by Kyle Mata
“Time to go,” Karr said.
“Is it? So soon?” The lion head turned toward Karr. With a smooth motion he flexed and bulged, snapping the mil-grade orbit-cord with ease. Orbit-cord is used to tether helio-chutes to atmospheric drop-pods and was advertised as unbreakable. Karr swung at the Rae, harder this time, hitting it again in the face. But it made a twisted grin, as much as a lion snout could smile. He then swatted at Karr, and the Shadowri was launched backward toward the dome wall.
“Daena. Run.” Karr said, recovering and drawing his katana. Daena looked between Karr and the Rae, the lion head releasing a powerful roar. She hesitated for a moment before running out the door and toward the hangar bay.
The Rae noticed the thick aura of protection the large human had for the smaller one. Rather than fight the large one, he would exploit the human weakness and kill the small one.
Karr prepared to faceoff with the Rae when it suddenly turned and ran out the door, after Daena, with incredible agility. In a nanosecond, Karr was running after it; he drew his MAGE rifle and powered it up to full.
Daena sprinted down the corridors of the ship, taking care to avoid the trap-circles. She heard a pounding of heavy footsteps behind her. The lion Rae was quickly gaining ground, such a large figure moved faster than she had expected. She ducked around a corner as a volley of gaseous purple pulses shot in her direction out of the handle of its ornate sword. The Rae rounded after her and aimed again, when Karr’s third cartographer probe suddenly pinged off the Rae’s head, momentarily distracting the alien.
Karr caught up and fired a burst of fully charged rounds at the Rae, the rounds impacted and pierced it’s shield. The Rae staggered for a moment as the rounds slammed into its gold armor, but it continued chasing after Daena. The carty took its place aside it’s brethren on the back of Karr’s armor.
Daena made it to the door leading into the small hangar. The door hadn’t slid open automatically like all the others had.
“Roux? Roux, it’s Daena! I’m locked out of the hangar,” Daena called into her helmet mounted microphone.
“Hold on, Daena, I managed to lock it down in case they landed in the hangar and overwhelmed…” Roux didn’t finish her statement. “I have to get to the console to open it up— give me two minutes,” she said. Daena heard pounding footsteps getting closer behind her.
“I may not have two minutes!” Daena said, bringing her acquired Rae sword to bear.
The Rae rounded the corner, raising his blade in the direction of Daena. “The large one will be quite vulnerable once I have slaughtered you.” He licked his snout.
Daena adjusted her grip on the heavy sword and took a wide stance. The Rae merely laughed before charging at Daena, but was suddenly interrupted as Karr slammed full speed into the gold-clad monster.
The two colossi fought and struggled on the floor while Daena watched and waited for Roux to get the door open. She wanted to intervene but didn’t want to get in the way of Karr.
Karr rolled on top of the Rae and began pummeling him with reinforced blows to the face. The Rae flexed him off and returned the punches, striking Karr with incredible speed and force. Karr took a few steps back and brought his katana to bear. The Rae regained his sword and snarled. The two charged one another and began to slash and parry with break-neck speed and skill.
They were equals. The Rae acknowledged that this human might even be his superior in terms of swordsmanship. But there was a weakness the human had that the Rae did not.
Karr’s assault forced the Rae back. Karr fought with a precision and intensity like the Rae had never witnessed before. But it still wasn’t enough. The lion Rae countered every slash and swing Karr made. He counterattacked and pushed Karr back, further and further. No one had ever been better than Karr—no one. Karr couldn’t help but feel that he had met his match.
Karr did everything he could—invoked every skill, every ounce of training he had ever received—just to fend off the unrelenting battering the Rae was delivering. A lesser fighter would have been cut down within seconds.
“You know, I think I’ll leave you alive, just barely. I’ll yank that helmet off, so I may see the look on your face when you witness as I skin the small human alive,” The lion Rae said with a nod toward Daena, who still stood at the door. The Rae crashed its sword down hard, as Karr caught the blade with his Tirium katana, leaving the two with razor sharp blades centimeters away from each of their faces in a deadly standoff. “I’m going to take pleasure in her death; I’m going to enjoy enslaving your race. I want you to know, I am called Sydens. And I am going to kill you both.”
