"They're inside lunar orbit." I heard a voice I recognised. General Shandar. I knew him from broadcasts. I knew all of them. "All the lunar bases have ceased responding to hails. The scanning satellites report they are all destroyed."
It had started.
Chapter 31
Time for it to end.
I shuffled around and sat on a joist. It creaked a bit and I held my breath, but heard no reaction from below. The general's voice kept burbling on. I peeled off my gloves and put them aside. I took a deep breath.
"For you, Ilyan," I whispered to the darkness. "And all of you."
Then I smashed both feet into the vent panel. It crashed down and I launched myself after it. My feet hit the table and I wobbled briefly, but stayed upright. I pulled my gun in a flash. I hadn't dared draw it before I jumped, fearing the landing would jolt it out of my hand.
The generals and admirals leapt back out of their seats in shock and horror as an entirely unexpected grunt smashed right into the middle of their game board. The tabletop cracked and the 3D display they'd been studying fizzled out. I kicked the vent cover off the table, scattering coffee cups, papers and Snappers with it.
One man, Dayo, a tall dark skinned marine edged back towards the table, probably trying to reach a panic button and raise the alarm, but I shot him before he got within a metre. The others jumped and gasped in horror as he fell. A couple of them bent over him, but they couldn't do anything. I'd shot to kill. Shot to impress.
"Lock the room down now!" I ordered, pointing my gun at the one in charge, Chief of Staff Sadra. Quite a short woman, looking almost overwhelmed by the thick crust of insignia and decorations covering her army uniform. She glanced down for a second at Dayo's body and spoke.
"Computer, lockdown, code fifteen z."
Blast shields rolled down across the doors. I knew similar shields would cut off every other access point into the room, including the vents I'd used. The lockdown protocol sealed the room from the outside world. Recyclers and reserves would feed us air.
"Drop your weapons, all of you. Get over to that end of the room. Move it!" The ones kneeling by Dayo glared, but I showed no mercy. "Leave him. Do it now!"
One by one they dropped their guns in a heap and backed off to the far wall, away from their big table where I stood, controlling the room, controlling them. Once all of the guns were piled up, I switched to plasma beam and vaporised them. Now unless anyone had anything concealed--and they'd die if they had--then I had the only weapons in the room.
Sadra stepped forward cautiously. I'd always rather admired her. She had an incredible command record and her victories had long been required study for officer training. The same went for most of the people in the room. These people had been my heroes for a long time. Many young soldiers aspired to reach this position. And not only officers dreamt of it. I looked at General Baldev, a giant of a man. He didn't start as an officer, he'd moved up through the ranks. According to legend, he'd once been the strongest man in the army. Now he stared up at me wide-eyed and scared looking and I knew I could take him in a fight and I hated him.
I hated all of them.
"Jadeth," Sadra said. One or two of the others looked surprised.
"Isn't he meant to be dead?" Baldev said.
"We hung onto him for questioning," another woman said. I knew her. General Dow, commander of military intelligence. She must have given the order to kill Ilyan. I raised my gun.
"Jadeth," Sadra said my name again, in an infuriatingly calm tone. "What exactly is it you want?"
I shot Dow and she fell dead. Some of the others moaned. Sadra didn't even glance back at Dow.
"That's what I want," I said. "From all of you."
"Jadeth, I don't know if you have noticed." Sadra's voice remained calm, almost conversational. "But an alien fleet is about to attack the Earth. We need to give the orders to stop that--"
"It's too late!" I yelled at her. "You could have given the orders a year ago, when he warned you. But you dismissed him He was right and you chose to ignore him."
"Surely Ilyan explained to you the real nature of his so-called prophecies?" She took another small step forward, but I jerked my pistol in warning and she stopped. "He predicted not where war would start but where we could make it start."
"I know that."
"If Ilyan believed this prediction would be any different than the others, would not be self fulfilling like them, then he must have been a fool."
I scowled at her, but it didn't intimidate her, she pressed on.
"The only difference is that this time he's the one who took the actions to make it come true, not us."
