Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) (21 page)

“Well, Sir, the military sent us on that mission, knowing full well that there were only two soldiers…unless Anders also had a hand in that as well.”

“No, that mission was sanctioned by the military. We are aware that we might have put pressure on the two of you when you left.”

“When we left? There was pressure on us constantly,” I exclaim.

“Watch your tone soldier, just because you are frustrated doesn’t mean you take it out on the person closest to you,” Webers voice sounds shaky.

“Of course Sir, pardon me,” I apologize; it’s hard to contain emotions even at the best of times.

“Anyways, after you escaped what happened?”

“Well, after I was cut loose from the chair then we got our equipment and then made a break for the lift. We got into the lift and started to head towards the surface,” I say, the rather dull storytelling’s coming to an end.

“And then?”

“Well after we got to the surface we detonated the explosives that were attached to the bottom of the Thopium containers. The ground shook and then we left, we blew up the lift first before leaving though, in case anything had survived the explosion. That location will always bear the mark of what we did; a massive sinkhole was formed from the result of the explosion.”

“The land will heal overtime,” T-Rave says, some of the things that comes out of his mouth sometimes makes me believe that he’s a different person altogether. One minute he has a gun in his hand shouting and threatening, next thing you know he’s talking about the land being injured.

“We tried to contact Captain Cofield; all we got was static, so we tried to retrace our steps back to our crashed pod. We came upon a waterfall and began to rest when the Captain finally was able to break through the bad connection and contact us. We then waited there for an hour or so and got evacced.”

Weber sits back in his chair; he scratches what remains of his white goatee. “And then you just came back here, nothing else happened?”

“Nope, we just got picked up and then me and Cofield talked about what was taking him so long to respond to our communiques,” I say.

“How come he was delayed in contacting you?”

Pure pressure, Jayon had asked me to keep that Intel about the message to myself, “he and the engineer were just monitoring communications. That is why we were unable to contact them.”

“Did they pick up anything?” Weber asks.

“Nothing interesting, it was just status updates on the mining operations,” there, I did it. I lied to my commanding officer.

“Alright, is that everything?”

“Yeah, that’s everything,” I supress a gulp, if the General sees me being fidgety then he’d wonder if something is wrong. If the General ever finds out that I withheld information about the Hakorians and their plans, that would mean the end of my military career and potentially getting thrown in a cell.

“Alright men, this is all the information that I need, dismissed,” he says.

T-Rave and I stand up at the same time and then salute the General before we depart through the door. The door shuts behind us, T-Rave turns to face me.

“Sir, was it just me or was there a tiny bit of tension going on in there?”

“What do you mean?”

“What happened after I left the cockpit?”

Shit, well my cover’s blown already; the General hadn’t called my bluff by T-Rave definitely caught on quick.

“Nothing happened, we talked about why they were so late in picking up communications with us, everything that I said in that room was what happened,” I take in a breath; I said it too quickly, as if I’d rehearsed it in my head in case I got caught, “don’t ever accuse me again Captain, understood?”

“Yes Sir,” he says briskly, “just don’t ever do anything that might raise my suspicions,” he sighs, “anyways Colonel, I need to get home, it has been a very long day.”

“Indeed it has. I’m assuming that we will be here in the morning. There is probably more and more missions being planned for the future, this war might have just started. I have a feeling that it will be very short, short but bloody.” It’s definitely been long; long and stressful.

I turn from T-Rave and begin to walk towards the lift that will take me to the main floor where my speeder is hopefully still parked. It’d be foolish for anyone to try to steal it in front of a military embassy. Utterly foolish.

“Goodbye Colonel,” T-Rave shouts down the corridor.

“Seeya,” I wave my hand behind my back without turning around, I just keep walking. The lift doors open up and I step inside. I hit the button that will take me to the main level, I could’ve given it voice commands but what’s the point? People are just getting more and more lazy these days.

The lift doors shut and quickly reopen to reveal a different floor. I walk out of the lift and head towards the security desk at the front.

“Was your mission successful Colonel?” The security guard asks.

“Yep, as successful as it could get,” I put on a cheery smile. I reach the doors leading to the outside world in just a few short steps from the lift. My speeder’s still parked in the same spot, with one slight difference though; a gorgeous brunette leaning up against it.

Very, very thoughtful of my wife to come and greet me,  it’s always nice.

I run up to her and pick her up and spin her around, laughing all the while. I kiss her softly on the lips after giving her the biggest hug anyone could ever imagine. One of the best actions that I find provide the most comfort.

“How long have you been waiting for?” I say.

“Not too long,” she pulls away from my arms, “your office let me know that you’d returned.”

I bring her in close again, her hair smells like she’s used that new papaya hair shampoo.

“Let’s get out of here,” I say, I let her out of my arms and open the speeder door. “Ladies first,” I gesture to the open door. She steps inside and sits down in the passenger seat. I walk around the side of the speeder and hop inside.

“Welcome Mr. Woods. Please state your destination,” the computer chimes. “Home,” I respond.

The speeder lifts off the pad and takes off.

“I was worried about you,” Syreena says.

“Well, I’ve always said that I’ll come home,” I kiss her on the cheek. One of the great things about modern speeders; you didn’t have to be paying attention to the lanes as you’re flying. It reminds me of a couple I saw a few cycles ago on my way to work. The man in the passenger seat had grabbed his girlfriend and began to mush her hair around her face, his hands found certain areas that he could play with. Also for some reason their speeder had been in manual mode, so they were just parked in the middle of the lane making out and blocking traffic.

