“So long as your presence does not make my enemies stronger.” Anguhr growled.
“It makes you stronger,” Zaria said. “Admit it, and let’s move on.”
Zaria and Anguhr entered a truce of silence forced by Proxis’ sharp course alterations nearly overpowering the bridge gravity field.
“Lord, General Sutuhr—again he alters course to use Hell’s body to eclipse his ship in relation to our course.” Proxis reported.
“I see it,” Anguhr said as he studied the arcs plotted across the screens showing Sutuhr’s ship. “Redirect our mines to strike Hell. It will insight him to strike at those assaulting his beloved mother.”
“Won’t that clear a path for Ursuhr?” Zaria asked.
“He has altered course for a strike along polar orbit by now.” Anguhr replied. “Plus, I have many more mines. Main gun status?”
“Port-side battery still under repair, Lord.” Proxis answered.
“Then aim our starboard main guns at Hell,” Anguhr ordered. “Have all secondary batteries ready to fire as soon as Sutuhr’s ship comes in range. These threats will certainly bring the Devoted charging at us.”
“And his threat to us?” Zaria asked.
“I only need a single strike to render him vulnerable.”
“Lord!” Proxis yelled. “Another salvo from Hell!”
“Then evade it!” Anguhr barked “Fire—!”
Anguhr halted his command. Zaria captured his attention. She glowed a vibrant yellow and the color of gold made into light. Her skin crackled with arcs of plasma.
“What now?” Anguhr yelled as he looked at the glowing Zaria.
“Now she saves your ship.” Gin answered.
The new salvo of mace-like projectiles and swarms hurtled closer to Anguhr’s ship. Their spin slowed. The crimson flames engulfing the mace-heads flashed to orange. Their spin reversed and sped up as the swarms appeared to die and were thrown from the slashing beams. The mace-heads veered away from Anguhr’s ship and into a polar arc.
Ursuhr had also ordered his ship into Hell’s radiation belts in his pursuit ordered by Sutuhr. Ursuhr’s course cut down from Hell’s northern pole on an intercept arc with Anguhr’s ship. The mace-heads suddenly flashed on the center screen. The spinning infernos were dead ahead.
“Errant fire from Hell!” Martis grated.
Ursuhr and his bridge pitched hard to starboard as Martis veered the ship clear of Hell’s missiles commandeered by Zaria.
The mace-heads continued along their arc and descended back to Hell’s surface. Their volcanic launchers still burned and erupted anew as their last, hijacked salvo returned and struck. Hell’s guns were destroyed. The thundering impact ejected rock, dust, and molten machines into space.
Ursuhr looked at his ship’s new trajectory as it flashed over a projected map of Hell. They were now heading into space. His war prize of invisibility only hid his ship from active scans. It blinded other technology, especially Hell’s detectors. However, close in a set of keen eyes might see red before he opened fire. The blind was created by commandeering an entangled link on all of Hell’s ships. The link deep within their systems was made from the same, identical source: the Great Widow’s silk. Anguhr could block the spider’s mind, but not the autonomous functions of his ship. The Great Widow’s weave bound the analytic system with the ship’s sensors. The silk allowed instantaneous data transmission. Its quantum frequency also allowed the infiltration that blocked sensor and targeting arrays.
Coupled with the phase engines, the blind was a great gift to the aliens who could use it. Ursuhr had his ship’s aegis to shield him, but he knew the blind would be useful in unlikely combat. Such as with another General. The quantum infiltration occurred in Anguhr’s ship when he entered the trones. But now Sutuhr was thwarting the use of the new weapon by not drawing Anguhr out for a clear shot. This battle was taking longer because of Sutuhr’s wounded ship and gutless evasion of Anguhr’s firepower. The angry Ursuhr considered using his advantage against both Generals.
“Bring us back on course!” Ursuhr bellowed.
“I will, Lord. And immediately, if you wish.” Martis turned to his General. “However, another expedited path through Hell’s radiation would further weaken our aegis. And Hell’s own defenses seem—”
Martis stopped speaking. He considered that openly stating Hell’s weapons were compromised might amount to blasphemy.
“I serve you and this ship, Lord Ursuhr.” Martis continued. “Our success, our survival, is paramount to me.”
Ursuhr made a low grumble. “Protect the ship. But make greatest speed possible to Anguhr. Now.”
Martis bowed. He turned back to his dais. The ship veered hard, again.
