Battle of Gongen: Forgotten Hero, by Josephine Smiley
Forgotten Hero
Chaos had already taken hold on the Red Planet when the battleship Atlantis arrived with the rest of the Earther fleet. Gongen and Mavericks alike bustled around on the ground like little ants, preparing the entire planet for war. There were even a few Quay tribes present, assisting in the preparations, albeit in their own strange way. To Earther Admiral Horatio Hicks, this whole scene looked very familiar. In fact, anyone who had witnessed the infamous Battle of Phobos would have been experiencing severe flashbacks upon sight of Gongen at that moment. With the exception of the Quay presence, it looked about the same.
Aboard the Atlantis, Private First Class Donovan MacLeod stared down at the rusty surface of the planet his commander had been fighting against for years, the planet they were now ordered to help protect. In any other situation, he would have refused this mission, but this was a system-wide Code Red Emergency: the Shi were going to attack Gongen at any moment, and all three human factions had agreed to – at least temporarily – forget their differences to fight off this alien menace.
As he stared down at the Red Planet, contemplating what would most likely happen that day, Donovan felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw his best friend, the man who had been by his side since they were both in grade school, Nathan O'Connor. He was smiling at Donovan in a way which would have given the Scottish soldier strength, if their prospects had not seemed so hopeless. Frankly, Donovan did not trust the Gongen or the Mavericks to work together with each other or with the Earthers, and he trusted the Quay even less. He therefore expected to be fighting against four different armies all at once, instead of a four-on-one battle where the odds were strongly in his favor.
“Donnie,” Nathan said softly, “Admiral Hicks wants all the troops to gather, he wants to give a speech.” Seeing that Donovan seemed reluctant, he added, “It'll make you feel better, I promise. His speeches always do.” Sighing, Donovan followed his friend into the room where Admiral Hicks planned on speaking.
Right on cue, Hicks appeared. He looked his troops over, as if appraising their physical strength and capability for battle. He seemed cold and calculating, like he hardly cared for their well being and was only interested in how well they could fight, but Donovan and Nathan knew better. Deep down, the commander cared for each and every one of his troops like they were his own family. He valued their lives, and he valued them as people. He was just the type of person who didn't outwardly display emotions like that very often. Here was a man who played everything strictly by the book.
The speech Horatio Hicks gave was a typical morale-boosting speech one would expect a commander to give to his men right before a big battle. He reminded them who the enemy was, and what the Shi were capable of. He promised them that the Quay's hatred of the Shi would keep them from turning on the humans. He assured them that fighting alongside the Gongen and Maverick troops would be beneficial to Earth, and that for this one day they were to forget their differences with the other two factions, and to simply think of all three as human brethren. Then he reminded them what they had to live for. His words about their families back on Earth, and the promise of a peaceful future, emboldened Donovan. Somehow he knew if he imagined that each Shi he fought had directly threatened his girlfriend, Lucy, he would be able to defeat them.
A terrifyingly short time later, Donovan and Nathan found themselves in a small CGC craft bound for the Gongen surface. They were designated as ground infantry for this battle, which meant they had to leave the safety of the Atlantis and risk their necks on the planet itself.
No sooner had the craft landed and they disembarked than a man who appeared Earther, but was dressed in a red uniform which looked like it blended Gongen and Maverick styles, ran up to them, out of breath, sweating and clutching his side.
“Oh thank Bowie, you guys are the Earther platoon, right? Horatio Hicks sent you guys down?” he asked, gasping for air.
Donovan and Nathan glanced uncertainly at each other, and then at the rest of the soldiers from their transport. After a while, their sergeant nodded curtly and said, in a very clipped, army-official voice, “Yes, Admiral Hicks ordered us to assist the Gongen and Maverick forces, and combat the enemy on the ground.” He put special emphasis on Hicks' title.
“Great, great!” the man exclaimed. “Erm, well then you guys had better follow me, all the armies are gathering at the base of Olympus Mons. The Floaters are gonna be here any minute and we're all getting a little anxious. We need all the help we can get.”
The Floaters? This guy spoke like a Maverick. Before the men from the Atlantis could ask him who he represented, or even wonder about his colloquialisms, he took off at a jog for the enormous volcano, Olympus Mons. They had no choice but to follow him or get left behind.
As they walked, they passed a seemingly endless sea of ships of various factions, all docked at Gongen's official docking bay usually reserved for ambassadors and the like. Scanning the markings on these ships, Donovan noticed that there were a large number from all four of the non-Shi factions. Glancing up, he saw even more of them in the air above the planet, waiting for the opportune moment to make their move, or just hanging out in orbit until their hated enemy arrived. It seemed to him that the whole universe had turned out for this battle. Nobody liked the Shi very much.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something he had only ever heard of in stories, and, quite frankly, had never expected to see. A gargantuan battle cruiser, obviously Maverick in design, hovered among the rest of the ships, trying to blend in, yet sticking out like a sore thumb. Something that legendary could never show up in a crowded place like this and expect to not be noticed by all the troops on the ground and in the air. There was only one marking on the side of this vessel, and it was not an official marking of any faction or gang, but it still served its purpose. There was only one ship in the 'verse that would ever bear an image of Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch emerging not from his usual trash can, but from a TARDIS.
“Is... is that the Muppet of Time?!?” he asked incredulously, unable to tear his eyes away from its strange, unconventional beauty. The legends connected to it certainly didn't hurt that image one bit.
“Oh yeah,” their strange guide said nonchalantly. “Electric Mayhem's here. You didn't think they'd miss something this big, did you?”
Donovan was about to reply, when they arrived at the base of the majestic volcano. The warriors of all the different factions had turned the plain of red soil into an army camp. All kinds of different tents and makeshift structures covered the ground up to the volcano's base. Some people had just landed small spacecraft on the land, some had parked their ships in the docking bay and set up camp. It seemed to the men of the Atlantis that a good number of these people had been here for days, waiting for the battle.
As the Earther platoon advanced through the camp, several people emerged from their tents, ships, or shelters to stare at them oddly. Some were welcoming, or grateful. Others looked confused. Several of the Gongen were outright annoyed or even resentful. However, regardless of the feelings expressed by the other soldiers, the Earthers' guide kept walking briskly forward, straight toward a small Maverick tugboat which was parked a few feet up the slope of Olympus Mons.
“Captain!” he called, his voice surprisingly loud, “The Earthers are here!”
A Maverick woman in leather armor, and carrying a pistol on each hip, emerged from the tugboat, a very strange expression on her face. Donovan had no idea what it meant.
“Um, the captain's passed out drunk again,” she muttered.
Their guide sighed and rolled his eyes. “Not again,” he moaned. Donovan and Nathan shared another look, then glanced back at the woman in curiosity.
“Look all you want, I've got a guy back home,” she said, catching them looking at her.
“Oh!” Donovan exclaimed, caught off guard. “Um, no, I didn't mean to... I have a girl,” he muttered, looking away embarrassed.
“It's alright,” she said, smiling sympathetically at him.
“MacLeod! Pull yourself together!” his sergeant commanded. Face shining nearly as red as the mountain they stood next to, he snapped to attention.
“So the captain's out of it...” their guide mumbled to himself, “Then who's the second in command? I keep forgetting...”
“That would be me,” a female voice announced from within the ship. From the shadows emerged a tall, gingery blonde woman in a business suit and bowler hat. She smiled at them sideways, in a cocky sort of way that said she was a woman who knew her place in the 'verse, and knew that it happened to be higher than everyone else's. This woman clearly had power, and knew how to use it.
“The name's Jade Darkshadow,” she announced. “Maybe you've heard of me.”
Donovan was about to respond that in fact he had not heard of her, when the red-shirted guide spoke up again.
“Jade,” he sighed, “We all know you're not the second in command. You're the general of Doitzel's Europan forces, but that does not give you a command position on his ship.”
