Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (65 page)

              A cold chill ran down Thresh’s spine as he listened to this new turn of events. Quickly he turned, keying the open channel to broadcast to all Shenkar.

              “This is Captain Thresh! Everyone is to evacuate the station immediately! I repeat, evacuate the station; the humans have sabotaged the reactors.”

              Captain Thresh had just enough time to see the station explode before his world burned around him as the explosion engulfed the entire battle group.

January 31
st
, 2014 11:25pm EST

Lykaa

              Overlord Viero studied the three humans who had their hands bound behind their backs and kneeling before him. From what he had heard of reports of these humans he found it hard to believe they were responsible for the destruction of two Shenkar fleets. They appeared weak and two of them appeared to even be females. Surely they must have had some superweapon they had used against the Shenkar. These pathetic humanoids were no warriors to be feared. Viero walked up to stand in front of one of the females, grabbed her by the jaw and lifted her to her feet to look into her eyes. The eyes that looked back held no fear which surprised Viero. Even in captivity this human stood defiant against the Shenkar.

              “What is your name, human?”

              She did not answer, instead choosing to remain quiet as she leveled an icy stare at him. Viero laughed as he turned away slightly to address one of the Shenkar guards.

              “Even in captivity this human chooses not to cooperate. I do believe we will need to break them.”

              With a quick fluid motion Viero spun back and backhanded the human female across the face which sent her careening into the guard behind her. The guard caught her but as he steadied her he leveled a punch to her midsection that doubled her over. As she doubled over the guard quickly brought his knee up into her face. The crunch of bone breaking was clear as she flew backwards to land upon her back.

              “You bastard!” came the voice of the male human.

              Viero’s laughter cut off as he turned to the human male.

              “It seems they can speak after all. I think I will start with you since you are so willing to speak. You will tell me what you are doing on this planet, where your forces are hidden and all the rest of your dirty little secrets.”

              “Go to hell!” the human male retorted.

              Viero sneered as he looked down at the human male kneeling before him.

              “Oh, before I am done with you you will think you are in hell, that I can assure you of.”

              Viero turned from the human to address the closest warrior.

“Take these two to the holding cells. Also please request inquisitor Juit to join me here and to bring his instruments with him. Tell him I have a new subject for him to play with.”

The guards saluted and roughly pulled the human females to their feet, half dragging them from the chamber. As he watched them go he felt eyes upon him. Turning he saw the human male was staring up at him.

“You will lose that defiant attitude soon enough,”stated Viero, a smile forming upon his face.

The human smiled a wicked smile as he looked up at Viero.

“Do what you must but you truly do not know what you are about to unleash upon your men. Death is coming and he will tear your men to pieces in the most painful ways possible.”

This caused Viero’s smile to falter slightly. No being had ever dared speak to a Shenkar warrior in such a way before; this was something he had not expected which was a bit unsettling. He had heard rumors of the human warrior that had slaughtered the entire crew of ther
Tryliene
and frankly he found it hard to believe.

“You speak of the
Dala Dvierik
, the mythical human that will lead your people in defeating the Shenkar federation. Do not attempt to frighten me with tales, you are mere humans and far beneath that of the Shenkar. You were lucky in defeating our two fleets we sent against you but two battles won does not win the war. Those fleets were led by warriors of no great skill…at least that is my opinion. If I had been leading one of those fleets I can assure you I would have defeated you humans.”

The human slowly shook his head side to side as he gave Viero a pitying look.

“It is the short sightedness of your leaders that will lead to your peoples defeat. Your Shelecore leads through fear as he attempts to keep an iron grip upon those worlds beneath you. Unfortunately, he does not see that the tighter the grip the more people that will rise up against him. Even among your own people there has been descent, how do you expect to control other races? It is too bad that many on both sides will unfortunately die before that but you will lose.”

A commotion at the door made Viero look up as his aid rushed in.

“Overlord, I must report terrible news, it seems the humans sabotaged the orbital station before they left. It has exploded taking Captain Thresh and his battle group with it. Everyone was killed; we will not be receiving any reinforcements anytime soon.”

The news stunned Viero, he had expected to receive ten thousand warriors to add to his defenses. Instead he would receive nothing unless they could get word out of what has transpired. As he tried to formulate a plan on how to proceed, his thoughts were interrupted by the human kneeling before him.

“As I said….you will lose. Do you wish to die following an insane leader? I can assure you, your Shelecore is just that….insane.”

Viero backhanded the human which sent him crashing to the floor.

“Do not speak of our great Shelecore again, you know nothing of him! As for your secrets, I will have them soon enough when the inquisitor arrives.

January 31
st
, 2014 11:36pm EST

Lykaa

              Leah cried out in pain as Alyssa snapped her nose back into place.

              “That should do it. The nanites should repair the damage soon enough,” Alyssa said as she stood up and examined her work.

              Leah tenderly wiped the blood away from her face with a cloth that had not been confiscated when they had been captured. Once she was finished she looked around to get a better look at her surroundings.

