Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-8

The Soltarian’s cold, green eyesstared at me. He growled again. Two large incisors showed when hepulled back his lips.

“Then you are a coward,” he said.

“Yea, that must be it. Getting edgyin my old age. Should retire and play golf. I know Conbor’s gambitand it won’t work. I’m not going to have your armies creep up onus while I’m fighting the general. But tell him not to getimpatient. I’ll come for him later. Tell him also I know theconnection between the lizard guys and the Soltarians. That was avery creative idea by him. A stroke of pure genius. But it won’twork. Tell him he’s going to die here, along with his armies.”

My words didn’t make the messengerlook any happier.

“We will see,” he said, as hemounted his horse.

I turned and hastened back into thecover of the forest.

“How much time do we have Mr.Ritter?”

“The enemy will be in range in twominutes, sir.”

“Then in we fire.”

Chapter 17

Our laser rifles are often calledautomatic. Technically that’s not the proper term, but it conveyswhat they can do. The so-called general was about to learn a lessonin warfare. I would have preferred to have the second squad withme,but being outnumbered doesn’t always mean the odds are against you.I grabbed my rifle. Astrid and I found an opening in our woodenwalland aimed. As we aimed, I thought the marching Soltarians looked asawkward on the ground as their colleague did riding his horse. Iguess the general didn’t think of that when he created the race.But the Soltarians weren’t created for gracefulness.

“Major, I think we have company,”Ritter yelled.

“Someone else wants to join theparty?”

To our west, where we had materialized,both the air and ground seemed to blink, like it was a screengettingbad reception. Then Rab materialized. The platoon blinked intoexistence behind him. Soldiers grabbed boxes of weapons and ranintothe forests. When Cajun ran in, she saluted.

“Sorry for the delay, sir. We had aslight problem; an attack from Soltarians hiding in thecavern.”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir. But we took care of it. Weapologize for being late.”

“You’re not late, Cajun. You’reright on time.”

I had ordered the squad to fire in twominutes. The firing commenced in one minute and fifty-nine secondsafter my command. Sometimes even veteran soldiers can getimpatient.We had two types of laser weapons. The Armont model blasted yellowlasers that cut through flesh and bone — human or Soltarian. TheCitken model shot blue lasers that pretty much did the same thingasthe yellow lasers. The Raiders’ blue and yellow fire rained shotsonto the oncoming Soltarians. They don’t make much noise, not asmuch as a sidearm or rifle with bullets. Just a low buzz. The noisecame as Soltarians screamed in agony as blue and yellow lightsclipped off arms and legs.

They shot back, but our woodenprotections deflected most of their fire. The six snipers fired sofast the air was ablaze in blue and yellow flashes. From theirposition the Soltarians tried a charge. But they were not fast.Lasers are. As the soldiers stumbled, blood poured out of theirwounds. A Soltarian volley pinged off the tree I was using forcover.It blasted the bark off and careened into the forest. I fired back.ASoltarian face exploded when a blue laser hit it. Huge gaps nowappeared in the charging Soltarian lines. We rained so muchdevastation I ordered a half-dozen Raiders to leave their dug-inpositions and beef up our southern perimeter. One determined enemy,blood pouring from two wounds, grunted and growled until he camewithin ten feet of our lines. He lifted his rifle but yellow lightscut him in two.

In space battle, you never smell thehorrors of war. But on the ground you do. The Soltarians gave off astench of open sewers. Many groaned and cried in agony. But thecriesdidn’t last for long. They died quickly on the field of blood. Afew cursed the general.

There are times when stupidity can beapplauded. One of those times is when an enemy makes a mistake. Idoubted General Conbor cared if his men lived or died. If he couldhave killed the Raiders he would have sacrificed every one ofthem.

In one of the Allied World War IIconferences, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressedgreatconcern about the high number of casualties in a particular battle.Stalin sniffed with disdain. He cared nothing about the lives ofmen.Neither did Conbor. Every one of his men was expendable to him. Oneof the reasons I would have to retire eventually is a part of mediedwhen one of my Raiders did.

