“What?” Erik’s voice sounded irritated.
“The Rebels...they’re dying.”
“What do you mean, dying?”
“Dying. Mortis, death. You know what I mean! Just send some guards in so we can shift them to the recuperation chambers. Make it quick. I don’t think they can stand it any longer. Neither can I.” Daniel covered his mouth, the reek of their rotting skin trying to crawl up his nostrils. The Rebels mumbled in pain. Congealed blood spilled onto the floor like spoiled crimson milk. Daniel hurried out to the balcony to breathe. Fresh air, at last!
“Don’t do anything yet,” John said through his communicator. “When I reach the Earth, wait for five minutes. Then, attack these fighters but don’t approach the atmosphere. Once they spot you, make sure you destroy them quickly. We cannot, I repeat we cannot have them contact the Regime. Not yet. Is that clear?”
“Copy that,” was the response in unison.
“Good.” He looked at Richard, unsure of how things would be in the next fifteen minutes. Richard gave him a consoling look as if to say, don’t worry. We’ll do fine!The ship picked up speed as it was pulled in by the Earth’s gravity.
“What is that?” asked Richard, surveying the massive base covering the Atlantic.
“So this is what they’ve been up to,” John said, mesmerized. “I saw many of them when we were higher up, but I thought they might have been something natural. This is just amazing.”
Richard said, “What do we do now?”
John shook his head, “Stay calm. Captain,” he said, pushing the intercom, “Report back to General Hopkinson that there might be a change of plan.”
“A change?” Richard asked.
“Yeah,” John looked to his left at the huge CCC. “He may have to go to the other side.”
“You mean, this thing, this base or whatever it is,” Richard said, terrified, “Stretches that far?”
“It’s a possibility. We couldn’t really get a good look, right? I mean there must be more, judging by what we saw earlier.”
A robotic voice could be heard coming from the main speaker of the ship, “You are unidentified and are on our borders. Please state your name and purpose before we launch an attack.”
“Looks like somebody rolled off the wrong side of the bed,” the copilot said, before they gave their details. “This is the official transport of Supreme Leader John Howe. We have come as requested by President Daniel Gareng. Do we have permission to land?”
The voice said, “Alright. We’re sending you co-ordinates of your landing zone. It’s helipad six. President Daniel Gareng will be there waiting for you.”
By the time the Rebels were taken to the recuperation chambers, they seemed dead. They breathed faintly, and some of them were reduced to skinned skeletons. Tubes were inserted into their chests and very slowly they started to come back to life. “How the hell did this happen?” Erik asked.
“I have no idea,” Daniel said. “Did you hear? They’ve come.”
“Yeah I know. I just received the message.” Erik lit a cigarette, offering one to Daniel. The President shook his head. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah, if you are,” Daniel said.
Erik blew out a large puff of smoke and sighed.
“You there,” Daniel said to a guard, “Have they brought Alex?”
The guard nodded, “Sir, he will be in here shortly.” Just then two guards brought Alex inside.
“Ah, cousin,” Daniel said, “We were expecting you.” The boy’s demeanor had changed. Alex’s body glowed faintly from under his clothes. Daniel, knowing there was a connection between his father’s state and Alex’s, noticed the difference in Alex’s appearance.
Alex kept his eyes closed the whole time. His lips murmured, perhaps chanting or praying. But they couldn’t be read because they moved so rapidly. He suddenly stopped the silent murmuring, held his head up and opened his eyes slowly. His eyes changed to the color of pure gold. Beautiful. Even Daniel thought the gold iris contrasted with the crimson-black of his pupil splendidly. Alex seemed more muscular, but lean and his facial features had sharpened. Was this his imagination or was it real? Daniel asked himself.
“I know.” Alex’s soft voice radiated around the room.
Erik said hastily, “We haven’t much time. Let me take you to the boardroom.”
“Right,” Daniel said, his scrutinizing eyes still on his cousin, “I will welcome John and bring him there.”
The Regime sent fighters into space, just in case. They floated around, making sure no ships other than John’s entered the atmosphere. But little did they notice what went on above the Regnum, hidden by the station’s curvature.
Bill Haven, one of the nine squadron leaders, gave the command, “Now!” The response was immediate. He himself didn’t realize that he had spoken the words until he saw the other leaders along with their squadrons, rushing towards the vampire ships.
The seventy two jets swirled through space, rushing as fast as they could so as to take the enemy by surprise. When they were seven hundred meters from the enemy, they started shooting, taking out two thirds of their targets. The remaining one-third went head-on towards the Regnum fighters, who dodged, swerved and counterattacked. Bill, himself a new squadron leader, had trouble keeping up with the older ones but he had some moves of his own. An enemy fighter began to tail him. This was exactly what the young pilot wanted. He veered off through all the laser beams and flying debris, towards those ships which were still intact. In one sharp turn upward, he led the ship on his tail into a collision course with another enemy fighter. This was where the fun was; the excitement of not knowing what would happen next and staying in the moment. If one faltered in this technique, they would fall to their doom. “Watch out!” his wing-man, James Lyndon said. He shot at the ship that was about to ram into Bill. “These guys have turned into kamikazes!”
“Well, we can’t have that, not on my watch!” Bill steered and shot. He fled to the right, then to the left, confusing his enemies. He hit about thirteen of them. “Make a circle around them,” he commanded to all the leaders and wingmen and fighters, “Now!” He knew for sure that they were winning and would defeat them. They maneuvered themselves and created a surrounding circular formation around the few enemy fighters that remained.
The enemy kept shooting and ramming into some of the Regnum fighters.
“Evade the bloody kamikazes. I want all those in the attack modes, defended by three ships from behind. We can’t afford to lose any more!” As he said this, an enemy fighter clipped his right wing, tearing it apart.
“Watch—”
But it was too late. The attack had been followed through. Bill was able to tilt his fighter to the left, just in the nick of time, a hairbreadth away from his enemy, who was going to smash into him from the front. But fire sputtered out from his right wing, and he started spinning out of control—
Everything froze.
Daniel squinted at the ship that had just landed. He wore a wind-cheater as the weather became even colder and extremely rainy. He commanded the watchtower soldiers to activate the glass bubble. In an instant, glass rose from the sides of the ground and joined together in the center, protecting Daniel and the ship from the annoying rain. The main door of the ship opened and John, along with two soldiers, came out. He was wearing some light clothes, flowing and loose. As the human walked towards him with his two guards, Daniel concluded that one way or another, this man was going to die. John smiled warmly and, ever the diplomat, embraced Daniel.
“President Gareng!”
“Councilman Howe!” Daniel smiled. He returned the embrace and said, “It’s been a long time.”
John nodded, his face gradually turning serious, “So shall we get to business?”
“Of course. Take these men and offer them some refreshments,” he commanded two escorts who arrived from the interior of the base.