“Torpedoes away.”
A bright flash erupted from the Liberties twin upper launchers, heralding the launch of the two high energy torpedoes, tracking and now hurtling straight for the incoming mines, their sophisticated targeting systems quickly locked on to the targets, and they raced headlong toward it.
“Impact in three, two, one!”
A gigantic, intensely bright fireball lit up an entire section of the asteroid field, before slowly dying down into darkness again.
Michael figured that the mines sensory nodes had probably malfunctioned, most likely due to lack of maintenance. It had been five years since the last Krenaran ship even thought about passing this way; things can change in that time.
The Liberty cautiously advanced through the remainder of the field, flying under yet another large asteroid and around two more before the command crew got their first glimpses of starlight that lay beyond.
Then disaster struck.
Another mine raced toward the aft engine of the ship, zeroing in on the energy emitted by the powerful Solarian drive systems, the Liberty, defenceless from a rear attack, could do nothing. Eldathar strained at the controls, trying desperately to shake it off their tail within the limited confines of the field itself. However the mine was not to be shaken off this time, it hurtled towards the ship, skipped off its graviton shields evoking a clear wavy ripple from the Liberties shields, not dissimilar to looking through textured glass, then detonated in an almighty explosion.
Those onboard were thrown hard to the ground under the force of the impact, a flurry of sparks burst forth from overloaded circuits, Michael desperately held on to prevent being thrown from his seat. The red alert siren immediately sounded to warn the crew they were under attack.
The whole ship had lurched diagonally forward under the immense force of the explosion, Eldathar fought hard to keep the wayward vessel under control, he knew if he lost stability in this kind of environment they were all done for, as the Liberty would simply crash onto one of those asteroids out there. He barely managed to regain control of the ship, after it came within metres of slamming port side on to a large floating space rock; the Solarian breathed a sigh of relief.
Michael resettled himself in his chair, “well, at least we know the new graviton shields work.” He knew full well that if that was the Liberty of five years ago, they would all be playing harps right about now. “Damage report!”
Kinraid took a moment to understand the data flashing across his console, “Both th’ aft graviton generators ‘r’ down, th’ force o’ th’ explosion overloaded both, it’ll take anot’r minute or so to vent off th’ excess energy from th’ blast. Luckily th’ hull escaped major damage though, some minor ‘lectrikel damage from overloaded circuits, but ‘tat’s about it, and no injuries.”
“Good, have engineering teams repair any damage, and Eldathar, get us the heck out of here!” He shouted over the din of the wailing siren, his face covered in a dark ruddy hue from the red alert lights.
“Aye, sir.”
The Liberty flew under, around and above the few asteroids remaining, and out through the thin veil of dust on the other side, finally the full, starry blackness was revealed to them once again.
“Resume course to rendezvous with the lander, maximum plasma drive.”
“Aye, sir.” Eldathar replied as he punched in the controls to activate the Liberties plasma drive systems again.
The small ship accelerated to full sub-light speed, before firing a burst of bright plasma energy, opening up the plasma wake in an intense burst of multi coloured light, before racing through and disappearing within it. The wake closed as easily as it had opened.
***
Kathryn and the injured Rachthausen continued to hurry down the long semi-circular corridor, which skirted alongside the main aperture. Again the deep rumbling began to reverberate throughout the facility as the collider geared up for yet another release of energy.
Kathryn needed to tend the sergeants badly bleeding arm, sustained from a slash from one of those evil dark warriors. They both knew they could not stop yet, the enemy commander was right on their tail, and would make mincemeat out of them if he caught them.
They continued running along the pitch dark corridor, trying to put as much distance between them and their pursuer as possible, Rachthausen’s flare was beginning to die down, and so he flung it to the side, replacing it with the torch from Kathryn’s weapon.
Finally, they came upon the second set of blast doors separating the military wing from the science wing.
