Supreme Leader of Anstractor: A Sci-Fantasy Space Adventure (The New Phase Book 3) (23 page)

“I guess we did go pretty hard in that hotel room,” she said.

“Yeah, the android attendant gave us a warning, remember? That is until you threatened to have it disassembled.”

Marian exhaled a puff of disapproval through her nostrils and sat up to look down at him. “I was such a little
schtill
back then. I don’t know how you didn’t just kill me and kept on with your mission.”

“I was a little
schtill,
too. Plus, you were the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on in two realities. Think that I was going to let you go that easily? Hell, I had to give love a try. Good thing for both of us. You turned out to be a wise warrior, willing to give a rebel a chance.”

“A rebel with a nice rump and a set of moves that made me purr,” she whispered in his ear as she leaned down to kiss him.

The cool air of the vents brushed down on top of them and Rafian reached for her cloak and pulled it over them. “I love you, Rienne,” he said, using her original Tyheran-born name.

“And I love you, Rebel Rafian,” she teased, rubbing her small button nose against his. “But, do me a favor. Don’t scare me like that ever again.”

S
EVERAL WEEKS passed and the citizens of Zallus rebuilt their homes, healed their wounds as best they could, and prepared for another invasion. They voted for an inner council to represent their needs to the Phasers, and Rafian visited and spoke with the families of the recruits who had died during the attack.

The mood at the agency was still grim but Rafian kept his spirits high by spending his off hours with his nephew, Ian. With urging from Marian, Aurora and Velman moved into their cave home, and for the first time since its construction, the place was full of life. Aurora was always in a positive mood and the arguments that she would get into with Marian were entertaining to listen to.

Tayden had finally woken up inside of her cloned body but spent most of her days in bed. Dott had assumed many of her duties, standing in as commander of the base. Frank got his bed placed inside of Tayden’s room and the lovers healed together. Rafian visited the two of them daily to tell them the status of the war.

The situation with the Geralos had gone viral, and the war was now on every planet and moon. The Louines who had stayed out of it for hundreds of years had slowly become the number one target of the enemy. Louine was a city planet with no remote areas, so the attacks were more prevalent there than anywhere else.

Yuth Varience, Louine’s greatest hero, was back home helping the government find and destroy the Geralos terrorist cells. He had five Phaser recruits with him and from what Rafian heard, the six of them were training a branch of Special Forces to counter the Geralos plans.

Like Yuth did for Louine, Marika Tsuno went home to Casan to train her people. She had gone before Val was out of his tank but the two spoke daily via holo-chat.

Every planet received help from the Phaser agency in the form of an agent stepping in. Anstractor saw the Phasers as Geralos experts and they leaned on the agency to get an edge on the war. Meanwhile the Alliance marines continued their attacks on Geral and the battle for Vestalia was underway.

On a peaceful night while baby Ian slept, Rafian left the cave to take a walk while checking in on an old friend. He followed the pathway up to the tower, then climbed it to its apex and sat down. His legs dangled off the edge and he laid back, looking up at the starry night and the bright white blip that was the
Rendron
in orbit.

A new set of hands and feet on the ladder’s rungs shook the tower. It was a warning that someone was approaching. The tower shook some more and then Rafian heard boots; heavy boots, like the type worn by the Alliance infantry. A large figure plopped down next to him and took up the same position.

“You're moving kind of slow these days, old man. Did that lizard finally break you?” Rafian said without looking at who it was.

“Slow? Me slow? You must be sniffing spice. Hand me some of that, will you. I want to be able to hallucinate and make up
schtill
stories too.” Val made his fingers into the shape of a square, then moved it to where he assumed Geral would be. The square represented the target box of a fighter, and he made a noise that was reminiscent of a rocket launching. “I hear that the Louines have a planet-killing rocket in the works,” he began.

“If only that were true and the other fantasy, that all of the Alliance council is built up of warriors. We could wipe out the lizards, start rebuilding here, and take our girls out for sweet coffee and animal viewing. That's one hell of an imagination you have there, Marine. Unfortunately, reality says that we are being
thyped
by a superior enemy.”

“Yeah, but they don't have us, so the Alliance will prevail,” Val said confidently before launching another imagined rocket up at Geral.

