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

Having arranged all possible formalities, the Governor was ready to depart. It was more than obvious that he was looking forward to it. And there was reason why.

Before falling asleep, he clasped his hands for the first time in prayer:

‘O Great Midriel, I have committed so many sins.

I know I am not worthy to ask for forgiveness.

I will surrender willingly, but not before I make things right.’

Then he fell asleep. And slept like a baby.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: LEAVING

Meior and Becky wandered the endless Elandon field, but without being able to find their bearings. They didn't have even the most rudimentary compass. The crops had been utterly destroyed by the explosions, and the land was disgustingly ploughed and ploughed. It was simply unpleasant to look at. So much sadness. So much hopelessness. Their native home was destroyed.

- 'You know Becky, even though you will never be mine, you brought me out of the despondency I lived in as a freshman. Other people's problems are above your own. You taught me to live for more than myself,' Meior told her in all seriousness.

- 'That's the problem with this polis. Everyone here lives only for themselves,' her voice held irritation.

They wandered for a few days. But most unexpectedly, Becky looked at the mark on her arm. She remembered a dream in which a boy had the same scar. His name was Durnyam. She had had this dream recently.

- 'How are you feeling, Becky?,' asked Meior, concerned about her condition.

- 'I'm fine, just a bad dream, and a bad dream at that, and something inside tells me that it's for my own good,' she said somewhat confusedly.

Mark and his group were already down from the mountain, with Kier Zoh leading them with the instinct of a killer dog. His race was easy to navigate, even by signs like small stones and so on. In the distance, they glimpsed Becky and Meior. The two of them had a pitiful look. Along the way, they had also lost part of the group. The rat had fallen into a deep cavern and died ridiculously. The father had also died, dragged by it. The treacherous ponies had had their say when it came to crossing the mountains. The trek of more than a thousand kilometers they had taken in seven days. They had slept only two or three hours.

The capital would be reached in some more time. Kier Zoh had managed to kill game for his companions to feed on. A great hunter, he was also no mean cook. Though they did not speak each other's languages, they understood each other with signs. Communication was not a problem for either of them. Of the whole group, only Mark, Paul, Durnyam, Sam Wallace, Grandpa Jack, Russell, and of course, Kier Zoh were left.

When they saw them, Becky and Meior started to run, but tripped and fell on their eyes.

Mark and Paul went to pick them up. Kier Zoh looked a little surprised at such an emotional outpouring on their part. Human emotions were still alien to him. But somehow he was beginning to sense the change in himself. Apparently communicating with human beings was like that. Deep inside he was somehow beginning to accept it.

Becky and Meior told them what they knew.

- 'Let's go now,' they all called in chorus.

They had found the discarded nirangaiters and ziruarx of Zorin's murdered team. They were plenty for their little group. After about two weeks, they had reached Imgradon. They didn't dare venture in again. Becky and Meior wondered why they had to come back here at all, but after learning what it was really all about they readily decided to help to the best of their ability.

When they entered the city, they found that it had long been an ash heap, and the destruction had turned it into something of an island, surrounded by the washed out waters of the exploded geothermal vent. There was no sign of the St. Joseph Clinic.

There was no sign of posts or guards. Absolutely no living soul.

- 'Gordon had blown somewhere. Definitely in the right direction,' Mark said angrily.

They heard a cough. Behind them was Keith. He had carefully gone to Ensarian and told Spears and Elisandra what had happened. Even though Ensarian had completely collapsed, there were still small fresh resources hidden in the underground bunker and also some remnants of his vast army. They had agreed to join and capture Gordon. With tears in their eyes, Spears and Elisandra learned the sad truth about Jacob Wallace and the need to go to war with his own race to protect the lives of his fallen soldiers and their families, horribly disfigured by the Governor's experiments.

That much was clear. He had to be punished.

Mark reacted somewhat angrily because he thought Keith was playing a double game, but once he saw the ebonian and Kier Zoh confirmed his claims, all doubts were gone.

There wasn't anything in all of Imgradon that could be used. There wasn't even potable water.

- 'It will be difficult to get to the Unknown Quadrant, but not impossible,' called Grandfather Jack. 'A cowboy like me understands this and that! But we've got to find a flying machine!'

They decided to wait for the remnants of the Ensarian army to reach Elohy. Some of the guarron, led by Nundrag, joined as well. They had to draw up a general plan of attack against the Governor. And this time they had to catch him dead or alive.