Anguhr glanced at Zaria, now back to her normal self. He turned as she smiled at him. He blinked as venom flew towards him. It was only a projection on his bridge. Sutuhr had opened communications. However, his opening statements were unintelligible rants. Finally, his yelling cooled into understandable phrases.
“You have enraged the Dark Urge! Desecrated Hell!” Sutuhr bellowed. “To even displease our mother is to know complete death! You will be burned from history! All your victories—struck from all records. She will erase you from galactic memory. I will receive credit for your conquests! You are now less than the dust from your own campaigns!”
Anguhr said nothing in reply. The silence felt like a solid mass encasing his bridge. Anguhr’s attention was on a chronograph and range sensor. He finally said two words.
“Open fire.”
The projection of Sutuhr’s face gave perfect fidelity to his shock. His eyes darted to read his screens and data. Sutuhr expected to see massive bolts of power fired from Anguhr’s ship strike Hell just as he fired his main guns on the Xa’rol homeworld. Instead, plasma lances from Anguhr’s secondary batteries struck Sutuhr’s ship. He vanished from Anguhr’s screens as his image shook.
“Turn our bow to Sutuhr!” Anguhr yelled.
“Lord, General Sutuhr’s own main guns are still armed.” Proxis cautioned.
On his own bridge, Sutuhr had calmed down. He saw the battle near an end, and then so would Hell’s only and last rebellion. He looked at the image of Anguhr’s ship and intersection of plotted weapons fire.
“Young fool, you are the last of our line.” Sutuhr said. “I was second. Only Azuhr lived before me. Now, you join her in oblivion. Fire, Crucis. Kill this rebel.”
Twin beams shot from Sutuhr’s bow. They held less power than when he destroyed the Xa’rol planet, but enough to annihilate another warship. What they struck was another opposing beam from a fully charged main battery. For an instant, a new, small star exploded into life. Its intense, white brilliance flared brighter than the Red Giant and the two main drives of the rival ships.
All on Anguhr’s bridge released a collective gasp as the flash dyed out on the screens and through the hull beams.
“An impressive calculation, Proxis.” Gin said to the Ship Master. “Congratulations. And thank you.”
Proxis tilted his head to look up at Gin and gave him a quick nod.
On the opposing bridge, Sutuhr bolted up and looked at his screens to locate Anguhr, but Anguhr was easy to find. He charged straight at Sutuhr.
“Evasive—!” Sutuhr yelled, but he fell on his side as Crucis steered the ship out of the fusillade of secondary fire.
The beams sliced through the red flames trailing the star-like main drive. However, the following missile barrage exploded in violent succession across the hull.
“My Lord!” Crucis yelled. “The last salvo severed our helm. I cannot steer the ship!”
“And he hammers us into Hell’s radiation shield!” Sutuhr roared.
“We cannot survive there!” Crucis barked as he still attempted to control the ship amid violent shaking and a building spin. “He has us!”
“Fight!” Sutuhr yelled and grabbed up his mace. “Fire missiles! Fire everything! Send out the horde to shoot at his ship!”
&n
bsp; A lurch of the deck caused Sutuhr to fall against his throne. He braced himself with his mace. Again, he saw his ship’s crimson aegis fail. This time he didn’t see space beyond the gaps in his hull. He saw the beams begin to glow and spark as heated steel. His mother’s own defenses charged his ship with high energy particles and waves of ethereal power. Gravity failed. Sutuhr gripped the deck plating. He tried to bark an order, but the conductive atmosphere had left his ship. Sutuhr again admired Crucis for his dedication to his post. But the Ship Master’s hand became still as he drifted away from his dais. The thorns of his skin began to burn. Sutuhr also felt heat. He found it strange that he was born in Hell yet had never felt heat enough to burn him. It was always below the tolerance of his powerful form. Until now.
Sutuhr strained to peer through his ship’s hull and look at the approaching surface of his mother. He remembered the features as beautiful and sterile. Lifeless. That would be his state in mere moments. His mother had denied him harbor. Now, his ship would collide with her. For once, Sutuhr did not feel hate. He felt peace, and then intense heat.
Anguhr watched Sutuhr’s ship burn but without crimson fire. Its main drive flashed off and became a black ball that itself caught fire in the sea of energy and fear blasted out from Hell. Sutuhr’s ship spun on its axis as if locked in a perpetual capsizing as it gained speed towards Hell.
“The centrifugal force will likely trap his horde,” Zaria said in a low voice.
“They would want to perish with their Lord.” Anguhr said. “Now, Ursuhr.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Incoming main battery fire on anticipated vector.” Proxis announced with remarkable calm as planet destroying beams seared the vacuum and then sliced the aft-most extent of his ship’s scarlet aegis.
