scanners to the front, see if we can get a picture of what’s going on.”

He watched the scanning operator work quickly. “Sir, I’m not getting much from the planet, life signs are minimal,” the officer said, his words echoing throughout the bridge. They all knew that there would be millions of people on the planet.

“Contact Admiral Dinen at once,” Ahmed said, knowing this conversation would be even more mysterious than the last one. “Settle us into an orbit around the planet.”

He received a reply from the helm then looked down to see the admiral’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“We’re about to arrive at Skartar, but its not pretty,” Ahmed said. “Scans are reading almost no life, we’re settling into orbit but we see no signs of whatever took everything out. There are some signs of life, and evidence of planetary bombardment, but little else to solve this mystery.”

He watched the admiral think about that for a few seconds.

“Shall I send a team down?”

“Yes, but wait until we are there, scan the surrounding areas for anything and pick out the best possible sport for a landing,” Dinen said.

“Yes sir,” Ahmed replied, signing off and carrying out the order.

*****

“Get me Admiral Cave,” George said, looking over to the communications. He shared a glance with the captain of the Seydlitz who had listened in on the conversation. They both knew something strange had gone on. Jack’s face appeared on the screen. “Admrial, we have a new situation. I sent the battlecruiser Boston up ahead to Sartar, and found it almost barren.”

“What?” Jack said. “What’s going on out there? Have you sent a landing party down?”

“No sir, we’re still a bit behind, but we have sped up to arrive at the planet. Captain Ahmed is having his group scan around the area and planet for any activity,” George replied.

“Okay, keep me updated George,” Jacks aid, as the communications ended.

George sat back down going over all the information they had. Some unknown group attacked the Skartians and, by the looks of things, wiped them out, or done a good job of it. He looked down to see they would arrive in an less than an hour at their present speed, and ordered it to be increased.

The bridge remained quiet as news about what happened filtered down. The scanner operator remained glued to his screen, watching for anything that might indicate a trap. George almost preferred a trap over what they had encountered right now.

They finally arrived at the planet without encountering anyone at all. The entire situation seemed surreal to him. He then ordered the communications to contact the Boston.

“Admiral, I’ve pinpointed a good spot for the landing parties,” Ahmed said to him.

“Good, inform the Ilderians and Yettipians as well. I want both of them there as well, they might see something we don’t,” George said, as the coordinates were transferred to the Seydlitiz.

He watched as minutes later three shuttles left their ships and descended down to the planet’s surface. The pilots relaying what they say, entire cities reduced to nothing but wreckage. They even sent a few pictures back to the Seydlitz, and George looked on amazed at the destruction on the surface of the planet.

End part 27

Continued in part 28

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