Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (4 page)

“I don't like this, Anlon. Kanti needs to be
here where she's safe, not out there where the crodillians are
attacking,
but
if there's a risk they could capture you
traveling back here, then continue to Orvea. Finish the
mission.”

“We're headed there right now,” Anlon
smiled. “We'll all be fine, don't worry Alura.”

“It's not you I'm concerned about, it's
Kanti. The crodillians will surely kill Adira and Orion needs the
Princess to take her place when they do.”

“She'll be fine, Adira, we've made it this
far.”

“Bring her back when you've gotten what
we've agreed upon,” Alura hung up the comlink.

“Guess she's not too happy I snuck off
Nesoi,” Kanti laughed.

Anlon turned to her. “It's not funny, Kanti,
this is serious. Alura is right, you really shouldn't be here. The
danger is incredible, but I also think you’re right too. Orion
needs to know you’re fighting for them. As much as I hate to say
it, this is probably the only way.

Anlon and Kanti walked to the cockpit of
Drakos Mavros
. Anlon stood over Falcone and looked out the
window to the endless blackness with speckles of white. There
wasn’t a single planet in sight, just a vast expanse of
emptiness.

“So, I just got done talking to Alura,”
Anlon told Nimesha and Falcone.

Nimesha started laughing. “What'd she say
about Kanti? I bet that she wasn't too happy with you when she
found out.”

“She wasn't,” Kanti smiled. “But I think I
reminded her that I'm the Princess and I can make my own decisions.
She’s just an advisor, she can’t force me to do anything.”

“Oh?” Falcone said. “I bet she liked that
too, taking orders from someone half her age.”

“You don't even know, Falcone,” Anlon put
his and on his hips. “After that little spat, I had to take Kanti
completely out of the frame so Alura wouldn't tell the crodillians
right where we were.”

“It wasn't
that
bad. I just had to
let her know the Council can't order me around like I'm some
kid.”

“I have to admit, it was pretty inspiring
the way you talked,” Anlon winked. “Who knows, maybe you could
actually lead the rebels when the time comes.”

“Before she can lead any rebellions, we have
to get to Ovrea,” Nimesha reminded them. “Right now, it's looking
pretty hopeless, inspiring speeches and all. By the time we get
there, there might not be a galaxy left for Kanti to rule.”

“Well, I don't feel safe initiating
sonodrive right now,” Falcone told them. “If there's a fleet at
Gaea, who knows where all their other fleets are. I really don't
want to come out in the middle of a battle.”

“So, we're traveling the old way?” Kanti
leaned on his seat. “There has to be another way.”

“No, we'll use sonodrive, but I don't think
it's safe right now. Let's wait a little while before we make the
jump. I’ll start listening to the comms to see if there’s any
activity out there.”

“Falcone's right,” Anlon agreed. “We may
lose some time, but we don't have much of a choice after what just
happened on Gaea.”

“Get comfortable you two,” Nimesha said over
her shoulder. “Neither of you have traveled the old way yet. Long
story short, it’s boring.”

Anlon turned around. “It's okay, I have some
holovideos that I can watch. I’ll work on some fighting
techniques.”

“Me too,” Kanti turned around to follow
him.

“Make sure to watch those videos and
actually learn something useful,” Falcone chuckled before picking
up a comlink.

“It's done, Jahdiel.” the Captain told her.
“We’ve wiped out all the rebels and we have kept the building
intact.”

“Thank you. I want you to take the Colchian
and all of the other ships down to the ground.
Don't
kill
anyone else. I want races to rule when this is over,” she ordered
him.

The Captain walked back down to the deck of
the ship and Jahdiel watched as he ordered the crodillians to land
the ship. The Colchian began to descending to Gaea soon after he
left them and she got up from her chair to go to the bay. She was
going to be the first one off the Colchian. Every survivor would
know she, a human, was responsible for this.

She made her way down the hallways and into
the bay. The thud of the ship alerted her that they’d touched down
and she swung her leg over the glider. When the bay doors opened,
she sped off into the terror struck streets of Gaea. Burning
buildings zipped past her and dead bodies lay sprawled across the
ashy streets. The sight was heart-wrenching, knowing thousands
innocents had been slaughtered, but she was now at the point of no
return and shook the thought from her mind. She’d betrayed her own
and now she had to live with it.

Jahdiel brought the glider to a stop and got
off, standing the in the streets, wiping ashes from her face that
were raining down from the black sky. Crodillians were rounding up
survivors up ahead like they were animals being led to the
slaughter house. She wasn't sure what the significance of this
building was, but apparently it had meant something to these races
or they wouldn't have chosen it for the start of their rebellion.
As she neared the building she saw hundreds of survivors gathered
in a group with crodillian weapons focused in on them. None of the
survivors were putting up a fight and stood in a circle helplessly,
holding hands and crying.

When she reached the steps of the building,
she stopped and took a deep breath. If these people didn’t view her
as a villain yet, soon they would. Soon, every race in Orion
wouldn’t have a shred of doubt in their mind who the real monster
was. She ordered the crodillians to get a crew ready to film her
victory speech. It was time for all in Orion to know Gaea had been
conquered. The death and destruction would be filmed for all to
see, along with the survivors. Seeing survivors might prevent any
further rebellions from starting.

When she reached the top, she watched
curiously as one of the survivors left the group and approached
her. The crodillians aimed their weapons at her, but Jahdiel held
her hand up.

“Don't shoot!” She ordered them. “Let her
come up here and speak with me. We have invaded her home, it’s the
least we can do.”

