Galactic Alliance

Chapter 66 Commander Temo Halfer

Chapter 66

Commander Temo Halfer

Planet: Gyann

Blood had drenched my uniform, yet I wasn't injured. Many had been slaughter by the rampaging horde and we had dealt much savagery on the strange mix of beasts who were vying for our death. We could still hear them stomping around above us frantically searching the toxic wasteland for us.

The last of us who had survived the onslaught, had found sanctuary in an underground mine. Shorty had said that the pit was probably disused, and had been one of Egren Palander great excavations, where he had gotten his scientists to search for undiscovered minerals.

Elia was sitting numbly on the muddy ground of the cavern, her face spattered with blood. I knew the horrors she had seen on Karus and now witnessing a hording mob of beasts again, had left her traumatised.

Shorty and two Tyvorian troopers, where the only other survivors of our party. The first of the Tyvorians was strong and fearless, he had slain by far the most beasts in the skirmish and had been reluctant to seek shelter in the mine shaft. The second trooper was tall but skinny, with a nervous look of apprehension constantly etched across his spotty face, he was the quickest to follow Shorty into the hideaway, once the small Tyvorian had located the entrance.

"I've found a pathway." Said the courageous Shorty, as he shone the light from the top of his pistol into the darkness.

"Elia we have to move." I explained, as I bent down and grabbed Elia by the arm.

"I can't." Trembled Elia. "All that death again."

"If we don't move it will be our death as well." I informed her as I pulled Elia to her feet. "We have to keep moving."

"I haven't ever seen anyone die before." Moaned the Skinny Tyvorian resting against the cavern wall, in darkness.

"I don't want to see anymore die today." I said as we walked past him. "Hey Hero." I called ahead into the darkness at the fearless looking Tyvorian.

"Yes, Commander." He obediently replied as he came before me.

"Take care of our skinny friend here." I ordered as I gestured towards the wall where the scared trooper was frozen in shock. "I'll have no more deaths on my conscious today."

"Yes, Commander." Agreed the muscle bound trooper.

Shorty led the way through the winding passageways of abandoned and disused shafts, returning to a crossroads whenever the way forward had been blocked by a collapsed tunnel. Elia had started to recover from the shock of the skirmish, but the skinny Tyvorian was still being reluctantly dragged alone by the hero of the hour.

The muscle bound Tyvorian, had such a fearlessness about him in the fight with the mob, that he had put my own combat skills to shame. I doubted that without his bravery we would not have survived the waves of monsters at all.

"What's your name soldier?" I asked as I held back to help him with the burden of the skinny Tyvorian.

"Brakous, Sir." He replied, with his arm around his comrade.

"Where have you fought before, Brakous?" I asked, as I flung my arm around the skinny Tyvorians body to help Brakous with his slender weight.

"Nowhere Sir, we've just finished our training in the academy." Explained Brakous.

"That's some natural talent for combat you showed back their Brakous." I praised.

"Thank you, Sir." Acknowledged Brakous.

"If only your comrade here, showed a sniff of your bravery." I say nodding my head towards the skinny Tyvorian.

"All our friends are dead." He mutters.

"We called him Shaky in the academy Sir." Explained Brakous. "But that was only because of his aim with his rifle."

"Well it sounds like the perfect name now." I chuckle.

We continued down deeper into the mine shaft, with Shorty and Elia taking the lead followed by Brakous and I carrying the traumatised Shaky between us. Our darken view only illuminated by the light on our weapons, suddenly radiated ahead of us in the distance, as we rounded a bend in the pathway.

"What is it?" I heard Elia ask in front of us.

"The way out." Replied Shorty as he raced forward towards the glow at the end of the shaft.

"Wait." I cried, but it was too late, the short Tyvorian had bounded hastily forward towards the light.

"What is it Commander?" Enquired Brakous.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look like any natural light from the surface." I surmised.

"It must be what they were down here mining for." Pondered Elia, as we reached her stationary position.

"Maybe, but then why did they leave it here?" I wondered.

We could see the light of Shorty's weapon heading towards the illumination in the distance ahead of us. The touch flickered on and off as it neared the brightness, then it was the screams of the short Tyvorian that echoed back down the shaft towards us.