Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2)

by Christian Kallias

  “Is that wise?” inquired Tar’Lock.

  Nothing happened. She swore she saw some light change in the peephole. She rang again. A deafening explosion rocked the hall. A hole had been blasted through the door, and sent them scrambling to the ground for cover. She whispered over at Tar’Lock, “Are you okay?”

  “Better than you, apparently,” Tar’Lock hissed, pointing a finger at her abdomen.

  She’d been grazed by whatever had blasted a hole in the door. A bit of blood was flowing from the wound, but her armor had taken the brunt of it.

  “I’m fine. This is superficial. Stay down and I’ll deal with this.”

  “Be careful.”

  She took her blaster, set it to stun and kicked the door open. It broke easily. She took cover behind the wall.

  “Wait...” said Tar’Lock.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m faster than you. Let me do a visual check.”

  She nodded.

  Tar’Lock quickly passed in front of the open door in a split second.

  “I don’t see anyone.”

  That was all Ryonna needed to know. She entered the flat with her weapon at the ready. She quickly scanned the main room and moved to the next. As she stepped to the next room she tripped on an invisible wire at foot level and heard a barely audible click. Tar’Lock didn’t hesitate an instant. At full speed he charged towards Ryonna, pushing her out of the way of an exploding grenade just in the nick of time.

  A second later a tall man leaned carefully into the room from a far doorway, with a shotgun pointed right at Ryonna. She’d lost her grip on her blaster during the explosion, momentarily stunned. But before he could fire the weapon pointed at her head, it was snagged from his hands by Tar’Lock. Ryonna located her blaster nearby, jumped to get a clear shot and fired freely at the man. His face was all surprise and pain as he hit the ground with a loud thud.

  “That was close,” said Tar’Lock.

  “Too close. Thanks for the assist back there.”

  “I must admit I did not like that clicking noise. The rest was pure instinct.”

  Ryonna hated to admit it but she had clearly underestimated her foe. She had acted rashly. If it hadn’t been for Tar’Lock’s super speed and keen reflexes, she could have been hurt or even killed. She snorted in frustration, removing shrapnel embedded in her body armor.

  They got up and installed the unconscious man on a nearby chair. Ryonna changed a setting on her blaster and fired at the man. An energy lasso encircled both his arms and the chair. With a second shot, she bound his legs. A few minutes later he awoke and panicked, with crackling blue energy restraining his every movement. The more he fought, the tighter and more painful the pulsating grip became.

  Ryonna walked towards her prisoner and took a knee, so she could look him straight in the eyes. He avoided her eyes, instead scanning his surroundings, trying to see if there was anything he could do. Seeing there was nothing to be done, exasperated and clearly in pain, he finally looked back at Ryonna. She hadn’t said a word yet.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Why did you attack us?”

  “Have you been in front of a mirror lately?”

  “Is it standard procedure for pathetic creatures like you to shoot what you don’t know?”

  “Pretty much,” said the man arrogantly.

  Ryonna snapped her fingers in front of him and that clearly startled the man. She knew right there he would break easily, much easier than the poor soul he’d brainwashed to destroy the EAD Hope.

  “Let’s be clear: I don’t want to lose any more time. Your little stunts have immensely reduced my patience already, which isn’t that great on the best of days. You hired a woman named Nina to blow up a ship in orbit… Why?”

  “Go fuck your—”

  Ryonna didn’t wait. She anchored one leg on the chair and swung her right fist at the man’s face before he could finish his sentence.

  Blood splattered against the wall from the force of the punch, which nearly knocked him unconscious.

  “Let’s try this again?” Ryonna proposed with a growl.

  He spat three teeth to the ground.

  “Or what?” said the man, with very little confidence in his voice, his head still buzzing from the punch.

  “Believe me… You don’t want to know what I’m capable of doing to you.”

  Tar’Lock took one step and added, “You’d better talk. I’ve seen her pissed before; I have no doubt she’ll rip your arms out of your sockets if you don’t start talking.”