The crodillians looked at each other, unsure
whether to take the order, but lowered their weapons. A girl
covered in black grime walked up the steps and stopped directly in
front of Jahdiel. Tears were streaming down her face, smearing the
dirt down her cheeks.

“You're brave to leave the group like that,”
Jahdiel told her. “If I hadn't have been here, they would've shot
you.”

“I don't care if they shoot me,” the young
girl told her. “I wanted to ask you why you're doing this. Why
would you help them destroy our home? You're one of us. This is
your home too.”

“Ha! One of you?” Jahdiel put her hand on
the girl's shoulder. “I
used
to be one of you. A lot of
things have happened since then. That was an old life, but I’m no
longer the person I was, nor am I one of you.”

“But you're still human.
Those
are
monsters,” the girl pointed at the crodillians. “You're not one of
them.”

“You're too young to understand. You don’t
have to look like a monster to be a monster. I can assure you, I’m
worse than every one of them combined,” Jahdiel pushed her back in
the direction of the crowd. “Go back to the others.”

The girl turned back around. “I'm not too
young understand! You're a murderer! Look what you've done to my
home!” She pointed to the burning buildings. “
You
killed my
parents! You’ve taken everything from me.”

Jahdiel could see the crodillians staring at
her in the corner of her eyes. “Go back down with the rest of the
survivors.”

“No!” The girl shouted. “I won't go back! I
refuse to let you do this.”

Jahdiel pointed to a crodillian. “Take her
back to the crowd. I'm about to give my speech.”

The crodillian walked forward and picked up
the screaming girl. “You're a monster, just like them, if you keep
doing this!”

Jahdiel shifted her attention to the cameras
that were now being put around her. She waited for the crodillians
to give her the go ahead to start her speech. When she began, the
young girl was still causing a ruckus below, but she was with the
rest of the crowd. The girl had seen what had happened to the last
races to put up resistance, why would she want to risk death too?
Shouldn't someone her age be afraid?

One of the crodillians gave her a nod to
begin her speech. She straightened and looked into the camera.

“Hello Orion, this is Jahdiel. As most of
you may already know, I came here with the crodillians. It was made
very clear that we would be ruling Orion, and not the Queen, after
we destroyed her fleets at Hera,” Jahdiel looked around to the
burning city around her. “We’ve now taken Gaea, but with many more
casualties than were necessary. Your races defied our orders and
rebelled.”

The cameras shifted to show images of the
death and destruction that had befallen Gaea not even an hour ago.
Fires were still raging and thick black smoke was billowing in the
skies, blocking out all sunlight. Gaea was lit dimly orange and
black dirt was sprinkling down from the skies.

“A rebellion was being organized right here,
at this very building. We warned if there was any sign of
rebellion, no mercy would be shown. That’s exactly what was done.
We killed every last rebel there was.” She held out her hands to
show all of the dead bodies scattering the streets. “Is it so hard
to listen to what you're told? Thousands of deaths could've been
avoided, but races wanted to rebel against us! Have we not shown
our strength and dominance? The Queen
can't
save you and we
are far more experienced in war than any of you.”

The cameras swung around to show the
thousands of crodillians now gathered around the buildings. Ships
were scattered in the streets and more were still flying in the
sky, looking for any signs of rebellion and firing weapons at any
slight sign.

“We’ve been merciful though,” Jahdiel
continued. “We’re gathering survivors and we’ll let them live their
lives as normally as they can, as long as they don't rebel. We have
a small group of survivors here with us now that’ll be let go as
soon as we know there will be no more rebellions.”

The cameras zoomed in on the small crowd
that had been gathered before the building. The little girl that
had been talking to Jahdiel earlier was still resisting, but was
now putting up an even bigger fight that the cameras had focused in
on her. It was like she knew all eyes were on her. Jahdiel quickly
motioned towards the crodillians to take the camera off the crowd,
but it was too late.

The girl ran towards Jahdiel, shouting at
her wildly. One of the crodillians lifted his weapon and carefully
aimed at the girl. Jahdiel waved her hands frantically to stop him,
but he shot her anyway, a grin crossing his monstrous face. The
girl's lifeless body dropped at the edge of the white steps and
blood trickled down from her head into the streets. Jahdiel stood
motionless and stared at the dead girl laying at her feet. Her
stomach twisted in a knot and tears began to come to her eyes, but
she clenched her fists and held them back as best she could. After
taking a deep breath, she looked back up to the cameras with fury
in her eyes, trying to keep all of her emotions bottled up.

“This is what happens to rebels,” she
pointed, gritting her teeth. “No matter the gender, race, or age.
All
rebels will be killed! We want peace and we’ll kill
every race that doesn't want the same thing we do. The crodillians
rule Orion now. Fall in line, or be killed.”

The cameras cut off and Jahdiel dropped to
her knees. She picked up the little girl off the ground and held
her tightly in her arms as she took the body to the group. Rage
filled their eyes, but none of them were going to rebel against her
now, not after seeing a little girl killed.

She set the girl down at their feet. “Bury
her properly,” she hung her head. “I didn't want this to happen.
I'm sorry.”

The group stared at her confused and one of
the older men spoke up. “Why do this if you know things like this
will happen? You surely know that we’ll rebel, no matter what we
say to you now.”

She took in a deep breath. “It's too late to
go back now. I won't be accepted after what I've done. I have to
finish what I've started and live with myself for as long as I
can,” she turned back around and walked back up the steps to the
Capitol building.

Merikh walked down to the dungeons which had
changed quite a bit since his arrival on Hera. When he’d first
taken over the palace, the dungeons weren't even in use. In fact,
they didn't look like they had been used in years, at least not how
they were meant to have been used. He’d changed that. Now, they
were put to good use on a regular basis.