And then it hit Cedric. On some level, he had already known. But it all clicked. Like Spiros’ last scrambled words. He couldn’t make them out when he was witness to his cyborg body executing him. But he felt they had a deep meaning. He had also noticed the playful banter between them while they were on the run from Gaia 2.
“You should have opened with that argument. It would have saved time. Let’s get him back.”
“Thank you, Cedric.”
“Don’t mention it. Luckily for you I’m a romantic at heart. We’re a dying breed, you know.”
The Droxians had lost three more ships in the last sixty seconds alone. The Hope was back in the battle, but the overall firepower of the fleet was not nearly enough to bring the remaining Gaian ships down.
Every time a large team of Alliance and Olympian ships almost brought a GDF destroyer’s shields down, it would micro-jump away and a ship with full shields would jump into its place.
Sarah and the rest of the fleet were buying time for the reinforcements, but Gaia 2’s current strategy was similar. Did it have anything to do with what Kvasir had said about that subspace data stream? Was she also waiting for reinforcements?
If that was the case, whose reinforcements would arrive first?
Gaia sacrificed another ship to bring yet another Olympian destroyer down, using a slight variation of tactics. Instead of first sacrificing a ship before sending another to ram into their target destroyer—which the Olympians would have been prepared for—Gaia 2 feigned having two ramming ships on a collision course with a Droxian destroyer, only to micro-jump and ram the Olympian ship instead.
It cost Gaia 2 another of her ships and damaged the second one. She was down to only ten destroyers. The Alliance fleet, with the Droxians and Olympians, had superiority in numbers, but not in power. The Olympians’ weaponry was more powerful than anything else currently engaged in battle, but the GDF destroyers had better shields. Not only in terms of strength, but also when it came to how fast they recharged.
Sarah thought it was a shame they had to obliterate every Gaian ship. They could have learned to make these shield modifications for their own ships. It would have been useful against the Furies, whose shield technology seemed on par with Gaian tech.
Speaking of the Furies, the super-destroyer had not entered the battle. Sarah took that as a good omen. She didn’t like having no news from Chase, though. However, for the time being she needed to stay alert.
“Multiple jump points forming!” shouted her tactical officer.
“Friend or foe?”
“It’s the Destiny battlegroup.”
Yes! We may still win this battle, after all.
“Destiny hailing us, Captain.”
“On screen.”
The bridge’s main holo-screen filled with a close up of Saroudis’ face.
“Your timing is impeccable, Commodore.”
“I’m glad we’re not arriving too late. Where’s the admiral’s fleet?”
“He left the conflict a while back.”
“He did what?”
“Not to take that pompous admiral’s defense, but Chase didn’t exactly go easy on him. I can’t blame the admiral for not wanting to risk his men after the stunt Chase pulled.”
“Still, the stakes are infinitely bigger than the admiral’s ego. I was afraid something like that could happen. Zenakis has a serious stick up his butt. But right now this doesn’t matter. We have a battle to win, so let’s finish this.”
“Agreed.”
Chase reacted instantly. The large shards of ice came towards them at incredible speed and could easily impale both of them. Chase teleported away from the shard that would surely have taken his life a millisecond later. He reappeared in midair and pulverized the other shards near Oryn with a powerful shockwave.
Oryn looked shocked. “I thought you said he was dead,” she said coldly.
“You’re welcome.”
She shot Chase a smile.
“He should have died, though. What the hell is wrong with your brother?”
“I might be to blame for that.”
“No shit.”
“Let’s make sure he dies for good this time.”
“Now you’re talking.”
Miseo was still impaled against the bulkhead. He put both his hands against it and pushed himself free with a roar.
His face was contorted with an expression of pure hatred. Big veins pumped blood all over his face, neck and other exposed parts of his body.
He put one hand on the gushing wound on his stomach, and the other on the exit wound on his back. He burned them both to stop them from bleeding.
“I’m going to kill you both!”
Chase looked at Oryn. “I kind of believe him.”
“Yeah, well, we obviously can’t let that happen, now can we?”
“Obviously.”
Chase fired three fireballs at Miseo, who slapped them away, sending them towards the ceiling and nearby walls.
Oryn threw a veritable hail of pointy icicles towards Miseo, who incinerated them by unleashing a wave of fire.
“What the hell did you feed that thing?” asked Chase.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
Before Chase could react, Miseo’s knee impacted with his chin, and he rebounded against the ceiling before crashing to the floor.
Holy shit.
Oryn launched a powerful blue wave of cold energy towards Miseo, who countered the attack with a flame-colored wave of energy. Their respective attacks canceled each other out.
Chase’s head was still ringing from that powerful knee strike, and he was still seeing stars when he struggled back to his feet. Pain radiated all over his body.
Whatever that thing was, it was no longer the overconfident Fury he’d once fought. They would need to be careful, or neither of them would survive this fight.
Chase concentrated a powerful fireball in his hands, but he was hit by a shockwave that sent him crashing into the viewport, which cracked on impact. Before Chase hit the floor, a force field activated automatically around the viewport to prevent explosive decompression on the bridge.
