Ep.#4 - Freedom's Dawn (The Frontiers Saga), page 20
“I believe this was recorded only minutes ago,” Tug theorized.
“It was like someone just turned everything off right before they attacked,” Jessica said.
“Captain,” Tug began. He was deliberately speaking in hushed tones to avoid being overheard, despite the fact that most of the people around them did not speak Angla. “All of the missile bases were provided by the Ta’Akar as part of the defense structure that they put in place when the original Corinairan military complex was dismantled. As I said earlier, the bases were meant to defend Corinair against unknown aggressors until such time as the Ta’Akar arrived to defend them. If these bases are being taken offline at the moment they are attacked, it is likely being done by Ta’Akar agents operating on the planet.”
“You’re saying they have back doors built into the Corinairan systems,” Jessica said.
“Back doors?”
“A secret way to remotely access and take control of a system,” Nathan explained, “one that is usually unknown to the owners of the system.”
“Precisely. All Corinairan military assets are required to have such override capabilities available for use by the Ta’Akar. These are known and tolerated by the Corinairans. But we have always suspected that all Ta’Akar systems have such hidden access channels. This is one of the reasons we always overhauled any systems we liberated from the Ta’Akar,” Tug explained, “to remove the ‘back doors’ as you call them.”
“Something else is happening,” Jessica said, pointing toward the main display screen once again.
A different video feed was coming in. At first it was from a single source—a shaky, fairly dark image, lit only by the flicker of burning debris and the frequent blasts from energy weapons. The blasts appeared to be coming from men atop armored vehicles. Soon, the single image was joined by three others. They appeared to be coming from handheld cameras carried by either reporters or civilians. The images were being sent live across the planetary network for all to see.
“Is this live?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” Tug agreed.
“How can that be?” Jessica asked. “Most of this city is in ruins. How can their network still be functioning?”
“The networks of Corinair,” Jalea explained, “just as on most worlds, are quite robust. They are a combination of underground hardlines, ground based wireless, and satellite based networks. It is highly unlikely that all 3 networks would be completely taken down by any attack. At most, there might be additional latencies wherever the hardlines were down and either wireless or satellite based networks had to take over.”
“Captain,” Jessica wondered, “are those armored personnel carriers?”
“Those are Corinairan troops,” Nathan realized. “They’re fighting with their own citizens?”
One of the feeds was being provided by a news reporter on the scene, who was narrating over the video footage being transmitted.
“The reporter is saying the crowds are composed of Karuzari.” Jalea listened intently before continuing her translation. “They are intent on seizing control of military assets in order to reinvigorate their movement.” Jalea turned to look at Nathan. “Captain, Hakai is predominantly composed of Loyalists. Of this I am quite certain. The Karuzari would not be present in this area.”
“Yes, they would probably be hiding in Melentor,” Tug agreed.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Nathan declared.
Nathan watched in horror as the angry mob managed to reach up and grab soldiers, pulling them down off the vehicle into the crowd where they were savagely beaten.
The Prime Minister was furious, barking orders at his aides and the military leaders nearest him.
An image flashed across the screen. A symbol of some kind. It was on a banner being waived by several men.
“What was that?” Nathan asked.
“It is the symbol of the Karuzari,” Jalea admitted.
“Captain,” Tug began, pulling Nathan back away from the guards in order to hide their conversation, “this is not as it seems. It is a ruse; I am sure of it.”
“How can you be sure?” Nathan asked. “I mean, look at it,” he said, pointing toward the screen.
“Captain, too many factors do not add up.”
“Such as?”
“First, as Jalea said, the Karuzari would not hide amongst Loyalists; it is unsafe. Second, the Corinari are extremely competent warriors. The members of their military serve for life. What they lack in equipment and weapons, they make up for in training and expertise. You saw the way those soldiers in the video were firing—blindly, and mostly over the heads of the crowd. Even local security forces are more effective.”
“Maybe they were just trying to scare them?” Nathan surmised.
“The Corinari do not use their weapons to scare, Captain. They use them to kill. They do not pull them unless that is their intent. Those impostors were pulled from their vehicles like frightened school children.”
“Yeah, considering how much firepower they had to be carrying, it doesn’t seem like it should be that easy, does it?”
“And finally, the strategy does not follow the edicts of the Karuzari. We do not attack missile bases, especially those not operated by the Ta’Akar. And we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. These people are killing indiscriminately. That is not our way; believe me.”
A Corinari guard standing just within earshot overheard Tug’s comments and quickly drew his weapon and aimed it at Tug. “DO NOT MOVE!” he ordered in perfect Angla.