Karr unleashed a power inside him that he rarely let loose: a power that only reared its head when there were matters of life and death to be dealt with. It was a power that meant the difference between wanting to win and needing to win. It was a beast within Karr, an engine. A power passed down to him by his ancestors.
The Rae noticed an aura of strength stronger than any it had ever witnessed before.
Karr pushed the Rae back with a heavy shoulder. He then swung down with all his might. The Rae raised its sword to block, but the Tirium katana glowed brightly as the two blades connected, and the Rae’s sword shattered. The Rae stood aghast. Karr took advantage of the moment and yanked the Rae into his grasp, holding his katana blade a centimeter from its neck.
“You’re coming with us,” Karr growled. A live Rae prisoner, the head of the fleet, would be a priceless trophy.
“Very well, I have been beaten. But you have a choice to make...” The lion Rae aimed the hilt of the broken blade and fired. A single purple pulse leapt forward before Karr could swat the hilt to the ground. He was a split second too late. The pulse struck the trap-circle switch in front of Daena. Daena looked at Karr, her eyes widened with fear. The circle disappeared and immediately sucked her in. The circle reappeared and Daena was gone before she could utter a word of distress. “…A prisoner, or the one you wish to protect.”
Karr was furious. He kicked the Rae in the back with all his might, sending it headlong into the bulkhead. With a strong double-fisted blow, he smashed the thin covering over the trap-circle in the floor. He was sucked down into the vacuum.
“Bring all remaining fighters back on board. I want them rearmed and refueled for the exfiltration. Keep all armed interceptors, and fighter-bombers on combat air patrol near the carrier,” Thomas stated.
The battle could have gone worse, not by much, but at least his ship was still intact. And if there was a snowball’s chance in the abyss to rescue his friends, he was going to take it. As he looked around the bridge, he saw good people; he saw men and women who believed in what they did. They believed in the Nyrotsi values, the fleet, and Admiral Majex. Majex had invested trust in him, so they passed their trust unto Thomas by default. They had no allegiance to Roux, Daena, and Karr, though, and he couldn’t ask the crew to die for them. This carrier was tough, but it wasn’t tough enough to stand against the Rae fleet alone.
“Belay that order. Do we have any pelican-class dropships onboard?” Thomas asked.
“No, sir. All pelican-class are on planet-side duty. We do have new peregrine-class dropships for the Nightfang aboard, though.” His first officer informed him. Lieutenant Joanna Nova, the first officer, was a serious woman who knew the Cloak of Atlas inside and out. She had the entire ship manifest memorized as well as her daughters’ birthdays.
“Prep one dropship for launch, gunship configuration. Then get the Atlas ready to jump to rendezvous point bravo.”
“Sir?”
“The boarding party will not be abandoned, but I won’t risk the entire crew of this carrier either. Prep the dropship, please, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Daena was jostled through the cold dark innards of the ship, she scrambled for her breathing apparatus. Judging by the temperature and suction, she figured there was one large empty destination she was headed toward. She expected to be scared and panicked but she
felt more focused—and angry.
She finally found the mask and pulled it on seconds before she was ejected into the void of space. She floated softly away from the large Rae ship. She did her best not to move. If she was going to float helplessly in space for the rest of her short life, she’d rather not be spinning in dizzying circles while she slowly suffocated.
As she tried to open a comm line with Roux she couldn’t help but notice how beautiful space was. No ray shield or viewport could ever do true justice to the magnificence of raw space seen by the naked eye. She was suddenly grabbed by something, then enveloped in a full embrace. It was Karr; he must have jumped down after her, meaning he forfeited the Rae prisoner and the capital ship.
As soon as he had her firmly in his grasp, he rotated them both as if shielding her from something she couldn’t see. A moment later, they were both suddenly—violently—shot on a trajectory parallel to the capital ship.