When the army from the east wasdispatched, I split my force. Half the Raiders stood against thearmyadvancing from the castle and the other half stayed at the rear,guarding against the troops racing toward us from the south. Weweresurrounded and outnumbered but, in this case, that wasn’t a badthing.

In 216 B.C. at the battle of Cannae,the Roman Army suffered its greatest defeat when it lost 50,000 mento Hannibal’s legions after being outmaneuvered by the opposingforces. The Roman army used brute force and nothing else. It hadworked before, but not at Cannae. One of the lessons of the battlewas: don’t let your forces get surrounded.

Except if you have no choice. If we hadbeen in an open field, the odds might have shifted. But as theRaiders began firing front and back I didn’t think this would beanother battle of Cannae. At least not for the Raiders.

The army at the rear was larger thanthe one in front of us. But the bullets, and the blue and yellowlasers blow holes in the advancing troops. We had longer range withour guns. We could kill the Soltarians before their volleys couldreach us. For a land battle, the Soltarians didn’t have anyprotective armor. Neither did we, but we had installed an effectivebarricade. Their volleys whistled toward us, but like Lee’sartillery at Gettysburg, they flew over our heads and plunked intotrees. Lee lost 25,000 soldiers at Gettysburg and the Soltariansdidn’t have that many men. A few incredibly strong soldiersactually made it to our wooden wall before they were cut down.Seeingtheir attack was useless, a few turned around and ran away. But theblue and yellow laser fire wasn’t charitable. They died before theycould get out of range.

Watching the bloodshed and the c*****e,I shook my head. Most were brave creatures… but fighting for ahorrible cause. Fighting, for that matter, for a horrible humanbeing.

In ten minutes we claimed a victory.With the exception of a few stragglers, the enemy had beendevastated. I told Rab and Mr. Ritter to prepare the drones. We hadone more battle we had to win.

I wondered what General Conbor thoughtof his one-on-one challenge now.

I looked for the squad’s physician.When I saw him, I sighed with relief.

“You’re not attending patients,doctor?” I said.

“No. No wounded, sir. The battle wasremarkably successful. I’m very happy not to have any patients. Themedical nanos can take care of most wounds but occasionally I’mneeded. I’m glad I wasn’t today,” Manning said.

“So am I.”

“I attribute that to our ingeniouscommander.”

“Thank you, doctor, but I think Imust give credit to the opposing commander. He just made a fewstupiddecisions.”

“What do you plan to do about thecastle, major?”

“I’m going to pummel it to ashes.We haven’t lost a man in this engagement and I plan to keep thatrecord intact. In about five minutes our drones will be ready. Verylittle will be left of the general’s last command.”

I sighed and scratched my jaw. “Doctor,I want to ask you something. This may come out of left field, butitmay also have a connection to our current situation. Back on EarthifI wanted to, say, become a brown guy from Jamaica or look like IhaveAsian ancestry like Cajun, I would be able to do that,correct?”

He nodded. “Sure, ourgenetic-manipulation technology could make you whatever you wanted.Could change you into a little green Martian if you liked. If youdidyou’d be the only little green Martian in the universe since thatplanet is uninhabited. The technology is heavily regulated, ofcourse, and is usually not recommended by medical experts. There isadegree of danger if there’s some type of malfunction, soprofessionals urge caution. Planning to make a change, major?”

“No. I always felt I was darn nearperfect just the way I am. At least that’s what Astrid tells me,but I think she might be biased.”

“Probably.”

“Of course I think she’s darn nearperfect too. Thank you, doctor. You told me what I needed toknow.”

“This somehow relates to our battlehere?”

“Surprisingly enough, yes it does.”I glanced toward Ritter and Rab. “How long before the drones areready?”

“About two minute, sir. We’refitting them with the bombs now.”

