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Over Garuda’s horizon Liam could see the Kraven ships massing above the colony. The purple energy field acted as a dome over the many sectors, linking together into an enormous web that shined brightly even from beyond the atmosphere. The Kraven vessels had begun their descent. An orange glow from the burning metal lit the underbellies of the ships, fourteen in all. Liam recognized the flagship as the ship that attacked the asteroid mine. Its mammoth frame dwarfed the thirteen ships at its side.
Liam’s ship was even smaller than the tiniest Kraven vessel, but what it lacked in size it made up for with speed. Nix gripped the control handle tight and said, “Brace yourselves. I’m taking us in.”
The ship jolted, forcing Liam to hold onto his console for balance. He felt the controls vibrate up his arms to his jaw, which chattered together beyond his control. Nix was taking a much steeper angle of descent than Liam’s first encounter with Garuda’s atmosphere, making the vibrations come and go quickly. Liam yelled to Saturn over the din. “Get on the main gun and hold for my mark.”
A warning indicator flashed red overhead. Liam could hear Ju-Long cursing at his console. “Starboard engine’s fried,” he said. “Nix, you’re pushing her too hard.”
Nix calmly patted the dash with his free hand as though soothing the ship. Instead of easing off the accelerator, Nix forced the throttle to full, pushing their descent to an even more extreme angle. More warning lights flashed. Liam could hear Nix laughing over the sound, a crazed look coming over him. He yelled, “She can take it. This is what she was made for.”
It didn’t take long for the ship to pierce the upper atmosphere. The resistance slowed them down but the Kraven fleet was growing closer and closer. The orange glow around the cockpit turned to rushing air guiding itself along the curves of the spacecraft.
“Are you crazy?” Liam shouted.
“We’re avoiding their sensors. This way we’ll have the element of surprise.”
Nix had a point, but Liam knew the surprise would be short-lived. They were about to find themselves in the middle of a fleet of enemy ships and he didn’t even know what kind of firepower they had on board. Liam wasn’t the type of person to go into a fight without knowing he could win. Still, he felt a feeling inside that drove him onward, like he was pursuing some noble cause. This fight could mean more than any other mission he’d undertaken.
They were almost on top of the Kraven fleet now. Green lasers lit up the air below them as the Kraven attempted to breach Garuda Colony’s energy shield below. Their attacks were absorbed into the purple field, rippling out to the farthest reaches and spreading the energy over its surface area. Nix flipped a hard switch and their ship’s wings spread wide. Liam thought they must have looked like one of the carved figures at the temple’s courtyard.
He could just see the wingtips out the side of the cockpit’s window and they were truly a sight to see. Despite the metal framework the wings appeared almost organic, colored with greens and purples not visible when the wings were retracted. Liam had never seen anything that was at the same time so beautiful and so strange.
An updraft caught Liam’s ship, providing lift and maneuverability where the Kraven ships had none. Nix pointed to a spot just in front of the engines on one of the smaller Kraven vessels. “There, fire!”
Saturn rolled her fingertips over the rounded surface of her targeting computer, locking on. Her right hand bore down on the trigger, an oddly-shaped lever that she pulled toward her to fire. Thousands of blue pellets of light rained down on the Kraven vessel. The energy blasts found their way between the thick hull panels, lighting the ship from within until the engines overloaded. One of its engines threw out a mass of sparks and the turbine blew, exploding bits of the ship into the adjacent vessel and throwing both ships off course to compensate.
The Kraven fleet was on to their presence now, firing volley after volley of lasers but unable to find their mark. Their ship was too fast. Still, Liam knew even the slightest misstep could spell their doom. There were far too many enemy ships firing at them and one of them was bound to get lucky sooner rather than later.
Nix pulled up and spun the craft around a nearby ship, drawing the fire of another and making the Kraven fleet fire on their own ship. The Kraven ships moved with confusion, trying to maneuver their slow vessels away from one another. Nix pointed out another ship and Saturn fired as they flew along its underside, gutting it like a fish.
The largest ship ignored Liam’s vessel, entirely focused on the colony’s energy shield. The Kraven ship lit up in a brilliant shade of green, light pouring out from beneath the heavy plates of its shielding. At its nose it collected a large amount of energy, balling it up at the tip like the energy weapon hanging on Liam’s hip. When it had reached a large enough size, the Kraven released it toward the nearest spire, the tip of which was barely visible and poking out of the shield.
