Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10)

by Christian Kallias

  If I may make a suggestion, said Drakos. Now may not be the best time to think about and discuss these things. The more I have to pilot for you when you’re distracted, the more energy is consumed.

  The ship acted as his conscience and helped him focus on the task at hand. Fighting in a starfighter had always been a personal, if not sometimes lonely, affair, but now, with the artificial mind of Drakos bonded with his, Chase felt like he had a copilot with him.

  We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, thought Chase. Right now we have a fleet to destroy.

  Chris chuckled over the mental link.

  Your ship told you to stop screwing around and get back into the fight, didn’t it?

  Not in so many words, but yes. I take it yours did as well.

  Indeed, and pretty much in those exact words.

  Then let’s do what the ships want; we’re here to test them after all, not to worry about the future.

  Chase addressed everyone.

  “We now know the enemy starfighters don’t pose a shadow of a threat to soul ships, even with fifty against one; let’s see how they fare against Fury super-destroyers.”

  “Gladly,” said Argos.

  They vectored toward the nearest destroyer while the other two destroyers were adjusting their headings to intercept them.

  Chase was the first to strike; he focused all his mental energy on taking down the destroyer’s shields; a continuous beam of purple plasma shot from his fighter and impacted with the Fury destroyer. It drained the shields in a matter of seconds, but Chase felt a severe depletion of his energy while it did so.

  The moment the shields were down, Drakos stopped firing.

  What the hell? Why did you stop firing?

  The plasma is very effective against shields, but as you sensed, it’s also very draining for you. The next attack will also be costly regarding energy, but not nearly as much as the weapon would have been.

  Chase’s fighter was engulfed in a dragon-shaped, purple aura, and it accelerated beyond any sub-light speeds he was accustomed to on a StarFury. The dragon form around Chase’s ship opened its mouth as it pierced through, and devoured, the Fury super-destroyer at its center. The enemy ship broke in half, its decks exposed to the atmosphere as crewmen were sucked out to space and flash-frozen.

  Seconds later, twin explosions vaporized both halves of the destroyer.

  “Holy shit!” exclaimed Chris.

  Chase checked his pool of energy and noticed he was already down to less than half, but taking down that destroyer had been as simple as just willing it.

  “You can say that again,” said Argos as he set his ship on course toward the next destroyer.

  His starfighter, engulfed in a red snake aura, shot toward the Fury destroyer much like a furious comet while shooting a continuous red plasma beam, making short change of the target’s shields. Arriving at its destination, the ship twirled around the super-destroyer. The aura-snake wrapped itself around the ship several times and started constricting its prey. The result was devastating, as a cascade of bright explosions lit the sky obliterating the destroyer.

  The last destroyer turned tail and was about to open a hyperspace window when Tigris transformed into a roaring green tiger. It produced a shockwave that struck the Fury super-destroyer, overloading its engines, and destabilizing the nearly formed hyperspace window. Orange lightning bolts shot from the vanishing hyperspace window and arced against the Fury destroyer, taking down its shields and creating multiple small hull explosions that disabled the ship.

  Tigris slashed its gigantic claw as it vectored toward its prey. It tore the Fury destroyer to pieces and sent it straight to hell in a satisfying display of firework explosions and green-tinged flames.

  “Wow,” said Sarah, “now I kinda regret proposing to stay behind and providing cover you obviously didn’t need.”

  “Well, there were only three destroyers, anyway,” answered Chris with a chuckle.

  “Do you guys also feel exhilarated?” asked Argos. “And a massive drain in energy levels?”

  “Yep,” said Chris.

  “Same here, but yeah, I never thought anything could do that much damage and take out a Fury super-destroyer with such ease, but let’s not get cocky. The energy cost to our bodies is significant, and we’d be hard-pressed to think we can win every battle this way. Let’s not forget that the next time we go to Erevos, taking care of ships might not be our main focus.”

  “Agreed,” said Sarah. “And I’d like to point out that Spectre Arakan still has forces at his disposal. I doubt those were his last ships.”

  “Probably not,” said Chase.

  “Chase is correct,” added Argos. “We may have to fight Spectre Arakan soon and using half of our powers to take out super-destroyers in such a fashion will not be an option. We do need to train and gain more power, that much is certain, and we have to focus on making sure Spectre Arakan is dealt with once and for all.”

  Chase reacted to Argos’ comment, feeling a sense of dread as a shiver ran through his entire body like someone had stepped over his grave. He felt deeply that this war would still see its fair share of sacrifices and pain before it was over.

  There’s nothing you can do about it, said Drakos. Just walk the path and do the best you can.

  That didn’t alleviate Chase's concerns, but with the absence of Ares, he enjoyed the strong bound that he was forging with Drakos.

  “Let’s get back to the barn,” proposed Argos. “We need to start training as soon as possible.”

  “That sounds like fun,” said Chris cheerfully, even though Chase could tell he still felt concerned about his mother.

  “Setting a course for the Victory,” said Chase.

  All four soul ships entered the same hyperspace window and vanished from the orbit of Thanos Five, leaving behind a solemn and burning graveyard of flying Fury debris.

