The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (10 page)

Miss Wallflower’s
voice rang over the comm system. “Captain Johnson, please return to the command deck immediately.”

“Uh oh.
Does your passenger know anything about this?”

“N-no.
She’s not really saying but she seems more frightened, as if fearful something bad is about to happen to her ‘children’.”

“Stay here
, Ari.”

“I’m restrained.
I can’t go anywhere, remember?”

“Okay I’m sending Troiano back in. I’ll be back as soon as possible
.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, then bolted out of the room. Mark turned toward Ann Troiano as he ran past and said, “Doctor, see to Ari. I have to get back to the command deck.”

Less than a minute later he exited the maglovator and re-entered the command deck once again.

“What is it, Miss Wallflower?”

The buxom redhead pointed at the view screen in answer. He followed her finger to see several of the red skinned natives jumping up and down gesturing wildly
, while talking to the security team by the ramp.

“What the hell?” Mark exited the command deck and was out of the ship a moment later trotting down the ramp toward Red who was standing there trying to calm down the red skinned
natives of Chakix’s world.

“What’s going on here
, Red?”

The
leader turned to Mark before Red could reply and began to speak quickly, his words instantly translated by the ship’s systems into Mark’s tech suit. “Our tribe is under attack. They come for us again, from the sky. Help us,” the alien warrior begged. “Help us please, or they will kill us all!”

The
Stargrazer
flew free of the shuttle deck of the
Cagliostro
. At the controls Red Robinski piloted the sixty foot long sleek ship with the swept back side wings close to the tree tops. Instantly upon leaving the
Cagliostro
he activated the
Stargrazer
’s camouflage device and, like the shuttle before it, the ship faded from sight.

“
Ya gotta love the way the new camo unit works compared to the old one,” Eddie DiGenovese commented. He sat in the co-pilots chair next to Red.

Re
d nodded grimly as was his wont. “Yeah, Mark worked out all the bugs. After the last iteration of that thing failed us around Mars two years ago he made sure he got it right this time.”

“ETA thirty seconds
, big guy,” Eddie announced.

Red stole a glance back over his shoulder. Behind him and strapped in was the red skinned alien who had implored them for aid.

“What’s your name, fella?” Red asked.

“I am
Derombu,” he replied stoically.

“Okay
, Derombu, are you the chieftain of your people?” Eddie inquired.

De
rombu shook his head negatively. “No I am a warrior, but my feet are swift so the chieftain, Procolectu, sent me from our village.”

“Okay
, Der, when we land, find Procolectu and point him out to us.” Eddie concluded.

The native nodded his head nervously in agreement.

Behind them all stood thirty security men, basically soldiers and warriors who were a permanent part of the
Cagliostro
’s crew who answered to Red.

“You men get ready
, we’re landing in five.”

The ship touched down silently, displacing little plumes of dust
. It was still invisible to every known type of sensor. But those on the ground were not invisible to the crew aboard the
Stargrazer

“Oh man, we got trouble
,” Eddie muttered.

“Get it together, DiGenovese
,” rumbled Red. “You men activate your suits’ camo units now,” he shouted toward the back of the
Stargrazer
. The thirty security men did as they were told and disappeared into a shimmering haze.

Nearby could be heard the sounds of fighting and screaming, most of it coming from the severely out matched
and outgunned natives.

“The ship is clear for fifty feet in every direction. You men clear out first and head right toward the battle. I’ll be joining you on the ground. Der, you’re with me. Eddie
, take this bird back up and power up the cannons. As soon as we separate the natives from the enemies, do a strafing run.”

“You got it
, Red.”

The rear door of the
Stargrazer
slid open silently and the cloaked men exited like silent wraiths. Red nodded to Eddie and activated his own camo unit and disappeared as well, dragging the fearful native behind him, hiding him within his own camouflage field.

T
he battlefield near the village was chaos. Purple skinned aliens fired plasma beam weapons at the natives, blasting them off their feet to land in unconscious heaps upon the ground. Once unconscious they were bound and collected. They were then dragged to an awaiting ship where they would be brought back to the hidden base under the volcano and used as slave labor. All of this Red processed almost instantaneously.

But then the crew f
rom the
Cagliostro
joined the battle. Blasts of energy enveloped the surprised Agalum troops, dropping them to the ground with one shot. Now the battle was joined.

“Sweep them up
, guys,” Red ordered. His men complied standing in a staggered formation and firing in an A group B group pattern one after another so that there was always someone firing upon the alien intruders.

Startled
, the Agalum fired back upon their invisible foes. But even if they scored any hits the super durable blue and silver suits, light armor that shunted energy as well as projectile attacks,
each member of the
Cagliostro
crew wore deflected most of the energy damage from the blasters. While the wearer was discomfited, he wasn’t mortally wounded or rendered unconscious.

The Agalum
troop leader, a ‘Salad head’ according to the
Cagliostro
crew for the way their hair, or whatever it was that grew out of their heads, resembled a head of lettuce, hurried up the ramp of the ship that had the natives packed into it. He ordered the ramp closed with quick barking commands.

“Red
, they’re rabbiting,” Eddie called over his comm.

“Don’t let ‘em
get away, Eddie. It’s all on you. We have our hands full.”

