by A A Warren
With a metallic shriek, the Star Claw shot between the gates. The edges of the energy field scraped against the hull. Sparks exploded through the bridge as the shields overloaded, but the ship made it through.
Behind them, the metal gates slammed closed, blocking the opening. A fireball exploded behind them as the fighter struck the barrier at full speed.
“We lost main canon control,” Zobo called out, reading down the list of damaged systems. “Shield power is fluctuating. But we made it!”
As the ship righted itself, Talon glanced out the cockpit windows. “Orion’s blazing bow!” he gasped.
Two massive Dominion battleships bore down on them, blotting out the view of the stars beyond. A cluster of tiny dots filled the space between them. As they flew closer, Talon could see they were blood hawk fighters swarming towards them. More warning sirens blared.
“Perhaps I spoke to soon,” Zobo shouted. “Now would be a good time to move, boy!”
Talon threw the ship into a tight-banked turn. The inertia compensator fields whined under the strain. The ship vibrated as massive glowing blasts exploded around them.
Salena staggered into the bridge. She grabbed the edge of the doorway for support as the ship listed wildly. “What in the stars is—” She saw Talon and hurried over to the cockpit.
Flashing him a quick smile, she lowered herself in the navigator’s chair. “Looks like your time with Avra paid off well, warrior.” Her holo display glowed to life.
Talon dipped the ship’s wing, narrowly evading another massive blast. “How is Avra?” he asked, not taking his eyes off his instruments.
Salena tapped some keys on her wrist display, transferring the coordinates she had copied from the tablets. “She took a direct hit, and her nervous system is still scrambled. But she’s stable for now.”
“I’ll bring her flowers after you get us out of here, my dear,” Zobo growled.
Salena’s eyes began to glow, as she slid her hands into the control pods. “Powering up portal drive. Downloading coordinates.”
The ship rattled as another blast skimmed off the starboard wing.
Zobo snarled, then began tapping his holographic display. “Fighters closing in. Transferring power to rear shields. Talon, we need to buy her some time!”
Talon threw the ship into a steep dive. The debris field swirled around them, backlit by the infernal glow of the dying red sun. Fragments of rock and mangled metal pelted the cockpit windows. A stray shot from behind struck a tumbling shard of metal, sending it cascading towards them.
Talon veered around the debris, missing it by millimeters. An explosion rocked the rear of the ship. One of the fighters blinked off the display… It had struck the tumbling metal fragment.
His lips curled into a grim smile. “You want to pursue us, you mangy cowards? Then follow us into hell!”
A blinding glow filled the windows. The ship rattled, as canon-fire from the battleships reduced a swathe of the debris field to atoms.
“Salena…” Talon snarled.
“Portal drive powering up.” She had entered her strange trance, and spoke in a monotone voice. “My energy reserves are low, and these coordinates are complex. It will take longer than usual to open the star-path.”
Zobo snarled, and fired another barrage at the fighters behind them. “Not what I wanted to hear.”
Another canon bolt vaporized the rocks on their port side. Talon veered away from the glowing particles left behind. On his display, he saw the blood hawk formation following his every move. Behind them, the massive battleships lumbered through the debris, slowly closing the gap.
“This debris may hide us from the fighters, but it’s useless against those battleships,” Zobo shouted. “Their armor can plow right through these rocks, and they can saturate the entire area with canon-fire.”
Talon narrowed his eyes, as a large blinking dot floated into view on his display. He looked up… Through the cockpit window he saw the remains of the old mining ship drifting before them. Even in pieces, what was left of the craft was massive, dwarfing the Star Claw, and the battleships, in size.
“Never fight a superior opponent on his own terms,” Talon said.
“What’s that?” Zobo barked.
“Something my old battle instructor taught me. It was true in the arena, and it’s true here. We can’t match those battleships. So we’ll go somewhere they can’t follow.”
“I don’t think—”
Zobo’s protest was cut short, as Talon dropped the ship into a stomach-churning spin. They veered away from the debris, plunging towards a massive engine nozzle protruding from the derelict mining ship. The cockpit windows darkened, as the gaping wreckage engulfed them.
