Legacy Ch14

Legacy of the Guardians

AJ Marks

Part 14

The intelligence officer waited patiently for another signal from earth. So far the only action had been when they had extradited Captain Ahmed's parents, she could only hope that it had helped him get into the terrorist group.

"Anything new Karen?" Her commander asked as she walked into the room.

"No, nothing yet today." Karen replied to her. "It's been quite boring. Part of me wishes something would happen while the other part hopes it remains the same."

"I know what you mean Karen." She replied. "Admiral Cave has been chomping at the bit here lately. I swear that man can be so patient at times and so impatient at other times, its like he flips a coin to see how he is going to be acting at any given time. The commander said with a sigh and sat down in an empty chair next to Karen.

"Greg says the same thing." Karen said with a laugh. "He's learned to judge the admiral's mood by his facial expressions when he walks into a room."

"Think he can teach me that trick." The commander said jokingly.

"If you ask nicely enough, but I think he'll tell you that it just a matter of being around the admiral enough to see the facial expressions." Karen replied still keeping an eye on the screen in front of her.

"And he's probably right." The commander said reluctantly agreeing with Karen.

"Well, he has..." Karen was cut off by a ringing alert on her monitor and she turned her attention to the screen. Her commander glanced over her shoulder and read the screen with her.

The alert was from Captain Ahmed and according to the message he had found Osama bin Laden and several Skartians in which he believed was a main base of operations for the Skartians.

"Go let Admiral Cave know what is going on and I'll alert the ready response team know that they have a target that is possibly full of Skartians." Karen's commander said to her and Karen raced out of the room towards the admiral's office.

"Control, this is Commander Patra, we have a condition green here sending the coordinates now." She said picking up phone to the control room.

"Roger commander, receiving the information now and relaying them to Base M for the ready response team." The voice on the phone said. There was no waiting for a command from a high level officer for this operation because it had been decided that when the information came in that speed was central to the operation.

Down on earth in an underground base called Base M the message was received. The base wet immendantally to full alert and the ready response team left the base within minutes of the alert.

Karen quickly ran down the hallway and past Greg who called out to her. She ignored him and knew that he would understand after she explained later to him what was going on. She ran past a startled secretary and into the admiral's office where Jack and Steve were sitting talking to each other. Both men looked up at Karen when she burst into the room and waited patiently for her to explain her actions to them.

"Admiral, sir!" Karen huffed as she gave a salute before continuing. "We just received a message from Captain Ahmed and the ready response team is on its way."

"That is the best news I've heard all day." Jack said and Karen could feel the tension in the room decrease and a different type of tension increase. The tension of a mission underway and now it was just a waiting game till the results were in. "Tell the interrogators to be ready for prisoners real soon."

"Yes sir!" Karen replied and left the room to carry out the mission that Jack had sent her on.

Jack picked up a phone and dialed the number for one of the Admirals.

"Admiral Gansiu here!" A man said.

"Admiral Cave here, operation green is a go, I want contingency plan three in effect in case the team is not successful in their mission." Jack said quickly barking out his orders.

"Yes sir, I'll have the battlecruiser standing by." The Admiral replied and Jack hung up knowing that his orders were being followed without any questions. Contingency plan three was where a battlecruiser would be waiting in high orbit above the planet and if the mission failed, the battlecruiser was to bombard the area where the mission took place destroying any evidence of the encounter. It was a hard decision to make and Jack figured that it might be even harder to execute by those on board the battlecruiser.

"Well, what do you have to say?" One of the Skartians said to the kneeling Ahmed.

"Just a few things that I know you won't like." Ahmed replied knowing that he had to stall long enough for the strike team to locate him.

"I doubt that very much." The Skartian said again. "Now tell us what you have to say." He said in a demanding voice.

"Are you sure you want to hear what I have to say?" Ahmed replied to the group in front of him.

"Don't patronize me foolish one." The Skartian said getting angry. "Now for the last time what are you to say?"

"Very well." Ahmed said still trying to stall for time. "I work for a very powerful group that is similar to your group in that we don't answer to any government officials. We keep a watch on groups like yours in case they decide to go beyond what the world considers to be normal." Ahmed said making some of it up from the top of his head. "When the attacks on the United States occurred we were quite stunned, however we quickly reacted and came to understand who the real threat to our planet was."

Ahmed watched as the last words sunk in. Those who were Skartian understood what he was now beginning to say, while those who were human did not have a clue as to the real meaning behind Ahmed's words.

