The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

heavily armoured arm. The youth reeled back like a rag doll, and would have nearly struck his head against the wall had it not been for the timely reaction of the Major, who caught him in a flash and thus averted this almost inevitable doom. The guarron came at them in a flash, baring its canine teeth like a hungry wolf.

Sasia saw all this as in a dream, for it happened extremely quickly. In a strange euphoria, intoxicated by the adrenaline rush, she held her breath for a second, took aim and fired, grazing the beast right in the back of the head. The monster's massive green head burst open like a ripe watermelon, and blood and shards of brain splattered Keith and the Major, who were a few feet away.

Sasia wasn't thinking of anything else at that moment.

The battle of life and death was over.

 

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- 'Let's go! We have no time to waste!,' Keith picked her up off the ground before she came to her senses.

- 'Who are you?,' asked Sasia as they ran, trying not to make her question sound deliberate.

- 'Well, it's more like we, my girl, should be asking you who you are!,' the Major snarled, trying to keep up their pace.

- 'Lieutenant Sasia Leshond of the Royal Navy, pilot of a Destroyer-Class Battle speeder,' the girl recited almost in one breath.

As soon as they heard her quick opening tirade the two men, despite running to avoid enemy shots, looked at her with some respect.

- 'That explains your accurate shooting, my lady,' Keith addressed her a little more flatteringly. 'You might say you saved our lives,' he added.

- 'Cut that crap,' Major said in her typical flowery style, 'We can't just go around hiding forever. We need to form some sort of plan of action, because you can see that things have started to get quite...'

He would have continued his rambling if Keith hadn't squeezed his hand in time.

- 'Let's at least introduce ourselves to this worthy lady, Jerry,' Keith said breathlessly as they ran from one cover to another.

- 'All right then,' agreed the Major with some reluctance. 'I'm Jerry Ketrol, Major of the 2nd Infantry Division, which is currently supposed to be defending this proooclet camp.

The Major pronounced the penultimate word at length, for he stumbled, tripping over a clod of earth.

Meanwhile, while this conversation had been going on, the monstrous creatures had managed to open a hole in the camp's massive defensive walls wide enough for them to enter, even mounted by the monstrous GRoyandus.

- 'We need to get to the hangars, or we may soon be pancakes,' Sasia replied.

The three of them looked at each other and could only manage a glance. Sasia was the only one of them capable of flying an aerial vehicle, and they, being infantrymen, would provide her with the cover she needed to reach them, unless of course the hideous lizard-like creatures reduced them to ashes with their primitive but far from harmless means of combat.

Sasia turned the corner, letting them sort themselves out as best they could, for time was running out on them like sand in a clock. The situation was hopeless indeed. In the commotion she, being a pretty good physiognomist, recognized the torn bodies of dead young pilots. Ironically, some of them had visited old Uncle Zengar's pub the night before, and it had played a rather bad joke on them. Blood! Puddles of blood!

Sasia knew that the hangars were no more than two hundred meters away, but crossing them proved to be a living hell. There were burst barrels of interron fuel rolling all over the base, already burning heavily. Apparently the hideous creatures possessed enough intelligence to use them for their intended purpose and to destroy what was left of this nest of human civilization.

The young woman didn't have much time to think, however, as a large guarron riding a huge gRoyandus nearly swept her away. He sped past her like a movie, but fortunately didn't notice her at all. Was it the flames that caused this, or was it just that the guarrons had poor eyesight by nature?

Sasia crawled forward with all her strength. Inch by inch. Debris flew over her head and fragmented gunshots sounded.

'They won't survive long. They just don't stand a chance,' she thought.

The hangars were close now, but here was a new obstacle in front of her. There were already three large GRoyandus at the entrance, but the Guarron riders were nowhere to be seen, or at least Sasia couldn't make them out amidst the flames and thick smoke engulfing the base.

It was unthinkable to attempt entry through the parade entrance. Then she remembered that, as an officer with a secret card, she had also been shown a secret passage through which she could enter the hangar in secret. 'Worth a try,' she told herself.

Reaching that secret passage, however, was by no means easy. Adjacent to the soldiers' quarters was a special prefabricated pumping station for water, or rather for a substrate from which, after elaborate processing, water was extracted. Sasia decided to try this last way out before the enemy finally cut off absolutely all possible exits.

The problem was that in her partially chaotic wandering, Sasia had left him a little out of her way. Now she had to make a small turn, but orientation was a big problem. With the plasma weapons firing continuously, any, even momentary, rise from the ground would mean mortal danger. The girl wondered what to do, as she clearly realized that the salvation of all three depended on it.

