Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (15 page)

Her started slightly.
“The daughter of the two Galactic Champions?”

“I am.” Naero shook his hand and smiled as she released it. “Thank you. Return to your ships with our good will, and go down to your people. Send for us when you are ready, and we shall land to meet with your leaders and arrange terms. Your world shall remain free and your own
, just no longer a part of Triax. It is that simple. Send for us if you need our assistance in any way.”

True to their word, the defenders landed in various starports and cities all over Vaelos-1
.

It took a few hours for the word to spread, but at last the arrangements were made for the annexation meeting
.

A
dmiral Sandusky reported that some scattered resistance still remained, as expected. Yet thankfully, there had been very few incidents of panic and suicide among the civilians, and that such devices were being collected by many local officials.

The Admiral’s own people had
discovered and neutralized a couple of genocide devices in two locations. One proved to be atomic, the other biological.

All
of the devices were clearly Triaxian. There was no doubt now in anyone’s mind.

They were suddenly interrupted by a call on
the conference room comstation. Naero took the link right away. She recognized the voice.

“Sir, this is Captain Kono Decker of
The Silver Devil.
We’re on patrol, and we’re detecting some very strange energy signatures and multiple shielding echoes at our extreme sensor range. It’s possible we’ve finally detected those twenty missing enemy fleets.”

“Great job, Kono. Alert Intel–”

“Already done, sir. But we’re the only ones this far out this way, and the signatures are fading rapidly. Do we pursue, or let them slip away again?”

“I’ll leave that up to you, Kono. I don’t want you and your people out there all alone, chasing twenty enemy fleets.”

“Sir, I think we can shadow and track them at extreme range for an hour or three, until the other fleets converge. My people and I would like to stay on them and give it a shot.”

“Very well. Permission granted. Keep us informed. And if any enemy forces head your way, I want you guys jumping out, pronto
.”

“Copy that, sir. We’ll be careful. Hey, I’ve got a new move I wanna show you at our next sparring match. I learned it off the fight circuit.”

“I wanna see it, Kono.”

“You will
, sir. Kono out.”

The
very next moment, fresh reports poured in from Vaelos-1 about poison gas bombs going off in one city, and civilians dropping and convulsing in another.

A blinding explosion down on the planet surface
–visible from orbit–erased yet another population center, in a radius of six kilometers.

Now the panic-stricken
leaders of Vaelos-1 desperately requested assistance.

Naero gave it without hesitation
.

She turned to Shalaen. “Will you come down and help us
?”

Shalaen nodded. “Of course. I’ll do whatever I can
.”

“All ships. Rescue, detection, and security teams down to the planet surface. I want deep, detailed scans of
the entire planet, and every remaining city, to locate weapons and genocide devices. Coordinate with Intel. Do everything we can to neutralize any enemy agents or Corps terrorists at work.”

A priority message came in from Aunt Sleak
.

“Naero, bypass Vaelos-1 and
return to the line. We’re going to need you and Strike Fleet Six back at the front.”

“Sorry, Admiral.
Say again? I’m in the middle of an important situation here.”

“It will have to wait. And don’t–
”

Naero
used the secret comtek Baeven gave her to cut and block the link.

“Say again, sir. Transmission garbled. You’re breaking up…”

It was in fact splitting hairs, but technically, Naero did not have to obey orders she never fully received.

18

On the surface of Vaelos-1, Naero, Shalaen, Tarim, Zhen, Tyber and their rescue teams and
Marine unit guards left their ship, entered the starport, and then the outskirts of the capital city.

They meant to link up with Admira
l Sandusky there and coordinate rescue and search and defense efforts with the local authorities.

Naero
partially recognized the good-looking Marine leftenant with the brown eyes leading their security detail.

He
told them to hold up suddenly. Naero remembered his face; she just couldn’t recall his name. What was it?

“We’re supposed to meet up with a detail from the admiral a short distance from here,” Naero told him
.

They both checked the coordinates on their scanners
.

“Affirmative, sir,” the leftenant said. “Unfortunately, my recon p
atrol found the Admiral’s people dead, blasted with grenades and shot to death in the head.”

“Terrorists? Triaxian zealots?”

“Most likely, sir.”

“That’s not good.
I’m sorry. Leftenant…?”

“Hayden. Jeremiah Hayden, Captain Maeris
.”

“My apologies. I meet so many people.”
She remembered now. From the shore leave shooting matches with Tarim.

