by C. M. Kane
He smiled to himself in anticipation; he’d be adding a few more cuts to the boy’s heavily scared body before he finally put him out of his misery. Still, he would be a man by now, he wondered idly if he remembered him, and if he had yet learnt to fear him, if not, well, he’d soon be reminding him of why he should. He had no idea where the designs for the portal machine had come from, nor the address that came with it, but he thought it could only be from someone in the traitors group.
Were they trying to set a trap for them? If so they were in for a very nasty surprise when they saw his Dreadnaughts. He considered the possibility they also might have an ally over there; unlikely, but possible. Still, it had taken this possible ally far too long to send the designs to the portal device to him. The Titan civilization was on the verge of total economic collapse, and for that alone they would die alongside the others.
***
‘My Lord, there is a very small meteor that has penetrated our shielding somehow, although at its current speed it is not travelling fast enough to do us any damage. Do you wish it destroyed before it collides with us?’ asked his son Krios from his sensor array.
Hyperion swung his now irate gaze towards him. ‘Do I look as though I am afraid of rocks? He asked quietly. ‘Do you see me cringing in fear of being struck? Or do you simply see me as a coward like yourself, Krios?’ He stalked slowly towards his son who was now standing stock-still at attention.
‘Forgive me, My Lord, I did not mean to infer you would be in anyway disturbed by a small meteor, I was simply concerned it may cause damage to the Eos and wished instructions as to whether you would allow it to hit us or not,’ he stammered.
Hyperion stopped before him weighing his son’s words, he could see the fear in his eyes, but at least he now tried to hide it. He was just so unlike himself at that age he thought in bitter disappointment. Somehow he, Hyperion, had sired a worthless tech instead of a warrior. He swung away again and headed back to his command seat, swallowing the bile his son always generated in him.
‘A simple rock can do a warrior no damage, Krios. I think it’s past time you learnt that lesson, and if it has no speed, then what is your concern? The Eos will repair any small inconvenience it may cause. I am hoping that you will one day learn never to shame yourself before, during, or after a battle; obviously today will not be that day. Don’t show me your cowardice again or I will kill you where you stand.’ he said, disgust dripping from his every word.
Krios gritted his teeth in anger and frustration at being made a fool of by his father. He could see the rest of the bridge crew sniggering at him for being called a coward; it seemed as if his father took any and every chance to humiliate him in front of them. He hated them all with every fiber of his being. He put his head back down and concentrated on the sensors once more as he tried to block out where he was by performing a more thorough scan of the space and moon surrounding the fleet. He quickly discovered the sensor drone that was usually stationed near Rushla was missing. His curiosity now piqued he immediately began a thorough scan of the area, it was then he noticed a miniscule power spike coming from another small asteroid.
Anyone else probably would not have even noticed what he had found. Krios knew he wasn’t the warrior his father wanted, but when it came to sensor technology, there was no-one better, as proven with the small rock he had been ridiculed over; he noticed things. He was about to comment on it to Hyperion when something made him hold his tongue, instead he turned every sensor at his disposal in the asteroids direction. He looked carefully over his readings again as his father started on his spiel to the other ships, he listened half heartedly, he was far more interested in what his displays were showing him. Besides, he knew his father would send his enemies through the portal first. It was a quick and easy way to get rid of those in their older Orion and Khopesh class design ships. Hyperion, along with his most loyal friends would stay behind until the enemy had been softened up, both enemies, than he would simply roll through the portal and destroy everything in sight and claim glory for the kills.
Krios abhorred the thought of all the death and destruction that was about to occur, the sheer waste sickened him. He had heard the legend of the traitors and their daring escape all his life and had envied them their freedom. There had been so many nights where he’d lain in bed, dreaming, wishing…, he pushed his thoughts aside as he had trained himself to do and continued on with his work.