A blur of mangled, rusted metal flew past the windows. Talon maneuvered the ship through the narrow opening of the engine manifold. Keeping his eye on his holo display, he made tiny, banking turns as the metal tunnel curved left and right. Weapons fire exploded behind them, and a twisted girder fell in their wake. Most of the tiny dots on his display had veered off, but three fighters had followed him into the wreckage.
“Zobo, what the hell is this?” he called back, as the tunnel dipped down and snaked right.
“We’re in the engine manifold. These old Titan Class Ore Haulers were massive. Hold on, I’m calling up a blueprint from records.”
Salena stared forward, still in her navigation trance. Her holo display blinked green. “Star-path coordinates locked in. Arcane drive at full power.” Her voice was calm and serene, and she seemed oblivious to the energy bolts whizzing past them.
“Too dangerous to open a star-path in here," Zobo snarled. "Once we lose these fighters, we can get clear and jump before the battleships spot us!”
A twisted metal gantry hung down in front of them, blocking their path. Talon swung through the narrow gap between the mangled metal and the tunnel wall. One of the blood hawks pulled into a steep climb. It scraped against the roof and exploded, lighting up the tunnel with a brilliant orange glow.
The other two fighters darted around the obstacle. They continued pelting the Star Claw with their weapons.
“Listen up, boy!” Zobo spun his chair around to face the front of the ship. “I found the specs on this old junker. In eight-hundred meters, the manifold tunnel forks left and right. Go right… that should take us to the dorsal vents.”
“I see it!” Up ahead, the manifold tunnel split into two smaller passageways. Talon darted the ship to the right, and the two blood hawks followed. In the glow of the ship’s running lights, he could see a few hundred meters down the narrow passageway…
A giant metal slab blocked the end of the tunnel.
“Zobo… that’s not a vent, old man!”
The wolfish alien wrinkled his snout, and squinted at his display. “Hmm… On second thought, these plans may be upside down.”
“Zobo!”
“Pull up on my mark… there’s a secondary vent panel above those blast doors. We’ll have to shoot our way through. In 3… 2… 1… Mark!”
Talon pulled the ship into a swift, sudden climb. Zobo spun the lower guns around and fired. Twin beams of energy shot ahead of them, blasting a gigantic metal grate to glowing fragments. The Star Claw sped into the massive air duct and leveled out.
The two fighters swooped after them. More energy bolts ricocheted off the curved metal walls of the passageway.
The narrow air duct opened in a vast, spherical chamber. More fragments of debris drifted around them. A massive rod, clustered with machinery and hoses, ran through the center of the sphere. Rows of gleaming metal cylinders ran up and down the rod.
Talon dove down, evading another blast from their pursuers. They swooped along the walls, following the curve of the massive space.
“By the Haunted Stars, this thing is huge!” he gasped.
“This must be one of the engine reactors,” Zobo growled. “Look for another manifold tube… The power regulator in the center there controls eng
ine output.”
Talon banked left, avoiding a tumbling cluster of rocks. “I don’t see anything… only way out is the way we came in, straight in the path of those battleships.” As they swooped around the rocks, he saw glittering red crystals dotting the surface.
“Wait, is tha—”
Before he could finish his sentence, one of the blood hawks opened fire. The energy bolts flew wide, and struck the rocks. The debris exploded, sending a massive shockwave through the walls of the chamber.
“Cryocite ore,” Zobo said. “The refinery bay must have ruptured, and it drifted in here. The red crystals are flawed… they can’t be refined.”
“And they’re highly unstable,” Talon muttered.
He pulled in closer to the machinery in the center of the chamber. The Blood hawks shot past him, and dove around another floating chunk of rock. Talon swung closer to the towering power regulator.
The fighters on their tail opened fire. Their pulse bolts streaked past the Star Claw, striking the power regulator in the center of the chamber.