"No!" I yelled. Did she really think she could turn me against him now? "He did not want it to come true!"
"Then he certainly must have been a fool. He started spreading the idea across the galaxy. Did he really think the Big Four wouldn't hear about it?"
"They were already planning their attack. They'd had secret negotiations--"
"He told you that, did he?"
I stared at her. Why the hell did I suddenly feel on the defensive? How did she have me on the back foot?
"He wouldn't have lied to me," I insisted.
"Of course not," she said, quite gently. She stepped forward again. "Jadeth, I am sorry about your friends. But that is the past. It isn't too late even now to do what Ilyan wanted. You can do what he wanted. Fight for Earth. For your home."
My home? My sky? My sky is empty. This is not my home. I never had a home. What had I fought for all these years? Only for my life and my unit. And aside from Maiga, who I hoped had been smart enough to stay away from this planet, my unit lay dead under the sky of an alien world. My sky is empty.
"Jadeth," Sadra spoke again. "You're a soldier. You fight. That's what you are for. I've seen your record; you are a good soldier. With men like you, we can have a chance. We can fight them."
I looked at her, at the hopeful look on her face. She had edged forward a little again. She stood only a couple of metres from the table now, looking up at me.
"Jadeth. You are the best Earth has to offer."
I stared at her. The best? Me? I lost any final doubts about what I planned to do. It must be right. Simply the fact I could even contemplate such a thing proved that. Proved that we deserved it.
I shot Sadra. I shot the others. They screamed and panicked and ran around, trying to hide. But I just stood up there on the table and picked them off one by one.
I didn't even check afterwards to make sure they were dead, which my old instructors would have knocked points off for. But they all lay still as I stood there, my gun warm in my hand.
Behind me, the wall screens babbled with dozens of voices. Urgent signals, desperate to contact High Command, begging for orders. I glanced over at the doors when I heard a rumbling noise from the other side. I knew the guards must be trying to break in.
Time for it to end.
I jumped down off the table and holstered my weapon. The wall screens all showed different scenes, but when I selected one comms signal to respond to, touching it on screen, all the monitors switched to the same scene. A room not unlike this one, though smaller, on board a ship. A table, with generals sitting around it, but not humans. Several each of Chiamajan, Ayokidishi, Kitsnujitar and Muaan Qacia. The Big Four.
"Welcome to Earth," I said and laughed.
I brought up a display screen in front of me. I had access to everything from this room. I needed no codes, no security clearance. Being in this room proved my authority. I took out my Snapper and double-checked the commands I needed to access the controls for the orbiting weapons platforms.
"Identify yourself," one of the Okis demanded.
"I'm a human," I said, not looking up at them, too busy.
They glanced at each other, seemed puzzled.
"You speak for your people?" The same Oki asked. I looked up at the screen and smiled.
"Yeah, why not? Haven't you heard? I'm the best Earth has to offer."
More puzzlement. This obviously wasn't standard General-speak. I looked away from them again, still working on the weapons platforms controls. At last, I brought up the command I needed. Just one touch would do it now.
"Your fleet is completely dessstroyed," a Muaan Qacia hissed. Lied actually, since I knew plenty of ships still lay inside the orbit of the weapons platforms, protected.
"Desssstroyed eh?" I mocked his accent. "Oh, that's a shame; some of them were new."
"We demand your immediate unconditional surrender!" A Kitsnujitar commander snarled. "You will give up your weapons."
Give me your rifle.
"Come and take it!" I gave the instinctive, if ungrammatical response.
They sat back, looking more at ease now, thinking they could understand the situation. I'd change their minds about that in a moment.
"Then you intend to fight?" A Chiamajan general asked, sounding satisfied, as if he'd been rehearsing that line for a while. Perhaps they'd drawn lots to see who got to say it.
"No."
They sat up again, gone from puzzled to full on baffled now. I pressed a button on my screen. The final command to disengage the weapons platforms. To leave no defence between the alien fleet and the planet.
I looked back up at the screen.
"Kill us. Kill us all."
###
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