James Somers - Heir to the King

"I see. Well, of course you're welcome to join us, and any information you have about their strengths or weaknesses would be appreciated."

"Actually, the Vorn have several ships and multiple long and short range weapons at their disposal, but they don't realize you're coming. It would be best to spread out your troops as we come in to firing range, about five to seven miles from the city, so they won't have any large targets to fire upon," said Ranul.

"Well, it may be good for us to encircle the city and come from all angles to converge on their cloning facility."

"You should also know that the Vorn have a large number of sentinel robots at their command-probably in the thousands. By spreading your forces and coming from all directions they'll be forced to spread their own ground forces to protect the city. It's likely that many gaps in that defense will present themselves."

"Then let's go. We'll be able to approach the city near dusk and gain that advantage as well."

They gathered up nearby weapons and headed for ground level where the transports were being loaded and prepped for the attack.

IT took a few moments to fully retract the mountain side hangar bay doors. Now the ship would clear. Millo adjusted the landing thruster controls and the ship began to move forward through the opening in the mountain. Orin adjusted controls at his station; setting the weapons systems at the ready and making sure that all automated systems were operating within normal parameters.

The Saberhawks normally operated with a crew of twenty persons, but most of the systems could be run by automation if necessary. The larger bulk of the ship held primary engine systems for long range missions and extra crew quarters with food and water storage, while the remaining quarter of the ship made up the bridge section, sublight engine components and all primary controls for the entire vessel. They made last minute adjustments and prepared for the launch through Castai's turbulent atmosphere.

THE distance Vale had calculated for his trek around the mountainside toward the hangar quickly diminished in his processor as he approached the area on his internal map that should have housed the hangar section of the city. Up ahead, a fair distance away, he could see the nose of a large ship emerging form the mountain. He instantly began internal calculations for his own foot speed compared with the distance yet to cover, terrain and the rate at which the ship was emerging from the hangar port.

He realized he would not reach the vessel in time. Their velocity would increase dramatically once the ship completely cleared the mountain. As he ran toward the vessel he withdrew a hyper-magnetic grapple from one of the clips on his belt.

The last part of the Saberhawk cleared the opening in the mountain and Millo increased power to thrusters steadily to move the ship away from Vaseer. Vale aimed and fired his grapple just ahead of the ship's nose. The wire line, with its heavy cylindrical head, arced out away from the mountainside about fifty yards and caught the lower hind end of the Saberhawk.

He made a strong jump into the air as he felt the slack line become taut and pull him away from the ground. He depressed the winch key on the grapple and held on tight as the mechanism drew him closer to the ship.

Millo fired main thrusters and sent the ship upwards toward the outer atmosphere. Orin was monitoring it on the digital display for wind speed and direction as well as pressure changes that could make the ascent a bumpy ride.

Vale was now within twenty yards of the ship's hull as they began to move through one of the weather systems that usually became violent on Castai's surface. The changes in the planet's weather were somehow directly linked to the Transdimensional Rift.

The turbulence and high wind began to pummel the ship in its climb. Inside the Saberhawk, automatic stabilizers worked to keep up with all the jarring forces playing against the body of the ship. Orin monitored hull integrity and other factors while Millo calmly urged the ship skyward. In a few moments the Saberhawk cleared the weather and the ride smoothed out considerably.

Vale approached the hull and tried to find a place to anchor himself. He noticed how near he was to one of the landing skid alcoves. He clamored for the hull wall, activating the hyper-magnetic discs located in the palms of his cybernetic hands. Hand over hand, he approached the alcove and climbed inside with the retracted landing skid and wedged himself in with his powerful arms and legs.

THE Saberhawk rumbled again as it broke free of Castai's atmosphere into open space. Gravity controls quickly adjusted the internal environment for the crew. Tiet had never been in space before, and he wondered at the vastness of it. There were seemingly billions of stars now visible in the distance. A gaseous formation could be seen ahead. Orin brought up the tactical displays that identified the phenomena as the Transdimensional Rift with energy readings that went off the scale.

Only Orin could remember it, having seen it during a space battle with the Vorn that had left the Castillians without a space fleet. From that time on the Barudii had only battled the invaders on Castillian soil.

"Readings show the rift to be fully open and safe for passage."

Millo nodded and adjusted his flight path to carry them through the ominous black void near the center of the multicolored gaseous cloud that surrounded the rift.

Dorian wondered if she would ever see her brother or her people again. And would Estall be able to defeat the remaining Vorn on the planet? She had confidence that he would-more confidence than she had in their own ability to successfully defeat the Vorn fleet waiting on the other side of the rift. Suddenly she longed for Castillian soil under her feet again.

She looked at Tiet in the chair next to her. He was looking at the rift and the data on the viewer. He was handsome and brave and powerful, and yet behind his eyes she could see a child who had lost everything dear to him, but could still smile and have hope in the future. Was it gullibility or just innocence, and did it really matter?

As a child she had wondered about the little boy in the archive photos; the son of the king to that once great people. He was so happy in the images she had seen in her studies and she had often thought that were he still alive, they would have been the same age and could have played games together.

In her adolescence the small boy in the images had become the young man who defeated the Vorn enemies in her dreams and swept her away from the harsh reality of her life. And now, here he was; very much alive and only inches from her.

It did not matter if they returned now. She knew that here beside him was the only place she really wanted to be. She wiped an escaping tear as Tiet looked at her with the same childlike smile. She returned it and they looked back toward the approaching blackness of the rift.

DARKNESS was beginning to fall as Estall's formation of transports swept across the wasteland toward the capital city. Approaching from the east was a violent-looking weather system that they hoped would not intercept them before they could reach the city.

He had sent nearly half of the forces ahead at full speed while his group continued on at half that pace. If the other group of transports could swing wide of the city and get around undetected then they might just be able to encircle it during their final approach. Ranul was hunkered down in the open cockpit of Estall's transport as the wind whipped at them from different directions caused by the approaching storm.

He had seen many violent fluctuations in Castai's weather and had studied many files from the past events. He understood all too well the reason for Castillians building the majority of their cities underground in the centuries following the appearance of the rift.