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

When they emerged from the Crypt the next morning, they saw that many of the workers' corpses were missing. Surely Ennio Hammer had followed on their heels!

CHAPTER SIX: ENNIO HAMMER

Hammer was not a man who forgave or disregarded meanness. Dislan had abused his trust and he was going to pay - and pay dearly. How he had destroyed combat speeders who could have tipped the scales in their favor! It was only with Mieru's knowledge - or rather, the android that had copied her identity.

Dislan had saved himself initially, but this time his punishment would be severe. Ennio readied all available strength to stop him. He had contacted surviving mercenaries and sent a platoon of trained assassins on the cocky fool's heels to finish him off without a drop of mercy.

Hammer had deliberately avoided his contacts with them and had instructed their commander to carry out his orders. They were to bring him Andrew's head!

Dislan caught sight of them sniffing not far from the Crypt. They hadn't found the shuttle or they wouldn't have acted so openly. They were coming in groups. They appeared to be professionals, but they didn't know who he really was.

As a technician of the highest possible rank, he had undergone the training for an elite soldier in an abbreviated form - this included basic army training and not least specialized training in weapons handling. He could easily have pursued a military career, as long as he had asked for it of course.

Dislan had read somewhere that the trajectory of a plasma bullet could pierce the heads of several people simultaneously if a so-called torque amplifier was used. Dislan didn't have that gadget or he would have blown their heads off like a punch.

The girl had covered the visor of her suit helmet with her hands. Dislan had checked to make sure her oxygen bottles were in working order, since he wouldn't have time to deal with her later.

She decided to operate covertly and play it safe. The wind would be his ally as he was aware of what he was doing. And masterful evasion would have them moving more tightly before he pressed the trigger on the weapon. Get ready and fire.

The first one didn't even realize exactly what had happened to him. To some extent, neither did the second. But the others sensed and began to shell the place where Andrew was hiding. They were determined to bury him without an ounce of mercy. That was the order.

The technician tried to provide a safe haven for the girl. He needed to be in a more sheltered spot because some random slope could easily kill him. Dislan was at least protected by a combat suit, which was a comparatively small consolation, but the girl wore a most ordinary one and had to be careful.

- 'Dislan, we know you're out there,' someone bellowed. 'Don't hang around and hide from us. Otherwise it will get worse for you.'

However, Dislan decided to play them off so he could kill the others. He had to deal with everyone and not miss - not once.

The refinery ruins were pretty good for a game like this, but here, a few miles away, the terrain was almost completely open.

Dislan thought of the android. Mieru was going to play his role as his protector one last time. This time he would use her as bait.

He had to show what he was capable of or his doom was inevitable. The soldiers, however, did not descend to pursue him as he expected, but simply thinned their formation and tried to surround him and narrow the circle around him.

The technician understood. Then he roared like a wounded animal and took off for the nearest cover. The soldiers opened fire on him again. The battle was too unequal. But even so there was still some prospect of his success.

The technician decided to make them spin in a circle as he expertly stepped over the corpses of the two he had already killed. He'd noticed that they had Esonium bombs. He just had to get to one of them.

However, they had figured out his intent again. That was when Dislan decided to shoot the bomb straight - whatever happened. The shockwave didn't take long to sweep away two of the other closest ones, and managed to wound three of his enemies.

Then he took out the android. His remains still languished in the special bag he had stowed them in. At the sight of Mieru - who was known as Hammer's wife - they were a little confused. Dislan shot the last few as well. It was simply phenomenal!

He then stowed their weapons and picked up the girl, who had to be taken to safety. He was wounded himself, too - but not from the bullets, but from the near detonation of the ten microtons of esonium equivalent he had activated himself.

Hammer had anticipated their commander staying further away. He failed to get within sight of Dislan.

The commander stepped back to report.

- 'Shoot him,' Hammer ordered. 'I don't care, but I want him removed. Otherwise you'll be removed.'

- 'I'll be fine,' he muttered torturedly.

Dislan, however, was gone. There was no chance of finding him.

Hammer had witnessed his spectacular failure. This time he knew one thing - his death was inevitable - not for anything else, but because they would easily find out who was to blame. It was Hammer. He'd dropped that Dislan snake in his bosom. He'd let Mieru use him to get revenge. What a blind man he was! Hammer smacked his suit's heavily armored gauntlet against his head, but because of the lack of gravity, he felt nothing.