"Yes, we knew who was really behind the attacks, in fact the rest of the attack was stopped before it could even begin." Ahmed said continuing.

"You are the one who does not understand." Bin Laden said. "There were only those four planes, nothing more."

"That's where you are wrong." Ahmed said knowing that the Skartians had not told Bin Laden the real reason for the terrorist attacks. "The real reason for the attacks was not to make the United States pay for what you think."

"Shut up!" One of the Skartians said quickly walking up to Ahmed and backhanding him across the face.

"What other reason could there be?" Aziz asked and many were curious as to what this person would say to try and save his life.

"Please, continue." One Skartian said and Ahmed now could recognize him as the leader of the group, this one could not get away when the earth forces showed up.

"May I be allowed to stand up?" Ahmed asked and a nod from the leaders to the guard allowed Ahmed to stand up. He walked over to where the Skartian was standing.

"You see I know what you are." Ahmed said to the Skartian to his face then leaned over and whispered into his ear. "Skartian!"

"Then you know that it is only a matter of time before you fall." The Skartian said with a bit of a snarl.

"No, you see we stopped your forces at the border and destroyed them all." Ahmed told the group remembering the battle that took place not to long ago. The memories were still fresh in his mind.

"Then you lie to save yourself." The Skartian said. The group around the two was a mixed atmosphere of tension and confusion on the faces.

"No, I was there and a group of Ilderians was also there." Ahmed said recalling the damaged Ilderian fleet as they had joined up with them.

"You know that your life is now forfeit." Another Skartian said.

"I don't think so, you see they know where I am and they will be here soon." Ahmed said. "This time you won't escape like you did after world war two."

Now many of the listeners were confused with the conversation. There were still murmurs of who the Ilderians were, let alone what the current situation had to do with the Second World War.

"You see, you've been following a bunch of aliens bent on conquering mankind, something they have been trying to do since the beginning of the twentieth century, isn't that right Skartian." Ahmed said in perfect clarity for all those around him.

"Yeah right!" and "You're crazy!" was all the others said, most not even believing him, but Ahmed knew that they would not believe him and it was a way to stall for some more time.

"We should put you out of your misery." The Skartian said to Ahmed and he could only hope that the response squad was close to the compound.

"You will die and no one will ever know that you existed at all." Another Skartian said and Ahmed was again roughly grabbed and dragged into the center court for all to see.

"Hang the pig!" The head Skartian said.

"Any last requests?" The guard said to Ahmed.

"Yeah, let me show him one thing." Ahmed said to the guard who told the head Skartian what Ahmed said.

"Make it quick." The Skartian said.

"Release my hands." Ahmed said seeing the disbelief on the faces on those around him. "I won't harm you or anyone else." Ahmed said continuing.

"Very well." The Skartian said curious as to what the human had to say.

"Don't try anything." The guard said as he released Ahmed's binds.

Ahmed felt the rope on his wrists go slack and he rubbed his wrists to get some circulation back into his fingers. He then touched his ear to activate the translator he wore. He then raised his hand and motioned the Skartian closer.

""You see this?" Ahmed said to the Skartian pointing to what looked like dirt under his fingernail before continuing. "It a transmitter, and in a couple of seconds this compound will be swarming with elite earth defense forces."

Ahmed watched as the Skartian stepped back in shock and had gone quite pale. Most who had overheard the conversation did not understand what had been spoken as it had been in Skartian. The few Skartians who had been close enough to hear understood and many quickly ran to get the defenses of the compound up and manned.

The Skartian took a few breaths to regain his calm before issuing some new orders. All personal was to e on guard for an attack at any second and that the prisoner was to be put back into his cell for execution after the attack.

Many thought that the leaders had lost their mind, but their thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of invaders onto the compound.

The defenders of the compound found themselves up against a group of heavily armed soldiers armed with more advanced technology then anyone had ever seen.

Aziz watched in helpless silence as the new invaders quickly over ran the defenses of the compound that had been so carefully constructed to withstand an attack from the most advances forces of the United States military forces. A closer look at the soldiers confirmed that these soldiers were not from the United States military, but a mixture of different races and countries seem to be part of the invading forces. There were Asians, Indians and African Americans and Whites all in the mix. It could be an international force, but there were no identifying markings on the uniforms to identify the soldiers as from the United Nation either.