Not knowing whether there would be an army of Dracos on the other side, Kathryn nervously, hesitantly pressed the control. The great metal doors ahead of them slid slowly open, revealing empty corridor once again. With a gentle sigh of relief, she and Rachthausen stepped through into this new unexplored area of the facility. The lights were still down, and it was still pitch black inside, they were travelling solely by torchlight. The low, deep rumbling of the collider, sounded ominous in the darkness.
They searched for somewhere, anywhere to hide, to give Kathryn time to tend to her companions wound, finally they came to a vast control centre, full of complicated looking consoles, displays and systems, far larger than the one they had previously discovered. Setting Rachthausen down gently, she closed the door behind them, although she had no way of locking it, and no time now to find out how.
Kathryn took a small amount of what water they had left and bathed the wound, the laceration was deep, almost to the bone, Rachthausen flinched as the water ran over the cut. She tore off a strip of plain white cloth from the arm of her coat and slowly, gently began to wrap the strip of cloth around Kinraid’s blood soaked upper arm with typical practiced skill. The sergeant looked up at her as she continued to tend to him, she had a sweet vulnerability about her, such a kind person, often going without herself in her effort to care for others. Rachthausen knew he had feelings towards her, and also knew that those feelings had grown the more time they had spent together. She was far more than just a fellow officer to be protected now, that both scared him and enamoured him in equal measure.
Finally, he could stand it no longer, for too long he had put what he wanted to say off, and he might not get another chance. “If we are to die here, will you grant me one last request, So that I may die without regret?”
“What’s that?” She asked while she finished tying the makeshift bandage tightly around his arm, making him wince and gasp in pain once again.
“Kiss me.”
Kathryn was shocked, taken aback, yet not overtly so, she was more surprised that Rachthausen had developed the same feelings for her, that she had been suppressing all this time.
“If you do not wish to, I understand,” he said a little sheepishly.
Kathryn could suppress her urges no longer, she was attracted to him, wanted him from the first time they had landed on the planet and found themselves stuck in this predicament together. Desire burned within her as though he had just poured petrol on the spark she was carrying for him. She quietly, slowly leaned down beside him; the lights from a dozen consoles gave the room a kind of hypnotic kaleidoscope effect. She searched his features; saw his longing in his eyes. She leaned in closer, fixated on those gorgeous blue irises of his, their lips touched and she kissed him deeply, longingly and passionately. A gentle warm wave of pleasure filled her body, and at the same time a weight had been lifted, the weight of her own suppressed emotions, she could hide it no longer, she was in love with him.
She was now torn, a battle was raging inside her. Her head was telling her that she was a Lieutenant commander and should not be fraternising with junior ranks, even one as comely as this. Her heart however, was telling her that she wanted him so badly that it hurt.
Gently he released her from their tender embrace, “Now, I can have no regrets.”
***
Outside the base, the rumbling reached a critical peak once again as the base shot forth its fury, in the
form of another gigantic stream of intensely bright energy through the planets atmosphere and out into the darkness of deep space, illuminating the three black Dracos ships orbiting nearby, as though three dark spiders come to prey on the planet.
The two other craft sent down a pair of assault landers each, four small black craft arced down through the planets upper atmosphere trailing fire from the heat of entry. They had cleared the majority of interlopers from their ancient facility, now it was time to claim the planet the structure was built upon, in the name of the Dracos.
The sleek, advanced looking assault landers cut through the thick layer of methane cloud, the diffused sunlight from the Aurigan sun glinted off their bullet shaped fuselages, sickle wings, and upper engine pods, as they gently touched down on the surface, throwing up an immense cloud of dust as they did so.
The Dracos Kallan warriors quickly emerged, charging down the access ramps of the craft and surrounding the immediate area. Within seconds forty more elite Dracos warriors dominated the area around the landing craft. The time for the ultimate victory was at hand, their squad leaders barked out orders for those under their command to fan out along the ground near to the base. While another squad entered inside to find out what Drax had been doing.
“Landers from the Blade of Rhovanion, and the Vengeance of Kelmarroth have successfully touched down on the surface,” a junior officer announced.
