Disclaimers: All characters and events are mine! Please do not use without permission from A.J. Marks
Resistance of Memories
by
AJ Marks
Part 5
Princess Kadti looked around her new, if temporary, home on this beautiful planet. It reminded her of her home planet, lush bushes and tall trees, along with an abundant wildlife that their scientists had confirmed was similar to that of other planets and was safe to eat.
The rebels had received word that another planet had fallen to the ruthless Peree, and it seemed that nothing could stop their advance across the galaxy. So far no one knew how to stop them and their advance. Their fighters were more skilled than anyone the rebels had and their technology was more advanced than what the rebels had or could develop in the near future.
Kadti looked out at the forest that was so close and she wished that she could forget everything that had happened and find a nice little place here on this planet and just relax for a while. But unless the Peree were defeated she would never be allow that luxury because the Peree had a price on her head. The leaders of the rebellion had been careful to limit her exposure but wherever she went her presence boosted moral.
Ucro watched from a distance as Kadti looked around their new home. Ucro knew that the time was drawing near for Kadti. She would have to be strong, and fight hard. Ucro walked away from the scene and back to her quarters, she had a call to make.
Fulton knew that something was up when they got the call that they were headed to another planet from the one that they had been headed to. For some reason they had altered course in the middle of their trip to head to a planet that had not intelligent life. The rumor that went around the ship was that the head of the resistance group was stationed on the planet. Fulton knew that if they could capture or kill this leader than the resistance would crumble.
The planners had decided that the Black Squadron would lead the attack, not be held back like usual this time. They wanted the rebels crushed without mercy, no survivors at all. The most important part of the operation was the capture of their leader, this was preferable than killing the person, which would make a martyr, which the Peree did not want to happen.
The announcement came over the intercom that they would be arriving at the planet in an hour that was plenty of time for Fulton to check his fighter out. As he walked down the corridor with a few other pilots he thought that he heard a voice, much like the one he heard in his dream last night. The voice echoed lightly over the background noise of the ships engines. He had to strain a little to hear the words but he eventually was able to hear them.
Traitor, traitor, traitor! The words were said like a chant, steady never breaking stride in the frequency that they were being said. The words seemed to burn into Fulton's mind, but before he could say anything they suddenly stopped, just as quickly as they had started.
Fulton looked around for the source of the words, but he found only his fellow pilots who all had the same look on their face. They briefly exchanged glances before continuing on to the launching bay.
After arriving at the bay Fulton walked around his fighter, the most advanced fighter in the universe, as if it was his own child. Some of the other pilots thought that he was crazy for being so obsessed with the care of his fighter, but he believed that it had saved his life more than once. He also knew how to take care of it, probably even more than the repair crew.
Fulton took his helmet from the ground crew member and climbed aboard after he finished inspecting his fighter. It was functioning at top levels as far as he could see, and that meant that he would be unstoppable in the upcoming battle.
He felt the subtle shift in the vibrations of the ship that meant that they had arrived at their destination and that the attack would commence right away. The thought had barely gone through his mind when the bay was bathed in the familiar red light that meant that the ship had gone to red alert.
Fulton climbed up into his fighter as one of the crewmembers handed him his helmet. Fulton placed it on his head and brought the visor down into place while the ship closed around him. There were orders being placed all over airwaves and Fulton only half listened to it. He was only awaiting the order for him to move out and start destroying things.
He felt inside himself for the familiar thrill running his through his blood, warming him and making him feel alive. He knew that someone could get lucky and he could be killed, but he did not fear death, instead it was like an old friend that was coming to visit him. Fulton did feel that today it was not the same, the blood did not boil as hotly today for some reason. He put it down as nerves as this could be the last battle in a long time if the were successful.
Up on the bridge the captain listened to the reports that were coming in.
"Captain, the Black Destroyers are all ready for take off. Their readings are all normal, there should be no problems today." The person monitoring the life signs said.
"Tell them to launch at once, destroy everything." The captain said with a cruel smile on his lips. Today would be the day that the silly little resistance group would be crushed once and for all. Their leader was supposed to be at this location. Capture the leader and the resistance would crumble before them.
The arrival of the Peree ships did not go unnoticed as the resistance military gathered in a vain attempt to repel the invaders. Fighters from the surface raced forth to engage the fighters being sent out by the Peree. The few warships that were around the planet tried to engage the enemy ships as far out from the planet as possible to allow a few ships to leave. They were without most of the skillful military leaders as they had not arrived yet, but the princess was on the planet's surface, so they had to defend at all costs.
Kadti heard the shrill whistle that meant that the Peree had found them and was now attacking. She could not believe that they had found them so quickly. Looking around she noticed that many of the people were running around trying to get organized for a battle on the ground and trying to evacuate those essential personnel.
One of the guards had just noticed that she and waved her on over to board one of the transports when an explosion occurred in front of her. Kadti was thrown backward and landed heavily on her side several feet away from where she had been standing. She groggily got up and noticed that the transport had been heavily damaged and that it would not be lifting off anytime soon, and not during a battle.
Fulton swept down through the planet's surface after dealing with the few annoying fighters that had been sent up to challenge him and his group. He noticed as he broke through the cloud cover that the base was well laid out and that several people were heading for transports. He quickly targeted one of them and opened fire damaging to the point that it would not be lifting off.
A few more fighters tried to catch up with him firing on him. He rolled his fighter and avoided all of the incoming fire easily before banking around to catch one of the resistance fighters unguarded and it exploded before the pilot had a chance to understand what happened.