Rafian turned to look at him and his eyebrows furrowed as he struggled with what he wanted to say. Val read his face and looked back up at the sky. “You don't have to say it, and I know that it was crazy.”

“Does Marika know what you did and how you got hurt?”

“She knows, bro, she knows. She already exploded, so I'm good. Plus someone had to stop that
schtill
or he would have circled back to kill more of our babies. What are we going to do, Raf, about the lizards?  We both know they'll be coming back.”

Rafian didn't answer for a time and then made his own square, placing the gap in his fingers over the tiny spark that was Geral. “Remember in cadet training how we learned about Geralos battleships and why their pilots are forced to keep them in space?”

“Yeah, they're made of Trylene compound and they use ephemeral nitron cores. Stay too long in the atmosphere and they would explode. You planning on stealing one to fly to lizard town?”

“Thinking about it. But if I did, I wouldn’t be able to do it alone.”

“Where are you going to find a Geralos ship that will allow you to take it over? Okay, and let’s say you find one and figure out how to fly it. How are you going to make it to Geral using their FTL technology? You're not, that's how, but you get top grades for the idea. We are going to have to kill the lizard by good old-fashioned war tactics.”

“We’ve tried that, and it has become the only thing we know. It has become so much of our reality that if given the choice between ending the Geralos now or a thousand years later through ‘war tactics,’ most of us will choose the latter.” He sat up suddenly, gesturing at Val as he spoke. “We are war babies, Val. Born and raised with ‘the fight’ as our only reality. Let’s face it: most of us are winging it, fighting because it is the only thing we know. I don’t know about you but I’m sick of the lizards. I’m sick of trading blows with them while they grow their territory across the galaxy, and I’m sick of them being our only focus when we should be past them, growing, rebuilding, and contributing.”

Val chuckled and looked at Rafian as if he were a child using logic that came from a place of naiveté. “Don’t you think that our ancestors were as sick as you are about the fighting, Raf?” he said. “People like Hellgate, Johan VES, and even Cibo Heth? They were all sick of the lizards and they each did what they could in a short lifetime to push the war to this point. Yes, the lizards still run the galaxy, but all of those warriors gave a little to put us here where we are attacking them on their own planet. How do you think they would feel seeing us now? I think they’d be damn proud!”

“It will never be enough for me to fight, die, and hope that a future Raf or Val can keep up the momentum, brother. The time is now, and I want to bring so much bloody fire to Geral that the lizards will beg us to stop.”

“That sounds like sweet music, bro. What do you need from me?” Val asked suddenly, his face an intense mask beneath the moon.

“I need you to do what you do best and bring hell to the Geralos here on Vestalia. While they’re here I’ll hit the capital in Geral. They won’t see me coming before it happens.” He stood up suddenly and helped Val to his feet, turning to look over the silver spires of Zallus and the surrounding countryside.

“So, this battleship,” Val said, “how are you going to get it?”

“Ever heard of the
Serylusk
?” Rafian asked.

“Who hasn’t?”

“What about Constance ITO, XO to Rend?”

“Cute girl, pilot, met her down here while you were vacationing. Go on,” Val said.

“She managed to stall and gut that beast as the standing captain on the
Rendron
,” Rafian said and Val’s mouth slipped open in surprise.

“You don’t say … I would have never guessed she was hard like that. Damn. Rend must be one hell of a teacher.”

“Yeah, well Constance has
Serylusk
tethered to the
Rendron
right now as they syphon off fuel and other usable resources. I gave her a call and asked her to hold it for me. This is why they jumped it into Vestalian space, so that when I’m ready I can grab it and do what I need to do with it.”

Val said, “Raf. Bro. You’re not making any sense. If the ship has no fuel and had to be tethered, how are you going to fly it? Plus it’s a battleship, twice the size of
Rendron
. I don’t think one man can manage those, let alone set FTL coordinates and jump to a quadrant of deep space. You’re gifted, in strange ways that I couldn’t begin to understand, but you will need a crew and—”

“The Phasers will be with you when you start the assault on the Geralos cities down here, Val. I am going to take the
Serylusk
by myself. Listen. Remember how I told you that I was in Traxis—when the explosion happened, I mean.”

“Yeah, you were in Traxis, getting it on with the locals,” he said with a grin and punched Rafian playfully in the shoulder.

