Malec surveyed his monitors again to be sure. It was never a good idea to give the General premature information. He was a great leader, but not a patient man. “General, the weapons are fully charged and we have locked onto the orbital location of the giant Barudii Sphere,” he said.
Grod did not acknowledge his words at all. He was watching a scene on the battlefield he had not expected to see.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Malec, I heard you,” Grod replied.
“Shall I order the weapons to fire, General? “
“Wait just a moment.”
“But, sir, the window of opportunity is closing fast. Our junk satellites will drift beyond the Sphere’s location if we don’t act now,” Malec said with more urgency.
General Grod was focused on the battlefield again.
“General?”
“Yes, Malec, order the detonation. Malec, do you see that person down there near the wreckage of that ship?” he asked as he handed him the binocs. “I believe that is another Barudii warrior.”
“Sir? But they have been…”
“I realize that. Nevertheless, he possesses the Barudii power.” He paused. “Destroy the Sphere, Malec, but afterward I want that man brought into custody.”
“Yes, sir. It will be done”
General Grod raised a long range rifle and brought the scope to bear on the young Barudii. He knelt in the wreckage of an old Barudii warship holding the body of a woman. Grod aimed his weapon and fired a single shot at the young man.
Malec activated the special electromagnetic pulse weapons in orbit. The weapons, disguised as old junk satellites, drifted into the giant Sphere, magnetically attaching themselves as it controlled its drones on the planet below. The Sphere, busy with the surface battle, sensed no threat from the objects. Malec hit the destruct key.
One instant later, an electromagnetic pulse enveloped the Barudii sphere, frying its circuitry in a devastating release of energy. The electromagnetic wave penetrated to the core of the giant Sphere module and laid waste to every electronic circuit it came into contact with.
The Sphere never saw it coming. All power failed and the control of its drones ceased.
On the battlefield, the sphere drones became confused and unable to fight. The air drones flew off course and began to crash into the battlefield. Orin was still engaged with the Horva, taking on as many as he could, when he noticed the change in the robots and the air drones. The clones tore down the mech-robots without receiving any retaliation while the air drones crashed around them.
Orin ran for the cover of the surrounding ridges. The battlefield had suddenly turned into pure chaos. He only hoped Tiet had found cover. A drone smashed into a group of Horva near Orin. The blast from the impact sent wreckage flying in every direction. The debris cut down the men and showered a mound of dirt and wreckage over Orin.
The carnage was over quickly, and the battlefield quieted down as the men who remained alive began to reorganize and look to the wounded. The badly injured were dispatched on the spot. Those able to carry their own weight rejoined ranks with General Grod.
He smiled at the outcome of his plan. Victory was well within his grasp now. The destroyer was gone and only the Vorn remained. And they were proving to be no match. It had been a foolish thing for their masters to place all of their military hopes on their clone slaves. And now Grod gave them no choice-their muscle was taking over.
“Well done, Malec. Now fetch my Barudii prize and return him to the laboratory complex at Nagon-toth.”
“Yes, sir. General, we’re picking up a massive object in orbital decay. It will hit the atmosphere within the hour.”
“Very good.”
The giant Barudii sphere could be seen to the west within forty minutes. Fire trailed away as the atmosphere burned away most of its mass. The remaining charred wreckage would eventually drop into the Waron Sea to the northeast, approximately three hundred and twenty miles from the battlefield at Mount Vaseer.
Malec led the armed group to the wreckage of the Saberhawk and gathered up the unconscious Barudii warrior Grod had brought down with a tranq-round. One of the soldiers pulled the female body away from him then they bound and fastened the unconscious warrior within a shielded capsule for transport to the heavily fortified complex at Nagon-Toth. The General was already leading the remaining Horva troops toward their home base. There they would begin regrouping with more clones in order to execute the General’s next objectives against the Vorn.
By the time Orin regained consciousness, the battle was over. It was earlier in the day than it had been during the battle, letting him know he had laid there overnight. A large piece of drone wreckage had landed across his body, but it had been buffered by a significant mound of dirt carried in the impact. Orin felt the weight, but no pain.
He moved the large piece of metal with his mind. Then he mentally pushed the heavy dirt away and inspected himself for signs of injury. Other than a possible concussion, he appeared to be fine. Orin stood and scanned the valley floor. He found the wreckage of the Saberhawk and ran toward it.
The valley was littered with debris from crushed drones and aerial fighters. The remains of clone soldiers also covered the landscape. Wild animals growled at Orin as he passed through the area-they guarded a smorgasbord. The sky was filled with birds. They swooped down into the valley, collecting their portion then flew away again.
The birds scattered as Orin ran toward the wreckage. He heard screams coming from different places where the wounded clones were attacked by ravenous beasts. How fitting for the destroyers of my people.
When he reached the remains of the Saberhawk, it was still smoldering. Orin found Dorian’s body, but there was no sign of Tiet. Something must have happened. He would not have left her body exposed to the elements and the wild animals.
A closer look at the area revealed another surprise. Two more androids lay among the wreckage, apparently destroyed by Tiet. He walked over to one lying on the ground with Tiet’s blade still imbedded in its skull. He withdrew the sword and placed it into the sheath next to his own sword. Looking back to the ground around Dorian’s body, Orin saw what appeared to be several sets of boot prints. There were no dead clones in the vicinity.
Tiet would not have been consciously engaged by these brutes without having killed at least a few, he thought. He must have been unconscious. Orin spotted Millo several yards away among the cockpit wreckage. They had taken Tiet for a reason, but why would they want him alive?
