Battles

The Sharlakar were surprised by the hits on the outer planets. Confused by the strategy, the enemy moved some of the ships from the central force to the outer systems thinning the primary target. The dead bodies were sent in, and the scanners were not detected. Jareth wished for one more crack pilot as he saw what they were up against. But waiting too long in a war was a fool’s folly, so pilots or no, planning commenced.

At the primary sleep time (there is no night or day in the dead of space, so sleep times are set), A Rillian scout ship came into the formation of warships. It landed stealthily on the Rillian flight deck. On the scout ship was the only Rillian who was a better flyer than Jareth but not a better strategist.

A tall Rillian with a football player-type build and a swarthy face stepped out. He accessed the flag ship’s computer, found what he needed, and made his way to his brother Jareth’s room. The computer indicated that Jareth’s wife was with him. The Rillian had left in a rage almost five years before over an argument with his brother’ about his adulterous wife. Five years of scouting in the dead quiet of space leaves a man with a lot of time to think. He decided the harm Jareth’s wife was causing was too great. He was going to end her life for it, as she deserved, now.

He entered stealthily into his brother’s room and went to slide a knife into the heart of the female figure lying next to him in the dark. He gasped in surprise when a strong feminine hand grabbed his hand, twisted it, and hurled him across the room. He hit the wall with a thud, yet he was up on his feet in a second. His second surprise was seeing a Vandarian womanish shape that was not Casava coming at him in a rage. He had to defend himself. “Jareth, some idiot just tried to assassinate me!! Wake up and help!” Came the indignant voice, a very Vandarian voice, as he blocked another punch of hers.

His brother barely cracked open his eyes. “Oh, just go into Borg mode and tell him you’ll shoot him if he doesn’t surrender. Seriously, anything that could kill you, I don’t stand a chance with. What do you want me to do with me just wearing underwear? Pose?” And with that, he rolled over back to sleep.

Xyrone gaped as she immediately went into Borg mode with guns blazing and muttered something about, well, there goes out any romantic notions of husbands being knights in shining armor. He immediately put his hands up in surrender. “My deepest apologies. I thought you were Casava. Apparently, there were some changes since I left for my scouting trip.”

“And why were you out to kill Casava?” She asked speculatively. Scouting trip? That would explain ignorance about Jareth’s divorce. Why in the fire would a scout come back after being years in the depths of space to kill Jareth’s first wife?

“For having an affair with Jareth commanding officer while being married to Jareth.”

“Affair, what kind of Affair?"

“My apologies, my Vandarian is worse than I thought. She committed adultery with Jareth’s commanding officer and several other men underneath his command.” He stated with well-known typical Rillian Bluntness.

“Adultery, what’s Adultery? Computer define the word Adultery.”

It did, and she turned beet red. The idea defied her imagination and grossed her out at the same time. “EWWWWWWWW.”

“Ah yes… just what happened to her anyway?” said Xyrone, curiously wondering how this woman now played into Jareth’s life. Her reaction was not what he expected from a Vandarian woman.

“Emmon said she was arrested for disrespecting Jareth with men under his command. I didn’t know at the time what he meant. - OHHHHH, EWWWWWW, No wonder Jareth was so upset about it.” She shivered in disgust; at the same time, she did not take her guns or eyes off her attacker.

Aleck was unsure what to do with the man in front of her. His story rang of truth (gross, nasty truth). She was married to Jareth and loved him. She couldn't understand why his x-wife would want to do such a thing. The idea of anyone other than him touching her the way he did made her skin crawl. If what he said was true, then Cassava’s betrayal of Jareth was much more profound than she ever imagined. It did not change the fact this man tried to kill her. She quickly decided to arrest him, turn him over to the Rillian Guard, and let them deal with him.

“I’ll let the Rillians decide what to do with you.” Aleck ordered him to march forward in front of her. Aleck approached the first Rillian guard, whose eyes got wide in recognition of the prince, and his eyebrows went up at the High General's guns trained on him. “I need to put him in the brig.” She ordered.

The Guard bowed and said, “My apologies, your highness, but I do not have the authority to do that. He outranks me.” Aleck rolled her eyes and went to the next guard. She was in a rage by the time she got to the brig. How was it that every Rillian she ran into did not have the rank to deal with this one? It was the middle of a sleep cycle, and she had to make the hour march down to the brig herself. She was not in a good mood, especially when the guards in the guardroom would not put him in the brig, and she had to put him in herself. She stormed back upstairs and looked at the clock irritatingly. She would only have two hours of sleep before getting up and putting the final touches on their planned raid.

