Since she was able to walk, Kaitlin’s uncle Rory had taught her the ways of the warrior. He relentlessly drilled her in strategy, military tactics, weapons, and hand-to-hand combat. She had been prepared for this day, as had her mother and every other female in her bloodline. For some reason, the superior genes of the Theurkaian race were inactive within hybrid males. Only the females could tap into the reservoir of advanced stamina, agility, perception, and intellect that came from the “alien side” of her family tree.
She saw a tiny red speck descend from the night sky. Rory told her that it would be a small, automated shuttle, with room for only one passenger – her. It would land at a specific set of coordinates, which she was now desperately racing to reach. She was to enter the shuttle unarmed. The ship would wait for five minutes and then return to the flagship which sent it forth. If she wasn’t on that shuttle, it would be the equivalent of claiming that the human race had surrendered to the Theurkaian Empire. Then they would swarm in upon Earth and unconditionally enslave the human race, like they had countless worlds before it.
The only thing which kept them from simply invading this world was an ancient covenant made between a past Theurkaian Emperor and his favorite general (who participated in a failed rebellion against the Empire). While the Emperor was bound by law and tradition to execute the general, he didn’t wish to. For the general was his Rez D’Rukan – an alien word for “Warlord.”
One of the best warriors in the history of the Empire, the general had commanded the Emperor’s fleets and defeated their enemies through a mixture of cunning, skill, and valor. His exploits were known throughout the Empire and far beyond its borders. During his many years of pre-rebellion service, the Rez D’Rukan had personally saved the Emperor’s life many times over. As the general was about to lose his head to a monofilament axe, he asked the Emperor for a boon. Not entirely without honor, the Emperor told his former Rez D’Rukan to state his request.
Prior to the rebellion, the Rez D’Rukan had sent his family to a distant world, called Earth, which lay far outside of the Empire’s borders. As was custom, the relatives of traitors were to be slaughtered, if found within the confines of Theurkaian space. The Emperor’s spies had informed him that, prior to the rebellion, most of the general’s family had managed to flee to that distant world.
The Rez D’Rukan asked the Emperor to spare that world and his family. Kaitlin was told that the Emperor was inclined to grant the request. However, the Emperor knew that he would appear foolish and weak if he gave up the potential conquest of an entire world merely out of pity for a doomed traitor.
With this in mind, the Emperor struck a bargain.
At some point in the future, the Empire would come for this faraway world. When it did, a duel would be fought. That future Emperor’s youngest child would fight against the youngest of the general’s descendants. Both had to be of a warrior’s age and they had to fight to the death. Should the Rez D’Rukan’s descendant win, the Theurkaians would spare the Earth and never return. If the Emperor’s descendant won, then Earth would be open for conquest and all of the general’s descendants would be put to death. The Rez D’Rukan agreed to the Emperor’s terms, politely thanked him, and was beheaded soon thereafter.
That was five hundred years ago.
Since arriving on Earth, every able-bodied member of Kaitlin’s family was schooled in the arts of warfare – even the males. The stakes were too high to allow any member of the bloodline not to be ready to step in and fight the duel, should she/he be the youngest surviving descendant. They had managed to maintain contacts within the Theurkaian military, who supplied them with intelligence and the occasional piece of surplus technology.
It was also well-known that the Theurkaian nobility were among the most deceitful of all the known stellar Empires. Kaitlin’s relatives had warned her, time and again, to expect this duel to be anything but fair.
And they were right.
A Theurkaian messenger delivered a formal challenge to the duel – and the coordinates of the rendezvous – directly to Kaitlin. The problem for Kaitlin was that the shuttle was scheduled to arrive in just under ten hours. Thus, she had that much time to get from Scotland to Libya, or forfeit the duel. Luckily, one of Kaitlin’s aunts had connections with British Intelligence, which secured her both a ride in a fighter jet and expedited refueling along the way. Still, the flight crew wasn’t authorized to violate Libyan airspace, so Kaitlin had to bail out and run the rest of the way.
Now, as the youngest eligible descendant, Kaitlin ignored the burning in her lungs and ran a bit faster. The stakes involved not only the fate of billions of people but the lives of her entire bloodline; of everyone she ever loved. The shuttle raised a cloud of sand as it slowly landed on the desert floor. She did the quick math in her head. With a bit of luck, she’d reach the shuttle with thirteen seconds to spare –
Five heavily-armed warriors suddenly emerged from the sand, burst rifles at the ready. Kaitlin speedily sized up the pure-blooded Theurkaians. While their sand-hued armor covered them from head-to-toe, she knew that her would-be killers had pale white skin and muscular frames underneath. Each one was also about seven feet tall, with humanoid features and deep orange hair. She recognized the red skull-like unit emblem on the armor’s right shoulder plates – the Kal’Varact, or “Deathmasters.” The elite of the Theurkaian military, they were known for their fanatical loyalty to the Emperor, superior fighting skills, and utter ruthlessness.
Too bad they weren’t trained by her Uncle Rory.
Kaitlin didn’t even break stride as they opened fire. She was used to dodging fully-automatic fire with a blindfold on. Since the burst rifles fired semi-automatic discs of white-hot energy, Kaitlin easily closed the distance and ended up within melee range of the Kal’Varact leader. He tried to rifle-butt her in the face, but Kaitlin nimbly side-flipped past him and ran her hands across his grenade belt. The other four aliens cut their leader down in the crossfire, without hesitation, solely intent on killing her.
Unfortunately for them, none of the Kal’Varact noticed that the fleeing hybrid girl had a pair of grenade pins in her hands. The dead leader’s entire belt of grenades exploded amongst his surviving troops with enough force to kill them all. Kaitlin was thrown forward by the blast and landed awkwardly on her right shoulder. She rose to her feet and ignored the burns on her back as she continued her run for the shuttle.
The incoming whine of engines alerted her that eight more red specks were headed her way. They moved fast enough to be fighter sleds: one-man craft capable of killing her with a wide assortment of anti-personnel weaponry. As they made the first pass, the sleds strafed her with a hellish volley of explosive burst fire, which she barely evaded with acrobatic perfection.
Sand fell around her like rain as the pilots finished their pass. They circled about and descended her way in a V formation. Kaitlin recognized that formation and realized that she was doomed. They were going to fire motion-seeking warheads. No matter how well she dodged, the warheads would literally close in on her. Even if she stood perfectly still, the missiles would zero in on her quick-beating heart.
Kaitlin glanced over at the shuttle and realized that, even if she survived the missile strike, she’d be too late to enter the shuttle – no matter how fast she ran.
“Bugger!” she muttered.
“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” An amplified, French-accented voice yelled from under her.
Kaitlin instinctively hit the ground as a giant purple robotic arm erupted from the sand to her immediate right. Thirty feet long, its fist glowed with bluish energy. She covered her ears, opened her mouth and closed her eyes. The fist fired an invisible, thunderous sonic pulse that poured outward in a widening arc. All eight ships were destroyed in one shot.
Kaitlin turned as the giant, humanoid-shaped Rethlor Tunneler arose from the sand and shielded her from falling debris from the destroyed sleds. Covered with sonic burrowing drills and thick armor, the 130-foot-high war robot was an antique – old even when her family fled to Earth with it five centuries ago. Its sonic pulse cannons, however, could still destroy light Theurkaian