Jessica was standing a step back from Nathan and somewhat in between Tug and the armed guard. Her left arm instinctively shot out and up, knocking the guards gun upward. An instant later, her right hand swung across, striking the guard hard in the abdomen and causing him to double over slightly, but not as much as she had hoped. The guard’s arms swung upward as a result of Jessica’s blow, his left hand coming free from the weapon still held by his right hand. His torso straightened and his head turned to the right just in time to evade Jessica’s upward thrust with her right hand. He spun around to his right, pivoting on his right foot as his body coiled down into a crouching position. As he came around, his left foot shot out and swept at Jessica’s legs, taking them out from under her.
Jessica landed squarely on her back and found herself looking up into the barrel of the guard’s energy weapon as he held it in both hands, his arms extended forward and down at her as he stood in a half squat over her. “Damn,” she commented, surprised by the guard’s speed and expertise.
At the same time, every other guard in the command center around them also drew their weapons. Several of them moved in front of the Prime Minister in order to shield him from attack. The rest of the guards moved quickly in a highly trained fashion into combat positions.
Nathan’s hands immediately went up when he realized every weapon in the room was trained on them. His mouth hung open as well, as he had never seen anyone get the drop on Jessica in such a manner. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he cried out. “Don’t shoot!”
The senior officer in the room began barking orders in Corinairan. The guard that had first pulled his weapon was being asked his reasons for taking such actions. That much Nathan was sure of even though he couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, when the guard’s answer included the word Karuzari, a sinking feeling hit him in the gut.
“What’s going on?” Nathan asked calmly of Tug.
“I’m afraid the guard speaks Angla,” Tug admitted. “He is telling his commander that we are members of the Karuzari.”
“Great,” Nathan muttered. More words were being exchanged between the officer in charge, the Prime Minister, and his aide.
“Is this true, Captain?” the Prime Minister’s aide asked. “Are you Karuzari?”
“No, we are not,” Nathan answered without hesitation.
The aide looked at Tug and Jalea. “And your guides, are they Karuzari?”
This time Nathan hesitated, looking to Tug for any indication of how to answer the question.
“Yes, we are,” Tug admitted.
With a flick of the wrist from the Corinairan officer in charge, the guards moved in and grabbed Tug, Jalea, and Nathan. Two more moved over and picked Jessica up off the floor.
“This one,” said the guard that had taken down Jessica. He moved closer to Tug. “He spoke of the Karuzari as if he were one of them.”
“And you were aware of their affiliations, Captain?” the aide questioned.
“Not at first, no,” Nathan tried to explain.
“But you knew they were Karuzari when you brought them here, to Corinair, did you not?”
Nathan knew that there would be little use in lying to them at this point. “Yes, I did. But the Karuzari are no threat to you.”
The aide translated back to the Prime Minister, whose response was neither a short nor happy one.
“Perhaps you are not the hero of legend the Followers of the Order believe you to be, Captain,” the aide translated back for the Prime Minister. “Perhaps you are, instead, the cause of our ultimate demise.”
Nathan looked confused. “Excuse me?”
“These people are undoubtedly the reason the Ta’Akar have attacked us,” the aide continued. “They mean to punish us for harboring them.”
“How would they even know the Karuzari were here?” Nathan asked. “The Ta’Akar came for us. They contacted me and asked us to join forces with them—”
“Captain—” Jessica interrupted from her position on the floor.
“When I refused, they attacked your world,” he said, ignoring Jessica’s protestations, “hoping that, instead of jumping away, I would stay and defend Corinair.”
“It’s exactly as the legend says—” Jalea tried to slip in.
“No, it’s not,” Nathan disagreed. “We’re not here because of some legend, and I’m not some kind of hero. Hell, I’m not even supposed to be the captain.”
His last statement left the aide somewhat confused, but he continued to translate Nathan’s words for his leader. After he finished, there was silence. The Prime Minister simply looked at Nathan as if he expected some type of explanation.
“We’re not even supposed to be here,” Nathan said, deciding it was time to come clean with the Corinairans. If they were ever going to trust one another enough to go into battle together, they had to know the truth first. “And by here I don’t mean here, here. I mean this whole region of space. We were just supposed to perform a test of the new jump drive. A single hop, barely even a light year, to just outside our own system. But we were ambushed, there was an antimatter explosion at the same time we jumped, and we ended up standing toe to toe with a Takaran capital ship. Since then it has been a constant struggle to survive. We’re a thousand light years from home, and our world, Earth, she needs our jump drive in order to defend herself against our own enemies. It’s the only one in existence, and if we can get our hands on the Takaran zero-point energy device, we might be able to get back home in time to help defend our world against our own enemies.” Nathan lowered his gaze for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief. It felt good to let it all out, to level with the Corinairans. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” he said, raising his gaze again and locking eyes with the Prime Minister as he spoke. “This is entirely my fault.”
