Galaxy of Heroes

“Stay close!” Spade said to Professor Mahlis.

Spade ran through the darkness. A light on his shoulder cast a narrow beam against the carved rock. Shadows danced across the cold walls. Spade ducked left and right down forking tunnels while pulling the professor behind him. Spade knew these tunnels by muscle memory, and followed his instinct deeper into the mines.

Once he felt he had evaded his pursuers, he stopped. He turned and grabbed the professor and slammed him hard against the rock wall.

“You rat-faced bastard,” Spade growled. “You said there would be no kill teams on the ridgeline.”

“Captain Spade,” the professor stammered. “There is much uncertainty in the universe. But now is not the time for contemplation.”

The two armored forms were locked together in the darkness. Spade had Mahlis pinned against the wall, glaring down at him through his yellow faceplate.

“We should have gone around the backside of the mountain like I said!” Spade exclaimed. “Your haste got a whole squad killed.”

“A Craaldan’s fate is to die in battle,” the professor said. “What is important is that we complete our mission.”

“I don’t care about your stupid mission!” Spade said.

Spade’s sensors picked up movement approaching through the tunnels. He released the professor from his grip. “The Diocon kill team is following our tracks,” Spade said.

“Maybe we should surrender to them,” the professor said.

“Say again?” Spade asked.

“We can surrender,” the professor said. “Perhaps they will spare our lives.”

“Jeez,” Spade said in disgust.

He contemplated popping his bayonet and skewering the little professor through his mech armor. But instead, he grabbed him and dragged him along as he darted down a dark tunnel.

Spade knew these mines and was certain he could confuse any tracker in the maze of narrow tunnels.

He climbed up a ladder that cut up a narrow cylinder through the rock. He pulled the professor up behind him. Spade emerged onto a ledge. He ducked through a hole in the rock and stepped out onto the side of a cliff that looked down on Zander City below. He pulled the professor outside.

“Zander City!” Mahlis exclaimed.

Spade looked down at the dark ruins of his hometown. He had sat on this ledge numerous times before and gazed down at the city when it was alight on the foothills of the plain.

But now all was darkness and ruin.

Hundreds of memories were associated with each street and building in the cityscape below. The swimming pool where he had spent so much time as a child. The library where he had stolen his first kiss. The landing strip where he had learned to fly. The tavern where the pilots downed drinks and told tales of diving their ships deep into the stormy clouds of Roga, while the militia taunted them and challenged them to shootouts on the range.

He could see the ruins of Dr. Zander’s modest house in the center of town. Spade always enjoyed visiting the doctor who always made time to chat between his studies.

Spade remembered the faces and families that once filled the city’s busy walkways and buildings. Zander City was small enough that its inhabitants knew each other by name. They had been family in a literal sense. Nearly all of them shared DNA.

But in an instant rain of metal and fire, all eighty-five thousand souls had been snuffed out.

Now the lifeless Diocons and their killing machines ruled the cratered streets and burned out buildings that had once been his hometown.

“There!” Professor Mahlis said. “The command and control vehicle!”

A nondescript tracked vehicle was situated on the western edge of town in the foothills that overlooked Zander City and the plain beyond. The vehicle was huge and black and bristling with antennae.

Spade planned a route through the streets, buildings and back alleys to bypass any contact with Diocon infantry.

“Follow me, professor,” Spade said. “Stay close. You copy?”

“Lead the way, Captain.”

They climbed down the rock wall. Spade sprinted over the foothills and dashed into the city limits. The professor followed right on his heels. They ducked from one burned-out building to the next, darting down the deserted alleyways.

The covered walkways were no longer covered. The walls and ceilings of the self-contained buildings had all been breached. Entire buildings had collapsed and now were nothing more than piles of rubble. Electronic books, cooking utensils, clothing, computer screens and the miscellaneous paraphernalia of human civilization were randomly scattered about in charred piles.

Spade did not see any bodies. The Diocons had long since disposed of the corpses—to what purpose Spade did not know.

He pulled the professor to the ground inside the skeletal frame of the city’s main high school. Outside, an infantry platoon of forty soldiers marched past. The fifteen-foot tall soldiers marched in perfect ranks, their glowing red eyes facing forward. The infantry was followed by a tank platoon.

The heavy tanks rumbled down the narrow street. They were sleeker than the Craaldan battle tank, and unmanned—the tanks were actually heavily armed ground drones similar to their aerial counterparts.

“They are preparing to mount another attack,” the professor said. “Perhaps they have gained the upper hand in numbers.”

Spade grabbed the professor and pulled him along behind him. He raced from the city and up the foothills to the large command and control vehicle. They reached it without being detected. The vehicle was unguarded.

Spade clutched his weapon with his back against the metal wall of the vehicle.

“Now what?” Spade asked.

The professor stood in front of him. He walked over to the vehicle’s rear hatch. “I suppose we should introduce ourselves.”

Professor Mahlis knocked on the door with his armored knuckles.

“What are you doing?” Spade asked, incredulously.

Professor Mahlis knocked again. The hatch dropped open and he stepped inside.

The professor poked his head out of the hatch. “Captain Spade. Aren’t you coming in?”

Spade looked around. No Diocon soldiers were to be seen. Spade followed the professor into the decompression chamber and then into the command and control vehicle.

Once inside, Professor Mahlis removed his helmet.

In front of them was the back of a chair that faced a large, wall-sized control panel that displayed Zander City and the various units out on the battlefield, as well as the Craaldan Fleet orbiting Roga.

“Professor Fahlis,” Professor Mahlis said, “is that you?”