Emergence: Chapter 9

Trexor watched the screens as snipers surrounded the Xaosian camp at the base of the bridge; they had regrouped there in the last hour. The snipers moved under cover of darkness, scaling the buildings around the camp, sights trained on the invaders. Trexor's team of soldiers may not even be needed; the Xaosians had very few ground troops left as most stayed in the skies above Tapal. “You ready?” Trexor asked his team; better to be safe than sorry. He waited for them all to nod to him, before he spoke into his com.

“Go.”

The snipers fired, but the Xaosians were ready, their own snipers following back the bullet trails to the Raanians in the skyscrapers. The Raanians, however, were not in the open and were barely visible in the dark buildings and more of their bullets hit their targets than the Xaosians'. Trexor turned to his men. “The Xaosians aren't as submissive to our snipers as we hoped; they have their own. So we're gonna go out there, and we're gonna end this battle on land, and hope the others can end it in the air!” The doors of the base opened, and the soldiers rushed out, taking cover behind makeshift barriers; the ruins of the earlier battle. Gun fire cracked through the air as they took the Xaosians unaware. The gun felt light in Trexor's hand and he noted how guns used to have a recoil before the R-Suppressors were installed in the gun's chambers.

The Xaosians began to fire back, bullets at first. Some tore into Trexor's comrades, piercing the armour and drawing blood. Some died instantly, but Trexor would worry about those later. He fired on one particular Xaosian three times before seeing it go down, weapon still clutched in its hand. At the edge of his vision, he saw something dart past, before the Xaosian camp was engulfed in smoke. Trexor looked up and saw a Stinger fly into the hangar bay. He noticed the white stripe which ran the length of it and knew that it was Admiral Fairns.

“Everyone, back inside!” Trexor yelled over the sound of gunshots. “Now!” He laid down covering fire as the others ran inside; he didn't hit many Xaosians, but enough to let his soldiers escape. He moved backwards, still firing, until he reached the base, whereupon the thick doors slid shut once again. Trexor left his soldiers and ran up a flight of stairs to the hangar bay, where Admiral Fairns was climbing out of his Stinger. “Sir?” Trexor said, with an upwards inflection.

“The forcefield of The Dominion is down; it's only a matter of time before Xaos will need to bargain with us.” Fairns said, smiling. “We have won!”

They went back down the stairs and Trexor headed over to the array of computers and found Tya. He spoke to her, making her jump. She placed a hand on her chest and “Bloody hell, you scare' the life ex' of me!”

“Sorry.” Trexor said with a smile. “I just wanted to thank you for what you did today. You helped me save Tapal today, and the state will reward you well for this.”

Tya smiled, but tried to hide it, twisting her face into a faux-neutral expression. “No need at all, just doing my duty.”

“And you are proud of it. And so you should be.” Trexor said with a smile, not bothering to hide his mild amusement with her shyness. “You shouldn't hide your smile, y'know; it's beautiful.”

This time she did smile, but she didn't bother to hide it this time. Her cheeks turned slightly pink as she blushed. “Thank you.” Tya said quietly; Trexor barely heard her. She wriggled in her seat, before saying, slightly louder, “After this is over, do you wan'...do you wan' to go ex' sometime?”

Trexor smiled slightly; there may be nearly ten years age difference between the two, but he couldn't help but feel attracted to her. “Sure.” He nodded enthusiastically. “Love to.”

She jumped and threw her arms around his chest; she couldn't reach his neck. Her head was buried in his chest as she said, “Thank you.”

There was a sudden muttering behind him, and Tya let go as she saw the monitors behind him. Trexor turned and saw The Dominion on the screens. Part of it was sliding open. A growl echoed from all of the monitors.

“You ignored my warning.”

“How'd they jack the monitors?” yelled one technician.

But no-one listened as a red beam shot from the bottom of the monolithic flagship.

The room froze in shock, before Fairns yelled “Get me a visual on the Impact Zone, now! Trexor, get hold of one of the Space Team!”

Trexor turned to Tya's console and brought up the Com-Screen. Keying in a 7-digit number on the touchpad, he spoke to the screen. “Space Team, come in.” There was no answer. “Space Team, this is General Trexor. Someone please answer.” Trexor was greeted only by static. “Admiral, they've knocked out our communication!”

“Try it again!” Fairns roared; Trexor could tell that he was petrified; it was the madness in his eyes.

“Sir, we have visual on the Earth-Scorcher!” called a young man, his voice wavering. He didn't look a week older than Eighteen; for all Trexor knew, it could very well be his first week here.

“Put it on the big screens.” Fairns said, deceptively clam; like the calm before the storm.

The image was put on the big screen and Trexor flinched.