Tarizon, Conquest Earth, Tarizon Trilogy Vol 3

by William Manchee

Lt. Lethrow circled his fighter around the Loyalist ship, looking for any signs of life or other potential trouble for the boarding party. As the Purist battle cruiser got close to the Earth’s Destiny Lt. Lethrow suddenly saw his sensors light up—the ship was powering up.

  “Abort!” he screamed. “The power’s back on! Weapons systems are reactivating!”

  “Pull back, HH. It’s a trap!” Evohn shouted. Just then, he saw two large ports open up on Earth’s Destiny, and a stream of plasma shot out, first from one and then the other. Lt. Lethrow watched in horror as the plasma breached the hull of Humanities Hope and oozed into the interior of the attack cruiser. He pulled his fighter away from the cruiser and gave it full throttle just as the great ship blew up, sending debris in every direction and narrowly missing him.

  “Oh, my God!” the admiral said. “What kind of weapon is that?”

  “A plasma cannon,” Lt. Lethrow moaned. “They were only experimental as far as I knew. They must have just recently perfected them.”

  “Or sent out some prototypes for field testing,” Cystrom spat. “Get us out of here! There’s nothing more we can do to Earth’s Destiny. I doubt she’s flight worthy anyway.”

  “But what about Humanities Hope?” Lt. Hanze asked.

  Vice Admiral Cystrom glared at him. “Did you see that explosion? There’s nothing left of her. Pull in our fighters and let’s get out of here. Now!”