Mikhain leaned closer to the captain from where he sat in the jump seat and hefted the plasma pistol demonstratively.
‘You want to get out of here without the Morla’syn blasting you to hell Taron, you’ll need Arcadia’s help.’
‘Why the hell don’t you just stay where you are and get out of here?’ Taron uttered as the Phoenix punched through a broken layer of cloud, soaring ever higher. ‘The Colonials don’t want you and the Oassians will imprison you for life if they capture you.’
Mikhain sat back in his seat as the G–forces of the freighter’s rapid climb pinned him there.
‘I want Arcadia,’ he replied simply. ‘Without her, nobody’s going anywhere.’
‘You’re damned right there!’
The voice came from behind them, and Mikhain turned just in time to see Rench’s huge form lumber into the cockpit and grab the pistol. The weapon was yanked from his hand and Rench turned it on him with a grim smile.
***
XXXV
‘They’re engaging the fleet!’
Ishira stared ahead through Valiant’s windshield at the vast fleet of cruisers before them, their metallic hulls flashing as they reflected the light from the nearby star as countless plasma salvos blazed between them.
Captain Sansin sat beside her in the co–pilot’s seat and saw the frigates soaring between the crowded cruisers, their manoeuvring perfectly orchestrated.
‘Lazarus,’ he guessed. ‘Andaim’s handed control of the frigates to him.’
Across the communications channel, Evelyn heard the mention of her sister’s name.
‘They can’t win that fight, we’re hopelessly outnumbered.’
‘And we can’t run,’ Idris replied. ‘Half of our civilians are stuck down there on Oassia. If we leave them, they’re as good as dead.’
Idris looked at the battle unfolding before them, could see now the cloud of Raython fighters engaged in a fight to the death and he knew that there could be no going back. Suddenly, with a clarity of thought that had escaped him for so long, perhaps because of denial, perhaps because of fear, he realized that the final confrontation had come. There could be no fleeing this fight, no escape for any of them. This would become their greatest victory or their last tragic stand against the might of the Legion.
‘Take us in,’ he said to Ishira.
Ishira almost laughed. ‘Into what? That? Valiant isn’t a warship, captain, we don’t have much weaponry.’
‘No, but you have speed,’ Idris replied. ‘Get us to Atlantia. They’re going to need their captain back aboard if we’re going to stand a chance of winning this fight.’
‘We’ll be vaporised!’ Ishira snapped. ‘One direct hit from any of those batteries and we’ll be history, and that’s not even counting all those fighters!’
‘They’re controlled by machines,’ Idris insisted. ‘Those ships are Colonial, and I know what they’re capable of and what their weaknesses are. Follow my lead and we’ll make it through.’
‘And what about Defiance?’ Ishira pressed. ‘Mikhain used to be her XO, we could use his help!’
‘Mikhain’s gone now,’ Idris said, surprised at the regret in his tone as he said it. ‘There’s nothing he can do for us now.’
Ishira gripped the controls more tightly as she stared at the mass of huge spacecraft and tiny fighters engaged in close combat. Like a flickering show of fireworks against a black night, the plasma blasts flared and blazed in random bursts that illuminated the hulking hulls of the capital ships.
‘Stand by and hold on,’ she uttered, and then with one hand she threw Valiant’s throttles wide open.
The freighter surged forwards as it accelerated, and almost at once a salvo of plasma bursts rocketed out from one of the flanking Colonial cruisers as it detected the freighter on its sensors and opened fire.
‘Turn toward it!’ Idris snapped.
Ishira wanted to beg to know why but there was no time. She hauled Valiant into a tight turn, heard the cries of alarm from the countless civilians strapped into the ship’s hold far behind her as the freighter wheeled around.
The plasma shots rocketed past down Valiant’s left flank, flaring brightly as they narrowly missed her.
‘Automated trajectory tracking,’ Idris explained. ‘The ships are not manned but under control of Defiance. There’s a delay in their tracking computers, just enough to counter if you’re aggressive and react immediately to... again!’
Ishira pulled up hard as another salvo flashed toward them, and this time it thundered past beneath them with what felt like scant cubits to spare as the freighter climbed up and over the cruiser.