As the pulse-fire rippled over the regulator tower, the metal cylinders began to glow. Bolts of energy crackled from the giant rod, dancing across the chamber walls like a lightning storm. The bolts arced back and forth through the massive sphere, striking the drifting chunks of ore. The red cryocite crystals began to pulse and glow.
The chamber walls shook, as another chunk of rock exploded. The blood hawks veered away, dodging the glowing particles that flew around them. Energy bolts continued to surge through the sphere, striking more debris. One by one, the other floating rocks in the chamber began to glow.
“Best be leaving, Fledge. I don’t like the reading I’m getting off that power regulator,” Zobo said.
“What do you mean?” Talon asked as he dodged fire from one of the blood hawks. “What kind of reading?”
“The fighter’s weapons triggered a discharge… there’s still some residual power left in the core.”
“So?”
“So when the rest of this ore detonates, it could set off a chain reaction. If there’s any anti-matter left in the containment tanks, this engine could fire!”
Talon spun the Star Claw around. The room was getting brighter now, as more and more chunks of rock began to glow and pulse. A thousand miniature stars swirled around them, each one burning with crimson fire.
He plunged back into the manifold tunnel. Glancing at the display, he clenched his jaw. “Brace for impact!”
The two remaining blood hawks streaked out of the sphere, and followed him down the tunnel. Then the wreckage rumbled and shook. The tunnel grew hot and bright, as a wall of white-hot plasma vaporized the blast door behind them.
Chapter Twenty
Commander Ecotyl marched across the command deck of the DNS Paladin. He glanced out the massive battleship's sloped windows. Outside, rocks and floating debris disintegrated as they struck the vessel’s powerful shields. The brief pulses of light reminded Ecotyl of the fireflies he chased in his youth, back on his home planet.
Beneath the raised command deck, an array of consoles curved before the windows. As the bridge crew guided the Paladin towards the derelict mining ship, Ecotyl consulted a holo display near the edge of his deck. They were almost through the debris field, and within firing range on the wreckage. The drifting hulk’s massive engine nozzle filled the windows… a black maw large enough to engulf even the mighty battleship.
Let Sartarus keep his ancient religion, and accursed dark energy, he thought. I’m a Commander in the Dominion Navy. Not a zealot in his fanatical cult.
With a snap of his fingers, Ecotyl knew he could unleash a barrage of destruction that could level a city.
So why did High General Kyr entrust the destruction of the renegade prince to that withering madman?
“Sir," a voice called from below. "I have sensor contact. Looks like a pair of our fighters in pursuit of an unidentified vessel.”
Ecotyl blinked, as the intel report dragged him from his jealous thoughts. He glanced at his display and saw the three blinking dots. The holographic image was hazy, and flickered in and out of focus. Something inside the wreckage was blocking their sensors.
“Forward guns, stand by to fire at my command,” he snapped. The sensor readings flickered again. “Tighten up this signal… Why can’t we get a solid lock?”
An officer below consulted his display. He touched his ear, as he spoke into a comm unit that broadcast his voice through the air.
“I’m reading some kind of massive energy surge inside the wreckage, sir. It’s interfering with our sensors.”
Ecotyl was about to answer, when a chill ran through his body. He stiffened, and sensed a presence behind him. A cold, hissing voice whispered in his ear.
“Pull up, Commander.”
Sartarus…
Ecotyl clicked his heels, and spun around. The cloaked man loomed behind him, although he had not heard him approach. The commander stared into the man’s intense sapphire eyes. They glared at him from behind the shimmering gold mask.
“Lord Sartarus, I—”
“You heard me, Commander.”
“Sir, our fighters are flushing out the prey, we have the Star Claw in our—”
The robed man’s arm flew out. He grabbed the collar of Ecotyl’s black and red uniform and yanked the commander close. Ecotyl winced, as he smelled the hint of decay wafting from the man’s gray, withered flesh.
