Chapter 6
"Captain, we’re detecting a large armada of Imperialist ships on long-range scans. They’re approaching Ranger space!"
"My God, there must be fifty battleships!" said the first officer, looking at the communications officer's panel.
Ranger-Captain Raywond Hiler had mentally prepared himself for this day. The attacks by Imperialists had been becoming more frequent and more desperate in recent months.
Not only that: Hiler was holding a secret from the other Rangers. He knew the ‘Imperialists’ were actually Shadows, but he had to keep that to himself, for now. While the other Ranger captains could only see that they were aggressive humans, he could see that they looked like “demons”.
He had a bad feeling about this latest incursion. Until now the Imperialists had been testing their defences, but now they were planning to break them. This was an invasion.
“Tell Ranger Command to send out more ships. We'll keep them busy at Rune.”
Rune, once a barren planet like Mars, had been Terra-formed to become a tropical haven. Several large space cannons had been set up in the orbit of the planet as a defence shield. They could fire missiles hundreds of thousands of kilometres into space, and had very precise targeting computers.
That was all very good, thought Hiler, but how were they going to get an intercepting force big enough to counter the Shadows this time? They'd be lucky to have twenty ships in jump range.
“Sir,” said his communications officer, “Admiral Band wants to speak with you immediately.”
“Put him on the front-view screen,” ordered Hiler.
“Sir?”
Normally he would take a message like this in his quarters, but there wasn't time. “Do it.”
“Captain,” said the Admiral's video image at the front of the ship, “I'll keep this brief. I'm sure you’re aware of our dire situation and the unspeakable odds...”
“It's all right, Admiral. My crew are ready. They've trained for something like this for months...”
“I realise that, but things have gone from bad to worse,” the Admiral trailed off, looking concerned. Hiler had never seen Band lose his composure before. “We've received long-range telemetry that an unidentified number of ships are moving toward us from the opposite direction. They're using unconventional means of travel.”
“How do you mean, unconventional?” asked Hiler.
“A jump capability far more advanced than ours.”
Hiler thought about this. “So, they’re advanced. Perhaps they’re coming to help.”
“Help who?” snapped Band. “We have to assume they have hostile intent.”
“Our focus should be on the Imperialists, because we know who they are,” said Hiler. “We can't assume anything about this advanced armada.”
“That’s exactly why I need you to...” The transmission was cut off.
Suddenly, the front-view screen changed, and a group of disc-shaped starships started appearing through a large Mandala in space. There was a stunned silence throughout the bridge. A figure appeared on the front-view screen.
“Hello, my name is Daniel Withers. Forgive our intrusion, but as you're aware, the Shadow Empire is launching an incursion into your territories.”
“Daniel, my name is Captain Raywond Hiler. These incursions have been going on for several months. We've lost many ships to their superior technology.” Band trailed off, realising with whom he was speaking: it was the Tenth Guardian. Although he hadn’t taken any orders from him as yet, he knew this man was his real superior.
“I see,” said Withers, understanding Hiler’s discomfort. “It might be best that you tell the other ships to get behind us. We can take the brunt of the charge.”
“I’ll try, but...”
Five Ranger ships suddenly jumped into orbit around Rune.
“I demand that you identify yourselves,” said one of the Ranger captains.
“Stand down,” ordered Hiler, detecting the activation of their targeting systems. “They are here to help. Move into position behind their ships.”
It was too late to re-position, and at that moment there was a tremendous noise in space, like a clap of thunder, but many times louder. A huge, dark vortex appeared and began rotating in an anti-clockwise direction. A large fleet of crude, dark battleships began materialising from its centre. A tremendous negativity also began pouring out, which stunned the Ranger ships.
Seven Guardian ships went into an edge-on formation. The ships were circular in shape and had the Mandala etched into the bottom of their hulls. Effectively, seven huge Oracles were poised for attack!
There was a tremendous explosion of light from the giant Oracles, and then a spiralling wave of positive destruction headed toward the Shadow armada. Many Shadow ships were instantly vapourised, as the clockwise-turning spiral took its course. The Shadow ships responded, with an anti-clockwise spiral of darkness and destruction. One of the Guardian’s seven ships in formation was struck, and an explosion ripped out its hull.