His grief was indescribable. He had questioned all his subordinates about the whole blasphemous interference with the weapon settings. No one had seen anything. And no one dared to gRoyan.

Hammer knew Dislan was too smart and once he slipped away, it wouldn't be easy to catch him. He'd managed to locate his approximate drop point, but he'd missed it again. He wouldn't catch it a third time. And he was left to await harsh retribution at the hand of his opponent! And it certainly would not be late, but would come most unexpectedly.

Staying on the Cosmic Second Ring was rather pointless mainly due to the fact that the weapon was already useless. Yes, the systems were functional, but in practice it wasn't going to save them from certain starvation, as they had nothing to eat anymore and all the supplies of elendorans and hyras were depleted.

Hammer decided to at least use the last remnants of his power to survive. On the pretext of using the Correction to withdraw from a military site, he gathered the remains of the crew and forced himself into those escape pods that had remained intact so far.

He intended to fly off in an unknown direction at least until events settled down. But he would return sooner or later nto avenge his mortal enemy. An enemy that had destroyed his entire world. Built so thoroughly. So perfectly arranged according to Hammer's ideas.

Dislan and the girl decided to head for the Urus Onx spaceport. Only this place could be called safe. At least for now! Dislan knew that no one would hit him. Firstly, it took a lot of punching power and secondly many of the chiefs couldn't leave Zegandaria any other way.

Entering such a facility was indeed forbidden. But Dislan didn't particularly care. He was born to break laws and rules. It was his true calling, and it gave him pleasure.

The two crept stealthily towards Dislan's former work 'place'. A place that was about to become his grave, but could now be his only safe haven.

The spaceport looked little different from the last time he had resided here. A strange place. For strange people. Dislan and Mieru. Two condemned souls that no one wanted.

The two just stood there, not moving, waiting for the worst. But it didn't follow. They ran to the installations of one of the inner sectors.

The spaceport was huge. The size of this facility now seemed to Dislan even larger than before. Somewhere in there, the dim light of a cheap irenic lamp - the kind they usually put near some of the secondary shuttle launch bays - was dimly filtering through. They decided to head that way.

They didn't have enough time to look around to see if any threat was lurking. The whole complex was very well protected by underground installations where proton bombs were placed. The spaceport naturally also had an energy shield against possible attacks.

Dislan wondered if there were at least any people left alive here from his last time on the planet. He definitely didn't have time to look around every corner, and maybe he should have.

A loud explosion on the other side of the spaceport caught their attention.

- 'They've started the attack,' Dislan muttered. 'It would all be over soon. Or so I hope.'

The advancing swarms of combat drones and other equipment made it all seem simply unreal.

The two could see that a few hundred yards away, everything was just a never-ending fiery inferno. Some of the city's protective rings had been knocked down. This was now all too clearly visible. There was no way they were going to be able to win.

Dislan took the girl in his arms, as much as it was possible to do so given the fact that she was wearing a spacesuit. The girl looked at him and cooed:

- You know Mommy told me you were coming. That's why I helped you get out of there.

Dislan was quite aware that he hadn't gotten his freedom for nothing. And he was ready to return the favor that Mieru had valued at the cost of his own life.

- 'You shouldn't have killed Hammer's men,' the child pronounced somewhat snidely. 'They wouldn't touch you while you were past me.'

Dislan hadn't really expected to hear such a thing from a child. But he knew that his survival depended on carrying out his mother's dying wish, and without her explicitly asking him to do so - something virtually impossible given that she was long dead.

- 'Who are you, anyway?,' asked Dislan, who was becoming well aware of what he had gotten himself into.

- I am actually the god Thornus, or rather I was posing as this fictional false god. You humans certainly like to believe in fictional gods and idols. You resort to them in your prayers in times of weakness. Let me tell you something. Instead of looking outside for help, you should simply look within for the answer. There you will surely find it. You are responsible for your own destiny.

- 'And how you fooled so many people!,' Dislan was astonished.

- It wasn't that hard. The Myeranian race actually had to survive. The Venetarians were just our natural enemies.

- 'But you're like us - humans!,' gasped Dislan again.

- 'Only externally, because we can change our appearance,' the girl calmly replied. 'However, there are very few places left where we can actually survive. This planet is extremely hostile to us. We are just trying to continue our existence like everyone else.'

- 'Okay, let's assume I saved you,' Dislan began rather cautiously, 'not so much to show