A Rae fighter had collided with Karr at full intercept speed. The kesbar metal the Shadowri armor was comprised of was strong, the strongest metal known to mankind, but even it had its limits. The fighter spun off course and crashed into the other fighters in the tight formation, resulting in a bright explosion. Karr and Daena spun quickly and sickeningly away from the ship. Small fragments of his armor scattered away.
“Karr? Karr!” Karr had gone somewhat limp and was completely unresponsive. Daena tried to focus on him, as looking out at her spinning surroundings would make her queasy. Roux finally opened the comm line.
“Daena? Sorry it’s taking me so long, this door—”
“ROUX! I need you at my location now! I’ll turn on my micro-transponder. I’m with Karr. I think he’s hurt, and I’m getting real cold out here,” Daena interrupted. She turned on the transponder which would transmit her location to Roux and any other nearby allies.
“You’re off the ship!? I’m on my way, just hang on.”
“Hurry!” Daena and Karr continued to spin quickly toward the planet Carmine. “Karr, stay with me. You’re too tough to die. KARR, answer me, you big thug! You can’t die on me.” Daena tried to look at his face, but all she could see was what she usually saw, the emotionless T-shaped visor. She pounded on his chest while sealed in his locked arms. The usual dim blue of the visor went dark as the Shadowri armor lost power, right before her eyes. “Karr, NO!”
CHAPTER 19
LIBER’TIRA
Roux raised the Athena’s Owl out of the hangar bay immediately. She had the engines prepped and running already. As she slipped out of the hangar field, she noticed several Rae boarding craft entering the more central hangar bays. She knew she would only have a few seconds to find Daena and Karr before she was swarmed by fighters.
She closed and sealed the cockpit, allowing her to lower the entry ramp in the vacuum. She vented the passenger bay to equalize the pressure with the void and roared toward her friends. She was locked on Daena’s transponder. They were getting dangerously close to the thick atmosphere of Carmine.
Roux located the pair spinning uncontrollably. She set the navigational computer to track and match their speed when, suddenly, an alarm klaxon rang out. Four Rae fighters were incoming, two missiles were locked and approaching. Roux yanked hard and activated the point-defense rail guns newly mounted in the tail of her beloved ship.
The rail guns fired with great precision at a speed of two thousand rounds per minute, shredding the two incoming missiles. Roux let out a short breath of relief. The klaxon ceased, but only for a moment—two more missiles were incoming. The rail-guns fired again, and the missiles were taken care of. But then rail gun alerts popped up on her console, both were running low on ammo.
The missile klaxon sounded again. She watched on her scope as two missiles closed on her ship. As she approached Karr and Daena, she got further and further away from any debris she could use for cover. The missiles came into range and the rail guns spat once more. One missile was destroyed before the alert read ‘EMPTY.’ The missile was too close now for any significant maneuvers, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try. She turned the ship around with a violent yank and headed straight toward the incoming fighters. If she could just jink out of the way of the missile at the last second…
There was a bright flash as the incoming missile exploded off the port of the Athena’s Owl, just outside of damaging range. Her forward viewport was washed with light, harmless fragments pinged off the shield. After the missile, three of the Rae fighters blew up in rapid succession. Taking advantage of the good fortune, Roux locked onto the last remaining fighter and loosed a pair of vanguard mk. III missiles. The fighter was too close to evade them and was obliterated upon impact.
“You’re clear for the moment.” Thomas’s voice came over comms. She registered a Nyrotsi dropship on her scope now. Roux held on tight and allowed the navigational computer to take over. Karr and Daena were scooped into the open ramp. It closed and quickly filled with atmosphere.
“We’re in!” Daena called to Roux, as Roux punched it toward the Cloak of Atlas. A massive group of Rae fighters had regrouped off the bow of the Rae capital ship and moved to intercept the rocket and the dropship. Thomas flew by her side, firing every gun and missile he had at the oncoming horde of Rae fighters.
The Cloak of Atlas opened fire with its mass-driver cannons. The massive slugs tore swathes into the oncoming fighters, destroying dozens at a time. Thomas had told them to jump once he had exited the hangar. He was glad they hadn’t. As they got closer and more and more Rae fighters were atomized by the cannons, the larger ships in the Rae fleet finally turned to deal with the carrier.
