chapter 3

(Minaroro) the third chapter

Five years later (back to the present)
As Minaroro sat in the back of an assault slip-ship, on the way to what would be her 500th mission, she went over her briefing once more; Infiltrate the Antilus system and wipe out the military outpost there. Something bothered Minaroro about this mission, something tugged at her memory but she couldn’t quite remember what it was, but told her she should not be on this mission, not because of the danger but something else entirely. Minaroro filed her concerns in the back of her mind and focused on checking her gear for the upcoming mission.
 A bit later Minaroro was informed that they had reached orbit and that her orbital insertion would take place in five minutes. Minaroro dropped onto the night side of the fifth planet of the Antilus system, the only remotely habitable planet in the system, while the slip-ship that dropped her, jumped back out of the system, getting a ride home was her problem. After Minaroro cleared the upper atmosphere she activated her built in anti-grav units, slowing her descent and guiding her towards the military base that was barely visible through the jungle terrain.
The two men guarding the entrance to the base never saw Minaroro when she dropped between them and their bodies did not make a sound when they landed on the ground without their heads, Minaroro was inside the outer doors before their bodies or heads hit the ground. The fifteen guards hanging out in the room just inside the outer doors faired slightly better then the other two being that they actually got to see her before their deaths, once again Minaroro was through the next set of doors before the first body hit the ground.
According to Minaroro’s heat sensor she had cleared all but two of the soldiers from the entry area, Minaroro headed in their direction. When Minaroro rounded the final corner to the last two guards she realized she had messed up somewhere, somehow they knew that she would be there and opened fire as soon as she had made it three steps into the hallway.
Two of their shots hit her in the chest throwing her backward, Minaroro rode the impacts against her armor and used them to rotate into a complete back flip; before she landed she had already drawn her sidearm, fired twice, and  holstered her weapon. As soon as Minaroro’s foot hit the ground she was moving forward again, passed the two guards who now had gaping holes between their eyes. Minaroro took a right at the fork in the hallway when she saw the twenty-seven and a half heat signatures in the room that direction below the balcony. Minaroro blindly rushed through the door and vaulted over the railing to the unsuspecting group below.
Minaroro made short work of twenty-six of the soldiers and had her knife in the twenty-seventh soldier when she noticed that the half heat signature was directly behind her, removing the knife from the stomach of the soldier in front of her Minaroro rotated the knife mid-swing and, without turning around, plunged it into the half heat signature behind her. Minaroro removed the knife and sheathed it without turning around and was about to continue through the door in front of her, when a sound made her pause and turn. The half heat signature she had stabbed at blindly was a four year old alien child, who had wanted Minaroro to pick her up. Minaroro caught the child before she hit the ground. Minaroro was in a panic, they had only taught her how to kill not how to heal, what should she do?
Minaroro sprinted through the doorway carrying the child, “this doesn’t make any sense”, Minaroro thought as she ran “this is a military outpost. Why are there children here and where are the soldiers when you need them?” Minaroro could not find any heat signatures on her display screen, then the memory suddenly hit Minaroro and caused her to come to a complete stop; “In the Antilus system there is a planet that is a secret haven from your people.” The memory of Tamas made Minaroro forget where she was momentarily, but the child’s cries of pain brought her back to the present. “What have I done” Minaroro asked herself while looking at the child, then a heat signature registered on her display and she sprinted in that direction.
“Heat signatures ahead, heat means people, people mean medics, medics mean the child may live” Minaroro told herself as she ran toward the large grouping of heat signatures ahead of her through the door at the end of the hallway, her mission objective completely forgotten. Minaroro burst through the door at full speed then stopped dead, the room was huge, the palace Minaroro grew up in could have fit in this room at least twenty times over and it was full of people.  Minaroro found out later that this was the base commanders wedding, and everyone who was not on guard duty was there. Minaroro stood in awe of the splendor before her, the likes of which she had never seen, then she realized that every eye in the room was on her as was every gun, “This child need medical assistance, is there a doctor here?” Minaroro announced loudly. No one moved, a pin drop would have sounded a kin to a thunderous wave, “Please help her, she is losing blood rapidly” Minaroro repeated louder. An elderly man stood up from his seat and quickly walked toward Minaroro and the child, just before the man reached them another man told him to halt “Don’t get any closer Doc, Draconian soldiers don’t even blink when they kill children, it has to be a trap.” Minaroro moved forward the last few steps between her and the doctor and handed him the child ignoring the sound of the guns clicking into their active settings.
The doctor set to work on the child immediately calling for a med-kit, while Minaroro stood over the doctor unsure of what else to do but wanting to see what the doctor was doing, “Get out of my light! I can’t see the wound” the doctor told Minaroro sharply, Minaroro quickly took a step back “Sorry” Minaroro said quietly.
The soldiers around Minaroro were unsure of how to react to this, the only time they had ever seen a Draconian was when they were in battle with one, and an apologetic one was unheard of, Minaroro was unaware of the soldier’s confusion because her eyes never left the child.
