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

- 'Good evening, miss,' said Zengar in a slightly mysterious voice, 'what would you like?'

- 'And what do you suggest?,' replied Sasia, a little clumsily, contrary to her otherwise rather calm and composed nature, as the bartender's voice was slightly irritating her.

- 'The specialty of the place is the Sunset Guarron shake, real magic if you ask me,' the One-eyed replied corruptingly.

- 'Yeah, I saw that already, an enchanted one outside,' Sasia let out without asking.

- 'You must be referring to Major Ketrol,' Zengar spoke with some respect now, 'he is probably my most frequent client'.

- 'I noticed,' Sasia barely forced herself to reply.

While this conversation was taking place, the man in the shadows, seated at the table in the farthest corner of the capsule, seemed to move subtly, or so it seemed to Sasia.

- 'Who is he?,' she inquired.

- 'I don't know,' Zengar admitted, but this time there was no jocularity or insolence in his tone, 'But he warned me that a young lady would be arriving tonight and told me to be polite to her.'

- 'Well, you are obviously following his orders very strictly,' Sasia said in a slightly sour tone, leaving the gaping Zengar at the bar.

It took her only four or five steps to find herself in the stranger's dark corner. His face wasn't visible, but judging by his silhouette, one would have said he was military, and not just any military at that.

- 'Well, General Zengal, so you wished to meet me in this hole?,' Sasia uttered quite dispassionately.

- 'It is safest here,' said the voice.

- 'And the people at the next table, or the bartender,' Sasia added.

- 'Don't worry, they're trusted people,' the voice said in the same tone. 'Well, report back Lieutenant, what new things you've learned in the last three days since you've been gone.'

Sasia paused briefly, but prudently kept her remark silent. Then she began her presentation to her superiors in a perfectly calm voice:

- 'The situation isn't rosy at all,' she said. 'I flew over Xanderar, all the way to the Plateau of Death, and there was nothing but destruction and bloodied corpses everywhere.'

- And?

- And no sign of life, at least at first glance. It was like I'd flown over a desert, even though Xanderar is still a semi-desert. You know, sir, at one time I felt like I was the last human being on this planet.

The Silhouette listened in silence. Sasia continued:

- I decided to try to contact our northern outposts in Rodwell, but I only got sketchy signals that weren't very clear. I checked all the frequencies, trying to cover the full range, but I kept hearing the same thing.

The silhouette shifted barely noticeably.

- 'Speak more clearly, Lieutenant,' General Zengal called suddenly.

- 'I mean, the sounds weren't very human, sir,' Sasia muttered, somewhat worriedly.

- 'Guarrons?,' called the voice in the darkness.

- 'I don't think so, sir, whatever it was wasn't quite human.,' the pilot replied.'

- 'Lieutenant, is that what you have to tell me in three days of reconnaissance with one of our most advanced speeders?,' the voice cut in somewhat abruptly.

- Sorry, sir, that's all. Besides, I made recordings of those sounds.

- 'Recordings, you, say?,' the voice murmured, somewhat dragged out, and for the first time it occurred to Sasia that General Zengal's voice was somehow peculiar, but she chose to remain silent.

- 'You see, Lieutenant,' the voice suddenly became even again, 'the situation is such that your superiors have decided to send you to Labour Colony 206. That's all for now.'

Though plunged in darkness, the silhouette flickered and somehow distorted.

- Expect further instructions, Lieutenant, and now drink one to my health.

There was a slight pop and the silhouette disappeared, and with it the darkness around. The hologram disintegrated. There was silence. Long and prolonged. Like an eternity.

Sasia looked around to see the bartender or the people at the next table, but the capsule was completely empty.

Suddenly she began to realize that the situation was even worse than she had imagined. The General's text was coded, and the fact that he wasn't personally present at the meeting was somewhat explainable. As an officer, Sasia was expected to lead the camp's available air force. So that young man and the old man who had come out were just a mirage in disguise?

Sasia had heard of Labor Colony 206. As an officer, she had access to some of the classified information. But its whereabouts were known only to a handful of officers in the command staff of the Royal Ubunder Fleet.

'So they've decided to command from a distance and we're left for cannon fodder, that explains Rodwell's silence.'

In fact, it was only now that she realized how tired she actually was. She walked over to the barplot, which thankfully wasn't a hologram, and poured herself a small amount of Guarron's Bay shake from a western bottle. She drank it on the ex.

^^^

Sasia shook her head. Apparently drinking shakes wasn't her element - unlike driving a combat speeder. The young woman cheered at that thought, but suddenly came to her senses and glanced around. She was still in the dark capsule, with not a soul alive but her. Suddenly an alarm sounded. Long and shrill.

- 'The Guarron are attacking us!,' came the soldiers' screams, filled with terror and fear.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound and some powerful earthquake-like tremor.

