“Have they breached the city?”
Zega shook his head. “The spires hold. For now. Tell me you have news from the Disciples.”
Liam and Nix exchanged glances.
“The Gift of Re was indeed real,” Nix began. “It was a device with the power to create a wormhole.”
“What do you mean was?” Zega snapped, his eyes narrowing as though he was used to Nix disappointing him.
“It was recently stolen by an Ansaran. That’s all we found out before...”
Another crash on the other end shook Zega’s projection. He stammered, “Before what?”
“Before the Disciples attacked us,” Liam stated flatly. “Xara sends his regards by the way.”
Zega was silent. He lowered his eyes and shook his head. “I knew that Xara was no good. Still, this information is more important than you realize.”
“How do you mean?” Liam asked.
“It means that the rumors are true. It’s as bad as I feared. Our spies know that Ragnar has been trying to broker an alliance with the Kraven. The device we spoke of really does exist, and its power could change everything.”
“Why would the Ansarans want a device that could open a wormhole?” Ju-Long asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Zega derided him. “The Ansarans planned to use the Kraven to gain resources and territory. After the War of a Thousand Years, most of the planets and moons in this system had been mined dry. Even today, most of the Ansaran ships are made from melted down debris from the war. But that doesn’t mean the cowards would want to take all the risk themselves.”
“The Disciples said they received the device as a gift from the Ansaran High Council,” Saturn said. “Why would they involve the Disciples?”
Nix crossed his arms and said, “One of Ragnar’s supporters must have sent the device to the Disciples so it would be easier to access. There’s no way he could have gotten to it on Ansara. Their security is far too tight.”
Liam was confused. He tried to organize his thoughts aloud, “So Ragnar has the device sent to the Disciples, steals it, and then hands it directly over to the Kraven? He’d have no cards on the table.”
Nix and Zega looked confused. Something must have been lost in translation.
Liam continued, “Ragnar would have no reason to hand the device over if he didn’t have a guarantee that the Kraven would stay true to their word.”
The cockpit was silent, the crew appearing to be deep in thought. Finally, Nix spoke up, “Ragnar would have had a reason. While working in the spire, I overheard him speaking to the High Council on Ansara. The council told him they’d lost faith in his ability to lead. He was desperate.”
Liam stared once more at the surface of Garuda, growing larger by the minute. “If that’s true, then Ragnar wasn’t brokering peace with the Kraven, he was changing sides.”
Zega cursed. “That means he intends for Garuda to fall.”
In his shaky projection Zega looked frightened rather than his usual displeased demeanor. He rung his hands together, claws digging into his rough scales. “I have given you more information, and so I call in this one, rather large favor.”
Liam’s jaw tightened and the scar running along his face felt taut along his cheekbone.
Nix seemed surprised. “I have known you many years, but never have you called in a favor from me. The spires are in lockdown, I’m not sure what you expect us to do from out here.”
Zega’s eyes narrowed and he seethed, “Get me off this planet and consider your slate clean. All of you. I don’t care how it’s done.”
“There are more than a million Dinari down there,” Saturn argued. “What about them?”
Zega’s nose scrunched up, the scales seeming to lift up at odd angles. He spat, “What’s done is done. The Kraven have the taste of blood and nothing will stop that now. The Ansarans will fight and they will die. The Kraven won’t stop there. In their eyes the Dinari are just as culpable for their misfortunes as the Ansarans.”
Nix ground his teeth and slammed a clawed fist down on the console, temporarily disrupting the feed. “Enough!” he shouted. “Garuda has been my family’s home for generations and I will not stand by and watch it fall to ash. If the Kraven want a war, they’ve got one.”
Liam’s eyes grew as he watched their Dinari guide defend his homeland. He knew if it were Earth he’d feel the same way. For as often as he scorned the corruption and flaws of his home planet, it would always be the place he grew up. Before the wormhole, before the mine, and before traipsing around the solar system looking to make a credit, he was a citizen of Earth and damn proud of it.
“What do you think you can accomplish?” Zega asked. “You’ve got one ship and a crew incapable of flying her.”
“You of all people should know her capabilities. This is the ship that survived the massacre on Ansara. The ship that single-handedly destroyed a Kraven Nightstalker, the fabled hunter-killers themselves.”
“That was a long time ago. She’s old, falling apart. The pilots of that age are long since dead and you haven’t got a sliver of their talents.”
“You don’t know her like I do.”
“I won’t say it again whelp, a deals a deal. Honor my favor and get me off this rock or...”
“Or what? You’ll sick Riken on me? Your prized fighter won’t do you much good from the inside of the spire’s energy field.”
“You would deny me the right to call in a favor? You would go against the ancient ways of our people?”
Nix looked to Liam as if to apologize for what he was about to say. “I have a counterproposal.”
A large blast shook Zega’s projection once more and he braced himself against the table in front of him. His expression was becoming increasingly desperate. “I’m listening,” he huffed.
“We will stop the Kraven attack. After they’ve disbanded if you’d like to leave the planet I’d be happy to fly you wherever you wish, provided we’re still alive, that is.”
“If you succeed I’ll have no need of your favor, and if you fail I’ll have no recompense. You’ve learned from the best, Nix.”
“So you agree?”
“If I don’t I suspect you’ll do it anyway,” Zega said, defeated. “But if you survive this, don’t expect me to sing your praise. If you put a scratch on that ship, I’ll—”
Nix flipped a switch on the control console and Zega’s projection dissipated, his voice along with it. Garuda’s massive surface filled their viewport. Its brilliant light growing in size before them. Liam looked to Saturn and Ju-Long who sat in their chairs silently. If their thoughts were anything like his, they were unsure what exactly had just happened.
Nix hovered over the control panel, shoulders hunched, staring off into the sandy abyss ahead. When his temper flared he could be as frightening as Xara, something Liam was surprised to see out of the normally collected Dinari. He turned his back to the cockpit’s window and faced the crew.
“I wouldn’t ask this if there were any other choice. There might have been a way to get past the Kraven and get Zega out of the spire’s energy field, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Where would we go? Where would you go now for that matter?”
Ju-Long stood up, spreading his hands wide as he spoke. “Regardless of where we go, it’s Ragnar and the Kraven who hold the answers to getting us home.”
“But even if we were capable, we can’t go home yet,” Liam reasoned. “The Kraven could simply follow us. Earth’s weapons would be no match.”
Saturn unstrapped her harness and stood tall, balling her fists and cracking her knuckles, “Then we fight. The Kraven have to be stopped.”
Liam nodded solemnly and stood up from the pilot’s chair. He eyed each of the crew in turn, stopping on Nix. “If you’re asking for our help, you have it.”
Nix’s cool manner shifted and he bore a devious grin, as though he’d been waiting for this opportunity all his life. His gaze turned upward to a maze of pulsing purple lines Liam hadn�
�t noticed before, glowing intensely like the strange energy from the spires. “How about it? Do you have it in you to go one more round?”
29
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.
“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 Collection, Books 1-3 Page 14
