As Chris expected, Tyler was unable to react fast enough to correct his course, and Chris loosed a guided missile as he sped away, targeting, locking and firing in only a couple of seconds. With no chance of countermeasures being used against it at this range, the missile inflicted severe damage on the Cyclone. Even so, the fighter, being far better protected than the other members of the Wolf Pack’s had not suffered the same concussion-like after effects that had dogged Dar. The two fighters shot past one another, Chris turning and charging at Tyler as the man swung around and came for him, both fighters’ cannons blazing once more.
Chris, careful, Athena warned him.
Chris did not divert from his course, both men seemingly willing to play a game of chicken with one another. Chris watched the Firefly’s shield strength start falling as the two neared one another, certain that Tyler would veer off before the fatal collision could occur.
Once again, Tyler did not disappoint, and Chris fired his second and final guided missile. The missile struck Tyler at point blank range, Chris slightly surprised that the resulting explosion was much brighter and more potent than it should have been.
Caught it, Athena said.
Chris realised that Tyler had attempted to pull off a similar attack, one that Athena had thwarted the very moment the missile had been dispatched.
“You little arsehole bastard son of a disease-riddled whore!” Tyler raged. “I knew I should’ve killed you the day I first saw you!”
Chris said nothing, slowing and turning around to follow after Tyler’s Cyclone. He saw then that it was tumbling, the engines mute, the shields down. Indeed, it appeared as though one of the cannons had even snapped off, the remains of the armament drifting away. The Cyclone’s engines spluttered several times, but the mercenary was unable to coax them back into life.
“You’ve certainly grown some big balls since then, boy,” Tyler spat.
“Stop calling me ‘boy’!” Chris flared. He aligned himself with the Cyclone, pulling back hard on the gun trigger. “My name is Chris!” Chris shouted, as Tyler’s fighter blew. A flash at first, the speed of the explosion’s eruption and subsequent dissipation decreasing shortly after. Chris felt a presence move in close beside him, his hands on the flight stick and instrument panel drifting before him. The timeslip.
I have control again, Athena said.
Chris felt relief at that. For a time, he had thought that the effects of whatever the mercenaries or WEAPCO had hit the Firefly with had been permanent. He saw that the Talons and the small corvette that had accompanied him into the vicinity of Jupiter had started to move again, engines coming alive as Athena regained control over them.
Glad to have you back, Chris said. So, the signal or the block was being issued from all of them?
Apparently. I was worried that it might have been coming from somewhere else, broadcast from somewhere around Jupiter itself. Range is apparently a big factor in how the blocking works.
I see, Chris said, but the bigger worry is how they did it in the first place, and how we can stop them from doing it again.
Already dealt with, Athena reassured him. They were exploiting part of the Firefly’s system configuration. If you want the details, it was an open network port that allowed for WEAPCO-authorised transmissions and commands to be processed.
Can you fix it?
Already have, Athena said. All I needed to do was close it. It was that simple.
Are there any more routes in?
Checking. No.
Okay, Chris said. I think we should not waste any more time and get on. I’m bored of Jupiter already.
He waited, but Athena did not release the timeslip right away. He felt her closeness, and found himself appreciating it. He closed his eyes and thought over the battle that had just taken place. Four powerful and skilled mercenaries had attacked him, intent on killing him, and somehow he had fought off and defeated them all. It wasn’t the first time that he had fought a battle in real time, but it had certainly felt that way; extremely challenging and terrifying all at the same time. He admitted to himself that he had fully expected that both he and Athena would die during the engagement.
Are you okay? Athena asked.
Absolutely, Chris said. And you?
A noticeable pause, before the timeslip began to release. I’m okay.
Chris chuckled as he surfaced. “Sure?” he asked. “You weren’t really worried, were you?”
No, Athena said.
“Liar,” Chris said.
Athena laughed, and Chris joined in. It felt good to be alive, to emerge the victor. One step closer to victory, to freedom. He noted the Talons drawing up alongside him, the corvette sitting just behind.
“Okay, call the others,” Chris said. “It’s time to finish this.”
Chapter 30
The wall of starships that WEAPCO had amassed to defend Earth was staggering. It was far larger than Chris could have imagined; the odds stacked against his small band were tremendous. He accelerated hard the moment he was clear of the Dodger’s jump point, leaping straight into battle, and activating the timeslip as soon as he was within cannon range of his first opponent. Athena urged him to use greater caution during this confrontation and he heeded, staying behind the starfighters, mobile turrets, and battleships that Phoebe and Ursula were in control of.
As before, Chris first witnessed a number of the enemies opening fire on him, before their cannons stopped pulsing, the fighters swinging around and turning on their former allies as the Lexxes’ gift stole command of them. It was like watching a shockwave slowly expanding – the fighters, battleships, drones, and bots nearest to Chris falling first, the rows behind following soon after.
Even so, Chris still found that he needed to be ready to fight, some craft not yielding as quickly as he would have liked. The exchange of fire between the sides was incredible, plasma bolts, rockets, missiles, and other weapons he didn’t even recognise lighting up the battlefield. It was far more intense and chaotic than any of the battles that had preceded it, including the one fought against the Immortal League.
