Ep.#4 - "Freedom's Dawn" (The Frontiers Saga) (26 page)

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.

“What the hell is going on?” Jessica asked as she got back on her feet.

“The nation of Melentor has also launched,” Tug told them grimly. “The Hakai missiles must be targeting the Melentorans. They are responding in similar fashion.”

“Are you saying a nuclear war has just started?” Nathan could feel his body becoming cold, as if the hand of death itself had just touched him.

“They are low yield, tactical warheads,” Tug assured them. “We are safe in here.”

“Oh, I feel so much better. Thanks,” Nathan said.

A map of the local area appeared on the screen to the left. Two small triangles appeared from what seemed to be the Aitkenna spaceport.

“They have dispatched strike aircraft,” Tug said, “to destroy that missile base.”

“They’re trying to keep it from escalating,” Jessica observed.

“Precisely,” Tug said. “However, it may be too late.”

They watched as the missile tracks on the main display grew longer and stretched out across the map toward one another.

“How long?” Nathan asked.

“Perhaps thirty minutes,” Tug answered, “maybe less.”

* * *

The two Corinairan interceptors streaked along no more than a few hundred meters above the ground as they closed on the Wellerton missile base. Even though it was over five hundred kilometers away, it had only taken them a few minutes to get within firing range.

Two missiles leapt from the wings of both interceptors, accelerating away at incredible speed as the aircraft that had launched them banked away to port. The missiles flew for less than a minute before they began to arc upward. They continued to climb for another twenty seconds before they finally reached the apex of their trajectories and began their terminal dive onto their target.

One missile would have been enough to destroy the entire base on its own, but the Hakai were not taking any chances. All four of the missiles struck the base at evenly spaced locations. There was a blinding flash of blue-white light, followed by a thunderous boom that could be felt for at least a hundred kilometers, and could probably be heard even farther out. There was no ball of fire, not even much smoke, but the rugged, rocky terrain on which the missile base had once stood was now a smooth, slightly rounded mound of rubble. The remaining unused missiles residing deep underground would remain buried for some time to come, as would the radioactive materials contained within their warheads.

* * *

 “They are trying to make it look as if the Loyalists are leading the revolt,” Jalea said, realizing it herself for the first time.

“Who,” Nathan wondered aloud, “the Takarans?”

“Yes. Don’t you see? It is the only thing that makes sense.”

“She may be right,” Tug agreed. “The Loyalists simply aren’t organized enough to make such things happen. This is all too well coordinated to be a collection of random acts by those with similar empirical loyalties. Even with this world’s robust communications network, it would be a monumental task, one that would require
military
precision.”

“The Anti-Insurgency Units,” Jessica realized.

“Yes. They must have multiple units operating all over the planet, and all according to a carefully laid out plan,” Tug explained.

“You’d think they would already know this,” Jessica added.

“Yes,” Tug agreed. “In fact, they probably do, or at least suspect it. At the very least they would be aware of a Takaran presence on their world, one far greater than the standard Takaran military and political offices that are present on all worlds within the empire.”

“Sir, you do realize your people are being deceived?” Tug said.

“Yes, we’re quite aware of that fact. Thank you.”

“Then what do you intend to do about it?” Nathan asked.

“We’re doing what we can, Captain,” the aide assured them. “But with all the rioting going on in the streets, our limited military resources are rapidly becoming overburdened and ineffective. Right now, our own people are our worst enemy.”

“You have to talk to them, let them know the truth,” Tug suggested.

“We don’t even know who to speak with,” the aide argued. “They have no organization, no leadership, no delegates—”

“Of course not. They’re simply people responding to unprovoked attacks.”

“That is my point,” the aide said in frustration. “Without a delegate or a representative with which to communicate—”

“Then simply speak to all of them at once,” Tug insisted. “Both sides, all sides, everyone. Broadcast it across all media, video, news services, the entire planetary network. You can even tie in all the comm-sets every Corinairan carries around in their pockets.”

“They will not listen to us,” the aide translated from the Prime Minister. “They no longer trust us to protect them, to do what is in their best interests.”

“Then let Na-Tan speak to them,” Jalea suggested.

Nathan and Tug both turned to look at Jalea in shock. “What?” Nathan wondered aloud.

There was a moment of silence in the room. The aide translated Jalea’s suggestion to the Prime Minister, who appeared intrigued by the idea.

“Your world is mostly made up of Followers of the Order,” she continued. “Everyone knows this; they just don’t speak of it openly. Your people keep this fact very well hidden. Why do you think there are secret places where Followers of the Order congregate in nearly every district?”

“What do you propose?” the aide asked, obviously prompted to do so by his superior.

“You saw the way they behaved at the spaceport. They see Na-Tan as their hero—”

“Which he clearly is not,” the aide countered. “He said as much himself.”

“That may be true,” Jalea admitted. “Then again, it may not. Who knows if the legend is true? Who cares? Na-Tan doesn’t know, but then again, he didn’t even know that people from Earth had made it out this far into space. Was his coming here an accident, or was it destiny? Again, we do not know. But he has brought you two very powerful weapons on this day: his ability to jump between the stars, and the power, the inspiration that the Legend of Origins provides for the people of Corinair. These are far more powerful than any weapon the Ta’Akar possess. But they only work to your advantage.”

“She’s right,” Jessica admitted. “A bit melodramatic, but right.”

“Let him speak,” Jalea continued to plead. “Let them hear his words, let him call them to arms in defense of their world.”

The aide finished translating their words for the Prime Minister, who stared at them, particularly at Nathan himself.