Read Episode 4 first
THE PARTY OF SINUL
Return Fire Episode 5
Long, long ago in a network far, far, away...
Emperor Clunis Bohandt, disappointed in the recent destruction of En\Tea, openly ordered an invasion of the Rebellion's distant base of libc-5.
But the invasion did not come. The Rebels under Commander Romstack were fortifying their base. Sinul, a pilot, was sleeping in his parked spacefighter during a break...
In his dream, he saw two soldiers from the Becdoh Revolutionary Guard.
"We must capture Sinul. He is on this planet," said one soldier.
"If he is not taken to Sasuri, he will be a threat to us. There he is!"
Sinul was captured. Then he remembered. Sasuri was not in Becdoh. It was one of the Realms. Also, he had survived Kayong without being captured. Sinul's dream changed setting.
"The Flag Empire is sending an invasion force to libc-5," said the Source. "Emperor Bohandt ordered it."
"It hasn't come yet," said the Penguin.
"We don't know if it will be another En\Tea, or something worse."
"Look. They are scaring us - the Rebellion - with an invasion force, but it hasn't come yet," remarked the Penguin. "With strength we will defeat them."
"Fear should not be ignored," said the Source. "We are uncertain what kind of attack we will get."
"We doubt we will get any attack at all."
The Source and the Penguin faded. In its place appeared the ship on which Sinul left Kayong, without being captured.
"The Flag Empire will be a threat," said Romstack. "But I have hidden some weapons. We can use them to start a Rebellion."
Romstack's speech was cut. Sinul woke. The real Commander Romstack was shaking him. "New intelligence that the Flag Empire's invasion might be coming," he said. "Get up. You must train."
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Romstack called a meeting. "The intelligence suggests that Brathe Fill has built another Electric-Nuclear Terrifying Explosion Apparatus."
"Another En\Tea!" shouted one. The audience recalled how the En\Tea could destroy the entire moon of libc-5, including the Rebellion's only base.
"He will have probably patched the hole," said the Commander. The first En\Tea had been destroyed when Sinul had shot a ping packet into a small hole.
"And there might be more than one." Two En\Tea units attacking. Even the precision aiming of the Floating-Point Computer might not be enough. "If one En\Tea survives it could destroy our base."
But Sinul heard the Penguin say, "The En\Tea is not as powerful as Brathe Fill says it is."
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Then the attack came. Four Death Oppression Ships approached. The Rebels were relieved. The DOS was a large and powerful spacefighter carrier and the backbone of the Empire's force, and many times the size of a spacefighter. The DOS that now attacked had only a few upgrades beyond the ancient units that the Rebellion was used to fighting. A DOS could be destroyed by blasting its weak points, which the Floating-Point Computer, a rebel invention, could easily target. The weak points were much easier to reach and hit than the hole on the En\Tea.
"In the days of the Empire's rise," Sinul heard the Source recall, "Rebel units fleeing toward the chosen planet of libc were blocked by DOS. But the Rebellion learned to defeat the DOS, and later defend libc-5 from DOS attacks."
"We will crush the DOS with our feet," said the Penguin.
A DOS launched spacefighters. While they struggled to aim at the Rebel spacefighters, Sinul and others were easily zapping enemies with the precision of the Floating Point Computer. Then the Floating Point Computer displayed for Sinul the weak points of a DOS.
"I would think that the Empire would modify its DOS," said Sinul. "They will lose just as they have lost many times in the past."
Sinul fired his blasters. The DOS was destroyed, leaving three. But look! Sinul now spotted two more DOS, making five on the battlefield.
Romstack came in by radio. "Sinul, go after the DOS. We have teams focussing on their spacefighters."
But before Romstack could finish speaking, Sinul had destroyed his second DOS, and one other had exploded. But six DOS appeared, making nine total.
Sinul flipped a ping packet at a cluster of enemy spacefighters, and destroyed his third DOS. The DOS were now exploding everywhere. But Sinul counted how many DOS were remaining, and there were at least twenty.
"They came with a large force," said the Source. "The Empire knew by now that a few DOS would not be sufficient."
"We could destroy three hundred DOS," said the Penguin. The battle continued.
Blast the DOS!
Packet toss!
We will destroy three hundred!
They explode!