“Quiet, Ensign, who gave you permission to speak to me?” the woman called Jade demanded imperiously, glaring at him the way a queen would glare at a disorderly peasant.
“Ricky, could you go get Leesa please?” the pistol-bearing Maverick politely asked their guide, casting a disapproving glance in Jade's direction as she did so. “I'm pretty sure she's Doitzel's second. He promoted her last night.”
The man looked relieved, and ran into the ship, supposedly in search of this Leesa.
“HE DID WHAT?!?” Jade demanded. The other woman simply looked at her and smirked.
“You mean to tell me you didn't see that coming?” she asked, her voice sugary sweet.
`The diplomat's face contorted into a look of pure loathing. As a third party, watching the events, Donovan couldn't tell what the subject of her rage actually was. He was confused by her actions thus far, and thought her an odd sort of woman. He didn't know if he would actually follow her or not.
“Celeste,” Jade said, addressing the Maverick woman, “If you are not telling me the absolute truth right now, I need you to tell me. This could be a matter of life or death.”
“He really did appoint her...” Celeste began, but she never got to finish her sentence. Alarms rang out all over the red planet, their urgent clanging a universal call to arms. The army camp they stood in transformed almost instantaneously into a battlefield, with literally millions of soldiers stirring, ready for battle. Tents were torn down and stored away in record time, men and women from all different factions donned armor, readied weapons, and generally prepared themselves for war. The battle of the century that they had all gathered to fight was about to begin.
As he ran across the field, hurriedly following his platoon, Donovan glanced up at the sky. What he saw there made him stop and stare: a second Rift had opened in the sky right above Gongen. Several globular Shi ships emerged through the blue tear in the sky, along with what looked like an enormous sphere of water. It appeared that the Shi had balled up an entire ocean, somehow carried it from Seyal to Gongen, and were now holding it precariously over the Red Planet. Incredibly precariously, in fact. From his point of view it looked like they could lose hold of it and drop it on the planet at any minute.
“TAKE COVER!!!” he screamed, lunging for a nearby building. He fixed his CGC army helmet on to the rest of his armor at the very last minute and braced himself in the doorway of the Gongen Unity City Hall of Takumi. His suit fed him oxygen as the ocean crashed down from the sky, covering everything on the plain he’d just been standing on in water.
As strong a soldier as he was, reinforced in his CGC battle armor, the sheer force of the water rushing in against him was too much for P.F.C. MacLeod, and his limbs buckled under the pressure. He felt himself being propelled backwards into the City Hall, just another piece of debris caught up in the maelstrom. He flew backwards until his body slammed into a hard wooden desk, which then broke with the impact of his body and the water. Shards of wood and soggy pieces of paper whirled around Donovan in the current, and the water carried him and them through the lobby of the City Hall until they slammed into the wall on the other side.
Seizing the windowpane with one hand, Donovan waited, pressed up against the wall by the water pressure and his own fortitude. Eventually, it lessened, and slowly but surely he inched away from the wall and out through the window, which was now devoid of glass. Fragments of soggy paper floated out with him on tiny whirlpools, and he caught glimpses of a young man’s face, and snippets of letters. As if swatting a fly, he pushed them out of his face and once again looked upwards.
Peering through the fathoms, a dim golden light glimmered in the distance. Donovan kicked off powerfully from what used to be the planet’s surface, propelling himself with all his force toward the light of the sun which was his star as well as theirs.
He had just passed the rooftop of the City Hall he’d taken shelter in, when something collided with him from behind, knocking him face down into the roof. A miniscule crack appeared in his helmet as his head hit the hard rooftop, and he drew a quick intake of breath, holding the precious air in his lungs as a reserve. Then, drawing his combat knife, he turned around.
A Shi warrior floated there in the water before him, sleek silvery-blue armor shimmering in the reflected sunlight. It looked like some kind of strange fish, or maybe a dolphin, except that at the same time it looked like nothing he had ever seen before. Nevertheless, it held a long, sickening spear in its three-fingered hands, which it aimed at Donovan. Still holding his breath to keep from drowning, as water had begun to seep slowly in through the crack in his helmet, Donovan entwined his legs around a structure on the roof of the City Hall and steadied himself for the Shi’s attack.
The Shi lunged forward (insofar as a Shi can lunge) and jabbed at Donovan with the spear. When he judged it to be close enough, he twisted his body to the side, dodging the attack, and stabbing at the Shi with his knife. All the while, he clung for dear life to the rooftop of the City Hall with his legs. It gave him stability, and the feeling that he could actually control something about this situation after all.
The Shi’s next attack connected with his shoulder, sending a searing pain down his arm. Blood oozed from the wound, blending with the water and making it murky. Angrily, Donovan attacked the Shi in return, drawing blue blood from somewhere near its torso. The water in between them turned an odd purple color, and somewhere behind Donovan’s eyelids, a pain the likes of which he had never felt before burned like an angry fire in his brain. Alarm filled him; what was causing this? How could there be fire underwater? And then he realized that the pain was purely mental, that there was no actual fire. The words of Admiral Hicks came back to him like a beacon of sanity, words warning him about the mental capabilities of the Shi. Understanding now what was going on, Donovan tightened his grip on the combat knife, battling through the pain, fighting for life, and love, and liberty.
Their fight lasted for about a minute, but to Donovan it felt like hours. He and the Shi exchanged blows, and he suffered through a few more mental attacks. Finally, he stabbed the alien in the right spot, leaving it floating, motionless, in the water, which was now thick with blue and red blood. The crack in his helmet had grown larger, and water flowed in at a steady rate now. Taking advantage of the last little pocket of oxygen he had, Donovan filled his lungs before abandoning the helmet and his heavy oxygen tank. Useless now, he knew they would only weigh him down. Then, just like before, he kicked off from the roof, eyes on the rays of sunlight which grew steadily brighter as he propelled himself upwards.
A dark figure floated in between him and the surface, blocking out the sun. At first, Donovan thought it was another Shi, but then he noticed its human shape. This was a fellow soldier of his, a comrade, floating unconscious in the tide. Taking the body in his arms, he saw that it was his friend Nathan O’Connor. He couldn’t tell whether Nathan was alive or dead, but he held his body in one arm, using his other arm and his legs to propel the both of them the rest of the way to the surface.
Just when he thought his lungs could take no more torture, he broke the surface. The cool air kissed his face as if welcoming him back to the world of humans. He took such a deep breath of the cool, sweet air that he almost choked on it. Holding Nathan’s body in one arm, treading water, he sat there in the middle of what was quickly becoming Gongen’s first legitimate river, simply breathing. He never knew oxygen could taste so good.
Then he realized just how injured he really was. He couldn’t tread water in the middle of a river for long, especially not while supporting his unconscious - he refused to think of the other possibility – friend. Using the last reserves of his strength, he swam to the shore and climbed out, dropping Nathan’s body on the ground at his feet. Then, limbs shaking, he collapsed on the ground himself. Colors swam before his eyes, most of them varying shades of red. Everything about him screamed in pain. Somewhere, he thought he heard someone calling for a medic, but he never knew if they got an answer. Darkness crept in around the edges of his vision, and every breath was like a stab in the chest. Donovan began to think that maybe Nathan had the right idea. Unconsciousness didn’t seem like such a bad option after all.
When he woke, all he saw was white. White ceiling, white walls, and the bleeping of machines. A figure stood over him, one he could barely make out. A strange, blurry film covered the world, as if his eyes had not yet remembered how to work properly. It took awhile for it all to come into focus, but eventually, focus it did.
He was lying on a makeshift hospital bed, and a Gongen woman stood there, fiddling with some of the machines. He tried speaking to her, to ask her where he was, but no words came out, only a dry grunt. She looked up.
“Good,” she said. “You’ve come back to us.” She crossed the room to a small storage container, opened it, and retrieved a bottle of water. Holding it out to him, she said, “you should drink this.”