The weapons that they carried shot out nothing like Aziz had ever seen. It seemed to remind him of a science fiction movie that he vaguely recalled the title of, 'Star...' something or another. He had only seen once when he was a kid, but Ahmed had seemed to love it and ever since his brother was always looking at the stars. Perhaps his brother had meant what he said just a short while earlier. He had never known his brother to lie, he could stretch the truth quite often, but he usually told the truth. He glances at his leaders and noticed that there was fear in their eyes at the sight of the soldiers.

What if they were aliens bent on conquering the world. Fighting the United States was one thing, but helping an alien race conquer the world did not settle very well with Aziz.

Ahmed watched as he was being dragged away the beginning confusion of the Special Forces as they infiltrated the compound's defenses. He could not do much as his ankles and wrists and been tied together again. He just tried to keep an eye on the Skartians who now looked very frightened but the quick elimination of the compound's defenses.

Ahmed noticed his brother just standing out in the open with a lost look. He knew that his brother was thinking about what he had said. Ahmed could only hope that his brother would not be hurt in the battle even though his brother could be a bit dense at times. Ahmed did give a brief thought about what his brother could possible be thinking at a time like this and he could only hope that maybe his words had gotten through to his brother.

Ahmed noticed that the rapid response team was using stun weapons. There would be quite a mop up operation required after this raid, but seeing how most of the people were terrorist or training to be terrorist they would probably be interrogated and set free, other people would not believe what they would have to say anyway.

The rattle of machine gun fire and automatic weapons could be heard all over the compound as the terrorist engaged the infiltration teams. The defenders were quite amazed when their bullets would not hit their intended target, almost as if a force shield of some sort surrounded the attackers.

Ahmed recognized that the teams were wearing the new personal deflectors that had recently been developed by the research teams. From what Ahmed could see it seemed like the new devices could be called a complete success.

The defenders were running around now without much organization in their efforts and it was beginning to show in their defense. There were quite a few now on the ground and Ahmed could still heat the rattle of automatic machine guns and the muffled thump sounds of the attackers weapons.

"Kill him!" Ahmed heard and he turned in time to see the head Skartian staring at him with rage in his eyes and Ahmed knew that he had been giving orders to the guard next to him.

Ahmed quickly looked over to the guard and noticed that the guard was bringing his weapon around to face Ahmed. He was then looking down the barrel of the weapon and the only thought that went through his mind was that he would not be able to see his parents again in their new home. He saw the guard's finger tighten around the trigger and watched as it began to squeeze the trigger.

Corporal Johnsson had found that capturing the terrorist compound was pretty easy and that their defenses were very lax even considering they had had just attacked the United States. The group obviously was not expecting an attack to occur anytime soon. It was either that or the weapons that he and his men used were far superior.

Johnsson's mission was to find Captain Ahmed and rescue him, others in his group were equip with Skartian scanners that would be able to tell the difference between a human and a Skartian in the middle of the battle.

It did not take Johnsson long to breach the compound's defenses and he was in the middle of the compound engaged with several defenders when his scanner indicated that e was close to the captain. He carefully scanned the area for the captain while not letting the enemy in front of him out of his sight.

He heard someone say 'kill him' and quickly glanced around. Off to his left near one of the building were several men and he noticed that one of the men was shackled. That had to be the captain, but it looked like he would be too late as the man next to the captain had raised his gun and was about to fire. Johnsson knew that there would be no way he would be able to bring his weapon to bear and fire before the man killed the captain.

Ahmed stared down the barrel of the weapon for what seemed like an eternity. He realized that this was as close to death as he had ever come, and that the saying was right, that you saw your entire life flash before your eyes in a situation like this. Ahmed resigned himself to death and realized that he had lead a full life ad that he had no regrets about anything he ever did.

Ahmed heard the sound of a gun going off and had closed his eyes. He did not want his last sight to be that of the gunman firing his gun, but the thought of his family. After a few seconds he realized that he had not been hit and opened his eyes.

The guard had dropped his weapon and was slowly stumbling backwards. There was a wound in his chest and he it did not take long before he slumped to the ground. It was then that Ahmed's ears picked up two men running toward him. One was a corporal and the other he almost could not believe his eyes. His brother was running toward him with concern in his eyes.

Ahmed looked back behind him where several Skartians had been standing and noticed that they were now lying on the ground. At first he thought that they were dead but then he noticed that there was no blood, so he figured that the corporal had stunned them for capture. He turned back around in time for his brother to slow to a stop in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Aziz asked his brother.