Athena had once again enforced some hard limits on the timeslip, and Chris was only able to lower his perception to one-quarter of real time at most. It was enough for him. He looked about for Kethlan, certain that the commander of WEAPCO’s navy would be there somewhere. The man would certainly be making his presence felt the moment the Fer-de-Lance located the Firefly.
~
Ursula looked about the battlefield, feeling the weight of the number of units she was controlling starting to take its toll, despite the delegations she had made to the drones and bots under her influence.
“Do you think you can handle things for a while?” she asked of Phoebe.
“For a time,” Phoebe said. “Something you need to do?”
“Something I need to do.” Ursula concentrated on one of the drones, telling it to open itself up to her, and reveal all the paths and routes into the core of the Upper Circle. Guarded at first, it only took a few minor shifts of her concentration and thinking to get her – and everyone else – where she wanted them.
~
Ursula materialized in the large ballroom that she had been brought to so many times before, while she had been a guest of the Corporation. Once, she had thought the place to have been specially prepared for her, but now she believed that this was in fact the artificial residence of Lance Skillman, the CEO. The tables and chairs that had at one time been dotted around the room had now been stacked neatly on top of one another at the side, granting her more fighting room.
The eleven men and women of the Upper Circle – as well as their many aides – stood in the middle of the room, looking about themselves in bafflement. How had they gotten here? Why were they here? How could they get out? Ursula grinned. She would be answering all that in just a moment. Each of them had seriously wronged her over the past few months – it felt like over a year to her. Each of them had tortured her mentally or physically. I
t was time for her to repay them all – in kind.
A man in a pristine, tailormade black suit turned to face her, noticing her for the first time. He pointed. “You ...”
“Hello, Lance,” Ursula said, starting forward. “Nice to see you again.” She allowed the malice to flow into her words, making her intentions very clear to all those present. In her hands she gripped two large katanas. Their weight distribution was just right. They were easy to hold – not heavy enough to weigh her down, but not light enough that they would fail to fulfil their tasks.
“How dare you come here,” Skillman said. “This is my home!”
“You were never that bothered about me being here before,” Ursula said, continuing her slow advance. Her eyes flickered across the others, seeing the apprehensive looks on every face. “You all played a lot of little games with me. Sometimes nice ones where we would drink, eat, and dance; sometimes others where you would rape, beat, and torture me.”
“Rape?” a woman stood next to Skillman asked. It was Jane, the woman whom Ursula had walked with on the terrace and discussed xenobiology.
Ursula pointed one of the katanas at Skillman. “Yes, rape. Your ‘husband’ raped me.”
Jane looked from Ursula to Skillman. “You didn’t mention that,” she accused him.
“Oh please,” Ursula said to the woman. “You are hardly a saint yourself. The moment you’d got both me and my sister, you wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us. Well, we’re both at Earth, now, in a pair of Valkyries. Two girls against your hundreds of thousands of drones and bots. Come on, then. Kill us.” Ursula stood in silence, looking from one shocked face to the next, waiting, katanas by her sides.
“No?” she said. “Very well.” She started forward again, the people in the room backing away.
“Lance, do something!” Jane cried, grabbing the man’s arm.
Skillman looked at Ursula. She could feel the man focusing on her, trying to take control and cause her to lose her weapons. Ursula’s grin only widened as Skillman encountered the impenetrable barriers that surrounded her mind. Skillman tried again several more times, focusing on altering Ursula herself, before attempting to alter the environment and the people within it and move them outside of the ballroom.
Ursula watched his efforts, seeing the strain on the man’s face, seeing his face slowly turning purple. “Careful, you don’t want to give yourself a nosebleed,” Ursula said. “Oh, too late.”
Finally, his nose dripping, Skillman called for help, appealing to the drones and bots that served and monitored the Eternal Engine system itself to assist them. The call went unanswered.
“Lance?” Jane asked anxiously.
“Get out,” Skillman said. “Run!”
No further encouragement was needed, the men and women sprinting for the great entrance doors, tugging hard at them. They wouldn’t budge. Some of the would-be escapees then filtered around to the terrace side, attempting to open the tall glass doors. They, too, remained shut tight. A man grabbed a chair from the stack, hurling it at one of the terrace doors, hoping to shatter it and allow him to escape. The chair bounced off ineffectually.
“Don’t do that,” Ursula tutted. “You’re making the place look untidy.” She gave a flick of her wrist, more for show than anything else, sending the chair back over to the stack.
Another man came for Ursula, grabbing at a chair as he did so, preparing to use it as a weapon against her. As he came on, he found the chair becoming impossibly heavy, the object sliding from his grasp and thumping down onto the floor, the man unable to lift it even an inch. It soon returned itself to the stack, and the man turned in horror to Ursula, falling down before her and holding up pleading hands.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he gabbled. “Please don’t kill me!”
Ursula ignored the man for the moment, turning back to Skillman. “Remember when you had me tied to your bed, drugged and helpless?” she asked. “You whipped me, beat me, bit me, humiliated me, mocked, and raped me. What a weak little man you are.”