Xyrone waited until she was up the stairs and then ordered the men to let him out. He asked them to direct him to his brother Emmon’s room. He had obviously missed a lot in the past years. He needed to find out what was going on. Jareth apparently was divorced and had a new wife, who was very interesting, to say the least.

Emmon woke groggily to a ring at the door of his room. He looked at his timepiece. He still had another hour before he had to get up to prepare for the next raid. He opened the door, and he gasped in glee. Xyrone, his brother, was back. They were soon talking over Coffee (A Vandarian drink that was a hit with all races.) It did not take long for him to broach the subject of Jareth’s new wife. Xyrone told him what had happened. Emmon laughed until his sides hurt and explained about her innocence and the circumstances of her marriage to Jareth. Xyrone shook his head in amazement. “You are telling me she really is that innocent then?”

She seems to stay innocent in her heart even being surrounded by soldiers and being married to our brother.,” said Emmon with a slight chuckle. “It doesn’t take much to leave her in utter shock. Though I am concerned with the lack of sleep, she got from this little incident. We need her well-rested for tonight’s attack. We’re hitting the big fleet in the middle tonight, and it might be days before any of us get to sleep again.”

“You will have to update me from beginning to end on everything, including the Sharlakar.”

Emmon glanced at the time and sighed. “We will update you in a little bit. I need to get dressed, and you can join us for breakfast with Jareth. We’ll explain it all to you then.”

Jareth suffered glares from his wife all morning for not waking up to defend her honor. (no matter, she was better equipped for the situation) He made the coffee extra strong and brought it to her in an attempt at peace which she took cantankerously. The door buzzed, and Emmon came in with Xyrone. Jareth shouted in delight and shock to see Xyrone and hugged him with zeal. Aleck stood up in an absolute rage. “What are you doing out of the brig?” She seethed.

Jareth choked in shock at the idea. “You threw my brother in the brig?”

“You mean your brother who tried to kill me in the middle of the night. Though he claimed he thought I was your X-Wife.” Hissed Aleck through clenched teeth and clenched fist, getting fully ready to march him to her own brig where she knew the men wouldn’t let him out.

Xyrone shrugged. “It was dark. I did not know about the divorce. I was away on a deep space scout for three years. It was an honest mistake. As for being out of the Brig, I just ordered the men to let me out,” he finished with a grin. “I am a Rillian prince. It is my right to execute judgment, though I understand Father beat me to it.”

“So….. I spent two hours, in the middle of a sleep period, marching down to the brig and back up for nothing!”

“Well, you seemed intent on me going there. I wasn’t about to argue with a woman with at least ten different weapons aimed directly at me. Of course, if Jareth had woken up when you asked him to, he would have seen it was me, and the whole thing could have been avoided,” said Xyrone reasonably. Jareth knew his brother well enough that he was cueing him on how to fix the tension he was having with his wife.

Jareth made the Rillian formal sign of apology. He balled his hand in a fist and moved it in a circular motion over his heart. “Look, Aleck, I’m sorry. I should have woken up enough to assess the situation and be able to help you. Next time I’ll wake up to see what is going on if something like this ever happens again. I promise we’ll find a window for you to get some sleep in before our next mission.”

Aleck found all the emotion left her like a wind at Jareth's reasonableness. She sat on the couch frustrated and tired, but she was no longer mad at Jareth. He looked on, concerned at his war-weary wife. They had been hitting the raids with no breaks, and the strain was showing. He touched her face gently now that he was assured she had calmed down. “Go back to sleep now. We’ll plan when you wake up.”

“But…”She started to protest. Jareth cut her off.

“This one will be a long one. We’ve had only short sleep breaks between the attacks. The next one will be the main group in the middle. I’m ordering all the men to get extra rest, not just you. It does us no good if men get killed because they're exhausted.” She looked up, tired but reassured. He kissed her gently good night. She went groggily back to bed but not without glaring at Xyrone first.

Xyrone shook his head. “I have unintentionally ended up on your new wife’s bad side. I will have to find a way to win her over. She is very different from your last wife,” he said curiously as he sat down on the couch.

Jareth looked over at his brother, who was as good a psychologist as he was a pilot. “I’m sorry, Xyrone, I should have listened to you when it came to Casava. What I did to you was very wrong.” Jareth had Father banish him from the palace.

Xyrone waved his hand in the air in non-concern. “All forgiven, my brother, all forgiven. I’m just glad you are no longer married to her.”

Xyrone had seen through Jareth’s X-wife from the beginning and protested the marriage the whole time. Unfortunately, this caused conflict between him and Jareth, who was utterly blinded by Cassava’s charms at the time. Jareth turned to him with thoughtful eyes. “So, what do you think of my wife now?”

