Solitude’s End

Outside one of the hangars, a maintenance vehicle eased in beside a line of refuse containers, and the operator jumped to the ground. One of a handful of workers out at this early time of the day, he set to the task of guiding full bins to the hydraulic lift of his truck. The sudden high-pitched whine of engines reached his ears, the sounds of a ship high above the airfield. He scanned the sky, squinting in the bright morning haze and wondering who they might be. No arrivals were scheduled for today, so whoever the approaching craft belonged to, they were unexpected.

A beam of intense, shimmering, blue light lanced down from the low cloud, reducing the truck's cab to a melted tangle of fused and burning metal. A second blast left a black, steaming ash pile where the driver once stood. A siren wailed to alert the base personnel to the attack, and within seconds, half-dressed but fully armed men rushed from the barracks, desperately searching for their invisible assailant. Each man collapsed as scintillating beams of destruction lashed down from the unseen source high in the cloud cover.

***

Two sleek strike-fighters sat at the edge of the landing field, their pitch-black, light-absorbing fuselages mere shadows in the hazy morning light. The deadly-looking machines were the principal defense provided by the military for the colonists on this world, their streamlined hulls and stubby wings making them capable of flight in both atmosphere and space.

Barbus Koll, Sub-Flight-Controller of Tollean Stealth-Task-Force Three, eased forward in his seat and savored the moment's magic as he tightened a well-manicured finger on the trigger. He had not had so much fun in a long time.

From beneath Koll’s ship, a radiant, blue beam lanced down and slammed into the alien vessel on the airfield below. A child-like chuckle escaped his lips as one of the once-deadly enemy spacecraft became a melted monument of harmless metal and plastic. A follow-up shot left the second ship, parked beside the first, in an equivalent state. He congratulated himself and eased back in his seat, the claws of one foot tapping out a vague, discordant rhythm on the plates of the cockpit foot-well.

Too easy, he thought.

It eluded him why these human creatures warranted such a waste of effort, but one had to enjoy oneself whenever the opportunity arose, and he so enjoyed the act of blatant destruction.

The fleeting moment of elation faded as his mind slid back to normality. Below, the volume of returning fire decreased as the survivors continued to scuttle like insects across the tarmac, firing their weapons futilely into the clouds. Not that they posed any threat; Koll’s squadron flew higher than the handguns of the humans could reach, even had they been able to see his ships through the cloud layer.

Damn this planet, he thought. If he found any place repugnant, it was one of these yellow-star worlds. The intense light and the heat made his eyes water, and everything about the place annoyed him. Official policy dictated that the Empire might need the resources this world offered, and even the second-rate human infrastructure might be useful, so his superior insisted on a minimum of unnecessary destruction. Given a choice, Koll would pound the base to dust from high orbit.

No such restriction applied to the specific target below, a military base intended to protect the colony. As the leader of a squad of nine one-man fighters, Koll’s appointed task was to sneak in and shut down communications and defenses before the enemy detected the alien force’s arrival. The planet’s satellites, and the dishes and towers around the base, had been his first priority; he could not allow any warning of this attack to leak to the other settlements on the planet. At this moment, the larger mother ship would be approaching orbit and would soon dispatch troop shuttles to complete the take down of the mining facilities themselves.

The nearest actual mine and the airstrip servicing it were five kilometers away at the head of a deep valley in the nearby mountains. The town attached to the operation lay behind the coastal dunes a short distance to the east, and its closeness to this airbase made it the world’s principal commercial center and the next objective in this cleansing exercise. Each of the attack fighters under Koll’s command was able to level the colony alone if necessary, but Tollean imperial forces rarely worked that way. The preferred strategy always involved overwhelming force for the simplest of operations.

Koll felt he had performed his assigned mission with superb efficiency, as usual. Tasked with the specific job of neutralizing the enemy military response, he had achieved the objective with just two shots. The ships on the tarmac below would never fly again.

Positioned high up for safety, his squad quartered the base, easily cleaning up the remaining human figures that milled around the field. Infrared detection made it simple to pinpoint individual targets, including those inside the buildings, and pick them off with needle beams while remaining safe above the clouds. These settlements had no heavy armaments, and the weapons they did possess were incapable of damaging the shielded hulls of the Tollean space forces. The humans were helpless without the protection of their warships.

Koll raised a hand to shelter his eyes from the harsh morning light and looked out towards the township just visible beyond the distant dunes. The massive, bulky shapes of troop carriers descended, hovering over the buildings. As they touched down, ramps dropped from the stern of each, and ground troops poured out, ignoring the cries of the human animals as they proceeded to clear the settlement and shoot down every soul regardless of sex or age. The task was straightforward, and Koll expected it would not take long.

The less time spent on this miserable planet, the better, hethought.

The clearance of the mine presented a bigger problem than the attack on the space field or town. With all workings underground, soldiers had no choice but to enter the tunnels, tedious and time-wasting work, but not difficult. Koll did not care. He would not have to go into the shafts. In a few hours, no alien would remain alive, no matter where it hid.

