… … …
►► Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth
► Sol system
“You know why the council is withdrawing support right?” Crimei whispered to Salamanca while they watched the EDF cut the door open with a plasma cutter.
“For backing down from joining the union,” Salamanca whispered back. “Yes, I don’t need to be fucking reminded.”
“Please, please tell me it has nothing to do with that assassin.”
“Johnson had nothing to do with it, it’s just,” she adjusted her glasses, “the Hashmedai on Earth. Something needs to be done with them.”
“My people offered you solutions years ago.”
“And some of my people took them in.”
“And those people led to the creation of the HLF.”
“Truth be told, my plan was to have them all loaded onto one of our ships and taken to Epsilon Eridani, and dropped off as the ship turned back toward Earth before the Hashmedai realize it was an Earth ship.”
Crimei sat back in his chair and quickly glanced at Landis and Singh. Neither of them noticed them talking. Good. “Another suggestion that was brought up years ago,” he said.
“Hard to deport Hashmedai when the HLF protected and hid so many,” Salamanca said softly. “Besides your fleet is gone, I need every Earth ship here protecting Earth now. Those Hashmedai will have to stay with us. I will not hand them all over to Radiance.”
“Why? They tried to wipe you out, they ran a terrorist organization.”
“There are thousands of Hashmedai children on Earth, whose only crime was being born on the wrong planet. I cannot and will not send them to Radiance death camps. I may believe in your gods, but as human, I just can’t do that. If we join the union now, that will happen as we’ll have to take orders from the council.”
“Yes, but,” he leaned in closer, “you could be on that council.”
“Where my votes get shut down by the other five members that vote in favor to have all the Earth Hashmedai put to death—” She stopped mid-sentence, as the holo screen showed footage of the door cut open and the EDF team moving in. Everyone in the room looked on in anticipation, in hopes that there were survivors.
“Oh my god.”
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
The four EDF members floated through the cut door way into the command center. It was a circular room lined with computer stations, holograms, and more dead bodies. The lights from the ceiling flicked on and off caused by them being shot at during the struggle.
“Command center was compromised as well, no signs of survivors,” Chris said to the Winston Churchill.
All four EDF members split up to search the command center. Every computer Chris came to either had sparks and smoke flying out from it, or just straight up had no power. All these people and none of them could have sent a distress call? Chris thought. Whatever hit them, it had to be a well-timed and rapid strike. The backup systems should have provided enough juice to get a distress call out during the struggle.
“This station still looks active,” Karen said from behind him.
“Grab what data you can,” Chris said to her. “Maybe that will shed some light on what’s going on.”
“Staff Sergeant,” Tom called out to Chris. “What do you make of this?”
Chris’ jets made soft hissing sounds as they propelled him toward the terminal Tom was studying, or rather the strange cylindrical device attached to the bottom of it. It was covered in flashing white lights almost like a tiny Christmas tree. They moved in closer to stare at it. Finally, Tom concluded. “Not our tech, that’s for damn sure.”
“Winston Churchill,” Chris transmitted. “You seeing this?”
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Aye, we are,” Xavier said, looking at the video feed from Chris’ tactical visor. “Look familiar to ya Michei?”
“Nothing my people would use, probably Hashmedai,” Michei said. “But I’ve never seen such a device used by them.”
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“I wanna say we should leave it alone in case it’s a bomb,” Tom said.
“If it’s a bomb, why hasn’t it gone off yet? Whoever planted this here had plenty of time to clear the area and blow it up if that was their plan,” Chris said. “No, I don’t think this is a bomb. Look at this.” He pointed toward a tiny array sticking out from the side of the device.
“A transceiver?”
“It’s a communication device.”
“Okay I’m in,” Karen said from the single active computer station in the back. “Download is in progress.”
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Three minutes had passed since Karen started the download. The bridge crew waited for the resulted to be transmitted to them as several of them looked on at the central projection displaying the feed from the four aboard the outpost.
Michei froze and his face winced, Xavier suspected something wasn’t okay with him.
“Livie’s balls,” Michei said quietly to himself.
“What is it?” Xavier asked.
“Psionic activity in the outpost!”
There were no Radiance psionics assigned to work at this outpost. And since human ones aren’t supposed to exist means only one thing. “Boyd, heads up, you got company!”
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Tom’s body suddenly began to shake violently and became limp. Chris knew all too well what just happened as he quickly aimed his rifle forward.
“Assassin! Everyone ball up and shoot!”
They grouped up placing their backs next each other, while Sarah ensured Tom’s body floated and stayed close to floor as they all fired in random directions.
“What’s the status of the download?” Chris shouted over the loudness of three blazing magnetic rifles desperately trying to flush out their invisible foe.
“Forty-three percent!” Karen said quickly looking down at her wrist mounted computer.
… … …
►► Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth
► Sol system
“Get them out of there now!” Landis screamed, slamming his fist on the desk.
“If they move out of range, the download will be interrupted,” Salamanca said. “We’ll never know what happened!”