“Stow that
schtill
,” he whispered. “You trying to get me killed? Not even as a joke, man. Don’t repeat that
schtill
.”

Val threw up his hands in surrender and made a gesture that represented him sealing his lips.

“So, anyway,” Rafian continued, “I was on Traxis and I found this huge desert with ships buried all throughout it. The place was a ship graveyard, and it seemed odd to have them all in one place like that. So I asked Jinay, you know, if she had any idea why those ships were out there and she said that the Geralos had crashed them into the planet and wiped out over a million people. Are you with me, Val? The lizards, who were losing the fight in space, used their ships to suicide into the planet’s surface and wiped out enough Traxians to make them rethink joining our war.”

“Ships?” Val whispered, understanding finally.

“Yeah, everything we learned as cadets is true about the Geralos cruiser-style starships. It is a technique they tried on Meluvia in the Sixth Expanse but
Aqnaqak
obliterated the low-altitude battleship before she could break the atmosphere to become a lethal bomb. I can see them trying it here when we get the upper hand on the fighting, or even on Louine where the buildings would just collide into one another and wipe out half the planet.”

“Raf, this is heavy
schtill
, brother. Who else have you told this to?”

“A week ago I had a meeting with all of the captains of the Alliance. I told them what I learned on Traxis and most of them already knew about the volatility of Geralos ships. So it’s no secret, not at all. They are all trained to trace ships into oblivion when they get near Alliance planets.  The good thing is that the Geralos love life just like we do, so to get a suicidal crew together is a feat in and of itself.”

“So
Serylusk
, that’s your plan? To fly it into Geral? You still have the issue of fuel and a crew to help you get there,” Val said. “You’re talking about the impossible, Raf.”

“Not impossible. Not for a Phaser.”

B
LACK CLOUDS rolled above the Geralese landscape, broken only by the occasional bolt of lightning which revealed the numerous ships hovering above the capital. Word had come in from the high priests that something was about to happen, something big that involved the Phasers, but that was all that they could gather.

The Geralos had tapped into the minds of enough high-ranking Alliance members to know where the major strikes would occur, but the Phasers were always a mystery since they kept their intel cryptic. One brain-biter had learned that the Supreme Leader had returned. He had met with and discussed war strategy with the heads of all the starships, and had promised them that he would 'force the lizards to respect Alliance power.'

This was a threat to be taken seriously since it was the same Rafian VCA that had destroyed the war base, Zynec Prime, and planted his own city and barracks in the ashes of the soldiers that operated there.

His Phasers had gone on to reclaim several other Vestalian cities, and while they had fought back to reclaim these zones, the Phaser city had proven to be an impervious fortress to any Geralos foolish enough to try.

What was Rafian doing? This question led to numerous speculations ranging from realistic all the way up to the absurd. Some believed that he had corrupted one of the high priests and had ordered Ari Groatrath to take his Crak-Ti and eliminate other Geralos troops. The tragedy at Gariland was thus credited to the Phasers and they worried for their soldiers that something similar was about to happen in the capital.

The Geralos governing body put down an order that any suspicious citizen—no matter their position—was to be turned in for questioning to the local authorities. Corrupted Geralos were to be executed on the spot, and routine checks were to be given to all officers in the military.

Some said Rafian was beyond human and invading minds was but one of the things he was capable of. They worried about him sneaking into the capital city, executing all of their leaders, and then ordering the military to turn on the citizens.

Others said that he was already on Geral with a massive army that would march on the capital within the month. But despite their varying suppositions, they all agreed that the capital was in danger and required fortification.

They erected tall towers to hold a force field that protected the holy temple and the homes that belonged to the seven council members. Thousands of troops were stationed throughout the city, and in the air they parked twenty massive sky carriers with hundreds of zip ships ready to deploy.

So when the crimson sky began to turn dark during what constituted the middle of the day, the Geralos leaders grew nervous, and they hunkered down and told their troops to do the same because something sinister was brewing.

Then a tear appeared, and a whyte slipped through, followed by several more, including a phantom. More tears opened up and even more Alliance ships and the Geralos zip ships rocketed off to meet the invaders. In a matter of seconds the sky was on fire from the hundreds of ships that began to exchange blows.