“You! Wait your turn!” spat Miseo, pointing a finger at Chase. “Once I’ve killed that bitch half-sister of mine, I’ll show you the true meaning of infinite power.”
The Destiny battlegroup and the twenty-five Obsidian ships engaged the rest of Gaia 2’s armada. With an advantage of almost four ships to one, it no longer mattered how strong the GDF destroyers’ shields were. Tight groups of destroyers in formation concentrated their firepower towards a single Gaian target, overwhelming it with barrage upon barrage of laser fire and torpedoes.
The Destiny and similarly designed ships, also equipped with Damocles canons, fired the killed shots once the shields were down. After a few minutes of engagement, only half of the GDF force remained.
But then a large hyperspace window opened and something impossibly big jumped into the fray.
“What the hell is this thing?” exclaimed Sarah.
The gigantic ship was bigger than Earth’s moon. From their position in the battle, the Gaian monstrosity occulted most of Earth behind it.
The Destiny was on the other side of the moon-sized ship.
“Lock on that thing and fire everything we’ve got.”
“Firing now.”
“We’ve got an incoming transmission, wide band. Looks like it comes from that—ship.”
“Let’s see what Gaia 2 has to say. On screen,” said Sarah.
The bridge holo-screen filled with the face of a female, but she looked nothing like Gaia 2’s previous avatar. Her long, flowing red hair floated around her scalp and her eyes shone red.
“You, insects. I’ve had it with you. I told you there would be consequences if you ever came back. Time to say goodbye to this planet.”
Sarah waved a flat hand at neck level. The comms officer cut the transmission.
“Get me Saroudis on the Destiny.”<
br />
“Channel open.”
“Sarah, this is bad,” said Saroudis. “We’re firing everything we have at that thing and its shields are barely fluctuating. Oh no!”
“What’s happening, Commodore?”
“We’re reading a massive build-up of energy. It’s about to fire on the planet. The readings for this weapon are off the scale!”
“Cedric managed to bring back the shields a while back.”
“I don’t think the planetary shields will hold, not against a weapon of this magnitude.”
Sarah checked the readings on her own holo-screen. They were indeed off the scale, probably a hundred times more powerful than a full shot of her Damocles plasma canon.
“What do we do, Commodore?”
“Keep firing, and let’s pray the shields will hold. We’re trying to locate the power source for that weapon. I’ll inform you the minute I get a set of coordinates.”
Rage and anger filled Chase’s body, and he attempted to fight the reaction. But then, he heard Aphroditis’ voice in his head.
No, Chase. Right now you need to embrace your inner rage. Let it burn. It’s your only chance.
Chase rose to his feet and unleashed a deafening roar of fury. His eyes turned into brightly burning suns. His aura expanded around his body tenfold, shining orange tones over the entire bridge.
Oryn was still firing her icy beam at Miseo at max power, but Miseo didn’t need to use much of his own energy to counter it. He shot a second column of energy towards Oryn. The doubling of the attack broke their stalemate and the beams of red energy pushed the now shortening icy-cold wave.
Oryn’s legs trembled. “A little help!” she pleaded through gritted teeth.
Chase sent her a telepathic message.
I’ll cut the beam and send his attack back to him. Once I’m done attacking him, be prepared to back me up in my next move.
Understood, but hurry up. I can’t hold him much longer.
Chase flew towards the converging beams of energy, created a Perseus shield in midair, and teleported in front of Miseo’s flaming beam of energy. Everything around Miseo’s dual beams was melting, even metal equipment, and the floor under the beams was bubbling.
Chase’s Perseus shield shot the beams back at Miseo and incinerated him for half a second. When the beam died, Miseo’s skin was burnt to a crisp but he was still moving.
“You’re going to regret this you little—”
But Chase didn’t wait for Miseo to finish his sentence. He embraced the rage that was building inside him. He felt his power grow tenfold and launched himself at Miseo at near-light speed, delivering a flurry of powerful punches too fast for the human eye to see, and too fast for Miseo to register, let alone dodge.
Chase delivered hits by the hundreds. When he finally stopped in front of a nearly unconscious Miseo, Chase unleashed the most powerful shockwave he had ever created.
Miseo shot through the bulkhead and kept going, piercing wall after wall of thick metal.
“That has to kill him.” He panted heavily.
“I certainly hope so. You’ll have to teach me how to do that.”
“Hope your ship’s insured.”
It took Oryn a while to get it, but then she laughed out loud. “I like you. You’re funny, and you sure as hell can hold your own in a fight. I can see why my father wanted your head on a platter.”
“On Earth we say thank you when one saves your hide.”
“We’re not on Earth,”
“Let’s not split hairs. We’re close enough.”
“Very well. Thank you, Chase.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” said Chase with a big smile.
24
“Where are we on the download?” asked Cedric.
“Technically, it’s an upload.”
“Uh-huh. It’s been a really long day, Gaia.”
“Right, sorry. Ninety-five percent. We’re almost there. Why?”
“I don’t want to burst this bubble of good news, but I’m reading an energy build-up in orbit. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Gaia jumped to the nearest holo-console and brought up a visual.
The holo-screen filled with an image that was hard to comprehend.
“Is that a ship?” asked Cedric.