“We can always come back,” Landis said.
“I’m sure that assassin will ensure there won’t be anything of value left behind,” Salamanca said.
What transpired on the holo screens was hard to follow. But from what Crimei could gather, one of the stray bullets seemed to have hit the assassin in question. The three active EDF video feeds zeroed in on where the bullet had impacted and started concentrating their blazing weapons discharge in that area.
“Holy shit,” Singh said.
“This is the EDF, they are trained for situations like this,” Salamanca said. “They’ll handle it.”
An assassin appeared seconds later on Chris’ screen. Crimei saw his rifle move to target it only for waves of blue light to sweep the assassin away from the bullets that came after.
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Ensign we need the transport out of range now!” Chris transmitted.
The assassin had jump ported down the corridor they just came from and with their luck heading toward the airlock to take out Lu. Another assassin tactic Chris remembered from his stay at Alpha Centauri. Kill the pilot, everyone else suffers.
“I don’t follow,” Lu said.
“Do it now before you have an assassin blade pushed into your guts!” Chris said, and the tapped a button on the back of his neck activ
ating EVA mode, forcing his suit and helmet to seal up and provide life support, turning it into a space suit. “Once the transport leaves, the whole station will be exposed to space. Gonna lose atmosphere people get ready!”
Karen and Sarah prepared their suits while Chris floated toward Tom, and activated his suits EVA mode. “Everyone hang on!” Sarah shouted, grabbing onto a handle bar.
Karen did the same while Chris was tasked with the duty of hanging to something stable with one hand with Tom’s body wrapped in his free arm. They all braced themselves as the transport pulled away, seconds later, the vacuum force outside roared, blowing everything between the airlock and the command center out into space.
Chris somewhat felt sorry for all the bodies that were now on their way out. Sure, they were already dead, but haven’t they suffered enough? Gutted by Hashmedai plasma weapons and now tossed through a maze of corridors leading to and out the airlock. His thoughts on the dead stopped as he saw the strange device they found shoot toward the entrance.
“Shit, don’t lose that!” Chris shouted.
Sarah let go of her handle and her body was pulled toward the door along with the device. Chris was about to rage and call her insane, until she not only grabbed onto the device but managed to hang onto the side of the cut entrance.
Minutes later after the decompression things began to settle as Tom regained movement of his body. Chris took the time to quickly explain what happened and what he just missed as Sarah’s jets propelled her back toward the group.
“You think that assassin got blown out as well?” Karen asked.
“I want to say yes, but nowadays these fuckers always find a way to do the impossible,” Chris said.
A flashing ‘100 percent’ and full progress bar appeared on Karen’s wrist computer screen. “Download complete,” she said then punched in a command. “I’m uploading to it the WC now.”
“I think we’re done here,” Chris said and proceeded to contact Lu. “Ensign—”
An explosion from the aft section of the station sent a massive and violent shockwave through the corridors that slammed them backwards as it blasted into the command center.
Beyond the orbit of Uranus, a Hashmedai carrier and wave after wave of interceptor fighters appeared through a ghostly vortex. The Winston Churchill was several thousand kilometers in front of it. And between the two ships? The outpost as tiny bolts of plasma from the interceptors slammed into it, removing, or melting small chunks of it with each successful shot.
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Now where the fuck did they come from?” Xavier said as the central hologram switched to a tactical display of their current situation.
Multiple red dots shot out from the larger red dot representing the carrier. It was launching interceptors. Lots of them.
“Unknown, sir, just appeared out of nowhere,” Yates said.
“I am detecting the presence of an anomaly directly behind the Hashmedai carrier,” said EVE. “It is possible it traveled here through it.”
“We got a shit load of fighters heading our way!” Aura’s voice transmitted over the bridge’s speakers.
“Battle stations!” Xavier shouted. Red lights began flashing throughout every section of the ship while a screeching alarm rang repeatedly. “Mr. Chavez bring us into weapons range!”
“Aye sir.”
“Tactical, let’s show our old friend our new teeth,” Xavier said. “Gladius—”
“We’re on it, Captain,” Aura said via the speakers.
… … …
►► Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth
► Sol system
Every face in the room sank upon witnessing the Hashmedai carrier seemingly appear from a hole in space.
“Viceroy?” Salamanca said.
Crimei looked at the holo screen wide-eyed. Lucky space bridge, teleport? Impossible, he’s personally seen Hashmedai ships emerge from a space bridge jump. It looks nothing like what he and everyone else just witnessed. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“Can we get a copy of their sensor logs?” Salamanca asked.
Singh activated a small hologram in front of him. It showed numbers and a small progress bar quickly growing. “It’s coming through now,” he said to Salamanca.
“I want a team picking through that data right fucking now,” Salamanca said. “The Winston Churchill is too busy to do that.”
“What about EVE?” Landis asked.
“They have her focused on battle duties, and quite frankly it’s the right choice. No need to jam up her processer, as powerful as it is,” said Singh.