The surreal peace between the soldiers and Minaroro, their mortal enemy, lasted until the child was stabilized and carted off on a stretcher, then, as if a pistol had fired to start a race, the soldiers leapt back into their previous hostilities with Minaroro. Minaroro was simultaneously hit by a barrage of bullets from every direction, allowing herself to fall Minaroro drew her knife and readied herself to strike when the soldiers had to reload, knowing that none of them had anything that could puncture her armor at the moment. The telltale wheeze of the soldier’s guns announced that they were empty; Minaroro sprung from her crouched position grabbing the closest soldier to her, her knife stopped a hairs breath away from the soldiers’ eye, over the petrified young soldier’s shoulder Minaroro saw a small group of children watching in horror. The image of each of those children clutching their own bloody chests flashed across Minaroro’s imagination, horrified Minaroro took a step back away from the soldier and dropped her knife, had anyone been able to seen Minaroro’s face through her body armor they would have seen a confused and horrified young woman, not a soldier.
A Draconian warrior was expected to be able to kill anyone or anything without any hesitation or remorse, but Minaroro liked children and had never had to kill a child let alone injure one, she hadn’t even managed to hurt the dummies meant to represent children in her early training.
Minaroro’s internal battle to come to terms with what she had done, caused her to over look the soldier approaching, with a weapon that was basically a backpack sized tazer capable of delivering over a million volts of electricity. The electricity ripped through Minaroro’s battle armor shutting down systems as it went till it jumped into her body, Minaroro dropped to ground without a sound, as Minaroro’s consciousness started to leave her, she thought she had seen a young boy who looked just like Tamas then the blackness overcame her.
Minaroro woke without a hint of movement to give her newly conscious state away to anyone who might be watching her, a slight chill touched Minaroro’s skin informing her that her armor was gone. Minaroro moved imperceptibly testing her restraints, they would be too weak to hold Minaroro if she wanted out of them but that fact gave her the element of surprise, should she need it, considering she sensed at least five guards around her, she probably would. 
Minaroro opened her eyes slightly and saw a very large man standing over her, “So this is what a mighty Draconian soldier looks like?” the man sneered as he lifted Minaroro up by her neck, “I am disappointed, this soldier, a member of the most feared race in the universe, is nothing more then a little girl” after saying this the man threw Minaroro towards the wall with only minor effort. Minaroro’s eyes snapped open, her restraints flew apart, and she immediately rotated in a tight ball so her feet hit the wall first; pushing off from the wall Minaroro tackled the man who had thrown her, slamming them both into the opposite wall 50 feet away. The man's fearful eyes reflected Minaroro’s emotionless face; they also informed Minaroro that the other guards had their weapons trained on her head. Minutes passed with no one moving, “Alright that’s enough, put new restraints on her and lets get moving the council wants to see her in 10 minutes” said the young squad leader, who had, until the fight broke out, been napping unnoticed in the corner. Minaroro allowed the guards to place restraints on her and walked with them towards what she figured would be a location closer to an exit, Minaroro also was morbidly curious as to what fate awaited a captured soldier because no Draconian had ever been captured and her people did not take prisoners as far as she knew.
 Minaroro studied the route they were taking with great care in hopes of finding some detail that would help in her escape. “Here we are, you go in alone, Draconian” the squad leader informed Minaroro as he held the door open for her. “I think these are yours” Minaroro said quietly as she handed the restraints, she had removed, back to the squad leader and walked through the door to find out her fate.
Minaroro had never seen people, in her entire life, as old as the seven people who sat before her now and wondered how they kept their power from being taken by the younger and stronger soldiers standing around them. Minaroro then noticed the crying couple just to the right of the elders and, based on what Tamas had told her once, concluded that they were the child’s parents. Tamas had once told her that other races actually became upset if their children were injured for reasons other then the insult to the families honor that the attack caused, Minaroro had never understood why this was the case, but knew what she had to do.
Minaroro walked toward the couple, ignoring the elders and their commands for her to stay where she was, while she moved toward them she pulled the knife she had confiscated from the large man who had thrown her, when she reached the couple she stopped. The couples looks of fear became looks of shock and bewilderment when Minaroro bowed to them and handed the father the knife, then took a step back and waited for the death blow with her eyes closed, a dishonorable Draconian did not deserve the honor of watching their own death. Several minutes passed without anyone moving, the elders and their guards were too shocked to see such an act from their enemy and the couple just looked confused, Minaroro stood unwavering expecting death at any second.
The door behind Minaroro slide open and a young commander strolled into the room casually, glanced at Minaroro then turned to the elders and announced that the child was in stable condition and would make a complete recovery.