It didn't take Sasia long to come to her senses. Despite her frail age, she had been in quite a few battles and had a good idea of how the guarron conducted their attacks. 'No time to waste!’ she thought, ‘They'll probably attack the main generator to bring down the defenses around the camp.

She then checked her suit's oxygen level. It was critically low. She had about an hour's supply left. Lightning quick, she lowered herself and pulled out a small combat plasma pistol, the kind every Navy pilot had. Then she crouched at the side of the door. She didn't want to risk some random bounce killing her ingloriously just when so much was expected of her.

She sighed.

She pulled the safety off the gun.

And pressed the sensor button on the hydron door.

Indescribable chaos unfolded before Sasia's eyes - an indescribable slaughter. She wished she had a hiding place, like the boxes she'd huddled behind the night before, listening to the conversation between Keith and the Major, but they were gone. Instead, a huge hole, caused by an explosion, yawned in the same spot, more than two meters deep.

Soldiers were running everywhere, and despite their military discipline, fear was read on their faces. Fear of the unknown outcome of events. Or rather, of their completely unexpected course.

Sasia knew at a glance. They hadn't been expecting a guarrons attack at this exact moment, much less assuming the monstrous creatures would be able to overcome the base's energy shield. But there was no time for such thoughts. They had to act, and act immediately. She knew that no one in the camp knew her, and she was only allowed in because of her secret password and her officer's card marked ‘Top Secret’. It was for this reason that the camp authorities had allowed her to stay for a day or two without further interest. They knew from experience that too much curiosity, even in these troubled times, could easily get them court-martialed, and the consequences were more than clear.

Clutching the plasma pistol tightly in her hand, on the run she somehow made it near that building she'd seen Keith and the Major enter the night before.

Only now, with her back against it, did she have a chance to glance around for a moment and remain shaken.

The green humanoid lizards were attacking the shield with some sort of device that, strangely, she couldn't see. The defensive walls, made of huge slabs of zegandarian kevlarite, were bent, and in many places gaped large holes, caused not only by the biological acid of the large groyandus used by the guarrons as horses, but also by their sharp and hard as zegandarian crystals claws. The gRoyandus were truly poisonous creatures with the appearance of huge wild pigs, as if they had emerged from Hell itself. Just the sight of them had a demoralizing effect on the soldiers.

The situation was indeed tense, and the camp's defenses were melting. Some of the infantrymen had risen up and were even engaged in open hand-to-hand combat with a few of the poisonous creatures that had managed to leap over the five meter high defensive wall.

Due to the lack of ammunition, many of them were using the 'Myelite Zetkank 240' sniper rifles as simple clubs with which to strike these brutal creatures. Bloody pith was literally flying in all directions. Severed human and guarron limbs rolled in the dust. But the monstrous creatures did not give up, but threw themselves forward with even greater gusto and momentum.

Suddenly an infantryman was pierced through a breach in the wall by a sharp Guarron claw, and hung upon it like a pitiful rag-doll devoid of life. Blood flowed from his mouth, but what terrified Sasia most were his lifeless, bulging eyes, which looked as if they were about to burst from their orbits. It was a repulsive sight. In that instant the young woman remembered the strange signals she had heard near Rodwell.

Though it all happened in just a few seconds, Sasia's attention was so absorbed that she didn't notice how something moved imperceptibly behind her.

- 'Look out!,' a voice shouted behind her and she felt someone or something push her.

Sasia heard a whistle just inches from where her head had been less than a second ago. Though well-trained, pulled by the momentum of her own body, she couldn't keep her balance and fell to the ground, but rolled immediately, taking up a shooting stance.

In that instant, Sasia saw the youth from last night in a life and death struggle with a large guarron clad in heavy metal armor. The beast was nearly twice the youth's size, and towered over him by a full foot in height, though the other man was indeed tall - perhaps nearly two meters. The youth had flung himself on the guarron's back and was riding it like a horse, gripping its thick green neck tightly.

Although it was evident that the youth possessed great physical strength, the battle was very unequal. The guarron lunged wildly and tried to throw him off his back, but failed as Keith clamped his hands even tighter into the iron grip around his neck. The humanoid lizard went straight berserk and began to shake, trying to weaken his grip. After that didn't help either, the monster suddenly crouched down and pulled some small device out of his battle suit, almost imperceptibly pressing some button. There was a slight crackle, and Sasia could clearly see that it was a laser blade.

As cunning as the creature was, however, Keith wasn't yesterday's man and nimbly bounced away, pushing off the side of the building with his feet like an undead spring just waiting for the right moment to spring out of place. The guarron couldn't react in time and slammed down under the youth's thrust, dragging him into the dust after it. The laser blade whipped to the side, failing to deliver the insidious blow. Despite Keith's seeming superiority, the guarron spun sharply and delivered a vicious elbow strike with his