‘Atlantia’s coming through!’
Mikhain pointed through the windscreen to where the frigate was maintaining its position astern of Defiance, hammering her hull with salvo after salvo as Arcadia concentrated on hitting her bow, both of them protected from the massive carrier’s main broadsides.
‘Brilliant,’ Idris smiled grimly. ‘They’re holding out, but they’re taking damage from the cruisers.’
Ishira could see small fires glowing across Atlantia’s massive hull as some of the cruiser’s shots began to find their mark and her shields weakened beneath the onslaught.
‘Fighters, two o’clock!’
A pair of Raythons rocketed in toward them and Ishira responded quickly, turning toward the attacking craft, but the quicker plasma shots smashed into Valiant’s port hull and the freighter shuddered under the blows as sparks flew across the cockpit and a series of alarms blared out across the ship above a digitized warning.
‘Hull integrity at sixty eight per cent.’
Ishira fought for control as she hauled Valiant around in a tight turn across Atlantia’s bow and curved in under her port batteries.
‘Watch the broadsides!’ Idris yelped in surprise at Ishira’s unexpected manoeuvre.
The pursuing Raythons fired several more shots and then broke off as the freighter rocketed along between repeated explosions of plasma energy as Atlantia engaged two cruisers at less than a thousand cubits range. The blasts flared and illuminated the cockpit like the mother of all electrical storms as the freighter ducked and weaved through the inferno, the fighters behind too wary to follow.
Ishira focused all of her attention on Atlantia’s guns and the incoming fire from the two cruisers, watching for the flares of light from the guns before they fired and reacting on pure instinct, ignoring the sensors arrayed before her among the cockpit instruments as she both flew and keyed the communications channel.
‘Atlantia, Valiant for emergency landing, aft bay!’
A crackled, distorted response reached them from the Landing Signal Officer’s position.
‘Valiant, aft bay, twenty seconds!’
Valiant plunged beneath a titanic blast as Atlantia’s guns let rip with a full salvo that smashed into an adjacent cruiser with the brightness of a thousand suns. The shockwaves slammed into Valiant but Ishira kept the freighter straight and true and moments later they passed beneath Atlantia’s ventral strake, deep within a silent spot between her aft hull and her huge ion engines.
Ishira deployed the freighter’s landing pads and then swung around tightly as they emerged from cover and a brace of Raythons flashed passed, both engaging another pair of Raythons with squadron markings that Ishira did not recognise.
‘Here we go!’
With deft skill Ishira turned Valiant about and ducked in below the landing bay doors that were just opening amid clouds of escaping gas, the freighter coming in almost sideways before she was able to straighten up and the ship slammed down onto the deck. The hull vibrated and jarred her eyes in her sockets as the landing pads juddered along the deck before their magnetic clamps caught, and then suddenly the ship was down and Ishira retarded the throttles.
Idris wasted no time as he yanked off his harnesses and leaped up and out of the cockpit.
‘Ishira, get your ship ready to depart again if this goes south! I
don’t want any more civilians losing their lives!’
‘Roger that!’
Idris hurried through the freighter’s for’ard hull to the boarding ramp, and heard the distant blasts from outside shake the freighter as Atlantia was bombarded by the cruisers and Defiance’s aft guns.
Idris ran down the ramp and landed on the deck at a jog as General Bra’hiv dashed onto the deck at the head of crew technicians and launch operators running out to prepare the deck for recovering Raythons damaged in battle.
‘Sit rep?!’ Idris demanded.
‘We’re outnumbered, outgunned and out of options but to hunker down and keep scrapping!’ Bra’hiv replied. ‘Marines are posted at all access points. If we’re boarded, we’re ready!’
Idris nodded, relieved that even in this direst hour Bra’hiv appeared as convinced of victory as he ever did. The General accompanied him on the brief elevator ride up to the bridge deck, no Marines now on guard at the doors as every single soldier on board prepared to repel boarders.
Idris marched onto the bridge and saw Lazarus standing before him, his eyes closed as he controlled the two frigates.
‘Sit rep?!’ he demanded of Lael.
