Peter Lycetts had been running and hiding from the enemy invaders for six days now; at least he thought it was six day; to be honest, life of the run was a blur.  The forest was massive and densely packed, offering plenty of cover from the patrols roaming about.

He’d learnt on the second day that these aliens were called the Vaadwaun; their aim was conquest and subjugation of, well basically everyone and everything.  They had technology and firepower on their side, and could have wiped every in habitant of Simson III out in a day or two.  Hundreds had died in the initial bombardment; other had been rounded up and where being held in camps at various locations.

Those that were still on the run, were being toyed with, used as a training exercise for the soldiers; sharping their skills at hunting down their quarry without relying on their scanning equipment.  They’d come close to catching him a couple of days ago.  A group of four Vaadwaur had been heading almost right for him.  They were in a line, roughly twelve metres gap between each of them.  Any movement on his part would have given his location away instantly.

Something else had caught their attention; he could seem them from his concealed spot in a bush.  They signed to each other with hand gestures. Peter couldn’t understand what most of them meant; but when one pointed over to a patch of undergrowth, he understood the implications.

Moving silently, one of them circled around, until he was beyond the spot his colleague had indicated.  A man in his mid to late fifties was dragged to his feet a moment later. He tried to kick and wriggle his way free of the soldiers grip, but as he saw the weapons carried by the others pointing at him, he stopped.

One of them removed their helmet and mask, but from the angle and distance, Peter couldn’t get any clear view of what this Vaadwaur looked like.  “I take it you know how to count?”  The soldier asked mockingly, receiving a hesitant nod from the man.  “Good.  When we let you go, you have from the count of ten until I reach zero to run as far away as you can.”

The soldier holding the man, let him go, but he hesitated looking at them in fright. “Ten!” the unmasked member of the group barked.  That was enough to get the man running, if not all that fast, due to his age and the unevenness of the ground.

Peter couldn’t see the man but heard the sounds of braking twigs underfoot and foliage being frantically pushed to one side.  The Vaadwaur soldier continued to count; raising the twin-barreled rifle like weapon he held, up to shoulder height and positioning the sighing scope in line with his right eye.  At zero he fired.  The beam of intense polaron energy from the rifle, streaked off in the general direction the man had taken.

Peter heard the scream of pain and crash of a breaking branch, knowing immediately that the man had been hit and wounded, if not killed outright.  The Vaadwaur moved off in the direction of the scream; this gave Peter the opportunity to slip away in the other direction.

**********

Peter awoke startled by his dream. In the dream it had been him running, not the other man.  The Vaadwauar had counted down to zero and fired.  The Polaron beam had sliced through his left arm, just below the elbow; but somehow in his dream, Peter had kept going.  Another beam grazed his side, yet still he ran.  The third shot had ripped through his right thigh; leaving a deep gouge of burnt skin a muscle tissue.  Peter collapsed, unable to go any further.  His body felt on fire, and the pain emanating from the three wounds was beyond anything he’d experienced before.

Now awake, Peter checked to confirm his body was still intact; thankful he’d not fallen out of the tree he’d been hiding and sleeping in. The Vaadwaur, did not hunt at night, which was one small blessing.  They tended to group in small camps, taking it in turns to guard, whilst others slept.  He knew all this, because a group of people, both locals and tourists, carrying whatever weapons they could gather together; had attempted to attack one of Vaadwaur camps. Twenty-seven of them had been involved; only one survived long enough to describe the horror of what had happened.

When Peter looked down from the tree, he spotted a lone Vaadwaur.  He was dressed a little differently from those he’d witness the other day.  This one appeared to be wearing less armour, had more of a cap than a helmet, and there was no face mask either.

The soldier bent down, picking a small object up of a big leaf, near the ground.  It was a small pocket knife Peter had taken from the man involved in the attack.  The soldier looked up, and their eyes met.

**********

Jeno had been down on this worthless planet since soon after the initial bombardment.  As far as he’d been concerned, they could have levelled this planet from orbit, or just simple left it alone.  There was no strategic value in taking this place what so ever.  It wasn’t even the right planet!  Apparently, according to those in charge of navigation and tracking; there was an extra ‘star’ in the zone which had thrown out all their calculations.   If Captain Gokla was stupid enough to believe such a preposterous story; well that was on him; but no star had ever appeared out of nowhere.

Gokla had sent out ships to scout other planets; whether any had reported back yet, Jeno didn’t know.  If the Federation ship turned up, a recall signal would be sent and the rest of the fleet would return.  The Command ship and fighters would probably be enough to deal with one ship anyway.  Gokla just wanted to make sure it couldn’t escape under any circumstances.

None of this helped Jeno, trudging through this forest with the soldier of Squad Nine.  His place was on the bridge, passing on instructions to units like this, not down on the ground, actually with them.  The Captain just didn’t like his attitude; felt that questioning decisions, undermined his authority and set a bad example.  Gokla acted live he was one of the old ones; but he was no hero of the Supremacies past, ready to lead the Vaadwaur back to glory, he was no different to anyone else aboard that ship or down here on the planet.

An object caught his eye, a glint of metal.  It was a knife resting on the broad leaf of a plant.  He picked if up, and then looked up into the tree above, where is eyes met those of a human male.

**********

Peter Lycetts jumped; landing on and knocking the Vaadwaur soldier to the ground.  He started punching the soldier in the face; raining blow after blow, before the Vaadwaur had time to react. He grabbed him by the flaps of scaly skin that ran up either side of the neck and started bashing the soldiers head on the ground.

The noise of a twig snapping, made Peter look up; and there standing not more than six metres away, another Vaadwaur stood, weapon drawn.

“Totally pathetic.” This second soldier sneered from behind his mask. “If that fool knew the first thing about unarmed combat, it would be you lying there.”

“Are you going to kill me?” Peter asked

“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t?” The soldier continued.  “You’ve just murdered an officer of the Vaadwaur Supremacy.”

Peter didn’t answer; he just stayed there, straddling the chest of the now dead officer.  Another soldier approached, whispered something in the ear of the one pointing the gun at him.  They exchanged words, but Peter could not understand the language.

“Close your eyes.”

Peter Lycetts did just that, and waited to die.

“Sir, are you ok?” It was a female voice he heard, but even with that realisation, he was still hesitant to open his eyes. “I’m Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley from the USS da Vinci.  You’re safe now”

When Peter finally opened his eyes, the Vaadwaur soldiers, other than the dead one, were gone.  Instead, he could see six people in Starfleet uniforms.  Was it all over?