Kaelleth held his head in his hands, not believing how badly this was all going, twenty of his finest men had been sent down there, to clear out a few pitiful interlopers, now just one Dracos remained. One so utterly devoted to finishing the hunt, that he had turned dangerously insane, and may very well end up dead too. Yes, the facility was all but secure, but it had cost the Dracos dearly in blood to do so.
He looked up from the centre seat of the Flame of Celthris, “understood,” he managed after a short pause, “keep me informed.” He really just wanted to put this whole sorry mess behind him now, and return back to his home within the warm subterranean depths of Corvandris once again.
***
The Liberty was closing in on the small Stockholm class lander that carried Colonel Nikolai Vargev and his elite team of E.D.F commandoes. Michael could now see the olive green, square looking craft in the Liberties viewer. He had seen this type of craft a hundred times before, they were used extensively in the Krenaran war, but he never got over just how ugly the thing looked.
They resembled little more than a flying brick, in fact that was their nickname amongst the soldiers of the troop division and the navy alike. It was wide, yet short and stubby; from its central crew compartment, which took up the majority of the tiny vessel. Two winglets jutted out, on the edge of each was a powerful gravitic engine, rotatable through ninety degrees. Jutting out from the back of the main crew compartment were two large stabilisation fins, which served as the crafts tail when inside a planetary atmosphere. There was a very small reinforced command bubble located at the front of the thing, about three quarters the way from the bottom, looking like the top of a small cut diamond jutting out from the front of the craft, yet devoid of any kind of sparkle or lustre. It did however, provide the pilot an unparalleled view of the terrain when flying.
“Open a channel to the lander,” Michael said.
“Channel open,” Kinraid replied.
“E.D.F lander, this is the E.D.F.S Liberty, we are alongside you, request permission to soft dock to allow crew transfer.”
The Liberty, being one hundred and forty metres long, utterly dwarfed the tiny twenty metre long lander. One of the few things the Liberty did dwarf, Michael thought with a smile.
Colonel Vargev’s voice came over the speakers, a voice Michael recognised, but one in which he hadn’t heard from in five long years. “This is lander alpha-two-niner, glad to hear your voice Liberty, we are ready for soft docking procedure.”
Michael was surprised to find that the lander could only communicate via speakers, although he quickly remembered that the Stockholm class, only had one long range radio transceiver. He guessed the troop division didn’t really go for complex electronics that could go wrong, they preferred their equipment rugged, simple and survivable.
“Err, cap’n.” Kinraid spoke, “ya’ do realise, ‘tat the Liberty has never performed a soft dockin’ manoeuvre before don’t ‘ya, we really don’t know how this is gonna’ go.”
“We’ll be fine,” Michael replied confidently as he turned toward his pilot, “Eldathar, we need to stay alongside that lander, and our docking hatches need to come within five metres exactly of one another, think you can do it?”
The Solarian nodded, then began concentrating on making the tiniest of movements in the pilot’s chair. Banking the Liberty very gently, so that the two ships hull’s came closer and closer together, the proximity alert went off once again, as they slowly continued to drift closer until it seemed as though their hulls would touch. Eldathar frowned in concentration, his blue Solarian features flushing a deep purple as he concentrated ever harder on the smallest of movements he was making with the arms of his chair. Eventually he stopped all movement and proclaimed proudly, “five metres, captain.”
“Excellent work,” Michael replied.
Docking with a Stockholm class lander was proving to be an exceptionally tricky affair, part of the landers wing was now holding steady, just a few feet above the Liberties sloped hull. If either ship deviated from their manoeuvre, even by the tiniest of amounts, it could mean disaster for both ships.
“Okay, now extend the port docking extension, and connect to the hatch on the lander.”
“Aye, sir.” Eldathar replied as he keyed in a few controls on the monitor in front of him.