‘We’re in deep trouble captain!’ she replied, visibly pleased to see him despite the grim prognosis. ‘Shields at fifty four per cent and falling, plasma salvos at two per minute but our guns are overheating. Both Raython squadrons are deployed and fighting but they’re struggling to maintain position!’
Idris strode up onto the command platform and turned to Lazarus.
‘I have control, doctor,’ he said simply.
Emma nodded to the captain and Lazarus opened his eyes and smiled at Idris. ‘Good to see you back and well, captain.’
Idris turned to the helmsman. ‘Flank speed, all plasma cannons to engage Defiance’s Raythons at point blank. Order our squadrons to pull up on my mark and clear the field.’
‘We’ll lose the initiative to the cruisers,’ Lazarus warned.
‘We never had the initiative in this engagement,’ Idris replied. ‘We have to cover the fighters.’
Lazarus said no more as Idris watched Lael relay the command to Andaim’s cockpit.
***
XXXVI
Rench kept the pistol pointed at Mikhain as he grinned at Taron.
‘Where’s the spice, Taron?’
Taron shook his head and turned back to the Phoenix’s controls. ‘A bit busy here Rench, case you hadn’t noticed!’
‘There’s Arcadia!’
Mikhain pointed between Taron and Yo’Ki as he saw the frigate in the midst of the raging battle, surrounded by Colonial cruisers as she manoeuvred to avoid Defiance’s main guns from targeting her.
Taron stared at the scene before them, of multiple capital ships and dozens of fighters heavily engaged, flashes of plasma darting back and forth between them in a chaotic pyrotechnic display.
‘The frigates aren’t going to last long,’ Taron said with something approaching a sombre tone. ‘You sure you want to get in there?’
‘We’ve already got a ship,’ Rench snarled. ‘Make a leap now and get us out of here, or I’ll….’
‘You’ll what?!’ Taron snapped. ‘Kill us? You won’t get far without a pilot, Rench, so you’re screwed there. Didn’t quite think this one through, did you?’
Rench turned the pistol on Yo’Ki. ‘So you can teach me.’
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Mikhain insisted.
‘That’s right,’ Rench growled. ‘So let’s jump now and talk later, agreed?’
Mikhain sighed. ‘Look, you can take Taron’s spice, or you can come with us and I’ll give you a supply of Devlamine so large you’ll never need to think about money again.’
Rench peered at him. ‘What Devlamine?’
‘We use it to draw in the Legion’s Infectors and Hunters,’ Mikhain explained. ‘Then we torch them. It’s the drug they used to infect humanity in the first place. We’ve cultivated it aboard the frigates for that purpose. There’s plenty to go around, but we need to take the ship back first.’
Rench frowned. ‘And what’s to say you’ll honor the agreement?’
‘The fact that there’s literally tonnes of Devlamine aboard Arcadia,’ Mikhain replied. ‘It’s not about honor, Rench – handing you a ship full of the stuff won’t cost us a thing. Are you in, or not?’
Rench looked at the captain for a moment longer and nodded. ‘Agreed.’
Taron glanced at Mikhain as he advanced the Phoenix’s throttles forward. ‘I hope to hell you know what you’re doing.’
Mikhain did not reply as the freighter accelerated to attack speed and Taron activated her weapons systems. Mikhain watched as Yo’Ki transferred her attention to manually controlling the ship’s plasma turrets, ready to engage any craft that strayed too close.
The Phoenix rocketed into the battle as a salvo of massive plasma blasts blazed across the space before it, Defiance’s huge guns sending the broadside toward Atlantia. Mikhain tensed in his seat as he saw the frigate’s bow plunge as the helmsman sought to avoid the blasts, watched three of the five shots sail over the bow as the last two impacted the frigate amidships. The plasma blasts spread like electricity across the frigate’s shields, bright explosions of energy radiating back out into space as Atlantia shouldered the blows, but he could see her internal lighting flickering as the ship bore the blasts and struggled to remain functional at the same time.
‘Hang on!’
Taron yelled his warning as he rolled the freighter over and pulled hard, the surprisingly agile craft racing between two formations of Raythons striving to shoot each other down. One pair was closing in on another from behind, their cannons blazing.
