Zeus gave these ships and your command of them to me, not to Zenakis.
I’m not arguing that fact. I just feel it’s something that will cost you later.
Right now, I’m more interested in bringing Gaia 2 down. We’ll work on Zenakis’ bruised ego later.
Understood. I’m awaiting your mark.
Thanks, Athena. Also, activate the jump-interdiction field.
Done.
Chase directed all fighters to unleash whatever torpedoes they still had towards a list of painted targets. He then dispatched his own list of targets to Athena and requested that her fleet open fire on those.
An incoming hail from the Victory kept trying to reach the Hope but Chase mentally refused it over and over.
The Olympians unleashed a barrage of anti-matter torpedoes upon the four targets that Chase had painted, and Daniel’s wings, as well as the Hope battlegroup, fired a full complement too. The admiral’s ships didn’t follow, but they were firing long-range laser batteries towards the enemy.
Athena, fire now!
Chase lined up his battlegroup in a very tight formation for capital ships of their size and vectored them to align with all three of the GDF destroyers he had targeted. Before all torpedoes had reached their targets, Chase opened fire with the four destroyers in formation, including the Hope. He set the firing shot of the Hope at full power, emptying the reserve capacitors to boost the shot to max power.
That would disable the Hope’s systems for sixty seconds, but they had numbers on their side, and the time to play this card was now, while Gaia 2’s CPUs were so overwhelmed she couldn’t do much of anything. This wouldn’t last, but they were unlikely to get another golden opportunity to inflict such a serious blow on Gaia 2.
The Hope’s large Damocles plasma beam, centered around three smaller plasma beams, hit the first ship at the exact time that the torpedoes hit the shields from either side of the destroyer. The plasma beams tore through the ship like paper and went on to the next ship, and to the next. All three exploded successively with bright flashes of light.
In one powerful and synchronized attack, and without the direct help of the Star Alliance armada, Chase had removed three more ships from the equation.
That brought the total number of ships brought down on Gaia 2’s side to eight. The Star Alliance had also suffered in the first act of this battle and was down to nineteen ships. Both Earth Alliance and the Olympians had suffered damage but had not yet lost a single ship.
There would be hell to pay for shutting down and countermanding the first admiral’s orders, but Chase was more than willing to face the music later. Right now he needed to destroy Gaia 2 before the Furies arrived on Earth.
“What the hell is going on? Why can’t we get the Hope back on the comms?” shouted Zenakis.
“I’m trying, Admiral. The call keeps bouncing.”
“We have three more kills,” said the tactical officer. “Perhaps we should get in there with them while we still can.”
First Admiral Zenakis shot daggers at his first officer.
“This could be a trap!”
“And this could be the one opportunity to end this battle here and now, sir.”
First this Captain Athanatos, and now my own first officer is defying my orders. This is not how wars are fought!
“I’m not risking the fleet inside there,” said Zenakis, pointing at the holo-tactical map. Look at it! We’d be in the middle of a killbox if the enemy resumes fire.”
“We can jump out if need be. All we have to do is sync with the Olympians and ask that they drop their JIF. The reward is too high to let it pass us by, Admiral.”
The first admiral got up from his command chair and walked to his first officer. He evaluated him for an instant.
“Commander Axiotimos, I’m relieving you of duty.”
“What? Why?”
“You’re clearly unfit to be my first officer. Security, escort the commander to his quarters. He is to stay there until further notice.”
The pair of security goons looked at each other, unprepared for that order.
“I’m only going to ask this one more time, and my next order will be to have both of you put in the brig, and then on toilet-scrubbing duty for the rest of your careers.”
That did it. The security goons moved on each side of Commander Axiotimos.
“Please, Commander, come with us.”
The bridge was silent. The officers were in dismay but none of them dared voice a complaint.
“You’re making a terrible mistake,” said Axiotimos.
“We’ll see. You’re relieved of duty, Commander. Have Lieutenant Commander Safos from engineering come to the bridge to take the commander’s place as my temporary first officer.”
“Aye aye, Admiral,” said the comms officer.
“Keep hailing the Hope. I don’t care how you do it, just get me a channel. Now!”
“Athena, I need you to send two of your ships to cover the Hope while it’s recharging,” said Chase.
“On their way.”
“That was a ballsy move, Chase,” said Sarah, “but perhaps we need ballsy right now.”
“The Furies are on their way too. We can’t let this battle drag out. If we do we run the risk of fighting a battle on two fronts. We can’t afford that.”
“The Furies are coming too? How do you know this?”
“Long story. Right now we need to take more of Gaia 2’s ships down. The more we destroy, the less computing power she has, and the more manageable this will be.”
Ares appeared in front of Chase.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You shouldn’t push your mental abilities just yet. You might cause more damage to your brain.”
“I appreciate your concerns, my friend, but we don’t have much choice at the moment.”
“I come from engineering. Kvasir asked if either or both of us could teleport to the planet’s surface to Cedric’s location. He has a plan to get the shields back online, but he needs someone who can teleport. Should we go now?”