He thought of all that water, crashing down on him from the sky, filling the lungs of the less fortunate and robbing them of their life. Those people had had families back on Earth. He knew some of them. Some of them had been his friends. Although he was painfully aware of the dryness in his throat, of his intense thirst, he shook his head.
“Come on,” the doctor goaded, “you have to drink it. You narrowly avoided drowning, do you want to die of thirst? You fought so hard for not only your life, but that of your friend, surely you’ve got something worth living for? Come on...” she held the bottle out to him, a pleading look in her eye, as if she honestly cared if he lived or died.
Shaking, he took the bottle and downed its contents. The water tasted sweet on his lips.
“Where am I?” he asked. “What happened out there?”
“Hush,” she said, a sadness in her eyes, “you’ve had a hard day. You very nearly died. You need to rest now.”
“I need to know what happened!” he cried, desperate. The events of that day seemed not altogether believable to him, and he thought perhaps he had dreamed it all.
She looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I don’t really know.”
Someone in a bed next to his stirred, and the doctor turned her attention to him. Donovan looked, and, to his disbelief, saw his friend Nathan there, alive and awake, with no noticeable wounds.
“Doctor,” Nathan mumbled weakly, “I feel... strange. Breathing is weird. What... what happened to me?”
“You were dead,” she told him matter-of-factly. “It can be a little disconcerting, coming back, but you’ll recover. They always do.”
Donovan looked back and forth between the doctor and his friend. No matter how many times he tried to wrap his brain around her words, he couldn’t figure it out. What did she mean, Nathan was dead? How could death be an impermanent state? People died, and that was it, that was the end. You couldn’t come back from that.
Nathan looked about as confused as Donovan felt, but the doctor gave no more explanation of what had happened, she just kept flitting from patient to patient, administering medicines and the like. Donovan noticed that the hospital tent they were in was actually quite large, holding dozens of patients. There didn’t seem to be any other doctors here. The sight of it made him wonder even more who she was. If she could care for this many people at once, in a hospital tent this well supplied... if she could bring people back from the dead... she must be someone of great importance to the Gongen.
“Hey Fei?”
A Gongen man peered into the tent, looking for someone in particular, probably Fei. He was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, which struck Donovan as odd, seeing as they were in a war zone. His eyes found the doctor, speaking gently with a Maverick patient on the other side of the tent.
“Oh, she’s busy,” he mumbled. Glancing over his shoulder, out the door of the tent, he apparently decided to wait for her inside, stepped through the door, and stood around with his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth slightly.
“Excuse me,” Donovan asked the man, “but, do you know her? Personally?”
“Who, Fei?” he asked, nodding toward the doctor, “Yeah! She’s a great friend. Great doctor too. She gets frazzled by idiots, though, sometimes.”
“Can she... can she bring people back from the dead?” Donovan asked, not sure how to phrase his question. He fully expected this man to think he was insane now, having asked it.
The man, however, seemed to think this was a perfectly legitimate question. “Oh yeah,” he said. “She’s had to bring most of us back several times. Well, Doitzel more than most, but that’s Doitzel for you. Sometimes I wonder if maybe some of his brain cells don’t get lost somewhere along the way...”
“Us?” Donovan asked, confused. This man had mentioned Doitzel. That couldn’t be Radical Doitzel, Captain of Mayhem, though... but how many Doitzels were there?
“Electric Mayhem,” the man confirmed.
“Kalingkata!” the doctor, Fei, exclaimed happily, embracing the man in the T-shirt.
“Fei! How’s everything in the med tent?”
“We’re doing well, thank you for asking,” she replied. “I have some orderlies doing supply runs to Sennyo-Ravelet for me every so often, so there’s no real shortage of medicine or bandages. The real problem is that there aren’t too many doctors skilled enough to deal with these casualties, and there are so many....” She glanced around the enormous tent, taking in the sheer number of casualties, a deep sadness in her eyes.
“Well, I just thought I’d check in, see how you were doing,” he said. “Also, I should warn you that there are a bunch of official-looking Earther army guys on their way here. I passed them on my way over. I think they want to talk to one of your patients. Also, Natsu’s here.”
“Finally,” she muttered. “I was beginning to think he’d deserted or something.”
Just then, the man called Kalingkata received a comm, muttered something about Doitzel, and left the tent, and another Gongen man entered. He was dressed like a doctor, and the way he walked around checking up on the patients told Donovan he definitely knew what he was doing here. However, his eyes had the look of one who had been through battles, and his face bore a striking resemblance to the waterlogged face of the man on the campaign posters Donovan had seen inside the drowned City Hall.
“Good day, Fei,” he greeted as he entered the tent, walking briskly past her and to a bed where a middle-aged Gongen man was lying. Doctor-like, he leaned over the man, appearing to check his pulse. Occasionally he glanced back and forth between the man and the machine he was hooked up to. He kept that up for a few minutes, while Fei went about her own business.
“Fei-Fei,” he called, distracting her from a Quay warrior she had been helping, “this man appears to be dying, I trust you can amend that?”
Fei hurried over to the man, and had to agree with Natsu. Sighing frustratedly, she said, “Why don't you do it? After all, this is your medical tent, and you haven't deigned to show up until just now. And that Quay over there is dying too.”
“That's not a problem, just heal them both with your kizen powers.”
Fei just stared at him. “We do not all have the powers you do, Natsu,” she reminded him, clearly frazzled by his presence.
“Well I can't stay long,” he informed her. “I have honorable potential Commander-in-Chief things to do, presidential race and all, so I trust you'll figure out how to save them both.”
“Yes sir,” she sighed.
“Very well,” he announced. “I leave this med tent in your care. Good day.” And with that he swiftly left the tent. Fei stared after him, incredulous, then turned away. With a speed Donovan's human eyes could barely keep up with, she stabilized the Gongen man, then zipped back to the Quay patient she'd been helping and commed an orderly to assist the Gongen man while she healed the Quay. In a matter of seconds, everything was once again under control. Fei paused and allowed herself a drink of water. Donovan thought he could hear her mumbling something about unnecessary use of kizen energy.
A few moments later, two men in Earther uniform stepped through the flap and looked around as if appraising the tent and its contents. One of them spotted Fei and addressed her officially.
“Are you the head doctor here?”
She looked at them with a face carefully void of emotion and curtly nodded.
“We have a message for one of your patients,” the man announced. “MacLeod is his name.”
“You may deliver it,” the doctor stated, “but please understand that there is not much privacy available here in the way of soundproofing. If you wish your message not to be overheard, I am afraid you’ll have to wait until your man is sufficiently healed enough to leave the tent.”
“That’s perfectly acceptable,” the second Earther said. “It’s nothing covert.”
Donovan sat up in bed, curious as to what message they had for him. They didn’t look depressed or anxious, which suggested that whatever it was was not bad news. Then again, these were Earther army officers. Higher-ups. Their faces typically did not betray much emotion at all. There could be a number of messages they had for him.
“Private First Class Donovan MacLeod?” the one who had spoken first asked. Donovan nodded.
“We are here to inform you that Corporal Mills is KIA,” the second man announced, not showing any emotion whatsoever over the death of this man. “And we are also here to inform you that you’ve been promoted.”
“Congratulations, Corporal MacLeod, on your promotion,” the first man said. “And condolences on the loss of your commanding officer.”
“Don’t let the power go to your head now, Donnie,” Nathan mumbled from the next bed. Donovan half-smiled, stuck in a state between grief and joy. He had really liked Corporal Mills.
“Thank you for that information,” he managed to say. The men just stood there, nodding somewhat mechanically and continuing to offer him un-heartfelt condolences.
Fei had moved on to some of her other patients while the men were delivering their message, but now she walked briskly over to them, a very stern expression on her face.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave now,” she declared, her voice as stern as her expression and clear as freshly melted ice. “You are disturbing my other patients.”
Mumbling their apologies to the Gongen doctor, the two men left the tent. Donovan watched them go silently, then turned to Fei.
