Previous Post Galactic Crash Part 5     Anna watched as Kiivan, the Emir of all Caph, led her to the main hall, then down a wide, well decorated stairway with crystal chandeliers hanging above it, to a set of carved wooden double doors.  The carving in the door represented part of the recent history of Caph in a mural - she could see Kiivan in it, with a drawn ceremonial blade.     To each side of the doors were guards armed only with wooden staffs.  As the Emir approached, the grabbed the doors and pushed them inward, exposing a very large room.     This room had solid white marble floors, and was the size of an airplane hangar back on Earth.  It was lit both by floor to ceiling tall, narrow stained glass windows, and by shallow hanging chandeliers placed in carved black and green wooden squares in the ceiling.     In that room, silenced reigned, which was unusual because there were hundreds of green skinned men partially clad in black cloth and golden armor.  They each carried the same wooden ceremonial staff as the guards at the door, but they also had bows and rifles strapped to their backs, and several knives attached to their waists and legs.  They were all standing perfectly still.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is my Elite Guard.”  Kiivan told the android.  “They are all volunteers.  They are each fierce, disciplined fighters, trained by the best.”     Anna turned and gave Kiivan a worried look.  “They will all be killed.  They aren’t a match for the kind of technology you showed me.”     On the way, Kiivan stopped at the Observatory to show Anna a glimpse of Shen Rae’s Heart of Light and the black ships they were fighting.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They have heart.”  Kiivan replied faintly yet with a certain dedication.  “They have soul.  They will prevail, because they are fighting for their home.  And because they believe in you.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They’ve never met me.”  Anna pointed out.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They will.”  Kiivan clapped his hands loudly, and the soldiers responded by tapping their wooden staffs on the ground once.       Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is Anna.”  he told them in his trademark soft yet firm manner.  “Invaders’ ground forces will be snaking through the city as I speak, headed toward the palace.  You must track them.  You must bring them to one place.  And then, Anna will lead you to victory.”     The soldiers tapped their staffs against the floor again to show they understood.     Anna was sweating a little, not because the room was warm, but because she was starting to feel the pressure.  She had never been in charge of hundreds of people before.  She tried to remind herself, though, that the more relaxed looking Kiivan was responsible for millions.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Give them an order, Anna.”  Kiivan prodded her.     The android swallowed hard and looked over the crowd.  Their eyes watched her patiently.  They were adults, yet also like children, waiting for her to take the lead and tell them what to do.  But she could also see in their eyes that they were scared...and it would do them no good if she was too.  She had to be brave to lead them.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Spread out.”  she said.  “Lure the ground forces to the courtyard outside the palace.”     The soliders tapped the ground with the staffs again, and then they noisily filed out of the open doors, through the main hall, and outside.  They moved so quickly, so eagerly, that Anna could tell Kiivan was right.  They did have heart.     Once the room was empty, Anna faced Kiivan again.  She didn’t realized she still wore a concerned and worried look.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s a heavy burden, isn’t it?”  Kiivan asked.     She nodded quietly.  “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Have faith, little one.”  He smiled warmly, even though some concern could be read on his face as well.  “Have faith, and fight as well as you can.” ---     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Take us into the atmosphere.”  Shen Rae ordered.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’re going to chase the two ships headed for Caph?”  The Navigation Officer tried to confirm.  “The others will chase us!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know, and if we shoot them down, they’ll crash and cause major damage.”  Shen Rae noted.  “But we have no choice.  With their technology--”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Captain--”  the First Officer, Jai Yoon, interrupted.  “I have some information.  I need to talk to you privately.”     Shen Rae nodded, and headed quickly into the conference room.  The door slid shut as Jai Yoon entered as well.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I intercepted a broadcast.  These ships seem to be communicating with a planetary system thought to be long dead.”     Jai Yoon tapped a few invisible buttons on the conference room table, and a holographic projection of a star map popped up.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Maxellians?”  Shen Rae couldn’t believe it.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Intelligence so far is that there were quite a few of them left, living in isolation.  They fell into Parody Master technology pretty much by accident.  Since they’re kind of advanced already, they knew how to adapt and use the technology.  They built ships quickly, and started making a living as mercenaries.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mercenaries?  Weren’t they scientists?  And where is this intelligence from?”     Jai looked back toward the bridge.  “Someone’s been buying secrets from Frammistat.”  It was obvious to Shen Rae that her First Officer meant the advisors from Caph.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mercenaries.”  Shen Rae repeated.  “Hired guns, so the real source of this would be harder to find.  Can we communicate with them?  Make them a better offer?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They’re still jamming radio frequency comms.”  Jai replied.     Shen Rae slapped her open palm against the table.  “New priority, Jai.  Capture one of those ships.  Prepare an invasion force and two Energy Gliders.  I’ll lead it.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What about the ground forces?”     The Captain thought about that for a moment.  “Send all the Fighters to follow them, and destroy them once they’re on the ground.  Less collateral damage that way.” ---     The first of the two black ships to land on Caph exploded in a huge ball of flame as a swarm of six silvery Fighter Wings fired a volley of missiles and plasma pulses, and then climbed rapidly to circle around for reconnaissance and a second assault.     There was terrified screaming and crying from the people of Caph as a neighborhood was caught in the explosion, and burned.  There was another loud boom, but this time it was because of the Fighter Wings breaking the sound barrier as they rapidly climbed.     