The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

- 'Call the command room to have it shot down instantly,' Ennio Hammer growled in utter frustration.

While flying the shuttle, Dislan noticed that it had a special camouflage mode, in which not only its systems went into hibernation conditions, but even more it became completely invisible. The technology was extremely interesting as it was based on a special 'meta skin' created from a liquid metal nano base. This sort of ‘cloak’ covered the machine. Dislan activated it instantly. And the ship became transparent as glass. But it also seemed to become transparent itself. It was quite whiplash. Well, he couldn't see his insides like on an x-ray, but it was just as if there was only a vacuum in place of the ship.

He immediately decided to make a hundred and eighty degree maneuver to avoid being shot down by the firepower of the flying space city, which was hovering somewhat ominously on the boundary between stationary near orbit and the vast expanse of space. It looked like a ghostly island whose fangs like predatory claws wanted to grab him. He didn't want to just rely on his invisibility. That could have played him a bad joke.

The rather cramped cockpit had a small airtight compartment in which he had stowed Mieru's remains. But this was not fetishism, it was his firm intention to give her a decent burial! She was the only true friend he had ever had! Android or not, the chips on her head held some of the keys leading to the answers the technician sought. Besides, the camouflage the flying apparatus provided him was not to be underestimated either. He had to think about where to possibly land. Behind him, a good distance from his flight path, were the slopes of special quantum cannons. Only the representatives of the Cosmic Second Ring were authorized to possess such. His special camouflage had made him invisible to radar, but nothing could stop the quantum beams.

He decided to make a rushing landing. He hoped the shuttle's hull wouldn't catch fire or even disintegrate upon entering the planet's atmosphere.

Of course, there was a danger that this would make his flying apparatus noticeable and he would be shot down. But he decided to risk it. Besides being an excellent mechanic, he was probably Zegandaria's best pilot!

He turned off the autopilot as well as all of the machine's engines - main and lateral stabilizers.

It was time for Andrew Dislan to survive his way!

He angled the nose of the shuttle and undertook a controlled free fall, trying to avoid any hull deformation that an improper angle of descent might cause.

Dislan definitely felt the temperature rise. Oh yeah, it was starting to get damn hot.

Electrified clouds flashed amidst the eruptions of plasma that were occurring in certain parts of the planet. The shuttle somehow managed to avoid them. But at any moment there could have been a collision, and due to the extremely poor visibility landing became almost impossible.

Dislan had set the right coordinates and the shuttle had to land near the Urus Onx spaceport. Predictably, he wanted it away from the refinery on Maerx Street. Who was the culprit for its incineration?

The shuttle descended rapidly through the thin atmosphere down to the rocky semi-desert surface of the planet. Soon, very soon, it would be on solid ground. The craft landed smoothly amidst a small cloud of dust. Dislan opened the airlock and stepped out. Carefully, he jumped to the ground. Immediately he looked around. The foggy atmosphere all around, mixed with the rumble of war, revealed an almost surreal, but frightening picture!

The refinery fell among a group of objects of strategic purpose. It was no wonder that someone had wanted its obliteration. In the distance he spotted wounded. Some of the workers had been thrown out by the loud explosion and their bodies were torn apart. When Andrew looked at them with an expressionless face, his drunken expression meant only that they simply had no chance of surviving. It threw him into turmoil briefly, but then he told himself that it was obviously inevitable. A little less he began to examine what had happened to the refinery. The treatment plants were half destroyed, but not any part of the main building. More than twenty thousand workers toiled here every day, as it was the monopoly fuel production unit of the western part of the planet.

The technician was in a well-insulated spacesuit. He had slipped the remains of the Mieru into a small airtight capsule. There were clearly no other signs of life around. He was just about to take one last look when his eyes fell on a dead woman. There was no doubt in his mind that she had gasped in hellish agony. It was plain to see on her haggard face that the shifts at the refinery had completely ruined her. But it was one of the very few secure jobs. Beside her, her baby girl was still breathing. She had survived against all odds. Dislan rushed to try to do what she could for him. The woman had changed her compressed air bottle and given it to her daughter in an attempt to save her. She had sacrificed herself so she could live. The little girl might not have been fully aware of it all. But there were dried tears on his little face, clearly visible through the glass of the spacesuit. Apparently the mother had picked him up from somewhere unknown. The strange thing was that he hadn't un-airtightened himself after all.

Dislan took the child in. She looked into his deep blue eyes and asked:

- What's your name?

- 'Mieru,' came his childish voice.

