Chapter 2

Combining Dizyntk

Major Anatoly Chapayev looked out at the soldiers as they jogged past with a satisfied smile. It had been three months since the Dizyntk troops had arrived at the base to train with his soldiers. It had been difficult, at first, for them to work together.

"We expected that when we started this." he thought to himself.

Now they were starting to act like comrades. There were rivalries to be sure. These were all elite soldiers and each thought them self the best at what they did. The rivalries were now becoming good natured ones as opposed to having the underlying tones of hostility that had existed when the training had started. The only traces left of that was among the hand to hand combat experts among the two races and even there it was muted and fading.

The quickest friendships had developed away from the eyes of most of the officers. By coincidence, both the Human and Dizyntk companies had four snipers. They had been shooting together for two months and it was obvious that two of them were the best shots in their respective units.

Sgt. Melissa Watson was one of the rare women among the human special combat forces. She was five foot three inches tall with short brown hair, blue eyes and a freckled face. She was almost shy in her demeanor and it would have been hard to place her as a soldier until you saw her shoot. Her skill with a rifle was absolutely unquestioned.

She had grown up on the frontier world of Eckleston. It was there that she had learned to shoot at the age of eight. By the time she had joined the military at eighteen, she was already well known in her small town as being able to hit anything within 500 meters of her. It had not taken long for her skills to be noticed by the army. She was assigned to sniper school as soon as she left basic and never looked back. She was now twenty-five years old and one of the best rifle shots in this part of human space.

Sniper First Class Nirantrilin Yistolk, Trilin to his friends, was five foot two, with brown fur/hair that had just a hint of auburn swirled in. His eyes were topaz gold and had an average amount of flecking. He had also grown up on a frontier planet, in his case this was the remote Dizyntk colony world of Zekala. It was a lightly populated world and for good reason. As much as the Dizyntk enjoyed cool temperatures, Zekala was a bit much even for most of them. Trilin had grown up in a small town right on the planet's equator and even there it snowed for almost a third of every cyanka.

Trilin had grown up learning to hunt as all Dizyntk did. On the planet he grew up on it was a means to put food on the table and not just a heritage thing. He also had learned to shoot at a young age. His was not a traditional warrior family. He was, in fact, the first member of his family to enlist in living memory. His skill at distance shooting, developed out of necessity, found him a secure home among the planetary assault troops.

Trilin had been quietly optimistic about this mission. He enjoyed shooting for its own sake and was not overly enthusiastic about killing a sentient being. He would if he had to, make no mistake, he would just prefer not to. He dearly hoped that this would start to heal the rift between his people and these humans.

At the moment he was fast becoming friends with one of them. Trilin was seventeen cyankas old and had never met any shooter who could match his ability. That was starting to change. Try as he might, he could not outshoot this human female. She was not getting the better of him either. They were still evenly matched two weeks after their match began.

Melissa just stared down her scope in disbelief. She watched as Trilin's fiftieth round of the day punch right through the ten ring that was one thousand meters away. She shook her head and laughed. Two weeks, fourteen days, fifty rounds per day, equaled seven hundred shots. Even with different wind conditions every day, neither of them had missed a shot yet.

"This is starting to get monotonous." she said quietly to her new friend.

Trilin smiled as he turned his head to look at her. "We shall see."

Melissa smiled herself as she lowered her eye back to the scope on her sniper rifle. It was a large looking weapon, just over four feet long with a bullpup layout. Thanks to lightweight artificial materials it did not weigh as much as one might think by looking at it. In fact it weighed "only" fifteen pounds. It fired a 12mm four finned flechette through a thirty-two inch barrel that was really a linear magnetic accelerator. Because of this, the propellant charge needed was small, resulting in fairly light recoil. The barrel provided most of the projectiles velocity. The result was that the flechette left the barrel traveling at 1800 meters per second.

A little over half a second after she pulled the trigger, Melissa's round punched through the ten ring on her target a kilometer away. She turned away from her scope, looked at Trilin and smiled.

Trilin chuckled in his throat. "I suggest that tomorrow we increase the challenge or neither of us will ever win."

She looked at him questioningly. "What do you have in mind?"

