Chapter One.

The klaxons and fire alarms were blasting out their ear-splitting warnings. The exploration shuttle craft Oslo was being rocked from side to side by a multitude of nearby explosions. Access panels were swinging open haphazardly with the violent motion being experienced, wiring was breaking apart and short circuits were adding smoke and fumes to the atmosphere being breathed by the crew of ten as they struggled to maintain their balance and carry out their duties.

“Prepare to abandon ship!” barked out Ramon Suarez, the Oslo’s commanding officer.

Another explosion rattled the shuttle. The whole attack had come completely out of the blue. The Oslo had been part of a two-ship mission to survey one of three rocky planets orbiting a binary star system in the Struve constellation. For almost two weeks, everything had been routine, with nice, peaceful, mundane duty shifts, surveying and recording their findings. The crew well drilled in their various roles, but now, all was utter chaos.

The blasts were coming ever closer, as the missile assaults continued to slowly overwhelm the shuttles mainly automated self defence systems.

Karin looked across at her husband.

“Ramon, do you think we should at least send some of the crew to safety, the Bergen has reported that they are poised to recover our escape pods.”

At that moment a huge explosion hit the underside of the Oslo, the onboard systems reported a major hull breach to add to their problems.

Ramon glanced at the information monitors that were flashing their warnings. The proximity sensors were indicating an even larger wave of missiles on interception courses, even as he struggled to increase their orbit away from the surface of the planet they’d been observing. Decision made; he pushed the abandon ship activation button.

“Abandon ship, abandon ship” rang throughout the damaged shuttle, flashing amber beacons now added their strobe effect to the mass of sparks, smoke and warning lights illuminating the interior of the doomed vessel.

Just as they had rehearsed many times through incessant practice drills, never expecting to use the escape pods, the other eight crewmembers raced to the compartments that offered safety. Moving as best they could, they struggled to their assigned craft and within thirty seconds the shuttle reported all eight individuals had launched vertically away from the shuttle in two pods.

“That’s it Ramon, they are all safely away and the Bergen is actively tracking the pods.”

“Okay Karin, there’s nothing else we can do, let’s get out of here!”

Ramon grabbed his wife’s hand, and they made their way into the control cabins escape pod. As they both made it safely through the hatchway, Ramon smacked the large red button with his fist to start the launch process. With an audible hiss the hatch slid shut and both Karin and Ramon were rammed to the floor as the escape pod rocketed away from the doomed shuttle.

Ramon and Karin, still holding hands exchanged relieved glances. Then, as they began to relax a little, a huge blast hit the pod, throwing them around the interior, not that either of them knew that, as unconsciousness had claimed them both.

The Shuttle Bergen picked up the signal of the third pod to be launched by their sister spacecraft. Within seconds a huge explosion enveloped the nose of the Oslo, and the pod disappeared.

All had been so quiet, so peaceful, so mundane. Not so any longer!

Down on the surface of the planet being surveyed, military leaders watched with morbid glee, revelling in the devastation their missile and rocket attack had wreaked on the body that had been observed orbiting high above them.

Masonville was an increasingly industrialised nation, slowly trying to exert their greater power over their more rural and peaceful neighbours. The country had become a republic some one hundred and fifty annuals or so ago. The military had gradually increased their presence in the upper echelons of Government and had gradually imposed a martial approach to Masonville’s civilisation, constantly broadcasting speeches and propaganda extolling bigger efforts in the mines and factories, accompanied with stirring music to encourage the population to greater efforts.

So, the ruling elite considered the recovery of the debris from the orbiting object as of utmost importance to their development as the pre-eminent nation on Villiar. However, what they hadn’t factored into their calculations, were the huge explosions that destroyed the object and sent debris far from the expected point at which their forces could easily recover the ores that fell to the ground.

The leader of this nation, President Signi slammed his binoculars onto the guardrail of the palace balcony from which he planned to observe this latest coup. It was obvious that he was seething.

“General Brandr, fetch me the brains behind this fiasco, NOW, man, NOW!”

The general quickly muttered something to one of his aides, who scurried from the balcony. President Signi paced backwards and forwards across the balcony becoming more and more angry as each minute passed.