              The interior of the cell was roughly ten feet by twelve feet and held one hard bench. There did not appear to be any type of lavatory so she did not believe this holding cell was meant for long term prisoners. Overall the holding cell was a large cage with only one door. The door was secured with a bioreader that would only open with the proper Shenkar handprint. Any attempt to hack the locking mechanism was out of the question because the bars of the cage were electrified which unfortunately required touching to get access to the mechanism.

              Leah let out a large sigh as she looked about; she blamed herself for leading the group into an ambush. If she had been more cautious she possibly would have seen the ambush for what it was and been able to retreat before they were captured. Instead, her stubbornness had won out and resulted in their capture and the death of a guard member.

              “Don’t blame yourself. We all could have stopped you if we wanted to,” Alyssa said from beside her, as if reading her thoughts.

              “Yeah, maybe so, but I still fell for the ambush and now we are stuck in here, in need of rescuing. Liam will never let me live this one down.”

              Alyssa studied Leah for several long moments before she suddenly laughed aloud.

              “What?” Leah asked Alyssa, not sure if she should be offended by the laughter.

              “I can’t believe I never saw it before,” Alyssa said.

              “Saw what before?” Leah asked, a bit guardedly.

              “You are in love with Commander Brennan!” stated Alyssa.

              Leah opened her mouth to deny it but knew she would not be able to do so convincingly so instead she remained silent. Seeing her not denying it, Alyssa continued on.

              “Well, at least you do not deny it, does he know? I would advise to not throw yourself at him. I tried that and he booted me out of his quarters,” Alyssa confessed then looked up as if thinking of something.

              “You know I don’t believe I have ever been turned down by a guy before, although I can’t say for sure as I have no memories of before the enhancement process,” Alyssa continued.

              Leah did not look at Alyssa, only continued to stare ahead in an attempt not to give anything away. It was perhaps this very action that drew Alyssa’s suspicion.

              “Well, he won’t resist me for long I can assure you of that,” Alyssa said as she studied Leah.

              Leah’s jaw clenched slightly but she managed to keep herself from responding.

              “I think next time we are back on the
Kraken
I will just get into his quarters before he gets there. When he gets back he will find me completely nude upon his bed,” Alyssa continued as she watched Leah closely, seeing her hands ball up into fists.

              “He will only kick you out again. He does not like easy women,” Leah said in an even voice, not bothering to look in Alyssa’s direction.

              Alyssa studied Leah for several long moments until finally Leah looked up.

              “What?” asked Leah.

              “You and Liam are involved!” Alyssa said accusingly as she pointed at Leah, a smile blooming on her face.

              “What? You are delusional,” said Leah, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

              Alyssa laughed again.

              “Wow, I cannot believe I never saw it before, you two are in love with each other! How long has this been going one?”

              Leah opened her mouth to deny it further then closed it and placed her head in her hands.

              “He has loved me since before the war began and I have loved him equally as long, although it took me a bit longer to realize it.”

              Alyssa smiled as she sat down beside Leah.

              “Well that explains why I could not get him. I was starting to think he might like guys. Why do you guys hide it? They really haven’t established any rules against fraternization. Granted, I am sure they will when the war is over, when the countries can all sit down and establish a real set of rules for this new branch of military to follow.”

              “If this war ever ends,” Leah said aloud.

              “Oh, I think it will end and we will be victorious, especially if we win the Lykaans to our side like we did the Cathergons. Speaking of which what are your plans for after the war? I was thinking of staying in the military.”

              “I hadn’t really thought too much into it, I guess, it is far too early to know how the war will turn out. Yes, there are things I have planned but as far as what I will do I do not know.”

              “Do you see yourself marrying Liam?”

              Leah did not say anything, only looked down at her hands as she rubbed at the finger where an engagement ring should be. Alyssa did not miss the small gesture and smiled.

              “Holy crap, you guys are engaged, aren’t you?!?”

              “Yes, if I ever see him again that is.” admitted Leah, knowing denying it would be pointless.

              Alyssa sat silently for a moment before suddenly snapping her fingers in front of her as if thinking of something.

              “So that is what Tim meant when he told that Shenkar commander that the
Dala Dvierik
will unleash hell upon this planet. I have heard rumors of our commander. Is it true he killed the entire crew of a Shenkar battlecruiser?”

              “Yes, Liam’s abilities are amazing yet at the same time frightening. The stronger his emotions get the stronger his abilities function. From what I understand, when he slaughtered the crew of the Shenkar battlecruiser, they had been experimenting on him. He suffered great pain at their hands which drove him to the brink of insanity. When he was able to return to his shipmates he was catatonic and unresponsive. From what Lieutenant Commander Maxis told me, it was only something that reminded Liam of me that broke him from his catatonic state. You do not know it but I was at Hascom Air Force base when the Shenkar attacked. I died there but Liam was able to bring me back to life with an infusion of nanites from his own body. I never went through the infusion process everyone else did. It was Liam who inadvertently turned me into a
Templar
.”