Chase was ecstatic to hear that Cedric was back in the game. That plan made sense. If they could raise the planetary shields, Gaia 2 couldn’t retaliate against Earth.
“Chase!” exclaimed Sarah. “Look!”
Chase returned his attention to the viewport. Gaia 2’s armada was back on the move and they were targeting the Hope.
“Status on the shields?”
“We still need fifteen seconds, Chase,” said Sarah. “If they fire on us like they did earlier by using multiple ships to increase their main weapon’s beam power, we’ll be obliterated.”
Chase sent a telepathic message to Athena. I need you to drop the JIF and jump at least three of your ships to protect the Hope.
Understood. Jumping now.
As before, Gaia 2’s ships used a multiple-firing solution that concentrated energy beams between six of their ships, with the one in the center acting as a conduit for the large plasma beam. The center ship fired its main weapons towards them.
“Do we have jump engines at least?”
“Another five seconds, Chase.”
We don’t have five seconds.
Just before the powerful beam of golden plasma hit the Hope, three Olympian ships jumped into position and their shields took the brunt of the blast and diffused most of the beam’s power across their shields. Two of the Olympian ships took heavy damage, and a few explosions erupted on the surface of their thick armor.
The remainder of the split beam still hit the Hope and the ship rocked heavily. Chase, Sarah and anyone standing at the time ended up on the floor.
“Report!” shouted Chase.
“Shields down to five percent,” said a female officer nearby. “Decks two and five have suffered heavy damage and lost hull integrity. “Automatic force fields have activated in these areas.”
Dammit!
“How long till we can return
fire?”
“The capacitors are recharging but because of the hit on our shields, it will take another thirty seconds at least.”
Chase mentally opened a channel. Athena’s face filled the Hope’s main holo-screen.
“Thanks for the save. Have your ship target that middle ship and divert the aggro away from us. We need a little time to recharge. Re-engage the JIF for the time being.”
“Done and done, Chase.”
Ares approached Chase. “Perhaps I should get going to the planet?”
“We’re both going. Something tells me we’ll need the Earth shield up fast if we want to prevent Gaia 2 from killing millions of people for what just happened. Sarah, please resume command. Target ships one by one. Your priority should be to lower their numbers.”
Sarah nodded in agreement.
“Before you go,” said a female officer, “you have an incoming transmission from the Victory.”
“Ares,” said Chase, “go now. I’ll be right behind you.”
Chase turned to the comms officer. “On screen.” Then he turned to Sarah. “I’m sorry to do this to you, love, but please deal with this. I’m needed back on Earth.”
Sarah grimaced and sighed heavily as Chase teleported away.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Where is Captain Athanatos?” shouted Zenakis.
“First Admiral, he had to go to Earth,” said Sarah.
The admiral’s complexion turned bright red.
“This is not what we agreed upon. I’m in command!”
“I apologize, Admiral, but we’ve taken out three of their ships. It could have been more if you had gone in with us.”
“And you almost got blown away for it!”
“The important thing is that we didn’t. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“You think your boyfriend is so smart? And that somehow orders and the chain of command don’t apply to either of you? This is borderline mutiny and I won’t have any part of it. If you two were part of my crew I would have you detained, tried and most likely shot for your actions.”
“Then I’m thankful we’re not part of your crew, Admiral, and, with all due respect, I’m sorry for those who are.”
Sarah regretted the words the moment she uttered them, but the admiral was getting under her skin.
“How dare you? You’re out of order, Commander!”
“I think we should calm down and re-evaluate the situation with cool heads, Admiral. I understand your anger towards Chase. I propose we put that aside for the time being and deal with it when our lives are not in danger. Let’s resume our efforts at destroying more of the enemy ships now that their numbers are down.”
“Good luck with that, Commander. I’m not risking the lives of my crews if you can’t follow the orders of your commanding officer.”
“What are you saying, Admiral?”
“We’re leaving. Good luck, Commander.”
“Admiral, wait! You and your crews are still alive because we rescued you from the eternal prisons your ships were trapped in, or have you forgotten that?”
“And we’ve repaid that debt twice over already. First, when we engaged the Fury destroyers, buying you the time you needed, and then by accompanying you to fight here, where you have confirmed what I feared all along. You’re a hot-blooded and disorganized mess of an Alliance, and I won’t have anything more to do with you. Admiral out.”
The main holo-screen went dead.
“For crying out loud! Is the JIF still active?”
“It is, Captain,” said the female officer, “but the Star Alliance fleet is vectoring away at sub-light speed.”
Sarah hit one of the arms of the captain’s chair in frustration.
This isn’t happening! Not now!
17
Kvasir was still struggling to beat the encryption Gaia 2 had put in place in the demilitarized network space currently trapping the original Gaia.
“Dammit!”
His tattoos pulsated like heartbeats.
“What’s going on?” Yanis inquired.
“That encryption layer keeps rotating. I can’t seem to crack it.”
