Decimation

Manoj was pensive as he went through the report submitted by Commander Arjun. Report after report suggested sabotage and abandonment of posts by crew.

“How the hell did we miss this?” he asked.

“Sire, it was done just before they boarded the Aft and Port wings just before they were detached from the main ship.”

“Does that mean....”

“Yes Sire. We should consider them destroyed or declared unfit for duty. We should not expect them to aid us should we be forced to fight.”

“That is something we cannot accept.” He was silent for a few seconds. “What’s the status of the truth scan?”

“Sire, the command staff is ready and waiting for your orders.” Manoj picked up the communication device on his desk. “Admiral, have all command staff submit to a truth scan now. No exceptions. And where is the device I asked you? Right.” His words were punctuated by four Armed Emperor’s Bodyguard marching in and surrounding Commander Arjun. If he was surprised by it, he did not show it. Instead he looked at Manoj who nodded once. Arjun stood up and raised his hands in surrender. Manoj stared at him with a stony glare.

“Why did you do it?”

“Sire?”

“Now!” Manoj’s order was followed promptly by a stab of a tranquiliser in Arjun’s neck. The look of shock was fixed on his face as he fell unconscious. Manoj nodded and the guard took away the limp figure of Commander Arjun.

“How many more are hiding?” Manoj said to the empty chamber as he gazed at the sky from his window. His thoughts were like the starlit sky – endless.

Captain Lasya of Durga Company was tasked with guarding the east corridor to the queen’s chamber. Her warriors had been on duty for the last 42 hours without seeing action. She had been the rotating the sentries regularly for the past 40 hours with 4 hour intervals. Her warriors were fresh and alert like a pack of wolves about to pounce on their prey. Her orders had been to hold the entrance at any cost and she would do that to the last warrior alive.

She had set several booby traps all along the corridors which would alert her troops in time. She was using the guerrilla formation due to the small number of soldiers at her disposal. She knew they were upto the task as most of them had been trained by the best warriors in the SPG Commando Training Centre in Karnikapuri. The dropout rate of the soldiers volunteering for this gruelling training was 98% with another 1% getting disqualified on medical grounds. The remaining 1% were honed to perfection becoming the most brutally efficient super soldiers of the empire. Each of them could handle odds up to100 to 1 armed with basic weapons. Give them proper weapons and they became a one man army annihilating battalions of enemy soldiers.

Her soldiers, though the best in the whole empire, were outnumbered 150 to 1 and were armed with primitive weapons like swords, throw knives, bows and arrows, and laser pistols. The rebels had done a thorough job of wiping out the generators and the palace defence system had rendered the hi-tech weapons totally useless. Now the whole defence of the palace hung on the superiority in hand to hand combat. This battle should have been over a long time ago if it had been attacked by an outsider. But the odds had been heavily evened out with loyalists having to fight rebel forces that had previously fought shoulder to shoulder with them. That was the hardest part of the battle.

Fortunately for the loyalists, the enemy was using sheer force of numbers to overwhelm them as if he knew they couldn’t hold for long. There were only two options for them – fight and hold till help arrived or fight till the Royal family could be safely evacuated. Surrender was never an option. She recalled the instructions she had given to her warriors during the mission briefing.

“Warriors, our mission is to hold the East Corridor at all costs. We are the last line of defence for the royal family. The enemy outnumbers us 150 to 1. This might be a suicidal mission most probably. I would understand if anyone wants out.” She looked around and smiled to see that none of the 120 soldiers had moved. “It has been my honour to fight with you. We are the Durga Company. We faced far greater odds and prevailed before. We shall do so now. Durga Company, Any Doubts?”

“NO LEADER!” The reply shook the roof of the mission briefing room bringing another proud smile on the captain’s face.

“We have only primitive weapons with us. Is that a problem?”

“No leader!”

“Good. We follow the mosquito strategy. Dismissed.” The mosquito strategy was used when the defenders were holed up in a building and they had to fight a heavy invasion force. The defenders would draw out small sections of the enemy force and decimate them. Due to the endless secret passageways and narrow corridors, the enemy would always be annihilated no matter how strong the force was. Numbers didn’t work here. But Captain Lasya had made one fatal error in judgement that proved to her undoing.

As she waited with her section of warriors in the corner of the queen’s chamber, she saw smoke curling towards her. They were using the counter strategy that was known only to the Sambhavi Battalion of the Royal Commando Elite Force.

“What a disastrous mistake! I should have guessed it!” she cursed herself for her oversight and hastily barked orders. Fortunately, the Soldiers could hold their breath in situations like these till they managed to put on their face masks. She hoped it was not an error that could prove disastrous for the Queen. It would tarnish her family name forever if anything happened to the queen under her watch.

Training kicked in as she took on the first batch of invaders eliminating them with pin-point precision. She didn’t become captain of the most elite commando force by fluke. “Count off!” she barked as she did the same. This was her way of keeping track of the situation and her troops. The counting was normal for the first seven hours; then the first miss in the count told her one of her sections was eliminated.

“Parvathi section cover sector five!” she heard another count start off as Parvathi section moved to their new position. Two more hours passed as the battle turned uglier and more desperate. And then disaster! One by one her troops fell silent as they were wiped out by foes who not only knew their methods but also the counter measures. It was a miracle they had held on for so long.

“East Corridor Compromised. Will hold on as long as possible with my lone remaining section. Jai Ambapuram! Jai Mahakali!” she sent her final message as she turned to face the enemy one last time. “Jai Mahakali!”

She rushed out to take on the enemy who were now 2000 strong. She lashed out with her twin swords spinning like a top and falling on the enemy like a bolt of lightning. Five more bolts of lightning fell from five more sides shattering the enemy march, forcing them to stop and fight. The melee was brutal at two equally skilled forces clashed with each other – the enemy commanding superior numbers while the defenders raging like a forest fire though vastly outnumbered.

The corridor was soon littered with bodies as neither side gave way fighting desperately. It would have been a battle worth writing in gold if not for the fact that the empire’s glory was shattered by a rebellion unheard of in its history. Never had a nation seen treachery of this magnitude nor had the loyalists been so heavily outnumbered. It was a tragic waste of such brave heroes in a gruelling battle that left no survivors.

The silence of the corridor after the heavy battle cries was deafening. Both the invaders and the defenders lay in a pile of bodies that would never rise again. Durga Company had completed its mission but had been wiped out to the last soldier. Captain Lasya lay like a crown in the heap with her body full of knives and swords indicating the intensity and brutality of her last stand.