“Have you thought at all about what I said earlier?” She asks.

“Hmm, well we did talk about a lot of stuff earlier, is it possible that you could narrow that down a bit?”

“The conversation we had about you leaving,” she says, it sounds like she’s uncomfortable with the subject, which she probably is.

“Ah, I remember that one. Well, I talked to General Anders before we left, I’m not exactly sure if that information was correct though.”

“What do you mean?” She interjects.

“Well, General Anders been compromised; we discovered that he’s in contact with the enemy, so he’s now locked up, pending further and immediate investigation. He did say though that the military needs as many soldiers as they can get to win this war. I can't just leave them, they need me, it's my duty to defend my home, and all those in it.”

“Did you rehearse that little speech?” Syreena teases.

“Yeah, a little on the flight back,” I grin back.

“If it's what you have to do then you do it.”

“You don’t need to worry though, it will-”

“You have arrived,” The computer cuts in.

“Ok, we’ll finish this inside alright?” She says.

“Yeah, for sure.”

The speeder pulls into our garage bay door and lands in its usual spot. The door hisses open, I climb out of the seat -the seat’s really far down compared to the rest of speeder- and hurry to the passenger side door. I hold out my hand for Syreena, she takes it and steps out as well, she smiles at me in return. A true gentleman always helps his lady out of the vehicle.

The door heading out of the garage opens, the smell of my home comes wafting out, it’s a glorious smell after being on a mission; it smells safe. The lights automatically turn on as they sense heat signatures, the hallways illuminate with light after a couple of seconds. “Ah, it’s good to be home,” I sigh out. In a perfect world I could just go to my room and pass out. However, Syreena would most likely want to spend an evening with her husband, listening to someone’s voice is always better then listening to snoring.

“Would you be upset if I fell asleep right now?” It’s worth a try. The look on her face as I said it though told me the answer.

“Yes, I would be upset. It has been days since I’ve seen you last, so humour your wife. Alright, now that we’re inside, you were saying before?”

“I have no idea anymore…”

“Well, you have terrible memory then, as I remember you were talking about your mission, and about leaving.”

“Right, that damn computer interrupted me. Well, after I had that chat with Anders then it really did put things into perspective more, I can't just abandon everyone and just leave, I’m in it till the end.”

“I’m relieved that you said that, after you left I thought things through, and it was too much for me to ask,” she hugs me, pure happiness radiating from my heart.

“Thanks honey, I’m glad you think so.” It’s always good to have support for your career from your family.

“So, what should we do now?” Syreena says, she gives me a wide smile, a gleam is in her eye as she says it. It isn’t hard to tell what she’s talking about.

“I’m sorry to say, but I need to have something to eat and then I feel like passing out. We can definitely do something tomorrow; it might take a couple days to get called in. After that last mission we deserve a few days of RNR,” I say.

“Alright, I’ll give you that. Why don’t you go and get ready for bed and I’ll bring you some hot tea.” She says, walking through the hallway and down through the archway that head towards the kitchen.

“Sounds great.” I turn towards the bedroom and start walking. There’s nothing better than coming home and crashing on your bed; one of the best feelings ever.

The lights in the bedroom are off as I enter. I walk until my knees bump the bed frame, what happens next is what some would describe as the teeter-totter effect, my face goes face first into the pillow. The nice, cold pillow; it would probably be even colder if I flip it over. I can tell already that I wouldn’t stay awake long enough to drink my tea.

****

Screaming pierces my sleep.

Syreena’s screaming at the top of her lungs. My eyes snap open and I took at my surroundings, I take in what’s happening with a quick glance. There are men in the house, robbers? No, it couldn’t be, there’d be no way into the house without the alarms going off.

“Syreena!” I shout out her name, the screaming stops a split second after that, she knows that I’m awake.

From what I could get from my quick glance of the room I made out six shadowy figures in the bedroom alone. Who knows how many are in the house.

It’d take a lot to eliminate them all without hurting her in the crossfire. It’s only two or three seconds after I shouted her name, I roll out of bed and into the bedside table, where I keep a loaded handgun in case this very thing happened. I quickly evaluate where the scream came from and where she could’ve been moved.

I clap my hands together in quick succession. The lights come on all of a sudden, if I were looking into a mirror I’m sure my pupils would’ve contracted to the size of a pinhead instantly.

I’m ready for the light and was expecting to be blinded, the attackers however, weren’t, the room after the lights come on is filled with hissing. It feels like my heart drops into my stomach, I know who the attackers are and what they’re here for.

Hakorians have somehow found out where I live.

There’s no possible explanation for how it could’ve happened. Maybe they’d broken into the military network system and accessed files concerning previous missions. They might’ve also learned who was on those missions. If that’s the case T-Rave might be in the exact situation right now. Or maybe they’d tagged me somehow when I was unconscious back at the mining facility.

Syreena yelps again as the Hakorian that’s holding her by the bedroom door yanks hard on her hair, pulling her head back and exposing her throat. It enrages me to see her like that; I act instinctually before the Hakorian has time to pull out a blade and threaten to kill her. Although as much as I hate to think about it a knife would be unnecessary, he could most easily just snap her head to the side quickly and break her neck.

My arm snaps up and I line the barrel of the gun to the Hakorians head. I squeeze the trigger and watch as the horror begins to show in the Hakorians black beady little eyes. He drops a split second later, a huge smoking charred hole in the middle of his head. Syreenas screams stops when the body hits the floor. I don’t let me eyes register the body falling, my arm’s already arcing through the air, searching for the next target.