“Where are they General? What is keeping them?” the president snarled.

“I am not sure Mr. President; I am sure the people responsible will be here shortly!”

Almost on cue, a group of four people were shepherded into the president’s presence.

“Just what do you have to say for yourselves? What the hell happened?” the president bawled at the leader of the group, a tall thin man who was sweating profusely, having been dragged from his laboratory where he and his colleagues had been frantically scanning their monitors and instruments.

“I’m sorry Mr President . . .” he started to mutter.

You’re sorry, YOU’RE SORRY!” the president snapped, “I don’t want your apologies man, I want your explanations for this unmitigated disaster, AND I WANT IT NOW!” so saying he smashed his fist onto the balustrade.

The scientist’s leader pulled on his shirt collar, his large, pointed Adam’s apple frantically bobbing up and down on his neck as he sought to placate his irate leader.

“Right, erm! I’m sorry Mr President but . . .” the scientist’s leader started to say again.

“WRONG ANSWER!” hollered the president. “GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT! He continued to rant. This individual was grabbed by two guards and dragged protesting from the balcony.

“RIGHT YOU!” and he jabbed his finger at one of the three remaining scientists, “You want to tell me what just happened up there?” as he jabbed his arm in the air.

This time, a younger man stepped forward with his clipboard firmly gripped in his quaking fist.

“Well Mr President, we think the most likely explanation for the huge explosions must have been due to the object containing fuel or explosive substances within its core. This suggests it was likely hollow, possibly naturally hollow, or maybe, an artificial object, maybe containing life forms of some sort! As you know Mr President, we expected to be able to break the object up, topple it from its orbit and send the fragments to land within our nation!”

“Hollow, you say?” asked the president from under his darkly furrowed brows, his attitude calming somewhat as he rubbed his chin.
“We think so Mr President, but you must understand, we are still analysing our results, so these are purely our early conjectures!”

The president walked up and down tapping his lips, deep in thought, “What is your name?”

The spokesman looked decidedly off colour as he replied. “Hallr Mr President, Hallr!”

“Well Mr Hallr, I suggest you go back to your instruments, and you had better work out exactly WHAT went wrong, WHERE my debris is going to land, AND you have two hora to get back in front of me and give me the answers I NEED, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
Hallr nervously nodded his head.

“Yes Mr President, we’ll go right away, reassess the information we have, and I will report back to you within two hora!”

“Make sure you do Mr Hallr, make sure you do! Now, get out!

With that the three scientists beat a hasty retreat. The president stalked off the balcony himself and returned behind his desk, looking up at those still in his presence.

“General Brandr, I want you to mobilise your patrols to follow the likely trajectory of those fragments falling to the ground. I want every man under your command to be out there scouring the country for the ores or whatever it was that blew up, I particularly want the larger fragments, and I don’t care how far they have to travel to collect them, do you understand General?”

“Yes Mr President, although from what I could tell, it’s likely that some fragments may well land within Granaria, or even Vinaria!”

“General, I couldn’t care less WHERE they land, whether they land within OUR territories, OR, onto our near neighbours. I want those fragments! I don’t care who gets in the way of our troops! They are authorised to use all the tools at their disposal, and if anyone objects, ANYONE AT ALL, then eliminate them! In fact, general, make sure there are no witnesses left to relate what they see!”

The general snapped to attention, saluted the president and promptly marched from the office to issue his orders and to send off the recovery patrols that were all awaiting their orders.

Chapter Two.

Meanwhile, on the balcony of the palace in Willowton, the capital city of Granaria, Queen Adred;-

Granaria was a larger country in land area than Masonville, but was a mainly agrarian culture, particularly successful in producing grains, both for its own consumption but also for export. The country was run by a monarchy, with a predominantly female population. It seemed that the many wars of attrition they’d fought against Masonville had significantly affected the number of males born per one hundred births to around twenty percent, Granaria scientists also suspected the chemicals used to provide sufficient fertilisers to nourish their crops may be having an impact too, although the research was in its infancy. However, these issues were not currently uppermost in the Queen’s thoughts.

