Title: King's Opening
Rating: PG-13/R
Category: M/L, M/M, Ky/I
Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell and I never have. Don't sue me, I'm just a poor college student, you wouldn't get anything anyway.
Summary: Part One of the Battlefield Antar series. The group is summoned to Antar after a year roaming the US in their battered VW van.
Chapter 27 – Launch the Attack
As the sun rose, four men sucked in their breath while four watches beeped softly. Four men shouted orders to their men. Four divisions of the Antar Royal Army rushed forward towards Skyview Castle.
Inside the castle, Erik and his men discreetly allowed the shields to fall for enough time so that the approaching army could make it to the castle walls, then began fighting their way towards the courtyard.
The weapons they carried were sophisticated laser guns. Max, Michael, and Kyle had spent hours being taught how to use the guns before they left the Resistance compound. They also carried small devices that created an invisible shield much like the green on Max could create around their bodies. For desperate situations, they all carried medium-sized swords, except for Max, who carried the royal sword.
In their leather pants and flowing shirts with swords at their sides, they looked every inch the old-world hero, except for the guns they carried.
Max and his men reached the castle wall easily and began to climb. The wall was high, but Max knew they could make it. They'd drilled with higher walls than this. The sun had just barely crept fully above the horizon line when Max and the first wave of his division reached the top of the wall and climbed onto the parapet behind it. They met with little resistance, easily put down, until they began to take various routes to the courtyard.
Defensive fire rained down on Kyle and his men. Or at least that's how it felt to Kyle. He supposed that Michael was experiencing worse, but Kyle had never fought a war before, and it seemed to him that there were an awful lot of little flashes in front of his face indicating that another laser beam had been deflected by his shield.
"Man, I thought the bad guys weren't supposed to be able to hit the broadside of a barn," he grumbled as a flash appeared right in front of his head. He returned fire, as did the rest of his division. Soon the defensive fire lessened, and Kyle gave the order to scale the walls.
Michael could barely see through the laser flashes hitting his personal shield.
"Hold the line!" he yelled. "Return fire!"
Kneeling, he began to shoot at the defenders above the main gate of the castle. The sound of the battle was deafening. He was surprised he could hear himself think, let alone that his men could hear the orders he gave, however loud he shouted them.
Slowly Michael's men made it to the huge doors of the castle gate. With a quarter of the division still picking off defenders for cover, the rest of the division pointed their guns at the doors.
"On my order," Michael yelled, aiming his gun. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that this was what he was born for. "Three, two, one...FIRE!"
As his division of soldiers broke through the back door, Liam allowed himself a moment to think of Max, Michael, and Kyle. He wondered how they were managing. Concentrating for a moment, he determined that they were all still alive, at least. Drawing small comfort from that, he turned his mind back to the battle.
"Split!" he shouted to his men over the din of battle. Following the plan, his division split into three groups and headed for the courtyard following different paths. He turned to the right and headed down a narrow corridor.
In the control room, the colonel put in charge of the castle shouted into a communicator.
"Dammit, HQ, we're under attack here! Do you copy?"
"We copy," a monotone voice answered. "The CIC has been informed and will be in the Com Center shortly."
"I don't need the commander-in-chief shortly, I need him now!"
At that moment the commander-in-chief walked in and grabbed the com link.
"Colonel Forester, this is General Maikos, what's your situation?"
"Sir, we're under a full-blown attack by the royal forces. They're coming from all sides, we can't hold them."
Maikos swore softly. There was nothing to be done. But Forester didn't need to know that quite yet. Besides, there were a few checks he could make before giving the surrender order.
"Keep fighting, don't let go. I'll get some people checking on a few units stat and get back to you."
"Yes, sir."
The communication was disconnected. Maikos turned to the nearest soldier.
"Get Daimtos in here and for God's sake make sure Kivar doesn't hear about this from anyone but me or Daimtos!"
The soldier nodded and ran to find the head of intelligence.
Kivar slept in his bed in what had formerly been Zan's quarters. He did not sleep peacefully, however. His dreams were haunted by the faces of the royal family, both new and old. He saw them in Skyview Castle, then the palace in Antarina, the royal flag flying proudly behind them. He saw Max, Michael, and Isabel as they had been on Isabel's honeymoon. He saw Vilandra, giving up her family for him and then losing everything. He saw Isabel refusing to do the same. The images condensed into one, and his dreams were filled with her.
He knew nothing of the battle that raged elsewhere in his kingdom.
A tall, thin man woke to the sounds of battle. Without hurry or fuss he rose from his bed and reached for his clothes. Pulling them on, he calmly went to his tiny closet. From it he pulled out the pieces of the Antarian version of a sniper's rifle. He sat down on the bed, quickly and efficiently assembling the weapon. Then he left the room.
Serena and Christiana walked into the control room back at the Resistance compound and immediately realized that the battle was in full swing.
"You didn't call us when it started!" Serena said accusingly.
"We didn't want to wake you," Nikolai tried.
"Not good enough!" Serena snapped. "You knew we wanted to be here, I should have known you'd try and pull some macho over-protective crap."
"Calm down, Rena," Christiana said quietly. "You can ream them out later, once we've won the battle."
Serena nodded. She turned back to Nikolai. "You're just lucky the rest of the girls didn't want to come with us."
Nikolai fought to control his temper. "You actually asked them? They wouldn't like it in here."
"Which is why they said they didn't want to come." Serena slid into her seat in front of a com screen. "It took me three tries to get Liz's attention. She was just staring out at the sunrise."
Liz still stared at the eastern sky, all her thoughts focused on the feel of Max's soul still connected to hers.
A/N – Sorry for the delay, I kept meaning to post and never got around to it. The battle goes on…how're the nerves? (lol) Almost done…then on to story #2! *whew* ~~Liz