The green blast struck and rippled down several hundred stories of metal, splintering it until it finally gave way and exploded outward in all directions. The energy shield over that sector of the city failed, flickering out until the surface was visible beneath. One of the smaller Kraven vessels broke off, firing all eight of its rear engines and increasing its speed formidably.
“After it!” Liam yelled.
“We’ll be exposed,” Nix replied, performing a tricky maneuver that looped them around the largest ship. “We need to take out the leader. Fire along those weapon ports.”
Nix pointed to a series of metal obelisks which jutted out from the sides of the ship. They seemed to be harnessing energy, perhaps from the sky itself, and funneling it toward the front of the ship. Saturn took aim and fired along the starboard ports. Three of the structures broke off as they passed, falling to the surface below. The main structure of the ship appeared unharmed.
The smaller ship that broke off from the fleet was nearing the opening of the energy shield. From the surface, Liam saw a series of blue flashes rise up from the colony and strike the Kraven ship. The energy pulsed around the outside of the ship but didn’t pierce the hull. The Kraven vessel fired several shots through the opening to one of the other spires below. With their combined power, the spire severed near its highest point. The purple shield was disrupted, the effect rippling between the sectors and causing blackouts all over the colony. Soon, every shield was down and the colony was vulnerable.
“We’re out of time,” Nix declared.
The lead Kraven ship prepared its large blast once more, collecting energy toward the front of the ship, only marginally disrupted by Saturn’s attack. Liam held his breath. If that blast struck the surface there was no telling what kind of damage it would do. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something that was impossible to his mind.
Dozens of Ansaran vessels were approaching from the surface, small but furiously fast. They opened fire on the Kraven fleet, a hundred blue lasers coloring the sky. Their weapons weren’t nearly as effective as their own, but working together several Ansaran ships were able to take down one of the Kraven vessels.
The Kraven flagship fired. As the massive blast hurtled toward the surface Liam could hear Nix scream out. Before it could strike its target an Ansaran ship got in the way. The flash enveloped the craft, taking the brunt of its power. A fraction of the laser managed to hit the ground and caused a massive explosion on the surface that swelled for blocks around, seemingly erupting from the surface like an earthquake marked with fireflies in the cracks it created. Liam watched in horror, wondering what the full blast could have done to the colony.
An indicator flashed overhead in the ship’s cockpit. They had an incoming message. Out the starboard window Liam could see an Ansaran vessel matching their maneuvers through the Kraven ships. Saturn continued to take shots at any Kraven vessel that came under her scope, bearing down on the trigger with all of her might.
“Open a channel,” Nix said.
Liam flipped a switch and a voice-only feed came through.<
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“This is Toras, Caretaker of Garuda Colony. Help us rout these Kraven scum and earn your place among us.”
“Caretaker?” Liam asked. “So Ragnar did defect.”
“Speak not of that heretic. His betrayal will spell his death. Now, fight, or stay out of our way.”
Toras severed the audio link.
“Well that was rude,” Ju-Long remarked. “He could have at least thanked us.”
Nix called over his shoulder, “Never mind him. Focus on the leader. How’s your aim Ju-Long?”
Ju-Long let a smile creep up his lip. He turned his chair so it was facing the front of the ship and a curved holographic image appeared over his console. It was an exact representation of the area outside the ship along with a target overlaid on top of it. A slim metal joystick that curved ergonomically where a clawed hand should rest rose out of the console in front of the image. Liam had only seen the one gun on the outside of the ship, so he didn’t know what Nix expected him to fire. Ju-Long took a second to get locked on to the lead ship and then pulled the trigger on the joystick.
A terrible rumble coursed through the ship. After a second of hesitation, the ship spewed blue light from somewhere under the cockpit. It was not a laser, nor was it fire, but it had elements of both. Liam imagined they must look like a dragon up there in the yellowing sky. The blast struck the Kraven ship and reflected off the surface. It was only as Nix moved the ship away that he saw the true damage of their attack.
The hull of the Kraven vessel was covered with electric blue fluid, pulsing along the metal struts and disintegrating the metal as it spread. Bits and pieces of the ship began to fall out of the sky. One large piece crashed into an Ansaran vessel, destroying it on impact.
“What the hell was that?” Liam asked.
“The reason this ship is one of the feared. One hundred Corsair-Class ships, stolen from the beasts of legend. This is the king of all creatures. The Garuda.”
The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key Page 29
