CONQUEST

Wynn and Tiet stayed pinned down in the magnetic rail trench. The Horva had regrouped and were laying down more pulse fire against their position. Large blasts from the war machines were closing in on them. They looked at one another, trying to figure out what to do next. “The tunnel!” shouted Wynn over the explosions going off around them.

Tiet got up and followed the elder man toward the magnetic rail tunnel they had emerged from earlier. The explosions continued all around them as the Horva persistently moved in on their position.

The tunnel was nearly eight hundred yards away from them and the enemy was tearing into the rail trench with everything they had. Pulse laser fire shredded the safety wall all around them as they ran. They shielded themselves mentally, as best they could, as large chunks of concrete and metal flew at them from nearby explosions.

Massive energy ejections shot overhead, coming from a different direction. The laser beams strafed through the front line of Horva battle tanks. Wynn and Tiet stopped a moment to see what was happening. They saw several Vorn battle cruisers coming in over the city from the southeast. The cruisers quickly began to turn the tide on the Horva army with superior firepower.

The Horva tried to return fire, but it was useless against the shields on the cruisers. After several heavy volleys of laser fire, the Horva began to retreat away from the approaching warships. Many of their soldiers scattered into the wasteland beyond the city perimeter while the greater majority either retreated into the tunnel of the magnetic rail or stood their ground and died.

Wynn and Tiet watched as their own escape route was being used by the Horva fleeing the cruisers. They didn’t dare run from their position for fear the Vorn cruisers might pick them off as well. From the shuttle bay of the lead ship, they noticed a large troop carrier coming down very near to their position. Not having anywhere else to go, they remained where they were as it landed. To their surprise, when the back of the transport lowered and people issued out, it wasn’t the Vorn military but Aolene warriors.

The soldiers filed out of the transport, setting up a perimeter around their vessel. Behind them, Ranul emerged. Tiet jumped out of the trench when he recognized him with Wynn following.

“Tiet! Where are the others?” asked Ranul over the sound of the cruiser’s cannons, still firing on the retreating Horva.

Tiet’s face gave away the news before his voice did. “Dead.”

Ranul was shocked by the news, but he hesitated only a moment. A battle was still raging around them. They entered the transport and found seats near the cockpit. The Aolene warriors filed back into the transport, taking their positions inside. The ramp lifted as the pilot brought the ship off the ground, ascending back one of the Vorn cruisers.

Tiet could hear Wynn and Ranul speaking with each other, but he wasn’t really paying attention to them. He felt safe again as they climbed toward the waiting warship. The tension began to wane a little, but a flood of suppressed emotions rushed in. He began to weep as he pressed his head against the bulkhead. Ranul and Wynn could only watch as the young man grieved.

☼

A lone and injured figure watched as the Horva army retreated under heavy fire coming from Vorn battle cruisers. He wondered where the ships had come from. All of the large battle cruisers had been thought destroyed by the Barudii Sphere. The battle at Baeth Periege had taken a turn unexpected.

Grod wasn’t sure how the cloning facility had been destroyed. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep in the cloning pod. He had woke to utter devastation. All of his men that had gone into the cloning pods with him were dead. Malec and the scientist Varen were also dead.

Grod watched his army in full retreat. This battle was lost, but at least he was still alive. He spotted a personal transport vehicle near a section of debris and confiscated it. Firing up the engine, Grod climbed onto it and bolted away from the smoldering wreckage of the cloning facility toward the open wasteland beyond.

☼

Once he was clear of the atmosphere, Kale scanned the area of sector seven-seven-three. He found the signal he was looking for. Kale plotted the course into the navigation computer and activated the auto pilot. The Strider took off for its preset coordinates at three quarters of its maximum speed. His thoughts were returning to the surface and his fight with Orin.

Kale had thought the man dead for so many years now—the man who had come between him and his own father. Now, Orin truly was dead. But it was not at all satisfying to him. He even felt some regret.

Kale had not had such feelings since he saw the body of his father lying dead on the battlefield near Mt. Vaseer. The betrayal of his own people, though they had dishonored him, had not been as satisfying as predicted either.

Kale had wept for his father and mother and brother on more than one occasion, secretly. His years among the Vorn and Baruk military had not been able to erase the memories he had of better times before the incident which changed everything for him.

Regret, once again, tried to settle upon Kale’s mind and once again he fought to push it away. After all, what was done was done. He had chosen his path. Things could never be what they were again. As for Orin, he had initiated the attack on the landing platform. Kale had only been defending himself. There was nothing he could do about that. At any rate, it had been clear that nothing had changed in Orin’s mind either.

However, his younger brother was alive. It did not matter. To change course now would be a death sentence for him. He had betrayed his people. Already, he was betraying the Vorn to the Baruk.

