Chapter 8

The Future is Bleak

“Welcome all of you. I have asked you here so you may contribute your thoughts about the future of the Azayal,” said Queen Mergal Ravengus warmly.

Jason looked at her carefully. She was an exceptionally beautiful woman dressed in a black leather outfit. The collar rose to the level of her ears and then abruptly folded outwards. She had intense catlike blue eyes and a calm measured manner that put people at ease. She had a black collar that was knotted at the front with a beautiful pearl at the center of the knot the size of a golf ball. She wore a matching helmet that closely fitted over her head but had a peak that ended in a point above her forehead. Her ears protruded from dedicated holes as did a pair of thick and stubby horns. Her ears were catlike and were able to turn but were hairless and were high on her head. She was a very athletic looking but shapely woman. He had never seen her sport horns previously.

“Please help yourselves to refreshments. I have a few introductory remarks I wish to make. You have saved my daughter and have contributed your contacts and resources to help save this kingdom. You have put your own lives on the line. For what you have done I welcome you into the depleted Azayal Royal family. You may always call me by my first name Mergal,” the Queen said and laughed.

Mergal she paused a moment before smiling at her audience and then speaking. “Very soon, we are going to shock the Ghouls in Bekta Delta. We are using a few of our Warlord’s tricks. We are seeding the area around the assembling fleet with mines and we are placing missiles to face towards the fleet. We are deploying some surprises. We have small asteroids laden with missiles and cannon that we will shoot towards the fleet and planetary defenses. We have targeted large asteroids at the planet. If they try to take our people, we will hit them with planet killers. We will launch our attacks well before they intend to attack us. We are monitoring Ghoul communications and we will act before they move here,” said Mergal, “but that was not all I wanted to talk to you about.”

“I wanted you all to be aware of the succession. The king changed the succession in the week before he died. He accepted Wensta intended to betray him. He did not realize Wensta could get to him, but he did want to precipitate him into premature action.

“He put me next in the line of succession then Pardela followed by Kalalal then Relaren followed last but not least by Fallis.

“Jason, I would like to suggest you to return to your universe together with Pardela and your people. Our admirals and generals believe we will be overcome, but the odds of us fighting off the Ghouls has improved from 0 to 45%. I would like to feel that at least there is some hope for the Azayal if we face disaster. We will damage the Ghouls severely and it is going to be a very expensive campaign for them both in space and on the ground. We will fight to the death.”

“I am pleased Pardela had a vested interest in bringing all of you here. She told me you were exceptional people, but I had no idea what she meant by exceptional.” Mergal paused.

“I speak for everyone,” said Razza, “we have previously decided we are going to stay and fight. We are optimistic as we have Jason. He finds ways to get us out of holes that are unsurmountable. We are disappointed we are providing limited assistance in these trying times. We will discuss it again as a group, but we will use this last week to get ourselves into the best possible shape we can, to be able to help defend the Azayal. The group has already decided once to stay prior to fighting a desperate battle at the spaceport. If anyone changes their mind and wishes to leave, we certainly will not be critical of them,” said Razza. “So far we remain decided to stay and help you.”

“If we manage to fight them off, I will also reconsider how the kingdom is ruled,” said Mergal.

“I would be delighted to hear of any decision you may make Mergal, but when you say you will reconsider how the kingdom is ruled and you look at me, it sets off my warning bells. I will be happy with any decision you make, I will take your daughter as my wife, but I do not want titles or honors or a place in the line of succession,” said Jason firmly.

“That is exactly what Pardela, Razza, Perdita and Julia said you would say. We are not having that discussion now, but if we survive this attack; who knows who will be amongst the survivors, that is why I believe you should leave and when you have established a sufficient force, return to salvage what you can of the Azayal people; if we survive the coming conflagration,” said Mergal passionately.

“Mother there is no way in a million years I would consider leaving. If I’m going to die, I will die fighting for the Father-planet. I’m not going to run and expect our people to fight our battles for us. That has never been the way of our family. If the Azayal die they die together fighting to the last second of their existence,” said Pardela.

