Star Blazers Worldship Saga

Chapter 1

On New Gamilon, Deslock's throne room was majestic, and of a suitably impressive size, but not overly gaudy. The walls, floor and support pillars were all the same gold color as the throne itself, but the only decoration was the gentle curve added to the pillars and ceiling. A red carpet stretched from the main doorway to the throne, with the only other color in the room being from blue video panels on the walls.

A single figure sat upon the throne, his eyes closed in memory. He did not see the room around him, but instead saw the Yamato leveling its guns as the Yamato made its final assault on his original Gamilon home world. He saw the Yamato as it responded to his SOS call, to save both him and Starsha from an unknown enemy fleet. He remembered kneeling before the bust of Captain Avatar, unable to find words to express his admiration for the man. He remembered watching the Yamato fight against fate, as the nose of the ship burst towards space, before sinking back into the waters of Aquarius.

A second figure approached him, "What troubles you this evening, Leader Deslock?"

Leader Deslock of the Gamilon Empire glanced up at the interruption. It was only Pleb, his new civilian advisor.

While most of Deslock's advisors were military stock, standing ever at attention, never failing to look dashing in their uniforms, Pleb was an idealistic civilian whose awkwardness gave away exactly how young he really was. Deslock found that he could tolerate the youth because of the one thing they had in common. Deslock was also an idealist.

"Memories, Pleb. They don't concern you." Deslock in many ways was the ideal. In addition to his strength of character, and his nobility, he was by anyone's standards extremely handsome, his neatly combed blond hair standing out sharply next to his blue skin. His own military style uniform accented his angular features perfectly

During a coup attempt two years before Deslock had been forced to reexamine his leadership style when it came to dealing with the civilian population. The civilian advisor, Pleb was a concession he had made to the members of the rebellion he had come to respect, although that had not saved them from execution. The presence of Pleb was a constant reminder of mistakes he had made, and swore never to repeat.

Pleb, eager as he was to serve, did not know when to back down. "I seek only to understand you, Leader Deslock, so that I may better help you to understand our people."

Deslock almost smiled. "Your arrogance tests me, Pleb. This day, five years ago, I watched the sinking of my greatest enemy."

"That must have pleased you, then."

"No, Pleb. It is never pleasant to watch the instrument of your reclamation die."

The answer served to confuse Pleb. Whenever he thought he had his leader figured out, he would find a few more facets to Deslock's personality. Deslock seemed cruel, ruthless, and dispassionate, on one side and caring, sympathetic, and filled with a fiery passion on the other.

Deslock's eyes snapped open at the sound of a distant rumble. "Pleb, go instruct the people to get into the shelters."

"Leader Deslock? Surely its only thunder..."

"NOW!"

Without another word, Pleb bowed and left the room, hurrying to complete his task.

Talon had the reputation for being everywhere, and having worked his way up through the ranks to being Deslock's right hand man, he worked hard to maintain that reputation. He made the rounds as often as possible, both to make sure he had the most updated information possible, and to keep the men on their toes.

The alarms began just as he entered the Planetary Defense control room. "Report what is happening!"

The officers manning the stations jumped, as much at the sound of Talon's unexpected voice as they did at the sound of the alarm. In response to their own training, they leapt directly into their jobs.

"Numerous unidentified objects are descending on the capital city."

"Launch Fighters. Identify the objects immediately, how many are there exactly?"

The radar officer did a quick count, "Twenty-- No, Thirty of them."

"Our fighters are on the way."

While another officer took all of the available information from the scanners and performed a few quick calculations. "They appear to be a type of assault shuttle... based on mass, speed and size, they are only holding half their cargo capacity."

"We are reading incoming fighters."

Talon glared at the radar screens and other readouts. He knew what they reported, but didn't believe his eyes. "Incoming from where? How did they breach our defenses?"

The radar officer turned to him looking just as confused. "They are just appearing out of nowhere."

It wasn't impossible, that Talon knew. The Gamilons themselves had a device called SMITE which was capable of instantly transporting planes, missiles or mines from one location to another. Talon himself had used it, but never for a planetary assault. Some form of stealth technology could not be ruled out either.

