Chapter 18

"Standby, standby, GO!" yelled Ben, launching the assault.

Elise used the abilities that the metals gave her to simultaneously transport thirty pairs of troopers — including Ben/Simeone and David/Beckie — into positions around the holiday camp down on the planet's surface.

Between them Simon and Carson had thirty-two pairs available so the addition of Ben and the others allowed him to keep four pairs back as reserves. Ben ordered Elise to maintain a close watch on what the Zytol officers were doing. Each pair would be so focused on taking out their allotted gun emplacement that there was a risk that they could be blind-sided by the officers. To guard against that, Elise would transport the reserves whenever she identified potential trouble brewing.

The training camp was transformed from relative calm to bloody ruin within seconds. The attacking troopers' weapons made no sound as they were fired — meaning it took some time for the Zytol officers to even realise an attack was underway — but they were nonetheless deadly.

Elise had judged the spot to transport each pair to with surgical precision, putting them down in the entranceway to the gun emplacements so the Zytol had no cover at all to hide behind.

Each emplacement held a gun party of four Zytol and all thirty positions were taken down in a matter of seconds — the Wodenite/New Wodenite pairs killing two of the enemy each with a swiftly delivered double-tap.

The normal four-man squads then quickly re-formed and a sweep of the camp's buildings began.

Ben wasn't aware when the rifle of one of Simon's squad members was trained on his back during the sweep.

"I could end it now if it wasn't for the fact that the bastard is wearing one of the shields. Not to worry, my time will come soon!"

Ben walked on, oblivious to the eyes that followed him.

"How long before the Zytol scanners identify we're here and direct support into the area?" asked David.

"I'm not sure about that. What we do know is that there are several hundred troops out there somewhere — the ones that were pursuing Carson and blue group — so they don't have far to come. Elise will warn us when they're getting close though, so we won't be caught napping. For now let's concentrate on taking the Zytol officers," answered Ben.

One of the dangers that Ben had foreseen was the reaction of the Wodenite women to being rescued. It was a natural response for them to rush to their saviours to thank them, but that unfortunately meant that they sometimes found themselves between the attackers and the Zytol officers and of course they didn't have the benefit of shield technology.

The Zytol had no compunction about firing on the women as they tried to engage the attacking troops, and the women also hindered Simon and Carson's troops from returning fire.

As a consequence, the women initially found themselves less than kindly treated by blue group and Simon's company. They were quickly pushed to one side to get them out of the way as a number of small but fierce fire-fights ensued around the camp. Fortunately the women quickly cottoned on to their predicament and soon learned to keep out of the way, but not before several were cut down by Zytol troops.

The Zytol officers were mystified as to why their carefully sited gun emplacements weren't cutting the attackers to shreds, but they were nothing if not savage fighters and they showed that now.

The fight was very one-sided though — there were mainly individual Zytol officers, armed with only hand-guns, versus squads of well-armed and well-trained Wodenites or New Wodenites who also happened to have the benefit of shields. Not surprisingly therefore, the small battles were short-lived and soon Ben was left to oversee the search of the various buildings.

He came across one of Carson's squads beating a naked Zytol officer mercilessly with their rifle butts and quickly stopped what they were doing.

"Stop that for fuck's sake! You'll kill him!" Ben snapped.

"But we caught him raping a woman, Sir," one of the squad members replied, the anger burning in his eyes.

"That makes him a savage, and what you're doing suggests that you're no better. Now tie him up and move on to the next building," ordered Ben.

Moments later a strangled scream behind him made him spin round and what he saw was disturbing in the extreme. The badly beaten Zytol was coughing his last breath, blood streaming from a wound that crossed his throat. Ben could see that the beast's hands had been secured behind his back — evidence that the squad had been obeying his orders - and a woman, presumably the one who he had been raping, knelt beside his body, a dripping knife in her hand.

"There's a lesson here for all of us," Ben thought to himself. "It's amazing what a few months of captivity and brutal treatment can do to change what were once civilised and peaceful people. Look at her, look at the grim smile of satisfaction on her face. She's just killed another being and she's immensely pleased with herself. I wonder what nightmares she's going to have when the reality of what she's been through and what she's done sink in?"

