Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (19 page)

             
The last man leapt at Kimi with a gralium staff, and she barely blocked his strike. She parried his next three attacks as she carefully thrust her sword, searching out his weak points. He swung for her head and she ducked and rolled forward, slashing the back of his knee as she went. She was hoping the armor was weaker at the joints and was rewarded by her opponent's grunt of pain. She came out of her roll and spun into a kick that rocked the soldier back, and as she tried to press her advantage, he landed a hard shot across her midsection. She hit the ground hard but rolled to avoid being stomped on by metal boots. As she rolled, she withdrew her knife and thrust it into the back of his knee. It easily slid through the weaker armor of the joints and found its mark. The man cried out in pain and went down to one knee. Kimi kicked the man hard in the face, cracking the faceplate of his helmet and taking consciousness from him with her next shot.

             
Kimi made her way over to Lana who stood in awe. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

             
"Maybe, for now we must move. If we cannot find Carmine soon, we will be forced to leave. I do not think we will be able to take the next wave of soldiers they send." Almost three minutes later, Kimi heard a noise from a building that looked abandoned and Commando began to growl. The door slowly opened and a hand began waving a white towel slowly. The door opened some more and Carmine was standing there with a smile on his face.

             
"You ladies sure know how to make an entrance." He laughed as Lana ran over to him and hugged him tight.

             
"Come on, Carmine, we have to get your friends to the shuttle quickly. More soldiers will be here soon." She led him by the hand back towards the ship and he bent down to pick up one of the dead soldier's heavy blasters. Paulie and Sal did the same along with a half dozen other rough-looking individuals.

             
"At least we won't be outgunned if more soldiers show up," Kimi began. "But still, we should hurry.” A group of women and children along with a few armed young men began to make a break for the shuttle as Lana fired it up. Only five more had to make it before Kimi, Carmine, Paulie and Sal would board, but that's when an armored troop carrier showed up. Two dozen armored soldiers quickly jumped out and began to open fire. Kimi and her men returned fire. The heavy blasters were working, and that gave the new soldiers pause. They called for a mobile barricade and began to advance again, but Kimi took it out along with three of the men behind it with her side cannon.

             
"I need to get me one of those," Carmine quipped as he fired another two shots, missing wide.

             
"I only have one more shot," Kimi yelled as she ran out to where the last four people were. She stood next to the squat Italian woman and her three kids and said, "When I stand and fire, you have to run. I know you are scared, but Carmine and his friends will be covering you the whole way. Are you ready?" When the frightened family indicated yes, she said, "Go now," as she stood and fired off her last round from her powerful weapon. She quickly made her way back to the ship, just in time for Carmine and Paulie to make it through the hatch. She dove in as Lana raised the hatch and began to fly.

             
"Lana, we need to go, follow your aunt's route; hopefully we will encounter less resistance."

             
"Ariel gave you the way in? I knew she loved me." Carmine laughed. "Thanks for coming, Lana."

             
"Did you think we wouldn't?" she replied.

             
"No, but I didn't think Ariel would send you, are you even old enough to fly this thing?"

             
"Buckle up and we'll find out." She replied. He smiled as he realized she was a lot like her father.

             
"For the record, Ariel didn't send her. The team Ariel sent was killed, and when Lana heard about it, she stole the shuttle to come get you. I found her right before she took off and surmised she could use some help. Ariel only helped us after it was clear we weren't coming back.

             
Carmine laughed, "She really is Jesse's daughter."

             
"Lana, we have incoming. Everyone buckle in and hold on back there." Kimi yelled as she brought the shuttle's weapons online.

______

              Admiral Sonnadall couldn't remember a time when he was this angry. He just watched a man's own government welcome him with assurances of his safety and then torture him within an inch of his life. He paced back and forth on the bridge of his Destroyer,
Vengeance,
and thought of how he could help Hyperia's hero. He sent a transmission over to Admiral Collingsworth aboard the
Churchill
.

             
"Admiral, we need to do something about what this villain Bliney just did to Colonel Marcos. We cannot let this stand. Colonel Marcos is King Dominus’ most honored friend and he would be most grieved to hear about what just happened. Is there no way we can make them pay?" Sonnadall asked as the heat of his anger rose from his body.

             
"I don't think so, Admiral, I know you're upset, we all are. I suspect if either of those two men were to come to Polisia there would be thousands of people that would kill them on site, but the reality is they just have too much firepower. Admiral Bliney controls all of the Coalition forces, which, including the individual planetary defense forces, totals close to fourteen hundred ships. This Lucien character controls even more. Even with the ships we just liberated, and your impressive ships from the Kalephi Galaxy, we have less than two hundred. We may be able to make a good showing of ourselves if they come here, but there is no way we can leave here and win. And that doesn't even take into account the aliens at our doorstep."

             
"I understand, but there has to be something we could do. If only I could get back home, I could bring hundreds of ships back to make these men pay." He thought about his last statement, and then thought about Jesse's claim during the battle that he was close to recreating the phenomenon. "That's it! How would I be able to get in touch with the Colonel's brother-in-law? He may hold the key to the retribution I seek for these cowardly actions." Admiral Collingsworth put his Hyperian counterpart in touch with Serge and he immediately scheduled a meeting. Serge was happy to come to the Hyperian Destroyer to have a look around.