First things first. Orin buried Dorian and Millo in a clear area among the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Then he mentally pushed a large piece of fuselage over their graves to protect the site from predators. Orin followed the tracks left by the Horva army’s departure. He didn’t know where they were headed, but he would die before he gave up on the son of his old friend. Tiet had become like his own child after all these years. Nothing would stop him from either retrieving the boy alive, or avenging his death.
When Tiet regained consciousness, he was suspended inside a semicircular mechanism with a form-fitting black suit covering all but his head, hands and feet. What appeared to be metallic buttons covered the surface of the garment. The room was dark except for a light focused on him and the soft glow of machines beyond. He saw vague movement in the dark but not much.
Tiet tried to exert his mind upon the mechanism that held him suspended in an energy field. He heard an alarm sound. A shock emanated from the suspension mechanism nearly driving him to unconsciousness again. My brainwaves are being monitored.
Tiet thought he might try again and began searching for people in the room. The monitor alarmed again and the field shocked him once more. Pain. Tiet tried to contain the urge to cry out in pain. He was already exhausted from the punishing energy. He knew another attempt would knock him out and he at least wanted to be conscious. Had the Horva captured him? He wasn’t sure. He could only remember Dorian taking her last breath then pain and nothingness.
It wasn’t like the clones to have such technology and what had happened to Orin? Tiet hadn’t seen him since before the Saberhawk crashed into the valley floor. “Who are you?” he shouted.
There was no reply from the darkness. “Where am I? Come out and face me, you cowards!”
Behind a Plexiglas barrier a scientist tapped his communicator panel. “General? He’s awake.”
“Are you ready to collect your data?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent. Move him to the dome.”
There had not been much to salvage from the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Orin had been able to obtain one blaster pistol, two working kemsticks and an extra scabbard for Tiet’s sword. He also found a locker containing several Barudii cloaks and some food packets.
The cloaks were made of a synthetic material capable of scrambling electronic signals coming into contact with it. This had the effect of rendering the wearer invisible to most scanners and sensor devices. It was a valuable asset when stealth was necessary.
Orin wore one cloak and carried another for Tiet stuffed inside his belt. If he was still alive then they would need it to escape from the clones with as little fight as possible. These intelligent Horva were much more skilled fighters than the brutish sort back home. He and Tiet would be greatly outnumbered even with their mental powers. A subtle approach would be necessary for this rescue if Orin was to successfully retrieve his protege and get him home.
The trail of the Horva army led Orin many miles to the north. It was now dark, and he saw lights in the distance. The tracks of the Horva army led to a heavily fortified compound in the distance. The facility was a massive rectangular building towering one hundred feet above the ground.
As Orin drew nearer, he saw a forcefield barrier surrounding the compound approximately three hundred feet outside the main building’s perimeter. Intermediate, one-hundred-foot-high pylons, placed every three hundred feet in the field, acted as connecting points. The shield looked tough.
Fortunately, he had no intention of carrying out a full-on assault. He would be like a virus-a silent but deadly invader no one ever sees coming. Orin approached the barrier with caution. The darkness shielded him from natural eyes while the Barudii cloak kept him invisible to their technology.
Atop each pylon was a guard station with a single soldier manning it. Orin felt for the guard with his mind. He sensed the man’s body up in the tower, as though his eyes were fixed upon him, as though his hands touched the flesh. Orin increased mental pressure upon the vessels leading to the man’s brain, slowly and steadily, until the guard collapsed unconscious. Then Orin catapulted his own body over the height of the pylon and soft landed on the other side.
Orin ran across the span of the courtyard toward an area of the structure which lay in shadow. Searchlights moved across different areas and he was careful not to be caught in them, or to allow his shadow to be cast by any ambient lighting. He reached a wall and noticed it was made of a synthetic stone material-completely smooth and difficult to climb.
Orin sought out guards on the roof with his mind. Finding none, he leaped up and came to perch on the edge of the roof. The roof of the complex was a maze of ventilation system outlets as well as large computer-controlled laser turrets. He began to walk across the roof cautiously. The cloak seemed to shield him. None of the computer-controlled guns turned to fire on him.
The ventilation system was the easiest way for him to gain access to most points in the building without coming into direct contact with the enemy. As Orin approached one of the large vent housings, he heard the deep roar of the system working to supply fresh air to those within. He pulled out a spicor disc to get through the heavy gauge wire covering the vent, and then decided against igniting an energy weapon in the presence of the sensor-controlled guns.
Instead, Orin carved a hole with his blade then crawled inside. Once inside, he began a controlled descent until coming to a horizontal tunnel. Orin entered it and slid along as quietly as possible, knowing any noise he made would be amplified by the tunnel. In turn, he also heard many voices filtering through the system as it collected the activities of the complex and amplified them all. Orin knew he had a long meticulous search ahead of him. He only hoped he might be able to sense Tiet if he got close enough.
General Grod passed through the automatic doorway and into the control chamber. Inside, various computer terminals monitored the happenings in the chamber below them. On the far side of the room was a large row of viewing windows looking into the huge dome. Grod sat in his command chair and waited.
“General, we have him in position.”
“Is he awake yet?”
“The suspension field is active. Subject is conscious. Our warriors are in place. Battle droids are in place and activated. The teragore is in place in the outer dome. All successive inner domes are secured,” reported the technician.
Grod held a great interest in what was about to happen. He wanted to know the abilities as well as limitations of this Barudii warrior. The Barudii mental power had once been an integral part of his plan for conquest of the Vorn race and this planet. Another opportunity to utilize that power had been lost. But now he had a second chance and he wanted to see what his prize could do.
“Release the Barudii.”