“Looks like it. My counterpart has been really busy since I sent her to the other side of the universe.”
“Did you know about this—thing?”
“I most certainly did not. Can the shield hold whatever it seems to be preparing to fire at us?”
“You’re the super smart AI; you tell me.”
“My initial calculations aren’t very encouraging. I don’t think the shields can last more than thirty seconds at the current power levels. And that’s if it starts shooting now. The bigger the power build-up, the lower that figure will be.”
“Great, just great! I save this planet for the umpteenth time, and it’s still going to get obliterated anyway. Just my luck.”
“We can’t let that happen!”
“Gaia, let it be noted that I’m good under pressure, and fighting impossible odds to save the world is an occupational hazard of mine. But what exactly can we do? I’m afraid our fate is now in the hands of Chase, and everyone else fighting up there.”
Gaia’s battle bot fell on her knees. “Please, Chase, don’t let this happen because of me.”
“Holy shit, what the hell is that thing?” asked Oryn.
Chase joined Oryn at the cracked viewport.
“That would probably be Gaia 2’s last ace in the hole. Can we use this ship to blow it up?”
“We could try to overload my ship’s engine core.”
“And jump the ship inside that monstrosity,” said Chase absently.
“Interesting idea, though I must have missed the part about us getting obliterated along with it.”
“I can teleport us out of here.”
“That’s handy. Chase, it’s firing at the planet.”
“Crap, we’re running out of time. Can you hail the Destiny?”
“Opening a channel.”
“Chase, are you monitoring this?” said Saroudis.
“We are.”
“Who’s we?”
“Long story. Let’s just say this particular Fury super-destroyer is now friendly.”
“How quickly can you get back here and do one of your crazy stunts?”
Chase looked at Oryn with urgency. She typed commands on her console. “The overload will take sixty seconds, Chase.”
“Can you hold out for one minute, Adonis?”
“I’m afraid not. The energy beam that thing just fired at Earth will have the planetary shield down within twenty seconds. I don’t see any choice but to bid you farewell, my friend.”
“Adonis! What are you talking about?”
Saroudis issued orders to his crew. “Evacuate the ship. Those of you who are near escape pods have fifteen seconds. This is not a drill. Navigation, lock coordinates for an emergency jump into the middle of that beam. Don’t you dare miss that jump, soldier!”
“Aye aye, Commodore.”
“Adonis!” Chase screamed. “Don’t do this!”
“There’s no choice, Chase. Goodbye, my friend. It’s been an honor knowing you and fighting by your side. Please take care of my family.”
“Nooooooooo!” screamed Chase.
“Chase,” said Oryn, “go save your friend. I’m sure you can teleport him out of there before his ship jumps.
“I’ll be right ba—” But Chase never finished his sentence.
A massive explosion erupted behind them. Both Chase and Oryn turned around in horror. A bleeding Miseo emerged from the flaming inferno, madly screaming at the top of his lungs.
Argos opened his eyes and blasted the regen tank he was in. He jumped out and looked around. Chris was in another regen tank nearby. He grabbed its door and ripped it as if it was made of aluminum foil.
Chris opened his eyes as
the green liquid splashed onto the floor of the medbay. He tried to speak but puked green liquid on the floor instead.
Argos spoke, despite the regen liquid in his lungs. It bubbled inside his internal plumbing and burned like a bitch but he ignored the pain.
“Call Ares, now,” he said as green liquid exited his mouth and nose simultaneously.
Chris focused on Ares and called him telepathically.
“He’s on his way,” said Chris, coughing up more green liquid. “What’s happening?”
“Can’t you feel it? Chase is in mortal danger.”
Time stopped for Chase. He felt trapped in that moment. On one hand, he had but a few milliseconds to teleport and save his friend Saroudis, but Oryn had exactly the same amount of time to survive whatever Miseo was about to unleash on them. Miseo had an extremely concentrated ball of energy in each hand. Just one of them could kill Oryn.
Could he manage to do both? Save Oryn and Saroudis?
Aphroditis appeared in front of him.
“You can’t, Chase. You have to choose. Save Oryn or save Saroudis”.
“If you can stop time this way, why can’t you just slow it down long enough for me to do both? I only need a few milliseconds.”
“Chase, I’m not stopping time, just using the part of me that’s still inside you to talk to you at a speed only your Ultra Fury brain can interpret. It may look like time froze, but it didn’t. We’re just having this conversation at flash speed, in less than a microsecond.”
“I can’t let Saroudis die!”
“And you can’t let your new alliance with the Olympians die either. You know that. How would Saroudis feel if you saved his life, but you guys lost Earth because of your choice? Think, Chase. Oryn is making sure you can use her ship to take out that monstrosity Gaia 2 is using to destroy Earth.
“Saroudis is doing the only thing he knows to do, as a soldier and the commander of the Earth Alliance. He is sacrificing his life, but doing so will have meaning, and this single, purest act of bravery will resonate throughout the ages. I understand you want to save your friend, but if you fail—if saving his life means losing Earth and perhaps more—can you really afford to take that risk?”
Armageddon Unleashed (Universe in Flames Book 7) Page 26