  He cast a look at Tar’Lock, then a warier eye at Ryonna.

  “Very well,” said Ryonna, before raising her hand again.

  “Alright, alright, let’s calm the fuck down.”

  “Talk! Now!”

  “I was hired to do a job. They gave me a lot of money.”

  “Money has been abolished. What good is it for?”

  “Well, for one thing there’s still a black market in place. Just because the Alliance came to Earth doesn’t mean everyone wants this no-money crap way of living, thank you very much! And perhaps if we kill enough of you, you may decide we’re not worth the effort and get the hell out of our world. So let’s just call it an investment in our future.”

  “At the moment, yours looks bleak,” Ryonna warned, losing patience.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t bet on my chances either. Nonetheless, if you let me live I will tell you all I know.”

  “Who hired you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ryonna growled.

  “I swear. I got paid a huge amount of bitcoins on the shadow net. I got enough of them to buy myself a small country. So when they told me to find a way to blow up the ship, I just used my computer skills to locate someone who had lost somebody close. Last time ships were battling in orbit, we lost a good number of souls down here… So I knew I could find somebody with a grudge, who might jump at the chance to do the job for me. With a little digging I was able to find someone who already worked on the orbital shipyard, and I saw the opportunity to earn my treasure. I should never have met that bitch here though. That was a rookie mistake. It’s the first time I did something like this.”

  “How do you get in contact with whomever hired you?”

  “I don’t. They told me this was a one-time thing. They insisted I have no way of contacting them in order to protect themselves. So they created a thread on a seemingly abandoned forum on shadow net, and then deleted the thread shortly after.”

  “If that’s all you can give us, you’d better give me a good reason not to kill you.”

  “Don’t kill me! I told you everything I know!” said the man, with clear panic in his voice.

  “Then think. And think fast.”

  “I suppose there must be enough information on my laptop’s browser cache for you to try and run a trace to locate whomever did this on the shadow net. Plus, since they gave me that laptop, perhaps they left other info on it. I didn’t manage to access all of its storage.”

  Ryonna looked at Tar’Lock. “Do you understand what he’s saying? Should I throw him out the window?”

  “Wow, wow, wow… no! Take my laptop. It’s in the next room on my bed. It’s the only thing I can offer you. If I knew who my contact was, believe that I would tell you!”

  His face was dripping blood as he spoke.

  “Something doesn’t add up. How come you had the place booby trapped?”

  “That was part of my orders. I was to make sure that if someone came looking, I’d try and eliminate them. The shotgun, grenade and laptop, as well as plans on how to install the booby trap, were all enclosed in a package of instructions I received. I almost blew myself up installing the thing. I’m a computer geek, not a terrorist.”

  “Seems to me you’re part of the movement.”

  “While I don’t agree with their methods, I must admit they have a point.”

  “Which is?”

  “Since the Alliance came to E
arth, our lives have been changed so fast we didn’t even get time to realize what was happening. Some of us feel like we lost our freedom. And I for one preferred my life the way it was before. Sure the system was rotten and unfair sometimes, but it was ours, it was our reality. How arrogant is this Alliance—coming to our world and suddenly telling us we’re inferior, that we must change our ways? Fuck that! Our way of life was ours to decide!”

  “You had a choice to keep that way of life. Why didn’t you go through one of the portals?”

  “I didn’t like these choices: blue-pill, red-pill crap. No way! I love my freedom. I had the right to make my own decision.”

  Ryonna knew already from what General Adams had told her: not only did the changes that happened on Earth take many people by surprise, some of them felt overwhelmed by them. Which was understandable. She could conceive that it must not have been easy for everyone, though apparently most of the population relished the changes introduced by the Alliance, since they would no longer need to worry about material possessions or health issues. That alone had helped the planet convert to their new way of life quickly. The sick got better; less people were dying. That was a strong argument.