In the distance, scanners picked up the vessel he had fixed his navigation system upon. The Strider automatically slowed its pace as the docking bay of the Baruk vessel locked onto it and guided the ship inside. Kale prepared himself to give a report of the battle. He pushed lingering thoughts of home and family as far away from him as he could and proceeded down the ramp to the waiting Baruk.

☼

Inside Tiet’s cabin, Ranul and Wynn discussed the events leading up to this battle at Baeth Periege. The Vorn cruiser, under Estall’s command, was still in position guarding the city. The Horva had fled hours ago.

The western portion of the city was in ruins after the battle. The space port and surrounding buildings including the main cloning compound were completely devastated.

Tiet stood in the shower stall of the washroom, letting the hot water pour over him. He wished the steamy water could cleanse away the recent memories in his mind, even that he could be dissolved in it and washed away never to be thought of again.

When the heating cell in his quarters ran low on stored hot water, the temperature began to change and so did his desire to stay in it. He turned off the faucet and stepped out to dry himself. Tiet noticed, in the wall mounted mirror, that his body was covered in cuts, scrapes and bruises.

These last few days had been the most exhausting and punishing experience of his young life. He stared into his own face reflected before him. Why had he lived while others had died? And did he really want to go on living without them?

He clothed himself in a simple robe and came into the main room of the cabin where Ranul and Wynn were still talking. Tiet caught Orin’s name mentioned before he entered the room.

“Who killed Orin?” Tiet asked abruptly.

Both men gave him uneasy stares, as though the answer was known but they weren’t sure of whether to give it.

“Wynn, I saw your face when Orin said the name. He said Kale killed him. Kale was my father. But he couldn’t have meant my father. You seemed to know who he meant by your expression.”

Ranul looked at Wynn.

“Ranul, do you know who this person is? I think the time for secrets is over.”

“You’re right. You need to know the truth. The person Orin named is not your father, but your brother.”

“What?” Tiet could hardly stand. “Wynn, I don’t have a brother!”

“Actually, Tiet, you do.” Ranul confirmed. “He’s your older brother.”

“Why was I never been told?”

“Three years after you were born, there was an incident,” said Ranul. “While under Orin’s command, your brother was to guard a certain village of three thousand people with a squadron under his command. He had always been a brash young man and given to conflict with his superiors.

“Kale decided that there was no real threat to the village and took the majority of his fighter squadron onto the battle front, leaving only a few to guard the people. The Horva attacked during that time. Almost two thousand men, women and children were killed as a result of his irresponsibility.

“Orin was furious with him and petitioned your father to remove his rank as a warrior. Your father was ashamed of him and did so. Kale was dishonored before your people. Shortly after those events, he disappeared. He was nearly eighteen years of age at the time.”

“I still don’t understand why he killed Orin,” Tiet said.

“About five years later, Kale was found to have conspired with the Vorn military. He gave them the information necessary to avoid our early warning systems and to allow the Baruk and Vorn armies to penetrate our defenses.”

Tiet dropped his head into his hands as he sat down upon his bed. “Does this get any better? My father and mother and my people massacred by the Vorn and the Baruk conspiring with my own brother! And now Dorian and Orin are dead because of all these things. I don’t think I can bear to hear anymore of it.” said Tiet.

Ranul and Wynn got up to leave.

“I cannot say I know how you feel, young master,” Wynn said, placing his hand firmly upon Tiet’s shoulder, “but I’m here for you. You must go on despite what has happened. Your father is dead. But you, the heir to the king…you live on, and our people live on with you. I hope you will not let their legacy die now after all that has happened.”

Wynn followed Ranul out the door, leaving Tiet on his bed to ponder. It was so horrible. Everything was worse in reality than he could have ever imagined in his worst nightmares. Yet, he was still alive. Now what am I supposed to do?

Tiet thought of Orin. Back when they lived in a cave far in the wasteland, when he had taught him to be a man and a warrior. Orin had taught him to resolve a difficult situation through prayer to the One God, Elithias.

Tiet thought upon those lessons for some time. Orin had always been very wise. He wondered if his own father had perhaps imparted his wisdom in some way to Orin. Now both men were gone, but their wisdom still lived in his memory.

He got up from his bed and walked to the portal window. Tiet could see over the city of Baeth Periege below. Much of it lay in ruins from the battle with Grod and his army.

Wynn had said that these people, the civilians, had longed for peace and had hoped for it even through years and years of oppression under their own military government. That government was gone—defeated by Grod’s Horva. Grod was apparently also dead. The Horva were defeated and fleeing from Baeth Periege. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, there was something left that was good after all.