Galaxy of Heroes

The building swayed as huge explosions rocked the city. The massive structure lurched and rumbled with each new boom.

Jod was on his feet now. He dusted himself off. He looked at their faces. He appeared worried.

“Executive Jod,” Lt. Zeth said.

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

“Would you consider yourself a champion of your people?” Lt. Zeth asked.

“A champion, Lieutenant?” Jod asked.

“Yes,” the Craaldan said. “A warrior. Like Captain Mina Casey.”

“A warrior?” Jod asked. “Yes, I suppose I am a warrior, but unlike Captain Casey, I defend my people with my mind—using strategy, tact and diplomacy. The soldier fights on the ground, but the diplomat’s battle is no less important. In fact, it is more so.”

“And what has been the end result of your strategy, tact and diplomacy?” Lt. Zeth asked.

Jod’s eyes darted from Zeth to Capt. Casey to Spade.

“Events have not unfolded as I anticipated,” Jod replied.

“Do you consider yourself a warrior, Captain Mina Casey?” Lt. Zeth asked.

Capt. Casey grew frustrated. “What is it you want, Zeth?”

Lt. Zeth’s yellow eyes narrowed. “What is it that you want, Captain?”

He tossed her his executioner’s blade. She caught it by the hilt.

Capt. Casey stood brandishing the long blade. It was lighter than she expected and remarkably easy to handle. It felt deadly to the touch.

Lt. Zeth smiled at her and nodded his head.

With a lightning slash, she sliced through Jod’s neck. Jod’s eyes looked surprised as his head cleanly separated from his body. The head plopped to the floor and bounced and then slid over the black surface. Blood gushed from Jod’s neck for a moment before his body collapsed in a heap.

“Jeez, Mina!” Spade exclaimed.

Lt. Zeth smiled broadly, revealing his sharp, pointed teeth.

“The Craaldan believe humans are primitive animals,” Lt. Zeth said, “not capable of true battle, only worthy of slaughter. But you are a worthy foe, Captain Mina Casey.”

Capt. Casey stepped forward and slashed the blade at Zeth, aiming for his neck. But he caught her wrist, and the blade was quickly back in his possession.

Lt. Zeth stepped back and traced the point of his blade from Capt. Casey to Capt. Spade. The two captains were leaned up against the back of the high dais, waiting to be sliced in two or quickly beheaded by the huge Craaldan.

“The infantry has grown weary of impaling humans,” Zeth said. “The brigade commander is pulling back his forces. Portogallos will be nuked in thirty minutes.”

“There isn’t much left to nuke,” Capt. Casey said.

“We are vacating this sector,” Zeth said. “It is Craaldan standard operating procedure to bombard a planet and sterilize it after we withdraw. However, I will ensure that any human survivors have two rotations of the planet to flee before the planetary bombardment commences.”

“You’re letting us escape?” Capt. Casey asked, skeptically.

“Yes,” Zeth said.

“No disrespect, Lieutenant,” Spade said, “but you don’t have the rank or authority to delay a planetary bombardment.”

“I am a military intelligence officer, Captain Spade,” Zeth said. “The brigade commander listens to my suggestions. I will advise him that by allowing human survivors to flee, we can track them to their outposts.”

The glass dome above their heads shattered. Shards of glass rained down into the council chambers.

A cable dropped from a drone that hovered above the roof of the building.

“I suggest you contemplate your egress from the city,” Zeth said. “Time is of the essence.”

Zeth grabbed the cable in his gloved hands and twisted the end around his boots.

“Until we will meet again, Captain Mina Casey,” he said.

The cable lifted Zeth up through the shattered dome and into the hovering drone overhead. Once inside, the drone shot upward and away.

Capt. Casey walked around the dais and sat in Jod’s seat. She turned on his camera and spoke into the mike. “People of Portogallos,” she said. “This city will be nuked in twenty-nine minutes. Save yourselves. Evacuate now.”

Her image and words were transmitted to screens throughout the city. “Evacuate now and take cover. You have twenty-eight minutes.”

She activated a city-wide siren.

“We need to get moving, Mina,” Spade said.

“Lead the way,” she said.

Spade and Capt. Casey ran from the chambers to the elevator. Their eyes glanced nervously at each other during the interminable wait. They rode it down to street level and ran out from the lobby.

A dark cloud of smoke and dust blew across the plaza. Mutilated bodies were strewn everywhere. The pitch of a wailing siren rose and fell.

Spade grabbed Capt. Casey’s hand. They ran through the smoke and dust, jumping over debris and human corpses. They climbed onto a wrecked hover transport platform.

Spade stepped onto the panel that summons transports, and to their relief, one zoomed up to the platform. They stepped onto the open-air transport, which then lifted upward through thick clouds of smoke and falling debris.

They shot out of the smoke and zoomed over the city.

Out on the plain, huge Craaldan transport ships were loading up and lifting off. The hover transport shot between the Craaldan ships that were accelerating upward.

Several drones zeroed in on the hover transport and swooped in on them.

Spade overrode the hover transport’s computer and took control. “Hold on!” he shouted to Capt. Casey.

He sharply turned the transport and broke into a steep dive. Capt. Casey gripped him around the waist tightly. The drones fired several pulses, which Spade evaded.

The pulses ripped up the muddy plain below. Spade pulled up and climbed as the drones closed in from behind.

A drone out in front of them fired a pulse as it zoomed past. The pulse grazed the hover transport and threw it into a violent spin. Spade was able to regain control, but realized that he wasn’t going to be able to pull out of their dive soon enough. “We’re going down!” he yelled.

The transport smashed through the tops of trees on the mountainside. It crashed through the forest canopy and through dense vegetation before sliding to a stop in the mud.

Spade slowly regained his bearings and got to his feet. “Mina!” he shouted. He staggered through the foliage on the steep mountainside to where the wreckage of the hover transport burned.

Capt. Casey was lying on her back unconscious. Spade looked into her face.

“Mina, are you OK?”

Her dark eyes opened. “Yeah,” she said. “Thanks for asking.”

He pulled her up to her feet, but they were knocked flat by a violent, bone-crushing blast. A blinding flash turned the world white, followed by intense shockwaves that boomed over the mountains, flattening trees in waves of explosive force.

A roiling orange and red mushroom cloud malevolently expanded over what was once the city of Portogallos.