Xyrone raised his eyebrows at the question. “She has a temper to match her hair. However, she seems quick to forgive as well, which is good. She respects what she knows of Rillian law and expects respect in return. Other than that, it is hard to say as I just met her. But I’d say I approve of her so far. Also, Emmon seems to think well of her, do you not?”

“Approve yes, and jealous Jareth got his hooks into her first.”

Xyrone raised his eyebrows; given the Rillian culture, that was quite a statement of approval indeed.

“So about this war with this new race, the Sharlakar. Tell me about it.” So Emmon and Jareth filled him in on what they knew from beginning to end. Soon he had the picture of the war and Aleck.

…………………………………………………………………………………

The narrow, sleek, arrow-shaped Rillian fighter ships blazed their lasers in the dark, starlit space as they cut a neat line down the main Sharlakar fleet. They had completely taken the enormous center armada by surprise. The Sharlakar were out of formation. Massive dents started to show as the enormous ships began imploding. They managed to do a lot of damage quickly. Jareth chuckled as the incoming communication from his brother came ringing in clear through the subspace light-speed communicator. “I’ll take the left; you take the right.”

“Agreed.” Jareth signaled the fighters in formation behind them to split down the middle. Implosion after implosion came as they took out all the mini fighters. With weapons blazing in spherical formation, they cleared the way for the main ship behind them. Ship after Sharlakar ship crumpled up like a ball of tin foil.

Jareth noted a blank spot in the sphere of fire coming up from one of the large enemy warships and dove his ship into it. The fighters behind them soon fired into the disrupters designed to weaken the shields. Soon, another blank spot showed on the radar screen near his brother’s position.

Xyrone saw it and flipped on the beam absorbers with direct power up to weapons. Beam absorbers soaked up the energy from enemy fire and then turned their power against them. It was a powerful weapon that had to be carefully utilized. The danger in overusing a beam absorber was that the ship could absorb more energy than it could handle, causing explosions within the ship. If it turned off too soon, the shields took hits and went down.

Xyrone carefully watched the energy indicators as he quickly got through the fire. His timing was perfect. He punched the energy beams at the ship. There was a series of satisfying implosions as pressurized areas were suddenly exposed to the cold vacuum of space. He watched as his scanners indicated all shields were down on the primary warship. The small fighters swarmed like little wasps while the big warships hung back, letting them disable the beams without imploding the main ship.

That was the frustrating thing about this war. There wasn’t just the enemy on the big warships, but innocent races held alive in stasis and waiting to be awakened for dinner. Unfortunately for them, they were the dinner.

It wasn’t like in wars with other races in the past where it was military on military, and blowing up the enemy quickly was the goal of both sides. It was a nastier war with innocents being held hostage by a brutal race. Unfortunately, blowing up the big ships meant losing thousands of innocent people. Soon, the way was clear for Aleck to lead the army into the main food ship. Jareth headed back to the central command ship to lead from there. He let his brother and the other fighters take on any small fighter ships that came along.

Aleck had lost the draw and had to take the green troops into battle this time. She went in slower than usual and with very strict instructions. Once again, she sent a little robot out to clear the main hall of the food ship filled with living, innocent bodies floating in stasis in a fluid-like substance on gory display in transparent aluminum tanks. Many were missing body parts because the Sharlakar had taken them out for a snack and then put them back in alive. Once all the traps were clear, she signaled for the troops to follow her.

She ran down it when one of the newbies looked down a side hall where more living bodies were stored in clear aluminum containers along the walls. He screamed out the name Tressa and ran madly down the hall. Aleck ordered her men to the side and swore under her breath. She ran to rescue the young recruit. Her cybernetics helped her to run at a speed that would cause an ordinary person to blink if they saw it. She reached and grabbed his clothing, through him through the air back into the main hall just before he triggered a trap. She fell into a slide as she threw him and triggered the trap herself. Faster than a person can blink, nets slammed into her body, bruising and entangling her. Luckily no Sharlakar jumped immediately out of the wall, though they would find her soon enough.

The men were about to run to her rescue. She signaled them to stop. “Continue the mission.” They hesitated. “Go on. We cannot afford the time delay. Keep to the schedule.” She barked out as she struggled to get out of the net.

Commanding officer Pez hit his com button quickly. “The High General is trapped in a net. We’re keeping to the schedule. Leaving two of my more experienced men to guard her. We do need a rescue party ASAP.”

“Confirmed rescue squad Alpha is on its way over and out.” Came the voice metallically back. The commander took over the leadership and moved on.