The war against humanity was still in its infancy, and so far, the Emperor’s forces had met with little resistance. Koll found it hardly surprising. The only other intelligent species ever encountered, humans had first come to the attention of the Tolleani almost three hundred years ago when a solitary ship entered a star system on the fringe of Tollean influence. That vessel had been destroyed, sent crashing onto a rocky world so high in gravity it was considered useless by the bureaucracy.

Humans were civilized to a point, but Koll saw them as little more than smart animals, and their technological advances in no way compared with the great achievements of the Empire. In reality, the two races might have coexisted, as the humans tended to occupy warm, watery worlds orbiting yellow or orange stars, while Koll’s species preferred cooler planets around red-dwarf suns. However, to the Tollean mindset, the idea of sharing the galaxy with inferior beings was unthinkable.

There was also the matter of resources. Destined to last forever, the Empire would someday need all the wealth it could obtain, but the human morass was now expanding at an existential rate and threatened to be a serious competitor in this part of the galaxy. A unilateral decree from the Emperor required the problem to be dealt with permanently—a non-existent rival posed no threat.

These colonies mined Aspolin 43—the humans referred to it as Trilatenite—and the mineral’s presence on this world was the sole reason for this campaign. The greatest prize of all, it alone made interstellar travel possible. Several Empire worlds possessed vast quantities of the substance, making this planet superfluous for now, but in the future, anything was possible. The enemy had a less-ready supply, and the loss of the mining colony would limit their ability to resist the relentless Tollean war machine.

Regardless of immediate needs, the mission directive was to leave this world empty. The invasion force employed a scorched-world policy, leaving no human alive as the front advanced. Not a problem, Koll thought. His team excelled at that task.

Beyond the town, troop carriers lifted off and turned towards the mine site. Koll sent two of his fighters to accompany them; he doubted they would be needed, but one could never be too sure.

Several of the large hangars at the rear of the base, one of which was in flames, showed severe damage. Other structures had fared worse. Many human targets were destroyed by shooting down through the roofs, setting fire to insulation, and leaving more than half the buildings ablaze. Only a handful stood untouched, including a small building near the entrance, several unoccupied maintenance structures around the perimeter, and a few storage units.

In a far corner of the field, one of the smallest hangars appeared undamaged, so Koll flew his ship lower and hovered over the building, curious to see if anything there might be of interest. No heat signatures appeared within, so after a moment’s pause, he decided to leave it intact. There was no telling what he might find inside, and orders must be obeyed.

Within reason.

For Koll, the term 'unnecessary destruction' was relative, dependent on his ability to explain his actions to his superior. He enjoyed destroying things, but too much senseless damage could easily result in a black mark on his record.

All around, burned and charred bodies lay scattered where they fell, and no movement disturbed the field. Satisfied the resistance had ended, Koll ordered all but one of his squad to land. After landing his vessel, he jumped to the ground and waited as the polarizers on his helmet adjusted.

Hmm, hot and humid, as expected, he thought.

These humans chose to live in the worst kinds of environments. The brilliant sunlight blinded Koll, and waves of shimmering heat rose from the hard-baked surface. The temperature here was intolerable, the humidity oppressive, and the air stank of ozone from the attack. Drawn by the smell of death, a plague of insects swarmed over the base, but then ignored the alien bodies and instead attacked Koll and his men the second they stepped from their ships.

Thankful for his armor's protection from the worst of the annoying pests, he directed his team to check the buildings and rout any enemy hiding where heat detectors could not find them. As the soldiers dispersed, he strolled towards the undamaged hangar.

At the front of the structure, a small personnel entrance, secured with a heavy steel padlock, stood to one side of the main portal. Koll contemplated the massive doors for a moment, then raised his handgun and shattered the lock on the smaller access with a single blast. Weapon at the ready, he entered. The lights were off, with the only illumination coming from translucent panels on the roof. Shadows shrouded the gloomy interior.

At the center of the floor, a sleek, matte-black ship stood amidst a maze of maintenance machinery. The condition of the vessel was obvious. One engine was disconnected, with various component pieces scattered on service benches around the hull.

A glance through the open hatch showed the helm console in disarray, wires and cables hanging down in tangled confusion. It was clear the craft was not space-worthy in its current state of disrepair, but neither was it damaged—just inoperable due to the maintenance activities.

Koll’s mind ticked over at an increasing pace, counting the ways he might benefit from this discovery. The black, light-absorbing hull marked the ship as a Federation military vessel. Unarmed, it posed no threat to the invasion force, but the possibility existed that it might be useful for clandestine operations. With the two ships outside beyond repair, this one might serve as an appeasement for the Flag Controller, and he might well show extra favor. One never knew.

Minutes later, Koll stood once more beneath the wings of his ship, listening to reports on his helmet radio. The rout of the town was almost complete, soldiers at the mine were entering the shafts, and this phase of the operation would soon be over. Without military support, the second settlement, one hundred kilometers inland, was defenseless, and ground troops alone would suffice. A short distance south along the coast, all the facilities at the third site were centered on a single location, and again, a small force would easily suffice to take out the lot.

Koll decided to divide his remaining ships, sending three each to the second and third mine sites. With no more military opposition, his role was to supervise and provide backup as needed. He cursed the heat and the insects once again as he climbed back into his ship’s cool cockpit and slammed the hatch.

This place disgusted him.