“ Damned E.D. F rules, I liked it more when we were civilian.”
“ Blue-177 is a Lincoln class supply ship, built by the E.D. F, maintained by the E.D. F, And ultimately governed by the E.D. F, sorry man.” Chambers repeated as they headed to the forward hold.
Lathiel arrived on the bridge, strangely it was deserted. He quickly checked over the room and the captain’s quarters, not a soul in sight, the ship was flying under computer control.
This presented a unique opportunity, he thought as he studied the dirty, scratched computerised displays lining certain areas of the oval perimeter.
Finally he came across a control that sealed the bridge doors shut in-case the ship was boarded. With a sadistic grin, Lathiel keyed in the controls and with a heavy metallic clunking noise the bridge door interlocks closed.
Soon stage one of my mission will be complete, he thought as he glanced over the environmental systems monitor and began to experiment with the controls. Finally he pressed the activate button.
Along the entire length of the port and starboard sides of the transport, exhaust vents slowly opened, and began venting the ships oxygen out into space. The remaining crewmen on board gasped for breath as the deadly vacuum of space sucked the air out of the vessel. Temperatures plummeted, as lieutenant Pryce, crewmen Franklin and Chambers, Siccio, and everyone else on the ship all fell to their knees, as they slowly, horribly, suffocated before gently freezing to death.
Lathiel was protected from venting the oxygen from the ship, through the act of sealing off the bridge earlier, effectively creating a separate environment within the room. He calmly waited seven or eight minutes, just to be absolutely certain that everyone else onboard was dead.
“ Ah at last, a little peace and quiet,” he smiled to himself as he keyed in the controls, returning the exhaust vents to their original positions.
Making his way to the pilot’s position, he strapped himself in, and calmly plotted in a new course. Zero-six-seven degrees, elevation zero, straight for earth.
On the Liberty, Captain Michael Alexander was attempting to tune into the outer colony news service, to get a glimpse of what he had to expect on Earth. They were two days into the journey now, and had just passed through the Wolf 359 system.
Finally he had found the correct frequency, and in a small corner of the cracked display the video feed from the outer colony news service flickered into existence.
“ I am Annika Raumov; this is the outer colony news service. The top stories today; it has now been two days since the historic Gamma IV peace treaty was signed between a team of E.O.C. A diplomats, and the Krenaran military, bringing peace to the war ravaged outer colonies. Celebrations and street parties continue to take place on colony worlds across E.O.C. A territory as news of the peace treaty spreads. In three days time, E.O.C. A president James Rushfeldt will be giving a speech broadcast throughout the colony worlds, congratulating the valiant struggles of the military, the population, and the spirit of humanity. There will also be a two minute silence to remember the greatest loss of life humanity has suffered since the second world war over one hundred and twenty five years ago. There will also be a warning about the tough times still to come, as the devastated outer colonies begin to re-build.”
“ That is when he’ll strike,” Dalvosh said, his lumbering form hunched over Michael.
“ Then we’ll have to make sure that he doesn’t.” Michael said as he continued to study the display, “do you have any other information that might help us with this guy?”
“ Not really, I wasn’t at the facility where he was trained, all that I know is that he’s an expert assassin who has a specially created bio-technological gland that secretes this morphos x into his bloodstream. This gland also has a memory that keeps his original Krenaran D.N. A in a state of suspended animation. So that he can revert back to his Krenaran form. Ultimately, the stresses of changing shape and bone structure will kill him, but by then the damage will have already been done.”
“ Tough break, so basically he is expendable,” Vargev said.
“ Yes, Lathiel is just an experiment, if he proved successful we were going to recruit more subjects in an attempt to eliminate your highest value targets.”
“ Jesus, if the war didn’t end when it did, we could be looking at hundreds of Lathiels,” Michael said.
Dalvosh silently nodded, his reptilian eyes almost giving away a hint of sadness at the level his people had sank to.
“ Just how much of an expert is this guy?” Vargev asked.
“ There are rumours amongst the higher ranks in the Krenaran military, that he can approach, kill you, and then disappear before you even knew he was there,” Dalvosh replied.
“ Then I guess that the odds are not on our side,” Michael said rubbing his temples.
“ I would say not.”
Lathiel was sat alone in the pilot’s chair of the now captured E.D. F Lincoln class transport blue-177. He grew weary, he was weary of the simplistic, cumbersome nature of Terran shipping. Indeed, Terran ships were grand and massive, but they were also awkward, and slow to maneuver, on top of that they had a woeful top speed. It was no wonder, he thought, that Krenaran ships had decimated scores of them.
He was just passing the Barnards star system, and was only three days away from his destination. Three days until the weakling E.O.C. A president dies, and the Terrans will have no choice but to surrender to Krenaran superiority. Then he could go back to his home on the Krenaran moon of Klymar, a rich man. He had heard no word from his lord Alax on Gamma IV, Lathiel presumed that he was either still fighting the Terran ships around that area, or that he had finally claimed the large Terran base there and would resume contact soon, the thought heartened him. Somehow Lathiel doubted that the pitiful resistance offered by the Terrans and the hated meddling Solarians, would stop the overlord of the Krenaran empire.
Alax had once visited the top secret training facility on Corvandris, and in his Krenaran form Lathiel was slightly taller than average, standing at just over 9 feet tall. But even he was in awe of the size and power Alax exuded on those powerful mechanical legs of his. He was the epitome of raw Krenaran strength and power.
Strangely though, it wasn’t Alax himself who had sent him on this mission, it was another high ranking Krenaran officer by the name of Galdon. Lathiel had managed to check this Galdon’s clearance before departing for Terran space. And it was definitely high, he had level ugro access codes, and only a member of Alax’s personal staff had that high a level.
Lathiel, who’s real name was Krovash, a name that only Alax and Axus had known, although Axus was killed. This was intentional, for fear of it leaking out into public knowledge.
He had spent his early years with his father Vugron, who was a Krenaran foot trooper, the young Krovash desperately wanted to follow in his fathers glorious footsteps. To be in the Krenaran military was one of the most powerful positions a Krenaran could obtain. It granted housing, land, even political power. Indeed, the head of the Krenaran military is widely judged to be the head of the Krenaran race.
Vugron, however never got to that lofty height, he was just an ordinary rank and file soldier. He had his small house on Gravosh III, he had his family, and that was all that his father wanted in life, and this was where the young Krovash grew up.
However, things were to change when Krovash came of age to join one of the many Krenaran military academies, he knew very early on that he was destined for some other purpose.