The tiny temporary berthing corridor snaked out from the port side of the Liberty, it was not solid like the rest of the ship, but flexible, instead made from a lightweight, but extremely strong carbon cloth. The temporary corridor un-coiled toward the lander, growing a little longer each time it did so, very similar to the old folding fabric roofs of twentieth century convertible automobiles. The corridor continued to extend telescopically until it reached its maximum length of five metres, now within touching distance of the landers own hatch.
“Magnetise the hatch, and pressurise the corridor once connected,” Michael whispered as he anxiously oversaw the complicated operation.
Eldathar silently worked at the controls again, and the flimsy temporary corridor suddenly latched hard onto the landers own hatch with a resounding ‘clunk’.
The corridor stiffened noticeably as air was pumped into it to pressurise it, making it safe for those on the lander to cross. Although it lacked the sophisticated artificial gravity systems that the Liberty and the lander enjoyed, it would serve its purpose.
“Pressurisation complete captain, we can now begin transferring the troops aboard,” the Solarian said with barely contained relief.
“Fantastic work, Eldathar,” being a pilot himself, Michael knew just how tricky that manoeuvre was to accomplish. “Open the port hatch, and let them through,” Michael turned toward Kinraid. “Send them the all clear, commander.”
“Aye cap’n,” Kinraid replied. “Message sent; and received.”
Michael smiled down at Eldathar manning the pilots chair quietly, still concentrating hard on maintaining the equidistance and speed vital to a successful crew transfer. If the lander accidentally increased its speed by even a fraction, it could tear the delicate temporary corridor right off the hull of the Liberty, causing a devastating explosive decompression across the entire deck. If the lander slowed or the Liberty accelerated, the Liberties hull could collide with the lander’s, destroying it and potentially crippling the Liberty as well.
One by one, the commandoes all carrying their gear and full breathing apparatus for the mission ahead, began to float weightlessly across this small, cramped, cold corridor. Michael watched from the viewscreen as their tiny bodies floated across to the Liberty. With their camouflaged comb
at fatigues, helmets, black boots, their packs and heavy weaponry, they looked oddly conspicuous amongst the royal blue naval uniforms and Solarian uniforms the crew of the Liberty wore. It was as if they didn’t really belong in space; these were E.D.F commandoes, the most highly trained fighting force humanity possessed, and armed to the teeth. They had but one purpose, to fight and to win, on whichever planet they were assigned.
9. The landing.
Once all the commandoes were safely aboard, the link separated from the lander and retracted back inside the Liberties own hull where it resealed itself, an armoured hull panel gently slid over it, in order to hide the weak point and maintain the warship’s stealth capabilities.
The tiny lander banked slowly away from the Liberty, as the dark, angular, wedge shaped craft powered up its main engines and glided gently away from the small craft.
“Set course for the Auriga system, bearing zero-one-seven degrees, elevation twelve.”
“Understood, captain” Eldathar replied as he worked the controls again to manoeuvre the Liberty into position, the ship banked left slightly, the intense electric blue of its main engines and thrusters flared bright in the blackness of space, as the ship swung quickly around.
“Maximum plasma drive.”
The Liberties main engine flashed brightly as the ship rapidly accelerated to maximum sub-light speed before activating its plasma drive engine, shooting forth an incandescent blue beam of plasma, which collided in an intense flash of bright white energy, and slowly coalescing into the swirling plasma wake. The Liberty leapt through it at full speed, and onwards toward its ultimate destination.
Michael prayed they were not too late.
Nikolai Vargev strode onto the familiar looking bridge of the Liberty, a place he had not visited for five years. It had changed little in that time, the last he set foot here, he was involved in the mission to prevent an assassination plot at the hands of the rogue Krenaran agent, Lathiel. That all seemed like a long time ago now, he still bore the scar from the knife wound on his arm inflicted by that Krenaran son of a bitch. While Michael was forty years old, Nikolai was almost ten years his senior, a forty nine year old commando; despite his advancing years, the big Russian could still mix it with the best of them, he strode over to an old friend sat in the centre seat.
E.D.F Chronicles : Eye of the Dracos Page 12