“Thanks, Chief.
I appreciate the added pressure.”

“My pleasure
, short stuff,” Red grunted in reply.

The cargo ship lifted off the ground and shot ahead, but almost instantly the cloaked
Stargrazer
was on its tail. Both ships rocketed just above tree level. Eddie aimed the forward cannons and fired, nailing the escaping ship’s primary engine. Instantly the Agalum ship lost altitude and slammed into the trees, flattening dozens of them as it slid to a smoking, sizzling halt.

“Woo-
Hoo!” Eddie shouted over his comm to Red, “Got ‘im!”

The natives who were in the heavily fortified ship ran from its shattered hull,
some carrying those who were too hurt and could not run. They all disappeared into the dense forest surrounding them.

But Eddie’s glee was short lived, for flying over the horizon was a much bigger, much deadlier looking ship that did nothing to hide its approach. It was sleek
, a long rounded body with a stanchion on each side that rose up above the hull, then dipped down toward the ground. At the end of each stanchion was mounted an engine and at the forward section was a heavy canon of some type. It was much larger than any weapon Eddie had ever seen on a small Agalum ship.

Eddie
hovered the
Stargrazer
in place silently, still cloaked. Cloaked or not the enemy ship was looking to draw him out.

Its weapons began blazing near where
Eddie and the ship had been hovering. The sleek
Stargrazer
with its pointed nose and rearward swept wings lifted upward above the attack.

“Holy mother of God!
Those are some kind of machine gun blasters,” Eddie exclaimed.

Rapid fire bursts of plasma tore the trees below the
Stargrazer
up, turning the ground to jelly with their power.

Eddie slid the
‘Grazer
around to the side invisibly and opened fire on the predatory ship, tearing the solar cannons across its hull in explosive blasts, scoring the Agalum ship’s hull repeatedly.

“Whoa, that thing’s heavily armored
, it’s some new kind of ‘Predator’. At least that’s what I’m going to call it.”

The
enemy ship spun on its axis surprisingly and fired its weapons at the spot the
Stargrazer
was hovering managing several direct hits across the ‘Grazer’s shields, immediately weakening them.

“What the hell?
My shields are down to seventy percent from one attack. This thing is brutal!”

Eddie spun the
Stargrazer
around counter clockwise, then shot the ship toward the stars.

As the
‘Grazer
gained altitude, Eddie fired off two star core missiles, which arced away from the
Stargrazer
and impacted against the enemy ship’s shields and hull.

The
Agalum craft immediately rose up and began racing upward
.

“
As of now I’m recording all of this, includin’ my commentary, for tactical purposes. Camo is still holding; let’s see how fast this thing is.”

Eddie throttled the
Stargrazer
up as it shed the planet’s atmosphere, its enemy pursuing it closely and strafing space with its rapid fire energy weapon. The Agalum ship scored hits on the rear shields of the
Stargrazer
. Each time it lit up like a flashbulb, telling the Agalum gunner exactly where its quarry was.

“
Oboy, I may be in trouble here,” Eddie grumbled.

He spun the
Stargrazer
around, flipping it and rolling it side over side, repeatedly avoiding the powerful blasts from the Agalum vessel. Eddie turned the
Stargrazer
on its own axis and rolled the ship clockwise, firing a steady stream of death at the Agalum ship, pounding its central hull repeatedly.

T
he predator ship returned fire and its blasts roared into and finally through the
Stargrazer
’s shields, then slamming into its armored hull.

“Shields are down!”
Eddie shouted. No one was there to hear him, but the ship’s recording system took in his every word.

Again he rolled the
Stargrazer
first clockwise, then corkscrewed her down and under the Agalum predator.

“It ain’t gonna be that easy
,” Eddie shouted as the
Stargrazer
slipped under the enemy ship upside down and blasted its lower hull with twin streams of destruction.

Again the Agalum predator returned fire f
rom those deadly rapid fire blasters, pounding on the ‘
Grazer’
s hull.

An emergency klaxon began to chime loudly. An automated voice
warned, “Hull breach. Decompression imminent.”

“Oh that’s just wonderful
,” Eddie barked.

He dropped the
Stargrazer
into full reverse and fired four star core missiles, two at each engine/weapons pod on the Agalum predator. The stanchions that held them rocked explosively with each impact.

Now crippled
, the Agalum ship turned slowly, streaming energy from its damaged engines.

“Enemy shield status?”

“Enemy shields at twenty five percent
,” the automated voice replied.

“Great that’s twenty five percent more than I’ve got
.”

Aga
in the predator fired where its crew thought the
Stargrazer
would be hiding, but this time missed entirely. Eddie let loose with both solar cannons, aiming directly at the right side stanchion.

The engine and weapons pod exploded spectacularly, disintegrating under the
Stargrazer
’s attack.

Eddie fired again, both cannons focused on the remaining stanchion. The ship exploded in a ball of pyrotechnics, turning space as bright as a star for an instant.

Eddie wasted no time, aiming the
Stargrazer
back toward the planet’s surface and where the
Cagliostro
was hidden. The ‘
Grazer
limped badly through the sky, still invisible but streaming a burning trail of oxygen from the ruptured hull. Further it was re-entering the atmosphere without its shields and the interior was getting decidedly hot.