Solaris Fall: A Behemoth Ascending Novella Read online

  Captain Masan was manoeuvring at high G speeds, but he couldn’t feel anything as the anti-inertia drive made the small fighter to defy the laws of physics. “Forth enemy fighter down,” he said in jubilation.

  He kept changing direction in impossible twirls and then, another enemy fighter became a fire ball. It amazed him as the Thubans spent four centuries preparing themselves for this day and they have never thought about equipping their fighters and bombers with energy shields. That was another proof of how greed they were at spending their money. Other Draconian clans weren’t like that as their warships were always equipped with the latest technology, but Thubans were scavengers. Quick profit with no harm was what they always wanted, and they thrived in that way.

  ◆◆◆

  On board of the Behemoth Ascending, Third Commander Dracko was getting alarmed as more green icons representing his fighters were disappearing from the tactical display. “What’s going on!” he shouted, leaving visible his sharp reptile fangs covered by thick saliva. “Where those fighters come from and why they move in that way!”

  “Unknown, Third Commander,” replied Tactical Officer Krigi. “They must have some type of anti-inertia and anti-gravity drives.”

  “That’s impossible!” Dracko spat angrily. “Shoot them down, now!”

  “I have an idea, Third Commander,” added Sensor Officer Yakub, getting the attention of everyone in the Command Center.

  “Go ahead,” replied Dracko with curiosity.

  “According to a battle simulation I have run previously when the new enemy fighters showed up, we have an eighty-nine percent probability of surviving if we destroy the orbiting spaceyard,” Yakub answered confidently while expanding his calculations in the main viewscreen.

  “What about the fighters, they are the problem in here,” Dracko reproached, not understanding where the Sensor Officer was going on with this theory.

  Yakub swallowed his saliva and took a deep breath. “If we place a few nukes in that station, once it’s destroyed, the expansive wave and the debris will annihilate the small enemy fighters. The explosion would affect them as an electromagnetic pulse will fry their systems. Surely, the power systems of those crafts couldn’t resist such a pulse.”

  Third Commander Dracko remained silence for a moment, thinking about what he was just told. The Sensor’s Officer idea was brilliant, and if he was right, the enemy couldn’t stand a chance. “What about us. Will we be affected by that pulse of yours?” Dracko couldn’t afford to lose the battlecarrier or his own flagship, the Behemoth Ascending. He spent a lot of draks, hundreds of millions of them, to make the Behemoth one of the most powerful battlecruisers in the Empire.

  “Perhaps minor damage, mostly by big chunks of metal wreckage,” Yakub added, confident that his plan could certainly work.

  “Krigi, inform the fleet of our plan. Divert all available power to the energy screens. Use only missiles to target the station,” Dracko ordered when an explosion shook the ship violently. “What was that!” he grunted.

  “A nuke!” Tactical Officer Krigi informed. “Energy screen holding at eighty-two percent.”

  Another missile struck the ship, making the screens to glow in a bright ball of nuclear energy.

  “Attack!” Dracko shouted in panic.

  “Fleet firing fifty-megaton warheads against the spaceyard! Ten seconds for impact,” Sensor Officer Yakub said.

  ◆◆◆

  In space, the battle between the Draconian Thubans, or Anunnaki as they were known in Solaris System, and the surviving Atlanteans raged wildly. Captain Masan groaned as he saw multiple missile tubes slid opened in the enemy vessels. Instantly, dozens of tactical nukes exited the tubes in a tremendous speed. Those missiles weren’t hyper-missiles, but they were equipped with a sub-light mini drive with top speed of ten percent speed of light. Masan’s heart suddenly stopped as he realized where the missiles were heading; the orbital spaceyard, a massive four thousand meters width, two-thousand meters high and two-thousand meters deep with two construction yards and two repair bays. The station was unarmed but equipped with an energy screen. Surely, if just a few of those nukes strike the station, the battle could be over. Most of Commodore Toldax and Captain Masan’s fighters were in the vicinity of the gigantic station to protect it. Another huge mistake.

