War Mage Chronicles- Part One
Page 38
Soon, the level of water began to lower, as the top of the shield bubble filled with compressed air. Sara poured more and more power into the form, surprised at how much it was taking to move the volume of water. After nearly three minutes, the level was below the shield platform they stood on.
“Okay, wow. That took a lot. Go ahead and seal up the shield bubble so I can bring the pressure back down.”
“Sealed,” Boon reported from behind her.
“Okay, I’m going to reclaim enough air to get us back to one atmosphere,” Sara said, bringing up a pressure reading from her suit’s sensors. Her eyes widened when she saw the number. “Holy shit. We’re at two hundred atmospheres. That’s incredible.”
“Yeah, decompression at that level would rip the flesh from your bones if you opened up your suit. Be careful, ma’am,” Baxter said nervously.
“Don’t worry, I will be,” Sara assured him, smiling at his concern.
She began feeding a new spellform from Alister, converting the compressed air back into Aether. The process was much easier than creating the air, but still used a bit of power. Sara kept an eye on the pressure meter, as it fell much faster than it had risen.
A minute later, she sent a mental command to her glove, and it clam-shelled open, filling her suit with a strong smell of ocean and rot. “Oh, god. The smell.” She gagged, then held her breath to keep from dry heaving as Boon laughed. She threw a dirty look Boon’s way, and reached out, touching the control panel. She pulled her hand away quickly, shocked at how cold it was. She was surprised there was no ice on it; the panel must have been only just above freezing.
Taking a breath to prepare for the cold, she began to choke at the smell. She mentally chided herself for the stupid move. Dumb ass. She pressed her fingers to the panel and waited, fighting the cold and hoping her hunch was right.
After a few seconds of doubt, she had begun to run through other ideas on how to get in when the panel came to life. Instead of the usual controls that would appear on the Raven’s airlock, a green line slid down the panel, like the scanner on the cores’ boxes, and she smiled.
She pulled her hand away and closed the glove, then waited a minute for the air to recycle in her suit before taking another breath. The smell was still there, but much less so now that the filters were working in a closed environment again.
A set of lights burst to life around the airlock, causing the crew’s faceplates to dim in response, to keep them from being blinded. A ka-chunk reverberated through the hull, causing them to stumble back a little. The center of the airlock began to spin, causing a thick crust of sediment to crumble and shower down onto the shield platform. The center stopped spinning, and a split appeared, bisecting the door horizontally, and began sliding open, scraping sediment from its surface as it slid into the hull.
The interior of the airlock was exactly the same design as the Raven’s, with soft blue light filling a compartment large enough for twenty people.
Sara turned to the other two and shrugged. “Easy peasy,” she said, laughing. “They definitely made access impossible for anyone but a War Mage. Next time, we should come down in a shield bubble from the start. That took way too much power.”
Boon turned and looked back the way they had come. The corridor through the mountain was lit by the powerful lights around the airlock, but fell to blackness a few meters out into the ocean. “This is insane. How did they bury this ship?”
“One thing you will learn is just how much one War Mage can do. Imagine what two could do together,” Sara mused, cocking her head to the side. “Come on. Let’s see what they left for us.”
Boon turned back, the small shield bubble containing the familiars in her hands. They sat curled together, but alert.
Sara pointed at Alister, catching his attention, then gave him a thumbs-up while sending him a questioning feeling. He opened his mouth, and she recognized him saying “Merp.” She gave the ‘okay’ hand gesture and stepped into the airlock.
The others followed, and she flipped the switch on the wall to cycle the airlock. The outer door slid closed, and the wall monitor flashed a red message. She activated the translation program in her suit, and the message changed from ancient human script to English in her view.
“Just waiting for it to cycle,” she told the others, translating the words for them. “You can drop the shield outside, Boon.”
“Right,” she said, a second before a crashing BOOM shook the ship. “What the fuck?” she screamed, looking around for the danger.
“I think it was the water collapsing against the hull,” Baxter said with more calm than Sara thought was possible after hearing that.
“Maybe next time we collapse the shield in increments,” Sara suggested, giving a nervous laugh.
The flashing red changed to green, and the inner door ka-chunked and split open, revealing the wall of a darkened corridor that looked brand new, if not a little dusty. They stepped into the corridor, looking left then right, the light of their suits falling to darkness in both directions.
“Be sure to keep those two in there,” Sara instructed, gesturing to the familiars. “The air is no good in here.”
“Got it. Which way?” Boon asked, then jumped when a strip of blue light in the floor of the center of the corridor lit up, leading to the right.
It began to pulse in a wave.
“To the right, I think,” Sara said, stepping past Boon and following the pulsing light.
Chapter 21
“Prepare to detach the yacht,” Grimms ordered, watching the countdown of the warp. They were twenty seconds away from arriving in a heavily populated Galvox system. The plan was to detach the yacht and jump away, leaving the yacht as bait. They needed to jump in close enough that the Galvox would send ships, but not so close that they could be detected as well. Cora was getting ready to cloak them, but it would take her a second to calibrate the engines, and they would not be able to change direction once she was manipulating the gravity field, so they would be exposed for the first thirty seconds or so of the operation.