“I would suggest you guys do your rehabilitation and relax and perhaps even do some touring for the next few days,” said Mergal. “You have been injured in the first battle of this war. We recognize and appreciate you faced two assassination attempts recently and have fought a battle where all of you were injured. If any of you have any suggestions, please feel free to speak to me,” said Mergal sounding encouraging.

“I am too restless and my mind is too busy, to sit around the pool or go touring at a time like this,” said Jason. “Nearly all of us sustained upper body injuries and we can exercise our lower bodies. I can’t push weights but I can carry and use an assault rifle. I need to exercise. The doctor spoke of stairs I could consider walking in palace or down to the city below. I wonder if there is someone who can guide us down the stairs from the palace to the ground. I would like to see if I can go down and then up again and back to the palace.”

“Morgum was saying he is similarly restless and his men feel the same. He is one of the few people who knows the palace and its surrounds nearly as well as Wensta. He knows several different sets of stairs.

“I also will use the time to get my fitness up,” said Pardela. “I would like to join you.”

“I will join you if I may,” said Kalalal. “I exercise in the gym but it is such a bore. We pass the range on the way to the stairs, we could practice shooting first. I want to try the new assault weapons your people designed Jason.”

“I think it is an excellent idea,” said Julia. “We need to bear in mind these are still dangerous times and I think we need to be armed and armored if we are out and about. Maybe we should be armed at all times. Those assassination attempts have made me pretty suspicious about a further attempt and I would not like to be exposed on a mountainside without any defenses.”

“Morgum is due to join us for dinner a little later, let us discuss it then. I wish I could join you, but I simply have too much to do and organize. As a child I used to climb the stairs on open days to the palace with my grandfather. It was such an adventure. They were wonderful times. The views are truly astounding. I love Merka, it is such a beautiful city and it was the first city of our people. I am pleased Radon insisted the city was well kept and maintained. It is at times like this I appreciate the city,” said Mergal whimsically.

“After dinner I think we should all visit my favorite district in the city. We will take our guards, but dress plainly so we are less likely to be recognized or noticed. We will not stay in the Mingus Canal District long enough to risk compromising our security,” said Mergal. “Go and relax for half an hour and we will discuss this further at dinner. The weather is wonderful this time of the year. Let us live in the moment and not let our fears dominate our existence. Please dial in light armor and make sure you carry at least a side arm, but be prepared, it is the Azayal way.”

“Yes,” said Jason, “we will prepare in the casual Azayal way; we will carry a full load and have weapons hidden on our arms, around our waist, in leg pouches, ankle holsters. Perhaps a dozen, throwing stars, micro-rockets, knives forks and even a spoon or two! Remember guys only a light transdim pack, plenty of charge packs and emergency rations.”

Mergal grinned with the rest. “At least you learned something here, Jason. Remember guys nothing over the top. You don’t need boarding kits, short swords or oxygen.”

“How did you enjoy this evening?” Pardela asked as she undressed along with Jason, Perdita, Julia and Razza.

“For me it was reminiscent of places I have visited on Earth, but cleaner and perfectly maintained,” said Jason, “there are also some areas similar to what I have seen on Laomedeia. Perdita, I think I have seen something similar near the docks in Parzoon not far from where you live?” Jason asked.

“Certainly, we do have an area that was similarly designed, and I do know a similar area on Laomedeia. They are pleasant areas on both of those planets. Merka does it better, the area is lovely. The lighting was warm and inviting. The canals are clean and smelled pleasant. I even saw fish jumping. The sidewalks were filled with people and there were delightful places to stop and have a drink and something to eat. The colors of the buildings are striking, and the food smells wonderful. I thought they ate only meat, but even though they eat a less diverse diet than we are used to, they eat vegetables and even eat fruit. It is not an entirely carnivorous society like the Tyrannosaurus one,” said Perdita.