“Now, what are Masonville up to this time?” the Queen asked rhetorically.

“If only I knew mother, if only I knew!” Aryn responded as she shaded her eyes and continued to watch the falling spectacle taking place above their heads.

“Well, if I know one thing, Masonville are up to no good, and we’ll be feeling the brunt of their deviousness before too much more time has passed!” the Queen replied tersely.

Princess Aryn glanced at her mother.

“I think it best if we organise our forces to investigate any of the debris that seems to be heading our way, as well as preparing to disabuse any of Masonville’s population who may want to invade our territory and retrieve this material currently cascading towards both our nations!”

The Queen glanced up at the sky again.

“That’s a good idea Aryn, get the rapid response unit onto the road as quickly as possible. It looks as if most of the smaller fragments are heading towards the south of the capital but some of the larger fragments are coming down to the north, I want you, Aryn, to concentrate on the larger elements, as I expect those will be the ones of most interest to our friends across the border. Where is Caryn?”

“Here mother” answered the Queens younger daughter as she strode onto the balcony, casting her eyes upwards as she did so. “I was in the palace grounds checking the readiness of our units given the spectacle going on over our heads, I estimate they can be on the road within a quarter of an hora, once we decide where we are going!”

“Thank you Caryn, that’s good to know we can get underway so quickly, although I know it is what you have both trained your forces for!” replied the Queen.

“Now what is that?” pondered Princess Aryn as she quickly raised the binoculars back to her eyes. “That red object that has just emerged into view from within all that smoke looks a bit like a parachute to me!” She handed the binoculars onto her sister.

“I think you are right Aryn, if that fragment is worth fitting with a parachute, then the contents must be fragile and worth preserving. So, does that indicate life and/or delicate machinery?” pondered Caryn who passed the optical device across to her mother.

The Queen studied the sky above the palace intently.

“Whatever is in that fragment must be special as a second parachute has just been deployed which makes that object our main priority, I want you both to take the majority of your teams and get to the landing point of that fragment as quickly as possible. I want you to go prepared to face interference from Masonville! So, even if it delays you a little while I want you to go fully prepared, not only to recover what you can, but to also fend off incursions from our neighbours, and girls, be careful, very careful, I don’t want anyone hurt. You head off as quickly as possible and I’ll despatch some back-up forces in case of trouble, now, come and give your old mum a hug and then get going!”

All three women came together in a group cuddle and the Queen kissed each of her daughters’ foreheads and they then departed from their mother to grab their ready bags and go get their expedition on the road.

At the same time that the Princesses and their forces were speeding north, Prime Minister Pellinore joined her sister, the Queen on the palace balcony.

“Well Adred, what do you think is going on?”

The Queen glanced across at her younger sister.

“To be honest, I don’t really have a clue, although we’ve made some educated guesses, do you have any intelligence from your sources?”

Pellinore took the proffered binoculars and surveyed the skies above them.

“We don’t have anything concrete, although the level of radio traffic has increased dramatically within the Masonville military, especially traffic emanating from the headquarters to units close to our border. That can’t be good news for us, no matter what is going on!”

“That’s just brilliant Pellinore, any idea what they are saying specifically?” asked the Queen.

“They have introduced a new code which our experts are working on as we speak, the more internal messages which we have deciphered have given orders for every particle which lands, to be taken to their central headquarters as a matter of priority!” replied Pellinore.

“I don’t suppose the coded messages say much different, just that they are to be more vigorous in their efforts to retrieve these fragments!” mused the Queen.

“I expect you are correct Adred, I know the measures you have already taken, I spoke briefly to Aryn and Caryn as they were heading out, but sadly I think we need to mobilise all our forces, including the Civil Defence units to help where needed and to back-up the frontline units should Masonville become even more belligerent in the coming hora and days, at least until we know what we are dealing with!”

“Yes, Pellinore, I think we are in for some turbulent times in the immediate future, lets head down to the command post and see what the latest intelligence has for us!” and with that the two sisters headed into the palace’s interior.

“I’m hoping their skills will not be needed but I have despatched my two girls Ayne and Urna with the main convoy just in case specialised medical care is needed by anybody as a result of this mission.”

