“This ship is something else!” She laughed to herself.
She checked her radar. Fillio’s quadruplet wing of Omega fighters had literally obliterated the incoming wing, which had been trying to flank her earlier. She’d approached and engaged them cloaked; it was no surprise at all how easily she’d triumphed. Since the Omegas weren’t able to stay cloaked for too long they were now visible. But it only took a moment watching her engage with another wave of fighters to see that she, too, was one hell of a pilot. A little less reckless than Chase—but then, who wasn’t?
She vectored towards the second ship and added her firepower to the drones’. It only took seconds before it was dispatched from the sky. A third bogie attempted to retreat, clearly afraid of suffering the same fate. But there was no escaping her lock. She tested a new variation of tactics this time around, lowering the enemy’s aft shield herself. She then gave the drones the kill order, and switched them to maximum fire, while she broke away towards her next target. It didn’t take long for the drones to finish the job. These drones really changed the balance of power when it came to dogfighting. Already her mind was racing, wondering how else to use them to best exploit the clear advantages they gave her during combat.
By the time the drones rejoined her in formation, she had dispatched yet another ship. She passed next to another F-147.
“Having fun?” Daniel’s voice rose up through the static.
“Oh yeah, you?”
“This ship is something else! Have you noticed how little the shields dip when you get hit?” Daniel seemed just as thrilled as she was.
“Hadn’t really had much experience taking that many hits, to tell you the truth,” she boasted.
“Show off… Chase is rubbing off on you.”
Perhaps he was, she thought, laughing. It was one of the points that she found endearing about him actually, but she could see how it could be perceived as arrogance—depending on one’s point of view. But not to her. Perhaps because they were both pilots. Maybe if he wasn’t such a great pilot...? The best she had ever seen in fact, and also someone from whom she could learn a great deal. And handsome, and…
That little distraction got her a salvo of incoming fire on her port shields. She looked at her HUD and laughed. It took less than three percent off her shields.
“It’s true, these shields are strong.”
“Let’s not let that fact make us too reckless though,” Daniel deadpanned, with a bit of warning in his tone.
“Nothing to worry about, my friend.”
“Good. One reckless, hotshot-pilot friend to worry about is enough, if you know what I mean.”
“Roger that, mister by-the-book.”
“Yeah. He’s really rubbing off on you.”
They both laughed. They took different paths and continued engaging their respective enemies.
She engaged the next wave of ships. This time she decided to test the new missiles onboard the StarFury—again amazed by their effectiveness. The Zarlacks might have had the edge in numbers thus far, but this new ship would clearly change the odds in terms of firepower. Every missile she launched found its target, except one that had launched multiple countermeasures. Most of them had been destroyed at first impact. Those who weren’t were easy pickings… and didn’t live long enough to tell the tale.
* * *
Chase watched the efficient F-147s on his telemetry. He longed to be part of the fight out there, more than ever. But the Hope was approaching firing range on the behemoth ship, the same that had inflicted quite some damage to other ships already, and even destroyed another Obsidian battleship.
“Time to see what this ship can do. Sergeant, all batteries open fire, ready main guns. Full power!”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
All batteries opened fire and it was an impressive show. The barrage of fire that the ship was able to dispatch blew Chase’s mind. It must have had at least three times more turrets than the Destiny. The rate of firing was also significantly faster. From the looks of it, it was also having more effect at lowering the shields of the behemoth-class Zarlack destroyer. Within a handful of seconds it had reduced shields by five percent, something they hadn’t been able to manage before with multiple ships.
That obviously got whomever was in charge of that ship to reconsider their targeting priorities. The ship immediately came about and fired everything it had straight at the Hope. The relentless pounding made the entire hull shake and tremble, but shields were holding even though they had lost about ten percent more now.
But the main plasma guns of the Hope suddenly shot towards its prey, and it was a thing of beauty. The first salvo took out more than half of the ship’s shield. Of course, it would require one minute to fully recharge the main guns, but Chase could already sense a change: he would no longer dread facing this type of ship in battle. It would take at least three of them against the Hope to make him worry, in fact. And today there was only one. If their mission succeeded, it would take a significant amount of time for Argos to be able to churn them out of the assembly line. For the first time in a very long time, Chase felt hope grow stronger in his soul.
“Tough little ship,” said Chase out loud.
“Yes, Captain, she is,” answered the sergeant.
And she had been named perfectly too, thought Chase.
“Sergeant, prepare to fire a full salvo of torpedoes. Launch on my command. I’ll assume main guns firing controls, this time around.”
“Aye, Captain, firing now. Let me remind you, however, that the main guns won’t be fully recharge for at least another thirty-five seconds.”
“No worries, Sergeant, I won’t need full power for this.”