“Morgum is pretty hard-core. He reminds me of the instructor we had before we went to rescue your family, Razza,” said Julia. “He said all of us, should be in full armor, and carry our full load as well as an assault weapon on the stairs. It is to be a competition between us and the guards. We run to the range where we practice with the assault weapons. We walk down the stairs and then run up them. I tend to agree with his approach. Take no chances. Get back to function as fast as you can. We all hit the rehabilitation machines first, then breakfast!”

“We will beat his guards. There is no way I am going to allow our honor to suffer as a result of this competition. No one wants to relax and tour and have a good time while everybody else is frantically preparing for the war with the Ghouls. We will be as fit as we can be,” said Razza frowning.

“Pardela, I hope you are fit, you are getting into a battle of athletes. I am not sure how your sister moved you to the guards and inveigled her way onto our team,” said Razza.

“Kalalal has always been incredibly manipulative and clever. Don’t underestimate her. She is much like the King who was a magnificent athlete in his time. She will be right up there with the best. She has a punishing routine she follows,” said Pardela. “I am fit and I exercise a lot. My mother was an athlete and Morgum was a top athlete at the interplanetary level.

“I was surprised Kalalal told my mother she has her loyalty. She was certainly never loyal to the king and she was determined to kill Wensta. She is much more relaxed despite the impending war. She wants to be with Sergei and she made sure it happened,” said Pardela.

“Our whole family is very athletic and I don’t think you would’ve lost out with any of us,” said Pardela smiling. “I am pleased to see my sister is happy. I don’t think I have ever previously seen her happy. I thought initially my mother was at risk from her, but I no longer think so,” said Pardela. “Kalalal is not interested in power or administration. She would thrive as an assassin, and waste away as a Queen.”

“We need to get to sleep fairly soon,” said Razza. “We all need to go to rehabilitation and then we have a very heavy day.”

“People remember it is a full, live weapons load up,” said Razza, “we carry a full load exactly as if we were heading off for battle. Remember you need two charges for our range practice, and you need at least three spare charges. Take five if you can fit it in. You take ten grenades, twenty-four micro rockets, ten mini bombs, twenty antipersonnel stars, your full armor including your helmet, replacement oxygen, and land combat boots. Take the stuff Porquenta gave us as well. Each of you takes two medical kits. Stinger Murphy is carrying a big medical kit. Sergei will do the same. Trackrof you’re doing cyberwarfare and communications and so is Brenda Barros. Check your AI and make sure that it is integrating with all of us. Now connect to the palace system. If there are any problems you call the code and then call in gunships. Morgum says he has done this exercise many times and it will keep us in practice and extend us. The transdim packs should not be a problem for those of us with shoulder or arm problems. Jason checked with the rehabilitation doctor, who approved the exercise,” Razza continued.

“I do not relish being a personal slave of the guards for twenty-four hours and I’m sure that most of you don’t either. It is a great incentive. Snipers, make sure you have your scopes and your spotters are prepared. We have twenty targets we have to hit on the way down,” said Razza. “We don’t know what other surprises we will face, remain alert.”

“I don’t know if we are going to have an opportunity,” said Jason, “to use all the interesting weapons Porquenta gave us. Try and use them all tomorrow. We promised to tell him how his stuff performed. The armor is powered, it is new and in excellent condition. Weight will not be a factor. We have big trans-dim packs. Porquenta went to some effort to prepare this stuff for us. We will keep it in reserve until we are climbing up, unless we face an unexpected surprise needing more firepower,” said Jason. “We can show them that we are not pushovers!”

The group rushed back into their rooms to pick up the containers filled with Porquenta surprises. They then moved together through the portal to dress in armor and pick up assault weapons grenades and rockets. They strapped some of the Porquenta weapons around their arms and their waists and packed the rest in their trans-dim packs.

They all made sure they had all of their weapons and equipment and checked each other.

“Remember the competition starts in five minutes and we will have surprise targets all the way to the shooting range,” said Julia, “put your weapons on low power, nothing along the way is going to need what we can deliver at full power. We need to conserve our resources. Move to the assembly area as soon as you are ready,” Julia ordered as they walked to meet Morgum.