‘That’s the Reapers!’ Mikhain pointed as he recognized the tail markings of Atlantia’s squadron fleeing their attackers.
Taron did not reply but with admirable skill he rolled the Phoenix out into line astern behind the attacking Raythons, and without a word Yo’Ki locked onto the two enemy fighters and moments later a bright blaze of plasma fire shot out of the Phoenix’s cannons. Mikhain squinted as the blasts smashed into the two attacking Raythons in a brilliant flare of light and a burst of flame as the fighters disintegrated, their minimal shielding no match for the freighter’s powerful armaments.
Taron pulled up again as he aimed the freighter for Arcadia, the frigate diving beneath Defiance’s huge hull and rolling slowly onto its side to bring her port batteries to bear on the carrier’s underside. Mikhain sub–consciously clenched his fist in excitement and grim delight as he saw the frigate unleash a massive broadside that blanketed the carrier’s hull in a fearsome blaze of plasma energy.
‘Give it to ‘em, Scott!’ Mikhain yelped in delight as he saw fires begin to glow on Defiance’s hull as some of the massive energy from the broadside broke through her shielding.
‘It’s gonna take more than that to stop them,’ Taron observed dryly as Arcadia rolled out and was hit twice by the smaller Colonial cruisers, their broadsides rippling down the frigate’s hull.
‘Every little helps,’ Mikhain replied. ‘There, the aft landing bays are open!’
He pointed to Arcadia’s stern as the frigate turned to engage the two cruisers, and Taron aimed for the opening. The freighter slowed and then shook violently as a Raython opened fire upon it and raced by down the starboard flank.
Yo’Ki twisted in her seat as she aimed and then fired a stream of plasma after the fleeing fighter, but it arced away at the last moment and shot out of range.
Taron lowered the freighter’s undercarriage and it sailed into Arcadia’s landing bay, the pirate captain settling the ship down on the deck as Mikhain unstrapped from his seat.
‘As soon as we’re off, get out of here,’ Mikhain said to Taron.
Rench stood up next to Mikhain, the pistol still in his grasp and pointed at Mikhain’s belly.
‘No funny business,’ Rench warned. ‘Any of your Marines come near me, I’ll co
ok your innards, understood?’
‘You’ll get your damned Devlamine,’ Mikhain shot back. ‘Just follow my lead and stay out of the way.’
The pirate looked at the captain suspiciously. ‘Are you going to stay in the fight?’
Mikhain whirled without answering and dashed from the freighter as Taron lowered the ramp, Rench flashing a final, cruel grin at them as he lumbered after Mikhain.
‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ Taron uttered as they left.
*
‘Break right!’
Evelyn shouted the command as her Raython roared into the battle, the underside of a Colonial cruiser flashing by above her and the shockwaves from its plasma batteries shuddering through the fighter’s hull as she passed by.
Evelyn hauled the fighter into a hard right turn as two enemy Raythons rushed toward her with their plasma cannons blazing. Teera’s Raython soared by her in an overshoot as she pulled in the same direction, two plasma shots blasting out in return against the attacking fighters before they flashed by.
‘There’s too many of them!’ Teera yelled.
The space between the carrier and the frigates was filled with Raythons all firing and turning at once in the largest fight Evelyn had ever seen. Shots rallied this way and that, a rich tapestry of vivid red and blue light flickering back and forth against the velvety black backdrop of deep space.
‘Stay together, maintain formation!’ Evelyn snapped, forcing herself to remain calm despite her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. ‘Reapers, stay in pairs, don’t break up or they’ll pick us all off!’
She shot beneath a pair of Raythons heading in the opposite direction as Teera’s panicked voice cried a warning.
‘Pair at six o’clock, evasive now!’
Evelyn yanked her Raython into a tight turn, racing toward Arcadia now as the frigate unleashed a heavy barrage against Defiance’s shields. She craned her neck over her shoulder as a trail of plasma fire shot over her wing and saw the pursuing fighters closing in on her.
Defiance (Atlantia Series Book 5) Page 24