Chapter 18

For the devastating weapons they were,the drones didn’t look that impressive. Basically they looked likemini-jets of the mid-21st century. The larger ones weremini mid-21st century bombers. Thankfully, in this erabombs did not need to be large. They were small enough to beslippedinto the bay of a drone bomber. Ritter and Rab loaded a half-dozendrones with bombs, then smiled at their handiwork.

The optimist Alfred Nobel, when heinvented dynamite, was overjoyed because, as he said, he had madewartoo terrible to fight and therefore had brought peace to the world.I’m not mocking him. The man was brilliant in many areas. If Irecall, he won more than three hundred patents in his life. But heknew nothing about human nature and seemed impervious to the evilthat men do. And the evil that other races do.

Then again, without that situation, I’dbeen out of a job. Not that I would have minded unemployment… Ipicked up the binoculars.

“Can the drones take off?”

“Yes, sir,” Rab said. “Mr. Ritterand I are rather proud of our work. At your command, major.”

I looked through the binoculars. Abouttwo dozen guards remained on the wall. Perhaps it was myimagination,but I thought they looked a bit apprehensive. But you’re not in apositive frame of mind if you just watched three of your armieswipedout.

“Conbor, you violated one of theimmutable laws of the galaxy. Don’t screw around with Ryvenbark’sRaiders. Now you face the consequences.” I turned to Rab. “Releasethe drones.”

Three dark jets and three darkmini-bombers soared toward the castle. Six drones of black deathagainst the stunning blue sky. They moved almost silently towardtheir target. We heard a slight hum, nothing more. In films, anattack was always accompanied by gripping music. Drums and trumpetsaccompanied the jets or the army. But the drones moved in silencewhen they were on their deadly trek. The guards on the castle’swall jerked and pointed to the sky. An officer barked an order tohismen. A minute later the Soltarians brought up what I guess was ananti-drone battery. Two lone, long barrels that spit fire. Bolts ofyellow flame came from them and shot toward the dark drones. I hadnoworries. Our technology was better than Conbor’s. White-hot flamesexploded when it hit a drone. The drone sailed into and out of theflames and headed undeterred on its deadly path. Two other yellowbolts hit drones with the same effect. The drones didn’t even slowdown.

Panicked, several Soltarian soldiersran from the wall. Two others stood silent and just stared intospace. I guessed they knew they had no place to run. When the dronehit the wall and exploded, they were tossed into the air, head overheels. When they hit the ground, they didn’t move. The drone tookout half the wall.

Other explosions blew the defendersapart as fire and smoke rose up from behind what was left of thecastle’s wall. One Soltarian, staying in his post until the lastsecond, was blown over the wall. Surprisingly he wasn’t killed. Heslowly got to his feet again, then stumbled away.

“Rab, get about six men. When itsimmers down we’ll go over and check the damage. I also want tomake sure the general is dead. He slipped out of our clutches thelast time we saw him. He’s not going to do the same again.”

“Yes, sir. If Conbor had on a timebelt he might have gone back to the future before the drones hit,”Rab said.

“That thought crossed my mind. Hewouldn’t mind leaving his men to die. But I hope we find his bodyinside.”

“It may take a while before we can goin. Those fires may burn for a long time.”

“We can wait. Time is something weseem to have.” I nodded. “That’s why Conbor invaded. He knewthe Cappnids had mastered time travel and he wanted that knowledge.Ithink this was his plan all along. To take his knowledge, his menandsome of his technology into the past and change it. He would havebuilt up his forces and attacked the worlds in the past,overpoweringthem. He would have worlds at his command. He thought he would havethe weapons of the future to conquer the past. But the paths ofglorylead only to the grave. He should have read the poets andphilosophers.”

“Doubt they would have convincedhim,” Rab said.

Chapter 19

Because I didn’t want any moresurprises I asked Mr. Tyson if he would return to the future andthencome back to our present. The last thing I needed was a few bugs inthe time machine. Tyson disappeared and reappeared about, in ourtime, three minutes later. He said he had a pleasant chat with hiscolleagues in the future and everything looked OK. It was extremelygood news.