“I am going to be a moderator and a referee,” said Morgum. “We have two teams with the same number of people in each. I will move between teams observing. I also will use my micro-drones. For those of you who have been injured, you need to remember you are under doctor’s instructions. Shooting an assault weapon at passive targets is as far as we are going to take this exercise unless we are attacked by an as yet unknown force, which is unlikely. I don’t want any of you to damage yourselves further. This is a friendly competition not a battle to the death. I know I am wasting my time telling you this as all of you are so competitive, but if you injure yourselves you are going to have me to answer to. I will count down from 10 to 0 and then you are off. There are targets that I set up on the way to the firing range. Once we are there, I will arrange for further targets to be set up as we go down the stairs and as we climb the stairs.

Morgum counted down and both groups began to run along the path.

Targets popped up, some enemy some civilian. The enemy were not easy to kill. They turned up the power on the weapons. They also found the enemy could attack from behind. Two of the group were instructed to watch their backs.

The gardens they ran through were beautifully maintained. Streams ran through the gardens. They passed several glades with waterfalls and had to cross a wide river with linked hands to avoid being washed away. Many of the trees had colorful pink, purple, orange or red blossoms. Flowers were planted in beds along the rivers. The paths were paved with cobblestones but did not lead to the destination they were aiming for. They had to run across gardens and foliage, jump across smaller streams and wade through wider ones. Morgum avoided any route that required them to use their upper bodies for climbing.

“These gardens are astounding,” said Julia.

“They were designed and laid out by my grandfather,” said Kalalal proudly as she ran comfortably. He created a hundred model designs. The gardens are changed every fifty years to the next design. Thousands of schoolchildren hike through the gardens every year. Young couples and families enjoy the gardens on the weekends. I love walking in these gardens. They remind me of my grandfather, who was a wonderful warm man. He was a great leader. I hated my father ever since I learned he arranged his assassination. I overheard my father talking about it one day to the Vizier. Neither of them realized I overheard them. I heard Wensta talking to Grefis about killing my father and Grefis’ father. I used to shadow Wensta and watch what he was up to. Neither of them was worth the air they breathed,” said Kalalal running quickly and economically, but not tiring. She was very agile and neatly leapt across streams and over rocks. “My only regret is I did not kill him earlier. On the other hand my father would still be alive and might well have reverted to his former state if we won. I never trusted his change for the better. Perhaps this was the best result. He deserved to die for killing my grandfather, I adored him.”

“Get ready we are almost at the firing range. My weapon is ideal for long distance sniper engagement. I will join the other snipers in the group, we have limited time here. There are boxes, that you won’t notice in the back, look for them and replenish your power packs. The other box will be filled with grenades. However many you have, it is not enough. Fill every available space you have and you will not regret it. Keep them for the trip up. Morgum tries to get you to use up your resources on the way down and then you find you are vulnerable on the way up.

“There are two stairways that go down in parallel. We take one and they take one. We can see each other across the cliff face. We each have different enemies at different places, but the same number over the entire event. The enemies and civilians are randomly generated and not predetermined by Morgum,” said Kalalal. “He can’t favor one side over the other.

“Watch for enemies emerging from crevices in the rocks and from caves. Our ancestors lived millions of years ago in many of the caves hidden in the cliffs. They were the original builders of many of the stairways on the sides of this extinct volcano. The palace was built in the volcano, and it has been there for all of our recorded history. Almost every week my grandfather led me down the stairs to the city where we would have breakfast in summer or lunch in winter. Then we would climb up again. Neither of us would give in and we climbed up without stopping. When I was a very small child, we used to stop and look at some of the caves. I remember holding his very warm hand. Many of the caves have been preserved by the archaeologists and some of the art remains on the walls, carefully protected behind screens and force fields.

“Every year the Merka War College has competitions much as we are doing now, though they start at the bottom and only go as far as the shooting range for security reasons. Private citizens are allowed to make the climb twice a year,” said Kalalal.

