Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 (Splintered Galaxy Book 3)
Page 18
“But you did help us. The gods will be thankful for what you’ve done,” said Parcisei.
“I’m just making sure I got friends in the right places, Y’lin may have given my title back, but I still don’t trust or like her.”
“So, on a completely unrelated note,” Parcisei said. “I want to borrow the Crimson Arrow.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“I knew you’d say that! I know you so well!” She turned her back toward him as he floated into the cockpit next to her. “But hear me out, I need to head to Morutrin Prime and you have done very little with this ship since you started working with Yominv. And to think you got another assignment, more time away from us.”
“Morutrin Prime? Why do you need to go there?”
“Remember that gem I lost? Yeah, so you see, I very much do miss having sex with Fahia. If I can get it back, I might be able to patch things up with her.”
“You think it’s there?”
“I know it’s there, or at least was. I plan to track the person that yanked it,” Parcisei said. “Look if you need the ship back just make one of those fancy wormholes to Morutrin, you’ve been there so it shouldn’t be hard for you to create one that links to that system. You can have the Crimson Arrow back any time, I’m just going to park it there anyway unless something comes up.”
Noylarlie gestured toward Danyal as he watched them talk, shaking his head. “You need to take him along.”
“I plan to!”
“Along where?” Danyal looked concerned.
“To see the rest of the galaxy my friend!” said Parcisei. “If you are going to be the future emperor you must learn of all the other places out there.”
“Is it close to Lejorania Sanctum?” Danyal asked.
“No, and we’re not going there as I said earlier,” said Noylarlie.
Ever since Danyal learned how to talk with Parcisei and Noylarlie, one request he kept making over and over was assistance in locating the daughter of a friend of his. His now deceased cell mate. The problem was the fact that neither Noylarlie nor Parcisei cared, and Danyal provided very little detail to help them search for her. All they knew was her name, Rana Farhadi, and that she was one of the human refugees taken away from Earth to Lejorania Sanctum. Outside of that, they know nothing, and weren’t risking losing everything they worked for thus far.
“Lejorania Sanctum is quite the distance away,” Parcisei said. “But Morutrin is a lawless and contested region of space, smugglers and people that sell information frequently travel there. You might find the answers you’re looking for.”
There was nobody objecting to the proposal, a good sign for Parcisei as he turned toward Noylarlie to confirm. “Deal?” then back around to Danyal “Deal?”
“If I need the Crimson Arrow I’m coming to get it,” Noylarlie said. “You’ll need to drop what you’re doing and get aboard or I’m leaving you behind.”
“Him too?” Parcisei said cocking his thumb backwards toward Danyal. “He’s important to the order’s plans!”
“As I said, I have not given the order my full loyally.”
“Neither have I,” said Danyal. “I’m just here because you guys took me away from Earth, I got nothing else planned outside of finishing my prison sentence back on Earth and finding Rana. And I’d rather do the latter than the former.”
Parcisei’s left and right index fingers aimed toward Noylarlie and Danyal respectively. “So, deal then, ya?”
“Whatever, man, if this is going to make me some big ruler of the galaxy at a faster rate I’m game for it.”
“I need to go,” Noylarlie said with urgency in her voice then vanished instantly, flooding the cockpit full of bright blue light.
“Of course that would happen,” Parcisei said floating his body into the main seat up front. “Now we’ll have to take the space bridge.” As his hands piloted the Crimson Arrow out of orbit and toward the space bridge, he turned back toward Danyal with one last and important question. “How good is your Radiance tongue?”
Not everyone on Morutrin Prime spoke Hashmedai.
… … …
►► Claw of the Empire, Paryo orbit
► Uemaesce system
The Claw of the Empire was one of many Hashmedai destroyers orbiting Paryo, waiting with vigilance for the call of action. Or in this case, the call of empire’s most talked about Archmage.
Noylarlie’s presence come into sight from her bright teleportation light aboard the Claw of the Empire’s main bridge. Several bridge crew members couldn’t help but watch as the young and deadly woman stepped toward Admiral Yominv, her steps made possible by the personal gravity well she conjured for herself. It wasn’t necessary, but the imagery of her being able to walk normally in a weightless place like the bridge sent out a powerful reminder to everyone else. She had the power and wielded it for one person in particular.
Yominv sat in his central commander’s chair strapped in via seat belts across his chest. He looked away from the tiny projection he was reading to address Noylarlie. “Good to see you Archmage.”
“What is it,” she said, sounding bored.
“My associates are finishing up an operation,” he said. “I need you to get them out of there and begin laying the ground work for our next task.”
“Give me a moment,” she said as her psionic thoughts forced the gem that was resting between her breasts to float in front of her face.
“You’ll also be happy to know the empress fully supports you in your new-found talents.”
“Since when do we need her blessing for anything?”
“We don’t, but we also don’t have a fleet as large as the empire’s to carry out our goals.” The gem began to shimmer vigorously, creating a reddish rue that splashed across their bodies. “We need to have friends in the right places.”
