Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (2 page)

“Definitely didn't see that coming,” Falcone
said.

“Welcome Anlon Valens. I'm glad you're
back,” the monitor said.

Anlon walked over to it and placed his hand
on a pad and stated his name. A rectangular opening appeared in the
ground and Kanti pushed her way past Falcone and Nimesha to go
down.

“Excuse me you two, Princesses first,” she
winked. “Have to make sure I get all of the best stuff.”

Anlon followed her down the stairs. “Don't
worry there's more than enough for everybody,” he said over his
shoulder. “I don’t think we’d be able to bring everything that’s
down here even if we tried.”

Anlon led them down the bluely lit tunnel
and to a steel door. He placed his hand on a pad and stated his
name, which was followed up by a hissing noise as the steel door
opened. Anlon followed Kanti who’d immediately dashed into the
enormous room.

Nimesha and Falcone stood behind Anlon
motionless. “Why is this underneath your home exactly?” Falcone
asked.

“My Dad put it here. Moran told me the Queen
let him keep a few things from some past missions. He never told me
about it, so to answer your question, I don’t really know.”

Nimesha walked forward. “A few things?
There's enough stuff down here to supply a small army.”

“It may have to if the crodillians attack,”
Falcone walked toward a section with pistols. “Is everything here
categorized?”

“Everything,” Anlon nodded. “You haven't
even seen the good stuff yet. Just keep going further down and
you’ll find it.”

Camillus walked past Anlon. “Got anything
down here for humanoids?”

Anlon shrugged. “There's a bunch of stuff
down here I've never seen before, so I'm sure there are a few
things that would be useful to you.”

Anlon parted ways with the others and walked
over to a section with different body suits. He saw one similar to
the one Moran had given to him when he’d broken into the prison and
took it off the rack. After that, he made his way over the gadgets,
which everyone else had seemed to skip over in favor of larger
weapons, and started to go through the rack. He pulled off a
bracelet and turned it over, unsure of what it was, surprised when
a flame shot out from it. Without thinking, he dropped it and
backed up, not immediately realizing he’d pressed a button to cause
the flame to shoot out. Anlon bent over and picked it back up to
take a closer look. A holodisplay came up giving him options to
cut, freeze, electrocute, and burn. He put it on his wrist and
continued to go through the shelves of gadgets. There were
countless small things he knew would come in handy, so he pocketed
as many as he could.

After finding all the gadgets he wanted, he
walked over to the pistol and rifle section. This decision was much
easier because he knew exactly what he wanted. The matte black
pistol and rifle had immediately caught his eye upon entering the
bunker. The weapons were cold to the touch as he lowered them from
the shelf and flipped them over in his hands to examine closer.
They were different than what he’d trained with. The weapons were
lighter and heavily modded with scopes, lasers, and longer
ammunition magazines.

Anlon slung the rifle over his should and
hung the pistol from his belt before heading towards the section
with specialty weapons. He walked down and looked at each weapon
before picking up a black bow. It was half as tall as he was and
there was a scope fitted on the front. He’d never seen anything
like this, so he was unsure of how to use it, but he couldn't turn
down taking it. He hung it on his shoulder by the strings and then
grabbed a cannon launcher from the shelf to add to his stockpile of
weapons.

“Almost done getting stuff?” Kanti said from
behind him. “Looks like you quite a few things there.”

Anlon quickly turned around, setting down
the cannon launcher. “Yeah. Just a few more things and I'll be
done.”

“A
few
more things? You don't have
enough already?”

“We don't know if we can come back,” Anlon
shrugged. “May as well make sure we have more than enough stuff to
last us for the mission.”

“Well, I guess you're more prepared than
them,” she motioned towards the others. “They look like they're
kids in a toy shop and can't figure out what they want.”

Anlon laughed. “It's cool stuff Kanti!”

“Yeah, yeah. What else are you getting over
here?” She picked up a cannon launcher.

“Nothing. I think I have everything I need.
I’m sure Camillus will find things the rest of us forget about,” he
replied.

“As long as you can hit what you aim at
we’ll be fine,” she winked.