“Thank you,” he told her gratefully. “I... didn’t know how to react to that.”
“It’s no problem,” she replied, smiling sympathetically at him. Then, checking his vitals, she declared him free to go. “Hey Corporal,” she called, as he reached the tent flap that served as a door, “Er... good luck out there.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” he muttered, then stepped out into the chaos once more.
~~~
On board the Atlantis, Admiral Horatio Hicks surveyed the battle scene. What he saw made him shudder. Out of nowhere, tons of water had fallen in one concentrated mass onto the soldiers on the plain below. Was that the Shi’s idea of a fair fight? Drop an ocean on your enemies before they get the chance to attack you? What kind of warrior fought like that?
Angrily, Hicks seized his ship’s communicator and commed the captains of the other ships in his fleet, ordering them to fire on the Shi fleet. To his surprise, however, every single ship in his fleet stayed exactly where it was, making no effort to move into attack position or to fire any missiles at the alien threat. This was unprecedented: for every single ship to defy his orders, he knew there must be something else going on here.
“What’s the problem?” he asked the captains. “Why haven’t you fired on the Shi fleet?”
“Admiral Hicks, sir,” one of them radioed back, “It’s... there’s an order from corporate HQ, sir. They’re saying not to attack the Shi.”
“What?!” demanded Hicks. “Why not?”
“They’re saying they’ve made an alliance with them.”
“Let me talk to them,” he commanded. Immediately, the man put him through to the corporate official from the CGC who had given him the order.
“Admiral Hicks,” the man greeted, his voice more like a slimy drawl than anything else. “Is there a problem?”
“One of my men has informed me of an order from corporate that disturbs and confuses me greatly,” Hicks said, ice in his words. “Tell me, is it true that you have made an alliance with the Shi?”
The man smiled, snakelike, “That is true,” he said. “We felt it was for the best.”
“Are you aware that we are at WAR with the Shi?” Hicks demanded.
“We are not all military men like you, Admiral,” the man responded. “We diplomats believe that some problems can be solved without... unnecessary bloodshed.”
Hicks scowled menacingly. “Some can,” he agreed through clenched teeth, “but this bloodshed is not unnecessary. The Shi are an alien menace. They invaded our solar system and have been nothing but trouble since they got here. They have been very open about the fact that they want to enslave us all, like they did with the Quay. And furthermore, they have just mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of my men, who were on the surface of Gongen. THAT is unnecessary bloodshed, I tell you. My fleet blasting them from the sky is not.”
“Even you have to take orders from us, Admiral,” the man reminded him. “And if you won’t, I will have you labeled a traitor along with anyone who follows you.” Hicks just stared at the man, disbelief and anger mingling within him, and turning into something much more deadly. His defiance and strong willpower registered with the man, who looked slightly surprised for a moment, then regained his control.
“Well then,” he said, “if that’s how you want to play it.”
The image on the screen disappeared for a moment, then reappeared. The man from corporate HQ was grinning wickedly at Hicks from the safety of his ship.
“I have just ordered your captains to assist me in escorting the Shi fleet to Earth, where they will be given sanctuary,” he informed the Admiral. “Assist us, and I will forget this little exchange ever happened.”
“Never,” Hicks growled.
“So be it,” the man sighed, and the screen went blank once more. Looking through the window, Hicks could easily see the corporate ship, next to the Shi armada, facing out against the forces of the rest of the solar system. He saw a few of the ships in his fleet go over and join them next to the Shi.
Taking the communicator once again, he commed all the ships in his fleet.
“This is Admiral Hicks,” he announced. “Corporate doesn’t know what it is talking about. The Shi are our enemies. If you have just turned against the rest of the fleet, I order you to return right now if you know what is good for you. If you have not turned, I order you to stay where you are. I will fire if I have to. I don’t want to, but I will.”
No more of the CGC fleet changed sides. One of the ships on the Shi side started to maneuver its way back to Hicks’ fleet, but then changed its mind and stayed solidly beside the corporate ship. Solemnly, Hicks stood there only for a moment, taking in the scene. Then he turned to face the men and women on the bridge of the Atlantis.
“Attention, everyone,” he announced to the bridge. “I am aware that many of you may think what I am about to do is wrong. Be assured that I do not blame you for these feelings. Any of you who feel this way, feel free to disobey my next order.”
There was silence on the bridge of the Atlantis then. Every single person awaited his next words with bated breath.
“Fire on the corporate vessel,” he commanded, looking back at the battle scene, “as well as those ships who have allied themselves with it.”
Only a moment’s pause took up the time between his order and its action. Not a single person disobeyed. With tremendous faith in their captain, every soldier on the bridge then turned to the guns. Taking the controls in their hands, they aimed and fired. The treasonous corporate ship fell, as did its supporters, their remains splashing in the newly created ocean on the planet below.
The Admiral watched them fall, then turned to face his crew again. They were all looking at him with nothing short of adoration in their eyes. No one moved a muscle.
“Alright,” he said after a while. “Someone get a transport down there and retrieve the rest of my men. We have a war to fight.”
~~~
Donovan stood on the red soil, only a few feet beyond the medical tent where the doctor, Fei, had saved his life. That is as far as he got before glancing up at the sky and being struck by disbelief. A battle had broken out between the ships in the sky above Gongen. However, the combatants in questions were not the humans and the Shi, as he expected, but rather the CGC and the Atlantis. He blinked his eyes several times to make sure they were not deceiving him. They weren’t. His commander, Admiral Horatio Hicks, had apparently just ordered his ship to fire on their corporate associates.
“Corporal.”
Donovan turned and saw an ensign in CGC uniform saluting him. He saluted back, then approached the man, very curious, but controlled.
“Ensign.”
“You’re needed back with the fleet, Corporal.” Donovan glanced at the sky. The battle was over; it had only lasted a few moments, but the impression it left in the minds of the people would remain for decades.
“Ah,” the ensign said, seeing the confusion on Donovan’s face. “Sorry, I guess that could mean either side now. Damn traitors. Don’t worry, I’m one of the good guys.”
“The good guys?” Donovan asked.
“I’m with Admiral Hicks.”
“Admiral Hicks needs me back on the Atlantis?”
“Yes, sir.”
Donovan nodded, still confused as Hell, but knowing that when he arrived back on the flagship, Admiral Hicks would explain the situation.
“Alright then Ensign,” he announced, “Gather the rest of the troops and let’s move out.”
“What I just did was treason,” Hicks told them all solemnly once everyone had regrouped. “You’re all going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back to Earth. You’re welcome to leave if you want to.”
“We’d never betray you, sir,” one of them said, resolute in his loyalty to the Admiral.
“Siding with the Shi is treason, what you did was only right,” another man announced. “We’re behind you all the way.” Others of the company also expressed this sentiment, until eventually every soldier in the room had spoken out.
“I want you to know what you are getting yourselves into,” Hicks said, deadly serious. “Once we return to Earth, if you stay behind me, you are likely to be accused of assisting me in treason. The consequences will be dire. I know some of you have families. I’ll understand if you want to protect them by resigning your post, and I will not blame you for that action. After all, I have a family too.”
“My family will support you as well as I, Admiral,” Nathan declared. “We’re with you until the end.”
Silence fell on the bridge of the Atlantis. Admiral Hicks was not sure what to say. He seemed genuinely touched by the degree of loyalty his troops showed him.
Donovan stepped forward and saluted his commander, and one by one, every single soldier did the same. Hicks saluted back, and then and there, they knew a promise had been made. No matter what happened next, from that point on, they were a brotherhood, bonded by their loyalty to their captain. They were Horatio Hicks’ men, they were the crew of the battleship Atlantis, and they would not back down. The Battle of Gongen was over, but another war had just begun, one of a much different kind. Solemnly, the Atlantis turned and headed back toward Earth, ready to face whatever consequences came of that day, confident in the knowledge that whatever happened, their fellow crew members would support them. As the sun appeared from the other side of the planet, it bathed the solar system in the light of a brand new dawn.
