We were a day out from leaving when we got word that a small coastal community to our west had been hit by the Solari. True to his word and ego, Sylaran had started to spill human blood.
I would like to say I was surprised, or that any of us were surprised of an attack, but we weren’t. We all knew that LT Ron fucked up and it was only a matter of time that people paid.
“They attacked right as the sun rose” cried the woman “th…their blades hummed as they cut us down” she fell to her knees, lost to uncontrollable sobs.
Hummed? How’s that even work. I believed what she was saying, she had no reason to lie about it but it made me wonder how the humans and Solari were similar yet so different. We both were advanced enough to have spacecraft but the way we progressed on our home planets must have looked very different.
Up to this point of time we had only really learned each others dialects and had missed the opportunity to learn about one another in more detail other than just the basics.
“Get a message to all the settlements, they have to get back to Ro’s Cove, they don’t stand a chance on their own”
I ran over to the comms station and activated voice-link to tell all settlements to return as attacks would be likely. While I was there I decided that I should contact Salvation, letting them know of the attack down on the surface and that we needed more supplies and backup, if it were even possible.
“Jeremy this is Carter, do you copy?” I called over the main voice-link channel.
“Copy. What’s up Carter?”
“We’ve been attacked by the Solari down, they’ve slaughter a whole Settlement. Can you supply drop a cache of equipment and a land vehicle or two?”
“We can but it won’t be hitting the ground for another… six hours”
“Fuck okay that’s gonna have to do. Can you drop it at these coordinates”
I sent two dropzone coordinates to Jeremy from my slate. One on the outskirts of Ro’s Cove and the other to the west, roughly in between us and the settlement that was attacked.
“What do you think you’re doing Carter. You don’t have the authority or rank to run this show” Barked an annoyingly familiar voice. It was lieutenant Ron.
I turned and got back onto the comms “Major Lewis. Permission to stand Lieutenant Ron down. On the grounds of being an incompetent asshole who provoked this attack”
I cranked the responder way up so everyone in the room, including Ron Could hear. “Permission granted”
“Looks like you don’t have authority now either Lieutenant”
“make sure you keep him under watch so he doesn’t interfere further” I said to the officers in the comms station. Ron looked absolutely furious. It was satisfying to say the least and everyone understood that it was the right call to make.
—
Four hours had passed and only three settlements returned out of five o Ro’s Cove. One wasn’t expected because it had been attacked and the survivor had made it there. The other, was Iron Hill, a key resource settlement over the other side of the mountains. We had to move even though supply drops were still a few hours out.
The officers of Southern Guard had all assembled in the centre of town. With Ron out of the way, from my doing and a reluctance from the rest except from a handful, it was decided that I was the one to lead the initial clash with the Solari.
“It’s all you Carter!” chuckled Ro as she threw her hand up in a salute as I joined the assembled Southern Guard in the centre of Ro’s Cove.
“Me? Really? This is kinda fucked up” I whispered in her ear as I stepped past her with all eyes on me.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Okay Carter time to wing it. I took a couple of deep breathes and channeled every movie and pre battle scenario I could remember in hope I could reign in an overwhelmed Southern Guard.
“This morning we were attacked by the Solari. They targeted a civilian heavy settlement - an easy target for them to spill blood but cowardly.
The Solari may appear fierce, they may be ‘warriors’… But so are we.
War runs through our veins. Our ancestors have been both victor and loser in battles throughout our existence, all leading us to this moment.
They are willing to wipe us from taking hold on Biterra, but we won’t fail humanity. We can’t.”
“Hua” shouted the assembled troops in unison.
Ro’s Cove went into lockdown and sentries occupied. The last defence filled with majority of the ammunition we had left. I had scrambled together a small platoon of 20 men and women, while the rest were to defend Ro’s Cove until the drop from Salvation was made.
We split into four squads and made our way inland, heading South-West toward the mountainous region of the Southlands. The forest edges became our protection as we made the arduous trek to Iron Hill.
We took a break on a mountain side around the two hour mark to look out toward the coast for any sign of the drops from Salvation, and sure enough there was. I could see a cluster of large objects descending rapidly, slowly spreading apart as they plunged toward the ground. There seemed to be more than the three or four I was expecting.
