Trojian Horse
Chapter 43

“I hope your session was fruitful?” the Queen asked Hethios as he entered the throne room that had transformed from a largely empty hall into a room which had very little space left unoccupied. There were several rows of screens attended to by a single Vulpeculae, many of whom were speaking loudly into their earpieces. It felt like an ordinary day at the market to Hethios complete with loud, endless chatter.

“It was,” Hethios answered. “Although I could have done more with a little more time.”

“Time is something we don’t have,” she answered.

Hethios nodded.

“So what have we learned?” the Queen asked.

“We are outgunned, outmanned and we are well behind in virtually every capacity required to win a battle on this scale,” Hethios said bluntly.

“So, what do you suggest then?” the Queen asked annoyed at being presented with more problems than solutions.

“I suggest strategy. We have no hope of beating brute force with brute force so we employ delicacy and technique in its place.”

“And what kind of delicacy did you have in mind?” she asked.

“We attack first.”

A roar of disapproval erupted in the room from those within earshot of the conversation who should have been otherwise engaged instead of eavesdropping, and it was several minutes before there was quiet enough for the conversation to continue.

“Are you insane?” the Queen asked. Roue, Turo and Reinon all stared at him in unison displaying their feelings on his proposal.

“No, my Queen, we have no other means of success and this is the only way.”

“Surely we can defend ourselves well enough?” she asked.

“No we cannot. From what I have heard from them,” he said motioning towards Roue and his companions, “we wouldn’t last the day before Reeger breached our defences and destroyed us all.”

“There has to be another way, there just has to be another way!” the Queen said unable to remain seated.

“There isn’t,” Hethios said approaching the Queen slowly. “I have done all the calculations and measured all the probabilities and if we attack first we stand a better chance…” Hethios looked as if he would have said more but Roue could tell that Hethios didn’t want to be the one to say that there would be massive casualties no matter what they did.

“And if we fly away, like we once did?”

“Would you really want to?” Hethios asked.

“I don’t know. Could we?”

“He will find us no matter where we go. It may take some time but he will find us. We had to disappear last time for Arien’s sake but Reeger’s already taken him from us. There is nothing left but for us to fight. I never believed that we could live in peace forever, we were the leaders of this resistance and now the fight has come back to us --”

“And we should finish the war we started I guess,” the Queen supplied.

“Yes, we need to finish it. Whether we are victorious or not, it ends today. Today the full force of the Vulpeculae and the might of the Dracien will collide.”

“We will fight too,” Reinon announced loudly. Elia-bi and Mato-Rayo nodded to show their solidarity.

“You know I will too,” Roue answered.

“You believe Arien could have helped us?” Hethios asked.

“I do. He would have,” Roue said. “There was something special about him. At first I couldn’t tell but when I saw him out there with Reeger I knew it. I don’t really know what he was like before but the Arien I saw was courageous, strong, and willing to do whatever it took. We could use that sort of courage right now.”

Silence persisted for a few moments among the small group though the rest of the hall was still engaged in war preparations.

“That seems like that was an Arien we didn’t quite know. He was curious, and did what he had to but he would have never run into a fight willingly,” Hethios said. “I wonder about a lot of things now.”

“I will willingly fight too,” Turo said.

“I appreciate that. We can use all the help we can get,” Hethios answered.

“I understand the loss you feel. We need to use that to push us forward,” said Turo.

“And how did you say you came to meet him in the forests?” the Queen asked.

“It was a coincidence I guess,” she answered. Roue gave her a very perplexed look. Hethios noticed it but kept silent.

“Yanwe led you to him to help him regain his strength,” the Queen said.

“Our directive was to keep him safe, until a time when he would fulfil his destiny. I don’t understand why things came to be the way they are now but we all failed him when he was here let’s not fail his memory,” Hethios said.

“If only I could have spent more time telling him more about the things he wanted to know instead what I thought he wasn’t prepared to know. It seems he was more ready than I could have guessed,” Hethios said.

“He was reluctant to take up the position but Arien was always going to be a leader,” Turo said.

“That’s a very gracious thing to say. In so many ways it seems the Arien you knew and the one we knew were quite different. It’s amazing how he seems to have changed in the little time he was away from us,” the Queen said.

“Experience really is the greatest teacher,” Turo answered.

The Queen nodded and they all kept silent for a few moments.

“There is something you must know about Reeger,” Roue said.

“What’s that?” Hethios asked.

“He’s stronger now. Much stronger. I don’t know what he’s done to himself but he’s different. He looks different and moves differently,” Roue said.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Hethios stated.