“Great idea Pellinore, let’s hope they have a wasted journey, but, somehow, I doubt it!” added the Queen as they both continued to the communication centre buried deep within the palace.

Chapter Three.

In the sky above the two, wary countries, the huge clouds of smoke and flame gradually dispersed as the high winds in the atmosphere rapidly blew the evidence away. Meanwhile the heavier objects started to rain down on the land mass known as Villiar to its inhabitants.

Roughly half the, albeit smaller debris landed on Masonville, but the object with the parachutes attached, drifted further and further westward into Granaria.

In the palace in Masonville, which was the name of both the country and its capital, President Signi paced to and fro, becoming increasingly agitated.

Following a knock on his office’s door General Brandr strode purposefully into the room followed by a very nervous Hallr and his two equally apprehensive colleagues.

“HALLR, you’re late man, LATE, you’ve kept me waiting an extra ten munt!

“Sorry Mr President Sir, but we received some last-minute information which we thought best to bring with us.” Replied Hallr.

“Well man, out with it, out with it!” barked President Signi.

“Well S,s,s, Sir” stuttered Hallr, “Our latest information seems to confirm.”

“Seems? SEEMS?” the President yelled, “What do you mean seems? Don’t you know for definite man? You are not inspiring me with confidence Hallr, perhaps you are not up to this role and I should replace you too!” snarled the President.

“No Sir, I know what happened, well, according to our latest information anyway” replied Hallr mopping the sweat from his brow, “Perhaps I could show you some photographs we have just received from one of our monitoring telescopes!”

As he said this, he spread a series of photographs across the President’s desk, the images showed a rectangular object being subjected to a series of close proximity explosions, before the next displayed the target starting to disintegrate. The final image displayed a sizeable chunk of the target breaking off as a huge mushroom cloud of flames obliterates the rest of the objects.

Hallr cleared his throat and started his explanation.

“As you will be aware Mr President, our intention was to shock what we assumed to be a solid object with close proximity explosions against its trailing edge, thereby causing it to start tumbling out of orbit and come to ground within the territory of Masonville!”

“You assumed it was solid, did you not check?” snarled the President.

“I’m sorry Sir, but we had no way to check whether it was solid or not, nor could we expect it to explode in the manner it did, causing the debris field to be much larger than predicted!” answered Hallr.

“So do you know where most of this object is expected to land?” demanded the ever-impatient President.

“Yes Sir, it err, um, er, it seems from the data we have managed to assemble that some will land within Masonville as intended, the larger chunks will likely land in Southern Granaria. But the section with parachutes attached is expected to land to the north of Granaria’s capital!”

The President’s face grew more and more red and his shirt collar seemed to be in danger of choking him.

“Parachutes? What parachutes? Why wasn’t I told anything about a section of this object coming to land by parachute?”

“I’m sorry sir, I thought you already knew about the parachutes!” mumbled a scared Hallr.

“Brandr, get this sorry excuse of a technical advisor out of my sight!” stormed President Signi, as he repeatedly prodded Hallr in the chest.

“Sir, Yes Sir!” responded General Brandr as he signalled two guards to begin to remove the quivering Hallr from the President’s office.

“Please, wait a moment Mr. President, let me explain fully!” exclaimed Hallr.

“I can’t stand incompetence!” grumbled President Signi “Right, YOU! What’s your name?” he demanded as he pointed at one of Hallr’s colleagues.

“I am Alfvin Sir!” replied the technician.

“Well Alfvin, do YOU know where this parachute section is going to land?”

“To be honest Sir, not exactly!” Alfvin could sense the dangerous ground he was on, “But as Hallr was about to explain, more data was coming in from our observatories all the time Sir, but we didn’t want to delay our meeting with you any further Sir, so I am sure we will have a better idea any moment now!” added Alfvin.

The President stared at his three technical advisors, as Hallr was being held at the doorway, the President glared at the men.

“You have one hora to gather better, more reliable information gentlemen and present it here in front of me, do you hear, ONE hora, not a munt longer, now, get out!”