Then suddenly she felt something was killing her. Sasia somehow slipped her hand under her belly to check if she was injured. All sorts of crazy thoughts went through her mind. However, she soon realized that she was lying on a barely noticeable manhole in the ground. ‘Apparently this is the only way to escape,’ she thought, opening the hatch and darkness enveloped her.

 

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Twisted in two, Sasia crawled into the narrow shaft, which was quite oxygen-poor, and she could clearly sense this even through the filters of her suit. It was a good thing her suit still had some reserves, or she would surely have suffocated.

She had to make it through this last obstacle, this narrow tunnel, at all costs, otherwise it might turn into her coffin once the debris from the half-destroyed base littered the hatch she had entered through. Of that there could be no doubt. The way could only be forward!

Though she had curled up in a relatively safe haven for the moment, Sasia could hear the rumble of the battle above, and she could already sense quite clearly that the end was near. The maiden did not let these unhappy thoughts enter her head, but on the contrary redoubled her zeal and crawled into the narrow dungeon, reminiscent of an infernal intestine, with even more gusto and verve. After about twenty meters, she heard a gasp, so quiet that if it weren't for her phenomenal senses, she might not have even paid attention to it.

From the main tunnel began a fork, like a small alcove that seemed to have a person in it. Sasia strained, but try as she might she could make out nothing more than a blurry silhouette.

- 'Imagine right away who you are,' she said fiercely, pointing her army plasma pistol at the alcove.

A second later a man whose face was very familiar to her emerged from there. He was of a somewhat indeterminate age, but in any case far from being in his prime, the expression on his face resembling some sort of slight and odd smile, even as the man was completely serious, his single eye looking at her questioningly.

- 'Zengar One-eyed - at your service, madam,' he snapped, quite unceremoniously.

Sasia felt as if her world was spinning, but she had to bear with this man's somewhat irritating nature.

- 'What are you doing here,' she hissed. She was about to add 'I thought you were a hologram' but refrained, realizing how silly and inappropriate such a statement would be in this case.'

- 'The same as you, madam. I'm guarding my life, or at least trying to.,' he said with a certain amount of insolence in his voice.

- 'If you're here then you know where this tunnel leads, don't you?,' Sasia cut to the chase.

- Moreover, madam, I am even prepared to take you personally to Labour Colony 206. But it won't be for free.

Sasia was stunned. It was possible that the vile little slug was bluffing. His quirky appearance alone didn't inspire much confidence in her. What if he attacked her in the back. On the other hand, she had no choice but to trust him, at least until they got out of this damned tunnel.

- 'All right,' she replied after a brief pause, 'what do you want in return?'

- 'Ah, not like that,' he replied with a wry smile, 'change your tone to a kinder one and show at least a small show of  trust. After all, we can both help each other to get out of this hell.'

- 'What are your terms?,' asked Sasia, softer this time.

- 'That's better now,' the strange man murmured reassuringly.

The shortness of breath in the tunnel had begun to become intolerable to Sasia as well, and it was clear that the oxygen in her protective suit was now about to run out. If they didn't at least get to the surface, they wouldn't survive.

- 'I want you to take me with you to Rodwell,' the one shouted, neither in wedge nor sleeve.

This puzzled Sasia even more.

- 'How do you know about this?,' she stammered.

- 'I overheard something of your conversation with General Zengal,' the other sneered.

- What if I refuse?

- 'Then we'll both die,' pronounced Zengar, now quite serious.

LABOUR COLONY 206

 

'Everything will be all right in the end, if it's not all right, then it's not the end.'

unknown author

 

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It felt like an eternity had passed. Pindor had fallen into oblivion. He didn't even know if he was awake or dreaming. If this was truly a dream, he'd rather never wake up from it again. Sinking into a reverie, he saw a light similar to the one usually said to be ‘at the end of the tunnel’.

There was a squeak. The massive hydron door opened.

- 'Come on, get up, Philosopher,' came the throaty voice of a warder, 'time to tell us about yours, how was it? 'Truculents?' he uttered with a disgusted stammer on the last syllable.

- 'Slow down, livelier, we haven't got all day, yeah,' the guards were saying as they removed the magnetic bracelets from his arms.

They did this rather rudely and somewhat clumsily, for they themselves felt the strain of the situation, but the Philosopher offered no resistance, moreover, he seemed unable to come out of the stupor that had seized him at all.

The initiator of this whole circus was, of course, Viar. Acustro had to be convinced that he was in control of the situation, or the consequences for everyone could prove unpredictable. And in the 'language of the colony' that meant 'fatal'.

Viar's point was more than simple. His goal was to frame a culprit for the alleged escape plot, but to make it appear by no