As more in-depth scans started to feed into his work station he started to realize exactly what he was looking at. Someone– a very clever someone– had cunningly disguised a small drone of some kind. Its power output was barely detectable, he’d have never even noticed it if he hadn’t been curious about their own missing sensor drone.
He frowned in thought; what is it doing? Could that small power spike have been a quick scan? That’s definitely feasible, but who? and more importantly, why?
He frowned in deep thought, his father’s fleet was up here listening to his speech of coming glory, so who, or what, had set that disguised drone?
Could this be one of the others? Krios thought in sudden excitement. Could they have found out about the coming attack somehow? Are they about to mount a counter offensive against my father? Could they be sitting out there somewhere listening to him speak to his Captains, exclaiming about the traitor’s cowardice and their immanent executions at his hands?
He trembled slightly as he switched his sensors immediately to the surrounding space, not only to check for other ships, but to allay any suspicion if one of his father’s people were watching him, as they so often did. If it is them, what should I do?
He immediately felt torn, he knew his duty; it had been physically beaten into him from an early age. All allegiance was to be given to their Supreme leader, Hyperion; there were no exceptions to that rule! No marriage, no family, not even a life mate! Nothing and no one came above ones loyalty to their leader, or death would quickly ensue. Krios looked at his monitors again as Hyperion finished his speech then turned back to them, he once again fixed his contemptuous gaze directly on Krios.
‘Today you will have the supreme privilege of witnessing true warriors fight. Try to take notice; if you can drag yourself away from your little screens for five minutes that is,’ he said with a sneer.
Krios’ head came up; he stared at his father for a long moment before quietly turning back at his monitors, a small smile curling his lips. ‘Witness true warriors, yes, My Lord,’ he said.
Hyperion stared at his son hard; just for a moment he had the distinct feeling Krios had challenged him in some way. He shook his head dismissively, the boy wouldn’t know a challenge if he fell across it, let alone send a challenge to him. He almost laughed aloud at the mere thought of it. He took his seat and dismissed his insignificant young off-spring from his mind; he had more important things to think about, like his impending victory over the unsuspecting traitors.
Chapter 33
Tae stiffened, their drone was being scanned, the Brightmoon felt it and so did she. She was about to order the pulse cannons online when she paused, she waited a long moment while the drone continued to feed information about Hyperion’s ship and the surrounding fleet to Brightmoon.
‘Our drone has just been scanned,’ she said.
‘Damn it! Arm all weapons and get us airborne,’ said Loki from his position by her chair.
‘Wait,’ said Tae in confusion. ‘I know it’s been scanned, but who-ever did it hasn’t moved against us,’ she said before adding, ‘they’re doing another more intense scan as I speak.’
‘Which ship?’ Vulcan asked.
Tae checked her readings again and hissed in a breath. ‘Hyperion’s, the first one happened not long after he started that little speech he’s giving,’ she answered.
Vulcan frowned and walked over to stand beside Loki. ‘Either we have an unknown friend, or that bastard is playing with us.’
Loki’s eyes narrowed as he thought it through. ‘We need mor
e time, so I’m willing to risk the unknown friend possibility for the moment; no matter how unlikely it may seem.’ He turned back to Tae, ‘just make sure you’re ready to move the moment anyone should so much as glance our way, or if you become suspicious of any of their activities, I trust your intuition on this.’ T
Tae nodded, trying to hide her delight in the declaration of trust in her abilities. She immediately went back to watching the fleet intently along with Brightmoon.
Loki turned to Vulcan once more, measuring his words carefully as he spoke. ‘Hyperion has had a long time to make more enemies, Vulcan. Even when we left we knew that there were others that may have considered going with us; others that could have swung either way, meaning they couldn’t be told of our plans because of the risk. Perhaps one or more of those others is up there now, and they’re waiting to see what we do. Either way it doesn’t matter, if we don’t have to move, than we don’t, our main objective is those Nanites. We have to give them time to compromise the Dreadnaughts systems. I figure if they don’t look like they know we’re here, then we continue to pretend like we’re a rock and tough it out.’
