The Battle (10.1)

Lask, five days later.

"LAURIE, WHERE DID TARPIN GO? HE DIDN'T WANT to come with us?" Chris asked, as they prepared to exit the Star Traveler.

Both of them pulled the device designed by Trib's friend Granel out of one of the pouches on their utility belts. They each pressed their device flat behind their right ear, where it attached to their skin.

"I think he and Captain Mitchell had to go help some of our pilots escort the other representatives of the other tribes to the Laskonian Capitol building in the Exandra Colony ships," Laurie replied as they left the Laskonian airport. "I'm not sure if he'll be joining us at the conference, though."

"I remember now. He kinda hinted a few days ago that he wouldn't be joining the alliance conference today. Something about a spying mission he had to go on with one of the other ECOPs," Chris said.

"Hmm. Probably so we know exactly when and where the Platonians are preparing to strike," Laurie nodded in agreement.

The two children were walking through the many streets of Lask's capital city toward the government building. They strode up the polished black stone steps into the red cement-brick governmental building, pushed through a pair of black glass main doors and into the white marble entrance room. There, they marched up to the desk clerk and requested the whereabouts of the alliance conference.

Two days earlier, the citizens of Lask had agreed to join and support the Alliance. The Laskonian government realized that they would not be able to peacefully resist the Platonians much longer. There seemed no other choice but to form an alliance. In fact, the Platonians might be relying on the reluctance to fight and the diversity of the peoples involved to be to their advantage. Now a meeting of representatives from each of the Allies was being held. The agenda: to put together battle plans and strategies. Tarpin, Chris, and Laurie were chosen to represent the ECOPs, for reasons of familiarity. But the plan changed, as plans frequently did‒ Chris and Laurie were going alone.

"May I ask who you are representing?" The receptionist asked the two children in proficient Earth Standard.

"The ECOPs," Laurie answered without hesitation.

"Aren't you two a bit young to be ECOPs?" The receptionist asked.

Tarpin's introductory speech rolled easily off Laurie's tongue, "Creatures of any size, species, or gender can join the ECOPs. Our duty is to keep the peace; there can never be enough willing volunteers and there is a part for all."

"Can you prove you are indeed ECOPs?" The receptionist questioned further. "This is a top security meeting, and I can only let you in if I am sure."

Chris and Laurie exchanged looks that clearly said 'she's got to be kidding', then nodded to each other. They reached for their tegars, turned toward the clerk, and shook the cylinders twice, extending the weapons to full height.

"Very well," said the receptionist, still sounding suspicious. "Down the hall, turn left, second door on the right."

Trib appeared from the corner and was walking briskly toward them.

"Ah, Mrs. Nettlehide, I was just about to tell you to keep a lookout for two young ones from Dirin City. They are indeed representatives of the ECOPs."

"Don't mind our receptionist," Trib whispered to Chris and Laurie with a smile as they walked down the hall. "She normally takes her job a little too seriously."

They turned left at the end of the hall and walked into one of the many doorways along the corridor. The Laskonian leader was sitting at the far end of the room at an enormous round wood table. He stood, and the two children advanced to shake his hand. As he returned to his seat, he invited the children to take seats to the left of him; Trib sat on his right a few seats down.

"It is good to finally meet you two. Trib has told me so much about you and your most recent adventure. We of Lask are happy to have you and your people as friends and now allies. It is quite fitting that the two of you decided to join the ECOPs."

"We have heard a lot about you as well," Laurie said, smiling politely as they took their seats. Other creatures were arriving. A Squirrel, a scorpion, a chameleon, a raccoon, a rabbit, and a few others were already familiar sites to Laurie and Chris. There were others they had never seen. Captain Mitchell, representing the Earthlings, sat a few seats down. A buzz of chatter floated around the room, as everyone spoke at once introducing themselves and greeting old friends and acquaintances.

Admiral Lenoir cleared his throat. The assembly fell silent; so silent the attendees could hear talking all the way down the hall. Trib got up and shut the door. As he did so, small screens in front of each of the representatives' chairs slid up out of the surface of the smooth table and turned on simultaneously. The representatives inserted a small device in their ears so that each could hear the proceedings in his or her own language. Far more efficient than trying to translate multiple times and certainly better for understanding.