The sky turned bright and a laser broke through, tracing a line through the city and leveling several buildings before bouncing harmlessly off the force field. The Geralos replied immediately, firing up into space from heavy ground cannons and forcing the
Aqnaqak
to move. Then a number of cruisers jumped in from deep space, and
Aqnaqak
along with
Helysian
were forced to defend against the deadly Geralos fleet.

Despite the intelligence breech and the preparations, the Geralos were not ready for an attack of this size. They had the numbers to win but they were spread too thin with ships engaged in battle over Louine and half of their forces fighting to hold Vestalia.

The death toll was obnoxious as more ships jumped in, and the Geralos were forced to call in reinforcements to protect the capital city. Not since the Sixth Expanse had there been a fight like this, and the monks in the temple formed a meditation circle and invaded the minds of several Alliance pilots.

Chaos ensued when Alliance ships started firing on friendlies, but this did not slow the assault. The human pilots had dealt with Geralos double agents for over 100 years, so they countered the invasion with quick precision and returned their focus to wiping out the Geralos sky carriers.

* * *

On the far side of Anstractor above Vestalia, Rafian VCA stood in deep resignation on the bridge of the Geralos ship,
Serylusk
. He wore his COREX mask with his 3B suit but no las-sword, and his crimson cloak, draped over his shoulders, which was the ultimate sign of his station. He dressed in this manner not because he expected an audience but because his plans could seal the fate of his Phasers.

It wasn't easy carrying the weight of so many on his shoulders, and he thought about the implications as he stood on that alien floor, staring ahead with his arms crossed defiantly.

It would be so easy to chalk up his decisions to being the result of ‘having no other choice,’ or ‘someone has to do it so let it be me.’ He knew it was, indeed, a choice to make the decisions he was making and to decide the fate of the galaxy.

Millions would die, millions of innocents, Geralos citizens without blood on their hands. The ones who survived would remember him as a terrorist, the most vicious and evil human to have ever lived.

Would he be okay with that record? Would he be okay with the hate? They would fear him; everyone would. Some for what he was about to do, but others would fear him for what he was capable of. After the run on Zynec Prime where Zallus was developed, the leaders of the Alliance had tried to get him to commit to some sort of station. Alliance Ambassador, they had dubbed it, but he had seen the puppet strings they intended for his limbs.

Then they had tried to muscle in on Zallus as their territory, all so they could spy on him to make sure that his ambitions aligned with theirs.

As a world destroyer what would they think? Would they move to kill him immediately or would they remain silent while they plotted on him secretly?
With great power comes great responsibility and daggers at your back
, he thought.
It will only get harder, the Geralos is only the beginning for me
.

"Ready when you are, Commander," a female voice said with a vocal fry that exposed its owner as Constance ITO.

"Let me raise her shields first, Connie," he replied, and stepped forward to place his hands on the ship's alien console. The panels felt cold and eerily organic, a surface that wasn't meant for human hands. The 3B suit kept him safe but translated the temperature to his skin, and he closed his eyes and focused on the ship's inner core. "Connie, do me a favor. Don't contact me until I contact you. What I am about to do will take my full concentration and we have fighters on Geral whose lives will depend on me making it there on time."

"You got it, Commander. ITO out," Connie said, and Rafian forced his mind into a state of deep silence. He felt the ship, the complex machination that comprised its bulk, and he reached into the engines and willed the shields to come back online.

His time on Genese when he invaded the Geralos leader's mind had gifted him with knowledge of their language and various technologies like piloting their ships. The
Serylusk
was a true mothership, one that required a connection to its captain. The controls, like most early builds of Geralos cruisers, were 100% organic and meant to be linked to a Geralos brain. Rafian fooled the ship into thinking that he was of Geral, and coaxed her into tapping the reserves. The HUD flared on with life, and the thrusters fumed, pulling hard against the
Rendron
's tether as the shields began the process of repairing themselves.

Rafian focused on the tether and forced the
Serylusk
to ignore them. He calmed the thrusters, repaired the damage to the hull, and killed the connection to the Geralos command. In a matter of minutes the vessel was his, and he expelled all of the reserve resources into the shields and repairs.

By the time he was a ready an hour had passed, and he felt thirsty and exhausted from the mental exercise. Cranking up the gravity on the interior, he opened his eyes and turned around to look at the giant black crystal that he had mounted on the captain’s chair.

