Rating:

Sanctuary's End

So, the liberated Gan-Shi have been relocated to Sanctuary and things aren’t going so well. Their society is a pretty much closed society and they don’t readily tolerate outsiders. It is and has been ruled by the elder female cows, the males are huge bull-like creatures, with these females mostly pacifist when interacting with others. They keep the bulls from causing violence and that was the main reason they were subservient to the Anguilar. Now on Sanctuary the Gan-Shi have to work with the Copperal, Plantar and other species. There are occasionally fights that have to be stopped because quite frankly, the Gan-shi bulls could and would tear apart any of the other races they had to fight. Charlie Travers didn’t have time to do this every time one of these scuffles came up. But that’s a problem he wasn’t going to solve right now. No, he was needed back at Earth to resolve the situation his unexpected departure to rescue Giblet had caused.

Charlie had resigned his Army commission. He knew that he couldn’t be bound by the US Army or even by the President of the United States. His fight was a galactic fight and all he needed was for Earth to supply some of the ground forces and other expertise to help in his resistance movement. He had told the President and all of his advisors that their help was going to be just as beneficial to them as it was to him since the Anguilar already knew that Earth existed and that it pretty much couldn’t protect itself.

But, the training of some solid US Army Rangers was going well as were the repairs to the captured Anguilar cruiser from their last incursion. Now with two Anguilar cruisers plus the Liberty ships, the resistance was looking better, but not in anyway ready to take on a huge Anguilar fleet. Trying to find out what General Zan-Tar was up to was something Charlie desperately needed to know. That information came by way of a relayed message from Liberator Four back at Sanctuary. It was not good news.

The Anguilar had found Sanctuary! Imperial cruisers had just jumped into the System and were approaching the planet. Charlie knew he had to immediately get back there since it wasn’t that protected. He never thought the Anguilar would find the place this soon anyway, but he really knew that it was just a matter of time. So, he boards his Liberty ship and starts the week-long trip through hyperspace knowing that no matter how fast they go, they are going to be too late!

He was right. Once they got back they immediately started surveying the planet to find that most of the settlement had been bombed out of existence. Of course Charlie was most worried about Brandy and Val, both long-time friends. Brandy was his intelligence chief and she was also six-months pregnant. Charlie didn’t know what he’d do if both or either one of them were killed. Still, on first look, it didn’t look too good.

There were still a few Anguilar cruisers in orbit over the planet. They put up some fight, but Charlie’s forces were much better and eventually the remaining Anguilar fled. Charlie got word that most of the villagers had fled to a system of caves and tunnels in the mountains. As he approached the cave entrance, he saw a lot of dead Anguilar troopers as well as a lot of Copperal and Strada soldiers. They had made a last stand here, but he knew there were more people inside the cave. As he began to venture deeper he saw that there were a large stockpile of goods, food and clothing so someone had prepared this place for such an event. He eventually met up with Brandy. She looked like she had been through a horrible experience and know her, she would have been in the thick of the ground fighting. He asked where Val was hoping that his question was going to answered the way he feared it might be. But, Brandy just shook her head and showed Charlie towards the end of the cave. This was where they had setup a make-shift hospital. Val was lying on a cot, but something looked wrong about his body under the blanket. Most of it seemed to be missing! He was still alive, barely, and Brandy said they needed to move him immediately to the hospital on the Liberator ship.

Now Charlie had to find out how the Anguilar found out about Sanctuary. Oh, he knew that there was a good chance they might have just stumbled upon the place, but the attacking force wasn’t some scouting mission. It was very likely that someone had told the Anguilar that most of the Liberator ships and Charlie were not at Sanctuary. Charlie had to find who that someone was and quickly. Most of his crew focused on the Gan-shi. They were the last to come to Sanctuary, but Charlie didn’t want to believe that they could had done that. Still, he and everyone else noted that the Gan-shi settlement hadn’t been attacked from the air or by the Anguilar ground forces. There had to be a reason why.

But, now Charlie had to figure out where to set up his new base since the Anguilar knew about Sanctuary. He was expecting them to come back in force at anytime. He decided they needed to load every one up and head back to Earth. The Gan-shi could relocate someplace in the US and he could start training the males on how to fight since that’s what they now wanted to do. This would also give him an opportunity to further check their loyalty and may be figure out if one of them was the traitor.

Charlie and the entire resistance is now located at Earth. It’s a target that the Anguilar and General Zan-Tar can’t pass up. Charlie eventually gets word that the Anguilar are coming back to Earth in force, enough to conquer the planet. Plans have to be made and it appears that Charlie Travers is the only one that can come up with any kind of a plan. Now they have to make it work or there won’t be a resistance any longer nor will Earth be making its own decisions.

The fights certainly not over. There’s more to be done and just maybe the US government will understand why they need to be part of that fight. More will be revealed in the next book, “Citadel’s Fall”, now available on Amazon.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.