“Atlas, jump now!” Thomas called. The peregrine-class dropship was equipped with a small capacity warp-jump drive, useful for one jump before it needed new power cells. The Atlas unleashed one last volley toward the incoming Rae ships, then entered the glowing warp.
“Where are we going, Roux?!” Thomas asked, watching the remaining Rae fighters begin to approach again now that the carrier’s covering fire had ceased.
Roux called down into the passenger bay: “Where are we going? Does Karr need a medic? What about Hipocratia?” Missile lock warnings began to blare.
“He needs a doctor, but we need to get him out of this armor. What about Shadowri’tira?” Daena replied, knowing he was not welcome there, but also knowing time was not on their side. Suddenly Karr clamped his hand around Daena’s forearm, startling her.
“Liber’tira.” He muttered weakly.
“Liber’tira!” Daena called up to Roux, hoping Roux would know what that even was, as Daena hadn’t a clue.
Luckily, Roux did know. She sent the coordinates to Thomas, and both ships leapt into the warp, leaving the incoming missiles to sail off harmlessly into space.
Liber’tira was the sole moon of Shadowri’tira. However due to the extreme density of the planet, the moon was on such a far orbit that it could arguably be considered a small planet on its own. Liber’tira is technically uninhabitable, lacking an atmosphere. Roux knew Liber’tira was the moon of Shadowri’tira, that much anyone could learn from studying a star map of the area, but aside from that she figured it was just like any other large space rock.
Roux was careful to approach the moon from the opposite side of Shadowri’tira. Although the planet was small and distant in the viewport, she still didn’t want to tangle with the feared and respected Shadowri planetary defensive network. She didn’t know what to do as she approached the moon. Though large, it looked barren and devoid of life, as expected. Why had Karr told her to jump here? Suddenly she was hailed from an unknown source.
“Unidentified vessel, please state your business,” A woman’s voice asked politely, but sternly.
“This is the Athena’s Owl. I have an injured Shadowri onboard; he needs help. The Nyrotsi dropship is my… um… escort,” Roux replied, unsure of what to say, or whom she was even speaking with. There was silence for a long while. She kept her eyes on the scope, preparing to perfo
rm evasive maneuvers.
Finally, a reply came, but the voice was deep, an older man’s voice. “Athena’s Owl and dropship escort, you are cleared to land in docking bay A-zero one.” A hole opened up in the moon as a camouflaged hangar door slid away. Imaginary guidance lights appeared in her HUD guiding her in. “I was wondering when you’d finally show up.” The voice said, then the comm closed.
“You’re expected?” Thomas asked via the tight-band comm connection they had established post warp.
“I guess so…” Roux replied. She wasn’t sure if Karr had connections here or if she was walking into a trap, but as her landing gear touched down on the deck of docking bay A-zero one, she figured she would soon find out.
The Mason climbed down into the passenger bay. Karr was supine on the floor; his armor was very visibly damaged. Daena was still laying on top of him with his arms around her.
“Am I… uh… interrupting?” Roux asked, as she lowered the ramp.
“His armor locked in place. I can’t move,” Daena replied.
“Well, help is on the way, I think.”
As soon as the ramp touched the ground, two figures in Shadowri armor rushed up the ramp with a hover-sled between them. They found Karr on the floor and looked down at Daena in her peculiar position.
“His armor locked, okay?” She explained and turned red with embarrassment. They merely shrugged without passing judgement before hefting the pair onto the hover-sled, which on most worlds was used to move machinery or heavy tools, but for the Shadowri it was used the way other worlds would use a gurney or stretcher. They were pushed back down the ramp, with Roux following like a worried mother. The hangar bay was dark, illuminated only by a few red glow-panels, likely for tactical reasons. A Shadowri in dark green armor approached with Thomas at his side. His helmet was tucked under one arm. He had dark skin and even darker eyes, but they were not harsh; they seemed as though they contained a world all their own. He extended his free hand toward Roux.