Chaos had already taken hold on the Red Planet when the battleship Atlantis arrived with the rest of the Earther fleet. Gongen and Mavericks alike bustled around on the ground like little ants, preparing the entire planet for war. There were even a few Quay tribes present, assisting in the preparations, albeit in their own strange way. To Earther Admiral Horatio Hicks, this whole scene looked very familiar. In fact, anyone who had witnessed the infamous Battle of Phobos would have been experiencing severe flashbacks upon sight of Gongen at that moment. With the exception of the Quay presence, it looked about the same.
Aboard the Atlantis, Private First Class Donovan MacLeod stared down at the rusty surface of the planet his commander had been fighting against for years, the planet they were now ordered to help protect. In any other situation, he would have refused this mission, but this was a system-wide Code Red Emergency: the Shi were going to attack Gongen at any moment, and all three human factions had agreed to – at least temporarily – forget their differences to fight off this alien menace.
As he stared down at the Red Planet, contemplating what would most likely happen that day, Donovan felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw his best friend, the man who had been by his side since they were both in grade school, Nathan O'Connor. He was smiling at Donovan in a way which would have given the Scottish soldier strength, if their prospects had not seemed so hopeless. Frankly, Donovan did not trust the Gongen or the Mavericks to work together with each other or with the Earthers, and he trusted the Quay even less. He therefore expected to be fighting against four different armies all at once, instead of a four-on-one battle where the odds were strongly in his favor.
“Donnie,” Nathan said softly, “Admiral Hicks wants all the troops to gather, he wants to give a speech.” Seeing that Donovan seemed reluctant, he added, “It'll make you feel better, I promise. His speeches always do.” Sighing, Donovan followed his friend into the room where Admiral Hicks planned on speaking.
Right on cue, Hicks appeared. He looked his troops over, as if appraising their physical strength and capability for battle. He seemed cold and calculating, like he hardly cared for their well being and was only interested in how well they could fight, but Donovan and Nathan knew better. Deep down, the commander cared for each and every one of his troops like they were his own family. He valued their lives, and he valued them as people. He was just the type of person who didn't outwardly display emotions like that very often. Here was a man who played everything strictly by the book.
The speech Horatio Hicks gave was a typical morale-boosting speech one would expect a commander to give to his men right before a big battle. He reminded them who the enemy was, and what the Shi were capable of. He promised them that the Quay's hatred of the Shi would keep them from turning on the humans. He assured them that fighting alongside the Gongen and Maverick troops would be beneficial to Earth, and that for this one day they were to forget their differences with the other two factions, and to simply think of all three as human brethren. Then he reminded them what they had to live for. His words about their families back on Earth, and the promise of a peaceful future, emboldened Donovan. Somehow he knew if he imagined that each Shi he fought had directly threatened his girlfriend, Lucy, he would be able to defeat them.
A terrifyingly short time later, Donovan and Nathan found themselves in a small CGC craft bound for the Gongen surface. They were designated as ground infantry for this battle, which meant they had to leave the safety of the Atlantis and risk their necks on the planet itself.
No sooner had the craft landed and they disembarked than a man who appeared Earther, but was dressed in a red uniform which looked like it blended Gongen and Maverick styles, ran up to them, out of breath, sweating and clutching his side.
“Oh thank Bowie, you guys are the Earther platoon, right? Horatio Hicks sent you guys down?” he asked, gasping for air.
Donovan and Nathan glanced uncertainly at each other, and then at the rest of the soldiers from their transport. After a while, their sergeant nodded curtly and said, in a very clipped, army-official voice, “Yes, Admiral Hicks ordered us to assist the Gongen and Maverick forces, and combat the enemy on the ground.” He put special emphasis on Hicks' title.
“Great, great!” the man exclaimed. “Erm, well then you guys had better follow me, all the armies are gathering at the base of Olympus Mons. The Floaters are gonna be here any minute and we're all getting a little anxious. We need all the help we can get.”
The Floaters? This guy spoke like a Maverick. Before the men from the Atlantis could ask him who he represented, or even wonder about his colloquialisms, he took off at a jog for the enormous volcano, Olympus Mons. They had no choice but to follow him or get left behind.
As they walked, they passed a seemingly endless sea of ships of various factions, all docked at Gongen's official docking bay usually reserved for ambassadors and the like. Scanning the markings on these ships, Donovan noticed that there were a large number from all four of the non-Shi factions. Glancing up, he saw even more of them in the air above the planet, waiting for the opportune moment to make their move, or just hanging out in orbit until their hated enemy arrived. It seemed to him that the whole universe had turned out for this battle. Nobody liked the Shi very much.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something he had only ever heard of in stories, and, quite frankly, had never expected to see. A gargantuan battle cruiser, obviously Maverick in design, hovered among the rest of the ships, trying to blend in, yet sticking out like a sore thumb. Something that legendary could never show up in a crowded place like this and expect to not be noticed by all the troops on the ground and in the air. There was only one marking on the side of this vessel, and it was not an official marking of any faction or gang, but it still served its purpose. There was only one ship in the 'verse that would ever bear an image of Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch emerging not from his usual trash can, but from a TARDIS.
“Is... is that the Muppet of Time?!?” he asked incredulously, unable to tear his eyes away from its strange, unconventional beauty. The legends connected to it certainly didn't hurt that image one bit.
“Oh yeah,” their strange guide said nonchalantly. “Electric Mayhem's here. You didn't think they'd miss something this big, did you?”
Donovan was about to reply, when they arrived at the base of the majestic volcano. The warriors of all the different factions had turned the plain of red soil into an army camp. All kinds of different tents and makeshift structures covered the ground up to the volcano's base. Some people had just landed small spacecraft on the land, some had parked their ships in the docking bay and set up camp. It seemed to the men of the Atlantis that a good number of these people had been here for days, waiting for the battle.
As the Earther platoon advanced through the camp, several people emerged from their tents, ships, or shelters to stare at them oddly. Some were welcoming, or grateful. Others looked confused. Several of the Gongen were outright annoyed or even resentful. However, regardless of the feelings expressed by the other soldiers, the Earthers' guide kept walking briskly forward, straight toward a small Maverick tugboat which was parked a few feet up the slope of Olympus Mons.
“Captain!” he called, his voice surprisingly loud, “The Earthers are here!”
A Maverick woman in leather armor, and carrying a pistol on each hip, emerged from the tugboat, a very strange expression on her face. Donovan had no idea what it meant.
“Um, the captain's passed out drunk again,” she muttered.
Their guide sighed and rolled his eyes. “Not again,” he moaned. Donovan and Nathan shared another look, then glanced back at the woman in curiosity.
“Look all you want, I've got a guy back home,” she said, catching them looking at her.
“Oh!” Donovan exclaimed, caught off guard. “Um, no, I didn't mean to... I have a girl,” he muttered, looking away embarrassed.
“It's alright,” she said, smiling sympathetically at him.
“MacLeod! Pull yourself together!” his sergeant commanded. Face shining nearly as red as the mountain they stood next to, he snapped to attention.
“So the captain's out of it...” their guide mumbled to himself, “Then who's the second in command? I keep forgetting...”
“That would be me,” a female voice announced from within the ship. From the shadows emerged a tall, gingery blonde woman in a business suit and bowler hat. She smiled at them sideways, in a cocky sort of way that said she was a woman who knew her place in the 'verse, and knew that it happened to be higher than everyone else's. This woman clearly had power, and knew how to use it.
“The name's Jade Darkshadow,” she announced. “Maybe you've heard of me.”
Donovan was about to respond that in fact he had not heard of her, when the red-shirted guide spoke up again.
“Jade,” he sighed, “We all know you're not the second in command. You're the general of Doitzel's Europan forces, but that does not give you a command position on his ship.”
“Quiet, Ensign, who gave you permission to speak to me?” the woman called Jade demanded imperiously, glaring at him the way a queen would glare at a disorderly peasant.
