Galaxy of Heroes

Spec. Muda signaled to her squad to get into position. She lined them up facing the Craaldan position a block away.

The two human squads to the rear were laying down heavy suppressive fire that was tearing up the street and the buildings on either side. The Craaldan squad members were regrouping without their squad leader. They kept their heads low as they crouched in the burned out lobbies of buildings or behind piles of rubble.

Muda kept her head down as she trotted over to Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey. The three of them squatted down to consult behind a pile of twisted and smoldering infrastructure.

“Sir, our weapons can’t penetrate their armor,” Muda said. “We might have the element of surprise, but even if we can score direct hits, our rounds just bounce off them.”

“If we concentrate fire on one target, our rounds will penetrate,” Spade said. “Break the squad up into three four-man fire teams. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. I’ll take Alpha team, Capt. Casey has Bravo. Pick your best soldier to lead Charlie. Each team concentrates fire on one Craaldan soldier. Once a team scores a kill, concentrate fire on the next target. Stay on top and keep us moving. We hit them hard and fast and assault through. Then we fall back. Tracking?”

“Roger,” Spec. Muda said.

“We attack on my command,” Spade said. “Stay tactical, OK, Muda?”

“Will do,” she said.

Muda scrambled off and was quick to re-organize the squad into three teams.

“Outstanding,” Capt. Casey said to Spade. “I think Captain Jace Spade and his ragtag platoon might just defeat the entire Craaldan Empire.”

“Would you love me, then?” Spade asked.

She slapped him on the shoulder. “Not a chance,” she answered, and trotted off to join Bravo team.

“Shift fire, shift fire,” Spade said into the headset. First and second squad shifted their suppressing fire to the west side of the street.

“That’s our signal,” Spade said to Spec. Muda. “Move ’em out!”

“Go! Go! Go!” Muda shouted.

The three fire teams sprinted over rubble and dashed through burned out buildings. They emerged onto the street where the Craaldan squad had set up a position behind piles of debris. The Craadans were over-confident and had been taken by surprise. The human fire teams concentrated their fire and scored kills on three Craaldan soldiers.

But the Craaldans quickly regrouped and returned fire. Muda was first hit—her head blown off with a quick Craaldan burst. All four members of Charlie team were pulverized by accurate shots—the powerful Craaldan rounds flaying the humans into chunks of meat.

A Craaldan grenade burst over Alpha team’s position as they scrambled over the collapsed side of a building. The blast hit Spade from behind and knocked him forward with such force that his body was driven hard into the rubble. He was flung head over heels nearly a block down the next street.

Craaldan drones swarmed downward through the smoldering skyscrapers and fired pulses at the humans, incinerating them in rapid bursts. A drone swooped down and disgorged a Craaldan squad about 100 meters down an alley from Spade. They popped their bayonets from their fists as they rushed at the retreating humans.

“Jace!” Capt. Casey said. “We’ve got to move!”

Spade was dazed. His face was scraped and bloody. He struggled to get his bearings.

“Move, soldier!” Capt. Casey shouted, lifting him up to his feet.

She pulled him along as they sprinted through the rubble in an attempt to reach the other squads. But the Craaldans were already advancing on the positions of the three remaining squads that were attempting to fall back. The Craaldans flanked them and skewered them on their bayonets as the humans fled or tried to fight back from positions inside the buildings.

A Craaldan battle tank appeared at the far end of the street. It fired rounds that burst in monstrous, shrapnel-laden explosions. Buildings toppled and imploded in a maelstrom of debris and noise.

“Keep moving, Jace!” Capt. Casey yelled over the din.

Spade followed behind her as they darted through buildings and down alleyways. The noise and smoke overwhelmed their senses. Confusion intensified.

They emerged onto the city center where large screens still displayed the face of Verman Jod.

“Remain calm,” Jod said. “There is nothing to fear. Through unity we can defeat the enemy within.”

Humans ran in packs across the vast open plaza that was covered by a shroud of billowing smoke. A battle tank appeared at a street that opened onto the plaza. The tank fired short bursts. Shrapnel crumpled successive groups of humans.

A Craaldan platoon appeared behind Capt. Spade. The squads, with fixed bayonets, entered buildings using their sensors to locate hiding humans and slaughter them.

Drones overhead were swooping in and zapping any humans on the streets.

“It’s pointless to keep running,” Capt. Casey said. “If we make it through the city, we’ll just run into another Craaldan tank battalion.”

A drone barreled toward them down the narrow street. Capt. Casey and Spade sprinted out onto the plaza. The drone fired rapid pulses that threw up geysers of debris behind them, pulverizing the paved ground. They darted to the right and sprinted into the burned-out lobby of the Founders Building.

Craaldan infantry ran across the plaza toward them.

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey entered an elevator and punched at the buttons as the Craaldan infantry rushed into the building’s debris-strewn lobby. A Craaldan soldier closed in on them slashing with his long bayonet.

The elevator doors shut just before the soldier closed to striking distance.

“We can hold out on the roof,” Spade said. “Take them out one by one as they come up after us.”

“No,” Capt. Casey said. “We’ll have no cover from their drones up there. They’ll pulverize us.”

She looked at him. His face was badly bloodied. He was wobbly on his feet.

“The Craaldans can locate us with their sensors in this building,” Spade said. “There’s no hiding from them in here. I’m in no mood to get skewered, Mina.”

“Well, I’ve got one thing left on my wish list before I’m stuck with a Craaldan bayonet,” Capt. Casey said.

“What’s that?” Spade asked.

“I want Jod,” she said.

As the elevator continued its rapid climb up the building, Spade could feel that he had suffered internal injuries.

“Mina?” he said.

“Yes?” she said.

“I took a bad header back there.”

“I know,” she said.

“I think I’m going to black out,” he said.

“Stay with me, Jace. I need you, OK?”

The elevator door opened. Capt. Casey entered the hallway. She pulled Spade along behind her. Huge explosions outside rocked the building, which shuddered and swayed violently as they walked down the hallway.

Capt. Casey kicked a door open with her boot. They entered Jod’s council chambers.

The domed glass ceiling looked upward through smoke and clouds at the oblong Gallos moon. Drones were visible zooming overhead through the black and purple atmosphere.

Capt. Casey walked around to Jod’s chair at the center of the dais that dominated the room. She punched a keyboard and attempted to locate Jod in the building’s database.

“Is this who you are looking for?” asked a gravelly, sulfurous voice.

Capt. Casey looked up from the computer. Lt. Zeth stood in the doorway. He shoved Jod before her.

From up on the dais, Capt. Casey looked down at the tall, misshapen man who appeared agitated and confused.

Spade pointed his weapon at Lt. Zeth, who ignored him.

Zeth was bandaged around his neck, but otherwise appeared unharmed from his earlier encounter with Capt. Casey.

She stepped down from dais with her weapon trained on Zeth.

With lightning speed, the tall Craaldan unsheathed his executioner’s blade from his leg, and with a flick of his wrist, he cut Spade’s weapon in half with a loud clang, knocking it from his hands in pieces.

Capt. Casey fired her weapon, but Lt. Zeth sidestepped the burst, and in a blink sliced through her weapon, knocking it to the floor.

Zeth backed them up against the dais with the tip of his blade. They lifted up their hands, eyes fixed on its point.

“Well, aren’t you the swordsman,” Spade said.

Jod was lying flat on his face with his hands over the back of his head. He looked up from the floor. His eyes glanced at the doorway. He scrambled to his feet and made a run for it, but Zeth swatted him with the palm of his gloved hand and knocked Jod flat.

Zeth returned his attention to Capt. Casey.

“You and I have unfinished business,” he said.