Minaroro’s eyes snapped open in surprise, causing the couple to take a step back in fear, Minaroro turned toward the commander, “Tamas?” Minaroro said in complete disbelief. The commander turned his head to face Minaroro, “Roro?…should have know it was you, no other Draconian would have tried to save that kid or gotten themselves captured in the process” Tamas said after a minute of staring at Minaroro. “I thought you were dead” Minaroro said with tears in her eyes. “Do you know this Draconian commander Maridian?” the elders asked, “Now why would you think that?” Tamas inquired, not really specifying who he was asking or looking at anyone in particular and kind of looking at the ceiling as to avoid everyone’s eye.  Both the elders and Minaroro answered at the same time; “She said your name and since when can you speak fluent Draconian?” “My sister blew up the crate you were hiding in”. Tamas paused a second to assimilate both responses “Yes I know her” Tamas said to the elders then turned to Minaroro “It occurred to me that if I hid in the escape pods I would reduce the risk of detection so I moved to them while you were talking to your sister, I am sorry I caused you so much pain” then Tamas turned to the couple “She is expecting you to kill her to make up for her attack on your child” he informed them. “And why does she not offer to do the same for the soldiers she killed commander?” the elders asked in a harsh tone, Tamas chuckled and explained to the elders that Minaroro is a warrior and so were the soldiers and killing each other is their job and that job only includes warriors to Minaroro, the child is a innocent and as such Minaroro dishonored herself, the family of the child, and everyone she has ever fought when she injured the child. That and she’s always had a soft spot for children.
Upon hearing this, the mother of the child made a decision she took the knife from her husband and walked toward Minaroro. When Minaroro saw this she turned to face the women, closed her eyes and waited.
The room was in an uproar everyone was telling everyone else to do, while the mother and Minaroro stood in a detached isolation from the rest of the room, Tamas merely looked mildly perturbed. The combination of the knife clattering the ground and the resounding slap the mother hit Minaroro with brought every eye back to Minaroro and the child’s mother and draped the room in a heavy silence. “You nearly kill my child then try to take the easy way out? How dare you.” The woman’s furious words confused Minaroro, did she care for her offspring that much? What happened next confused Minaroro far more then the woman’s words; the woman, who had a foot an a half in height and out weighed Minaroro by a good forty-five kilograms, engulfed her in a massive bear hug. “Thank you for saving my daughter, if you had not responded as quickly as you had she would have died” the woman said as she released Minaroro from her embrace. The utter confusion on Minaroro’s face caused Tamas to break down into uncontrollable laughter to the point where he was reduced to a crumpled heap on the floor gasping for air with tear steaming down his face. The elders told Tamas to get a hold of him self or they would have him removed.
 Never in Minaroro’s 499 missions had she had so many problems or had been as confused as on this mission, for the first time since she thought Tamas had died, Minaroro wanted to cry, so she did.
 The sight of a Draconian soldier sobbing was the last thing anyone in the room would have expected, save for Tamas who knew Minaroro better then anyone else in the universe did. Before anyone could figure out this sudden turn of events a soldier exploded into the room, “Elders, a massive Draconian attack fleet was just detected on long range scanners and their headed this way!” the soldier urgently announced. All eyes turned toward Minaroro “Did you call for reinforcements Draconian?” the elders asked Minaroro calmly. She informed them that when her armor was removed an automated signal was sent back to her home world informing her people that she was either captured or dead, and that the fleet on their sensors was coming to kill everyone at this base including her, in fact their primary goal was her. “Why would they also kill you?” the elders asked curiously, “What use would they have with a warrior too weak to avoid capture?” Minaroro responded wondering why these elders did not know such simple facts.
“Are we suppose to feel sorry for you because your people are trying to kill you now?” one of the soldiers behind the elders asked Minaroro flatly. Minaroro just shrugged, “You people are no longer my enemies. Do with me what you will. Although I would suggest you evacuate your base before that fleet arrives” as Minaroro said these words she realized she had no idea what she would do with her life if she somehow survived both her captors and her own people. “The Draconian is right, Sergeant, tell the base commander to begin evacuation” the central elder ordered the soldier to his left. “What should we do with her?” the elder on the far left asked.  “We will take her with us, she may be useful in acquiring information about her people, although it seems Commander Maridian knows more about Draconian culture then we thought, so we may not need her at all” the central elder said more to himself then anyone else. “My people will focus their assault on whichever ship you send me on, so would advise using that ship as a distraction to help facilitate the evacuation of the children” Minaroro suggested helpfully while investigating the overly elaborate light fixture that was suspended above the elders elevated table. “Why will your people be gunning so heavily for you” one of the soldiers in the back of the room asked suspiciously, Minaroro shrugged “regulations”, any further conversation was cut off when the base loud speakers announced that the elders ship was prepped and scheduled to leave in ten minutes. “the central elder turned toward Tamas and ordered him to take Minaroro onto his ship and attempt to draw the Draconian fleet away long enough to finish evacuations and then try to survive and rendezvous with the fleet in the sub-stream. Tamas saluted, about faced and walked out of the room with Minaroro walking along behind him quietly.