“Hon, power weapons. Mezner, I want a pulse scan of the system as soon as we are out. Send it with some power behind it to grab the little bastards’ attention.”
“Aye, sir,” Mezner acknowledged, her hands hanging over her console in preparation.
Both Ambassador Foss and Dr. Hess were strapped into the visitors’ couch at the back of the bridge. Sir Reitus was standing beside Grimms at the holo projection table, held in place by powering small spellforms that were embedded into the table’s edges.
“The Galvox will try to swarm us. We will need to quickly put some distance between us and the Empori,” the prince’s guard said, his nervousness slipping through his hard demeanor.
“Don’t worry about that, Sir Reitus. I have a few tricks you haven’t seen before,” Cora said confidently. “Dropping warp in three, two, one.”
The view flashed blue, and several things happened at once. Mezner pulsed the system with an Aetheric blast that populated the holo projection in an instant. Connors detached the yacht with a shuddering thud that reverberated through the ship; he then engaged the gravitic drive, pushing them to starboard, away from the yacht.
But the thing that put everyone on edge was Hon yelling, “Contacts!”
Grimms saw that they had warped directly into a large formation of Galvox ships. The ships were all the same and on the smaller side, being less than two hundred meters in length. But there were at least twenty of them, and they bristled with weapons. The closest ship was less than fifty kilometers away; practically right on top of them in space terms.
“Open fire; we need to keep them from destroying the yacht before it can send the signal to the Teifen,” Grimms ordered, gripping the table’s edge with white knuckles.
There was a buzzing through the deck as all twenty-four PDCs opened up, auto-targeting the enemy ships. The gauss cannons fired in rapid succession, each turret aiming for a different ship.
He barely noticed the four explosions, Galvox ships being incinerated by gauss rounds. He was watching the inner system for any sign of reaction, knowing they were going to need the rest of the Galvox to start heading their way, if they were going to do some damage to the dreadnought that was hot on their heels.
Another shoddily made Galvox ship was ripped apart by concentrated PDC fire. Then the Galvox seemed to catch up to the situation, as they scattered in haphazard fashion, making targeting difficult.
Difficult, but not impossible at the close range.
Another ship was disabled by the PDCs.
“Connors, activate the yacht’s preloaded course,” Grimms ordered calmly; just then, the Raven bucked from a hit to the armor plating. “Damage report,” he yelled.
“Glancing blow to the bow. Nanites are already en route,” Cora replied before Mezner could read the report coming up on her console. “Hull integrity is at seventy percent from the earlier Aether blast, so try to keep that side from exposure, Connors.”
“Aye, ma’am,” he answered, his finger flying across his controls, sending them in a spiraling dive away from incoming fire.
Another shudder told them they had been hit a second time, and Connors changed direction. He began shifting course quickly, not giving the agile Galvox more opportunities than was necessary. Despite the shoddy construction and haphazard design of their craft, the Galvox were quick, dodging and juking at a much faster rate than the Raven could hope to match.
Grimms noted the green icon of the yacht speeding away from the battle, juking left and right to avoid being targeted, and heading insystem at maximum acceleration. Luckily, it looked like the Galvox were ignoring it for the larger threat of the Raven.
Another Galvox ship was ripped open as Hon fired another volley of gauss rounds, but the three remaining turrets missed their targets.
The Raven was hit again, this time causing the lights to flicker.
“They got a lucky shot. Reactor three is damaged. Repairs are underway,” Cora said. “Firing Aether cannons.”
Two beams of brilliant blue appeared in the holo display, and another ship exploded, though the second beam missed its target. The remaining Galvox seemed to become frantic, and the space they occupied became filled with hyper-velocity slugs.
“Jump!” Grimms yelled, and the view on the main screen changed.
He saw that they had jumped a short distance of a few hundred thousand kilometers. The Galvox flew in circles for a beat, before turning their way and pouring on the speed. Grimms was surprised at the acceleration they could achieve; they were nearly as quick as the Raven.
“The Empori has just sent out the signal, Sir,” Mezner reported.
The Galvox let loose a volley of gauss rounds, but they were still a distance away, though closing fast.
“Jumping,” Cora said, and again they were a distance away from their original location. “Cloaking.”
The golden icon disappeared from the holo display, and Grimms watched the Galvox closely. They seemed unable to find them and, after a few seconds, changed course for the yacht.
“Contact. The Teifen fleet is emerging from warp,” Mezner said excitedly. “They’re right on top of the yacht.”
By now, several hundred Galvox ships were closing in on the yacht, and they immediately opened fire on the first Teifen ship, ripping through its unshielded hull. Then the next Teifen ship arrived, and was peppered with slugs and Aether bolts as the Galvox began using their Aether cannons. By the time the first two Teifen ships were expanding balls of fire and debris, the rest of the Teifen armada had arrived, including the monstrous dreadnought.
Grimms watched as it became all-out war between their enemies. Hundreds of fighters began to pour from the dreadnought and two carriers that had come late to the party. The dreadnought let loose with hundreds of cannons and PDCs, filling the area with a hail of fire that made Grimms shudder.