“Ricky, could you go get Leesa please?” the pistol-bearing Maverick politely asked their guide, casting a disapproving glance in Jade's direction as she did so. “I'm pretty sure she's Doitzel's second. He promoted her last night.”
The man looked relieved, and ran into the ship, supposedly in search of this Leesa.
“HE DID WHAT?!?” Jade demanded. The other woman simply looked at her and smirked.
“You mean to tell me you didn't see that coming?” she asked, her voice sugary sweet.
`The diplomat's face contorted into a look of pure loathing. As a third party, watching the events, Donovan couldn't tell what the subject of her rage actually was. He was confused by her actions thus far, and thought her an odd sort of woman. He didn't know if he would actually follow her or not.
“Celeste,” Jade said, addressing the Maverick woman, “If you are not telling me the absolute truth right now, I need you to tell me. This could be a matter of life or death.”
“He really did appoint her...” Celeste began, but she never got to finish her sentence. Alarms rang out all over the red planet, their urgent clanging a universal call to arms. The army camp they stood in transformed almost instantaneously into a battlefield, with literally millions of soldiers stirring, ready for battle. Tents were torn down and stored away in record time, men and women from all different factions donned armor, readied weapons, and generally prepared themselves for war. The battle of the century that they had all gathered to fight was about to begin.
As he ran across the field, hurriedly following his platoon, Donovan glanced up at the sky. What he saw there made him stop and stare: a second Rift had opened in the sky right above Gongen. Several globular Shi ships emerged through the blue tear in the sky, along with what looked like an enormous sphere of water. It appeared that the Shi had balled up an entire ocean, somehow carried it from Seyal to Gongen, and were now holding it precariously over the Red Planet. Incredibly precariously, in fact. From his point of view it looked like they could lose hold of it and drop it on the planet at any minute.
“TAKE COVER!!!” he screamed, lunging for a nearby building. He fixed his CGC army helmet on to the rest of his armor at the very last minute and braced himself in the doorway of the Gongen Unity City Hall of Takumi. His suit fed him oxygen as the ocean crashed down from the sky, covering everything on the plain he’d just been standing on in water.
As strong a soldier as he was, reinforced in his CGC battle armor, the sheer force of the water rushing in against him was too much for P.F.C. MacLeod, and his limbs buckled under the pressure. He felt himself being propelled backwards into the City Hall, just another piece of debris caught up in the maelstrom. He flew backwards until his body slammed into a hard wooden desk, which then broke with the impact of his body and the water. Shards of wood and soggy pieces of paper whirled around Donovan in the current, and the water carried him and them through the lobby of the City Hall until they slammed into the wall on the other side.
Seizing the windowpane with one hand, Donovan waited, pressed up against the wall by the water pressure and his own fortitude. Eventually, it lessened, and slowly but surely he inched away from the wall and out through the window, which was now devoid of glass. Fragments of soggy paper floated out with him on tiny whirlpools, and he caught glimpses of a young man’s face, and snippets of letters. As if swatting a fly, he pushed them out of his face and once again looked upwards.
Peering through the fathoms, a dim golden light glimmered in the distance. Donovan kicked off powerfully from what used to be the planet’s surface, propelling himself with all his force toward the light of the sun which was his star as well as theirs.
He had just passed the rooftop of the City Hall he’d taken shelter in, when something collided with him from behind, knocking him face down into the roof. A miniscule crack appeared in his helmet as his head hit the hard rooftop, and he drew a quick intake of breath, holding the precious air in his lungs as a reserve. Then, drawing his combat knife, he turned around.
A Shi warrior floated there in the water before him, sleek silvery-blue armor shimmering in the reflected sunlight. It looked like some kind of strange fish, or maybe a dolphin, except that at the same time it looked like nothing he had ever seen before. Nevertheless, it held a long, sickening spear in its three-fingered hands, which it aimed at Donovan. Still holding his breath to keep from drowning, as water had begun to seep slowly in through the crack in his helmet, Donovan entwined his legs around a structure on the roof of the City Hall and steadied himself for the Shi’s attack.
The Shi lunged forward (insofar as a Shi can lunge) and jabbed at Donovan with the spear. When he judged it to be close enough, he twisted his body to the side, dodging the attack, and stabbing at the Shi with his knife. All the while, he clung for dear life to the rooftop of the City Hall with his legs. It gave him stability, and the feeling that he could actually control something about this situation after all.
The Shi’s next attack connected with his shoulder, sending a searing pain down his arm. Blood oozed from the wound, blending with the water and making it murky. Angrily, Donovan attacked the Shi in return, drawing blue blood from somewhere near its torso. The water in between them turned an odd purple color, and somewhere behind Donovan’s eyelids, a pain the likes of which he had never felt before burned like an angry fire in his brain. Alarm filled him; what was causing this? How could there be fire underwater? And then he realized that the pain was purely mental, that there was no actual fire. The words of Admiral Hicks came back to him like a beacon of sanity, words warning him about the mental capabilities of the Shi. Understanding now what was going on, Donovan tightened his grip on the combat knife, battling through the pain, fighting for life, and love, and liberty.
Their fight lasted for about a minute, but to Donovan it felt like hours. He and the Shi exchanged blows, and he suffered through a few more mental attacks. Finally, he stabbed the alien in the right spot, leaving it floating, motionless, in the water, which was now thick with blue and red blood. The crack in his helmet had grown larger, and water flowed in at a steady rate now. Taking advantage of the last little pocket of oxygen he had, Donovan filled his lungs before abandoning the helmet and his heavy oxygen tank. Useless now, he knew they would only weigh him down. Then, just like before, he kicked off from the roof, eyes on the rays of sunlight which grew steadily brighter as he propelled himself upwards.
A dark figure floated in between him and the surface, blocking out the sun. At first, Donovan thought it was another Shi, but then he noticed its human shape. This was a fellow soldier of his, a comrade, floating unconscious in the tide. Taking the body in his arms, he saw that it was his friend Nathan O’Connor. He couldn’t tell whether Nathan was alive or dead, but he held his body in one arm, using his other arm and his legs to propel the both of them the rest of the way to the surface.
Just when he thought his lungs could take no more torture, he broke the surface. The cool air kissed his face as if welcoming him back to the world of humans. He took such a deep breath of the cool, sweet air that he almost choked on it. Holding Nathan’s body in one arm, treading water, he sat there in the middle of what was quickly becoming Gongen’s first legitimate river, simply breathing. He never knew oxygen could taste so good.
Then he realized just how injured he really was. He couldn’t tread water in the middle of a river for long, especially not while supporting his unconscious - he refused to think of the other possibility – friend. Using the last reserves of his strength, he swam to the shore and climbed out, dropping Nathan’s body on the ground at his feet. Then, limbs shaking, he collapsed on the ground himself. Colors swam before his eyes, most of them varying shades of red. Everything about him screamed in pain. Somewhere, he thought he heard someone calling for a medic, but he never knew if they got an answer. Darkness crept in around the edges of his vision, and every breath was like a stab in the chest. Donovan began to think that maybe Nathan had the right idea. Unconsciousness didn’t seem like such a bad option after all.
When he woke, all he saw was white. White ceiling, white walls, and the bleeping of machines. A figure stood over him, one he could barely make out. A strange, blurry film covered the world, as if his eyes had not yet remembered how to work properly. It took awhile for it all to come into focus, but eventually, focus it did.
He was lying on a makeshift hospital bed, and a Gongen woman stood there, fiddling with some of the machines. He tried speaking to her, to ask her where he was, but no words came out, only a dry grunt. She looked up.
“Good,” she said. “You’ve come back to us.” She crossed the room to a small storage container, opened it, and retrieved a bottle of water. Holding it out to him, she said, “you should drink this.”
He thought of all that water, crashing down on him from the sky, filling the lungs of the less fortunate and robbing them of their life. Those people had had families back on Earth. He knew some of them. Some of them had been his friends. Although he was painfully aware of the dryness in his throat, of his intense thirst, he shook his head.