“That's not cool,” Anlon muttered. “We ended
up needing her help, so it all turned out okay that I couldn’t hit
her.”

“Don't expect the crodillians to change
sides if you can’t hit them.”

“I don't expect them to do anything short of
killing everything that breathes,” he led Kanti deeper into the
bunker.

“What’s this way? It's pitch black.”

Anlon turned around and walked backwards.
“Follow me and I'll show you!”

He led Kanti into the darkness and the
lights slowly started to flicker to life as they progressed deeper.
Different types of cruisers and gliders emerged from the darkness
and he could hear Kanti's pace start to pick up from behind until
she was leading him.

“This is what is further down in the room,”
he jogged to keep up. “Cruisers and gliders for all types of
terrains and missions.”

“What ones are we going to take?” Kanti
asked, looking around at all the different options. “We don't even
know what we'll need.”

Anlon walked to a bulky black cruiser
covered in armor. “I think we'll take this cruiser and,” he looked
around with his hand on his chin. “That one over there,” he pointed
to a slimmer topless cruiser.

“Combat and stealth,” Kanti nodded. “Guess
if one approach doesn't work, we'll use the other.”

“Have to be prepared for anything. We don’t
know when the crodillians are going to show up or where we’ll end
up after Ovrea.”

“What about glider bikes?” Kanti asked.
“They're small enough that we can fit at least four underneath the
ship.”

“Wouldn't hurt to have them,” Anlon
shrugged. “I'm not sure how much we'll use them with the cruisers
though.”

Anlon led Kanti over to several black
gliders lined up next to each other. He got on and pulled up the
holodisplay. Several weapon options pulled up and he scrolled
through them.

“I think these will be perfect for us,”
Anlon looked to Kanti. “There's enough weapon options on here to
keep us safe from anyone who decided to attack, along with a lot of
other handy stuff.”

“What do you mean, other handy stuff?”

“Look,” Anlon motioned. “They can change
color and even have stealth mode. They’re sure to be faster than
the cruisers, so who knows, maybe we’ll end up using them
more.”

“Impressive,” Kanti nodded her head. “They
do a lot more than a regular glider.”

“Let's go see if the others have finished
getting their stuff. I don’t want to spend too much time here with
the crodillians out there.”

Anlon and Kanti walked back to the front of
the room to see the others waiting for them. They had piles of
weapons and gadgets, making what Anlon and Kanti had look like
nothing.

“You two need a little alone time?” Falcone
winked. “We’ve been waiting up here for quite some time.”

“Wouldn't you like to know,” Kanti rolled
her eyes.

“Does everyone have everything they need?”
Anlon looked around. “We don't know if we can come back here once
we leave, so you need to be sure.”

“We're ready to go,” Camillus answered. “The
faster we get out of here, the faster we get Kanti back to
Nesoi.”

“Whoa,” Kanti backed up. “I am
not
going back to Nesoi after this. I'm going wherever you guys go. Who
cares what the Council want of me, I’m their ruler, they’re not my
rulers.”

“You're not coming with us. Period,” he
replied with a hint of anger in his voice. “You're going back to
Nesoi.”

Anlon put his hand on her shoulder to calm
her down. “Let's load up our equipment and we'll worry about this
in a minute. I really don't want to stay here any longer than we
have to.”

Kanti rushed up the stairs with her weapons,
leaving the others behind. Nimesha looked over to Camillus like she
was going to say something, but kept quiet. Camillus seemed bent on
taking her back and no one was ready to say anything to him yet,
not until they were airborne.

“You guys all go load your stuff up and I'll
pull the first cruiser out,” Anlon picked up his equipment.

“Cruiser?” Falcone looked at him. “Where’d
you hide those?”

“
First
cruiser?” Nimesha echoed.

“Yeah,” he motioned towards the back of the
room. “There's a bunch of cruisers and gliders back there. I
thought it'd be best if we brought some along with us. It’ll be a
lot quicker than walking everywhere.”

“Well, I'll go get the ship ready to load
them,” Falcone walked up the stairs.