This was the future of the Phaser agency and he was about to burn it out. There were a lot of crystals, some bigger than others, but only this, the one they affectionately called “Big Black,” could produce more crystals for their everyday use. Once Black was gone they would eventually lose the ability to jump and Marian’s galaxy would be unattainable to her forever. This latter thought was what gave him pause; he hadn’t the heart to tell her.

Maybe this won’t kill Big Black
, he thought.
Maybe it will drain him but he will regain his power
. He crossed the plates and gripped the chair, then ran his hand across the surface of the crystal. “I am sorry, Big Black. It was from you that I gained my power, and I swore to protect you from the Geralos.” He sighed. “Ready, Connie. Break the lines,” he spoke into his comm.

The tethers from the
Rendron
were removed from
Serylusk
and the ship drifted towards Vestalia from the planet’s gravitational pull. It was moving faster than he anticipated, and he inhaled steadily to calm his nerves. He put both palms on Big Black and planted his feet, then closed his eyes to enter the Mera-Ku meditation.

Chunks of the
Serylusk
flew off and burned up into the atmosphere as it entered Vestalia like a blazing comet. Rafian willed the ship to throw up her shields and the vessel started to repair itself as the exterior cooled. Slowly but surely they were falling to the surface, but Rafian was deep into another reality. The gravity failed as the ship pulled resources from everything inside, but he stood where he was, hands on the crystal as if he were bolted to it and the deck.

“Thank you, Connie,” he finally said, and as she made to answer him the massive battleship
Serylusk
vanished from her radar.

* * *

Though the majority of the troops were in full retreat from the planet Geral, you would not have known this if you looked up into the sky during the assault. Whytes, phantoms, zip ships, and every variety of fighter were weaving into each other, launching missiles, scattering gunfire, and shooting trace lasers where they could.

It was one of the most impressive displays of aerial warfare anyone had seen during the galactic war. It appeared as if every Geralos Ace was in attendance, along with every legendary pilot in the Alliance. Tayden Lark, who had barely recovered from her recent cloning, was in her phantom leading a troop of her old rangers. Camille YAN came in with twenty Phaser recruits who had volunteered to help on this particular day. Other Aces from Louine, Casan, and Meluvia were also there, making for a formidable fleet of skillful warriors whose goal was to clear the skies for Rafian’s big surprise.

Upon breaking the atmosphere to dip down towards the capital, they had been met with opposition immediately. Camille’s mind went to treachery, believing one of their number had been compromised by Geralos intelligence.

“Good thing Rafian didn’t give us details,” she said through her comm to Tayden, who was already shouting out expletives at the fact that the Geralos were in the know.

They flew together, the two Phaser commanders, sending fire into the midst of the ships before all hell broke loose. When the Geralos countered they sent them running and it became all about survival. They could see the force field above the key structures and the long, grassy stretch of Mees, capital city in the country of Quin.

This was where the major brain biters plotted world domination and empowered the military to do the things they had done. It was from this city that the order came down to take the planet Vestalia, enslave the humans, and bite into the heads of the seeker females. Rafian had learned this when he invaded the mind of their leader and had made it his purpose to find the temple and destroy it in order to bring an end to the war.

Now with the threat of the Phasers coming to their doors, the Geralos had fortified their core position. If Camille was able to take the time to glance at what was going on below, she would have seen the hundreds of regiments ready to fight anyone that would dare come close to the capital. But it was the sky that was her concern and she flew in the way that she had been trained to fly so many years ago on the
Helysian
.

Camille had seen portals open and close for many years after becoming a Person in the Jumper organization. She had come through portals, she had produced portals, and she had taught the newer members how to do it themselves. But the size of the portal that appeared above them was so frightening that she almost collided with one of the other Phaser pilots.

She had seen the ripples in the atmosphere that warned of the incoming tear, but for one as big as she was now seeing, she began to question her sanity. “Okay, Phasers,” Tayden shouted. “We need to move. I don’t like the look of the clouds up there. Camille, do you have any idea what that thing is?”

“It looks like a crystal tear, Tay, but that doesn’t make any sense, does it?” she said but then her mind went to Rafian. He had wanted her to get the crystals out of the city so there was no chance that the Geralos could get them. But she had always known that he wasn’t telling her everything. The single black crystal that had always been mysterious—