"We come together because we are all facing a real and pressing danger," said Lenoir. "For years, the Platonians have been ruthless bullies. But now, we have received word that they are planning on driving every one of us away from the planet Exandra by force and that they are set on destroying Lask as well."

"Considering the enormity of the commitment, we wanted each of you to hear our intelligence first hand. To assist with that, I call upon Trib. He was in the Platonian base on Exandra and gathered the information first hand."

"I flew down to investigate the unusual weather patterns that were originating from a mountain range on Exandra," Trib said, launching into a recounting of his infiltration into the Platonian mountain base.

"…So as you can see," Trib finished, "they plan on wiping us out one by one. It is the belief of many of us that we can turn the tables on them by joining forces and going on the offensive."

The Chameleon representative swore under his breath as Trib finished. There was no need for translation, the meaning was clear.

"Even with our forces joined together, they still outnumber us. We know it will not be easy, but united we will have a better chance at victory— better than we would have fighting alone!" Captain Mitchell announced, trying to spread some hope of victory with his enthusiasm.

A murmur of agreement rose around the huge wooden table. The representative for the raccoons raised his hand, and all attention turned to him.

"Do we know of any weaknesses we can capitalize on?"

Laurie looked at Trib across the table, and then spoke up.

"There are ECOP spies currently keeping a close watch on the Platonians."

"They should be able to find out something that can be of use to us," Chris added.

"Meanwhile, perhaps, we should try a drop attack on them. That way, we would have the element of surprise," a Squirrel representative suggested.

Chris placed his MTD on the table, opened it, and pressed a few buttons. A moment later, a holographic map of Exandra appeared, hovering just above the middle of the table. He pulled a small inkless pen out from its compartment on the side of his MTD, and, touching the tool to the flat keypad on his MTD, began to draw additional objects into the hologram.

Laurie began to explain:

"The ECOPs have found out that the Platonians' current position is here"‒she pointed to a place on the hologram‒"where Chris has drawn a red circle. Dirin City is at the gold star; and blue stars represent the Squirrels, raccoons, and the other communities as we have come to know them."

"Our current intelligence suggests that they plan on making Dirin City their first target," Trib added. "It is less established and the defenses are minimal; the wall around the city won't withstand an attack by the Platonians for long. If we attack the Platonians at their base it would draw their attention away from the city."

"This would work best if we took some time to train everyone to act as one unified force." The raccoon representative suggested.

"Unfortunately, we don't have that much time." Trib replied, "I've seen their forces first hand, they are fully organized and could launch an attack within the week!"

"We would need to act fast, before the Platonians finalize their attack plans, in order to catch them unawares. Perhaps we'd better gather our fighters two days from now at that hill southeast of their mountain base and attack from there," Admiral Lenoir suggested as he and the others considered the map that stretched the length of the table and hovered just centimeters above its surface.

It was decided that out of the four hundred and eighty people residing in Dirin City, many of the women as well as the children would stay behind. Chris and Laurie were an exception, for they were being trained by the ECOPs. This being said, two hundred and sixty people from Dirin City were going to join the battle. There were over a hundred ECOPs, and about two-thousand troops from the different Exandrian tribes.

Because only a few of the humans were retired military, Captain Mitchell organized target practices and drills with the few weapons the colony had on hand. Captain Mitchell encouraged the small platoon of men to use anything else they could think of that might help. Because the humans were growing most of their food themselves, pitchforks and shovels were popular weapons.

Out in the swampland, the Squirrels practiced slingshot aiming and javelin- throwing. The iguanas down by the river readied their bows and arrows. The rabbits wrapped their wrists and ankles in preparation for their furious form of kickboxing. The raccoons— masters of their own unique form of martial arts- sat and meditated. The Aquarians deep down in the lakes removed their store of seldom used and sacred weapons from their temples with solemn ceremony. The Laskonians, like they had many times before, charged their lightning guns, all the while realizing that they were more prepared to defend themselves than to attack the Platonians. Due to the Platonian's rather thick and scaly hides, their lightning guns had only ever succeeded in stunning the Platonians.

'If only we had more time, we might be able to equip everyone with some more effective weapons,' Laurie thought to herself as she read through all the incoming reports.

*****