ASSAULT OF THE TELDA
by
Lauren A. Johnson
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Assault of the Telda
Copyright © 2010 by Lauren A. Johnson
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
* * * * *
Lovo raced down the long glideway, chasing her target. Even though the moving sidewalk moved on its own, she had to catch up as quickly as she could. Four men were with her mark, protecting him. The five criminals ran into an old building, she and the other warriors followed her. When they entered the broken down lobby of the office building they were met with the four bodyguards, but there was no sign of the objective.
When the warriors could see the door to the stairs closing shut; they realized he was running upstairs. Mallobo nodded at Lovo for her to keep chasing the man up the stairs. She left the warriors to deal with the body guards. While they fought the guards she chased the man into a room with a blocked exit. The man cried as he tried to trip the high tech lock but gave up when he saw her standing in the doorway. She was one of the legendary Deltorian Warriors, her athletic and tall shape walked into the office; she had barely broken into a sweat. It was then that the man realized that he didn’t have a chance of escape the moment she saw him on the street.
Lovo’s eyes normally were brown with flecks of gold, but in the shadow of the purple moonlight that flooded the large windows, her eyes looked black. She unsheathed her dagger and pressed it against the neck of the Deltorian man. The man was dressed in business attire the shade of his bronze colored skin was almost the same as hers. He was sweating and gasping for air, he was out of plans.
“Some time ago the Queen was almost attacked by a group of protestors at a rally in the city of Buran.” As Lovo explained Mallobo and Trystan walked up behind Lovo to join her. Dajus turned on her communicator to have her Magma Unit arrive to pick up the other prisoners.
“I don’t know what…” The man began to stutter.
“You’re name is Trelo is it not?” Lovo pressed her dagger closer.
“Yes, that is me, but…”
“Hey now, what a coincidence you see, Trelo is the same name of the man who provided the funds and resources for these protestors, who call themselves the Teldas, who conspired to attack the queen. He also fits your description perfectly.” Lovo put her face closer to his. “So you see, there is no but… there is no mistake. Just you, me and my friends back here.”
“An attack which we stopped, because, we’re just that good. You might as well answer her questions, you made her chase you, she doesn’t like that.” Mallobo said as he folded his arms. Mallobo took a seat in an old chair while he let Lovo finish questioning the man. He was always laid back and casual.
“No. No! The Teldas, they came to me.”
The purple moonlight filled parts of the dark office. Lovo shook her head in disgust at the man; she put away her blade and pointed her gun at the man. “This is called a Calcu-gun, try to run and I’ll shoot you with it.”
“It breaks every bone in your body so, if I were you I’d do as she says. I almost hope that you don’t, we haven’t used it in awhile, some upgrades were made to it.” Mallobo pushed his blonde hair out of his face.
The three turned to leave with their prisoner through the abandoned office complex. They walked through the previously guarded room that they fought their way through. They weren’t shocked to come up against a room filled with trained Vekos since that seemed to be the creature of choice to train to kill in their previous battles. Vekos in their own environment on the planet Vada are violent but once taken out of the wild these shape shifting creatures can be trained to attack whatever the trainer wants them to attack. Their dusty red skin, vacant black eyes and sharp teeth gave all the warriors a hard time since they were tiny and quick. But with Mallobo’s Nilo Blade he was able to cut them down quicker than usual due his blade’s ability to produce fire.
The last warrior Dajus stood down the hall from everyone else in the dark of the night. The purple moonlight cast eerie shadows through the windows and in the shadows is where she chose to stand. “Hey now, are you ready to go?” Lovo asked still holding her gun on her captive.
While Dajus answered Trystan was trailing behind and he noticed that there should have been more Veko corpses left behind. He looked up to Dajus who still walked in the shadows.
‘She didn’t have that bag before.’ He thought. ‘What was she doing while we were talking to Trelo?’
The next morning before the interrogation of their prisoner started. Trystan stood on the balcony as he watched the first enviromentalizer for Deltor launch in the air. It would seem that the radicals who called themselves the Teldas felt as if they were the ones to speak up and do something about the Planetary Alliance’s influence on Deltor, but the deed was already done. The Queen signed the treaty more than month ago.
Trystan had mixed feelings about Deltor joining the Planetary Alliance, but he was not a political figure, and had no say in the decisions of his planet’s government. His concerns were shared with his colleagues and fellow Deltorian Warriors. They were the only ones of their kind, four warriors who were born and drawn to protect the Queen of Deltor. Astrology and their powers is what connects them to one another. Dajus walked up behind him and watched the people clap and cheer.
“The launch was a success, I see.” Dajus remarked.
Trystan was uncomfortable around Dajus, she was very ill. And he couldn’t figure what was in the bag that she had the other night. A while ago during a battle, she was diseased by an enemy known as the Skyro. No one could ever tell if they were talking to Dajus or if they were talking to the Skyro part of herself. The warriors have a deep admiration and respect for one another, but this changed subconsciously in all of the warriors when Dajus became ill. Her infection is unprecedented and therefore there is no cure.