The Galvox were not backing down, however, and their quick movements kept most of the ships intact after the initial volley. They began taking heavy losses when the Teifen fighters entered range with the small Galvox warships, and began ship to ship battle. Soon, sections of the dreadnought were being blown apart, but the ship was so huge that Grimms was having trouble telling if the damage was serious, or superficial.
“Incredible, I’ve never see the Teifen take such a beating. They have already lost a dozen ships, and several more will not survive the minute,” Sir Reitus said with awe. He turned to Grimms. “We jumped position instantly in that battle. How is that possible?”
“I told you I had a few surprises up my sleeve,” Cora said—rather smugly, to Grimms’ ears.
“There is a lot happening, Sir Reitus. Humanity is returning to the galaxy, and we plan on making that fact a tough pill for our enemies to swallow.”
Sir Reitus turned back to the holo display, his face full of wonder. Grimms watched as two more Teifen cruisers were destroyed. The dreadnought was taking serious damage, but so were the Galvox. They were throwing everything they had at the dwindling armada, and Grimms hoped it would be enough—though, deep down, he feared it would not.
Still, this was a blow that would cripple the Teifen’s hold on this section of the galaxy.
“Let’s get out of here. Connors, warp point Beta,” Grimms said, watching another Teifen fall to the never-ending barrage of Galvox.
“Warp in three, two, one,” Cora counted.
The image on the holo projector froze with the last data from the battle. A large plume of flame was jetting from the fore of the dreadnought.
Grimms smiled.
Chapter 22
Sara was getting frustrated. They had been following the light strip for over ten minutes, and had passed several closed doors. They had tried to open a few, but the entrances were locked and unresponsive. Sara decided they needed to stick to the light instead of getting sidetracked trying to access doors that could very well be supply closets. They’d been led through a number of turns, which would have left them lost, if not for the auto mapping feature of their armor.
“How big is this ship? We’ve walked far enough to make two trips up and down the Raven by now,” Boon commented.
Sara checked her HUD; sure enough, they had walked over a kilometer, and still had not seen anything but corridors. “I have no idea. But the light seems to be leading us somewhere. It disappears as we walk, so it knows where we are. Maybe it’s heading to the bridge.”
They turned a corner, and the light led to a large double door, like the ones that led to the cargo bays on the Raven. When they approached, the power indicator came to life, and the doors slid open. Stepping through, they entered a room so large that the lights on their suits couldn’t reach the other side, just fading after several hundred meters.
“Okay. This has got to be the largest ship ever built,” Sara said, tilting her head back, trying to see the ceiling.
“The light leads out toward the center. Should we follow it? There won’t be any cover out there,” Baxter warned, always thinking tactically.
Sara snorted a laugh. “Cover from what? If you haven’t noticed, the place is deserted.”
Baxter turned to her and put his hands on his hips. “So was the crashed ship we found Dr. Hess studying, but it still had active automated defenses.”
Sara was glad he couldn't see her flush of embarrassment. “Good point. I kind of forgot about that.”
“No worries, Captain. That’s what I’m here for.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
Sara rolled her eyes. “We’re still going out there. Unlike that derelict, this ship invited us in and is providing helpful directions,” she pointed out, holding her head high and walking past him.
She still had Alister prepare a shield, just in case, and she assumed Baxter
was doing the same as he trailed behind Boon, who was in the middle.
They followed the line as it pulsed, happily leading them who knew where. The uniform deck plates gave way to mounds of dark material. The light continued down a path between the low mounds, and when Sara knelt to examine them, she realized it was dirt. Very dry dirt, as if grass used to grow from it but had dried up and left the cracked soil underneath.
Baxter knelt next to her, scooping up a handful of the stuff and crumbling it between his fingers.
“I think this was a park,” Sara said, standing and shining her light over the large patch of soil that stretched out into the darkness.
“I think you’re right. Why would there be a park on a spaceship?” Baxter asked.
“Well, if the ship is as large as I think, the occupants would need a place for leisure time. Plus, a taste of home would make long journeys more bearable,” Boon said, holding the shield bubble under her arm like a beach ball.
“I think she’s right,” Baxter said, nodding at Boon’s small armored figure. “By all accounts, the dreadnought was a city, with enough people on it to populate Earth after a few generations.”
“Come on. Let’s get to wherever this light is taking us so we can start searching for answers,” Sara said, stepping past Baxter and continuing deeper into the desecrated park.
After another five minutes’ walking, Sara could see that the light ended a few hundred meters ahead. She saw the outline of something like a pyramid with the top cut off, in an open area of deck, between patches of dirt. As they got closer, she saw that the structure had a control panel on the side, and a smaller print scanner, exactly like the core boxes. When they were a meter or two away, the light in the floor went out completely.
“Well, I guess I should turn it on?” Sara inferred, shrugging.
“Be careful, the air is not breathable. Don't leave your suit open for long,” Baxter reminded her, making her grin and shake her head.
“Yes, Mom. I’ll be careful,” she said.