A swirling vortex ripped open the fabric of space and time, linking a small pocket of space in front of the Claw of the Empire toward the Sol system.
CHAPTER 12
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Winston Churchill decelerated from its sub light speeds and propelled itself into Uranus’ orbit. The outpost in question was a small space station in orbit around the blue ice giant. It was a disk shaped object that had no habitat ring, one of the first built outposts before habitat rings became standard on all large ships and stations. The purpose of the outpost was to provide early warning detection in case of future Hashmedai attacks and to ping Epsilon Eridani from time to time, the closest Hashmedai controlled star system to Earth.
It was covered in an array of solar panels that provided extra power in conjunction with its central reactor. A small hanger bay was located on the underside of it, while a multitude of airlocks decorated the walls on the outside. The mining platforms had a similar design, disk shaped stations that held stores of helium-3 extracted from Uranus’ atmosphere. Due to Uranus escape velocity being the lowest of the four ice giants, it became the prime location for all helium-3 mining in the system. Small ships with its valuable cargo were typically seen traveling back and forth from the mining platforms and Uranus, well under normal circumstances.
Now, all mining has been put on hold as due to the recent Hashmedai attacks and now the outpost going dark. Its lights out, no ships docking or leaving, no communication and worst of all, no witness to what happened despite being so close to the mining operation. It was a sight all too eerie for Captain Xavier as he stood watching the central three-dimensional hologram on the bridge.
“Still no response, Captain,” Yates reported from her station. “The helium mines report not seeing anything out of the ordinary either.”
“Any signs of an attack?” Xavier asked.
“None sir, as far as I can tell someone just shut out the lights and said nothing.”
“I am unable to establish a connection to their internal network,” EVE reported.
Xavier cocked his head back toward
the psionic work station. “Michei?”
“It’s just us, the outpost, and the mines out here,” Michei reported.
“Any life signs?” Xavier asked, since the Winston Churchill scanners couldn’t detect life from inside of a ship or station, perhaps Michei could sense something, anything.
“Scanning for individual non-psionic people at this distance was a skill I wasn’t very good at, most psionics aren’t.”
Xavier looked at the projection once again thinking of what could have happened. No signs of an attack, no response, power was out, no distress signal. They could scan and stare at the station all they wanted, the answers laid inside.
“Have EDF suit up,” Xavier ordered. “I want them to check it.”
… … …
►► Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth
► Sol system
Viceroy Ure Crimei walked with a sense of urgency out from an elevator. He was deep within Earth Cube while a narrow hallway led him toward the war room. A rectangular shaped room used by the president of Earth, high ranking generals, admirals, and various other VIPs key to the UNE’s defense and operation.
A long oval shaped table was in the middle of the room in which a large hologram projected above it displayed critical information in regard to ship deployment or special operations, in this case the Winston Churchill in orbit around Uranus. At the far wall, opposite of the entrance was several holo screens replaying live video feeds from the Winston Churchill’s bridge and tactical visor cam footage from the EDF soldiers that were getting ready to deploy. The flag of the UNE was hung on all four walls of the room.
Crimei took one step inside of the war room, only to have two UNE soldiers push him away. General Robert Landis saw Crimei trying to enter to the room and said. “Hold on, you can’t be here.”
“I used to be allowed to,” Crimei said.
“Until your people turned tail and ran.”
“Let him in.” It was President Mariana Salamanca. “I did promise to speak with him.”
“With all due respect, Madam President,” said Fleet Admiral Mohammed Singh “Now is not the time.”
“I think now is the perfect time,” said Salamanca as she turned away from Crimei to look at the holo screens.
Crimei took a seat next to Salamanca along with the rest of at the table. As per the original agreement between the UNE and Radiance, the Viceroy was to work closely with the president during operations such as this since all UNE ships had Radiance psionics aboard.
“So why haven’t you left?” Salamanca whispered to Crimei.
“I can’t just get up and leave with so much at stake,” he said. “Not yet at least.”
“Live video from the other side of the solar system, the QEC is remarkable,” Salamanca said to the group as she looked back at the holo screens displaying the Winston Churchill’s bridge operations. “How soon before all of our ships get one?
“If the Radiance fleet wasn’t shot to hell, the Sun Tzu, Wilfrid Laurier, and Barack Obama would have had them installed by now,” Singh said.
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Chris, Sarah, Karen, and Tom floated onto the flight deck and were guided toward a transport ship with its doors wide up. All four were equipped with their protect suits armed with their Earth modified magnetic rifles. Chris saw dozens of crewmen prepare and load the Solaris fighters with plasma missiles. As they began to float aboard the transport, Jacob’s large body appeared around the corner tapping Chris on the shoulder.
“What’s up?” Chris asked.
“Sendin’ you but not us eh?” Jacob crossed his arms. “Was hoping to test out the new gear.”
“To be fair, marines are better suited for ground combat, and this rig doesn’t have a habitat ring.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Only four of us anyways man, if we run into trouble...”