  Spiros and Gaia had been carefully advancing inside Morgor’s ship, trying to reach the landing bay where Spiros hoped they could get away by stealing a ship, preferably something fast.

  He would need to get the tractor beam offline to make a clean escape. Spiros remembered that Chase had once jumped from inside a ship, though the fact that the Iron Fire was exploding when that happened might be the reason that particular maneuver had worked.

  One thing was certain; Spiros didn’t want to overstay his welcome. The more time passed, the more his dread grew, fearing they wouldn’t manage to get back to the lab in time.

  He pushed his thoughts aside as they hit a snag. They had reached a cul-de-sac even though the schematics told him there was a corridor behind what was clearly a solid wall. At least it looked like one.

  Were the schematics obsolete or had some renovations been done? He wondered.

  “What do we do now?” inquired Gaia.

  “Gimme a sec.”

  Spiros glanced around to determine how much time it would take to retrace their steps and find a detour or another way to the landing bay. He grimaced when he realized it would result in a half hour diversion, unless they took a more direct approach and risked encountering guards along the way. His sensors were already showing a rise in life-sign activity.

  By now, Morgor and his crew had ransacked the transport and realized that Spiros and Gaia must have beamed away before being captured. That meant the more time passed, the higher the chances of them being discovered and caught.

  That left them with few choices, and when Gaia took a panel off a nearby wall, Spiros realized that she had arrived at the same conclusion.

  “Let’s use the Jefferies tube.”

  Spiros hated closed environments, and it reminded him of his time on Damocles-3 when every day for months he had to crawl into tubes, hide in false-flooring, and hide in the most inconspicuous and usually uncomfortable places.

  Right now they had little choice, so after a long sigh, he gestured toward her.

  “After you.”

  Gaia grabbed the wall ladder an
d climbed out of view. Spiros followed her and quickly realized why he should have gone first. Looking at Gaia’s perfect form was not only distracting, but it also aroused him.

  Stop it! Now is not the time for this, he told himself.

  Soon, they arrived at a junction and had to crawl into an even smaller space, inside a ventilation shaft.

  According to the schematics, they only needed to proceed for one hundred feet, and then they could exit the shaft on the other side of the wall that blocked their way earlier.

  Spiros heard eerie metallic clicking echoing behind him. He turned his head, a difficult endeavor in such a tight space, and immediately regretted his decision of checking what originated the sound when he saw a spider drone emerge from the ventilation shaft and walk toward him.

  “We’ve got company,” he said, accelerating his pace even though he was still looking back, his eyes glued to the spider.

  When he felt his shoulder impact something soft in front of him, he turned his head back and landed his nose right in between Gaia’s legs who had stopped advancing. Spiros instinctively retracted his head. His entire face turned red.

  “That was a strange sensation,” said Gaia.

  Spiros swallowed hard.

  “Here,” she added as she handed him a blaster. “Shoot the thing.”

  “I hate spiders.”

  “It’s just a drone, probably a maintenance one. The spider shape allows it to easily crawl where it’s difficult for a life form to do so. But we don’t want it reporting our presence here. You’re in my way, so you’ll have to shoot it.”

  While usually Spiros would continue to complain, he was just happy Gaia didn’t seem focused on his faux pas of burying his nose in her crotch. The simple thought aroused him even more.

  He grabbed the blaster.

  “I’ve set it to a lower setting, no need to attract too much attention,” said Gaia.

  “Good thinking.”

  Spiros painfully turned around and put himself on his back to line the shot. Gaia was right about the spider drone being a maintenance one as it was scanning one of the side panels, which gave Spiros the time he needed to aim.

  “What’s wrong with your pants?” asked Gaia.

  Spiros’ heartbeat accelerated. He looked down and saw that his pants protruded a little.

  “Nothing’s wrong! Can you please look away, I’m no sharpshooter and knowing you’re looking at me might make me miss.”

  Gaia did as he instructed, and Spiros took a deep breath before realigning his aim. The spider drone had started cutting through the paneling it had scanned earlier, making it an easy mark.

  Spiros shot it dead on, and the spider was propelled backward, falling on its back as lightning bolts sizzled over its body. The spider’s jerking legs gave Spiros the creeps.

  He handed the blaster back to Gaia when suddenly everything around them turned red, and an alarm wailed.

  “Crap!”

  Before they could get out of the ventilation shaft, gas quickly filled the space.

  “Don’t breathe,” said Spiros.

  But Gaia had already collapsed.

  Fuck!

  Spiros squeezed around her, grabbed her hand, and tried dragging her forward, but he couldn’t see anything. The more effort he put into the task, the more difficult it became to move forward, his lungs burning from lack of air. When the pain became too intense, he had to breathe, and his mind turned black in a matter of seconds.

  7

  Chase stood outside the door for several minutes, contemplating, then pressed his finger to the doorbell control.

  Menelas answered and smiled.

  “Please come in, Chase.”

  Chase stepped into his father’s quarters on the Victory. They had only been back aboard for less than an hour when Sarah had insisted that he visit his father and have a long, much-needed talk.

