Chapter 26 :

Planetside, Maradisaè, 4th of March 2119.

Lidaron, Ara's Apartment.

Time, 01:18

Commander Bentham Magnler

Despite his exhaustion, the Engineer could not sleep. So he just sat there, worrying about his fellow officers and the Alfan that had gone to chase down his would-be assassin.

Restless, he stood, walking over to the window. The great white city seemed so peaceful. Eternal. He felt like it would last forever. He was silent, listening to the low sounds of his comrades sleeping. He could hear, above all, FTL's snoring next door. He closed his eyes, feeling the wind in his hair and smelling the fresh air leeked in by the new hole in the window.

But a flash of light brought him out of his reverie. He saw tiny, burning rocks falling from the skies. Hundreds of thousands of them. Accompanied by the great, shadowy shapes of enormous vessels. Hatches opening on their underbellies, light flooding out of them followed by another pod before quickly closing.

Shocked, he stepped back from the window.

They were under attack.

He shouted in alarm.

He heard, for the second time in the night, the dull thump of FTL's body hitting the floor.

He ran over to their door, Erevan opened it as he got there. He was dressed in simple, tunic like clothes.

"You're already dressed?" asked Magnler, surprised.

"Itra?" answered the Alfan, looking at him blankly.

Magnler cursed, before running over to his improvised bed and picking up the translator. He dashed back to Erevan even as Ara opened her door, this time fully dressed.

The engineer gave him the translator, which he placed into his ear.

"We are under attack! We have to go, now!"

Ara's eyes widened in shock, and she rushed over to the window.

Erevan seemed cooler under fire and he turned to get properly dressed.

Magnler went back to his bed and went through his uniform. He took his scavenged pistol and belted it.

A minute later, both Erevan and FTL came out of their room, dressed. FTL's pistol was on his belt, and he bore an unusually serious face. The Alfan had a sword hanging off his hip.

"Noen I egoi?" he asked.

Magnler held out one hand for the translator, and motioned the other to his ear.

The Alfan nodded and gave him the device, which he inserted into his ear.

"Shall we go?" asked Erevan.

Magnler nodded.

"Follow me." commanded Ara.

They left the appartment. Other Alfan were already in the hallways rushing downstairs, but not in an unorderly fashion. There were Alfan of all ages, including very young children. Some seemingly under seven or eight years old.

They set out into the flood of people, letting themselves be taken with the flow of alien bodies until they left the building.

They were met with a scene of half-chaos. On one hand, Orbital Assault Troopers fell every so often, bursting out of their ADS Pods before being subdued by Alfan military forces. On the other hand, orderly lines of civilians were quickly dashing out of the city. Children being carried by parents and those being guided by armed Alfan security.

Just as they stopped to gaze in shock at the unfolding scene, a troop of children ran up, panting. Two Alfan, one male, the other female, stopped to make a head count. Bentham assumed they were all there because they began ushering the young aliens forwards again.

"Come on. Let's help." said Magnler, motionning to the children.

Ara and Erevan nodded, but they had to drag FTL with them until he was brought out of his reverie thanks to a sharp slap from Erevan.

"Hey!" he shouted, indignant.

"Help!" ordered the elder Alfan, sending him a couple of children.

Magnler glanced over his shoulder as he ran, he could see larger groups of human soldiers advancing forwards. Individual Alfan attacked, but they were able to hold on to their position. And more kept coming. The Alfan, flanked, retreated. Quickly vanishing and reapearing a few meters at a time, shields held out behind them.

He saw one of the Alfan take a bullet to the leg. Blueish liquid started to bubble out of the wound, a shade similar to the young alien's hair. He grunted and looked around desperately. One of his fellows rushed over to him and urged him to keep moving. The Alfan was shaking his head gesturing out in front of him as they both ducked behind a tree. He was pointing to the civilians.

His friend shook his head, all the while, speaking into his ear. The Alfan's face became pained. The wounded soldier seemed to accept whatever his fellow was telling him. And he shouted something into the battle. A moment later, he was gone, and the other soldier rushed back into action, always trying to remove another human from the battle.

Although Magnler hated seeing other humans die at the hands of the faster, stronger, tougher Alfan, he couldn't help but thinking that they deserved it for trying to kill innocent civilians, including women and children. Even if, in this culture, the women seemed more influential than the men, and even seemed physically equals, as well as being their psychic superiors. From what he'd seen of course, which was a minute percentage of the population.

Throughout all of this, Magnler kept moving, urging his charges to move faster.

Suddenly, a wave of air was thrown at them. The entire column of civilans was motionless for a second, before regaining momentum. The children even seemed much less affected by this.

Unsure, Magnler looked behind again. An Alfan was turning back and teleporting every which way as bullets flew through past his position.

About two dozen human soldiers were flailling in the air like rag dolls. It seemed the Alfan had hit the group with condensed air from a psychic attack.

Magnler felt a deep sense of satisfaction from this.