Anlon turned around and headed towards the
black combat cruiser. He touched the door and stepped back as it
opened straight up, revealing a spacious and button filled
interior. He set his equipment down inside and got in the driver
seat. The door automatically closed and displays started lighting
up all around him in a frenzy. It was overwhelming at first, but at
closer look, the controls and displays were simple.

His finger hit a red button and the cruiser
roared to life as the displays dimmed some, making it easier to see
out the windows. More buttons and panels emerged as he flew the
cruiser through a small tunnel whose exit was at a hill near the
back of his yard. When he exited, he saw
Drakos Mavros
a few
thousand yards away and he flew the cruiser towards it.

When he reached the ship, he saw Nimesha
already outside showing him where the storage for the cruiser would
be. He pulled the cruiser underneath the opening and exited. When
the door shut, arms came down from the ship and pulled the cruiser
into a snug compartment.

“The other cruiser can go over there,”
Nimesha pointed. “And Kanti said you were bringing four gliders
along too?”

“Yeah, I thought they might come in handy.
It looks like they can mount on the armored cruiser.”

“We should be able to get all the gliders in
a single compartment,” she pointed to another spot. “They're not
too big, so squeezing them in should be no problem.”

“We can all go down together and bring the
rest up,” Anlon told her. “It'll get us out of here quicker.”

“I'll go let the others know.” Nimesha
walked up the ramp. “Start heading that way and we'll catch
up.”

Anlon walked back down to the room and
waited for the others to arrive so he could them show which cruiser
and gliders would be coming along. He got in the second cruiser and
hooked one of the gliders to it before leaving through the tunnel,
the others close on his tail. He loaded the cruiser and took his
glider over to where the others were waiting. Once they were all
loaded, they boarded
Drakos Mavros
to start their trip back
to Nesoi.

Kanti started arguing with Camillus the
second the ramp hissed shut. Anlon left the two of them and met
Falcone in the cockpit.

“Everything ready to go?”

Falcone nodded. “Cruisers and gliders are
correctly loaded and we're about to take off.”

“We need to go
now
!” Camillus came
running up from behind.

“We're going,” Falcone tried to calm him
down. “I was just making sure everything is good to go.”

“I'm picking up transmissions that the
crodillians have just started to attack!”

Nimesha jumped in the co-pilot seat. “What
do you need me to do Falcone?”

“Get on the weapons just in case,” he lifted
the ship off of the ground while pulling different knobs above his
head. “Everyone go man a turret!”

Anlon ran after Kanti and Camillus to man
one of the turrets. He hopped in the seat and looked out of the
window and terror washed over him. Crodillian ships were gunning
down buildings and burning everything in their paths. Buildings
were crumbling to the ground and fires were raging, filling the air
with thick, black, smoke.

“We're taking fire!” Falcone came on the
comline. “Get them off of us or we won't get off this planet
alive!”

Anlon turned the turret around to see four,
small, crodillian ships approaching them from behind with their
weapons blazing. Their laser fire struck the ship and sirens
started beeping around him. He put enemy ships in the crosshairs
started returning fire. One of the enemy ships erupted in flames
and the other three split up, leaving him no visible targets.

“I've lost all visual,” Anlon spoke in the
comline. “They've split off from each other.”

“They're hiding in our blind spots. These
little bastards are smarter than they look,” Falcone replied. “Hang
on tight. You all are about to get another good view of them.”

Before Anlon could ask why he had to hang
on, his head slammed against the head rest and he was staring
straight up to the battle raging above. The ship dropped as quickly
as it’d risen and the enemy ships came back into view. Anlon
quickly locked on to one of them and began firing relentlessly
until it burst in flames. He saw the other two break off once again
and his body lurched to the left as the ship turned. Two more
explosions erupted from above and he knew the others had taken out
the remaining ships.

“That's all of them for now,” Falcone
informed them. “Keep your eyes peeled for anymore of them. I'm sure
they know we're here now that we've taken out four of their
own.”

Anlon pivoted the turret in all directions,
but saw nothing as they got closer to exiting Gaea. Enormous fires
raged below and crodillians ships littered the planet’s airspace,
converging on any ship that wasn’t theirs. It looked as if they had
only one thing in mind: destroy the planet.