Galaxy of Heroes

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey ran through rubble-strewn streets beneath the towering skyscrapers of Portogallos.

Their attempt to break through to the mountains was blocked by an impenetrable line of battle tanks.

Acrid smoke whipped down the urban corridors. They ran against a tide of panicked humanity that was fleeing toward the city center.

Large screens that lined the narrow streets displayed Verman Jod’s large face. “People of Portogallos,” Jod said. “Remain calm. Do not fear the Craaldan. They have come in peace. It is the enemy within that we must eradicate. Through unity and strength, we can defeat the Crypto Syndicate.”

“We need to find a vantage point to see what’s going on,” Spade said. “Follow me!” He turned and darted into the doorway of a large habitation skyscraper.

They got into an elevator and rode it up to the top floor. They exited into a sky lounge that looked out at a view of the northern sector of the city. A grassy plain stretched for a few thousand meters beyond the city limits to the abruptly rising ridge of mountains that curved around the city’s eastern limits.

Spade walked up to the window and squinted as he surveyed the landscape below. “It looks like someone is setting up defensive positions down there.”

The figures were tiny from this height. Crews of humans and machines were constructing makeshift bunker complexes. Three fixed positions with interlocking fields of fire were spaced about 1,000 meters apart. The bunker-like structures were made of rubble. Earth movers were digging a trench system between the positions. Spade could see that the bunkers housed crew-served weapons.

“Hey, they’ve got my armonium cannons in those bunkers,” he said.

“Is it the Gallos Defense Force?” Capt. Casey asked.

“Negative,” Spade said. “I don’t see any GDF thugs down there.”

Capt. Casey pulled her binoculars out of her waist pack and scanned the scene. “That guy is in charge,” she said, pointing out a figure at a command post who was directing groups of humans toward fighting positions at different locations in the trenches.

“It seems the humans of Portogallos have decided they won’t be slaughtered without a fight,” Spade said. “There are at least 10,000 humans down there. It looks like the Escalonians have the northwestern sector, Heliac forces in the middle and a mix of Paltrans, Megalans and space drifters in the southeast.”

The person directing the humans on the ground was a skinny Paltran wearing prosthetic leg and arm enhancements. He wore green eye pieces and cradled a long rifle.

“I know that guy,” Capt. Casey said. “His name is Rigo. He saved my life.”

Capt. Casey watched him for several moments and then put her binoculars back into her waist pack. She turned and walked back to the elevator.

“Where are you going?” Spade asked.

“I’m going down there to join him.”

“Mina, the Craaldans have us cornered,” Spade said. “That’s not a trained army and it’s facing an expeditionary brigade from the most powerful military in the galaxy. The slapdash militia down there is in no man’s land. It won’t stop a single Craaldan infantryman. It’s a lost cause. ”

“I know the Craaldans as well as you do, Jace,” she said. “I know how this ends. Might as well go down fighting.”

Spade looked at her and shook his head.

“What?” she asked.

“Aren’t you the hero?” he stated.

“Are you coming with me, or what?” she asked.

She stepped into the elevator.

Spade followed her in.

They made their way through the rubble to the city’s edge where Tarvey Rigo had set up his command and control post. Rigo was looking down through his green lenses at a handheld display panel. Three other humans were looking down at it with him.

Rigo immediately recognized captains Casey and Spade as they walked across the open ground toward him.

“You’re alive!” he said to Capt. Casey, grasping her hand in his long, thin hands.

“If you hadn’t shot Jod’s big lugs back in the arena, I wouldn’t be,” she said.

Rigo looked at Spade. “Well, if it isn’t the leader of the Crypto Syndicate! You got any more of those armonium cannons we can use?”

“Negative,” Spade answered. “Our buddy Jod took them.”

“Jod—” Rigo said. “If we get out of this alive, I want his head on a pike.”

“You realize the odds of us getting out of this alive are zero to none,” Spade said.

“Yeah, well. War is hell,” Rigo said.

Rigo briefed Capt. Casey and Spade on the situation. “The Escalonians have the northwest. Lieutenant Colonel Skyles is in command of the center. A space drifter named Lancaster has the southeast.”

“Greg Skyles is here?” Capt. Casey asked. “We might have a chance then.”

Rigo directed Capt. Casey and Spade to a position between the second and third bunkers. The two captains picked up Heliac Defense Forces M-929 assault rifles and jogged over to a trench that looked out across the grassy plain to the thick foliage at the foot of the mountains.

A black-haired Megalan man with a ponytail and an eyepiece over his left eye was walking up and down the trench talking into a headset. He was in charge of a mixed group of about 30 humans tasked to mow down anything that came into their sector of the plain.

The big Megalan lumbered up to Spade and Casey. “Follow me,” he growled.

“Lead the way,” Capt. Casey and Spade said.

The Megalan trotted with them over to a foxhole. “You have from here to here,” he said, demarcating their sector of fire with chops of his huge hand. “Unload on anything that comes out of those trees. They’ll be coming hard and fast.”

“What’s your name, soldier?” Capt. Casey asked.

“I’m Ghez,” he said. “I’m leading this sorry cluster of a platoon. You two are in first squad. Listen to your squad leader and maybe we can put up some kind of organized defense against the Craaldan assault.”

“Do you think we can stop a Craaldan assault?” Spade asked.

“No,” Ghez said. “But we might as well die with dignity.”

“Who is our squad leader?” Spade asked.

Ghez pointed to a young, blonde-haired Paltran whose head was sticking up from a foxhole about fifty meters to their left. The Paltran wore a headset on his oversized head and an eyepiece over his left eye. He had his weapon pointed downrange and was concentrating intensely.

“Harklewood, you got two new bodies here,” Ghez said into his headset. “You copy?”

The blonde Paltran turned and looked over at their position. He gave them a thumbs up and then returned his attention forward.

Ghez turned and trotted off.

“Hey, Ghez,” Capt. Casey called.

The big man stopped and looked back.

“Thanks for taking charge,” she said.

He nodded and jogged away.

Capt. Casey and Spade plopped down in the dirt and lay prone with their weapons pointed out across the field. The sunshine was brilliant but the temperature remained pleasant. Blue-green grass billowed in the breeze.

“I wish we had more time here,” Capt. Casey said. “I have fallen in love with this planet.”

“It’s a nice planet to visit,” Capt. Spade said, “but I wouldn’t want to live here.”

“You don’t want to live anywhere,” she said.

She inspected her weapon and attempted to scrape off dirt with her multi-tool.

“Jace?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think we’ll get out of this one alive?”

Spade rolled over onto his back and pulled a cigar out of a pocket and lit it. He puffed on it, looking up at the clouds. “I’ve been in worse situations than this,” he answered. “Whenever things look bleakest, I never think I’ll get through them, but I always do.”

“Well, if you have a plan, please fill me in,” she said.

“No plan,” he said.

“Outstanding,” she said.

Capt. Casey remained silent for a moment as she watched Spade puff on his cigar. She turned and pointed her weapon downrange and scanned across the field.

“I spent the first half of my life preparing for battle against the Craaldan Empire,” she said. “Then it came, and we were so overmatched that the few of us who survived realized that all those years of preparation were for naught. I have spent the second half of my life filled with longing and regret, drifting through the void on cold spaceships. For the short time I’ve been here, this planet renewed my optimism. I have enjoyed the time I’ve had here, even though it wasn’t meant to last.”

“Hey, Mina,” Spade said. “Lighten up. We’re not dead yet.”

The humans on the line stirred and came to the ready as all weapons were pointed downrange. Squad leaders up and down the line used hand signals to direct attention to the tree line. Motion had been detected on the mountainside.