Ruminations of a Wayfarer: Parts I and II

Forbes stepped up to inspect the scandar. "Looks like ground vehicles. Air support’s also closing from extreme range." He paused, considering Jarre for a moment longer. "I think it’s time to leave."

"He’s right," yelled Eclipse in a thunderous voice that matched his powerful frame. "We gotta move!"

Forbes almost afforded a smile. He was back in command.

"What about Jarre?" said a concerned Ky. "We can’t just ditch him."

"If Jarre thought he could pilot that ship then that’s his call. If he’s right we’ll toast him, if he’s wrong we’ll bury him. Punch it, Ganna!" Eclipse yelled.

Ganna shot a worried look at Forbes who scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment before nodding his confirmation. She took the wheel before her tentatively.

Ky watched the merzer vanish as the vehicle’s engine hummed to life and the vehicle rushed back en route for their hideaway. "So long, buddy."

Zor, the Tharnian commanding the assignment known as the daborjen incursion, sat alone within the security of city seven’s command centre. His brutish face, with bark-like skin and scales, garishly coloured eyes and cruel mouth equipped with fang-like teeth suggested that the giant claws at the end of his arms were not intended for peaceable deeds. His mind cycled through the events of the past three months.

Callon had been an ideal target. There were no complications and little resistance, as expected.

A group of humans that had no entitlement to exist yet alone be here. It seemed they were on a mission to explore unknown galaxies, and their expedition had brought them to Callon. While primordial, these humans had developed space travel. Their craft had been seized for study upon its capture. Most of the intruders were incarcerated and offered a choice. Cooperate or expire. The number that had opted for death was disconcerting and unexpected. Even more disturbing were the group that had managed to escape in the mother ship’s surface vehicle. Although small, it was swift and unpredictably well armed. It posed no threat to a potent Empire, and its capture was imminent, but it seemed to be constantly making well-planned strikes against insignificant targets. Two months had passed and the vessel was intact and its crew alive. Their most recent attack saw them capture one of their own kind, a scientist who was one of the few that had agreed to obey the Tharnians. He would undoubtedly be killed for defecting and deserved no better.

As much as he required their demise, Zor was enjoying this slight diversion. These humans were cunning. Rarely had he encountered such resistance from an enemy so inconsequential. They also pointed to another developed civilisation, although clearly not as advanced as his own. Even so, the possibility of another short and bloody campaign excited him.

The current hideout was located within a cave set into the foothills of an area christened Key South. It had been Jarre’s idea to establish their hideaway here, and thus far, they had not had a Tharnian patrol pass within a two-mile radius. The rubble-strewn floor of the fissure had various pieces of salvaged equipment set up indiscriminately. As a base, it wasn’t structured or systematic, but it served its purpose. Seated behind one of the pieces of equipment, a scandar unit, Ganna stared at the screen in silence.