Jacob laughed. “Gonna be my arse pulling ya out of the fire eh?”
“Let me know how your new toys hold up on the shooting range,” Chris said.
The two men exchanged fist bumps and floated away, Chris aboard the transport, Jacob toward the exit of the flight deck. Sarah, Tom, and Karen were all strapped into their chairs while Chris floated toward the cockpit, and sat next to Ensign Lu.
The transport’s engines fired up, blasting its blue colored thrust outwards, propelling it out from the Winston Churchill and into the depths of space. Chris could see faint sunlight from behind illuminating the side of Uranus they were facing as the transport flew closer to the disk-shaped space station.
“So how do we get inside?” Lu asked as the station started to take up two thirds of the view from the windshield.
“Ring the door bell and hope someone opens up?” Karen said.
“I got a few ideas,” said Tom. “All of them revolve around us blowing stuff up.”
The transport circled the outpost for several minutes, Lu sighed as they completed one full lap around it. “Docking ports are all shut,” he said. “Airlocks too and with no power running good luck getting them open.”
“Latch us onto that airlock,” Chris said. “The one over there.” He pointed toward the airlock in question.
Lu commanded the transport to line up and attach to the airlock. The doors of the transport opened but as expected, the airlock doors remained shut. Chris unhooked his seat belt and floated toward the entrance along with the rest of his team.
“Is this the part where I get to blow up the door with P-4?” Tom asked. Sarah reached up toward the overhead storage cabinet, and withdrew a two-handed plasma cutting saw. She tossed the weightless tool toward Tom. Chris and Sarah smirked at him. “Well that’s no fun!”
Tom held the device toward the exposed airlock door. A thin green beam of plasma shot out and melted a hole through it. Tom guided the device in a slow circular motion, leaving behind a trail of glowing red on the door as the beam melted and cut through the metal. He crashed his foot against the door several times after the circle was complete, until a hulk of metal flew back, hitting the secondary airlock door. The process was repeated.
Inside the station was just darkness. Flashlights mounted into the barrels of their rifles lit up the pathway. After five minutes of floating through the pitch-black halls, they discovered one piece of the puzzle. Two dead bodies of UNE personnel. Stale orbs of blood hovered next to their corpses, burn marks were visible on their uniforms, one person had his head cut clean off, the mangled stump that once connected his head to his body was seared a dark black color.
“Well shit,” said Chris.
… … …
►► Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth
► Sol system
“Well shit.”
Everyone in the war room had their eyes fixed on the tactical visor camera footage from the EDF personnel. Four windows hovered, each with a caption listing the name of the person they were watching. Chris’ camera got the most attention as he looked at the bodies closely, examining their wounds.
“Those look like plasma slashes,” Landis said.
“It’s the Hashmedai,” Crimei said. He bore witness to the brutally of Hashmedai in combat during his younger years as a third-class ranger.
They watched on as the EDF proceeded further into the dark abyss. More dead bodies started to come into view.
“That body,” Landis said, pointing to Karen’s camera feed. She looked at a charred spinning corpse. “Burned to a crisp. Psionic?”
“Probably,” Crimei said. “Though Michei reported no major psionic activity.”
“Then whoever did this is long gone,” Singh said.
“Or hiding somewhere close by.” Landis added. “We should have them pull back and search the area.”
“No, not yet,” Salamanca said. “I want to know what happened there.”
“We could have the Winston Churchill deploy fighters on a wide patrol,” Singh suggested.
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Captain,” Yates called out to Xavier. “Command believes Hashmedai might be in the sector, they want us to send a squadron out on patrol.”
“Aye,” he said then opened a communication to the flight deck. “Aura, you’re up.”
… … …
►► Gladius squadron, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Twelve Solaris fighters launched out from Winston Churchill one by one. Gavin doubled checked his holographic HUD while Aura’s voice over the radio requested everyone to check in. After the check in was complete Aura said in her English accent Gavin came to know and love. “All right guys, you all know the situation, let’s break into two fighter groups and circle around the AO. You see anything that doesn’t like you, fuck ‘em up. Gladius two you’re with me.”
“Solid copy lead,” Gavin said and piloted his fighter next to hers.
Ten minutes later there were six groups of two fighters patrolling the sector around Uranus. Gavin looked in awe as his and Aura’s fighters made a fly by past the moon Miranda and its rugged landscape.
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Command center should be this way,” Sarah said, reading a flicking direction map on the wall.
Her finger pointed toward one of the corridors at the four-way intersection they stopped at. The four EDF moved toward the command center, the jets on their suits launched them down the corridor at a rapid pace. More bodies and body parts spiraled out of control as they flew past them. A large metallic door sliding blocked their way into the command center. They gave up trying to open it manually after three failed attempts of all four of them trying to pull it across.
“Shut tight and locked,” said Chris. “Might be survivors inside hiding.”
“Or a Hashmedai death squad,” Sarah said.
Chris motioned to Tom. “Richards, cut this door open.”