Chase grinned at the outgoing torpedoes. There were at least twenty of them, leaving a white smoke trail in their wake. They created a sort of horizon line from the ship’s bridge vantage point. Chase prepared to activate the main guns. Even if they were only seventy-five percent charged, he knew it wouldn’t matter. A couple of seconds before the torpedoes impacted their target, Chase activated the main guns. The salvo of blue plasma flew right past the torpedoes and obliterated the rest of the ship’s shield. Then, in an elaborate percussion composition, the torpedoes tore one hole after another in their now totally defenseless target. It took only a handful of seconds before the ship exploded in a million pieces, with quite the fireworks, and a huge shockwave that damaged the nearest enemy battleship.
It tugged to one side evasively, but it was hopeless: it would soon become Chase’s next kill.
Chase vectored the Hope towards the damaged ship, and sent five torpedoes in its path. He checked the status of the rest of the fleet to confirm that the battle was going well. He checked in on Sarah’s StarFury and saw that both her wings had already dispatched six squadrons of enemy ships without losing a single fighter. He was on top of the world. It all seemed too easy, but then again they had better numbers, stronger ships and the element of surprise on the dogfight side. It was quite evident that the StarFuries were formidable war machines in close combat. Chase had to admit the drones were a stroke of genius. He made a mental note to thank Yanis for his never-ending ingenuity.
The newly targeted Zarlack ship explosion brought Chase out of his reverie. The Destiny had just destroyed another battleship with the help of the Far Beyond. The Euphoreon and Axxis were in the process of terminating the last two Zarlack destroyers on the other side of the battlefield.
A minute later, all enemy capital vessels had been dispatched. Squadrons were recalled back, as turret fire from the fleet picked off the remaining wings of Zarlack starfighters like space bugs. The Hope shields were already back to one hundred percent. No Alliance ship had suffered any major damage. The Hope’s first firefight had been an incredible success, and Chase felt both pride and admiration for the ship’s effectiveness in battle. He felt a huge sense of honor at being her first captain.
That’s when he realized that he didn’t miss dogfighting so much aft
er all, even though he was still slightly itching to test the StarFury.
Chase looked at the emperor, who had stood silently at his side during the entire battle. He turned towards Chase with a grave look. It was as if no words were needed between the two men. Chase knew full well what that look meant.
Commodore Saroudis commed in.
“Well done, everyone, that was a well-orchestrated battle.”
“Indeed it was, Commodore. But I think we might have a problem.”
“Anything wrong with the Hope?”
“No, she is one hell of a ship. But the timing of the Zarlack attacks towards the allied—” Chase paused just a bit, and corrected, “Obsidian—forces is more than suspicious. I think we may have a spy in our ranks.”
“Or it could be simply coincidence, Chase. We are, after all, on their territory.”
“Yet the Zarlack opened fire on their supposed allies?”
“Right, that is a little more difficult to explain. What does the emperor have to say?”
For the first time in twenty minutes, the emperor took a few steps forward to face the main holo-display, before he spoke.
“I have to agree with the Lieutenant Commander. Somebody must have tipped off Argos.”
“Then the rest of our plan could be in jeopardy. Perhaps we should delay the attack on the shipyard.”
Chase interjected. “I don’t think we can afford to, Commodore. While the Hope is now more than capable of dealing with their bigger destroyers, we only have one ship. As long as that shipyard exists, Argos will be able to churn out an inordinate number of them. It could put our newfound tactical advantage at risk much sooner than we can afford, were we to wait any longer.”
“I concur,” said the emperor, coldly.
“Very well, but I’m under strict orders to not take unnecessary risks with this battle group. Should things get hotter when we arrive at our destination, we may have to retreat.”
“But, Commodore—”
Saroudis interrupted Chase.
“I have my orders, Lieutenant Commander, and you will follow mine this time. Are we absolutely clear on that?”
Chase wanted to argue, but bit his tongue instead.
“Like crystal, Commodore,” he said reluctantly.
* * *
Argos was sitting on his ready-room throne, reviewing a recent battle report where combined Obsidian forces and Earth Alliance had wrought a rout. He had clearly miscalculated the size of the force coming to attack the shipyard, but it had given him some interesting tactical information nonetheless. Since that skirmish had merely been a decoy for him to position his next trap for Chase, it didn’t much matter. He brushed it away.
He kept thinking about the next phase of his plan, but had to admit that the formidable firepower of the Earth Alliance new destroyer-class ships gave him pause. He would need to get Chase out of his precious ship for his plan to work. But he knew full well where his brother’s weaknesses lay. His precious Sarah! It was his Achilles’ heel. Everything he had done until now depended on that very fact.
An incoming communication buzzed noisily. His engineer had hired the DTs in hopes of helping him decode the Olympian communication, another crucial part of his plan. Finally, there was some updated news.
“What do you have to report?” he asked coldly.
“With the help of DTs, I’ve managed to get some of the communications decrypted. But only parts so far, since the encryption is highly variable and complex. I’ve managed to get a thirty second, or so, audio segment so far, as well as the frequency used to transmit the messages over subspace.”
Argos smiled. The next phase of his plan clicked into place in his head with the news he just received. All was well.
