Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (10 page)

“Alright,” Falcone piloted the ship in the
general direction Camillus had pointed. “I hope you know what
you're talking about. I don’t want to be flying all over the place
because you don’t know where they are.”

Anlon stared out of the window and watched
as Ovrea got closer. The closer they got, the whiter it seemed to
get, already making him feel cold. Once Falcone entered the planet,
the ship was swarmed with grey clouds and visibility was near
impossible.

“Got to love Ovrea,” Nimesha said. “They
have the best weather. Snow all year long with the harshest
blizzards you’ll ever get stuck in.”

The ship rocked slightly as winds picked up,
but Falcone had no problems. Once he flew out of the clouds,
blankets of ice laid before them. Miles and miles of pure, white,
ice and tall mountains with peaks that were enveloped by the
clouds.

“Where am I going now?” Falcone asked. “All
I see is a bunch of snow and mountains to maneuver through.”

“You see those mountains over there?”
Camillus pointed.

“Yeah, there’s only a few of them,” Falcone
nodded sarcastically. “Right over there, and there, and there’s
some more over there.”

“Go to those,” he pointed to a cluster of
smaller ones. “We won’t be climbing any of the others you see
around us.”

Falcone piloted the ship to the mountains
and intensity of the storm picked up dramatically. Nimesha looked
over to him to see if there was anything she could do to help, but
it was obvious Falcone didn't want to be disturbed. He circled
around the mountain, looking for a spot to land, and after finding
no place on the mountain, worked his way to the base. He took the
first clear spot to put the ship down.

“This is one hell of a storm,” Nimesha said.
“We should probably stay in the ship until it passes. It’s not a
good idea to try climbing in this.”

Camillus shook his head. “It's not going to
pass anytime soon. I'm looking at the radar and this storm could
last for hours. It’s massive.”

“We should wait it out,” Falcone said.
“Going out in this could cause more problems than it's worth. I’ve
been caught in stuff like this before and I’d rather stay someplace
warm until it’s calmed some.”

“We can't wait anymore,” Kanti said. “We
have to hurry and find out what the Elders know. Orion is depending
on us. This is just a storm, we’ll be fine.”

“They Elders will still be there if we wait
a couple of hours and the crodillians have said they’ll be
peaceful,” Nimesha said. “There’s really no rush right now.”

“We'll be able to travel through it fine,”
Anlon said. “It's just snow. How bad could it be?”

“And it's freezing cold. This isn't your
typical Gaea winter where a jacket keeps you warm,” Nimesha crossed
her arms. “Plus, who knows what's lurking around out there. We’ll
hardly be able to see what’s in front of us, we could be attacked
by wild animals.”

“We have to go now,” Anlon urged. “We've
taken our time long enough, we'll be able to travel through
it.”

“It's quite a long way to travel,” Camillus
told them. “It's at the very top of the mountain. If we wait for
this to pass, there's no guarantee it won't be followed by another
storm just as big. Anlon and Kanti are right to want to leave
now.”

“Well, Nimesha, looks like the ones with
some common sense are outnumbered on this one,” Falcone chuckled.
“Bundle up warm because if you don't, you're going to freeze in
places you never knew could freeze.”

Anlon and Kanti walked up the stairs and
went to his bunker. He opened his closet and pulled out two long
sleeve shirts and two pairs of pants similar to his suit. He
changed into his shirt and pants, instantly feeling warmer. Anlon
looked over to see that Kanti was still changing into hers and he
rummaged through his closet some more, pulling out some heavy
sweatpants, gloves, masks, and coats. He walked over to Kanti and
handed pairs of each to her.

“Just in case the suit can't keep up with
the cold out there,” Anlon smiled.

Kanti took them from him. “I can already
feel the cold coming off the walls of the ship. I'm sure that it's
more than freezing out there.”

Kanti was right, he could also feel the
temperature of the ship rapidly dropping. The metal was emanating
the cold from outside. He put on his pants, coat, and gloves and
waited for Kanti to finish getting hers on before walking down to
the deck with her.

“Everybody ready?” Falcone asked. “The ship
is reading a temperature of negative forty out there. It looks like
we came on a good day.”

“Ohh I'm ready,” Nimesha purred. “I don't
know about you humans, and bird, but I'll be warmer than all of
you.”

“Actually, I think Camillus over there will
be the warmest since he doesn't even know what cold is,” Falcone
smirked.

“Very funny,” Camillus walked past him. “But
unfortunately, the technology inside me is sensitive to temperature
this cold, so I’ll be feeling it in a different way than you, but
I’ll feel it. Now let's go before it gets any worse out there.”

Falcone opened the ramp of the ship and all
of them were hit with a blast of frigid air. Anlon quickly found
out that the suit wasn't designed for weather this cold, as chills
ran down his whole body and his skin began to prick. He put his
mask on and walked out of the ship into the knee deep snow.

“I think the armored cruiser will probably
be our best bet,” Anlon said. “It's at least covered so we’ll be
provided some protection from this.”

Camillus shook his head. “If we're going to
use anything to get up this mountain, it'll have to be the glider
bikes. There's places where the cruiser won't be able to travel and
walking in this isn’t the best idea.”

“Great,” Kanti said. “We're all going to
freeze to death. Remind me to listen to you next time Nimesha”

“Ahh come on, it won't be that bad,” Nimesha
smiled. “It'll only feel twenty degrees colder flying on that
thing.”

Falcone walked down the ramp as the gliders
were lowered from the compartments. He closed the storage areas by
hand and hopped on one of the gliders. Nimesha walked over and got
on one of her own, as did Camillus. Anlon got on the last one and
Kanti boarded behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

Anlon started up his glider and looked over
to Camillus. “Lead the way!”

