Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

Aileen adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She didn’t know what had happened, but the Ra’a’zani were distracted, Dakar Vit’r’an had taken the shuttle up to his ship in the orbit leaving Tra’r’an in charge. Aileen suspected that perhaps another convoy arrived unannounced. But it didn’t matter what it was, it gave her the chance to slip some supplies. It had been weeks since she last managed to slip away, so when she saw the chance she took it. She walked the dark streets, the only light coming from the base. The last time she came through these streets, they were filled with people that were warming themselves around fires. Now there was no one, the cots on the streets were empty. She picked up the pace, walking faster towards the Father’s building. After a couple also empty streets, she reached the old gray brick building. She entered expecting to see people inside, during the nights the building was always full with people. But it too was empty, just like the streets. Looking around she wondered about what could have happened. Did this have something to do with why the Ra’a’zani were so distracted? Seeing that there was no one there she decided to turn back. She couldn’t afford to be gone for too long. Then as she turned she heard voices deeper inside the building. Relieved that there was someone present she walked toward the voices. She reached the doors leading into the room from which the voices came from. As she approached she could understand what they were saying.

“—moment please.” She recognized the Father’s voice.

“We need to go, there is no more time.” Another voice said. Aileen slowly reached the door and stepped in.

“This is the last thing, we can leave now.” The Father said, Aileen saw him reaching over to a bookshelf taking a large book from it and putting it in his bag.

“Father.” Aileen said hesitantly, she could see another person was there, but the room was badly lit and she couldn’t make out anything other than a large human form. The Father turned around immediately, and recognizing her his eyes widened. Then something blurred in front of Aileen, and she felt herself pulled forward and then slammed into a wall, her bag slipping from her shoulder and onto the floor. Her sight darkened from the force and she lost her breath, something pushed on her throat. She managed to open her eyes and was met with a gun shoved in front of her face. It was like no gun she had ever seen, but it was still recognizable.

“Stop!” She heard the Father say. “Don’t kill her.”

Aileen, already frightened, felt her blood freeze over. She managed to focus and look past the gun. She saw only a glass like plate instead of a face.

“She has a red armband. That means she is one of the trusted ones.” A voice came out of the plate. Aileen struggled to breathe as Father reached over and placed his hand on the thing’s shoulder.

“I know, but she has been helping us. Sneaking out supplies, medicine and food.” The Father said.

“Then why is she here now?” The voice asked.

“Look down, she brought supplies.” The Father said.

The head of her attacker moved slightly to the side and down. Then it released her throat and let her down, it moved back still keeping its weapon pointed at her. Aileen took a deep breath and scratched her neck.

“What are you doing here?” The voice asked. Scared, Aileen glanced at the spilled contents of her bag. “I— I was bringing supplies to Father.” Slowly Aileen managed to rasp out.

“Your timing is fortunate.” The voice commented. Then Father moved to stand in front of her.

“You think that they would send her here alone if they knew anything?” The Father asked, “If they knew, we would be swimming in Ra’a’zani strike teams.” The Father said, and Aileen swallowed hard. She realized what was happening. The Father was a member of the Resistance. Aileen tried to move but the man followed her with his gun.

“We should kill her.” The voice said.

“No!” The Father yelled out. “This is the house of God. And she is a good person.”

“We don’t have the time for this Father. So either we kill her, or she comes with us. We can’t let her go back to the base. If things go bad she could give them at least some warning.” The voice said.

Father nodded, and then turned to Aileen, “Child.” He said softly, “I know that you are confused, but you must come with us.”

“You are with the Resistance.” Aileen managed to say.

Father nodded, “Please child, I need you to trust me.” He said, his voice pleading. He didn’t wait for her to respond, but grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, the thing that kept her at gunpoint stepping in front of them. Seeing it in the light of the hallway, she realized that it was a human wearing some kind of armored suit. Before she realized what was happening they stepped outside the building using the back door. To the right she saw the base out in the distance, the light of it barely reaching them. She turned left and saw a vehicle parked there, it was unlike anything she had ever seen.

“I can’t go with you!” Aileen said. “If they want, they can track this armband, they will find me, and kill both of us.” Aileen stopped in her tracks.

The Father grabbed her shoulders trying to make her move, “Child please, you have no idea what is about to happen. If you go back you will die for certain.” He said. Aileen was about to ask him what he was talking about, when suddenly the courtyard was enveloped in darkness. Aileen tried to look out towards the base, and saw only its outline against the starry night.

“Damn. We are out of time.” The armored man said, he stepped forward and picked up both of them. Carrying them effortlessly and quickly to the vehicle. Aileen struggled to get free but the grip on her was too strong. Then both she and the Father were thrown behind the vehicle, the armored man kneeling above them. Aileen managed to get her head up just in time to see the light of the base come back up, and immediately a bright globes of light exploded out of the base. She had never seen the defensive turrets on the base fire, but she knew that it was what those were. A second later she heard three loud explosions and light coming over the buildings from the other direction of the base. Then several streaks of light flew over her head too fast for her to count them.

“Heads down!” She heard an instant before she was roughly pulled back down, a hand coming over her head. Then several earth-shattering blasts sounded all around. Aileen felt her ears hurt from the force of the blasts, the ground shook, and whiteness shone through her closed eyelids. A moment later a shockwave came through shaking everything. Aileen screamed, but couldn’t hear herself. Then the light abated but everything still shook. The last thing Aileen remembered before passing out was the buildings around them coming down, and a blazing hell where the Ra’a’zani base once was.

The Monarch and the Second Fleet sped towards the Ra’a’zani ship, that likewise sped towards them. Soon the Ra’a’zani ship entered the Second Fleet maximum missile range. But Johanna waited, she wanted the ship into their optimal range before firing. She ordered her ships to lock their laser weapons on the Ra’a’zani ship. She wanted to see the full speed of the Ra’a’zani ship as it tried to evade the laser fire. A few seconds later, she gave the order for her ships to fire.

Suddenly dozens of invisible laser beams struck out from the human ships, reaching out at the speed of light to strike at the Ra’a’zani ship. The lasers reached their target, striking the scale like hull of the Ra’a’zani ship. Immediately after being struck the hull plates shimmered and the heat of the lasers reflected off the hull, leaving it unscathed.