“I understand
, sir. Don’t worry. My Marines and I are prepared to keep you and your teams safe. We’ve already eliminated several enemy agents and threats. Intel forces on the ground are helping us coordinate.”

Naero grinned. This man was a pro, she could tell by his bearin
g, the way he moved and spoke, like a true warlord. One with the authority and surety of a martial king.

“I’m sure you will. What’s our plan now
?”

Naero received a com from
Admiral Sandusky. She took it.

Then she announced. “Admiral Sandusky is sending an armored transport to these coordinates, on a private landing field, less than a klick
from here.”

She shunted the data to Hayden’s comp
.

He took a moment to study several possible approaches
.

“We can reach it in minutes by a short jump with gravwings
.”

“Il-advised,” Hayden said. “We’ve
neutralized several hi-tek Triaxian snipers. Hevangian professional sharpshooters–assassins with cloakedguns.”

“Cloaked
guns?” That was something new.

“
A very recent threat. The enemy snipers are cloaked. Even their weapons are. They fire cloaked ammunition. No trace signatures, no sound, even after they take a shot. Almost impossible to detect and track. The rounds uncloak just before they hit, and there’s no way to trace them back to the shooter. We’ve encountered both poisoned, explosive, armor piercing, and shield-negation rounds.”

“Sounds formidable. How do we defend against them and their tactics
?”

Hayden smiled. “I said they were almost untraceable. Intel found a way. They’ve developed
another new techniques using Intel microfixers. They can overlay a scanning net across an area, and pick up trace shadows of cloaking fields, ghosts and reflections. But patterns emerge over time. And cloaking sucks up a lot of power.”

“The agents have to re-charge
occasionally,” Naero guessed.

Hayden nodded and pulled back slightly. “Yes, that’s how they found them at first and noticed the patterns. Their presence would flare for a few seconds and then disappear again. You’re as smart as you a
re attractive, Captain Maeris, just as everyone said you are. I continue to be impressed.”

Naero grinned and winked. “Aww…I bet you say that to all the pretty girls. Now let’s stop flirting
, before I blush, and get our people to that landing field.”

Hayden nodded. “Copy that.
Our best chance is to stay out of the open. We’ll take a path through several buildings that will provide us good cover for eighty-one percent of our approach. We’ll keep shields down to help avoid being tracked, and use gravwings only as a last resort. Intel and my teams have the area under surveillance and will respond swiftly to any threats.”

“Looks good,” Naero said. “I see you have several potential escape routes for us. Good spread and positioning of your various fire and support teams. My compliments
.”

“Good tactical eyes, c
aptain. You’d make a great Marine. Let’s move out. You’re with me…you and yours.”

They spread out and moved forward, quietly and quickly. They passed through two buildings.
A few frightened locals turned pale and scattered and ran whenever the Spacers moved through.

“You know,” Naero said, “I trained tactical with the 9th Division when I was fifteen and sixteen
, and had to do my two year’s service, but I love starships too much. No offense.”

All Spacer youths at that age had to complete two years basic military training and service
.

“None taken
,” Hayden said. “Our loss is the Navy’s gain. So, you actually trained with the Bloody Niners, huh? That’s a hard-ass unit.”

Naero smirked. “You ought to try serving under my Aunt Sleak
.”

Both of them chuckled. “No thanks. I’ve heard a few stories about Admiral Maeris.”

“I’m sure everyone has. And I can warn you, that most of them are true.”

“I’ll take that under advisement. I didn’t read your dossier deep enough to know your were an honorary jarhead
, though. Welcome to the club, Captain. Once you’re one of us, we don’t let you out.”

“What’s your story, Leftenant?”

Hayden shrugged, “Not much. My family’s all Marine. Pretty much anyone old enough to serve.”

He made tactical adjustments as they kept moving forward, calling adjustments quietly into his comlink in his helmet
.

“Chang, pull on your pants and keep up; you’re unit’s falling behind too much. Sergeant Borelli, move you fire support team and set up on these coordinates. Mark.” He punched them in on his arm pad
.

They moved through what appeared to be a hovercar parking garage toward a multi-level dwelling center connected to it. Low-cred apartments with the laundry facilities and run-down gym showing through the glass windows with the lights cut off
.

Scans showed the locals hiding
still in their cubicle-like dwellings, cowering in the dark.

Naero stopped them from proceeding forward, her warning sense spiking
.

“What is it?” Hayden asked
.

“Everyone get down!” Naero said
.

A hovercar behind them exploded
.

Small arms
fire erupted from four separate directions.