A dog-fight erupted, and there was a fierce exchange of fire. Hiler ordered his ship away from the battle, as the fire power was beyond anything their shields could withstand. Some of the other Ranger ships engaged. He realised the weaponry of these ships were much more advanced than the ships they’d been using in their previous attacks. It was a deception the Shadows were renowned for.
“Take us down into orbit,” ordered Hiler. “We're no match for this.”
Just as he uttered those words, stray deflected fire broad-sided their ship. There was an explosion at the stern.
“We've been hit!” called an officer. “Sections on the starboard side have been exposed to the vacuum. Crews have been lost. We're losing structural integrity!”
“All hands, this is the Captain speaking,” called Hiler. “Abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship!”
“Captain,” said an officer, “should we separate the bridge from the ship?”
Hiler stared at the schematic of the red flashing ship on the nearest console. His heart told him he should be the last to go down, but he could see that the ship had very little time.
“Do it.” At least he could save the senior staff on the bridge.
“Prepare for bridge separation,” called an officer over the noise of the exploding ship. The bridge section shot away, as did several life pods.
Hiler stared out the closest window as the rest of his ship exploded in a fiery display. How many men did the Rangers lose? He looked back and watched the battle in space. He saw pieces of Ranger ships floating around in space, and was grateful that only six ships were caught up in it. It could have been an entire armada. If the Guardians hadn’t shown up, the Rangers would have been slaughtered.
“Take us down to the surface,” he ordered.
Some time into the battle, the vortex re-opened, and a huge Mother ship appeared. A darkness, beyond anything that any present Guardians had previously known, broke into their senses. Even Withers hadn't felt such sinister darkness from Gylith and his armies. This was a negativity that came directly from the Shadow's source itself.
“All ships focus all your powers onto this ship!” ordered Withers.
At that moment, all the Guardian ships went edge on, exploding into brilliant displays of light. The spiralling waves of positive destruction came from all directions, raining down on the Mother ship.
Just before its demise, an arrow-head-shaped missile fired out of the front of the ship and headed for the surface of Rune. Closer scans confirmed that it was an escape pod.
Withers put his attention on the Oracle at the bottom of the ship. He needed special Guardians for this task. It didn’t take long to get what he required from the Oracle. A large Mandala appeared on the bridge of his ship, and a female Guardian was glaring at him.
"So, you’re the one pulling the strings now," she said, annoyed that she had been pulled out of a new mission.
"Calana," said Withers cheerfully, ignoring her disrespectful tone. "I’ve heard a lot about you."
"Likewise." She looked out the front-view screen of the ship. "And what is this?"
"Rune, the planetary Oracle in this system," said Withers, staring at the planet, "and it’s just been compromised."
"Why is this more important than where you summoned me from?" asked Calana.
Withers’ face gave nothing away as he thought to himself that this young woman couldn't be much older than twenty-five. So young and so fearless!
"It's strategically more important," said Withers. “This system is in the Realm of Creativity on the Left Way, and this quadrant is part of eight other systems that the Shadows are planning to conquer.” Withers looked serious. “This threatens to reverse the rotation of this entire galaxy.”
The crude arrow-shaped craft ascended very fast into Rune's atmosphere. Close to the surface it de-accelerated so hard it would have crushed a normal human being. But this was no normal human being. When the craft hit the surface, the impact left a crater the size of a football field. There was a huge explosion of earth and vegetation, which took a while to settle down. Among this scene of destruction, the arrow-headed craft stood buried in the ground like a sentinel.
Suddenly, the sides of the craft blew apart, and a large black mass emerged. It was a giant bull. It had large horns, red eyes and a huge mace with three spikes poking out from the top of it.
“Are there other Guardians being summoned for this mission?” asked Calana.
“You will meet up with two other Guardians. The three of you combined will be a formidable force,” said Withers.
Calana thought about this. There were very few Guardians that she knew of, doing secret missions into the border regions.
“They're not from the Guardian Elite Force,” said Withers, picking up on her thoughts. “They will be familiar to you, but not in the way you'd expect.”