Almost all of the objects started their landing burns at the same time, an astonishing sight to witness while sitting up there on the mountain side, more importantly there weren’t any massive fireballs so it seemed like they should of all successfully landed. Hopefully the squads assigned to secure the landing sites made it on time and before the Solari.
We continued over the mountain range where a large plateau was located and where the protection of the dark shade of the forest canopy started to thin out.
Fight or flight kicked in as we spread out in a line as we hit the open plains, keeping low and moving slow. Off in the distance was Iron Hill, looking too still as I peered through my binoculars.
Iron Hill was one of the mining settlements of ours cut into the side of a rolling hill that was right in the middle of the open plains. The wooden huts and metal machinery made for an interesting sight in front of the cut-in cliff face of the mine.
“All hold” I whispered as I got a better look into the settlement.
There were a group of thirty to forty Solari dragging away bodies. Another massacre on a human settlement. We were outnumbered but our blood boiled collectively, we couldn’t let them get away with it.
We unsheathed our weapons, Ro led a squad around to the flank of the settlement whilst a squad of riflemen strategically positioned themselves. The riflemen had limited ammunition so had orders to only pick Solari off if they tried to flee or were about to overcome any of the officers.
The rest remained with me where we continued to crawl through long grass to get as close as we could before Ro’s signal and launching our attack.
“Away” shouted Ro ferociously as her squad let arrows fly down into the Solari, few of which hit with deadly precision while the others garnered wounding strikes. The Solari, caught by surprise tried to spot the direction of the arrows which meant it was our time to hit them.
With our blades raised we charged into the settlement with a roar. I could hear pops of gunfire together with the sound of blades bluntly bashing against the skin of the Solari, spilling blood. It felt like something in our DNA was unlocked, an animalistic drive to inflict pain and death on them.
In an instant we had wiped out half of the attack party without so much as a scratch. The remaining Solari had finally figured out what had happened and regrouped. The sobbing woman who first told us of their attack on the other settlement was right, their blades had a hum to them as they wielded them as well as a soft purple tinge to the shiny steel.
“Filthy human” one of the men shouted as he charged with eyes locked on me.
I raised my blade to block the attack only for it to slice right through it and gash my arm. The pain ridiculous for a cosmetic wound as it pulsed up my arm. The hum of his blade grew louder with the slight touch of blood. He swung his arms back up and before I even had a second to register what was happening he hit the ground with a thud, followed by a crack whip. A rifleman had managed to get a clean headshot on them and had saved my life just in the knick of time.
My arm was still in excruciating pain as I turned my attention to the handful of remaining Solari, the harmonious hums of their blades rung as they started thrashing in their last stand. They were taking down our men, cutting right through them, even taking out there legs from under them.
“Ro take them out now! this needs to end” it was a call that I still doubt to this day, we still had officers in their that would likely be hit.
Arrows rained down on the last of the Solari attack party, ending their final stand… including a few of our own. We had managed to beat them this time through the element of surprise but I couldn’t help thinking why, why was it so easy to surprise them and why didn’t they expect us to show up?
I dropped to my knees and started to wrap the gash in my arm to try and relieve some of the pain and stem the bleeding. As I wrapped I looked around the once productive mining settlement that had turned into a literal bloodbath with human and solari bodies. We were under the pressure of time to regroup at the drop points but the sun was starting to recede and I knew that the Solari wouldn’t be launching any night time raids, so with that decided that we needed to lay our fellow humans to rest, and lay the Solari out as a warning.
“You alright?” Asked Ro as she knelt beside me and place her hand on my makeshift bandage. She had a concerned look across her face, a gentle reminder of her compassion hidden beneath her hardened, though often psychotic, demeanour.
“Yeah I’ll be fine let’s sort these bodies out” I said through gritted teeth as I winced from pain and stood up.
—-
By the middle of the night we had buried our dead and laid the Solari on the far outskirts of the town in hope it would make any additional Solari think twice before entering further into the settlement.
While we lugged around bodies into the night, Ro and a few others got to work on repairing the small communication station, the receiver didn’t work but we could still send out a message informing of the fight on Iron Hill and that planned to move out to the drop site to the west of Ro’s Cove before daybreak.
After a few hours of rest we regrouped and moved to the North. The sun was about to rise within the next few hours and we had to get to the drop as I had no doubt more Solari attacks were imminent as the day broke.