Commander, the other Zytol forces are nearing the camp. I estimate you have something like half an hour before they're there," came Elise's voice inside his head, snapping him out of his musing about the Wodenite woman.

Ben urged his forces to finish their sweep of the holiday camp, running the risk that they may have missed some of the officers in their haste. He was willing to run that risk — the shields they wore were something of an insurance against there being any huge threat — in return for having the time to man the gun emplacements.

The Wodenite women were herded inside out of harm's way and Ben's forces now split into pairs again. Each pair ran to the fortified position where they had started the attack. The heavy Zytol guns were just about manageable for two rather than four and Ben warned all of them to let the Zytol troops fully commit to entering the camp before they opened fire.

The original Zytol plan had been well prepared and that meant the fields of fire from the thirty gun emplacements gave full coverage of the various approaches into the camp — and in some areas they actually overlapped.

Nervous troopers kept their thumbs hovering over the firing mechanisms of the heavy guns, their eyes narrowed to slits as they watched the Zytol advance.

The beasts looked impressive; you had to give them that. Their thick coats, their height and the sun glinting off of their sharp pointy teeth all added to their fierce appearance. The Wodenite and New Wodenite troops had no fear of them however, they had fought these beasts now and they had already shown they had all of the advantages. Now, with the added benefit of the Zytol's own fortified positions, the outcome of this latest engagement was a foregone conclusion.

"OPEN FIRE!" Ben screamed.

Instantly the noise from the various guns became almost deafening. The Zytol weapons weren't silenced like those produced by the Celestialites and now the heavy chatter rose in a crescendo, adding a base rhythm to the higher notes made by the Zytol screams.

The opening exchanges left the Zytol reserves cut to ribbons and within minutes they were retreating from the camp, defeated and running for their lives.

Ben called a halt to the firing and summoned Simon and Carson to him.

"I think we've done everything that we set out to do, it's time to return to our ships. I can have Elise transport you back onboard the Scout," he said to Carson.

"What are we going to do with the Zytol captives and with all of these women?" Simon asked.

Ben looked round and saw that the Wodenite women had deemed it safe to come out of the various holiday homes. Now that the fighting seemed to be over they were rewarding their liberators with enthusiastic hugs and kisses.

"We certainly can't leave them here — the Zytol will return with even more troops — and there's no room for them on our ships. The safest thing for them will be to get Elise to transport them to the cities they come from. With any luck they can find their way back to their families," said Ben.

Over the next half an hour Elise was kept busy transporting various groups either back up to space ships or in the case of the women, to a number of different cities where the Zytol had plucked them from.

With one last look at the bodies strewn around the camp, Ben asked Elise to transport him back up to the Rebecca.

"Captain, the blue group have just been transported back onboard," announced the Scout's AI.

"Who countermanded my orders and lowered the shields?" demanded an angry Marlon at once.

"The shields weren't lowered, Captain. The troops weren't transported using the Scout's tele-port facility."

"Then how in the name of ... Ben! He's here, isn't he?" snapped Marlon.

"Our scanners don't show any sign of Commander Ben, Sir, but I agree with your deduction. My database shows no other possibility given the manner in which the troops seem to have been transported in violation of our own security with regard to tele-port functionality. You will no doubt recall that Commander Ben has used this ability once before — to remove the pilot Simeone."

Marlon jumped down from his chair and stomped from the bridge in search of blue group. He was determined to get some answers.

Carson and his troops were stripping off their dirty, sweaty fatigues and hitting the showers in their allotted quarters when an angry Captain Marlon burst in on them.

"What's the meaning of this? Why are you here instead of attacking the Zytol? How did you get onboard the ship? Where is Commander Ben?"

The questions were fired in much the same way as the heavy Zytol guns had fired — without pause and with a harsh tone.