"Yes, was that you?" Ahmed asked motioning his head toward the dead guard.

"Yes." Aziz said hanging his head a bit. "I never thought I would kill a person who I thought was on my side. You were right all along." He said in a tired voice.

"It doesn't matter as long as you know what side to be on in the end brother." Ahmed said noticing that his brother was taking the realization of having been pawns of an alien scheme very hard. "Hey, do you think you can get me out of these?" Ahmed said holding up his bound wrists in front of him and watched as his brother produced a knife and cut the ropes around his wrists.

"Captain Ahmed?" Johnsson asked now that he realized that there was no danger from the other man who he realized had saved the captain's life. Listening to the two men Johnsson realized that the two men were brothers and for a moment felt sorry for the captain and his brother. The family was torn apart and only the captain really new the true story.

"Yes corporal." Ahmed replied looking at the man next to him.

"Are you ok captain?" Johnsson asked making sure that the man was indeed okay before continuing with his mission. The captain looked like he was ok, but Johnsson wanted to make sure.

"I'm fine corporal." Ahmed replied. "Thank to my brother." Ahmed said looking right at his brother.

"Then I need you to come with me. I have orders to take you back to the base at once, the intelligence will need your report as soon as possible." Johnsson said knowing that he would probably have to wait another couple of minutes while the captain and his brother said their goodbyes to each other.

"Corporal, what's going to happen to all of them?" Ahmed said indicating all of the men who were still awake and now were held in an interment close by.

"There's been no word on what the high command wants to do with them yet, they'll probably use the new drug treatment on them." Johnsson said looking at the small group that was being held.

"I've got an idea corporal, do you have a radio?" Ahmed said and watched as the corporal got out his radio and handed it over to the captain.

"It is a direct link to my commander, his name is Captain Hansunter." Johnsson said as he handed the radio over to Ahmed.

"Thanks corporal." Ahmed said switching the radio on. "This is Captain Ahmed to Captain Hansunter."

"This is Captain Hasunter, is something wrong with Corporal Johnsson?" The voice over the radio said.

"He's terrible sir!" Ahmed said knowing that they both would know that the corporal was all right, it was the code to tell how people were when broadcasting in the open like he was. "I need to talk to someone high up about an idea I have for the prisoners that were not stunned."

"You have an idea?" The voice over the radio asked.

"Yes captain." Ahmed replied hoping that he would find someone in a high enough level to give him the okay for his idea.

"Just a second." The voice said and they proceeded to wait for a couple of seconds while Captain Hansunter went to a higher command level.

"This is Admiral Cave, what can I do for you Captain Ahmed?"

Ahmed was stunned for a few seconds, he was not expecting Admiral Cave to reply, this meant that he would not have to waste time repeating his idea over and over to different commanders waiting to see if they had the ability to make that kind of decision.

"Admiral Cave, I have an idea about some of these prisoners." Ahmed said.

"Well, I'm always open to new idea, let's hear it." Jack said and motioned Steve to stay in the room.

"Chances are we did not get all of the Skartians, we can use some of the prisoners to help locate the remaining Skartians." Ahmed said acknowledging that there were still probably more Skartians out there. "What I propose is we show them exactly who they were following. Most of them are just following to belong to something Admiral, they want to battle an evil, and the Skartians were more than willing to provide a target for them."

"Let me get this straight." Jack said over the radio. "You want to use these men to help track down the rest of the Skartians."

"Yes, they are already part of the system, we could show them and tell them what is going on, then stun them so when they wake up with the rest of the group they will not be questioned about their loyalty." Ahmed said laying out his plan to the admiral.

"Just a second." Jack said.

"Well, what do you think Steve?" Jack said leaning back in his chair looking at his friend.

"Well, the captain has thought of a well conceived plan." Steve said looking at the ceiling of the room. "And we do know that we probably did not get all of the Skartians in the area. We also do not have many spies in the area, yet alone ones who are in these organizations. These men could be useful."

"We give them a small transmitter, teach them how to distinguish between a Skartian and a human and keep them in the dark about out bases in the area, it could work." Jack said thinking out loud.

"Its worth the risk." Steve said making up their minds. "Let's do it."

"Ok, get word to the nearest base to send some transmitters, I'll let the captain know our decision and then we can get to interrogating the prisoners." Jack said and watched as Steve nodded his head and walk out of the room.

"Captain Ahmed." Jack said over the radio.

"Yes admiral." Ahmed said wondering what their decision would be.