“He’s faster, stronger, seems smarter from the last time you saw him. Almost his entire body structure has changed. It’s really strange,” Roue said.

“We were barely able to go blow for blow with him in battle then I shudder to think how much worse he will be this time,” Hethios said. “We’ll do the best we can. If we can force a retreat then maybe, just maybe, there will be hope for us to at least regroup and call reinforcements.”

“At this point I don’t think anyone here would win against Reeger,” Roue said. “Not even come close.”

“Then we possibly fly to our deaths,” the Queen said softly to ensure only the group huddled around her could hear.

“We stand together in victory, or we fall to our deaths. We don’t stop fighting,” said Hethios reiterating her words. “We won’t let Arien’s sacrifice be for nothing.”

“Your majesty. Hear my plan. It’s not a great one but it’s the best one we have. Our new friends can see how they can fit into it. We don’t have much time left. Come closer, all of you.” Hethios beckoned for them to come closer, spreading a chart before them which displayed a hologram of the topography between them and Reeger’s armada.

They all huddled closer and Hethios shared his detailed plan with them while they all studied the holographic image before them. The River Ruen and the Oasis were flickering in the middle of the image while large red circles represented Reeger’s armada. The island Ahren was visible in the northern section of the image and the islands of Horhen and Thorhen were visible in the southern section. The holographic image showed only a small section of the entire planet focusing on their present location and surroundings. Roue was shaking his head involuntarily by the time Hethios had finished explaining what he hoped they would do. Commander Garey had joined the group prior to the presentation as he would oversee the execution of the proposed plan.

“What a horrible, horrible plan my friend,” Roue said.

“I agree,” Hethios replied.

“So, how exactly is this going to help us win?” Roue asked.

“The strategy I simple. We win the battle in the air before Reeger has time to deploy all his fighters and drones,” Hethios answered. “If we try to defend ourselves here we will be overrun before long. He will have ground forces but those are nothing compared to our physique and hard skins. His air strikes though will be his deadliest weapon.”

“I hate it,” replied Roue, “But I can see the rationale.”

“Reeger doesn’t take prisoners, normally,” Hethios said. “It makes me wonder why he decided to take you three.”

“Well, I told you about the sword but I think Reeger thinks we all have a role to play in the fulfilment of the prophecy,” Reinon said.

“What is this prophecy I keep hearing about?!” Hethios asked.

“Another time. It doesn’t really matter now, because it was obviously a lie since Arien…” Reinon said but not daring to finish her sentence.

Hethios wanted to avoid any doubts creeping in so he quickly continued explaining his plan.

“The aim is surprise. We need to strike so quickly the dracien have no time to recover. Roue I need you in the air…the rest of you can meet their ground forces. There is a plain beside the Oasis where he is likely to deploy his forces. You wait under the cover of the trees until the fighting begins then only a small group come out into the open so Reeger can make his move.”

“He is impulsive and so of course he will want to press his advantage and destroy the small group,” Roue added beginning to see the strategy being employed by Hethios.

“Exactly. Hopefully by then we will have grounded enough of his ships to give us a large enough advantage. We know these forests better than he does. We lead enough of the dracien in there and we stand a chance to make their numbers mean less,” Hethios said.

“Okay, Elia-bi, Mato, Turo, come with me. We need to get the rest of the Vulpeculae ground forces prepared,” Roue said. He started walking out of the room before turning back to face Hethios and the Queen and smiling. “I’ll see you when we win.”

The three followed him out of the room.

The command centre begin to empty quickly soon after until only the Queen, Commander Garey, Hethios, Ti-lo and a few of the Vulpeculae needed to coordinate operations from the throne room remained.

“My queen, we cannot hope to win this battle. We failed so long ago when our muscles were younger and our numbers were greater. We will hold them off while you and a small group of our people escape to begin anew somewhere else,” Hethios said resisting the temptation to look the Queen in the eyes. There was a genuine sincerity in his voice.

“No!” the Queen replied. She seemed offended at the suggestion. “We ran then but destruction has followed us here. No matter where we go he will find us. You’ve just finished convincing me of that. We must stand and fight to avenge our son.”

“If you insist my Queen,” Hethios said conceding defeat.

“I could not bear to leave you behind so don’t ask me to. That will be worse than any fate that Reeger has planned for me.”

Hethios nodded his head and ran one of his hands on her arms letting it linger for a moment before standing up and walking toward the door, which slid open as he approached. “I will get some of the operators to come in and begin prepping the ship.”

“I will be stationed here until this is all over. Come back when you’ve finished preparations,” she answered as he walked out.

Hethios let out an audible sigh as he walked out of the door.

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