Carson stopped what he was doing and turned to face the red-faced Captain, a man that he now realised he had absolutely no respect for. He couldn't help but compare Marlon to Commander Ben and he shook his head at how pathetic the Captain appeared in terms of how he conducted himself. Forcing himself to remain calm, Carson tried to answer Marlon's questions.

"The holiday camp you asked us to attack was a carefully prepared Zytol trap. They were dug-in, waiting for us, and then several hundred more arrived to join the party.

"We asked to be tele-ported back onboard, but were told you couldn't lower your shields to do that. So, we had to run. The Zytol sprung an ambush on us and we were in a tight corner until Commander Ben came to our rescue by transporting us aboard his ship.

"The Zytol were using the holiday camp as a pleasure farm for their officers and when Commander Ben found that out, he planned a daring attack to free the women that were being raped.

"We stormed the camp and killed almost every last one of the beasts then used their own trap to annihilate the hundreds of reserves that poured into the camp later on.

"After he had freed the women, Commander Ben used his ship's tele-port facilities to transport us back here. Now, is there anything else you wanted or can I have my shower now?" Carson finished.

Marlon's eyes were almost bugging out of his head as he listened to the insubordinate tone in which Carson delivered his update. The Captain ignored the achievements that Carson described — all he heard was confirmation that Ben was back and that had his blood boiling.

"You talk about that little pip-squeak as if he was some sort of hero!" he barked at the Lieutenant.

"That's exactly what he is," replied Carson, undaunted by Marlon's obvious anger. "At least he's got some idea of a plan, which is more than can be said for you!"

"YOU TWO, ARREST THIS MAN!" screamed Marlon, snapping.

He was pointing at two members of blue group, clearly indicating that he wanted them to arrest their own group leader. The two troopers looked at each other and then back at Marlon.

"Fuck you, arrest him yourself," one replied.

"Maybe we should arrest you instead?" said the other.

Marlon cursed and swung on his heel before stomping from the room.

There was a definite buzz amongst Simon's troops. They had been involved in their first action against the Zytol. Before this all they had had was training and some images of what the Zytol looked like. They had heard the stories of how the Zytol had conquered Woden in only a few days and had allowed themselves to imagine how fearsome their foes were going to be. The reality had been almost an anticlimax.

Now individual troopers shared their recollections of what had happened during the fighting and they boasted about how many Zytol they had personally killed. Unlike their Wodenite counterparts in the blue group, the New Wodenites had other priorities than taking a shower. The traditional methods of sloughing of tension were soon being put into practice throughout the quarters as men and women relieved each other with their mouths and hands.

Ben was back on the bridge of the Rebecca, mentally sharing what had happened down on the surface with his twin.

"I'm glad the women are safe," said Sarah. "I'm glad you're safe too, but I never had any doubts about that. What are you planning to do next?"

"We took some Zytol officers prisoner and I'm trying to figure out a way of interrogating them to try to gather more intelligence about what we're facing. In particular I'd like to understand their language and try to crack their communications. I did try to touch some of them to see whether the metals would let me read their minds. I got something, but clearly the language barrier makes reading them impossible. If I can get round that then we might get lots of useful information"

"I think we also need to find out where the Emperor and the other Wodenite civic leaders are being held. If we can free them, we can establish a rallying point for all the civilians. If we can show them their Emperor free and fighting back it would do wonders for the spirit of everyone else," Ben replied.

"Commander, I might be able to help with the language thing," said Elise. "If you implant one of my chips into the Zytol, I could use my capacity to try to crack their tongue."

"That's certainly worth a try, I'll arrange for that to happen," agreed Ben. "What's the status of the Scout?"

"She's still undergoing repairs, Commander. The damaged engine seems to be back online, but the hull is proving to be a much bigger job. Captain Marlon has all of his replicators working full-time on producing panels to patch the outer skin."

"What about the other ground forces? If the Zytol were able to pin-point blue group, then surely they will also have spotted red, white and green? Are they in any trouble?"

"Each of the groups managed to take their allotted targets before the additional Zytol troops could reach them. According to my scanners all three groups are being pursued, but are in no immediate danger," said Elise.