Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (3 page)

“We may have a problem up ahead,” Falcone
came over the comline again. “We have a
huge
mother ship and
a lot of smaller commander ships around it. You all might want to
come up here and take a look at what were about to face.”

Anlon exited the turret and met up with the
others in the cockpit. Falcone wasn’t exaggerating, there was an
enormous ship surrounded by thousands of smaller ones, all waiting
for them to get closer.

“What are we going to do?” Camillus asked.
“There’s no way we're getting through that!”

“Calm down, Camillus. Let's talk out all of
the options we have before we give up,” Nimesha said.

“There are no other options but giving
ourselves up if we want to live!” Camillus exclaimed. “Look how
many of them there are!”

“It does look pretty hopeless,” Kanti
agreed.

“Hate to make things worse, but we have a
lot more incoming enemy fighters,” Falcone told them. “Our options
are quickly dwindling to nothing.”

“Tell me you have an idea,” Anlon let out a
deep breath. “We can't give ourselves up, and if the Princess is
captured along with us, Orion will never be saved.”

“I may have one idea,” Falcone twiddled his
thumbs. “I don't know if it'll work before we're shot down
though.”

“I don't care what it is. Do it,” Anlon
ordered.

“Hang on everyone, this may get a little
bumpy.”

Anlon sat down next to Kanti and she grabbed
his hand, clenching until he could feel it. He looked over to her
and gave her a reassuring smile that everything would be just fine.
Falcone speed the ship up, straight towards the enemy fleet. Anlon
could hear
Drakos Mavros
taking heavy fire, but knew the
bigger problem lay right in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Camillus shrieked.
“You're going right into them!”

“Hang on!” Falcone pushed the Sonodrive
button.

The enemy ships disappeared and stars
started streaming around them. After several long seconds Falcone
disengaged Sonodrive and slumped back in his seat. He let out a
long deep breath and started laughing.

“What were you thinking?” Camillus got up
from his seat. “You could've gotten us all killed!”

“Looks like we're all alive and fine to me,”
Falcone looked around. “I don't see what the problem is. You wanted
me to get you out and that’s exactly what I did.”

“Do you know how dangerous that was?”
Camillus asked hysterically.

“Of course I do, but I didn't see many other
options for me to take at the time,” he answered. “I didn't see you
coming up with any bright ideas.”

“I've never actually seen someone do that
successfully,” Nimesha asked. “They definitely weren't expecting it
or we'd be dead right now.”

“Whatever,” Camillus waved his hands in the
air. “Let's just get Kanti back to Nesoi.”

“I don't think that's an option right now,”
Falcone shook his head. “The crodillians will surely be keeping an
eye out for our ship now that we've escaped.”

“So you're suggesting we keep her with
us?”

Falcone nodded. “Any extra trips we make now
will just increase the chances of us getting caught. We need to
make as few stops as possible.”

“I agree with Falcone,” Kanti smiled. “We
need to go straight to Ovrea and talk to the Elders.”

Camillus walked past them and went upstairs
to a bunker. Anlon turned to Kanti and a big smile formed across
his face.

“Looks like you're coming along with us
after all.”

“I was coming all along,” Kanti leaned back
in her chair. “If I'm really the Princess, I can't just sit around
and watch while Orion is burned. You saw what they were doing to
Gaea, I won’t watch that from behind a screen, I’d rather give my
life trying to prevent it.”

“Gaea is going to end up just like Demeter,”
Nimesha stared straight ahead. “They were burning your home, just
like they burned mine.”

“We'll stop them, Nimesha,” Kanti put her
hand on her shoulder. “They won't be able to stop us once we get
our hands on the information we’re looking for.”

Jahdiel whipped around, putting her face
within an inch of the Captain’s. “What just happened to that
ship?”

“I'm not sure Jahdiel,” the Captain
stuttered. “I believe they used sonodrive. I’ve never seen anyone
do that successfully. The risk is unbelievable, only a great pilot
can pull that move off without killing himself and the entire
crew.”

“You should've taken them out!” Jahdiel
shouted. “They're resistance! Rebels! They’re to be killed on sight
from here on out, and if you have any second thoughts as to whether
they’re rebels, it’d be in your best interest to be safe and assume
so. We show no mercy,
Captain
. Merikh will have my head if
he hears of this, and trust me when I say, I won’t think twice
about putting the blame on you.”

The crodillian Captain straightened his
posture and looked straight ahead. “We tried, Jahdiel. There were
several attempts on Gaea to destroy the ship.”

“They were right there in front of
your
ship. You had the opportunity to take them out and you
failed, not just your men,
you
,” she shook her head.
“Letting them escape makes us look weak, especially if other rebels
hear of this.”

“We should be able to track them down,” the
Captain replied. “We can send ships to each planet to watch for
that ship, though they may beat us to whatever planet they're going
to.”

Jahdiel stared at the Captain, holding in
the urge to kill him for his mistake. She knew she couldn't kill
him, she wasn't a crodillian, she was a human, but the urge was
still there. A human killing a crodillian, even if she was under
only Merikh in rank, would likely not go over well. So, she just
made a mental note never to work with this Captain again if she
could avoid it.

“How are things going down on Gaea?” She
changed the topic. “I assume your men are performing better down
there than they are up here?”

“No resistance at all up to this point.
There seems to be a small force gathering around the city Capitol.
It’s as if they’re rounding up to start a rebellion once when we
step foot on their planet.”

“I want to know exactly where they are.
We’ll make an example of those who dare defy us.”