“Here we are at the shooting range people, targets appear frequently in this area and you get your first exposure to more distant targets. Snipers follow me I will show you the best position. Cover us and then disperse to hit your targets as quickly as you can. We are ahead of the other group, and let’s keep it that way,” said Kalalal and led the snipers to a mound and quickly pointed out the targets. Those covering the sniper quickly demolished the nearby targets and moved to eliminate their own targets as did the snipers.

“Come on people, let’s move it, we are way ahead of them. I will lead you to the stairs,” said Kalalal and led the way at a cracking pace. She seemed to sail over the landscape. Kalalal did not tire. Sergei was hard pressed to keep up with her. They passed through an expansive rift hundreds of feet high to reach the stairs. The stairs had handrails and had been designed to be comfortable for both climbing down and climbing up. Jason noticed they climbed down twenty stairs to reach a landing and then went in a different direction, went down another twenty stairs reached a landing and again turned. Each stairway was parallel to the stairway that was two stairways further down. Kalalal was an excellent spotter of targets. She then showed her supreme athleticism, by swinging over the handrail and landing on the landing below. While she waited for them, she shot at targets and pointed out other targets to them. This was done through the armor AI where she quickly indicated the targets in the heads up display. Jason was impressed by her skill. Razza, Sergei, Stinger, Julia, Mandy, Trackrof and Perdita could not resist the challenge and soon did the same, and also landed cat like on the landing below.

“Bogeys below,” Razza and Kalalal indicated at the same time, pointing at a cave leading into the cliff. Both of the women went very quiet and the instruction was for the group to remain where they were. The AI changed the designation from green training enemy to red indicating a probably real enemy. Jason watched Kalalal communicating with Morgum and the competing group to be prepared to climb across the cliff above them to join their stairway, where there was a wide rock ledge that ran from the second staircase to theirs. The women silently climbed the stairs and indicated to the group to backtrack.

Jason heard Kalalal ask Morgum if there were training enemies in the cave. She listened to him briefly then shook her head. The red light changed to intense red, a confirmed enemy. Jason saw the guards reach the ledge and slowly begin to cross. Morgum was two minutes behind them on the guard’s stairway. Jason was struck how quietly Morgum moved. He took Kalalal with him down the stairway indicating everyone was to remain back until he returned.

He was back just a few minutes later.

“There are security sensors up and down the stairways and in all the caves. I can see movement in the cave. There are armor wearing soldiers. The color of the armor is definitely not ours. The armor design is not ours. He showed what he saw. Our own sensor is active in the cave, but it indicates there is nothing there. There has been no sensor alert on the stairs either. This is very suspicious. We have to assume this is a hostile force. The cave is one of two very large ones and can comfortably hold a hundred soldiers. Fortunately they are not alert and we have not triggered any of their alarms. I have sent two of my drones into the cave. I will send you what I see,” said Morgum.

“Morgum, the armor is Ghoul armor,” said Julia.

They all could see the entry to the cave as the drone entered close to the roof of the entrance. There were two sentries who were facing inwards but playing some sort of game on the ground that took all their attention. Morgum projected what the drone saw on their heads-up displays. There were forty soldiers in the cave. The drone continued further into the cave but found no further soldiers. The faces of the soldiers were definitely not Azayal. The armor was Ghoul as were the weapons. The assault rifles were clearly of Ghoul origin.

“That is definitely Ghoul weaponry, I confirm the enemy are Ghoul troops, and judging from the quality of armor and weapons special forces,” said Razza. “Most of us have used Ghoul assault weapons and trained on them.”