“Plow us through his missiles, Proxis.” Anguhr ordered.
The young General was also in remarkable calm for having just destroyed another of his kind who annihilated planets and interstellar empires. Of course, so did Anguhr. And so did his current opponent.
“Both main batteries are back on line, Lord Destroyer.” Proxis said with tones of both triumph and relief.
Anguhr’s ship sailed a safe distance from Hell’s radiation but faced renewed pursuit by Ursuhr. With Sutuhr and his ship destroyed, Anguhr could now focus on the hulking, ursine General. Proxis fired both main batteries in short, staccato pulses that vaporized the onslaught of Ursuhr’s secondary attack. Inside Anguhr’s bridge, the bear-like face of his antagonist appeared in projection.
“You waste no time in mourning our brother, Anguhr. Neither do I.”
“Your time is ending,” Anguhr droned. “As Sutuhr revealed, death is certain for all who oppose me.”
“It has ever been the same for me.” Ursuhr smiled in defiance. “And those are bold worlds when you killed a virtually unarmed General. My ship is fully operational. And better than your own.”
Anguhr glanced to Gin, who nodded.
“Now, Proxis,” Anguhr said sharp and confident. “Prepare to vaporize this fool.”
“Ha!” Ursuhr barked from the projection. “How? You are the fool, Anguhr. You cannot even—”
“We found the network that screens your communications.” Anguhr cut in. “All we needed was for you to link to them and communicate with Sutuhr for a short time. As you are both bombasts who slay worlds with endless bluster and rants, we had plenty of time to act.”
“Act? What have you—?” Ursuhr was interrupted, again. The sound of Martis’ affected and now stressed voice barked outside the range of Ursuhr’s image.
“You were fearful of the infiltrator besieging Sutuhr’s ship.” Anguhr continued. “Yet the technology you used as a wall is old and vulnerable, just as you are nearing death.”
“But thank you,” Gin chirped. “It allowed me an access point to insert a permanent on switch to your ship’s location beacon. You may remember it’s the mechanism that enables demons to relocate their ship if lost at great distance. We don’t need the scanners to target your ship, now. Enjoy General Anguhr’s belligerence in force. I will enjoy watching it from both sides. A copy of me is already there in your systems.”
Martis barked off the screen’s image near Ursuhr who still looked at Anguhr in bewilderment. Gin ended his address to Ursuhr with the ancient, and in Hell, forgotten hand gesture. He waved.
“In short—” Anguhr took a breath after Gin’s verbal dissertation that was shared by Ursuhr on his bridge. “You can no longer hide. Now you must fight, coward. Pity yourself Ursuhr, because it is me you must battle.”
Anguhr snatched up his axe and laughed, loudly.
“Missiles launched, Lord.” Proxis announced. “The warheads are planet killers.”
Ursuhr vanished as his face flexed at the start of a roar.
“Fire all salvos continuously!” Anguhr jerked his axe as if imagining a blow on Ursuhr.
“I obey, Lord.” Proxis nodded. “I ask, though, hear me. For our missiles alone cannot destroy his ship at this range against his fully powered aegis.”
“I will kill Ursuhr. My goal is to incinerate his pride.” Anguhr answered. “For that, make sure he hears me: Ursuhr! Listen, well. You hide your ship and you hide in your bridge because you cannot face me in battle. You have no skill in combat but to pull a trigger. Your tactics reveal this. You hold fear more strongly than your mace. You are no General. You survive on the backs of your horde. You are Ursuhr, the weakling! And you are a coward!”
Ursuhr’s enraged image reappeared on Anguhr screens. “I will kill you on your own decks!”
Ursuhr charged off his throne. His mace was also gone.
“So, the strategy is a bit different with this one.” Gin said with a hint of nerves.
“Solok!” Anguhr barked.
“Lord Destroyer!” The image of the new Field Master appeared. “I await your orders, as does the horde!”
Secured the weapon, and then ready every demon with a rock to throw to assault Ursuhr’s ship.
“Our horde against another—?” Solok began and his serpent eyes widened.
“Yes,” Anguhr said. “All Hell’s wars led to this battle.”
“Then, Lord Destroyer, war ends for General Ursuhr!” Solok stood to salute, and then rushed from the projection field.
Zaria took a deep breath and prepared to speak.
“This is how the war ends,” Anguhr said. “On my terms. I will be the last General. I will fight the last battle of the last war at the front. No terms. From anyone.”