“Yes.” Trystan slinked past her to join Mallobo and Lovo in the apartment the four shared in their own section of the palace. He tried desperately to figure out just what was so strange about last night’s mission. He walked into the main room as the decoration of the neon smoke drifted about inside the walls. Sometimes the setting could be changed to rain or a sunrise or a sunset, but a few weeks back everyone agreed on the color changing smoke.
After a short while of relaxing the four found Trelo in a near panic in the interrogation room, a room they rarely used. Lovo and Trystan sat across from Trelo while Mallobo and Dajus watched on a vid-screen in another room.
“So, Trelo of Kitnar, what makes you think you’re above the queen? What gives you the right, you and your group of Teldas, to attack the queen and tell her what’s best for this world?” Lovo was angry. She couldn’t imagine what kind of a reason anyone would want to destroy the peaceful society that they worked so hard to obtain.
Trelo cleared his throat before speaking, “You must understand, I gave those people my money to g
et something back, I…” Trelo started to confess but stopped. “I can’t.”
Lovo was starting to lose her patience, “The penalty for treason is death, do you want to die Trelo?”
Just as Lovo was pressing harder, Mallobo received a call. After the call was over he walked into the interrogation room and pulled Lovo to the side.
“Missing?” Lovo said shocked.
“Yep, his whole family, if I were to guess I’d say Trelo here is a pawn. I suggest we hook this guy to lead us to he’s following. He gets his orders from someone.” Mallobo explained.
Lovo returned to the interrogation room and made her offer to Trelo. “Tell us where the next hit will be and we’ll help rescue your family.”
She could see the light of hope gleam in Trelo’s eyes; he tried to fix his disheveled business clothes and sat up straight. “They do not tell me anything.”
“They must have a way of contacting you.”
“Yes, while I sleep, or when I daydream. The Teldas come to me, as a layman I can only guess that they’re either using high rate technology or…” Trelo hesitated he looked behind Lovo and the feeling of numbness ran through him. Lovo looked behind her to see what he was looking at, but there was nothing there.
Dajus gasped, because she could see what Trelo saw. A mass of dark energy towered behind Lovo although the warriors could not sense or see it, Trelo and Dajus could. “I can only tell you that they will attack the Cerliquan Arts Hall within a few hours.”
While the warriors got ready to depart with their weapons and soldiers, Dajus threw on her light grey and lavender colored jacket and listened to the other warriors talking as they prepared to leave. Lovo holstered her calcu-gun and zipped her black jacket.
“It doesn’t make any sense.” She declared.
“What doesn’t?” Mallobo asked taking a seat. He was always the first one standing by to leave.
“So far the Teldas have been attacking political functions or places related to politics, Cerliquan Arts is a entertainment venue, we checked the schedule, the only political figure there tonight is the leader of one of the smaller colonies, he has nothing to do with the Planetary Alliance Treaty.” Lovo picked up her go bag and looked at the others for a response.
Mallobo shook his head, “It doesn’t matter, when we find them we can ask them.”
Dajus blinked slowly and casually looked over to Trystan’s direction surprised to see him looking back at her. ‘How long has he been watching me? Why is he watching me? He knows. He knows that I can see that creature that was stalking Trelo.’ Dajus didn’t know what to make of the large mass of energy she saw in the interrogation room, but she knew it was directly linked with her connection to the Skyro. Who was suspiciously being silent at the moment. ‘Normally she’s so chatty. She picks today of all days to be silent.’
Dajus’ stomach pained her, Deltorian stomachs did not growl like a human does, but she did look a shade lighter than her normal shade of deep brown. When the warriors arrived on the scene everything was normal and peaceful. They nor their soldiers could find anything wrong or suspicious. Dajus walked to the balcony of the building and from there she could see movement down the road. Dajus hopped onto the newly installed glideway, a gift from Xanar and made her way towards the building where she saw the movement. “The Hall of Records.” She said to herself. She communicated with her unit and instructed them to clear out the area without raising any suspicion.
The Hall of Records is a place where anything learned by Deltor is retained and logged into this sophisticated computer system. Dajus unsheathed her Bulo Blade, a weapon made from the bones of the nearly extinct Bulo creatures and walked along into the facility. Dajus found the security guards knocked unconscious and rolled her eyes.
“Amateurs.”
Dajus tried to pull up the security cameras to get a look at who she was up against, but the power to the system was interrupted. A blank screen was only present. She tried looking through the folders and found where certain files where being downloaded.
“Interesting.” She said as she made her way to the D section of the facility.
Feeling as if she was being followed Dajus turned the corner and turned back ready to face her stalker. She waved her blade to attack and was met with a heated Ruvo Blade.
“You!” She shouted. “I almost killed you, what do you think you’re doing?”
