Free Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) by Robin MacMillan Page B

beings out here?” T-Rave says.
    “Well, this is just a lot to take in at once, first we had to worry about going to war with the other countries, now we have to worry about the whole galaxy?”
    “It's good to be prepared, but you don’t need to worry about the whole galaxy, they said they got banished, so they must have done something illegal for the other beings to force that on them.”
    “Can't we just negotiate and give them what we want?” The General asks.
    “I already tried that on them, they said that they wouldn’t negotiate because they wanted to exterminate us.”
    “That’s what they said?”
    “Pretty much,” I say.
    “Did they provide any other information?”
    “They said that Thopium originated from gas nebulas. I’m assuming by that that this planet must have formed from a gas giant millions of years ago. I don’t know the science behind it but if we have Thopium deposits in the ground then it’s the only logical explanation that I can think of.”
    “Is that all?” He asks, almost disappointed.
    “That was all the information that is worth mentioning. I have nothing further to report.”
    “Hmm, what about you Captain?”
    “Well, the only thing I can add to this is that they are extremely dangerous, Sargent Terein died by a slice right through his abdomen. I’m not sure how they usually fight, we caught them by surprise this time, who knows how they are going to be armed next time. They were forced to use their bare hands, which had claws on them. Other than that I don’t really know what to add to this report, except that we need to hit them and hit them hard.”
    “Alright gentlemen, I will take action on what you have said, we will scan the planet with our satellites. If these Hakorians have mining operations going on right now on this planet we will know about it. T.A.R. will contact you when we need you, if the scans reveal anything then you will depart immediately. You are dismissed gentlemen,” he stands up, waving his hand for us to get out.
    “Yes Sir,” T-Rave and I say as we salute before we walk out the door.
    “Where were you?” I ask him, he had been five minutes late for the debriefing.
    “Oh, I was having a shower and lost track of the time.”
    It was a rather lame excuse.
    “Don’t let it happen again.”
    “Yes Sir.”
    We walk towards the entrance of the compound, “Bob,” I say, nodding at the guard behind the desk.
    “Ok, well I’m heading home, we’ll probably be back here tomorrow. Have a good evening Captain,” I say, walking down the steps towards my speeder.
    “Seeya tomorrow Colonel,” he says, waving his arm and departing in the opposite direction.
    My speeder is still parked in the same spot -obviously- so it took little effort to find it amongst all the other speeders, plus the dazzling red color really stands out from all the other dull colors.
    I scan my thumb print onto the pad on the side of the door, the door pops open with a click as the locking mechanism releases.
    I scan my thumb print again as well as my retina.
    “Welcome Mr. Woods, where can I take you?”
    “Home,” I say.
    “Right away Mr. Woods.”
    The speeder takes off, gliding off into the many skylanes. I look back towards the area where the towers had collapsed. Demolition teams have already made the area restricted as they sift through the rubble, trying to find pieces worth salvaging for recycling the materials. My team sure made a mess of things, at least we tried our best to save the building, so it wasn’t really our fault for what the end result had come to.
    “Opening Garage bay door three, have a nice day Mr. Woods,” the Computer says.
    “Yeah, you to,” I say, even though I know it won’t mean anything to it.
    The speeder pulls into the garage bay, it feels like days have passed since I’d been home. I never wanted to leave, especially on the day after our wedding. But orders were orders. If I hadn’t shown up for that briefing I’d have been