  “All fighters to intercept those missiles,” Masan said through his comm unit to every pilot alive. Over hundred and fifty Wasp fighters were still in combat.

  Many fighters did the impossible twirls and manoeuvres in space in such a speed that they were in a matter of one or two seconds shooting down missiles. Unfortunately, they were too many as the Draconian vessels were emptying their tubes.

  Commodore Toldax then with frantic voice spoke. Captain Masan already knew what the Commodore was about to say. “Retreat! Everyone gets out of the blast area! Return to base!”

  ◆◆◆

  Nuke after nuke struck the structure. Bright balls of nuclear power were visible all around the station. The energy screen of the Atlantean megastructure was glowing intensely. More nukes impacted the same areas of the station screens, looking for any weakness and then, one of the Behemoth Ascending sub-light missiles cut through the screen and impacted in the rear side of the station’s thick armored hull, tearing it apart. Moments after internal explosions occurred inside the station, annihilating the three-thousand crew members aboard. A massive explosion blew it apart while more nukes arrived and detonated. A truly massive nova-like explosion sent an electromagnetic pulse all over Mars orbit and the planet’s surface with the equivalent force of a massive solar storm. The fighters power systems weren’t prepared for that huge amount of released energy and suddenly, a hundred and forty-two Wasp fighters remained powerless in the cold and now rapidly approaching debris field on space. Huge pieces of metal wreckage began impacting the fighters and destroyed them. Small explosions covered the ongoing nova that became the station.

  ◆◆◆

  Captain Masan couldn’t believe what it just had happened. There was no hope. He was about to die, and nothing could help him. “If there is a God out there, take me with you quickly,” he muttered when a piece of wreckage over fifty meters in diameter struck his fighter, leaving behind a small explosion.

  ◆◆◆

  Commander Padis, Governor of Mars, couldn’t believe what was occurring at that moment. “Terra’s fleet has been destroyed. No Atlantean fighter survived. Everything is lost,” he shook his head in disbelief, the frown of his face deepening.

  “Sir,” Vera said saddened. “We can overload the Titan cannon to reach deep inside the planet and then, we could detonate a few anti-matter warheads inside the planet’s core. Perhaps if we destroy this world, Thubans will leave forever.”

  Padis gazed at her, struggling to stay calm. “No,” replied evenly. That could destroy Terra as well. More than certain, a huge part of the planet will be capture by Terra’s gravity well as Mars is in its closest orbit with it. We can’t private the living beings of Terra of their right to survive.”

  Vera fell deeply ashamed. “I am sorry, Commander. I am just a computer program trying to find solutions,” she said, facing the floor.

  “You are more than a computer program and you know it,” Padis replied affectionately. “How many people are being evacuated?”

  Vera quickly checked the latest data available to her. “Over ten-thousand, sir. No more survivors are coming through the maglevs. Self-destruction of the transports tunnels was activated over twelve minutes ago to prevent the enemy, that is landing in this moment in the outskirts of the nuked cities, to find this complex.”

  “Ten thousand from over a million, God helps us!” Padis said, surprising Vera of his words.

  She never knew the Commander was religious. Religion was a thing of the past. Vegans as other humanoid races didn’t believe in a God, but she knew, in moments like this one, humans tended to find a mystical answer to their fears. It was in their nature, even if she co
uldn’t understand those feelings.

  “God bless us,” Vera replied, extending her holographic hand attempting to touch the Commander’s shoulder without success.

  ◆◆◆

  “All enemy fighters and the spaceyard have been destroyed,” Sensor Officer Yakub informed with a grin in his face. Obviously, this success would promote him to a better status within the fleet personnel.

  “Very well,” said Dracko, complacent of how the battle went. Small impacts were hitting the Thuban tactical force as the debris field of what it was once a gigantic enemy spaceyard passed by Dracko’s warships position. Seconds after, the vibration of the impacts ceased and Dracko turned his reptilian face toward First Officer Anamesh. “It’s your turn. Seek any survivors on the planet’s surface and annihilate them. Each head you bring me, you will be reward with one million draks,” said the Third Commander with a wild look in his face.

