The Crimson Deathbringer

by Sean Robins

The word that appeared and disappeared on the back of my mind was “exposition.”

  Their conversation was like a poorly written dialogue in a movie, where both characters kept talking about information they should both already have known, for the benefit of the audience. Hell, Mushy even started his line with “As you know…”

  My heart started trying to leap out of my chest. I yelled in my mike, “Tarq! Get us out of here!”

  In an instant, we found ourselves surrounded by some ten thousand Deathbringers, materializing all around us.

  Earth’s Exosphere - August 31, 2048, 05.15 EST

  Maada looked at the enemy fleet, surrounded by his own much bigger force, and confidently smirked. He had been waiting at that spot for the enemy fighter pilots to fall into his trap, and they had not disappointed him. Everything had gone according to plan.

  Payback time.

  Three days ago, he was working in his office when the crown prince’s “voice” spoke in his head. “We need to talk.”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but Mushgaana said, “No, don’t actually talk. Just think about what you want to say. I can hear you loud and clear.”

  Maada thought, “How can I help you, Your Highness?”

  “I was thinking about the attack,” said Mushgaana, “and it occurred to me the enemy knew a lot about us. The only way they could have pulled that off with such precision was if they had detailed information on our operations around the world.”

  The same thought had occurred to Maada, but he could not figure out how the enemy had obtained this information.

  Mushgaana continued, “Then I remembered when I first moved into my residence, I felt an independent human mind, not under the influence of the Voice of God. Also, in a movie that I watched a few weeks ago, humans used something called a ‘bug’ to secretly obtain information about their enemy.”

  “A what?” Maada said out loud and bit his tongue.

  “A small listening device that transmits data to the enemy,” said Mushgaana. “I put two and two together and figured this is probably how the humans knew so much about us. Needless to say, I had no idea how to look for these bugs, but we found a human security expert here, and he came to my office with something called a bug-detector.”

  Maada sat up straight. “Did he find one?”

  “No,” answered Mushgaana. “He found many. They are everywhere. I bet there are some in your office right now. Tiny little things. I could never have imagined something like this if I had not seen it in that movie.”

  Maada struggled to keep his rising anger under control. “How the hell did the enemy manage to do this?”

  “You do remember they wore our uniforms, spoke our language and just waltzed into our bases, right?

  “Come to think of it, I vaguely remember we developed a similar tech a long time ago,” said Maada.

  “We did, but it is an obsolete technology, for before the Voice of God era,” said Mushgaana. “I had completely forgotten about it. Anyway, I have a plan to use this to our advantage.”

  Mushgaana’s plan had worked to perfection. These Earthers were so predictable. Maada savored the moment for a second, then he opened a channel to the enemy fleet.

  My mind had already gone into overdrive, trying to find a way to escape this Charlie Foxtrot, when I heard Maada’s voice in my headphones, speaking English. “I am General Maada, commander of the Royal Fleet. You must have realized you have been ambushed. If you surrender now, you have my personal assurance you will be treated well, but if you resist, we will kill every last one of you.”

  I gritted my teeth. The bastard knew we’d not surrender. This was only a mind game.

  Tarq’s voice sounded in my ear. “Jim, we need a few minutes to lock on the fleet and get everyone out. Try to stall.”

  Maada was still talking, which I realized was a good thing. If I could get him to talk more, we still had a chance to get out of this with our lives.

  In the movies, the bad guys always paused on the verge of victory to gloat, explaining their super complicated plans, giving the heroes the chance to turn the tables on them. All I needed was to keep Maada talking a few more minutes. How difficult would that be? I sent a message to the fleet, “Everyone, stand by and wait for my orders,” then I contacted Maada. “General Maada, my name’s Colonel Jim Harrison. What guarantee do I have that if we surrender you won’t kill us all?”

  With anger in his voice, Maada replied like a pompous jackass, “I am General Maada, Colonel. Everyone in the universe knows I keep my word.”