The men managed to cut the net well enough to where she was partly out. While they worked speedily, they heard the thump thud of Sharlakar feet getting louder. Soon, the Sharlakars' eerie war scream echoed down the hall as they saw their prey caught. The two men defended Aleck the best they could, and Aleck got some shots out when the net spun in an appropriate direction. Over two dozen Sharlakar lay dead.

While some stopped to devour their own dead, the others kept coming on in continuous waves. Both men were shot but kept fighting back until they breathed their last breath. Terror gripped Aleck, and she started shooting randomly in every direction with her free limbs. The Sharlakar came on and began ripping limbs from her body. She closed her eyes in dread waiting for the end.

Jareth had just arrived on the bridge when the ship received the message about Aleck being caught in a trap. His heart stopped in dread. The thought of losing her was unbearable. He ran at a dead run through the vast halls of the command ship toward the nearest ready fighter ship. When a guard questioned him about the wisdom of rescuing her by himself, he responded hastily with a growl, ‘’She’s my wife, and I’m not losing her! If you try to stop me, I will shoot you!” With that, he slammed into the pilot seat. The small little aircraft left the bay with a boom. He flew at top speed through the cleared space docked close to where the army ships had landed.

Jareth grabbed the hand weapons from the ship as he strapped on the battle gear, then ran into the main ship. Jareth tried looking at the sensors on his watch to locate her. Something was scrambling it. He then reached out and touched her mind. He went carefully towards her thoughts. He fought to control his reaction as he felt her fear. He would do her no good if he got caught in the trap himself. He sent robots out to spring traps. He moved steadily until he found her at last. Two dead soldiers lay below, having died trying to free their General from her trap while defending her. She was surrounded by Sharlakar, which had shorn the cybernetic limbs of her body while she hanged partly in the net dangling inches from the floor.

One was just about to jump up and take a nasty bite out of the main part of her body when Jareth pulled his weapon and was soon clearing them away from his wife with deadly accuracy as he made his way towards her. There was a mass of them he killed before several reached him. He went to hand-to-hand combat. The concept of martial arts was utterly alien to the Sharlakar.

He managed to kill quite a few of them when one of them managed to sink its upper teeth in his back and slid down to his upper buttocks before it could bring its lower jaw up in a jaw lock. He reached back and shot the creature, but its jaw had locked, and the bite had gone deep. At last, the rescue team showed up and helped him quickly clear the rest of the Sharlakar. Jareth screamed and danced manically, pointing towards the creature locked onto his posterior. “Shoot it!”

The men grinned and looked at each other. One man commented, "How often do we get to legitly shoot the head Admiral in the… “ The man stopped when he saw the admiral’s gun pointed at him with an extremely annoyed look on his face. He chuckled and aimed his rifle back.

He managed to shoot the majority of the thing off of Jareth. Free of the monster, Jareth started in with a laser knife and cut the ropes around Aleck.

“Split up,” He ordered the rescue party, “You go ahead and double-check for traps. You stay and guard from behind.” The Vandarian rescue party obeyed without question the Rillian admiral. By the time he made it to the ship, he was seeing triple from the Sharlakar poison in his system and was too delirious to see which was the correct door to the ship let alone fly it. The troops following behind saw him sway severely with the general in his arms.

The same smart mouth that shot the Sharlakar off his derriere ran to the rescue. He caught the General before she hit the ground while another soldier grabbed the admiral. They got the Admiral and General onto the rescue ships and the medics.

The Vandarian medics looked the General over thoroughly. “No major injuries, general. Sorry about this, sir, but you will have to wait until we finish with the more serious injuries coming in before we can get you arms and legs, sir.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, captain. What about my husband?”

The woman who was the head medic hesitated. “Well, sir…”

She was rescued from having to explain things to the general by the head surgeon whom they had rescued two raids before. He groaned when he saw the scans. “I’ll need more nurses to help me back there, Captain. Its jaw is not only firmly embedded but has shattered in the place where the admiral's a pain. He has long-running gashes down his back. So I’ll need a lot more sutures than you have on the table. Also, why hasn’t anyone started an anti-venom yet? It’s going to take me hours the remove all of the Sharlakar jaw and teeth fragments from the Admiral’s rear. In fact, I'll need a relief surgeon and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.”

The captain laughed nervously while Aleck stared at the surgeon in wide-eyed shock as he had Jareth’s bed rolled back. “Tell me he’s good,” Aleck whispered.

At that, the captain’s laugh turned to a real one. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen. That’s how he rose to the position of head surgeon so quickly. He’s just a little different, that’s all.”