“Show me.”
Kvasir sent a copy of his holo-console to Yanis.
“That’s one hell of an encryption algorithm.”
“I know, but if the GDF ships had awakened one second later, I would have cracked it.”
“Yeah, well they did regain control and are now attacking us from all sides. To make things worse, the admiral’s fleet is leaving.”
“What? I’ve been too focused on the algorithm.”
That meant Gaia 2 would have less enemies to target, and more CPU power to use for her own defenses.
“This is not good,” Kvasir added.
“None of this is good, Kvasir. Gaia, her doppelganger, this entire thing has been one big mistake after another. But we have to deal with it once and for all. If we don’t neutralize her today, we probably never will.”
“Can I use your subspace communication tower?”
“Sure, but why?”
“I have to send a message to homeworld.”
“To Asgard?”
Kvasir nodded.
“I thought they banned you. Will they be receptive to your message?”
“I’m not sending the message to the central command, but to someone who owes me a favor.”
“Sure, but I don’t see how they can get here in time.”
“Asgardian faster-than-light engines are unparalleled. We also have a better understanding of how to use natural phenomena like wormholes and quasars.”
“What are you telling me?”
Kvasir turned to Yanis and his tattoos shone more brightly.
“Computers on Asgardian ships plot their jumps through known spatial anomalies in order to shorten travel time. It’s too complicated to explain the science behind our jump engines. Let’s just hope, for all our sakes, that he gets my message. Because I don’t think we’ll last very much longer without the Star Alliance fleet.”
“That’s not good!” said Argos.
“No shit.” Chris dodged a flying skyscraper. “Way to state the obvious. What the hell do we do now?”
“I don’t know! But we need to find a solution fast.”
“I preferred it when the bots were fighting themselves.”
“You and me both. What the hell is that noise?”
A strong vibration could be heard all around them. Chris was dodging skyscrapers while Argos dealt with the last of the battle bots.
Argos looked up and saw it.
“That can’t be.”
The moon was growing in size at an alarming rate. Soon it touched the atmosphere of the planet and lit up like a giant fireball.
“We may not want to stay here much longer.”
Chris looked up and was terrified by what his eyes showed him.
“I think she’s pissed,” said Chris. “But we can’t just leave her matrix. If we do she’ll recover too much power. During the last status check, Kvasir said the admiral’s fleet was leaving. If we leave the matrix now, she could take back the advantage in orbit. We can’t let that happen.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
“Well, I’ll create a protective shield around us to deflect the buildings. You deal with the moon.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Just make sure it doesn’t hit us. Remember, this is a simulation. Just divert all your power and create an energy wave you believe would stop this thing in real life.”
“Very well, let’s give it a try.”
Chris extended a large blue shield around them. Skyscrapers from all around flew towards them. As they smashed into Chris’ shield they were obliterated into a million pieces, and it took all Chris’ focus to keep the shield running at full power.
Argos was still powering up his aura, pushing himself to the limit.
“Just fire at the damn thing already!” screamed Chris.
“Snappy—”
>
Argos created two large, black fireballs that looked like mini black holes, with sizzling purple lightning around their circumference. He then fused the fireballs into a single larger one, and a beam of black energy surged towards the moon, which was now a fireball descending towards them.
Upon impact with the beam, the flaming moon slowed its descent but kept advancing.
“Give it all you’ve got, Argos!”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing, Chris? This is all I’ve got,” answered Argos through gritted teeth.
“That’s not good enough.”
“I think she wants us out of here. I’m doing the best I can, but I’ve only bought us some time.”
Chase teleported in front of Cedric.
“Hey, buddy, so nice to see you again,” said Cedric cheerfully.
Chase couldn’t hide his surprise at the way Cedric looked. Of course, he had seen him like this before. In fact, the memory of Gaia 2 using his body to kill Spiros in cold blood was still all too vivid in his mind. Hearing his old friend’s voice from the cyborg body still surprised him.
“Don’t worry, Chase, I look worse than I feel. And between you and me, this body has advantages we need right now.”
“We’ll get it fixed in due time.”
“Oh, I’ll hold you to that, believe me. But for the time being I need your help, and I need the bitch’s augments.”
“Where’s Ares?”
“I sent him to release three batches of the nanites in former Africa, Europe and Russia. I need you to go to India, Japan, Australia, and then the south pole. I already have a bunch of nanites on their way to release those in South America.”
“Alright, tell me what to do.”
“Take this card.” Cedric handed him a standard Alliance security pass. “It will help you enter the facilities.” Cedric pointed to the places he wanted Chase to go on a map of the world. “Once in there, you need to find a terminal port like this one.” He pointed to the card reader that had a red light shining in its center.
“That’s all?”
“Yeah, that’s all, but you guys travel at light speed or even faster. It would take me hours to send flying nanites to these locations to unlock more of them. We don’t have that kind of time.”
Armageddon Unleashed (Universe in Flames Book 7) Page 19
