noticed the trolley had no wheels; it was hovering above the ground, utilizing the same anti-gravity technology I had seen the Supreme Council members use on the guardian verification mission on New Canada. Kronos was checking the two laser rifles, handling them like a real professional, which of course he was. As for me, I just sat down on a chair, feeling sorry for myself. They say you get punished in this life for the sins you committed in your last life. All I can say is, I must have been a bad sod in my last life. My head was bowed and I must have looked like the dead-end kid of Tyros. I don’t know how fear manifests itself in other people but in me, as well as feeling sick in my stomach, I also feel a pressure down on the back of my neck. Not a very pleasant combination to endure.
It did not take long for Adema and Kronos to notice the apathetic state of despondency I was descending into. They both looked at me and then at each other, after which they made their way over to me, Adema reaching me first.
He put his right arm around my shoulder. “Don’t worry, John. Everything is going to be all right.” He then leaned over and whispered into my ear, “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I will never forget his smile. As I turned to face him I smiled back. “Thank you.”
I then stood up to face Kronos who began to straighten my uniform, saying as he did so, “We will make a soldier of you yet, John. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” I replied, looking him straight in the eye. “I am as ready as I will ever be.”
“Good. Now John, listen to me. The only limit on your achievement in the future is the uncertainness of today. Remember what President Roosevelt said: the only thing to fear is fear itself.”
Then it suddenly dawned on me. “You have been to Earth before, haven’t you? Before my Guardianship activated itself.”
“Yes, I have, John,” Kronos replied. “Earth does hold a special place in the great scheme of things. I will tell you all about it when we get back to Sontral. But for the here and now, shall we be content to kick the hell out of the Kaytons and teach them a lesson they will never forget? I want to see you walk tall, show a bit of swagger and look as though you belong here on Tyros.”
“I will go along with that sentiment,” I replied.
We both placed our helmets on and grabbed our rifles and then the three of us made our way out of the villa with Adema pushing the trolley, saying, “Lights off.” He then locked the door, after which we all made our way to the end of the drive and boarded a small vehicle that could seat four. It was like a maglev train system.
Adema then said, “Destination Citadel,” and with that we were on our way.
As we started our journey, Kronos said, “No more talking for me and you now, John. Just silently follow any instructions Adema gives you.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Mum’s the word.”
On arriving at the main station our vehicle hooked up with many others that must have been going to the Citadel. Then, this time as one long train, we were on our way again. Not long into our journey, we skirted a big city. I thought to myself, You shining, shimmering, golden towers, swaying aimlessly in the wind. Personifying evil from their occupants within. Built on slavery on foundations of clay. Will they even be standing by the end of this momentous day? As I slip away into the distance I pray I will never see their likes again.
Yes, it was all built on fool’s gold and slavery. I remember watching a programme once about ancient Greece. The historian was always banging on about Athens being the cradle of democracy. Maybe it was, but their system was also built on slavery with very little chance of earning your freedom… in other words, if you were born a slave you died a slave. I preferred ancient Rome. True, it had its fair share of slavery but unlike Athens, there were opportunities to earn your freedom and gain Roman citizenship. The most obvious example that came to mind was if you enlisted in the Roman army and served twenty-five years, you earned your citizenship and a plot of land or money to buy a small business. I think at one time half the population of Rome was descended from slaves, which speaks for itself and explains why the empire prospered and endured so long, laying the foundations of western law.
Our journey continued through beautiful, peaceful countryside for about twenty minutes and then I could hear a roaring sound to our left. It was then I realised that we were passing a military firing range. The equipment in use reminded me of an updated version of the Russian world war two Katyusha multi rocket launcher system. It even sounded like the Russian weapon. No wonder the Germans were so frightened of them… I think they nick-named it the Stalin organ. Oh the screeching noise as the rockets left the launchers – I wouldn’t like to be a Solaran or a Hellertron soldier on the receiving end of that! But eventually peace and quiet was restored as we slipped past the firing range and were back on our journey through the countryside once again. Of course, during that time I thought about Freema and how much I longed to be with her. On the down side, it also crossed my mind that by now, the Kayton battle squadron must be less than twenty-four hours away from reaching Earth.
After about fifteen minutes I could see a range of mountains. We then entered a tunnel that cut through one of the mountains, emerging on the other side after about a minute. Oh and what a sight confronted me! I could see the dome which was the Citadel in the distance. Look at the size of it, I thought to myself. It was completely ringed by the mountains which I could see were bristling with missile and gun batteries, all of which were just a small part of a totally integrated global defence system, all geared to protecting the most important piece of real estate in the Kayton empire. On top of the dome was the control beacon which itself was a very tall structure. It reminded me of that building in Dubai, the one with the arched whalebone shaped ribs. But unlike the one in Dubai which housed apartments within its structure, this one was housing what I could best describe as a spoon-like spinning mechanism which of course was transmitting the signal to maintain control of the Drones throughout the Kayton Empire. I also noticed the four smaller beacons at ground level that were meant to kick in during maintenance or if there was a fault in the main beacon.
As we approached the Citadel proper I observed the Drone guards being put through their paces by the Kayton officers. Oh, there were hundreds of them on the parade ground. “Left, right, left, right,” the Kayton officer barked, as they obeyed his orders to the letter. I think I mentioned before that my father was a boy during the German occupation of Holland during the war. He told me he used to watch the German soldiers being put through their paces in his home town of Apeldoorn. I think in German it was, ‘links, boven, links, boven,’ not ‘left, right, left, right.’ My father never liked the Germans for the rest of his life but even he commented on the discipline and training of the German army. He thought they were the best in the world, apart from the Dutch Marines, of course. The Canadians liberated Holland and my father also met the British and American troops. The only ones he didn’t meet were the Russians so he had a lot of information to base his assessment on. As a fourteen-year-old boy in 1944 he even observed troops of the Waffen-SS. In fact, he knew what British intelligence had failed to detect in the run up to the battle of Arnhem. It must have been elements of the second SS Panzer Corps that he had seen. It was made up of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg, commanded I think by General Bittrich, a former army officer who had transferred to the Waffen-SS. It had been formed in December 1942 and spent the whole of 1943 working itself up into a crack unit in occupied France near Alencon.
The corps had first gone into action in April of 1944 on the Russian front at the battle of Ternopol, when it launched an attack to relieve the first Panzer army which had been surrounded by the Russians. In a brilliant display of mobile tactics it extracted the first Panzer army quite briskly and was then put into strategical reserve in Poland until the allied landings in France. Afterwards it was transferred to the west where it took part in the bitter fighting in Normandy. It had then been sent to Holland fo
r a complete rest and refit and was responsible for the allied airborne troops’ defeat at Arnhem. My father said you could tell the Waffen-SS troops straight away because they wore different uniforms from the regular German army. He called them young fanatics. Also I think it is worth mentioning the German Commander of Army Group B, Field Marshall Walter Model, who also happened to have his headquarters in that area. He was one of Hitler’s fighting Generals who he held in high regard. He had only recently been transferred from the Eastern front where he had just stabilised the front after the collapse of Army Group Centre, so there was on the spot coordination of the German forces.
After the battle, some of the British prisoners were marched through my father’s home town on their way to the prisoner of war camps in Germany. His parents along with most of the residents of his home town gave the British soldiers water, cigarettes and whatever food they could spare. My father said it was the least they could do for them. They were in a terrible state after the vicious battle they had just been involved in. Thus, Holland had to endure another very harsh winter under the Germans, made all the more difficult because of