* * *
The Takaran anti-insurgency agent that had led the group of civilian Loyalists against this missile base stood on the rooftop landing pad of the control center. From this vantage point, he could see down all sides of the mountaintop base. The steep, rocky faces had made the main road leading to the front gate the only way into the compound, and had required a brute force attack in order to breech base security. To all the ignorant civilians that had followed him and his small team of covert agents in the attack, it had appeared to be a simple, brute force attack. The overall strategy was to embolden the civilian Loyalists of Corinair to continue their attacks against the Followers of the Order, as well as the Corinairan government. Thanks to the influence of the Anti-Insurgency Unit, the Loyalists foolishly believed that an overt demonstration of their loyalty to the empire would earn their world a reprieve.
It wasn’t entirely true, and everyone in the unit knew it. The Corinairan government had not done anything to justify any action be taken against them, but the Takarans also knew that deep down; the Corinairans hated the Ta’Akar for what they had done to their once proud world. It was this wounded pride that had made it so easy to acquire the loyalty of the weak-minded of their population. Such people needed something to belong to, something they could take pride in. When given the choice of claiming allegiance to a fallen, beaten world, or to a strong new empire, the choice for many had been easy enough.
Those same men now stood guard at the ruined gates of the complex against an enemy that would never come. It gave them something to do, something to make them feel empowered. They were defending what they had taken from the ones they believed responsible for the destruction that had rained down upon them from above. They would raise their weapons in defense, but unfortunately for them, in the end, their weapons would be pointed in the wrong direction.
The squad leader made his way down the stairs from the rooftop landing pad. “How’s it going, Tobias?” the squad leader asked as he entered the control room.
“Re-targeting is complete, sir. Missiles will be ready to fire in a few minutes.”
“Good job. Our ride will be here momentarily. We’ll be on the roof waiting for them. As soon as the bird touches down, you launch the missiles and then make a beeline for the roof or we’ll leave you behind. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” Tobias answered. “What about the civilians outside?”
“Casualties of war, my friend,” the squad leader said with a smile as he turned to exit the room.
“Oh, that’s cold, sir,” Tobias commented, a grin of his own appearing.
At first, the civilians guarding the gates were surprised to see a small Kalibri airship land on the roof of the command center. They were sure that it was the Corinairan military coming in to retake their base, and they scrambled to move into a position from which to attack.
Alarms sounded and the doors in the missile silos began to open. The civilian Loyalists that had assisted in the capture of the base scattered in all directions as they realized that, at any moment, they could be incinerated by the thrust wash of departing missiles.
“What the hell are they doing?!” one of the civilians called out as he ran, but no one heard his query. With a deafening roar, all six silos began to spew smoke and fire out of their opening, the blasts rising high into the night sky. The entire compound was instantly bathed in a red-orange glow, turning the entire area into a scene from hell itself.
Almost simultaneously, the tips of six missiles began to rise up from out of their silos. They were nearly masked by the smoke and fire, but within seconds, the missiles were completely out of their silos and rapidly climbing into the night. At first, their contrails of fire struck the ground below, spreading out laterally in all directions, but as they continued to rise, the tails eventually no longer touched the ground.
Hiding behind the relative safety of the control buildings, some of the Corinairans that had helped seize the missile silo watched in astonishment as the missiles climbed away. They watched, wondering if they were being sent to destroy the enemy ship sitting in orbit that had defeated the Yamaro earlier that day. As they covered their ears against the din and watched the bright orange fireballs rise up into the darkness, not one of them noticed the small Kalibri airship taking off from the roof of the control center behind them with six pairs of legs hanging off the sides.
* * *
An alarm sounded from one of the consoles in front of the Prime Minister. At the same time, the massive center display screen on the far wall of the main floor of the command center changed to show a global map of Corinair. The loudspeaker was repeating a phrase, one which seemed to draw considerable attention from the Corinairans, including the Prime Minister, whose attention was now focused on the new problem.
“What is it?” Nathan asked Tug.
“There’s been a missile launch,” Tug explained.
Nathan could see that Tug was considerably disturbed. “By who?”
“By Hakai,” Tug said.
“Who are they shooting at?” Jessica asked more urgently. Jessica looked at the guard hovering over her with his gun aimed at her face. “Can I get up now?”
“I don’t know yet,” Tug admitted.
“Prime Minister,” Nathan shouted above the noise, “what is going on? What are you targeting?”
“They did not fire them,” Jalea said as she struggled to overhear more details of the numerous exchanges that were going on among the controllers and the command staff present.
“Wait, isn’t this Hakai?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” Jalea said. “The missile launch was from a Hakai installation, but the Hakai did not initiate it. The launch was from one of the captured sites.”
“Prime Minister,” Nathan repeated more fervently, “I demand to know who you are targeting!”
Another alarm sounded. Nathan looked to the main display downstairs. A new set of lines representing another missile track appeared. This time, it was from another continent on the map.