They ran for another five minutes, the enemy always just nipping at their heels. That's when he realised something. Why weren't any bullets hitting them. Many of them were being sent their way, but none seemed to hit. He changed his direction, guiding the children with him towards Ara. But he didn't finish his maneuver after seeing the strain on her face. He understood. Every Alfan with a psychic ability was deflecting any bullet that came towards the group. Even so, Magnler was surprised they had managed to hold out this long. Human bullets packed a lot of kinetic energy.

They were just reaching the edge of the city. Soldiers were joining them from all directions, both friendly and enemy. Although the enemy seemed to be killed rather quickly, and had little effect other than tire the psychics amongst them.

They dashed out into the green fields, now pitted with craters. Magnler looked back at the city. He could see atmospheric craft diving in, stafing the ground or dropping bombs, leveling buildings and filling streets with railgun fire.

Magnler also noted the human soldiers constrained themselves to the city and did not leave, instead taking up defensive positions and scoping the fleeing Alfan.

Bulkier aircraft began soaring in, slowly making their way to the ground all over the city. One such vehicle slowly touched down just down the street they had fleed through not three minutes beforehand. Out of it's gaping maw ran more infantry, including power-armoured soldiers, and a tank. A multi-million dollar heavy fighting vehicle capable by itself of massive destruction. Almost impervious to small arms fire, the only thing that could penetrate it's carbon nanotube armour were top of the line anti-tank weapons. Magnler, not knowing what kind of kick the Alfan arsenal had, was skeptical they could bring down such a behemoth.

They had hidden in the forest. But Magnler had come back with Ara, FTL and two soldiers to see what the humans were doing. It seemed they were fortifying. Entrenching themselves.

Already barricades had been set up, along with stationary gun platforms. Several soldiers were running around what it was clear they expected to be no-man's-land, placing objects on the ground. Even for a non-military man like Magnler, it was clear they were placing mines.

The two Alfan soldiers, swordsalfan, were muttering to each other. The one was pointing to the different human positions.

"I don't know what they are putting in the ground, some kind of traps probably."

"Yes, best not go near them."

"We won't have to, we'll just beam in behind them."

"If they haven't trashed our teleporters, that is."

"They don't know what they are."

"But they would still break them, just in case they are something we can use. It's a logical decision."

"It doesn't matter, we will know which ones are active anyway."

The soldier nodded, "Yes, and if they are traps, our defense systems will flitter us out of way."

"I don't know. I would't want to attack that head on." the other gestured to the gun positions and the armored vehicle.

"Maybe the Darudain will do it."

"I can't even see a shieldwall cross that."

"Can we disarm the traps?"

"I don't know..."

"I know!" exclaimed FTL.

The two soldier looked at him, confused.

"He knows." translated Ara.

The two soldiers looked at her, then back at FTL.

He nodded in the fashion of the Alfan.

"Na." he said.

The two swordsalfan glanced at each other.

"Go on." they said in unison.

FTL licked his lips, moistening them.

"Translate as I speak, Ara."

She nodded.

"They're mines." he explained, "they explode when metal, pressure or a magnetic field is applied to them, or when the soldier press a button linked to that mine."

He waited for Ara to finish. The two Alfan nodded.

"Gold, steel... those will all set off the mines. Even if you go over them you are not safe. They can destroy pretty much anything that's within a ten meter radius, up to a hundred meters up. Otherwise, if you have a powerful electromagnetic field, you can use it to detonate all the mines at once from about a long way away. But it depends on the power of the field. Do you have something like that?"

He waited for when Ara had again finished translating. But it was she who answered.

"I cannot say. The Darudain maybe have such a device, but we certainly don't. We use Quantum Entanglement Transmitters. We haven't used waves for anything like this is decades."

"I can make one!" blurted out Magnler.

Everyone looked at him. Ara translated. He felt his social anxiety build up, accelerating his heartbeat and making him lightheaded.

"I... I know how to make an electromagnetic field. All I need is power, but without the city..." he tailed off.

Again Ara translated. Magnler felt a bit sorry for her, always having to communicate for him and FTL.

"We can get you to our fusion plant. The humans will not have destroyed it, as they will not know how."

"Nor will they want to, the greedy sons of..."

"Yes!" interrupted Magnler, "That would be exellent. But I would need equippment. What do you have? Can I get what I will need?"

After a translation, the swordsalfan on the right laughed, "You will get what you need. Do not worry. Even if we do not have it, the Darudain manufactories will construct it. But first you need trainning."

"Trainning. I know how to make it, I don't need..."

"No. We trust in your abilities. You need combat trainning."

Magnler looked around. FTL seemed extatic.

"Can I train too?" he asked.

The Alfan glanced each other. The one made a tossing motion with his right hand, his three forefingers outstreched.

Magnler remembered the sign from talking to Ara earlier on in the night. It was basically the human equivalent of a shrug or why not?

"I cannot see why not, in fact you will make an exellent sparring partner for your friend."

"Yeah..." exclaimed the securty officer.

"Come then, we have learned all we can. Let us prepare, call the Darudain, and begin your trainning." he looked at his fellow soldier, "The Alfan march to war."