  “Look,” said the man, “I don’t want to die. I’m sorry I attacked you. Can you please just take my laptop and go?”

  “You’re coming with us.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because as far as I know, you’re a menace to everyone around you. I’ll let Alliance Security decide what to do with you.”

  The man sighed deeply.

  “Unless you prefer I throw you out the window and be done with it?”

  “Again with the limited choices! Nah, that’s fine... I’ll come with you, I guess.”

  Ryonna made a head gesture. Tar’Lock went to recover the laptop from the other room and then they were on their way back to Alliance headquarters. Upon arrival they were debriefed by General Adams, who suggested they bring the piece of evidence to an information specialist named Cedric. They brought him the laptop and attempted to explain the situation.

  “I see. If the perpetrators used shadow net, it will take some time to retrieve any useful information,” said Cedric nervously, opening the laptop and booting the machine.

  A password prompt came up.

  “Did he give you his password?”

  Ryonna shook her head from side to side.

  “Alright, it seems to be encrypted. I’ll ask General Adams if he can acquire the password.”

  “I don’t think that should be a problem. The man this belongs to is a coward, who should divulge that information easily.”

  “Coward or not—he almost cost us a brand new starship. God knows how many lives could have been lost, if that had happened!”

  “That’s why it’s important that you dig every bit of information out as to who gave these orders. We need to find the real threat.”

  “I agree. I will also scan the shadow net and see if other similar orders have been dispatched. This could be the tip of the iceberg.”

  “Iceberg?”

  “It’s an expression. Thus far, we could only be dealing with a very small part of this organization. They could very well have worse plans in their pipeline. At least now we know where to start looking.”

  “That man also mentioned not being able to access the entire storage on that laptop,” she added.

  “Perhaps there’s a hidden encrypted partition. If so, it could contain very sensitive information.”

  “How long do you think it will take you to find out?”

  “Hard to tell. It’s quite the needle in the haystack at this point. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I have anything to report, though.”

  “Thank you for your help.”

  “Sure.”

  Ryonna and Tar’Lock left the building, back towards home. As they arrived at the floor where they both had their temporary accommodation, Tar’Lock gestured towards his door.

  “Want to come in for a bite?”

  “Sure, but I need to dress my wound first.”

  “Right. Wait, why didn’t we go to the infirmary at headquarters?”

  “Because unless I’m dying, I don’t really like other people touching me.”

  Tar’Lock smiled. “See you later then?”

  “Yes, see you later. Thanks for saving my hide today. I owe you.”

  “You saved me from Hellstar; it’s the least I could do. So let’s say we’re square.”

  They both entered their respective flats. Ryonna went to the bathroom, opened the first-aid kit, disinfected and bandaged her wound with a flat expression on her face. She then walked to the living room and placed a call. Soon Ronan’s face appeared on the monitor.

  C H A P T E R

  XXIII

  As the EAD Hope and the rest of the Destiny battle group emerged from hyperspace at the coordinates provided by the Obsidian emperor, all hell broke loose. The battle group jumped right in the middle of an ongoing battle between two fleets.

  “Status report?” Chase yelled above the fray.

  “We’ve jumped right in the middle of a battle. A sizeable Zarlack fleet is currently engaging an Obsidian battle group. The Obsidian have already suffered substantial losses, Captain.”

  Before Chase could answer, a fleet-wide transmission displayed on the main holo-monitor.

  “Commodore Saroudis to the fleet: open fire on Zarlack ships immediately. Treat all Obsidian ships as friendlies. Saroudis out.”

  While that last statement made sense under the current circumstances, Chase couldn’t help it but cringe at the idea of treating the Obsidian as friendlies. As long as he could remember, they had been universally reviled as the Enemy. It would take some time before he would use the term “friend” or even “ally,” for that matter, when thinking of them.

  “You heard the commodore, everyone, target the nearest ships and open fire. Maximum firepower.”