Force erode!
Serial blow three hundred!
Thousands' op-
Ponents drop
People of DOS three hundred!
Massacre!
Rebels were
Defeating all three hundred!
Sinul had destroyed forty DOS, an impressive number. But scans were showing three hundred remaining.
"This will still be easy," said the Penguin. But Romstack was less optimistic. Over radio, "some of our pilots are out! We might not be able to destroy all these DOS!"
Sinul had destroyed eighty DOS, and eight hundred were on the battlefield. The Rebel pilots stood in shock and awe.
Was this not the entire Imperial Drove Force? How had the Empire managed to produce so many carriers? Sinul could tell that most of the DOS were far from fully loaded with spacefighters. But the DOS cannons, though technologically challenged, seemed working.
But Sinul picked up his DOS destruction rate. He was still counting. "297," he said after one explosion. "Almost 298, wait! Someone else got that one! Still 297." But there were two thousand DOS still out there.
"Two thousand!" screamed Romstack on the radio. "We must flee! Orders to abandon libc-5; we are being overwhelmed!"
It was up to Sinul to shoot his way out of the battle. So Sinul destroyed three more DOS, thus accomplishing the destruction of three hundred spacefighter carriers with one spacefighter.
Then his rate slowed. He was up to 311 when enemy spacefighters appeared ahead. He started destroying them rapidly while evading their return fire.
"Behind you!" yelled the Penguin. "Shoot him!" The Targetting Computer aimed a ping packet at a spacefighter which Sinul discovered was sneaking from behind.
"Don't shoot," instructed the Source suddenly. Sinul did not shoot.
But the other spacefighter shot, disabling Sinul's craft. Then a tractor beam shot out from the other spacefighter. The string attached to Sinul's craft, and towed him out of the battle. Sinul was prisoner.
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Sinul was led to an unmarked vessel, smaller than a DOS but with the ability to dock a few spacefighters. In that vessel the two ships parked. Out of one, Brathe Fill walked out.
Brathe Fill was high in the Imperial Drove Force and the evil behind the En\Tea. Why did he fly like a low pilot in a spacefighter, where he could easily become a battle casualty?
Brathe Fill forced Sinul out of his disabled spacefighter. "Sinul," said Fill. "You have destroyed many of our DOS."
"Three hundred and eleven," said Sinul.
"And with that you have killed tens of thousands of men! A crime!"
Sinul paused. He had murdered thousands, but the thousands had attacked him.
"But you, Sinul, may be spared. Your skill is useful. Come with me to Sasuri."
"I will not come," declared Sinul. Immediately he took out a concealed weapon. It was a dagger.
Sinul called it the Dagger Ans. Through it, he thought he read the Source more clearly. It was also his secret, and no person of the Rebellion knew it existed.
Ans lengthened into a sword. Sinul remembered a time when both the League of States and the Source Association were still in power. The two organizations worked for peace in the network. The League of States represented the galaxy's governments. The Source Association represented the wisdom and resources of four legendary people, the Faths.
Before the Empire, persons of knowledge could credit Fath Nul Sil, Fath Lir Leb, Fath Ap Ool, and Fath Om Kin for the welfare of the network.
Brathe Fill grabbed a staff. The elongated Dagger of Ans struck the staff. The battle begun.
"The Rebellion did not respect your power, Sinul."
"I was one of their most respected pilots."
"They intended to sacrifice you to the DOS while they fled."
"I was one of their most respected pilots," Sinul repeated.
"The Rebellion's plan is not really to maintain a pocket of freedom separate from the Empire, as you might think."
"The Rebellion encourages all to resist the Empire, as I do now."
"You would be part of the Rebellion's leadership, given your skill."
"I was desparately needed as a pilot."
"They stopped you from entering the leadership because you would have discovered the truth."
"You cannot know the truth."
The two fighters, evenly matched, stopped fighting as Brathe Fill announced, "I want to show you something."
With his staff, he wrote his name on the wall. BRATHE FILL. Then he waved his staff, and the letters shifted.
BRATHE FILL
BRFATHE ILL
FATH BRE ILL
FATH REB LIL
FATH LIR EBL
FATH LIR LEB
The wall now read, FATH LIR LEB. The man holding the staff said, "I am he."