He looked back down range and thought for a moment. "How about we trade rifles tomorrow? Ten shots each for practice then proceed as normal."

Melissa looked closely at the Dizyntk weapon her friend was using. It was marginally smaller than her rifle, two inches shorter and a couple of ounces lighter. It fired a smaller round of 10mm at a slightly higher velocity. The grip, the charging handle, the trigger and trigger guard, they were all different. For all of the detail differences, however, it was essentially the same type of weapon, a magnetic accelerator sniper rifle firing a very high speed flechette. She had no worries about using it effectively; in fact she was looking forward to it now that she thought about it.

"That is a fine idea, Trilin. Start after breakfast?" she said.

"Same as usual." he agreed.

The other six snipers watched the match, as they had for the past two weeks, in awe.

"Care to make a wager on tomorrows match?" one of the Dizyntk asked.

One of the Humans shook his head in amusement. "Why bother? It's not like either of us would win."

Velakari was attending to her normal duties at the Temple outside of the Royal Palace. She had missed doing this more than anything else during her prolonged stay on Trellken. The simple things like cleaning the temple and counseling those who needed it were very relaxing and refreshing for her. It was true that she had joined the Orders as a way of escaping from her own demons, but she had truly become a devout and diligent priestess in the intervening cyankas. She had become thus even before Feyalisa had returned to Sapphire. Therefore she was convinced that Feya's return had been a gift from the Goddess to reward her devotion. As a result of this belief, Kari had become even more pious. There were few priestesses of any order on Sapphire who did not know Velakari personally and none who did not respect and admire the depth and sincerity of her devotion to the Goddess.

It was already midnight and Kari should have left the Temple to go home two hours previously. She had simply lost track of time and did not realize how late it had become till one of the other priestesses had pointed it out to her. Even though she was running so late there was no possibility of Kari leaving the Temple without performing the prayers that all priestesses were supposed to do before leaving any Temple.

She stood transfixed before the figure of the Goddess as she offered her prayers. As she finished and turned she saw the figure standing at the back of the room waiting for her. She walked towards her bonded mate with a smile.

She gently hugged Michael and felt his arms wrap around her. "How long have you been waiting here for me?"

"Oh, about five minutes." He replied with a smile.

"Why did you not say something?" She asked.

"I would never interrupt your prayers, my love." Michael answered as her gently stroked her hair.

Velakari nuzzled against her mate's chest. She loved his scent and his warmth. He was but one more gift from her Goddess as far as Kari was concerned and one which she was particularly grateful for. As much as she loved Feyalisa, Michael was the one who had given her a child and she loved him just as much. She walked next to him with her fingers interlaced with his as they left the temple and headed towards the palace. As they approached the front gates, a priestess walked towards them from the shadows near the guard post.

She was dressed in the formal robes of the Wind Order. This was one of the smaller orders but also one of the older ones. Both Michael and Kari could clearly see that she was very nervous, almost scared.

She looked around quickly and then bowed to Velakari. She said in almost a whisper, "Sister Velakari? I am Ranatrila Iskalint of the Wind Order. I need to speak with you."

Velakari stepped forward and smiled at Ranatrila in an attempt to calm her. "I am Velakari. It is a pleasure to meet you Sister. What can I help you with?"

The priestess looked around nervously once more. "It is what I feel that I must do for you that is the issue, Sister Velakari. May we go inside the gates? I feel exposed out here."

Velakari motioned to the gate and gestured for Michael to follow them. The three of them entered the Royal Grounds and Sister Ranatrila seemed to calm down a little bit as she was able to put the thickness of the perimeter wall at her back. She put her hand to her chest and took several deep breaths to calm herself further. Velakari neither said nor did anything to try and hurry her. She was very aware of the fact that the young priestess was scared of something. The fear she was exuding was almost palpable. After several seconds Ranatrila opened her eyes and looked at Velakari.

"I am here because my family, or rather my father's family, is preparing to do something terrible." she said in almost a whisper, as if she was afraid of being overheard by prying ears. She then looked briefly at Michael, who was standing a discreet distance away. Her eyes narrowed momentarily and she bared her teeth slightly before she caught herself and regained her composure, such as it was.

