Chapter 26 - Meeting The Enemy

As Jet Dixon and Queen Jara emerged from the Science Laboratory, they were greeted by the sight of a contingent of Wingwomen.  These soldiers opened fire on the Earthman, not realizing until too late that their monarch accompanied him.Jet instinctively dropped to the floor, and an unceremonious shove put Jara down there as well. The blasts of the electrorifles sailed over their heads.

“Hold your fire!” Jara barked.She brushed some the hair that had fallen over her tiara and onto her face. She tilted her heard up to eye her soldiers.She was well-aware of how un-regal she appeared.

“Y.. Your Majesty,” the Wingwomen sergeant stammered.style="mso-spacerun: yes">  “We had no idea that it was you who was coming out.”   She leveled her rifle at Jet.   “Now we shall destroy your captor.”

Jara rose to her feet and dusted herself off.  Jet had already sprung up and was ready to engage in some fisticuffs – gentlemanly behavior cast aside.“Hold, I say,” Jara repeated.“The Earthman is now our ally.Come.”   She lifted her head in the arrogant way known to royalty across the universe.   “We must get to the launch bays. Jet Dixon will fly in defense of Archaeopolis today!”

“Shyar!   Shyar!  Shyar!” the Wingwomen chanted as they hurried through the halls.   Jet joined in, so as not to offend these trigger-happy warriors.

Outside of Archaeopolis, the Kallusian rocket fleet was already engaged in combat with the defenses of the sky city.The electrotowers were unleashing waves of deadly force, but the Kallusian fleet was simply too massive.The sky was filled with rocketships closing in on the city.

In his flagship at the rear of the task force, the infamous ruler of the planet Atla, High King Kallos, watched his fleet fall upon the city.   His hand moved along his sinister goatee, which served only to heighten his nefarious appearance.   “With Archaeopolis in my control at last, all of Atla will truly be under my heel.”  He barked orders to his crew, reminding them to keep the fleet from firing for now.He was cruel, but he was not stupid.If Archaeopolis and its all-important Shield Generator were destroyed, all life on Atla would come to a very quick end.

While Dr. Harkov and the Shyar scientists continued to work on the Shield Generator, Dawn Revere watched the battle unfold on a visorscope.   She saw the countless bullet-shaped Kallusian rockets coming ever closer to the city. Here and there rockets dropped from the sky as the electrotowers found their mark, but there were more than enough to take the place of the fallen.

The view of the visorscope changed to show the launching of the powerfully though decidedly smaller Shyar fleet.These ships sported blue and green colors, as opposed to the Kallusian red and gold.   Also, the side wings of the Shyar were of a stylized feather design.

Dawn noted one Shyar ship that jerked and twisted slightly.   “That must be Jet trying to get a feel for the controls,” she thought.“Be safe, darling.”

Jet was finding the controls to the Shay rocket not too dissimilar to the Kallusian ship he had appropriated not long ago.  It was a little more lightweight, so the control responses were not as forgiving.“Guess I gotta use a lighter touch,” he grinned.Pushing a lever down, he revved up the atomic engine and sprang out of the Shyar V-shaped formation.Some angry words came over the radiophone from the group leader, but Jet paid her no mind.   He wasn’t schooled in their battle tactics, so there wasn’t any point in trying to learn it now. He would just employ his skills to try to stay alive,

“Your Highness!” Kallos’ pilot called back to the rear of the flagship.   “Shyar rockets have launched.   May we engage them?”

“Heh, heh, heh,” Kallos chuckled.“So Jara is genuinely trying to stand up to me this time, putting her precious Wingwomen at risk.”

“Your Grandness?”

“By all means!” Kallos proclaimed.“Destroy the Shyar fleet!”

The pilot picked up his radiophone and relayed the order to the Kallusian task force.“Destroy all Shyar rockets, by order of the High King Kallos.”

Electrocannons blazed to life, unleashing a torrent of destructive energy upon the Shyar fleet.  When Jet saw the cannons begin to fire, he put his rocket into a steep dive.That saved him from the certain destruction that visited a significant portion of the Archaeopolitan defenders.He reached over and activated his own plasma guns.Markings on the rocket’s plexiglass shield showed him his target.   Streams of high-energy plasma streaked out and bore a massive hole through a Kallusian ship. Jet pushed the engine to the max to drive his rocket directly into the midst of the Kallusian fleet.

“Let’s see how good these Kallusian flyboys are!”