The world of Leimto was devoid of all life and wracked by vicious
storms which sometimes lasted months at a time, but it was rich
in metal ore. When the Voinians discovered it, they brought it
many thousands of Emalgha slaves from Emalghion to work in the
mines. For the first few decades there were relatively few accidents,
but as time went on and there was less and less metal ore left
to support the mines. Many collapsed, killing everyone inside.
The Voinians, realising that their supply of Emalgha slaves was
finite, decided to move out of the old mines, and dig new ones.
They sealed up the entrances to the old mines and covered them
with tons of sand. The new mines had supports made out of Bronev
plating to hold them up.
A very small handful of Emalgha slaves escaped from the mines
and had unsealed a couple of the old mines. Within them, there
was some food and water left. By raiding the smaller mines and
freeing the slaves there, the rebel Emalgha were able to survive
for several years, but they realised that a rebellion would be
no use unless they were able to get off the planet.
After several months of planning and raids on the smaller mines,
the rebels plan went into action. Through their many raids, they
had acquired many Voinian weapons; the majority of them were neutron
pistols and rifles, but there were also missile launchers and
ammo and some remote mines.
The rebels had stripped the mines they raided of Bronev plating
and melted it down using one of their captured smelting plants.
From this resmelted plating and the fuel and other resources their
raids had given them access to, the rebels built tanks and vehicles
to carry their troops and weapons across the harsh unforgiving
deserts of Leimto.
Several types of tanks were built, the main one being a small
two man contraption with one of their captured missile launchers
and two neutron rifles on top. Although these vehicles weren?t
very fast, they were well protected; the Bronev plating giving
them the equivalent armour of a Voinian heavy fighter. Since all
their engines and motors came from the raided Voinian mines, and
the rebellion had very few technicians to keep them running smoothly,
the engines gave out with depressing regularity.
After 'liberating' several of the larger mines and gaining the
equipment from them, the rebels prepared for their attack on Leimto?s
spaceport.
* * * *
Vrwe took a deep breath and hopped into his tank. In just under
half an hour the main mass of the rebellion would be attacking
Leimto's main spaceport.
The rebellion's technicians had hot wired one of the Voinian surface
sensor displays into Vrwe's tank, allowing him to see where the
rest of the attack was. The other tanks in the force also had
sensors.
There were to be three waves in the raid. First would come the
tanks to hopefully destroy the Voinians guarding the spaceport.
The second wave was made up of troop transports and would secure
the spaceport. The final wave had several of the rebel's best
technicians and the pilots that were to actually fly from Leimto
to Emalghion in their captured ships.
Vrwe checked the settings on his weapons and flicked the comm
on. "Ok, lets move it out. Wave One, form up on me." So the Voinians
wouldn't be able to intercept the messages that were being sent
to and from the different units of the rebellion, the captured
Voinian comm systems that the rebels used had had all the transmission
types except tight-beam transmission disabled and all transmissions
encrypted.
Vrwe's tank started to rumble as the engine shifted into main
gear. Through the viewport at the front of the tank, Vrwe could
just see the spaceport, a tiny pinpoint of light in the impenetrable
blackness that passed for night on Leimto.
The rebellion's leaders had voted unanimously to stage the attack
at night. If the attack had been in the day, the Voinians would
have been able to see the attack force from the spaceport already,
and they would have dispatched their tanks and fighters, and the
rebellion would be dead.
The plan was to have Wave One advance to within three kilometres
of the port, and fire their missiles at the tank storage sheds
and fuel tanks, hopefully neutralising the main threat. After
that the tanks would move in and obliterate the Voinian foot troops.
Shifting around to make himself more comfortable, Vrwe tested
the missile launcher and neutron rifles movement. Satisfied, he
turned his attention to the viewport.
* * * *
The Voinian watching the sensor displays, Ga'terek, yawned and
stretched. It was a long night. The higher-ups had issued a warning
about the rebellion, but so far Ga'terek had seen nothing unusual
or out of the ordinary.
Just as that thought ended, there was a flash of incredibly bright
light and the sound of several very large explosions.
Ga'terek was on his feet in an instant, neutron pistol in hand,
looking out towards where the fuel tanks should have been. Should
have been. Instead, he was looking at a towering pillar of flame.
He glanced down at his monitors to see what was the problem, but
instead of reports of all parts of the space port, he was looking
at static.
He didn't connect the fuel tanks exploding with the rebellion
until the door to the room blew inwards and ten Emalgha dressed
in combat gear and carrying what looking to be modified neutron
rifles piled in and shot him.
* * * *
"This one and the one next to it seem to be alright," the technician
told Vrwe as he pointed to two medium sized Voinian bulk freighters.
All the Voinians in the spaceport were dead or captured, and Vrwe
was just deciding in what vessels the pilots would have the most
chance of reaching the Emalgha system in. "Obviously they took
some damage when you lot blew those fuel tanks, as you can see
here"- he pointed to several black marks that covered the hull
of the first freighter -"but they'll be fine. As long as you don't
take them into any kind of combat that is."
Vrwe nodded slowly. "I guess they'll have to do then." Raising
his voice he called out, "Over here, these two are the best we're
going to get." Hearing him, the six pilots jogged over. "Three
to each vessel," he told them. "Don't take too long, we're running
out of time. There's bound to be some Voinian ships in the system,
and they're going to start wondering why there's no responses
to their hails."
"Understood sir," the lead pilot said. "Ok, lets move it," he
told the other pilots. They clambered into their ships.
Vrwe moved back and watched as the freighters lit their hoverjets
and started ascending. He kept his eyes on them until they were
visible only as small black specks in the sky. The thought came
to him that those tiny specks in the vast sky rather symbolised
the rebellion. The black specks represented the rebellion and
the sky the entire Voinian Empire.
"Ok, lets grab what we can and get out of here," he ordered the
Emalgha that had gathered around him. They moved off, some towards
the buildings and others towards the power plant, to gather up
all the useful materials.
The last rebel had just disappeared from sight when Vrwe's first
officer, Tewq, came over.
"Sir, what if Emperor-"
"I've told you to never, never use that word!" Vrwe cut him off
sharply. "The Emalgha do not recognise any of their Voinians as
anything but a foul plague that must be wiped from the galaxy.
Especially the so called 'emperor'. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," Tewq said, his voice properly humble.
"Good. Now then, lets organise our new belongings."