The Captain pointed to a big building in the
center of a burning city on the holoscreen. “Right there. We see a
lot of races outside, but we’re still trying to estimate how many
have taken shelter within. It's a very big building so there could
be close to ten thousand if my reports are correct.”

“Kill them all,” Jahdiel ordered. “But leave
the building standing. I want any thoughts of future rebellion to
leave the minds of
all
races in Orion. The sight of this
building will remind them of what happens if orders aren’t
followed.”

“I'm not sure we can kill them all and still
leave the building intact.”

“Do I need to lead the attack
myself
?” She moved so close to his face she could feel his
quickened breaths on her lips. “You know I'm more than capable of
leading an attack.”

“No. I just think that keeping the building
standing is much more work than it’s worth. We could just bomb the
entire building and eliminate the threat without losing any of our
own.”

“Are you in charge, Captain?” She took a
slight step back and cocked her head while crossing her arms.

“No, Jahdiel, not while you are on my ship.
You are in full command of everything.”

“Then do as I just ordered you!” She
shouted. “Keep the building standing and bomb anything else that
you want! Lure them out of the building for all I care! It doesn't
matter how you kill them all as long as the building stands when
you’re finished.”

“Yes, Jahdiel,” the Captain turned around
and walked down to the main deck without a second glance back.

Jahdiel took a seat in her chair and watched
as more ships left the Colchian to descend to Gaea. She could see
the fires blazing and the smoke billowing in the sky from the
previous attack. The atmosphere was thick with the dense black
smoke, suffocating the entire planet. If there was a rebellion
brewing, it wouldn't last past this next attack. She had gotten to
know the crodillians very well during her time as an outcast, and
if there was one thing she’d learned, it was that they loved the
smell of death on their hands.

Their lust for destruction wasn't something
she liked, and she knew that Merikh didn't either. He had been her
mentor in a way and she knew more about him than any of the
crodillians thought they knew. Jahdiel knew he hated that he had to
destroy his galaxy because it left nothing for him to rule. He
liked power, but if all that was left were ashes and bones, that
power was useless. The rest of the crodillians just wanted to kill
and destroy anything in their paths, damned be if they would be
able to survive after destroying everything. Soon they would learn
that times were rapidly changing. The pointless bloodshed would
have to come to end, for some time anyway.

She’d agreed to come back for vengeance, but
also because something inside had urged her to. It was hard for her
to put into words, but she’d trusted the instinct, hoping it would
reveal itself before it was too late. Orion was as good as
conquered after the attack on Hera and the burning of Demeter was a
necessity to prove their power and strike fear into every race.
She’d lost sleep over the slaughter, wishing she’d never said a
word. It’d been her idea and all the blood was in her hands even
though she hadn’t stepped foot on the planet.

Jahdiel stared out the window and watched as
more fires began to erupt on untouched parts of the planet. Soon,
all the on Gaea would get to see who’d just led the strike on their
planet. One of them, a human, wrongly outcast to death and
forgotten many years ago. Now she was a traitor to them.

Anlon sat next to Kanti and pulled out his
comlink. The Council hadn't called him yet, so he had a feeling
they didn't even notice Kanti missing yet. He wished that he could
keep it from them, but he knew that was no way to gain their
trust.

Alura picked up the call. “Anlon? We weren't
expecting you to call us so soon. How are things going?”

Anlon looked over to Kanti. “Well, we
haven't gotten to Ovrea yet to find out how to defeat the
crodillians, if that's why you thought I was calling.”

“Then why are you calling?” Alura cocked her
head. “Has something happened?”

“Uhhh... you could say that a few things
have come up that none of us were expecting,” Anlon shifted the
comlink to get Kanti in the picture. “First off, we have an extra
passenger.”

“Kanti!” She shouted. “What is she doing
with you?”

“That’s probably a story for another time,”
Anlon said.

Alura turned around to face a guard in her
room. “Get Bimisi in here immediately!”

“I wanted to come along, Alura, it's not
Bimisi's fault,” Kanti tried to calm her down. “I ordered him to
bring me to the ship. I’m the Princess, therefore, he couldn't deny
my order.”

“This isn’t what we agreed upon Anlon
Valens!”

“No one on this ship knew that Kanti was on
board until we landed on Gaea,” he defended himself. “If we’d known
earlier, we would’ve come right back and dropped her off.”

“Well, that's exactly what you're going to
do right now!” Alura replied. “Turn the ship around and come back
here immediately.”

“No,” Kanti took the comlink. “I'm not going
back. I'm helping Anlon with defeating the crodillians. If I die,
then I die. I will not stay hidden while the rest of Orion is
slaughtered like animals. If I’m truly the Princess, I need to be
leading the races of Orion against the crodillians, not hiding like
some coward.”

“And how do you propose you lead these races
if you're dead?” Alura asked. “A leader has to be alive to
lead.”

“I won't die, that's how I'll lead,” she
replied. “I'll show every race in Orion the crodillians are not to
be feared. If their leader stands up to them, so will the
rest.”

Anlon moved so he could be seen. “Even if we
did want to bring Kanti back, that's not a possibility right
now.”

“Why is it not possible? What's happened?”
Alura’s voice became filled with concern.

“The crodillians have just attacked Gaea,”
Anlon informed her. “We barely escaped, and when I say barely, I
should probably say luckily.”

“This is why Kanti is supposed to be here!
It's too dangerous out there right now.”

“There's no way we can take her back now,
we'll take the risk of getting caught,” Anlon told her. “We were
being chased and Falcone initiated sonodrive. He disengaged a
couple seconds later, but we still aren't sure if they have
capabilities to track.”