“Come on,” the doctor goaded, “you have to drink it. You narrowly avoided drowning, do you want to die of thirst? You fought so hard for not only your life, but that of your friend, surely you’ve got something worth living for? Come on...” she held the bottle out to him, a pleading look in her eye, as if she honestly cared if he lived or died.
Shaking, he took the bottle and downed its contents. The water tasted sweet on his lips.
“Where am I?” he asked. “What happened out there?”
“Hush,” she said, a sadness in her eyes, “you’ve had a hard day. You very nearly died. You need to rest now.”
“I need to know what happened!” he cried, desperate. The events of that day seemed not altogether believable to him, and he thought perhaps he had dreamed it all.
She looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I don’t really know.”
Someone in a bed next to his stirred, and the doctor turned her attention to him. Donovan looked, and, to his disbelief, saw his friend Nathan there, alive and awake, with no noticeable wounds.
“Doctor,” Nathan mumbled weakly, “I feel... strange. Breathing is weird. What... what happened to me?”
“You were dead,” she told him matter-of-factly. “It can be a little disconcerting, coming back, but you’ll recover. They always do.”
Donovan looked back and forth between the doctor and his friend. No matter how many times he tried to wrap his brain around her words, he couldn’t figure it out. What did she mean, Nathan was dead? How could death be an impermanent state? People died, and that was it, that was the end. You couldn’t come back from that.
Nathan looked about as confused as Donovan felt, but the doctor gave no more explanation of what had happened, she just kept flitting from patient to patient, administering medicines and the like. Donovan noticed that the hospital tent they were in was actually quite large, holding dozens of patients. There didn’t seem to be any other doctors here. The sight of it made him wonder even more who she was. If she could care for this many people at once, in a hospital tent this well supplied... if she could bring people back from the dead... she must be someone of great importance to the Gongen.
“Hey Fei?”
A Gongen man peered into the tent, looking for someone in particular, probably Fei. He was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, which struck Donovan as odd, seeing as they were in a war zone. His eyes found the doctor, speaking gently with a Maverick patient on the other side of the tent.
“Oh, she’s busy,” he mumbled. Glancing over his shoulder, out the door of the tent, he apparently decided to wait for her inside, stepped through the door, and stood around with his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth slightly.
“Excuse me,” Donovan asked the man, “but, do you know her? Personally?”
“Who, Fei?” he asked, nodding toward the doctor, “Yeah! She’s a great friend. Great doctor too. She gets frazzled by idiots, though, sometimes.”
“Can she... can she bring people back from the dead?” Donovan asked, not sure how to phrase his question. He fully expected this man to think he was insane now, having asked it.
The man, however, seemed to think this was a perfectly legitimate question. “Oh yeah,” he said. “She’s had to bring most of us back several times. Well, Doitzel more than most, but that’s Doitzel for you. Sometimes I wonder if maybe some of his brain cells don’t get lost somewhere along the way...”
“Us?” Donovan asked, confused. This man had mentioned Doitzel. That couldn’t be Radical Doitzel, Captain of Mayhem, though... but how many Doitzels were there?
“Electric Mayhem,” the man confirmed.
“Kalingkata!” the doctor, Fei, exclaimed happily, embracing the man in the T-shirt.
“Fei! How’s everything in the med tent?”
“We’re doing well, thank you for asking,” she replied. “I have some orderlies doing supply runs to Sennyo-Ravelet for me every so often, so there’s no real shortage of medicine or bandages. The real problem is that there aren’t too many doctors skilled enough to deal with these casualties, and there are so many....” She glanced around the enormous tent, taking in the sheer number of casualties, a deep sadness in her eyes.
“Well, I just thought I’d check in, see how you were doing,” he said. “Also, I should warn you that there are a bunch of official-looking Earther army guys on their way here. I passed them on my way over. I think they want to talk to one of your patients. Also, Natsu’s here.”
“Finally,” she muttered. “I was beginning to think he’d deserted or something.”
Just then, the man called Kalingkata received a comm, muttered something about Doitzel, and left the tent, and another Gongen man entered. He was dressed like a doctor, and the way he walked around checking up on the patients told Donovan he definitely knew what he was doing here. However, his eyes had the look of one who had been through battles, and his face bore a striking resemblance to the waterlogged face of the man on the campaign posters Donovan had seen inside the drowned City Hall.
“Good day, Fei,” he greeted as he entered the tent, walking briskly past her and to a bed where a middle-aged Gongen man was lying. Doctor-like, he leaned over the man, appearing to check his pulse. Occasionally he glanced back and forth between the man and the machine he was hooked up to. He kept that up for a few minutes, while Fei went about her own business.
“Fei-Fei,” he called, distracting her from a Quay warrior she had been helping, “this man appears to be dying, I trust you can amend that?”
Fei hurried over to the man, and had to agree with Natsu. Sighing frustratedly, she said, “Why don't you do it? After all, this is your medical tent, and you haven't deigned to show up until just now. And that Quay over there is dying too.”
“That's not a problem, just heal them both with your kizen powers.”
Fei just stared at him. “We do not all have the powers you do, Natsu,” she reminded him, clearly frazzled by his presence.
“Well I can't stay long,” he informed her. “I have honorable potential Commander-in-Chief things to do, presidential race and all, so I trust you'll figure out how to save them both.”
“Yes sir,” she sighed.
“Very well,” he announced. “I leave this med tent in your care. Good day.” And with that he swiftly left the tent. Fei stared after him, incredulous, then turned away. With a speed Donovan's human eyes could barely keep up with, she stabilized the Gongen man, then zipped back to the Quay patient she'd been helping and commed an orderly to assist the Gongen man while she healed the Quay. In a matter of seconds, everything was once again under control. Fei paused and allowed herself a drink of water. Donovan thought he could hear her mumbling something about unnecessary use of kizen energy.
A few moments later, two men in Earther uniform stepped through the flap and looked around as if appraising the tent and its contents. One of them spotted Fei and addressed her officially.
“Are you the head doctor here?”
She looked at them with a face carefully void of emotion and curtly nodded.
“We have a message for one of your patients,” the man announced. “MacLeod is his name.”
“You may deliver it,” the doctor stated, “but please understand that there is not much privacy available here in the way of soundproofing. If you wish your message not to be overheard, I am afraid you’ll have to wait until your man is sufficiently healed enough to leave the tent.”
“That’s perfectly acceptable,” the second Earther said. “It’s nothing covert.”
Donovan sat up in bed, curious as to what message they had for him. They didn’t look depressed or anxious, which suggested that whatever it was was not bad news. Then again, these were Earther army officers. Higher-ups. Their faces typically did not betray much emotion at all. There could be a number of messages they had for him.
“Private First Class Donovan MacLeod?” the one who had spoken first asked. Donovan nodded.
“We are here to inform you that Corporal Mills is KIA,” the second man announced, not showing any emotion whatsoever over the death of this man. “And we are also here to inform you that you’ve been promoted.”
“Congratulations, Corporal MacLeod, on your promotion,” the first man said. “And condolences on the loss of your commanding officer.”
“Don’t let the power go to your head now, Donnie,” Nathan mumbled from the next bed. Donovan half-smiled, stuck in a state between grief and joy. He had really liked Corporal Mills.
“Thank you for that information,” he managed to say. The men just stood there, nodding somewhat mechanically and continuing to offer him un-heartfelt condolences.
Fei had moved on to some of her other patients while the men were delivering their message, but now she walked briskly over to them, a very stern expression on her face.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave now,” she declared, her voice as stern as her expression and clear as freshly melted ice. “You are disturbing my other patients.”
Mumbling their apologies to the Gongen doctor, the two men left the tent. Donovan watched them go silently, then turned to Fei.
“Thank you,” he told her gratefully. “I... didn’t know how to react to that.”