Shalaen deflected the attacks away from them in an instant
.

The vehicle Naero just passed got shredded by automatic fire
.

Marine
s swept in, expertly isolating the four attackers and cutting them down hard and fast in a hail of precise, interlocking fire.

“Sir, Hevangian assassins,” Sergeant Archer called out
.

Naero drew her auto-blasters and prepared to fire at any target that presented itself
.

Another hovercar detonated, this time on their right
.

The explosion shattered windows in the apartments nearby. Sirens went off. Landers started screaming
.

The
Marines kept everyone moving from cover to cover.

Brief firefights all around
alerted them that this was a coordinated attack by a significant-sized force.

Naero slipped around a hovercar, crouched low
.

She
suddenly worried they were being herded in a certain direction.

Hayden grabbed her arm
and pulled her off to the right. “This way; they want us to go that way.”

He sent a fire team to check it out
.

Heavy
weapons launched up ahead.

“Rocket
s. Grenades!” Marines warned, diving for cover.

“This way,” Hayden said, leading them into the apartments
.

Explosions rocked
the parking facility, spinning flaming hovercars in several directions.

“Don’t worry,” Hayden said, scanning his readouts on his battle monitor in his face shield. “My people will deal with those goons
.”

They moved through the darkened
Laundromat for the dwellings. Loads of wash spinning and drying in a few of the units.

As they moved to
ward a multi-door hallway, a panel slid open.

All weapons lifted and trained
.

A startled lander woman with two little kids and a laundry basket emerged. All of their mouths dropped open and they turned pale
.

The kids froze. The mother
gasped and shielded them with her body. She started talking fast.

“Please, please don’t shoot us.
Take me if you have to, but don’t kill my kids!”

The looks on their trembling, shuddering faces. The way they trembled.
The way those little kids looked at her.

Naero
would never forget it.

She
sheathed her blasters and held up her hands. “Relax. We mean you know harm. Terrorists are after us. We just want to pass through.”

Leftenant Hayden merely lowered his pistols. “We don’t sh
oot kids, Ma’am. Personally, I’ve never shot a kid. None of us have.”

The woman clutched her two little ones and closed her eyes,
still shaking beyond control.

“You’re spacks. The vids say you’ve come here to murder us all. That we should kill ourselves and our kids before we fall into y
our hands. They gave us poison pills for the adults to use. Poisoned candy for the little ones.”

Naero held her tongue
.

Triax. So very evil that the depths of their depravity sickened her
to her core.

Shalaen came forward, cloaked in deep midnight blue, face veiled, hands gloved. She took down her veil and removed her gloves, placing her hands on the mother and her kids to calm and reassure them
with her empathic abilities.

“Don’t listen to any of those lies,” Naero said. “Tell your people not to hurt themselves or their kids. You should be hearing some new broadcasts from your officials
very soon.”

The poor woman shook her head. “I could never do it anyway. But some people have. They killed themselves in their rooms
…out of fear.”

Hayden checked his scans
and suddenly spoke with grave urgency. “Captain, we have serious unfriendlies. Inbound.”

To the mother. “
Ma’am. Is there another way out of this complex, to the north?”

The woman looked confused
.

“Which way is north?”

Naero and Hayden pointed directly behind her.

“On the third floor, there’s a hallway that leads to the sweatshops in the building next to us. But with the war, they’re all closed. You won’t be able to get through the locked doors.”

Naero smiled. “Can you take us there, please?”

“We brought keys,” Hayden said
, also grinning.

On the way, the little girl, about six, stared up at Naero as they walked quickly.
Eyes as big as viewports. The mother carried the little boy of four in her arms; he looked sleepy.

“We ran out of food yesterday,” the girl said plainly. “My brother and I are hungry
.”

Naero yanked out two thick meal bars from a pouch in their foil wrappers. The girl’s eyes went
even bigger. She ran up and handed her brother one that she peeled open for him. The little boy came alive and lunged for it over his mother’s shoulder.

After two
chomps, his mouth cheeks were stuffed full as he chewed.

He broke off another chunk and popped it into his mom’s mouth.

“Here momma, it’s yummy.”

The little girl tore hers open with her teeth and
wolfed it down.

When they reached the sweatshop doors, Naero sped forward and drew one of her glowing-blue, energized battle blades
.

She sliced off the metal chains and thrust the doors open
with a swingkick.

Hayden came up with a supply bag full of various ration bars
, hurriedly gleaned from the Marines and Naero’s people.