Vulcan nodded. ‘I agree, I just hate this waiting. I want to get up there and take that bastards head off now, preferably with my own hands.’
Loki nodded in understanding; he knew the story of what Hyperion had done to Vulcan when he was still a youth and he sympathized.
It took just over an hour of waiting, listening to Hyperion’s plans and self aggrandizement before the ships above them began to move. As they had originally suspected, he was sending the older Orion and Khopesh class ships through the portal first. A device had been built and fitted to one of their ships; it would hold the portal open while they went through.
The real reason why he had blathered on for so long in his little speech had soon became abundantly clear. Tae thought his reasoning was brilliantly worded; he had said he was offering them the spoils of their greatest war yet, and a major part in Titan history, all above the needs and wants of the newer Dreadnaughts and their Captains. He’d actually made it sound like he was doing them all a favor, and one that they should be eternally grateful for.
Bloody hell, she thought, talk about sending the troops off with a smile on their faces, if anyone now dared to question his orders they would seen to be ungrateful cowards.
She was only now coming to terms with what Vulcan had told her, she knew that Hyperion was cruel and ruthless, but she had been unprepared for just how exceedingly cunning he was. That made him even more dangerous in Tae’s eyes. She let all her thoughts flow to Brightmoon who returned them to her in total agreeance, this was the one they had to destroy; the others were superfluous. She knew now that Latrissa was right. Hyperion was the true enemy, everyone that followed him in the other Dreadnaughts came a long second. She thought that perhaps some of the others might be able to be turned against him, in the right circumstances. It seemed that it was going to be up to them to provide those circumstances. As the last of the ships rounded the far side of the moon and head out towards the portal everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief that their charade on the moon had worked. Apart from that scan, everything so far was going pretty much according to plan. Unfortunately, now a new problem had arisen, if they tried to follow the departing Dreadnaughts they would be seen, and if they tried to send Zeus a message, they would give away their position. In other words, they were stuck where they were until the nanites had reached saturation point.
‘Any plans for what we do next?’ asked Tae turning to both Loki and Vulcan.
‘Obviously we have to wait, we can’t move until those nanites have control, at least of the other dreadnaughts. Until then we’ll just have to sit tight,’ said Loki. ‘As soon as Brightmoons ready we come out of hiding, and then we challenge Hyperion to a fight.’
For the next week they sat there silently, watching as the enemy fleet made its way towards the portal. After they had moved out of their sensor range the Brightmoon and Vulcan began to extrapolate their position by judging their last known course heading and speed, including the braking maneuvers that would have to occur before they hit the portal. When Brightmoon thought that the first wave of Orion and Khopesh class destroyers would be nearing the portal she informed Tae, who in turn informed Loki and Vulcan.
During this time of suspenseful waiting Tae had begun to think about what Latrissa had told her about her vision, something kept gnawing at her. Why did the seer say she couldn’t defeat Hyperion unless she became what she was? What in all the seven hells was that cryptic remark supposed to mean? To Tae it made no sense, what was different about her now? Then it struck her, she was a Captain of one of the god’s ships, and she had been trying to act like one, well, one that the Gods were used to anyway. She had allowed the logical vampire part of her personality free reign and had tried to do everything by the book. Perhaps that was the whole problem. Hyperion had a bigger, more heavily armed ship, and he was a ruthless battle hardened commander, could they really go toe to toe with him?
No, that’s what Latrissa meant, if we go toe to toe with him we’ll lose, and that would also give those on this side the impetus to continue on with their plan. We’d have thrown our best at them and come up short! I need to start thinking like I used to, we need another plan, and quickly. She immediately called up some of her music and began to think.
Two hours later Brightmoon informed them that by her calculations she should now have full control over the enemy dreadnaughts weapons and communications, possibly more, she wouldn’t be one hundred percent certain until she was fully in range. At the news both Loki and Vulcan returned to the bridge.