Velakari knew instantly where Ranatrila was looking and understood her momentary lapse. The Wind Order had been one of the more outspoken Orders in their opposition to the idea of Dizyntk bonding with Humans.

Ranatrila bowed her head slightly, "Apologies, Sister. It is not his fault, even if they are claiming he is the reason."

"What are you talking about, Sister Ranatrila? Who is blaming Michael and what are they claiming he did?" Velakari asked in a hushed tone.

Ranatrila took another deep breath and finally got to the heart of the problem. "My father's family name is Felsank. You are familiar with the name, are you not?"

Velakari nodded, "Yes that is the name of the Duchess whose house rules the western half of the planet Wiltrekn in the Imperial Cluster."

"Yes that is the house my father is from." Ranatrila responded. "That is how I have overheard what they are planning; even though I am sure I was not supposed know. They have been planning this for some time and are only using your mate as a poor excuse to start another civil war."

"What?" Velakari whispered to herself. She could see Ranatrila shaking as if she were cold despite the warmth of the night at this point in the summer. The truth of her words were clear even without having to use her powers and it caused her to feel as cold as this frightened Sister appeared.

She then stepped closer to Ranatrila so that that she could talk even quieter. "You are sure of this, Sister? Absolutely sure?"

Ranatrila nodded emphatically. "They were once one of the two most powerful houses among the Dizyntk and ruled over four star systems. Now they are reduced to ruling half a world when they feel that the Imperial Throne should rightfully be theirs. The Duchess means to take it. She also means to strike at the Zerleens as well. She feels that they are equally responsible for her house's downfall."

Velakari closed her eyes and nodded to herself. She was familiar with the story of the last civil war and the political maneuvering that led up to it. "And she is using the excuse of the Empress accepting a human as a mate to a Crown Princess as a justification to attempt to seize the throne." She said in quiet disgust.

"Yes, Sister, she is." Replied Ranatrila, "My order may not agree with a Dizyntk taking a Human as a bonded mate, but I cannot allow that to be used as an excuse to start another war. We lost so many lives the last time. It weakened us so that we were barely able to fight these humans to a draw when we fought them a generation later. What might happen this time? What if the losses are even worse?"

Velakari stepped even closer to the now trembling priestess and wrapped her arms around her. "You will come to the palace with me and speak to the Queen. I will brook no disagreement on this." She said softly.

Ranatrila simply nodded and let Kari hold her. She was truly frightened now. Knowing what her family was planning was bad enough but now she had actually told someone else of what was coming. Her emotions had been torn between the protection she owed those Dizyntk who might die in a war and the loyalty she owed her father and her family. The fact that she had decided which way to jump only made her even more fearful of what might happen.

Velakari looked back at Michael, who had been watching with growing concern but had been unable to hear most of the conversation, and said just loud enough for him to hear, "Call Virathea and have her come as quickly as she can get here. Tell her it is a security threat."

"Damn it" Michael swore under his breath as he took out his communicator and contacted Virathea. To her credit Virathea asked no questions other than if there was an immediate threat. She then quickly assembled a squad of soldiers and took two armored vehicles and drove quickly to the main gate after setting the entire palace on an increased alert level.

After Virathea's arrival, Kari encouraged Ranatrila to relate her story once more for Virathea's benefit. Virathea quickly understood the problem. As a Duchess, Caliarena Felsank controlled an appreciable amount of military forces as well as intelligence assets. If she truly meant to make a grab for the throne as well as make an attack on Sapphire it was well within her means to do so. This was especially true if she had secretly increased her forces as this priestess was saying. Virathea quickly got Kari and Michael into separate vehicles, with Ranatrila going with Kari, and delivered them rapidly to the palace. She then called her commander, the head of all Royal Guard forces, and filled her in on the situation. Within thirty minutes all Royal Guard forces on and around Sapphire had been quietly placed on combat alert. By the time that Queen Kiasyphia had been awakened and informed of the threat, her intelligence assets were already placing known Felsank ships, buildings and personnel under surveillance as well as searching for possible clandestine ones.