Earth Is Mine

Chapter 34

"Commander Q, what are your squadrons doing here?" A voice comes through transmission and I still briefly. For a second I thought it was Lazarus. 

"Squadrons, stand down. I repeat stand down. We have been lied to. Our best interests lie with General Lucian not---." 

Commander Q fiddles frantically with the monitor but the line remains dead. 

"They cut us off," He turns to us, shrugging hopelessly. 

"Hopefully, they heard enough," Luna murmurs and all of us turn to the carnage just out side Earth's atmosphere. 

Shards of metal scraps float almost everywhere, some of them graze our ship and I notice the jagged edges are tinged with ash. We move through the mess, slowly and in anticipation. The abundance of metal only tells me that we are getting closer. 

"General Lucian is on Earth. So is Lazarus," Deneb alerts us and my heart starts beating frantically in my chest. 

Soon the sound of bullets and laser beams reach our ears and we find ourselves facing the battle outside Earth's atmosphere. 

We dive in without wasting a second as Luna shouts instructions to our side while Commander Q does the same to his.

The only problem is that his transmission has been disabled. 

I grit my teeth in frustration as we weave through Plutonian space ships and start shooting at them. However, Commander Q's squad fires to immobilise the opposing ships not destroy them. 

It's obvious he doesn't want to kill any of his soldiers even though some of them have started to pursue us. 

This unanticipated turn of events causes some confusion among st the ships here and almost all of them cease fire momentarily. 

The transmission to our ship crackles suddenly and I almost burst into happiness when Pollux is able to hack through. 

"Speak now Commander Q. Before they shut us off again." 

Commander Q does as told and when he is done, for a second the sky is bathed in darkness. No more laser beams, no more explosions only the light from Earth and the distant stars. 

Everyone is in hesitation. 

This brief moment of peace is finally interrupted by the crackling of our transmission systems. 

"Commander Q and his squadrons have betrayed the empire. Shoot them down. Kill every last alien and Plutonian who is against us. They are a detriment to our cause and our very existence," Lazarus's sharp voice fills up our entire control room and the hair on the back of my neck raises. 

I turn to Luna only to see her staring at me as well. Her eyes are filled with worry but I am unsure who she is more worried for. 

Lazarus or Lucian.

She turns away but I catch the guilt in her eyes anyway. 

The battle in outer space ensues for longer than I'd anticipated and it is much worse when my fingers are empty. The soldiers here take over the thrusters and shoot down our enemy while I can only watch. 

My hands twitch to hold on to something useful but all I can do is stare and pray that we make it out of this. I don't realise that I am shaking until a small, furry hand curls around my own. 

I look down to see Vix and squeeze his hand in response. It feels like a sponge and it seems to absorb all my angst and worries. I hold on to Vix and the peace he seems to radiate as we watch the Plutonian soldiers do what they do best; fight.