  “Firing now!” answered the weapons officer.

  Chase selected another comm channel from his chair.

  “Sarah, have your wings launch now. Deal with their fighter waves first, and then target their destroyers.”

  “Understood. Alpha and Beta Wings will be ready for launch shortly”

  “Be careful.”

  “Likewise. See you on the other side.”

  Chase felt his heart ache at the last comment. He did not like the idea of sitting pretty on the captain’s chair, while Sarah was flying into mortal danger without him as a wingman.

  He then made another comm call.

  “Yanis, tell me the modifications we discussed are ready?”

  “They’ve been ready, boss, for a while now. I’ve simply interfaced your console with the same temple devices you used on the fighters, any F-147 in fact. Take a look on the left of your chair.”

  “I see them, thank you. You always amaze. Chase out.”

  Chase wondered if he should take control of the reserve StarFury now. He itched to be part of the starfighter dogfight. The size of the fleet they brought amply augmented the remaining Obsidian. Even if they had taken considerable damage, from the data he was seeing on his controls, their combined forces should be more than enough to make sure they’d win this engagement.

  Therefore, adding his skills to the fight wasn’t really necessary. He worried how it would look if he divided his attentions during the first fight onboard his new destroyer. So he decided against it, reluctantly. Sarah was a very skilled pilot, one of the best. He had to trust her, and let her do her job as wing commander of the EAD Hope.

  He checked his telemetry on his personal war-theater holo-display and watched Sarah’s Alpha Wing engage the Zarlack starfighters. At least he could witness the capabilities of the StarFuries from here. Sarah wasted no time dispatching her first two kills, within the first minute of the engagement. Still, he felt a slight frustration not being there with her.

  An impact blast shook the Hope. He checked the status of the shields to see they
were holding at ninety-seven percent. He also identified the ship that had fired on them, a ship similar to the one Argos had brought to Earth.

  He opened a channel to the Destiny.

  “Commodore, they have a behemoth ship.”

  “I see it. Looks like your ship is taking hits better than the Destiny did during our last confrontation with that class of battleship.”

  “Indeed, which is why I’m gonna attack it and take all the aggro.”

  “Agreed, but don’t hesitate to request additional firepower to take it out.”

  “Understood. Chase out.”

  Chase ordered the Hope to intercept the ship, determined to see how well the new shields and advanced weaponry capabilities his fresh-off-the-docks new destroyer would fare.

  * * *

  Sarah’s wing had just dispatched the first wave of Zarlack starfighters when another wave rolled forward and entered firing range. Her radar also indicated that another wave was coming from an opposite vector, no doubt trying to flank her.

  “Fillio, I’m tagging a set of fighters. Please dispatch them at will.”

  “Roger that, Wing Commander,” answered Fillio.

  With that flanking wave no longer her problem, she focused on the ones that had already started firing towards her wing. Streaks of red laser fire streamed passed her cockpit as she dodged the incoming fire. The neuronal link here on the StarFury was even smoother than on the Thunderbolt. Whatever delay she’d grown accustomed to between her thoughts and the ship’s responsiveness was now totally gone. It made for much more precise flying and shooting, but also made her feel even more empowered than ever before. The StarFury was a dream to fly, pure and simple.

  Time to test some of the new features! She deployed the drones, and went after three fighters which were approaching her in a tight formation. She sent the drones commands to attack the incoming enemies in the order she had painted them on her neuronal HUD, setting them to fire low-powered, ultra-rapid fire in order to deplete their shields as fast as possible. She marveled at how she could also give them specific points to concentrate their fire on the enemy’s shields since the drones flew themselves. She found herself laughing gleefully as the drones rained fire on the first target she had painted, loving the new toys. It only took them a handful of seconds to severely deplete the shield, at which point she switched her StarFury’s firing power to maximum, low-frequency lasers. Three simple shots sent the first target into a spin, followed by a bright explosion.