A quick look around and Kadti noticed that there were now landing craft coming down from the sky with hundreds of troops to overtake a small base that only housed a couple of hundred people. Kadti looked around in a bit of a panic now. Looking for some way to escape.
"Ucro!" Kadti said as she noticed the old mystic.
Ucro turned around and was a bit relieved to see that the princess was still alive. She looked up and noticed that the time was right. "Run child, we will not be able to get transports thought their blockade, you must escape if the resistance is to have any chance to survive later." Ucro said sending the scare young woman running towards the forest that was nearby.
The ground troops had brought up the remaining battle robots and stationed them around the perimeter to hold off the Peree for as long as possible. The landing troops were not prepared to deal with this threat and the call came out for the black destroyers to handle the situation.
Up on the Peree warship the captain watched with satisfaction as the reports came in with the ongoing battle and its results. The reports had been good so far, most of the transports had been damaged and the fighter resistance was weak as best. The ships defending the planet were a bit pesky, but they would eventually be destroyed. No pilot or soldier had 'snapped' yet and their loses were light so far. The only bad thing was that there appeared to be battle robots in the base. It was a problem that would be overcome shortly as the black destroyers were converging on the location again.
Kadti ran toward the forest that she had only a short while ago been wishing she could go into. Suddenly a black form rose out from the forest and she screamed and fell backwards. It was then she noticed that it was one of theirs. It seemed to glance around then looked up and started to fire at something in the air.
Kadti glanced up and noticed a black fighter headed right towards them. The fighter seemed to easily avoid the fire that the resistance was putting up. She noticed that the fighter had opened fire on the robot. A quick glance and she noticed that the robot had taken several hits then exploded. She covered her self as best as she could from the explosion and would have been throw several yards if she had still been standing. She finally regained her senses and the ringing in her ears quieted a bit when she looked up.
Fulton dove down thought the clouds again this time to take care of the battle robots that were around the perimeter of the resistance base. There was quite a lot of fire that was being put up by the rebels and Fulton avoided it with the ease and practice of an elite pilot. A quick press of his trigger and the first of the enemy battle robots were destroyed. He noticed off to the robots right that there was a young woman who appeared to be trying to leave the area. He had decided that no one would leave the base alive.
He transformed his fighter into robot mode and settled onto the ground waiting to the young woman to notice that she was about to die, something that usually gave him a thrill.
Kadti glanced up and noticed that a robot now stood in front of her with a rifle pointed right at her. The barrel looked to be several miles wide seeing as it was about all she saw and her eyes went round with fear.
Fulton noticed the fearful look that the young woman had on her face and usually it would have thrilled him, but today was different, she was different. The voices came back to him louder than before telling him that he was a traitor, over and over and over again. He put his hands over his ears to try and drown out the noise but it only got worse and flashes of his dream came into view.
Kadti stood still shocked into stillness by the fear that she felt at the sight of the robot. A small part of her mind noticed that the barrel of the gun was wavering, almost as if the pilot was unable to fire on her.
Fulton tried squeezing his eyes shut to try and stop the images that were flashing in front of him but nothing seemed to help, everything he tried only made it worse.
Aboard the Peree flagship the person monitoring the pilots noticed a flashing alarm on one of the pilots. The operator reached over and turned up the power on the controlling unit to try and bring the pilot under control. There was no response and the operator brought the unit up to full power and watched as the levels in the pilot dropped down to normal levels again.
The voices and images in Fulton's mind finally stopped and he was again able to concentrate on the task in front of him. He glanced at the screen and centered his weapon on the young woman's face. That was when he noticed her eyes. They were a beautiful green, a green that he had never noticed before and seen anything so beautiful. His hand wavered on the trigger as he looked at her.
The operator noticed that the pilot was again resisting the control effects and knew that the pilot was moments away from snapping. A quick glance told the operator which pilot it was.
"Captain, Black Destroyer 1 is about to snap." The operator said.
The captain paled a bit with the news, that was his best fighter pilot, but if he was about to snap then he needed to be dealt with quickly. "Have the rest of the black destroyers notified that he has snapped, and to destroy him." The captain said not liking his words, but it had to be done.
Fulton was lost in the mesmerizing green depths of the woman's eyes for a long time. He noticed that even with fear in the eyes they were beautiful, and that while he had been watching the color had changed a bit, the fear was slowly receding and that curiosity was starting to replace it making them even more beautiful.
A sudden explosion rocked him out of his trance and he noticed the look of absolute terror in her eyes and body. A glance up confirmed that the other members of the black destroyers were attacking them. He glanced down in time to see an explosion hit near where the woman was and she was thrown back and landed several feet away and did not move.
Fulton saw blood seeping from the woman's head and it was as if a caged animal had been let loose. His vision went red at the sight and he screamed his rage.
Fulton turned his complete attention to the fighters.
"DIE!" He screamed over the radio as his fighter rose off the ground and engaged the incoming fighters.
With the distraction of Fulton engaging the Peree one resistance transport was able to get off the ground and along with the other remaining ships left the planet. Sadness from the loss of Princess Kadti hung over the fleet that was greater than if they had all been killed.
Fulton destroyed two of his former wing mates then he took off for the planet's surface to land and figure out what he was going to do, if anything, as memories came flooding back into his mind.
Kadti, still dazed, slowly got up and wiped the blood from her forehead and seeing that the base was now almost abandoned and knowing that Peree troops would be there any second ran into the forest to an uncertain future.
End Part 5
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