“Please,” Skillman said, still searching for a way out of the ballroom. There was no escape, Ursula had made sure of that. “We can come to an arrangement ...” He moved behind the other members of the Upper Circle that Ursula had brought there, shoving them forward as some kind of shield.
“You kept me a prisoner for what I experienced as a year, simply because you were scared of me,” Ursula said, continuing her unhurried advance. She was getting closer with the blades. People were starting to cry now.
“And you did it all to defend this pathetic little empire you have built, believing that you are so much better than everyone else; to create an ideal place to live, a utopia for only a select few invitees, while everyone else suffered and died.”
In desperation, the man who had fallen to his knees leapt up and charged Ursula. She scarcely had to do anything, raising both swords when he was only a metre or so from her, and allowing him to impale himself upon them. His eyes were still pleading as his life ebbed away, but Ursula looked upon him with no pity whatsoever. Yanking both swords out of the man, she swept one of the blades across his neck and decapitated him. The screams from those in the ballroom grew louder as they felt Nicoli Tanner’s consciousness permanently exit the Eternal Engine, not one strand of his being remaining. Perhaps they had believed that in this place they couldn't really die.
“This place no longer belongs to you,” Ursula told them. “I’m in charge, now.”
“Please ...” Skillman begged again.
But Ursula was done talking, and charged forward with a roar.
~
Phoebe was struggling a little, Chris could tell. She wasn’t nearly as powerful as her sister, and right now Ursula was occupied elsewhere. Phoebe had lost some control in her sister’s absence, her Valkyrie holding steady and being defended by a group of fighters, as well as Sid operating from the Dodger. How long Ursula would be, Chris wasn’t sure. It was sure, however, that she was exacting some sort of revenge. Maybe gone in search of those that had tormented her during her imprisonment.
Chris flew alongside the Talons and Mirages that had been assigned as wingmates to him, striking down the opposing fighters that came for him. As always, the task was made simple by the timeslip that Athena was able to grant him, and although it drew the battle out for what felt like hours, it made him more or less untouchable.
Already, he had been assisted in taking down a frigate and many of the warships. He watched the fighters blast first through the shields and then strip away the armour of each, reducing them to nothing but burnt out shells. Even so, he was taking them down one at a time, and there were a great many more opponents remaining on the field. He could keep up this fight for some time yet, but eventually fatigue would get to him.
Chris, I’ve identified a Fer-de-Lance on the field, Athena said.
Chris perked up immediately. Kethlan?
Without a doubt.
Let’s go, Chris said, turning the Firefly in the direction of Kethlan’s fighter, reducing the timeslip to the minimum level that Athena would allow, and preparing to engage the man.
Don’t do anything reckless, Chris.
I’m not planning to. I’m actually going to ask him to surrender.
And you think he will?
Perhaps, if he can see reason. He is human, after all.
Chris weaved his way through the swarm of WEAPCO fighters and warships, until he felt he was close enough to the commander’s position. The Fer-de-Lance had slowed as Chris had drawn up to it, Kethlan clearly waiting patiently for him. His comms jingled.
“Congratulations, Mr Bainfield,” Kethlan said. In spite of everything that was happening, the man’s tone was mocking. “Today you’ve made it further in your quest to overthrow the Corporation than anyone else ever did. Not that that means anything.”
Chris ignored the baiting. “Surrender, Commander, it’s over. Stand down, and I will see that you’re given a fair trial by the new ruling gove
rnment.”
Kethlan snorted. “A generous offer, but not one that I will be in need of. And speaking of things that you won’t be needing ...”
Chris felt himself surface, the timeslip sliding away from him, sounds, sights, and other senses returning to their normal speeds and rates of perception, Athena’s consciousness fading away.
“Athena ...” Chris started.
I can’t. It’s not hardware, it’s his natural ability.
Chris pushed aside a fear threatening to take hold of him. Though he knew that Kethlan possessed the same abilities as Ursula and Phoebe, Chris had convinced himself that Athena would possess the ability to block him. Not so. Phoebe might have, Ursula almost definitely, but not Athena.
“Let’s do it man to man, shall we?” Kethlan said.
“Power weightings?” Chris asked Athena as the Fer-de-Lance came at him.
I’m sorry, Chris, but this is down to you, now.
“Okay.”
Good luck.
Chris took a grip on the flight stick, met Kethlan’s charge, banked as the man opened fire, turned, accelerated once again to dodge Kethlan’s swing as he passed, and finally aligned the Fer-de-Lance in his crosshairs.
“Luck will have nothing to do it with this,” Chris said, as he landed several bursts of cannon fire on Kethlan’s shields. “This is all about skill.”
~
Despite not meaning to do so, Ursula had delighted in dismembering the men and women of the Upper Circle, as well as their aides. One woman Ursula had cleaved neatly in two at the torso. Ursula had hated her almost as much as she had Skillman. The woman had advocated direct torture to facilitate finding Phoebe, and had truly relished carrying out this herself. How many times Ursula had been subjected by her to unspeakable cruelty she couldn’t be sure, but it wouldn’t happen again.
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