  You got under his skin. Good. Keep him talking. This is already going much better than I thought.

  Earth’s Exosphere - 05.17 EST

  Elizabeth listened to the exchange between Jim and Maada and thought, Is he really going to surrender?

  It wasn’t possible. Jim wasn’t a coward. The exact opposite. During the war, five Japanese fighters had surprised him and killed his wingman. Jim followed them over enemy territory and didn’t stop until he shot down all five, even though he knew he didn’t have enough fuel to get back to his carrier. He ended up parachuting over the Pacific into the shark-infested waters. He was lucky that an American destroyer found him soon after.

  On the other hand, if he thought he’d save her life by surrendering . . .

  Elizabeth was going to contact Jim and ask what was going on when she noticed something: Maada’s Deathbringer was hovering in space, right on the edge of her effective weapon range.

  The general might’ve been the best fighter pilot in the universe, but his ship still had to obey the laws of physics. It’d take him a few precious seconds to get moving from an inert position. This was too good an opportunity to miss.

  Of course, if she killed Maada right in front of his pilots, she’d had painted a huge target sign on the back of her Viper. She was okay with it as long as it meant saving Jim and the others.

  Her acrobatic pilot brain calculated the distance and angle of attack. She didn’t even need to use her onboard computer for that. Her breathing quickened, and her cheeks flushed. She wrapped her fingers around the stick.

  I opened my mouth to say something along the lines of “Oh my god! How did you pull this genius plan off?” hoping to get him to monologue when a Viper separated from the rest of us and with fire pouring from all three of her laser cannons went straight for Maada’s fighter.

  Even before my eyes registered the Viper’s light blue color, Venom said, “I give you three guesses who that is.”

  My heart jumped into my mouth, which was still open.

  Freaking relapses!

  Liz very nearly got the general. Maada banked right and dived “down.” Liz’s laser bolts missed the crimson Deathbringer by mere inches.

  Several of our pilots, in all likelihood guided more by instinct than conscious thought, followed her, and a swarm of enemy ships moved in to intercept.

  My mouth went dry. I thought, Oh crap! and shouted in my mike, “Fight’s on! Fight’s on!”

  All hell broke loose.

  Winterfell - 05.20 EST

  In the Command Center, Kurt was looking at the images transmitted by the Akaki’s stealth spy ship monitoring the battle. Jim and his fighter pilots had no chance of winning this one. Tarq was standing next to him, and with Kurt pulling his goatee and Tarq biting his nails, they made a funny couple.

  “How on earth did they know about our attack?” asked Tarq.

  “They must’ve found our bugs,” said Kurt, and mentally kicked himself for falling for such an obvious trap.

  “How did they know where to look for the bugs to begin with?” said Tarq. “This is impossible. The Xortaags do not have a frame of reference for this sort of thing.”

  “It’s a moot point now,” said Kurt. “Can we send the rest of our space fighters for help?”

  Tarq pulled up another live feed, showing the rest of the Xortaag fleet getting off the ground. “It is too late. By the time we send more ships, the battle will be over. They
would walk into the same death trap.”

  Kurt asked, “Don’t we have eyes on them? How did the other ten thousand ships manage to leave their base without us noticing?”

  Tarq threw his hands up in despair. “I have no idea. It turns out Maada has a few tricks up his sleeve.”

  Kurt watched the dogfight for a few more minutes. The fatalities were rising quickly. Nearly a third of the Vipers were already destroyed. The pilots were fighting with determination and skill, but at this rate, the battle would be over very soon.

  “Can’t we pull them out using the SFD?” asked Kurt.

  Tarq answered, “No. The ships are fighting too close to each other. If we transport our fleet, many enemy vessels will come with them, and the rest will simply follow.”

  Kurt thought about this for a second. “Can’t we pull them out one by one?”

  Barook, who was listening to this conversation, cursed under his breath and ran towards the SFD control panel.