Salamanca interacted with the central hologram hovering in the middle of their large desk. A wide top down three-dimensional projection of the battle displayed real-time information to them.
“Can they win this fight?” Salamanca asked.
“This will be the first time one of our ships engages a Hashmedai capital ship,” Singh said, eyeing the tactical reports before them. “Our shields are stronger, but the carrier has way more fighters than the Winston Churchill.”
“How soon can we our have ships in the area?” she asked him.
Singh used his hands to stretch out the hologram, forcing it on show a map of the solar system. Every UNE ship was busy on patrol around the inner planets, with the exception of one ship. “The Wilfrid Laurier is the closest, but it’s still a good hour away.”
“Contact them!”
“No, the Winston Churchill will have to do it, our message will take too long to reach. Winston Churchill can send a signal to them within thirty minutes.”
He was right, Salamanca somewhat felt embarrassed to even suggest that at first. She was once the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs during the old world, someone with her background should have remembered that. “I hate light speed communication,” she said.
“It’s why we need these QEC installed ASAP,” Singh said.
“And why we can’t lose the Winston Churchill,” Salamanca said. “Damn it. Alright have the Winston Churchill contact them if they haven’t!”
As the battle played out in the projection, Crimei worried about the worst-case scenario. Should the Winston Churchill fall, Michei will be killed and Crimei will have to answer to the council for not having him and all UNE shipboard psionics recalled right away as he was ordered to do. Even if the Winston Churchill didn’t get destroyed, what if they took heavy battle damage and Michei still ends up dead? Or critically wounded? Gods, there was only one way out of this, and that was for the Winston Churchill to survive with minimal damage.
… … …
►► UNE Outpost, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
“Winston Churchill talk to me, what’s going on?” Chris transmitted.
“A Hashmedai carrier has appeared from an unknown source and is currently engaging us in combat,” EVE said.
“That assassin must have radioed in for help,” said Sarah.
“Only there were no ships in the area,” said Chris. “Ensign Lu, what’s your status?”
“Things are about to light up out here,” Lu transmitted to them. “You guys plan on seeing tomorrow we got to go now.”
Chris’ jets launched him toward the corridor through the sliced up door as he waved toward his team to follow. “Swing back to the airlock to get us!”
… … …
►► Gladius squadron, Uranus orbit
► Sol system
Multiple hostile contacts appeared on Gavin’s holo HUD while he and Aura’s fighters held position outside of the Winston Churchill.
“Gladius seven through twelve what’s your ETA to the AO?” Aura transmitted.
“Uranus is a lot bigger than the pictures. We’ll be there in about two minutes.”
“Copy that,” said Aura. “Gladius two and five with me, three, four, and six form up and watch over that transport.”
“Copy that lead,” Gavin said.
Gavin’s fighter along with Aura’s and Hijinks’ grouped up in a small delta formation, while Hammer and Orbital and one other grouped up and descended toward the outpost to discourage the imposing Hashmedai interceptors from attacking something else.
All Gavin could see from his windshield was a swarm of black triangle shaped fighters. The same type he fought during the invasion of Earth, only this time he wasn’t in an F16 firing AIM-120 missiles that did minimal damage to their shields. The fire power was now even. Too bad the playing field wasn’t. There were enough red dots on his projection to completely envelop the Winston Churchill and as it stood, him, Aura, and Hijinks were forming the tip of the spear.
“That’s a lot of fighters,” Hijinks said over his radio. “Any idea when we’re getting our carriers built?”
Gavin’s computer started a countdown to when the first wave of interceptors will be in weapons range of the three UNE fighters. Five. Four. Three. Two.
One.
His computer beeped several times indicating to him he was acquiring a weapons lock on the lead interceptor. This means the interceptor’s computers were probably doing the same on their end.
“Break and attack,” Aura shouted. All three of them broke formation, as Gavin got his weapons lock on the lead interceptor. “Weapons free, weapons free!”
Lines of green light streaked above Gavin’s fighter. He shifted the stick of craft to the side, forcing it to bank and maneuver away from the plasma. During which, the interceptor he had targeted slipped downwards toward Uranus in an attempt to break free from his lock.
“Son of a bitch!” Aura shouted.
Gavin’s projection showed that Aura’s shields took a light beating while he began to chase his prey, positioning his fighter toward Uranus.
“Stay frosty we got this!” Hijinks transmitted.
Gavin’s systems regained its lock on the interceptor. His thumb hovered over the missile launch button. “Gladius two, fox three!”
The underside of his fighter dropped a single plasma missile that instantly burst forward and raced toward the rear of Gavin’s locked on target. It exploded on impact, shattering its shields. Gavin followed his attack up with rail gun fire. “Gladius two, guns, guns, guns,” Gavin said as red streaks of light entered the flaming aft section of the interceptor and exited through the front. The craft didn’t explode, but that was fine, the pilot was clearly dead as the smoking interceptor continued to plunge toward the surface of Uranus, making no attempts to change course.
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 (Splintered Galaxy Book 3) Page 19