  He had argued that now was not the time, but she had won that fight. Chase felt disconnected and estranged from Menelas. And part of him blamed Menelas for everything that had happened and all the lives lost. Sure, Argos had been the recipient of Chase’s anger at the beginning of his journey, but his father had helped make sure the Furies weren’t killed ten thousand years ago.

  That was something Chase had trouble accepting. Nonetheless, as Sarah pointed out, Menelas deserved the same chance he had given his once evil brother.

  “I’m glad you came to see me,” said Menelas. “I hear your first soul ship flight was a busy one.”

  “It was, but I’m glad it happened. We at least know their capabilities, which makes me wonder why they weren’t used to win the first Fury War. It seems like such powerful ships could have helped defeat the Furies.”

  “You’re not wasting any time getting to the questions I feel are boiling at the surface of your mind. But I guess I can understand that. First of all, I’m sorry for everything you and your brother had to go through. I know I’ve played a major role in that and if I knew things would turn out that way…”

  But Menelas didn’t finish his train of thought.

  Chase could relate; if he had known things beforehand, he also would have acted differently. In fact, it was probably a quintessential part of life to look back at what could have been if past decisions had been addressed differently.

  “I— I wish I could say I don’t blame you. But you’re my father, and while I don’t feel a bond between us, at least not at the moment, I’m hoping we can form one.”

  “I understand, Chase, and I need you to know that nothing would please me more. Now, about the ships and your previous question. You must have noticed how taxing they are on your system.”

  “That I have; in fact, I think I’ll take a cycle in a regen tank later.”

  “Yes, and you are an Ultra Fury, a level of Fury warrior Erevos has never seen before. You’re literally the stuff of legends, Chase. Both you, Argos, and Chris are the evolution of our race.”

  “I don’t know about evolution; I think what gives us our powers is our Olympian genes.”

  “I don’t dispute that, but who is to say this wasn’t meant to happen. The legend of Ultra Fury runs deep in our culture. It was prophesized long before the first Fury War.”

  “I’m not sure what you’re getting at?”

  “That even with your level of power, using the soul ships is costly for you, so imagine what it would do to someone with only a fraction of your powers.”

  Chase hadn’t thought of that.

  “Could the previous pilots have…?”

  “Died? It’s a possibility. I was already in Arakan’s cell when the planet shifted to the other dimension, so I don’t know what happened to them. Perhaps now that you formed a bond with your ship, you could ask it.”

  That was something else Chase hadn’t thought of.

  “That’s a good idea.”

  “So, the short answer to your question is that no previous pilot had the necessary power to wield them as a war weapon. Even if Zeus hadn’t asked us to spare the Furies, I’m not sure the former pilots could have managed to make the weapon work.”

  “What makes you think that? Is it a hunch or is your comment based on facts?”

  “A little of both. Back then, I was the one tasked to get Kvasir to modify the weapon. While I’m no slouch with technology, I usually tended to ignore his ramblings about the weapon. In those times, I was more preoccupied with finding a safe hiding place for the two of you. But I remember him saying something about the weapon when he modified it, and that the power output from the test flight logs made it doubtful that the ships could work with their current pilots.”

  Again, the concept of destiny washed over Chase. If what his father told him were true, then it solidified the belief that everything that had happened was for a reason. Chase made a mental note to see his aunt later. He hadn’t checked on her since she was put in suspended animation.

  “So, Argos and I are effectively ten thousand years old?”

  “You’d
have to ask Argos; he told me you only possess a limited set of memories. And he wasn’t keen on telling me much about his past, something about not liking who he was before the two of you fought and you almost killed him.”

  That’s ironic, thought Chase. He had been the one that didn’t want to know about his past, at least not until this war was over. But it seemed Argos now felt the same, except he had to deal with his past, his decisions, and his conscience.

  By not knowing, Chase was shielding himself from all of that so he could focus on accomplishing the task he had promised Aphroditis. And now that she was at death’s door, Chase would not break that promise. Even if part of him longed to know who he once was.

  “In his shoes, I’d also be reluctant. It feels weird to think that perhaps I’m missing so many memories. Maybe even ten thousand years worth.”

  “Perhaps not. For your own protection, I left you both in suspended animation. I obviously have no idea for how long and what happened after that.”

  “Then perhaps when this is all over, we can all talk about it.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “One more question, how many Furies defected back then? Or were you the only one.”

  “Only a handful; why?”

  “Were they the former pilots?”

  “Only my best friend was one of them. The other four pilots were of different races.”

  Interesting…

  “Which races?”

  “One was Asgardian, one an Olympian, and one a Dragonmen of Kyrian.”

  “Argos once mentioned them to me. Wasn’t their world lost long before the first war?”

  Menelas nodded. “Only a few thousand of them escaped the destruction of their world. Or so history says. Legend has it that they’ve been in hiding ever since, regrouping and growing their numbers for a time when they might be needed again. At least that is what the Dragonman pilot told me.”

  “Another prophecy?”

  “Perhaps, but each race in the universe has their legends and prophecies. As for the pilot, Askanor, he wasn’t exactly a chatty guy.”

  “But he must have been a powerful being to be chosen as a pilot.”