  “It will not be much help though,” Tarq told Kurt. “We will need a few minutes to make the necessary calculations, and after that, it will take around ten minutes to lock on each individual ship. We will be able to save just a few.”

  “Can I help with calculations?” asked Cordelia.

  “No!” Tarq and Barook shouted together.

  Kurt approached Barook who was working feverishly at his station and said, “Start with the senior officers.”

  “On it,” answered Barook through clenched teeth

  Our fleet met the Xortaags’, and thirteen thousand space fighters started to maneuver, chase each other’s tails and shoot at each other, creating the biggest furball in history.

  Now that’s what I call a target-rich environment.

  I destroyed four Deathbringers in less than ten minutes.

  For me, shooting down enemy vessels had always been one of the greatest pleasures life had to offer. It brought me little joy now. Our situation was hopeless. The enemy outnumbered us three to one. Our ace fighter pilots—Keiko, Liz, Josef, and maybe another twenty people—could hold their own against three Deathbringers, but the rest of our people had no such hope. We were losing ships faster than I could keep track of them. Despite trying to focus on the battle, every time we lost a Viper, it was like someone stabbing me in the heart with a blunt knife. Still, I refused to believe this was the end. Engaged in a savage dogfight with an annoyingly persistent Deathbringer, I searched for a way to un-fuck this mess with half of my brain, and all of a sudden I realized Liz had had it right: I had to cut off the head of the snake.

  Maada was a legend among his pilots. Who knew how they’d react if I killed him right in front of their eyes? They might lose heart and run away. It was a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. I’d always been the straw-clutching type.

  I fired my remaining two Sparrows at the enemy. While the pilot was busy avoiding the missiles, I drew a bead, pulled the trigger and unleashed a turret of laser bolts. The Deathbringer blew up brightly under my fire. Then I scanned the battlefield, looking for Maada.

  I found him entangled with two of my pilots, twisting and spinning up and down, right and left. He vaporized one of my people right in front of my eyes. I didn’t know who the pilot was, but a painful tightness grabbed my throat anyway.

  This guy’s supposed to be the biggest, baddest dude on the block. I wish I could see his face when I blow him out of the sky.

  I said, “Your soul is mine,” and dived in, energy bolts flashing from my cannons.

  Maada swerved wildly to his left, disappeared from my view for a second, and the next thing I knew, he was on my six.

  I had no idea how he pulled this maneuver off. What he did was just not possible. It was as if he somehow managed to teleport his space fighter.

  I froze, rooted to my seat.

  All those years ago in another life, when I engaged Keiko’s Mitsubishi F-110 during the war, I felt for once I was dealing with a better pilot than I, and I was paralyzed by a panic attack. It was just like that, only ten times worse.

  Maada started shooting at me. Laser bolts passed dangerously close to my ship.

  My heart was thumping so hard I could hear my heartbeats echo inside my skull. My hands were trembling, and my vision become so blurry I could barely see the controls of my space fighter. I tried to take a deep breath to calm myself and found it impossible. I was unable to move. I couldn’t even start jinking.

  Red energy beams were all over my cockpit. I was dead.

  Or I would’ve been if Keiko’s Viper hadn’t shown up at that moment and attacked Maada. The two ships started twisting, turning and shooting at each other. My vessel kept going straight away.

  I told myself, “Jim, turn around.”

  Nothing happened.

  I shouted like a madman, “Snap out of it! Turn around! What the fuck!”

  “No!” said Venom. “Run away if you want to live. You can’t fight that guy. Did you see what he just did?”

  Shut the fuck up!

  I might’ve started slapping myself in the face when my view changed. I found myself alone in space.

  I heard Tarq’s voice in my helmet. “Jim, we have just pulled you out using the SFD. We are going to try to save as many as we can, starting with senior officers.”

  I was shocked by my very close brush with death and my subsequent unexpected rescue, so it took me a few seconds to figure this out: Starting with senior officers meant only one thing.