"You have permission to proceed with your plan, some transmitters are on their way for those men to use, you'll have to teach them quickly on how to distinguish a Skartian from a human though." Jack said letting Ahmed know about the decision. "Then get up here as quickly as you can for debriefing."

"Yes sir!" Ahmed replied and handed the radio back to the corporal. "Get those men over here." Ahmed ordered and watched as the men were herded over to where Ahmed was standing.

"Gentlemen, I am about to show you exactly who you were following and why they wanted you to follow them." Ahmed said walking over to one of the stunned Skartians.

Ahmed pulled the stunned alien up and received a knife from the corporal. Many in the crowd though that Ahmed was insane when he looked like he was skinning the man alive. Ahmed peeled the skin aside from the face area and a gasp went up from the men gathered around. Instead of muscle and blood that they were expecting they were greeted with the sight of an alien face staring back at them. The skin was a dull green reptilian like surface and the eyes were a purple color.

"This is the true form of the 'leaders' that you were following." Ahmed said making sure that they all got a god look at the alien before continuing. "They only want to do one thing, conquer and destroy our planet. They don't care about the cause that you are so willing to die for, they only want you to help them conquer earth, and when they are done, they'll cast you aside without a second thought."

"How do we know that you are not an alien also?" One man asked.

"I'm part of the earth defense force designed to protect the earth, no aliens are allowed in the defense force, and I'm a captain of one of our warships, the Moscow." Ahmed replied. "Besides, I don't want you to attack anyone, that is counter productive, think about it, what better way to conquer anyone then divide them and pick them off one by one. Its the old philosophy of divide and conquer."

"He does have a point, we are dividing ourselves." One person in the group said.

"Ok, let's say you're right, what are we suppose to do about it?" Another one said.

"Stay in the organizations, and keep an eye out for these aliens." Ahmed said.

"How can we tell if they are aliens or not?"

"The eyes are the key." Ahmed said looking at his brother. "Remember when I looked closely at the eyes of this one." Ahmed said to his brother pointing to the Skartian who came to him right after Ahmed had been captured.

Aziz thought about it and he vaguely remember the event and nodded his head. "Yes I vaguely do."

"I was looking to see if his eyes changed to a gray color, that is the only way to tell if they are Skartian." Ahmed said. "They can duplicate everything except the color of our iris'. Instead of being a black color like ours they will shift back and forth between a dark black and a dark gray. That is what you are looking for."

"What if we do find one of these Skartians, what do we do then?" One of the men asked.

"Each of you will be equip with a small radio transmitter for such an occasion." Ahmed answered as best he could. "With these transmitters you will be able to call in for back up or just report in. You do not have to ever use them if that is your wish, but we could use your help in this new war."

"I'm in!" Aziz said. "I wasted most of my life following these pigs, when I should have listened to my brother. He was right all along."

"I'm in too, these bastards lied to us." A person in the crowd said. "It doesn't mean we have to give up our hatred of the United States, just another mission for us to undertake."

The rest of the men seemed to realize that the person who spoke up was right, they did have to give up anything they already believed in, they could just add it to the list of people to watch out for. And this new group, they realized, was more dangerous than any of the others.

"Okay, we're in, now what?" One asked.

You're going to be equip with the radio transmitter and instructed on how to use them." Ahmed said. "Those who wish to try and join us will be given a card where they can join up. Then you will be stunned so there will be no loyalty questions by the others here if you wanted to go back to the groups you are associated with."

The men met Ahmed's plan with no hesitation. Most agreed with it and about half took cards including Ahmed's brother. Ahmed wondered how long it would be before Aziz found his way to Canada.

"Okay, the people with the radios are here, I'll let them train you and maybe I'll see some of you later." Ahmed said. "But let me say one thing to anyone who is thinking about trying a terrorist attack on us, we will reply like our attack today, the only difference is we will not be stunning anyone."

Ahmed said knowing that at least one of the men in the group was thinking about attacking the defense forces. The only thing that Ahmed knew that they did not was that several had already tried. They confessed without any coercing by anybody. They realized that they had been used and they had all become respected members of the defense force.

"Ahmed, just a second." Aziz said as Ahmed was beginning to walk away. "Where are mom and dad?" He whispered.

"In Canada, at my place." Ahmed whispered back. "I got to go, need to do a debriefing with my commander in chief."

"I'll see you later brother." Aziz said and watched as his brother walked away.

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