             
"Thank you, Serge, for coming on such short notice."

             
"Not at all, Admiral, it was my pleasure."

             
"I asked you here because I'm deeply disturbed about what happened to Colonel Marcos and I was wondering if you could help me make it right."

             
"I am unsure of what I would be able to do, Admiral, but I will help if I am able. What did you have in mind?"

             
"Jesse told me he was very close to recreating the conduit that brought us here. If we could get it back open I could go back to Hyperia and bring a thousand ships here to teach this Admiral Bliney and his Enclave friend what the price of treachery is."

             
"Jesse is close to making it work, but close in scientific terms does not always mean soon. I am only just beginning to understand the science Jesse is using to make this artificial conduit a reality. Collin and Irina are in the same boat. Eventually, we will get to where Jesse already is, but we are not there yet. The bottom line is to make this conduit a reality any time soon we need Jesse. Unfortunately, he is unavailable right now, and I cannot foresee when he will be able to begin work on this project again."

             
"So, the conduit is not doable without Jesse, and Jesse as we all know will not be ready to begin working on anything for some time. That is a dilemma, Serge. Is there no way you can begin testing."

             
"Admiral, I admire that you wish to make these men pay, we all do, but when you rush science like this you get mistakes, and on this scale, mistakes are tragic. I am testing some of his theories right now, but we are not near completion. If we were, I would go with you to Hyperia and help you recruit the ships myself."

             
"I understand," he replied, frustrated that there was nothing he could do for the man that had helped his King so much. "Thank you for your honesty, Serge." As he sent Serge off with some of his techs to explore the ship, he decided he wasn't finished thinking about ways he could make Lucien and Bliney pay.

______

              ...On Zaldia, Cassie was beginning to grow frustrated. "Agent Desmond, come in. You should have been back here with Sibbie and Goslar over an hour ago. What is your situation?"

             
"My situation is Zinnebailans, lots of them, and they appear to be quite angry. We are currently two kilometers from the spaceport and heading towards you on foot. We could use some backup."

             
"And a ride," Sibbie yelled in the background.

             
"Copy that, we're on our way." She ended the transmission and called the rest of the crew together. "Desmond's team is in trouble, but at least we know why nothing is going right; it's the Zinnebailans. Apparently, there's a new player in the game, and he has it out for us. Teha, Wennagal, Tioga and I are going to go cause a distraction that will hopefully prevent our friends from falling into their hands, while Enso keeps the ship warmed up for a quick getaway. This is what we get for agreeing to a meeting on a world inhabited by a dozen sentient species."

             
Zaldia was one of the few planets in the Lawless Sector that was home to several different species. Most of them lived in specific communities populated entirely by their own kind, but many of them were forced to work together. Most of the law enforcement consisted of native Zaldians, and they did not tolerate inter-species violence. In this case, they were steering clear, because there was a new big bad Zinnebailan in town that was supposedly even worse than Garrinoras was. No one knew who this being was yet, but Cassie's crew had a lead and for that, Desmond's team was running for their lives.

             
Cassie was ready; she was going to plow through the street in her stolen speeder truck as soon as Desmond, Sibbie and Goslar passed her position. In the confusion, Wennagal and Teha would swoop in with their shielded speeder and pick up her people. Tioga would then swoop in on his speeder bike and pick her up from the accident and meet up with the rest of the crew at the ship for an immediate take off. She saw her people running, and they were taking fire. There was just enough separation to pull this off. She began barreling down the street, driving erratically and swerving until Desmond was past. At that point, she turned suddenly and hit into the front of a building, causing the load her truck was pulling to spill out, blocking the whole street. All of the Zinnebailans stopped; the closest ones even had to dive for cover. In the confusion, Cassie hoped out of the other side of the speeder truck and onto Tioga's bike. She watched as Wennagal and Teha picked up the rest of her team and they quickly broke for the
Catamaran II
. They made it back to the ship and Enso had them in the air quickly.

             
"Where to, Captain?" He asked as Cassie entered the bridge.

             
"Kaldor; we need to lay low for a while. Someone doesn't want us out there trying to bring the Sector together. What did you find out, Desmond?"

             
"You're not gonna like it boss," he replied, still out of breath from his sprint through the city. Wennagal appeared with water for his three winded teammates. He quickly took a couple swigs of water and then continued. "If our information is correct, we're looking at Garrinoras’ brother, Tovanoras. He has allegedly been out on the fringes of the galaxy building up an army. He didn't take news of his brother's death well and has come back to civilization to make the Alliance pay."

             
"Great, an angry Zinnebailan with a score to settle. He has to realize that it was his brother that set into motion all of the circumstances that led to his death." Cassie replied, once again thankful that Garrinoras was dead.

             
"I'm not sure he sees it that way, he wants revenge and he hates humans, it's that simple. He's gonna start with the Alliance and work his way out through the rest of the sector. Any species allied with us will be given a choice to either join him or share our fate."

             
"Who does he want revenge on? The man that killed his brother isn't even in this galaxy anymore." Cassie responded, her frustration quickly becoming anger.

             
"All humanity, especially us, since we were closer than most with
Endeavor's
crew." Desmond added.

             
"So what are we looking at, can he cause any real problems?"