Trystan looked at Dajus sideways, “Almost killed me? You’re joking. Why didn’t you call us when you realized that the Teldas were here?” Trystan lowered his weapon. Dajus could barely see his short black hair in the light of the hall.
‘He knows something’s up with you.’ Dajus could hear the Skyro whispering to her.
“We don’t have time, they’re stealing files, we need to get them before they escape.” Dajus ran down the hall with Trystan right behind her. The two raced down the hall, they couldn’t tell if they felt warmer because they were running or because the cooling system used to keep the computers from overheating was malfunctioning.
Meanwhile back at the Cerliquan Arts Hall, Mallobo sighed as he stood on the roof of the building before he turned on his communicator. While he spoke to Lovo he looked out along the city, the sunlight gave off a low golden hue. “Lovo, there’s nothing here, either Trelo lied to us or…”
Lovo sighed as she walked along the hall of the large building, with her Alhap soldiers behind her “Or he was told to lie to us about the next target to keep us busy.”
“I’m making my way back to you.” Mallobo started to walk towards the exit when the door slammed shut by itself. He stopped walking and stared at the door. “No wind and the door shuts, that’s completely normal.” Mallobo said to himself just as he sensed someone standing beside him, he turned to see himself standing a few feet away. The two Mallobo’s stood there for a moment and before he could start walking towards his other self a large force held on to Mallobo as if it were a large hand surrounding his entire body. The pressure was great he thought he would pop. He knew this feeling, but it felt wrong, he felt as if he was teleporting, only the sensation was different because he was being forced to teleport.
Mallobo woke up to the sound of clicking and clacking marbles; he was on his back and stared into outer space. “What?” he stood up confused, he reached for his Nilo Blade, but it was missing. So was his calcu-gun. “Great.” He said.
Half of the room was white with a blue stripe around it while the other side of the room was black with a red strip around it. He could not see into the darkness of the black side of the room. Mallobo stood in the white part, his golden green eyes tried to adjust to the change in scenery, he looked up once again to see the stars of the galaxy. He turned to find the source of the clacking marbles and could see a time piece in a rectangular shape on his side of the room from the floor to the ceiling. There were four columns of marbles they clicked and clacked constantly, in a rhythm that Mallobo can only guess as mathematical.
“Mallobo of the Deltorian Four of the capital of Kitnar, how are you?” A woman’s voice rang from the dark side of the room.
“My head hurts but other than that…where the Yeshua am I?!” Mallobo shouted at the other side of the room. A woman emerged from the darkness, she was the most beautiful Deltorian Mallobo had ever seen. She was tall, like any other Deltorian woman, but her hair was long and completely golden, her eyes were brown and she wore a long pale pink dress. She walked towards him with a smirk on her face.
“This is fun, I’ve never been Deltorian before, you’re skin is so smooth.” The woman admired herself.
Mallobo said nothing and just watched her. “Mallobo, have a seat.” Mallobo turned to his left and found a table, in the shape of the Deltorian insignia, Delta. The two sat and the woman continued to smirk at him. “My name is Elva. And I’m going to let you in on a little secret.”
Not wanting to show any sense of fear Mallob
o kept up his face, “How to let me out of here?”
“Oh, no, not yet my dear, not until I’ve told you why I’ve brought you here. You see, I am a messenger, for something has gone terribly wrong. Twice the Skyro have come here to attack you and for awhile we were okay with it. A few of us even think it was a little entertaining. I believe one of us has written a book about it.” Elva started to babble.
“Who are you?” Mallobo asked again. “What do you have to do with the Skyro?”
“We are the beings that make the Skyro cringe with fear.” Elva said in a sinister whisper with her head tilted. Her eyes fluctuated from brown to green.
“You’re a Deltorian.” Mallobo said simply.
“I am pretending to be what you want to see. We are shape shifters and we can come and go out of our bodies whenever we please. An added bonus we recently learned is how to change our physiology, the cannibalistic creatures, the Skyro, even if they could defeat us they cannot eat us, we’ll poison them and make them sick. We are the rulers of our dimension, you see my dear, we control everything. Now with these last two attempts made by the Skyro they have emboldened the other creatures that we have power over to be rebellious.”
Mallobo looked at Elva sideways, “By ‘power over’ you mean enslaved.”
Elva scoffed, “Oh dear, we haven’t called it that for a few hundred years, caste system sounds prettier. That way everyone knows their place and everyone knows where they belong, and more importantly they know that my kind are on the top. Why do you think they’ve run to Deltor?”
Mallobo nodded and looked away from Elva, “To get away from you.”
“You are a key. You see, we let the Cugan race into your dimension, we had to do a lot of work so that it didn’t look that way, boy it was a lot of work. Think of it as outsourcing. We’ve outsourced you.”
Mallobo gritted his teeth, “You’ve put Deltor in danger.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage.” Elva’s smirk seemed to bother Mallobo the longer they spoke.
Mallobo sighed and sat up again, “Dajus.”
“No.