“It’s no problem,” she replied, smiling sympathetically at him. Then, checking his vitals, she declared him free to go. “Hey Corporal,” she called, as he reached the tent flap that served as a door, “Er... good luck out there.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” he muttered, then stepped out into the chaos once more.
~~~
On board the Atlantis, Admiral Horatio Hicks surveyed the battle scene. What he saw made him shudder. Out of nowhere, tons of water had fallen in one concentrated mass onto the soldiers on the plain below. Was that the Shi’s idea of a fair fight? Drop an ocean on your enemies before they get the chance to attack you? What kind of warrior fought like that?
Angrily, Hicks seized his ship’s communicator and commed the captains of the other ships in his fleet, ordering them to fire on the Shi fleet. To his surprise, however, every single ship in his fleet stayed exactly where it was, making no effort to move into attack position or to fire any missiles at the alien threat. This was unprecedented: for every single ship to defy his orders, he knew there must be something else going on here.
“What’s the problem?” he asked the captains. “Why haven’t you fired on the Shi fleet?”
“Admiral Hicks, sir,” one of them radioed back, “It’s... there’s an order from corporate HQ, sir. They’re saying not to attack the Shi.”
“What?!” demanded Hicks. “Why not?”
“They’re saying they’ve made an alliance with them.”
“Let me talk to them,” he commanded. Immediately, the man put him through to the corporate official from the CGC who had given him the order.
“Admiral Hicks,” the man greeted, his voice more like a slimy drawl than anything else. “Is there a problem?”
“One of my men has informed me of an order from corporate that disturbs and confuses me greatly,” Hicks said, ice in his words. “Tell me, is it true that you have made an alliance with the Shi?”
The man smiled, snakelike, “That is true,” he said. “We felt it was for the best.”
“Are you aware that we are at WAR with the Shi?” Hicks demanded.
“We are not all military men like you, Admiral,” the man responded. “We diplomats believe that some problems can be solved without... unnecessary bloodshed.”
Hicks scowled menacingly. “Some can,” he agreed through clenched teeth, “but this bloodshed is not unnecessary. The Shi are an alien menace. They invaded our solar system and have been nothing but trouble since they got here. They have been very open about the fact that they want to enslave us all, like they did with the Quay. And furthermore, they have just mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of my men, who were on the surface of Gongen. THAT is unnecessary bloodshed, I tell you. My fleet blasting them from the sky is not.”
“Even you have to take orders from us, Admiral,” the man reminded him. “And if you won’t, I will have you labeled a traitor along with anyone who follows you.” Hicks just stared at the man, disbelief and anger mingling within him, and turning into something much more deadly. His defiance and strong willpower registered with the man, who looked slightly surprised for a moment, then regained his control.
“Well then,” he said, “if that’s how you want to play it.”
The image on the screen disappeared for a moment, then reappeared. The man from corporate HQ was grinning wickedly at Hicks from the safety of his ship.
“I have just ordered your captains to assist me in escorting the Shi fleet to Earth, where they will be given sanctuary,” he informed the Admiral. “Assist us, and I will forget this little exchange ever happened.”
“Never,” Hicks growled.
“So be it,” the man sighed, and the screen went blank once more. Looking through the window, Hicks could easily see the corporate ship, next to the Shi armada, facing out against the forces of the rest of the solar system. He saw a few of the ships in his fleet go over and join them next to the Shi.
Taking the communicator once again, he commed all the ships in his fleet.
“This is Admiral Hicks,” he announced. “Corporate doesn’t know what it is talking about. The Shi are our enemies. If you have just turned against the rest of the fleet, I order you to return right now if you know what is good for you. If you have not turned, I order you to stay where you are. I will fire if I have to. I don’t want to, but I will.”
No more of the CGC fleet changed sides. One of the ships on the Shi side started to maneuver its way back to Hicks’ fleet, but then changed its mind and stayed solidly beside the corporate ship. Solemnly, Hicks stood there only for a moment, taking in the scene. Then he turned to face the men and women on the bridge of the Atlantis.
“Attention, everyone,” he announced to the bridge. “I am aware that many of you may think what I am about to do is wrong. Be assured that I do not blame you for these feelings. Any of you who feel this way, feel free to disobey my next order.”
There was silence on the bridge of the Atlantis then. Every single person awaited his next words with bated breath.
“Fire on the corporate vessel,” he commanded, looking back at the battle scene, “as well as those ships who have allied themselves with it.”
Only a moment’s pause took up the time between his order and its action. Not a single person disobeyed. With tremendous faith in their captain, every soldier on the bridge then turned to the guns. Taking the controls in their hands, they aimed and fired. The treasonous corporate ship fell, as did its supporters, their remains splashing in the newly created ocean on the planet below.
The Admiral watched them fall, then turned to face his crew again. They were all looking at him with nothing short of adoration in their eyes. No one moved a muscle.
“Alright,” he said after a while. “Someone get a transport down there and retrieve the rest of my men. We have a war to fight.”
~~~
Donovan stood on the red soil, only a few feet beyond the medical tent where the doctor, Fei, had saved his life. That is as far as he got before glancing up at the sky and being struck by disbelief. A battle had broken out between the ships in the sky above Gongen. However, the combatants in questions were not the humans and the Shi, as he expected, but rather the CGC and the Atlantis. He blinked his eyes several times to make sure they were not deceiving him. They weren’t. His commander, Admiral Horatio Hicks, had apparently just ordered his ship to fire on their corporate associates.
“Corporal.”
Donovan turned and saw an ensign in CGC uniform saluting him. He saluted back, then approached the man, very curious, but controlled.
“Ensign.”
“You’re needed back with the fleet, Corporal.” Donovan glanced at the sky. The battle was over; it had only lasted a few moments, but the impression it left in the minds of the people would remain for decades.
“Ah,” the ensign said, seeing the confusion on Donovan’s face. “Sorry, I guess that could mean either side now. Damn traitors. Don’t worry, I’m one of the good guys.”
“The good guys?” Donovan asked.
“I’m with Admiral Hicks.”
“Admiral Hicks needs me back on the Atlantis?”
“Yes, sir.”
Donovan nodded, still confused as Hell, but knowing that when he arrived back on the flagship, Admiral Hicks would explain the situation.
“Alright then Ensign,” he announced, “Gather the rest of the troops and let’s move out.”
“What I just did was treason,” Hicks told them all solemnly once everyone had regrouped. “You’re all going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back to Earth. You’re welcome to leave if you want to.”
“We’d never betray you, sir,” one of them said, resolute in his loyalty to the Admiral.
“Siding with the Shi is treason, what you did was only right,” another man announced. “We’re behind you all the way.” Others of the company also expressed this sentiment, until eventually every soldier in the room had spoken out.
“I want you to know what you are getting yourselves into,” Hicks said, deadly serious. “Once we return to Earth, if you stay behind me, you are likely to be accused of assisting me in treason. The consequences will be dire. I know some of you have families. I’ll understand if you want to protect them by resigning your post, and I will not blame you for that action. After all, I have a family too.”
“My family will support you as well as I, Admiral,” Nathan declared. “We’re with you until the end.”
Silence fell on the bridge of the Atlantis. Admiral Hicks was not sure what to say. He seemed genuinely touched by the degree of loyalty his troops showed him.
Donovan stepped forward and saluted his commander, and one by one, every single soldier did the same. Hicks saluted back, and then and there, they knew a promise had been made. No matter what happened next, from that point on, they were a brotherhood, bonded by their loyalty to their captain. They were Horatio Hicks’ men, they were the crew of the battleship Atlantis, and they would not back down. The Battle of Gongen was over, but another war had just begun, one of a much different kind. Solemnly, the Atlantis turned and headed back toward Earth, ready to face whatever consequences came of that day, confident in the knowledge that whatever happened, their fellow crew members would support them. As the sun appeared from the other side of the planet, it bathed the solar system in the light of a brand new dawn.