“Do as I command, Ecotyl…” Sartarus shoved him away. Ecotyl flew back and struck the railing of the command deck. He gasped in pain, and grabbed the thin metal bar to stop himself from flying over the edge. Sartarus cocked his head and stared at him. His monstrous golden mask reflected the lights from the exploding debris outside. “I won’t ask you again,” he hissed.
Ecotyl caught his balance. He ignored the stinging pain in his back, and gave a quick bow. “Of course, sir.” He spun around, and tapped the glowing lights of his holo display. “Helm, take us up, one quarter thrusters.”
The helm officer’s fingers danced across her panel as she responded to his command. “Aye sir, ascending at one quarter thrust. Z-axis at plus— By the gods! Sir, look!”
The officer stood in her chair and pointed out the front windows. Ecotyl squinted, as he peered into the gaping black chasm of the derelict’s engine nozzle.
Three tiny dots exploded from the darkness. He could just make out the ship in the lead… the sloped wing and bulging canon of the old Sidegunner. The twin crimson blood hawk fighters followed in its wake.
The darkness behind the three ships rippled and swirled, like a heat mirage in the desert. A faint glow bloomed from the center of the engine nozzle, like a tiny sun rising against a black horizon.
Ecotyl grit his teeth. “Helm, full thruster power, now!”
The helm officer threw herself back in her chair. “Aye, sir! Diverting power to maneuvering thrusters!”
Ecotyl grabbed the railing again as the behemoth vessel groaned in protest. The massive battleship ascended. The glow from the engine nozzle grew as bright as an exploding star. Its white-hot light filled the windows, casting long, grim shadows across the bridge.
Ecotyl looked back at Sartarus. The man seemed to have little trouble maintaining his balance as the ship's bow tilted at an extreme angle.
Beneath the rising battleship, the Star Claw cleared the rim of the nozzle’s cone. It powered into a tight-banked turn, screaming away from the wreckage as the blazing glow intensified.
With a thunderous roar, the mining ship’s engine fired.
A lance of atomic fire spat out from the dark nozzle, annihilating everything in its path. The blast reduced the drifting bits of rock and metal in its line of fire to atoms in the blink of an eye. The Paladin rumbled and shook, as the destructive blast clipped the edge of the port fin. Despite the damage, they kept rising, flying up and out of the engine’s path of destruction.
The tactical officer’s voice shouted up to him. “S
ir, the Adjudicator… it’s right behind us!”
The second battleship was cruising in formation behind them. It took the blast from the massive engine head on. For a few seconds, its forward shields seemed to hold. The wave of engine fire glowed cobalt blue as it broke against the powerful energy barrier. Then the field buckled… the crimson hull of the battleship vanished in a white-hot cone of fire and plasma. Burning metal fragments exploded into space, spinning off into the black depths of the void.
The mining ship’s engine sputtered. The stream of fire narrowed, then flickered. A moment later, it died out. The energy stored in the power regulators had been expended. The wreckage was now just a lifeless hulk.
As the Paladin leveled out, Commander Ecotyl barked orders to the officers below. “Damage control, get me a status report on decks one through nine. Lock off the power regulators from all systems in the port wing.”
Sartarus stepped up beside him at the railing. The taller man glanced out the windows at the burning debris in the distance.
He chuckled. “Well done, Commander.”
Ecotyl glanced up at him, his face flushed and dripping with sweat. ‘Thank you, sir, I—”
“You only managed to lose one battleship, and a score of the fighters. And what of our prey?”
Ecotyl swallowed, then glanced down at his officers. “Tactical! Get me a sit-rep on those ships!”
The young man below flicked through a series of data slides on his holo display.
“The two blood hawks didn’t clear the blast, sir.”
“And the Star Claw?”
The officer shot Sartarus a nervous look. “She’s out of sensor range, sir. Residual energy indicates a star-path opened in this area. We tried to run tracking protocols, but there was no time.”
Sartarus clenched his fist, and nodded. “As I thought. Prepare my shuttle. My guards and I will travel to the surface.”
“The surface?" Ecotyl took a step back, as Sartarus glared at him. "Our ground forces devastated the target zone. What’s left to find down there?”
