Dreams of Jupiter

Part 3 - Starfall

Kael's eyes dropped back down and onto the officer, a chill of alarm racing through his veins.  Heavy incoming?  What the hell is that supposed to mean?  

Abruptly strong hands were taking hold of him and pushing him towards a waiting tube train.

"You cannot be here, citizen," a low voice firmly stated in lightly accented English.  A quick glance to either side found dark uniformed civil law enforcers, owners of the hands currently taking him to the train.  The speaker, a lantern-jawed Brozhian, one of only two reptilian species in the Confed, returned his uncertain look with a stern one of his own.

"Planetary Defense has marked this platform as a staging area.  That means no civilians," the thick-necked, heavy-shouldered reptile explained.

"C'mon, pal," the other enforcer, an Antaran male, chimed in with a bright voice to say.  "Let's get you to that train and to safety."

"I ... I saw them fighting in the streets on the news," Kael stammered, looking from the Antaran to the Brozhian then back at the Antaran.  "If they do that here, nowhere will be safe."

"PDF's got this place on lock down, my friend," the Antaran responded with a broad smile.  "There's no possible way ..."

Without warning the air was split by the long, chilling wails of multiple air raid sirens, their piercing sound interrupting the Antaran and making the three of them look wildly around.  In doing so, Kael spotted several bright slashes of light in the distance cutting their way through the sky towards the ground.  Then the soldiers behind them were shouting:

"Incoming bombardment.  Everybody down!"

A heart beat later Kael was down on the ground, his face pressed against the cool plasteel of the platform as the enforcers covered him with their bodies.  Then the platform was shuddering as distant multiple impacts hit hard enough to send shockwaves rolling through the city like a storm surge on the ocean.

"Control, they are targeting the city," the soldier that had his helmet off, shouted into a wrist comm as the platform bucked against the shockwaves.  "I repeat, we are receiving orbital fire in the city!  The evacuation of the downtown core has failed and perimeter stations near the initial impact points are reporting heavy civilian casualties.  Please advise!"

"Hold your position, major," a voice from the comm replied as a second wave of bombardment began slamming into the buildings all around them.  From beneath the protection of the enforcers trying to shield him, Kael watched a blast punch through the top of the skyscraper down the street in plain view from the transit platform, shearing it off with a flare of light and sending it toppling into the street below.

"Hold your position," the voice repeated, "and return fire with your MAPs.  Switch all beam batteries to anti-aircraft fire.  The enemy vessels that are close enough to fire upon the surface are launching landers.  The fewer that get to the ground, the better."

"Copy that," the major replied even as the weapons platforms began to orient their arrays skyward.  The rest of the conversation was lost as missiles began to launch with throat growls, their thrusters drowning out everything else as they streaked into the clear blue morning sky at some as yet unseen target.  A second later the beam batteries also opened up, stitching the blue canvas above with bright darts of deadly light.

The enforcers shielding him twitched with every missile launch, shifting uncertainly on top of him as if they too doubted the safety of their current position.  Then the Antaran was hoarsely shouting:

"What in the name of Oresh is that??"

Twisting hard against the weight of two bodies, Kael managed to find the direction the off-world enforcer was looking.  He immediately felt his stomach climb up into his throat at what he saw.

It was a falling starship.  A Bareon-class heavy cruiser, if he remembered correctly from the news net feeds.  One of the Confed's most powerful ships and nearly a kilometre long.  And here it's battered bulk was, glowing redly from a rapid descent through the atmosphere, thrusters desperately firing in an attempt to hold off an impact with the ground.  Then it was going nose-first into the ground only five kilometres away, disappearing in a cloud of dust and debris before a nova-bright flare of light announced its reactor core exploding.

Seconds later the shockwave from the impact and the exploding reactor combined with the roar of the explosion washed over them and the platform snapped up and down like a flag in the wind as not only Kael, but the two enforcers and the soldiers all around them screamed in fear.  With cracks barely audible above the howling wind kicked up by the explosion, the platform's anchor to the building broke and the whole thing, soldiers, weapon platforms and all, tumbled the two hundred metres to the ground.

For a moment Kael found himself hanging in the air as they dropped, seemingly weightless for a brief few seconds.  Then they were hitting the ground and, with a surge of pain and pressure, he was jolted into the black of unconsciousness.

An eternity seemed to pass as he hung in the darkness and, buffered against the pain he knew his body was feeling, Kael began to think that he didn't survive the platform's collapse.  That he was dead and was now transitioning to the next life, whatever the hell that was.

It was in the midst of thinking about death that the battered human heard it.  A quiet voice, not quite loud enough to be understood, but slicing through the darkness like a surgeon's knife.

As he focused on it, the voice became louder and, for a long heart beat, he found himself staring an an image of what appeared to be a fetal child floating in an artificial metal womb.  Behind it he could see warships in orbit over a planet engaged in furious battle, flashes of light connecting them in a deadly web of light and destruction.  Then:

- If you are hearing this voice, you are one of the chosen. - It said in carefully enunciated English as the fetal child floated against a bright background of battle.  - For only those that are chosen possess the ability to hear it. -

As Kael digested that piece of circular logic, the voice went on.

- I am the child god Sen.  I have driven my foot soldiers across the vastness of space for a single purpose. -

The image of the fetal child turned until it was facing him.  Then the eyes opened and he found himself staring at eyes bright with malevolent intelligence.

- We are here for you! -