There was another pause that seemed to make time become solid.
“I will maneuver the ship to victory, Lord Anguhr.” Proxis said at last.
Anguhr stood from his throne. He gripped his axe firmly in his right hand. The battle cries of Solok and his demons leaping from the hull surpassed the rumble of the continuous missile fire. Their cries echoed through the vast ship before becoming muted in the vacuum.
“My sword—?” Zaria shouted to Anguhr.
“Sword,” Anguhr breathed. “Yes, the sword.”
If it were possible for sound to carry through space, Ursuhr’s bellow of rage would fill the solar system. He stood gripping his maul over his bridge on the hull. His roar became one of defiance and joy as he watched Anguhr’s missiles explode against the protective outer edge of his ship’s red flames. The orange and white flashes from the warheads became a growing cone of plasma at the bow shock of the aegis. The cone grew to reach over the hull where Ursuhr stood.
Ursuhr’s roar died away as the explosions continued, and for some time. Obviously Anguhr had ordered a barrage of every missile of the vast, seemingly endless magazines held by all Generals. Against another of Hell’s warships, Ursuhr had found the missiles could wound if the strike was close and precise. Anguhr showed that they could ravage a Hell ship if its aegis was damaged. Ursuhr knew his own ship was strong. However, under this onslaught the main drive’s power would need to boost the aegis. This would cause slower maneuvers. Th
e pressure of the detonations increased. The plasma cone pressed closer to the hull. Ursuhr felt its heat touch his scowling face. He turned to shout an order down to his bridge to take more radical maneuvers. He sensed fewer impacts through the aegis and lessened ripples across the glowing cone. Instead of barking the order, Ursuhr leapt aside to dodge another weapon launched from Anguhr’s ship: the Destroyer’s massive axe. Anguhr had thrown it with remarkable accuracy straight at Ursuhr’s head.
The axe had slashed through the aegis weakened by the bombardment and driven by Anguhr’s strength. The axe sailed a snout’s length away from Ursuhr's face. One blade struck and wedged into the hull. The axe was followed by another, more powerful weapon: Anguhr himself. He leapt through the slit his axe cut in plasma cone. His impact shook the surrounding hull.
Anguhr’s ballistic appearance slightly impressed Ursuhr. He was more angered that his rival had beaten him to the type of bold attack. For a moment, Ursuhr thought Anguhr foolish to attack without a weapon in hand. Yet Anguhr swiftly turned and Ursuhr saw the massive, black sword he gripped in both hands. Ursuhr did not recognize it, nor would he care about the weapon’s history. As proof, he said nothing and swung his maul. Sword blade met blunt metal. The deafening ring of the collision was lost in the ship’s atmosphere as the shockwave blasted through the plasma cone and flattened the red flames at their feet.
Anguhr knew if there was ever a foe that could defeat him, it was Ursuhr the Mighty. He relished the fight as the apex of his violent life. Ursuhr swung again. His roar was matched by Anguhr’s deep, dark laughter. Again their weapons struck. Another shockwave blasted out from Ursuhr’s ship.
Ursuhr had trained with his maul. Anguhr had trained with his axe, not a sword. With skillful maneuvering, parries, and a few more well-placed blows, Ursuhr knocked the great blade from Anguhr’s hands. As in a past age, it spun away from a burning Hell ship and into the void.
Ahead was darkness. The crimson flames were behind Solok’s wings. He heard his war cry ebb as he left thinning atmosphere. He welcomed flight into open space. He saw a wave of radiant plasma fly from the distant red mass of General Ursuhr’s ship. Lord Anguhr was at work. Solok had watched him leap ahead to lead the attack. Now, General fought General. Soon, horde would fight horde. The universe sundered. Solok felt a moment of joy. His target, Ursuhr’s ship, drew closer. On this attack, concern outweighed blind fervor. Such was the mindset of commanders. Solok’s rank was now only one step below Lord Anguhr. He led almost all demons of Lord Anguhr’s horde into combat. His personal strike wing formed two, wide deltas at right angles behind him. Solok enjoyed the trust placed in him and its power. Nonetheless, he would have strongly preferred another planetary invasion for the first, full assault under his command. He had flown next to Uruk on more such attacks than he had thorns. Uruk was nowhere near. He was likely dead. Adding to Solok’s concern was that he attacked another horde that had also conquered many worlds. Solok hoped it would not be a glorious but short posting as Field Master. No matter the future, the present was a time to fight and to lead. He flew on with a grin that would terrify most intelligent minds.
Beyond Apocalypse Page 27