  “It will be done,” replied Anamesh, turning around and marching toward the shuttle’s bay where his one-thousand ferocious warriors were impatiently waiting.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Back on Terra, over ten-thousand deadly warriors landed in strategic locations of the planet. Over sixty per cent of them were assaulting Poseidonia and Atlantis. The other forty percent were capturing potential slaves among the native population and eliminating the rest. Children were spared but captured. Their blood was a precious bounty as the high levels of hormones when frighten, would sell well in the Butcher Houses back in Thuban.

  Ebagesh was leading a platoon of warriors, all equipped with deadly energy weapons and heavy battle armored suits, into the city of Atlantis. They landed the shuttles just outside of the tall and white walls of the city. To his surprise, the city seemed abandoned. He couldn’t buy that. Surely these Atlantean Vegans were hiding and planning something.

  “First Officer, the city gates are wide opened,” report Second Officer Askax.

  “This doesn’t feel right. What are the reports from the surveillance drones?”

  “No life detection except for this building in the center of the city,” Askax said, showing to Ebagesh the data of the small tactical display located in his left arm. “Perhaps the cowards evacuated and left the planet.”

  “Perhaps,” Ebagesh said in disappointment. “Take two squads and search for hiding forces or survivors. Do not take prisoners, kill them all,” he ordered.

  “It will be done, First Officer,” replied Askax, moving inside the city walls with fifty deadly warriors.

  For the next hour nothing was found inside the city, only empty buildings and streets. Ebagesh was in growing suspicion that they just entered in an ambush. Everything indicated that. The fact that they had never entered in closed combat against these humans concerned him. He didn’t know what kind of combat strategies the Atlantean Vegans used in closed quarter combat. It was almost unknown the weapons they might have in their military ground troops. First time they have contacted this type of Vegans was four hundred years in the past and they didn’t fight in that way. After the space battle, they just annihilated the Thubans that were in the planet’s surface from space or by air using the bombers and fighters, not mentioning the rebellions of most of the native’s settlements.

  Suddenly, Ebagesh Sensor operator’s tactical display began to show movement. “First Officer, I’ve got something on the screen, two hundred meters north, behind those buildings,” he pointed over the place.

  “Humans?” Ebagesh asked, impatient to enter in combat.

  “Unknown, First Officer. There is only movement, but I can’t get any life sensor readings,” said in confusion the Sensor operator. Suddenly, blue energy bursts impacted him, cutting through his thick armour as it was butter.

  “Contacts! Open fire!” Ebagesh ordered to his hundred heavy armored soldiers.

  “We can’t see the enemy!” shouted one of the confused warriors.

  “Just fire, you damn idiot!” Ebagesh said, shooting his energy weapon in the direction of the supposed enemy’s location.

  More energy weapons were fired, killing one by one in an unstoppable sequence of death Ebagesh warriors, and then, the enemy finally showed up. With a jump, a frighten opponent stood just a few meters away from Ebagesh. It was a combat robot.

  ◆◆◆

  Amma was doing some research in the Raman city of Andhakas evaluating the reptilian impact in the local culture. Her mission was to gradually guide the people to a more civilized Atlantean culture without forgetting the evil ones. She knew one day the Thubans were to return.

  “These people always referred about the evil Ghurka, some says is Shiva. I wonder who is that lizard,” Odoc said while scanning with his computer device some texts in Thuban language from a wall of the temple they were exploring in that day.

  Odoc was Amma’s assistant and research co-worker. Both have been together for over a year in the city.

  “I guess he was the local governor of the city. The locals have legends about him being a perverse and odd creature. Apparently, he loved to drink blood from virgin young girls,” Amma said a bit disgusted.

  Odoc gave her a surprised gaze as he didn’t know those details. “I have a bad feeling, like something horrible is about to happen.”

  “Those dreams again?” Amma said with narrowed eyes.