“I am sending the palace guard group back to the other staircase and they will cross below us a hundred yards down. It is not as easy as the ledge above us so it will take them ten minutes to get across. I don’t want any of these Ghouls to get away. I called in two of the Palace gunships and I alerted the military. We will ambush them from above and the other group will ambush them from below if they manage to get out of the cave. The gunships will send in two antipersonnel missiles each and will fire into the cave using their cannon. I assume they have anti-gunship defenses hidden on the cliff. The gunships will stay out of range as we search for them. I want three of you to remain with me here, and the others to use their gear to find and neutralize the automated anti-gunship weaponry. Jason you remain with me. You have a severe shoulder injury and I don’t want you to risk yourself. Heinrich, you and Trackrof also have injuries that make climbing unsuitable. You two also stay with me. Get your grenades ready. The gunships will stay well back to give their antimissile systems time to react. If we can find and destroy hidden missiles on the cliff it will reduce the risk to the gunships. We need to reduce our risks as much as we can. Fortunately there are limits to how well you can hide missiles on a cliff and cannon are even harder, unless you can dig them in,” said Morgum pensively.

Jason bent as far as he could over the edge. “I think the missiles if present are cloaked. I am going to switch on my Ghoul cloaking sensor and see what I can find,” said Jason and again leaned over the edge again. “Yes, I think I can see something, I didn’t see before. Morgum I suggest that you tell everyone to change sensor mode if they have not done so already. Can you hang on to my legs so I can lean further out, then I will mark the positions of the targets I see.”

Jason leaned out while supported by Morgum. He looked down and spotted three cloaked areas. He looked horizontally and marked one further area and then above where he spotted two areas 50 yards above him. All of the areas were close to the stairwells. He checked again but could not see anything else. A few moments later he saw Adrianna Xavier and Stinger Murphy moving towards the upper sites. Mandy Fritzell and Brenda Barros reached the missiles near his level. Jason watched four of the palace guards moving to the area below. Jason’s armor radar detected a gunship hovering near the cliff half a mile away. He saw Mandy and Brenda wave to him as they showed him the missiles with the cloaking now disabled. They attached a grenade to each missile and crab walked back to the stairway and moved into a fissure to avoid shrapnel. He warned Morgum to move back. They heard two soft concussions, one from above and one from below, followed by the much louder concussions of the missiles near him. Shrapnel hit the cliff near them resulting in a few small pieces of rock being dislodged. Jason pushed Morgum back again as he saw one of the guards move out onto the wide landing while talking to the other. Morgum instructed everyone to stay back and ensure their camouflage was activated and remained activated and called in missile strikes on the target he had designated, followed by suppressive cannon fire. Jason watched the guard suddenly become alert and call to the other guard and run into the cave. He heard an increasing commotion in the cave. He then heard an explosion deep in the cave followed by another louder one and another still louder before he saw a pair of missiles leave the walls around the cave entrance and head for the gunship as cannon fire began to impact on the cave surroundings widening the entrance and some penetrating into the cave.

Jason and the others futilely fired after the missiles but warned the gunship.

There was another pair of explosions deep in the cave before Ghouls started boiling out of the entrance. He saw an explosion near the gunship and then the gunship exploded and fell out of the sky.

They threw grenades down towards the entrance and neutralized the first group of Ghouls who fell to lie partly blocking the cave entrance.

Jason heard explosions above and below them, then saw his friends throw grenades down the cliff as Ghouls escaped through newly created secondary holes to the cliff face and begin climbing to the stairways. Two of Jason’s group concentrated on the cave entrance and two leaned over the edge to fire at the Ghouls on the cliff face. Jason saw a section of the cliff below the entrance blow outwards next to the stairway. Jason indicated the new target on his display as Ghouls burst onto the stairway through the hole they created. He tried the Azayal micro-rockets with impressive success. He prepared to deploy some of Porquenta’s weapons. He felt a burning in his leg. He saw Adrianna go down next to him and saw Morgum was also injured. He saw he was being fired on from above. He fired upwards and saw a pair of Ghouls fall off the cliff. He heard a series of explosions from below him, which he assumed were missiles or cannon from the second gunship before he felt his back burning and he lost consciousness.

Jason woke, once again, on a hospital bed. “Good morning, My Lord,” said the AI cheerfully, “you are fully recovered, and will be able to attend the remainder of your rehabilitation at the Palace.”