  Feeling like the cockpit closing on me like a coffin, I yelled, “Get Liz out!”

  “We cannot right now,” answered Tarq after a few seconds. “We are in the middle of locking on Keiko’s ship. It will take only a few more minutes. We will go after Elizabeth next.”

  I wanted to ask him to send me back, but it’d be of no use, and it would waste the time we needed to save other people. So I stayed there and waited in agony for the chips to fall. An image of Liz’s Viper exploding under Maada’s fire appeared in my mind. It was so terrifying even Venom didn’t comment on it. I closed my eyes and tried to push the image away. I told myself everything would be fine. In a few minutes, Tarq would save Liz, and she’d be here with me, safe and sound, out of Maada’s deadly reach.

  I even believed that for a second.

  Earth’s Exosphere - 05.41 EST

  Maada recognized the dark green vessel he had encountered a few weeks ago during the surprise attack on their fleet base. He rubbed the most recent scar on his face and smiled. This pilot was going to rue the day he humiliated Maada by not killing him.

  The enemy pilot was very skillful. Countering Maada’s maneuvers and shooting incessantly, they even managed to score a few hits. The general could not remember the last time something like this had happened.

  Finally, a worthy opponent.

  The green fighter tried to maneuver to the rear of Maada’s Deathbringer. He responded by rolling right and swinging in on the enemy’s six, letting loose a stream of energy bolts. The enemy vessel dived to get out of his line of fire. Maada pitched his Deathbringer’s nose down and gave chase, zeroing on his opponent’s ship. Trying to get a lock, he muttered, “You are good. You are very, very good. But I am Maada.”

  A few seconds later, the general’s fingers gently touched his firing control. Energy bolts flew towards the dark green vessel. The first few hit its left wing, and the rest went through the space it had occupied a fraction of a second ago.

  Maada looked at the ship disappearing into thin air without a trace, and immediately knew what had happened: Someone was pulling out the trapped enemy using an SFD.

  The familiar anger rose in his soul. He very nearly started shouting in rage and frustration.

  How dare they deprive him of his prey!

  His blood boiling, he looked around for a new target and found the light blue fighter that had started the dogfight by trying to attack him.

  This will do, thought Maada, narrowing his eyes.

  He flew as fast as his Deathbringer cou
ld toward his new target.

  Earth’s Exosphere - 05.50 EST

  Elizabeth was engaged in a frenzied battle with three Deathbringers when all three broke off and flew away in different directions. Then she saw the infamous crimson space fighter approaching her.

  Tarq’s voice pressed urgently, “Elizabeth, Maada is moving towards you. We are pulling you out. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage. Just stay away from him for a couple of minutes.”

  “Like hell I will,” she answered, and trembling with excitement, moved forward to meet Maada’s threat head-on. This was another chance to take on the devil himself. If she could kill Maada right now, thousands, even millions of lives would be saved.

  Jim will be so proud, she thought, and her eyes lighted up.

  Kurt held his head between his hands. Typical Liz!

  Tarq blanched visibly. He shouted at Barook, “Pull her out. Right now!”

  “Working as fast as I can here,” answered Barook, his jaw set.

  Kurt put his hand on Tarq’s arm. “Let him concentrate. You aren’t helping. And stop biting your fingernails so hard.”

  Come on Liz, hang in there. Just for a minute.

  He told Tarq, “We should’ve made killing Maada a priority during Operation Free Earth.”

  Elizabeth tried a tactic she had learned from Jim. She fired her Sparrows at Maada, and when he banked left to avoid the missiles, she lined up her shot and opened fire with laser cannons. Maada changed direction and avoided most of the laser bolts. He rolled up his vessel and emerged on top of Elizabeth’s Viper.

  Elizabeth, trying to escape Maada’s grasp, went into a twisting dive. From her cockpit, she saw energy bolts shot from the crimson Deathbringer ripping her Viper apart, getting steadily closer to her cockpit. Her gut twisted in horror as she realized she was staring death in the face.