  “Yes, but this time I woke up with my nose bleeding and my bed full of blood. It was frightening,” Odoc commented, his face turning pale.

  “Our people got some sort of extra sensorial abilities, being premonition one of them. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

  All in a sudden, they could hear screams and people running just outside the temple. Both looked at each other in confusion. “They are back! This was my dream!” Odoc said, his heart racing fast.

  “What you talking about? No one is back!” Amma responded, trying to maintain control of her emotions.

  “They are back! They are back!” Odoc continued to scream when, energy weapons were shot outside the temple’s gate.

  I young girl came inside the temple in hustle. She was covered by blood. Her look showed distress and fear.

  “What’s going on outside?” Amma asked the teenager in her language.

  The girl gazed Amma and said. “The evil ones are back! Run if you want to live!”

  Odoc began breathing rapidly and then, in a quick movement, he ran behind the girl. Both suddenly stopped their march by an alien, who was waiting outside the back door.

  “You can’t escape, dumb human!” said the alien in a deep and raspy voice.

  Amma was watching in shock as Odoc took the girl and placed her behind himself. He was trying to be a hero after he left his colleague and one of his best friends behind and alone.

  “Leave her alone, you damn bastard salamander!” Odoc said, gazing the alien in a defying way. He made a mistake, a truly huge one; he spoke in Atlantean dialect, a variant of Vegan language that the alien, in no time, has recognized.

  “Vegan!” the alien said in apparent anger and surprise. Act immediately, from the alien right arm, an extensible sword appeared, sliding from top of his hand. In a speedy lurch, Odoc’s head fell to the floor, his neck gushing blood like a fountain.

  “No! You damn bastard!” Amma shouted in desperation. Her friend was cruelly beheaded without chance of defending himself.

  The alien looked up the young girl and knocked her out, leaving the body unconscious on the stone ground of the temple. Then, with a tarrying laugh, the murderer steadily walked toward Amma. He knew she was Vegan. “You are going to die slowly, Vegan. I will make sure you are alive while I will dismember you slowly.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Anamesh was leading a small platoon of warriors inside the nuked city of Agartha, capital of Mars. There wasn’t much left of the city, but he had a mission, seek, find and kill every survivor if any was alive. Beside him was Ebadan, a young scientist from Ciakar. He wasn’t a Ciakan, but his caste inhabited the planet for thousands of years. Ebadan
resembled so much a humanoid, making Anamesh to distrust the young scientist. The scientist caste was a hybrid of reptilians and grays. That hybridization occurred over a million years in the past when the Draconians found a Gray world and destroyed it. After that, Grays worlds’ locations were unknown. It was said across the empire, that the attack to that world was the beginning of the unstoppable expansion of the Draconian Empire as their scientist caste became super intelligent, giving the major clans of the empire the advancement needed.

  Ebadan mission was to evaluate any technology found on the planet that could be adapted in benefit of the Thuban clan.

  “Just stay behind. I don’t want to die defending your caste,” Anamesh said arrogantly.

  Ebadan was used to that treatment. He gazed him and grinned. “As you wish, warrior caste. Mind your own business, I’ll mind my own one.”

  Among the ruins of the city, no survivors were visible. Without the protection of the domes, no human could survive more than twenty seconds on the surface of Mars without a vacuum suit. The radiation levels were tremendous, luckily the invading force was protected by their powerful combat gears.

  “Everything looks so quiet. Reports all over the planet say that no survivors have been found,” Comm operator said calmly.

  Suddenly and energy beam whirred and impacted one of Anamesh warriors, beheading him, leaving the body to crush into the dusty red ground.

  “Enemy inbound, open fire!” Anamesh shouted, impatient to rip apart the humans.

  More blue energy beams kept sweeping across the Thuban formation, killing more warriors. No one seemed to know who was shooting.

  “No life detection, sir!” Sensor operator Enoki reported, his expression deeply concerned.

  A loud scream revealed the truth. “Combat robots!” stated one of the warriors, shooting down the deadly machine. “There are hundreds of them,” screamed again.