They decided to go to the Urus Onx spaceport. The operation to capture him still had to start somewhere.

The gigantic facility was one of the prides of Zegandaria, as roughly all the flying vehicles on the planet were made there. They hoped to find at least one or two survivors to use first. Might as well have some parts.

^^^

Reona along with the rest of the students were pulled out of the rescue squads the Ensarians were organizing. They watched with disbelieving eyes because they thought they were irretrievably lost. Elohy was in a worse situation. They had to help people in distress. It all seemed to be forgotten very quickly once they were united in their hatred of the common enemy.

She and Becky both hugged each other. Meior stood off to the side. Mark also made a remembrance of Father and Rat and their ridiculous demise. He had to acknowledge their services to the mutual survival of the entire team. They would be missed by all. The fighters each shed a manly tear. But in a situation like this, it was perfectly normal.

However, here and there in the city there were some alive. It turned out that one of the caverns was intact and the last remnants of the town's population had taken shelter there. One hundred and eighty people in all. The survivors of Ensarian, including those from the underground bunker, numbered around four hundred. Roian - Liz and Pindor's son - was also among them. The boy had managed to find food in one quadrant and literally pull it out of the hands of a dying man who didn't need it. When the fighting was over, he left with the others. Zarag tu's surviving guarron did not number more than two hundred and fifty, but some of them were wounded. According to the laws of their race, they were to be executed by their fellows. But the Guarron realized how pointless that was now.

The entire population of the planet now numbered under a thousand of all races.

Mark stood up to speak. All eyes were fixed on him. The Guarron didn't understand his speech, but they immediately saw in him the strong leader, and that subdued them. He knew how to lead the group. They felt it instinctively.

- It was time for this planet to have new life; it was time for the truth to be told. Your leader is my commander, General Jacob Wallace.

The guarron understood him. They too had heard of the fact that they were a hybrid race, but they preferred to believe in the legends that silenced their pain.

Mark continued. He had to use a mixture of human and guarrons speech he had learned at the еnsarian cadet school.

- Even if we catch that scoundrel Elmbaum, it won't bring back the shattered ecosystem of this planet, or your battle comrades. As a declared extraordinary proxy by the members of the Ubunder Military Council, and with the powers granted to me by the surviving еlohians, I suggest we use the last surviving ships of the Urus Onx spaceport and leave this planet for good.

Everyone looked around. No one had expected such a thing.

- 'Friends,' Mark addressed them, 'the choice is yours. But we can start afresh. This galaxy is large enough for us to find a planet with similar characteristics to Zegandaria.'

Zarag Tu stood beside him. His two sons, too.

- 'This man speaks the very truth to you,' he began in Guarron, and the fighters listened most attentively. 'There is no point in being enemies anymore. The population has been destroyed. It is pointless to let us all perish. The Guarron looked on in some disbelief. They needed some time to process what was being said. But finally they accepted it.'

Someone dared to ask:

- What are we going to do when we catch the governor?

Mark took that question seriously enough.

- That's for you to decide. I think it's everybody's right to judge him, not just ours. But I also think maybe we should follow him into the Unknown Quadrant. We can all start over there.

- 'What if our bodies can't adapt to the new conditions?,'  someone else asked.

- We'll build a small colony first, and then a settlement on an exoplanet with similar characteristics. Zegandaria was also much wilder before anyone settled here at all.

Everyone accepted his argument with conviction.

Spears and Elisandra also joined in as the only surviving senior military.

- 'We stand firmly behind you. 'But at the moment we can provide you with almost only ground forces and almost no aircraft,' they regretted.

Here Mark interrupted them.

- Gordon didn't have time to destroy all the aerial vehicles in the spaceport. We have two survivors which, though in poor condition, can be repaired.

- 'We'll mobilise all our specialists,' Spears noted.

Indeed, two Voltan shuttles had survived, despite explosions and also deliberate arson. That had to be taken into account. But it also had to be said that they would not have been enough to evacuate all of the nearly seven hundred survivors.

Engineering teams began to rebuild them, but the places still wouldn't be enough. They had to come up with something.

- 'And why not actually take out the cockpit and put in a brand new anti-gravity landing gear? That way, all the passengers would be on one big common platform and we could haul more,' Engineer Andrew Dislan opined.

- 'It would change the centre of gravity of the vehicle, but in a vacuum environment, it shouldn't matter that much, as long as there are no problems