Unfortunately, they were still completing their attack arc when the second huge black ship landed.  It crushed a block of carved stone private homes as it did.  Fifty soldiers poured out as a hatch opened.  They were wearing some kind of hard black armor, and each carrying a large plasma rifle, as they began running toward the palace.     The Caphan Elite Guard met them halfway, and silently began firing arrows in a guerilla attack pattern.  The enemy soldiers fired back, but by then the Caphans moved on - they were quick, silently, and highly trained fighters, even when outclassed.     As ordered, they brought the first wave of soldiers closer to the palace with their attack patterns.  By now, there was no more escape for the armored aliens - their ship has just been blown sky-high by the Fighter Wings.     And then they had new trouble to contend with.  Standing in the open, in the plaza outside the palace, was what looked like a small human girl.  She didn’t seem particularly concerned that they were armored and carrying plasma rifles.  They pointed their rifles at her and started moving in slowly.     Caphan Elite Guard filed in behind her to multiply the number of targets.  Then, just as the enemy was distracted, a high-pitched whine echoed off the palace behind them...     ...and the whole plaza lit up with blue laser light, igniting the very oxygen and dust in the air.  There was a horrific explosion that knocked down the Caphan Elite Guard.     The black armored aliens were trapped in their own melted armor, their weapons inoperable.     The Caphan Elite Guard cheered, in a rare moment of undisciplined celebration.  They stopped as their commander finally ordered them to get to work extracting the aliens and processing them as prisoners.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wait.”  Anna told them as they began working.  “Civilians’ homes are burning and damaged.  They need our help.”     The soldiers were split into two teams, the smaller of which worked on extracting the melted armor.  The larger team followed Anna toward the nearby neighborhoods.     Kiivan smiled to himself as he watched from the palace.  Yuki Shiro was right, after all, sending this android to help. ---     The Energy Glider piloted by Shen Rae cruised at maximum speed toward one of the black ships, making it difficult for them to be targeted.  There were a few near misses, but finally it got close enough for a textbook yet crazy maneuver.     She blasted a hole in the hull of the black ship with a plasma pulse, and then crashed into the hole with shields running at full power.  The effect was to create an airtight seal for an unauthorized docking.  The second Energy Glider did the same.     The hatches on the two Gliders popped open at the same time, and Shen Rae and part of her crew raced in wearing what could best be described as mecha-armor, a full body articulated silver metallic battle suit.  Each had its own blue glowing energy shielding and an array of laser and plasma pulse weapons.  The suits looked intimidating, as they had no visible face mask from the outside - it was a one-way window.     There were a total of six of them - three went one direction, three went the other.  Their intent was to take over the engineering systems and control or bridge systems at the same time.  They were coordinating speech and data among themselves and with the Heart of Light on double encrypted frequency banks.     Of course they met immediate resistance.  There was a flurry of plasma blasts in both directions as they encountered a black armored security force.  That security force, however, discovered their weapons were useless against armor with energy shields.     When Shen Rae’s team reached the bridge, five Maxellians in starched black uniforms there seemed surprised that the invasion force managed to reach them.  They surrendered immediately.     The engine room, however, turned out to be a massacre.  The ship’s crew tried hard to activate the self destruct mechanism, or overload the engines to explode.  The second of Shen Rae’s teams had to eradicate them with pulsed plasma fire.  None of the Maxellian engineers survived that assault.     Shen Rae checked the atmospheric info projected inside her mask, and then swept her hand upward over it.  The entire mask and headgear retracted into the rest of the suit.     Her arm-mounted weapon still trained on one of the bridge personnel, she ordered them, “Tell your fleet to stand down, or we will destroy it with your own ship.”     The Maxellians ignored her, and remained frozen in place.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Very well.”  Shen Rae looked at the other two with her.  “Stun them, and then set this ship on a collision course with the other black ships.”     Quick pulse of energy fired from one of the silver suits impacted four of the bridge crew, and left them collapsed unconscious in a corner.  Shen Rae trained her weapon on the last one.     That last Maxellian tapped the communications control, and said something Shen Rae didn’t understand to the other ships.     About a minute later, the deck lurched violently.  And then did so again.  The last conscious Maxellian laughed...and Shen Rae realized he must have told the others his ship had been compromised and was to be destroyed.     Shen Rae angrily hit the Maxellian with her steel arm, knocking him out.  She then quickly ordered, “Set this ship to collide with the others.  Leave the bridge crew to die--”  She looked down, and added, “Except this one.  He’ll be our prisoner.”     As soon as the ship started moving, all six of the Heart of Light’s crew aboard the Maxellian ship raced for the Energy Gliders as the ship began accelerating quickly.  Shen Rae carried their prisoner.     Both of the Energy Gliders broke free from the hull of the black ship at once.  They reached full speed in an instant, forcing the crews inside to hold on to something until the inertia stabilized.     While Shen Rae held on to one of the window frames, she watched the other black ships try their best to evade the rogue one at the last second.  There was a huge collision, the force locking several of them dangerously together.     The Captain stepped out of her steel suit once the gravity stabilized, and then she spoke into her wrist communicator.  “Destroy them all,”  she said coldly. TO BE CONTINUED -- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be  --    reprinted without permission.   -- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow --  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin --  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

Good stuff...  I was a bit thrown by the identity of the invaders and the fact that last I saw they were massively super-powered, but I see the exchange with HH has you leaning towards a depowered explanation.

Looks like the conflict is about to turn fairly bloody, and, considering the endangered nature of the mercenary's species, possibly genocidal.  I guess one shouldn't cross Shen Rae...

Looking forward to seeing what happens next!