well. The Sphere had been refitting his chassis since the time it pulled his torn body inside itself. And it had duplicated his android body with a pair of automatons able to function as extensions of his body, but directly controlled by their conjoined minds. The Barudii warrior would lose the advantage he had gained at their last encounter.
☼
The trip through the planet’s atmosphere was uneventful with shields operating at maximum. Orin scanned the planet for topographical and geographical data as the Saberhawk cruised swiftly at sixty thousand feet.
“I’m picking up twelve large cities with functional energy signatures and many more appear to be on fire or have sustained major damage. It’s like a war is taking place. At this point on the map, sweeping to this area, all these minor cities are destroyed, while those with major structures have sustained heavy damage. Wait a minute, what’s this?”
He tapped the display next to an alert code for the geographical data search. The screen complied by showing a match to the ships database. Orin released the information.
“I…I can’t believe it.”
On the screen it read, planet: Castai. Orin began looking for specifics in the data. There it was. Mt. Vaseer appeared on the compiled data map. He could not have mistaken it for anything else. Orin knew the place he had called home, better than any other location on Castai, and yet, here it was on a world across the rift.
Upon scanning this city, Orin found a great deal more damage than the old city inhabited by Estall and his Aolene back home. He keyed in comparison data from his home world and matched them together. Orin saw clearly that this city of Vaseer was actually less complete than back home. Somehow this planet was a duplicate of his home world.
“What is it, Orin,” Tiet asked?
“This planet is somehow a duplicate of Castai.”
“What?”
“I know…but I’ve already located Mt. Vaseer and confirmed other topographical comparisons. The oceans, the mountains and almost every major landmark are the same.”
Silence held them captive.
“But the Vorn inhabit this planet,” Dorian said.
“We could really use some answers and the Vorn aren’t likely to give them to us. I think we should go to this planet’s city of Vaseer and see if the people on this world left any records. The city is deserted according to the scan data. I don’t know what else to do at this point. “This isn’t what we expected to find.”
“Well, we had better do something,” Millo said. “This ship isn’t invisible, you know. Somebody will be shooting at us sooner or later if we just fly around up here. I vote for Vaseer.”
Tiet and Dorian nodded in agreement.
“Course plotted. E.T.A. is twenty minutes.”
The Saberhawk’s thrusters boosted them away toward the mountain city. Thick cloud cover provided good visual cover for the ship, but most likely they were already being tracked by the Vorn. The question was, could they reach Vaseer and find out what they needed to know before they were intercepted by attack ships?
☼
The reconstruction of Vale’s body and the construction of his duplicates took a little time even for the automatons and nano-builders at the Spheres’ control—but soon enough the work was complete. At ten hours, fifty three minutes and twenty seven point seven eight seconds, Vale’s repaired body and his new duplicates came online.
The Vale-Sphere mind held control over all three bodies simultaneously. The three androids moved without delay to join the waiting invasion force. In one of the launch bays within the huge Sphere, the Vale androids boarded a carrier vessel about to launch to the planets surface. The drones were miniatures of the Sphere itself. Each attack drone was fully armed with phased plasma weapons and shield generators for defense.
Many of the drones transformed into large surface attack robots, more suited to close quarters fighting and rooting out combatants able to evade the airborne attack force. A spherical carrier drone closed around the three Vale androids and hovered off the deck of the launch bay to join the other mini-spheres leaving the main ship. The first target would be a multiple objective—the Barudii ship on course for one of the ancient cities of the Makers and a large contingent of Horva clones on their way to the same location.
☼
A Horva clone of regal stature and advanced intelligence sat astride his grevasaur, surveying his army. The general expected a mighty victory today. The Sphere doomsday weapon would take his bait, thinking this army to be sent by the Vorn. It had decimated their forces at every encounter with the powerful drones it employed, as well as the powerful weapons used by the main Sphere itself. But General Grod was certain the machine was in orbit around Castai. Sensor scans had failed to locate it, and the orbiting satellites able to detect its presence had been destroyed.
But now, by employing his new plan, Grod felt confident that not only would they soon have its location but they would finally put an end to its reign of destruction. After all, if the Sphere were to eradicate the Vorn, he and his elite Horva would also be included. Besides, Grod didn’t want their former masters destroyed, but subjugated.
The Vorn were still useful to him, but they would soon learn who the real masters were. Their resistance to the uprising of his fellow Horva would soon be crushed and the balance of power would rest with himself and his fellow clones.
The general’s command group began to break away from the rest of his forces as they approached Mt. Vaseer from the north. They would make there way up the mountain to a preplanned area overlooking the valley on the other side. The valley would be the perfect battlefield to have their showdown with the drones and draw them out into the open, so that his plan could be properly executed. One thing about computers, they always made predictable movements. He knew the drones would take the bait and the electronic signals employed to control them would help identify the location of the Sphere itself.
Grod’s second in command, Malec, personally escorted their special surprise. Grod looked back over the ten-thousand-man army marching toward the pass around Vaseer with satisfaction. “Victory!”
Those within hearing replied in kind and the cry spread across the entire army. These cloned men believed Grod would lead them to victory. He had bolstered their pride as elite warriors. They had finally grown tired of being the muscle for the physically weaker Vorn. The Horva, as clones, had never received any of the glory or power. This had always been reserved for their Vorn taskmasters alone. That time was coming to an end.
Grod was their ideal, sitting upon his grevasaur, physically powerful and more menacing in his appearance than any of the elite Horva. When the Vorn had realized the danger of intelligent Horva, with their greater physical power and tenacious love of fighting, they had gone to cloning a new breed of more easily manipulated Horva. These dumbed-down brutes were easy to control. This had been the final insult to Grod and his brother clones. The Horva made during Grod’s time had at least held some dignity. They were elite warriors. But now, the clones which were generated were less than human. And they were treated as completely expendable.
Rebellion had been the only recourse. Grod prodded the grevasaur, urging it on toward the rest of the command group who rode ahead with their equipment in tow. The beast moaned deeply as it complied with its rider’s commands.
Grod knew if he could just eliminate this threat to Vorn and Horva alike, the balance of power would continue in his favor. And the spoils, which they had always been denied, would finally come to the true heroes of the war with the Castillians.
GHOSTLY
The Saberhawk glided smoothly around Mt. Vaseer approaching the hangar bay on the lower western face of the mountain. Their internal scans of the city indicated severe damage. Obviously, the fighting here on this twin Castai had been far worse, since there did not appear to be any Castillians left on the planet. Numerous sensor sweeps had not found even one native life signature on the surface. They could on
ly hope the data proved incorrect.
As the Saberhawk approached the massive entrance, it became apparent the doors were probably not functional. The doors were shut and pocked with blast marks. Several large holes went all the through. The Saberhawk would not be able to gain entrance to the city.
Orin tried several command codes from back home, hoping they might be recognized here. The automated systems either weren’t functional or didn’t recognize the codes. At any rate, the result was the same. No admittance.
“Well there’s not much choice,” Orin said as he looked back at Tiet. “We’ll have to go in on foot and see if we can find anything.”
“I’m in.”
“Me too,” Dorian said.
“Actually, Dorian, I think Tiet and I will have to go alone. We don’t have the time to land and hike back up to the city. We’ll have to drop in here and go through the damaged hangar bay doors. You can’t make the descent from the ship and I would rather Millo was not left to handle any problems with the ship alone.”
Dorian was clearly not happy about the situation, but she complied.
“Millo, please take the ship down into the southern valley until we contact you. Keep an eye peeled for any trouble and get the ship out of danger if you have too. It’s likely the Vorn will investigate our arrival. I doubt an old Barudii battleship will