Then Dislan understood the whole confused story. Mieru was just the mother of the child who bore her own name. It was obvious that it was illegitimate, or she wouldn't have given it to this simple and destitute woman to raise. A woman, however, who had come to love him as her own, despite barely supporting him with her meager resources. But how could an android be a mother? And maybe that was exactly what Hammer wanted? The perfect obedient creature to provide the perfect veneer of normalcy that would ensure he stayed in post on the flying space city. But Dislan allowed for another much more likely possibility. It assumed the replacement of absolutely every body part and replacing it with a biomechanical one since the black market for organs was well developed. As was every other planet in the galaxy, by the way. So, by that logic, she had been giving her organs away one by one just to provide the means to raise her daughter and keep her away from the real danger. In the end she had even agreed to have her mind transplanted onto some simple integrated circuit.

Behind her, the technician heard a noise. Apparently, maybe it was soldiers or marauders. She decided not to take any chances. He grabbed the child under the arm. It looked at him in surprise, but said nothing. And they walked towards the crypt. As a technician of the highest rank, Dislan knew the secrets of this planet on his five fingers. Maybe that was why he was such a brute!

The Crypt was a special underground complex whose access ways led to unknown places. In order to prevent the speeder from being stolen, Dislan had activated the camouflage mode and it was now completely transparent. Dislan had kept his Narenzium identification chip in order to legitimize himself if he was asked for it. In case they met anyone at all. The girl obediently followed after him. Somewhere far behind them the rumble of battle could be heard.

The crypt was built without the knowledge of the workers on Maerx Street and was located not that far from the refinery at a distance of about five miles. But the perimeter was cordoned off.

Dislan was extremely lucky that, due to the outbreak of all-out war, the posts were not in place or he would never have been able to penetrate the refinery.

At first, Dislan couldn't understand the change in himself at all. He had never had close contact with another human being. But now he was giving everything to save the girl. Perhaps that was how he wanted to clear his conscience. The gloomy surroundings of the crypt were not the best place for a man to be. The technician was well acquainted with the inner intricate tangle of corridors and tunnels that led far to the northeast - perhaps stretching hundreds or even thousands of miles. Dislan had of course never walked through all of them. He only had maps and a flair for how to read them. When they were doing the first trials, some of the halls were excellent places to conduct the experiments.

Mieru had never entered a room like this, but somehow she trusted her new protector.

They kept going further and further inside. Dislan switched on a small flashlight that was too often used for everyday needs. The technician was unarmed, and if anyone in the dark was intent on attacking them, it was unlikely he would be able to defend himself much.

But he wasn't intimidated. To be honest, and to be scared the marauders outside were hardly the better alternative. He knew that somewhere in the depths lurked the Sor In Tum Cathedral. He wanted to take the little girl to where his grandmother had died, not show her some raggedy android he claimed was actually her mother.

There would be many sins weighing on Dislan's conscience. The tunnels ran deep and made such improbable ramifications that it was inevitable he would have to consult the map from time to time. Otherwise he might never have got out of this maze at all.

Mieru didn't cry or scream, only her large eyes widened in some sort of wonder at the bizarre surroundings. It wasn't humid down here, it was dry, and the sounds from outside didn't reach that depth.

Dislan suddenly wondered why this cathedral had been erected here and wasn't even on the map. Honestly, if it wasn't for the words of Mieru's mother, he would have never suspected about this object.

The Sor In Tum Cathedral was built by an order of venetarian rogues and pseudo-dwarves who believed in a fictional god, Tornus. There was no more foolish reasoning put into the minds of the ordinary believers than that of their inner devotion to a false deity. It wasn't even exactly a cult.

Dislan pulled out a small blaster that he had casually shrugged off one of his pursuers. More accurately, the weapon had somehow ended up in the engine room where he actually was. Though small, the weapon was dangerous.

Before long, they were in front of the cathedral in question. The building was indeed majestic, a rare gothic architecture with enormous Neobaroque-style supporting columns. This rare work of art could only evoke admiration. It was the truth itself. They had lingered too long past the cathedral itself, which exuded a special aura.

Dislan could tell something was beckoning them to go inside.

However, when they stepped inside the cathedral some invisible hand seemed to prevent them from doing so.

Why such pseudo-religious cults found such fertile ground no one could say.

One thing was for sure the little girl did not feel comfortable in a place like this. Everything around was malevolent.

Dislan tried to continue down some of the side corridors, but failed. The same invisible hand seemed to be holding him back.

Then near the cathedral he saw what looked like a small sarcophagus. Inside lay the body of the real Mieru. The vile Ennio Hammer had turned this android doll into her likeness. Her torso was completely mutilated and decayed, but her face was still beautiful as if some invisible force was keeping it from losing its charm.

Dislan understood. There was no way on - she had to