Aleck paced as she waited worriedly, fully repaired, in the hall outside of surgery. An hour ago, she had a report that all went well with the invasion. They had thoroughly defeated the Sharlakar in the center sector. Soon she was joined by Jareth’s brothers and one of his brothers-in-law who had just arrived to help with the war. They all waited anxiously in the hall to hear about Jareth.

Though the men found themselves staring in curiosity at Aleck's pacing, that was until Xyrone came and hissed in their ears to stop staring. It was a normal reaction of her race to stress. He joined her in her pacing in an attempt to gain some empathy from his sister-in-law.

The head surgeon finally came out to find a very concerned family waiting for him. “Why are you so worried? It’s not like he was injured in an area of his anatomy that was life-threatening. However, it will be a long while before I ever want to see another Rillian rear. Go on in. He’s already awake.” The family all looked at each other in a bit of shock. They weren’t entirely sure if they felt outraged, amused, or both.

They went in to see Jareth lying on his stomach, leaning on his elbows with his hands supporting his chin. He glared at his family. “No butt Jokes. I’ve heard enough from the Vandarian military surgical team to last a lifetime.” At that, they all laughed, relieved he was okay and had his sense of humor. He looked up, surprised to see his brother-in-law Verien there. “When did you come aboard?’’

“Got in about two days ago. Heard you needed another pilot, though; I see you already got one.” Indicating Xyrone. “Though given how your wife, who it has been both pleasant and very surprising to meet, has described this war, it never hurts to have one more, especially until your bum heals...” Jareth groaned when he realized he was going to be directing the planetary rescue from on his stomach in bed. They chatted for a while, and Verian got updated on Aleck soon though the nurse shooed everyone out so Jareth could rest.

They came upon the Sharlakar fleet fully engaged in invading Queeviz. While, as Jareth hoped, the planet had held the Sharlakar out for quite a while. Some of its defenses had failed, and the Sharlakar had started planetary raids. Also, this time, the Sharlakar expected them, so they did not have the advantage of surprise.

Jareth called down to the Governor of the Planet, who also happened to be one of his many Uncles. He was concerned for the status of the world and needed to confer to find out where the troops were needed most in battle. “We’ve managed to hold out on the main cities and any factories that could give them an edge, but I’m afraid the country areas have already been invaded. We haven’t been able to send in many troops to help them without the risk of losing something major. In truth, we’re shorthanded, and our defenses are starting to fail. We’re starting to feel the shortage of food, so we’re grateful you came when you did. Here is the latest information on where they’re positioned.” Governor Rak sent Jareth the latest reports on Sharlakar.

“Thanks, Uncle. We’ll see what we can do.” Jareth said as he looked up from his stomach, from the rolling bed he had ordered into the main battle deck.

Aleck frowned. “I don’t like it. The Sharlakar are dug in deeper than expected. This will be a long and bloody War to recover this planet.”

“Yes, Well then let’s see how we can shorten it. First and foremost, the pilots need to clear the way quickly so troops can hope to safely land before starvation sets in.”

Aleck nodded as the planning commenced.

Verien and Xyrone led the ships in the intense attack. The Sharlakar were well organized this time and fought back fiercely. Xyrone swooped once again, hitting one of the more significant nonfood ship's power core when he looked on his screens and saw that Verien was in trouble. He raced his ship over to get the two fighters off his brother-in-law's tail when, to his horror, Verien’s ship imploded.

In a rage driven by grief, Xyrone went on a wild shooting spree shooting down several ships. Jareth wept bitterly on the bridge for his older sister’s husband, who had always been kind to him. Aleck held her husband in sympathy, knowing, like no other, how it felt to lose those one loved to the cruelty of war.

It took the fighters a week to clear the sky enough for the army to land. Aleck stayed silently by Jareth’s side. He pushed his grief behind so he could command the fighters from his bed. “It’s your turn now.”

Aleck kissed Jareth. He clung to her. “Be Careful. Be safe. Oh, how I wish you did not have to go.”

“I will, and I know,” Aleck said, then she left to lead her troops. Jareth watched bitterly from his stomach, frustrated at being so helpless to do anything to aid in the war.

Wave after wave of battles weighed on Aleck. It would have been overwhelming, but they steadily drove the Sharlakar off the world. So the cyborg steadily gained ground, sometimes quickly and sometimes frustratingly slow.

The war dragged on wearily. Jareth recovered from the surgery so he could join the battles. While they freed up the farms and teleporters and were able to get food into the cities, months passed before they could free up road access to the main cities. After that, the ground raids went more swiftly than Aleck anticipated because the planet's governor had a load of ground troops in the cities ready to support the incoming army.