‘It’s time, Captain, bring her up,’ said Loki as he turned to Dolath. ‘When we reach orbit signal Zeus as to where they are, and then open up a direct channel to Hyperion, it’s time we had a chat.’
Tae didn’t move because she’d had an idea, one that could give them a much needed edge. ‘May I make a suggestion, My Lords? She asked looking towards the two Gods.
Loki nodded, looking at her expectantly.
‘With Brightmoons new hyperspace capabilities, why don’t we make a jump? We can come out into normal space just behind his ship and surprise him, as soon as we come out of hyperspace we can open up with everything we’ve got. Brightmoon can handle the other dreadnaughts and any repairs she may need, while we handle the battle with Hyperion.’
‘No! I need him to see who it is that’s challenging him,’ said Vulcan as he turned quickly to look at Loki. ‘She doesn’t understand what this means, don’t rob me of my vengeance now, Loki, I’ve waited a lifetime for this moment.’
Before Loki could reply Tae hopped out of her seat and faced both of them, she’d quickly come up with a minor amendment to her scheme.
‘What if you contact him and have your say like you want, but instead of doing it before we leave, you can do it the moment we come out of hyperspace? You still get to berate him, but we’d still have the element of surprise on our side. We’ll be ready to unleash on him as soon as you finish saying hello, just like in my original plan.’
Loki turned to Vulcan questioningly as the huge god pondered Tae’s amended plan. ‘I suppose that would suffice; can we be ready as soon as we break back into normal space,’ he asked turning to look at Dolath.
‘I will be ready at your command, Lord Vulcan, I will have a channel prepared and waiting for immediate transmission alongside the channel with the information I am to send to your armada at the portal.’
Vulcan looked over at Loki and grinned in anticipation. ‘It’s agreed then, I say hello, and then we unleash hell on his arse.’
Loki swung his gaze back to Tae once more. ‘Well done, Captain, once again you have managed to give us a chance,’ he said softly before turning his gaze back to the rest of the crew, ‘Arm all stations, prepare for imminent battle.’
He then turned back to Tae, ‘Take her up. It’s time!’
***
Tae
would remember the next several hours for the rest of her life. Not for the outstanding brilliance of her plan; but for how everything turned to shit so quickly.
Chapter 34
Brightmoon powered back up fully and moved into orbit above Rushla, Tae had told her of her plan and she knew she was ready. Loki had now moved to stand beside Claysal at the main weapons console. He had decided to he wanted to take charge of the pulse cannons, the smaller laser batteries, as well as the large rail guns. He’d left Claysal with all of the missiles batteries, including their supply of buzz bombs. Vulcan hovered midway between Tae’s seat and Loki’s console, his body rigid, and his eyes glued to the view screen.
As soon as Brightmoon informed Tae she had done the calculations for the jump, she gave the order to continue. Once again they felt the ship start to vibrate as her massive engines built power, soon after, beams flashed out from what they were now calling, her emitters. This time how-ever, Brightmoon was already moving much more quickly than her first “jump” as she entered the shimmering dark haze in front of them. No-one had any idea what a disaster that small difference would cause until it was too late.
Once again they felt the same uncomfortable aching in their bones as they entered the void; finally they were away. When it was nearly time to exit back into real space, Tae informed Loki, she felt the tension on the bridge ratchet up another notch as everyone got ready.
As they came out of hyperspace several things started to happen at once. The first- and most disturbing- was the imminent proximately alarm that began to scream through-out the ship. Tae gasped as she saw where they were, either Brightmoons calculations were wrong, or Hyperion and his fleet had started breaking maneuvers far earlier than anticipated. They had come out of hyperspace a little over a thousand kilometers behind them, worse still; they had once again picked up speed. Brightmoon was barreling towards Hyperion’s ship at a frightening rate.