“Very good. You did take all the precautions I mentioned regarding information and DTs?”
“Absolutely. We used non-networked terminals that I had wiped as per your request. The data and results are quadruple encrypted; only both your and my DNA provide access to the data. Nobody is getting their hands on that research.”
“Good. Since we have audio, how complicated would it be replicate one of the voices in that recording? Assuming you have an Olympian on that part of the file?”
“I do. A female voice.”
“Aphroditis… Can you replicate her vocal patterns? Perhaps we could use the same subspace transmission method to send a message of our own?”
“Let me check if I have enough conversation to make a good clone of her voice for you to use.”
Meanwhile Argos continued to sift through the data from the previous battle. The EAD Hope would clearly be a thorn in his side, and he would have to make sure that this ship wouldn’t ruin what would be coming next. In hindsight it might have been a mistake to make sure the agent on Earth failed her mission, seeing how easily it dispatched one of Argos’ strongest ships. Fortunately, overwhelming numbers might prove enough to keep it at bay. After all, Chase was coming to destroy the shipyard, still thinking that this was what Argos would fight to protect. Argos had a tactical advantage he could exploit in that faulty intel expectation. The tech resumed communication.
“Yes. I have all I need to make a vocal clone. You should be able to communicate with whomever you want, passing as this female, as long as you feed the system a destination for the signal. A connection must be made first, though, but then afterwards you can hijack the line and replace its content.”
“That seems less than ideal.”
“I know, but I still wasn’t able to determine how the sender identifies its target in subspace. It must have something to do with DNA. I would guess DNA is also embedded in the transmission, so that the brain receiving it is able to decode on the fly, like a genetic decryption key, if you will. Honestly, this is a where things get blurry for me. If we could get our hands on the source hardware for the transmission, then I’m confident I could get you even more control in the future.”
“Understood. Keep at it. Try to locate the source of the signal. Also, the second a new signal is detected, make sure you hijack it and transfer me control with the voice clone enabled.”
“I’ll write these subroutines right away. You’ll get a red-coded alert as soon as a signal is detected. All you have to do is acknowledge the alert, and the system will do the rest.”
“You efficiency, as always, is highly appreciated and will be rewarded accordingly. I need you to do one thing more for me, though.”
“Anything, Master.”
“I need you to send the decode key via subspace to the terminals our agent has placed on Earth. It’s time the humans realize we can strike at their very heart and in ways they never anticipated. That should shake their confidence about any protection the membership in the Alliance brings them.”
“Won’t that give them the time to prevent the attack, and save themselves?”
“This particular mission was never about destroying Earth, even if that was one of the possible outcomes. But they need to think that it was. Fear can be a powerful tool if used the right way.”
“Understood, Master. Decrypt key sent.”
Argos terminated the communication. He got up from his throne and walked towards the nearest glass to look at the stars. Soon all the pieces would fall into place. He allowed himself a rare smile, contemplating the vast emptiness of space from his current view.
C H A P T E R
XXIV
Spiros groaned under his breath. He opened his eyes, relieved to see he was still undiscovered, safe in the narrow crawl space. He had no idea how long it’d been since he’d lost consciousness. One thing was sure though: the little he could feel from his leg was feeling wet, which wasn’t a good sign. He was bleeding badly. He’d have to attend to that wound quickly, or he could die here. He tried to regain his bearings.
He tried to activate his neuronal HUD but it wouldn’t power up. Over-clocking had been reckless, nearly costing him his life. He hoped with all his heart that the spark he felt within his cranium shor
tly after recovering the coveted file didn’t fry his databanks or short circuit things, or all of this would have been for nothing.
He visualized the path he’d taken from the armory in his mind, trying to approximate where he was. He reckoned he wasn’t too far from the infirmary, and that would have to be his next stop. That is, if he reached it in time, before bleeding to death.
The next few minutes were agonizing. Spiros finally arrived to the infirmary. He carefully removed the vent panel after wiping blood off his fingers, moving as gently and quietly as he could under the circumstances. Then he took a deep breath and slowly lowered his head out of the vent, peering down into the room. It was empty. He sighed in relief.
But the next step wouldn’t be fun, and he knew it. His injured leg remained unable to move, so descent would be complicated. Fortunately the vent was right on top of a medical bed. There was only one thing to do: leap and hope. Try to land on it.
He crawled forward a little more, as his pain receptors sent another wave of painful jolts through his body. Then he tumbled from the vent, as artfully as he could. He landed face first on the medical bed but was unable to stay on it for long. The momentum of the fall dragged the rest of his body down off the bed. He crashed unceremoniously to the ground. The agony from the failed landing almost made him lose consciousness again, but he fought through the veil of darkness the pain presented.
He knew full well that another accidental nap time would probably prove his last. That thought alone sent enough adrenaline through his system that he could crawl another few meters. He reached a medical cabinet. He located the strongest painkiller and injected himself with it. A slight sense of relief came with the reduction in pain, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet.
Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) Page 22