Anlon followed Camillus as he began up the
steep, white, mountain. The frigid air pierced his eyes through the
mask he was wearing, causing his vision to blur. Camillus was
traveling up the slope steadily, but very carefully, watching out
for any danger. Anlon could feel Kanti start to hug him tighter,
but he wasn't sure if it's because she thought she was going to
fall off, or if she was trying to get warmer.

The further they traveled the mountain, the
colder the temperature became and the harsher the storm raged. It
wasn't unbearable yet, but Anlon had a feeling that it would be
very soon. The raged with fury, and soon, keeping Camillus in sight
wasn't easy. Anlon stuck to him as best he could, but the storm was
becoming blinding. Getting stranded alone on this mountain would be
sure death, and a cold one at that.

Jahdiel walked into the reception room to
see if Merikh was there keeping up with news of the conquered
planets. It didn't take her long to see him absorbed in one of the
screens, talking to a crodillian on the comlink. It sounded like
everything was going just as planned, which would make what she was
about to request that much easier. She stopped once she was behind
him and lightly tapped his shoulder with her finger.

“Merikh, I need to ask you something,” she
said. “It’s about the fleets.”

Merikh spun around in the chair. “What is
it? Why aren't you with them right now?”

“I wanted to see if I could conquer multiple
planets at a time.”

“No,” Merikh said without a second thought.
“You’ll use two fleets per planet like we discussed and you’ll be
present for everyone.”

“But I think it'd be better if we just used
one per planet,” she insisted.

“No, Jahdiel,” Merikh repeated. “Two fleets
per planet. One will always stay here and another will stay on
standby in case of an emergency on another planet.”

“Merikh,” she kept pushing. “If we only
conquer one planet at a time, it could take weeks to conquer the
remaining planets. We could speed things up by doing it my
way.”

“It's too risky to send one fleet alone. I
won’t do it, not now. We’ve won and I won’t take any missteps
because you want to speed things up.”

“But if they're not going to rebel, what's
there to worry about?”

“Don't be fooled into thinking they're not
going to rebel,” Merikh warned. “If we conquer the planets with one
fleet and there is a large scale rebellion at the same time you're
trying to conquer another planet, then we're in trouble. If we come
with two, they won't think to rebel against us, and with another on
standby, there is no chance they'll succeed.”

“They have nothing left,” Jahdiel urged.
“There’s no reason to be cautious now. We haven’t been up to this
point and look where it’s gotten us.”

“Ahh,” he held a finger up. “And that's why
they'll rebel. They have nothing left to lose. Their Queen just
told them to surrender, and what choice do they have but to
surrender?”

“None. It’s their only option if they want
to live,” she answered. “And that's exactly why more than one fleet
is unnecessary.”

“All it takes is one rebel. That lone rebel
could persuade an entire planet to rebel, then an entire galaxy. On
top of that, we don't know if they hid ships from the Queen. We
know nothing about any of these races except that they're
desperate. Desperate races do desperate things. If they decide to
give in to that desperation, I’ll have fleets ready to wipe them
out.”

Jahdiel held her breath and looked at one of
the screens directly in front of her. It was of Gaea and she could
see that the fires had finally settled. There were a few races
roaming the streets and crodillians were watching them with weapons
at their sides. There were other races cleaning up the streets and
repairing buildings that had crumbled. It was weird to see the
crodillians not killing, but it wasn’t because they didn’t have the
urge, they feared their leader, and they respected him. She knew it
wouldn't last long and the crodillians would become bloodthirsty,
and of course, so would Merikh, and when that happened, Orion was
doomed.

“Okay, Merikh,” Jahdiel gave up. “One planet
at a time with two fleets.”

“I'm glad you understand the importance of
being cautious,” Merikh turned back around in his chair. “What
planet are you going to take first?”

“We'll go to Ovrea,” she responded. “It's a
quiet planet, but it’ll be a quick planet to conquer and it’ll
discourage races from retreating to the outer reaches of
Orion.”

“Then go,” Merikh motioned with a flick of
his claws. “The quicker it gets done, the less chance the races
have to think about rebelling against us, if they are foolish
enough to think about it.”

Jahdiel nodded and left Merikh alone in the
reception room. It hadn't gone as she had planned, but she wasn't
going to complain. If he wanted to take his time, then so be it,
she would take her time. He’d talked about the races of Orion being
foolish for thinking about rebellion, but she was starting to think
he was the foolish one. In the other galaxy, he’d never shown
mercy, but things changed once that they’d gotten here. She didn't
mind, but she was starting to think the power was getting to him,
it was blinding him.

There was also the thing with the Queen.
He’d promised she could kill her, but she was starting to doubt
that after recent events. Adira seemed like a bargaining chip right
now, a way to ensure there was no rebellion, but Jahdiel had other
plans. If Adira was no longer hers to do with, then Merikh would've
have broken a promise. She didn't like that. She was starting to
feel used for the first time since meeting Merikh, but she would
stay quiet and see if things changed. If not, then she may have to
reconsider some things, but that would come in time.

Jahdiel walked into the hangar and saw
several transport ships waiting to meet with the fleets in space.
There were four General's assigned to each Colchian waiting
patiently for her arrival. She walked up to them, already knowing
which one would accompany her during her travels.

“Merikh has ordered that one Colchian always
stay here on Hera,” Jahdiel informed them. “Another will also stay
here on standby in case it's needed while taking over one of the
planets. My Colchian and Maolmordha's Colchian will be the ones
that are taking over the planets.”

Maolmordha grinned and stepped forward. He
was a strange looking crodillian, and if it weren't for his cunning
skills, he would be serving the lowest job a crodillian could in a
fleet. He wasn't dumb and that's the only reason he was in his
position. Besides Merikh and herself, he was the best crodillian
Commander. Probably the deadliest, even more so than herself.