The plot map on the main view panel was instantly replaced with the image of Deslock's face. "Talon. What is happening?"

Talon came to attention. "Leader Deslock. We are under attack. Our fighters are currently engaging thirty assault shuttles with fighter support, launched by an unknown enemy, from an unknown location."

"How is this possible?"

"We are still investigating, but I suspect the enemy may have access to a SMITE device."

Although his face was impassive, Deslock's eyes narrowed at the news. "Send out our troops and tanks. The enemy must not get a foothold on Gamilon soil."

"At once, Leader Deslock." Just as quickly, Deslock's image disappeared from the view panel.

The Gamilons were a race of warriors, so when the shuttles touched down the people rushed out to face their attackers. They threw bottles, bricks, or even mud at the invaders. The attacks made by the civilians were just as ineffective against the invaders as it would have been if they had been armed.

The shuttles carried elite shock troops, the Death Wolves. They wore gold armor, and carried large rifles that were as much for show as firepower. Their helmets had elongated noses that gave them a wolf like appearance, complete with ominous red eyes.

One by one they stepped out of the shuttle. The first of them having to take a half step back as a brick hit his helmet. Raising his gun, he fired several shots into the crowd. Each shot claimed a victim.

Panicked, the crowd dispersed, running through the city.

The Death Wolves did not peruse the running people, instead they spread out and systematically began moving throughout the city.

They entered each house or building, going through each room. They were not gone long before they each returned to their shuttles. Each individual Death Wolf herding a man, woman, or family back into the shuttle.

At the first sign of an organized counter attack by the Gamilon forces, the recall signal was sent to the Death Wolves.

Each of the assault shuttles carrying not only their compliment of Death Wolves, but also filled with civilian prisoners, quickly lifted back off the planet.

Report after report flooded into the Gamilon control room. Talon and General Peck, in charge of Defense, sorted through them as best they could. It was, at best, total chaos.

"Enemy shuttles climbing..."

"Fighters still engaged..."

"All reports are the same. Each shuttle landed, took as many civilian hostages as possible, and left at the first sign of counterattack."

"Home fleet moving to intercept... Home Fleet has just disengaged!!

"My God!"

The control room was consumed by a sudden silence as all eyes looked to the main view panel which now showed the orbital view of the planet. Where only seconds before had been empty space, a huge space fortress waited, collecting the shuttles.

Over the years, Talon had delivered bad news to Deslock on numerous occasions. He was never able to predict how his leader would react, or respond, to the news. The only thing to do was to give the news, then wait and see. So Talon, flanked by Peck and the rest of Deslock's generals, waited.

Out of the corner of his eye, Talon noticed Pleb keeping to the sideline, which was proper. This was a military matter, the youth had no jurisdiction except in civilian affairs.

Deslock listened to the report calmly, eyes closed, with his back turned to his Generals, lest some hint of emotion show. This was a crisis, and weakness would not be allowed. Gamilon was once again at war. He turned sharply, his red and black cape snapping to give an added flare to his movements.

"This is the supreme insult!" Deslock seethed, "Dispatch the Home Fleet at once! Track them down. Recover our people. Once our people are safe, I want no enemy left alive."

Off to the side, Pleb's own face held an expression of the same righteous anger. He nodded support of Deslock's words in spite of himself.

General Auctor stepped forward. "We are tracking the enemy fortress, Leader Deslock. It is heading towards the Human planet Earth, perhaps they are the ones who launched this attack."

Deslock spoke. "I cannot believe that the Humans are behind this."

Auctor bowed his head in deference to his leader's opinion, "Then, with General Peck's approval, I will order the Home Fleet to intercept at once."

"Leader Deslock," Peck ventured, "I hesitate to point out but sending the Home Fleet away will leave our home world open to attack."

"Apparently, we were already open to attack, General. And I expect you all to discover how they were able to evade our early warning systems so that this will never happen again.

"Send out the Home Fleet to challenge the fortress directly, but send another ship directly to Earth. That ship is to make absolutely sure the humans are not behind this, and to warn them that the fortress is headed their way. But above all, the humans are not to destroy the fortress while our people are still aboard."