Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Both ships released eight warheads as the crew aboard the Winston Churchill and Wilfrid Laurier shielded their eyes in perpetration for the impending detonation. The two UNE ships waited at their safe destination away from the range of the blast. The Wilfrid Laurier’s warheads impacted first, the shield drone protecting the missiles transmitted its battle data to the two ships before it met its end. Winston Churchill’s barrage was fired a few seconds too late, the shield drone accompanying the warheads transmitted a self-detonation command to the eight missiles it was escorting to release its payload before the blast from the first barrage vaporized it.

  The end result was a cascade of sixteen nuclear explosions, bighting the skies of Saturn and its moons and smothering the Leviathan with a fiery sphere of death and radiation. The detonation was so large that the tail of it obliterated the Shade Flare in the process.

  The Leviathan’s shields held.

  Leviathan, Titan orbit, Sol system

  “We’ve lost starboard shields,” Ratix said.

  Yominv smiled, he was impressed that the Leviathan still was in one piece despite the blow it took. The human race’s single major advantage over the Hashmedai Empire now had a counter. “How’s our psionic team?”

  “Still recovering, we don’t have access to proper overshields.”

  “What a pity, was interested to see how that would perform,” he said. “Shut down all weapons and engines; transfer all remaining power to shields.”

  A shipwide status projection loaded, giving him live updates. Yominv observed that the shields did gain power from the power transfers. By his calculations it would take the humans several more shots from their atomic weapons to break through it. There was however a major trade off, that being the fact they can’t use weapons nor could they move. The Leviathan in its stance became nothing more than a nuclear bunker in space, until their psionic team recovered.

  He swiped across the holographic display several times until reports from the infirmary shuffled in. The psionics were still slightly dazed from the jump into the system. The doctors reported they wouldn’t be ready for service for at least several hours, with the exception of Noylarlie, who was surprisingly recovering fast.

  But not fast enough, they need to buy more time. The humans had more atomic weapons at their disposal and the fact the two ships haven’t moved from their position suggested they were in the process of loading more into their launchers. He looked at his adversaries and his tactical mind began to formulate a new plan, one that didn’t involve the Scathing Hand and Night Hunter. The Leviathan could survive multiple nuclear detonations, the rest of the Hashmedai ships could not the Shade Flare was proof of that.

  Wait, I recognize that one, he thought. The two human ships before them, one of them was at Uranus. One of them brought the device he had planned for the humans to find and bring aboard their ship. A computer virus, made specially to silently corrupt their systems. The plan was to unleash the malware on their systems when the time was right, when their fleets were gathered together to help spread it faster. But given their current situation and the fact that T’esih already ruined part of the plans he had concocted, he was left with no choice. It had to be done.

  “How many psionics are strong enough for a teleport?” Yominv asked Ratix.

  “Two, plus one on the surface of the moon with the brothers you recruited.”

  “Have the two psionics get ready for combat, and inform the three brothers to do the same.”

  “Two brothers now, one of them has fallen in combat.”

  “Well then, inform them they will have a chance to avenge him.”

  ESV Winston Churchill, Titan orbit, Sol system

  Petty Officer Lex Terry or so the humans called him, hid out of sight in an unoccupied corner of the lab. EVE along with several lab workers worked diligently, trying their best to keep their minds off the battle that was raging outside of the hull of the ship. It provided the perfect chance for him to reply to the incoming transmission. He activated his communication ear implant, Yominv’s voice said. “It’s time, are you ready?”

  “I convinced the android to link into it,” he said. “The malware can be uploaded at any time.”

  “Do it, and contact me when it’s done.”

  The transmission ended and he double-checked to ensure his assassin’s equipment and plasma daggers, hidden beneath his UNE uniform was good to go.

  They were.

  He stepped away from the corner he hid in and approached the device that had everyone’s attention. He began to tinker with it and forced a holographic display to appear. The hologram loaded with text from the Hashmedai language on it and with a series of interactive commands. He tapped the commands as everyone else in the lab gazed at him with a puzzled look. The hologram was asking him to confirm the release of the computer malware within it.

  “What are you doing?” a lab worker asked.

  His finger tapped twice on the confirmation icon on the hologram. ‘Upload in progress’ appeared next. He smiled knowing that in the next few seconds, the malware would disable the mind shield of the Winston Churchill then promptly spread to the closest ship, the Wilfrid Laurier then later the rest of the UNE network and ships.

  EVE and the rest of the lab workers continued to pester him, demanding to know what he did and why. He gave his response by altering his DNA, shifting the appearance of his body from a human to Hashmedai, a Hashmedai assassin at that. The one EDF failed to kill when they first boarded the Uranus outpost.

  “It’s done,” he transmitted to Yominv as he powered his plasma daggers.

  Horrific screams of terror and blood gushing out from dismembered bodies echoed throughout the section of the habitat ring the lab was located on.

  Leviathan, Titan orbit, Sol system

  Both Onatiasha and Zhinbryo hated the idea of masquerading as loyal members of the Celestial Order, who made up the entire ships manifest. The two of them stood side by side next to several warriors, guardians and riflemen as ordered by Yominv for an assault. Di’aria and another psionic entered, she was placed in a group with Onatiasha and Zhinbryo, two warriors and another guardian. While the other psionic was grouped up with the other half of the assault team.

  Once the two teams were finalized they were briefed as to what would happen next. The two human ships lost their mind shields, making it possible for Hashmedai psionics to teleport aboard. They were to be part of a boarding party. Figures, she thought. They still don’t trust us; of course they’ll want us on this mission to see how loyal we are.

  The order was given for the two groups to teleport over to the Winston Churchill as its mind shields were down and there was an asset aboard Yominv wanted protected. Onatiasha nodded to Di’aria, she nodded back and hoped Di’aria was still on the same page as she and Zhinbryo were.

  ESV Winston Churchill, Titan orbit, Sol system

  The battle transferred from space to the interior of the Winston Churchill as three groups of Hashmedai teleported aboard. One on the habitat ring, two others on main fuselage, one of them came from the surface of Titan being Iekia and Gorar. The two surviving brothers were still full of rage and hate at the death of their younger brother Tenery. They joined this campaign to strike back at the humans, who were responsible for the death of their father during the invasion. Humans that were to be the source of riches and glory upon their triumphant return to the empire, glory Tenery would never see. The two moved out and began to search for the human responsible, or someone from his team. It shouldn’t be too hard as the human they wanted wore combat armour that was different from the rest of the humans.

  The words ‘intruder alert’ was all that was needed to spring all marines into action. Staff Sergeant Jacob Miles led one large fire team into the habitat ring, they were all equipped with their standard-issue exosuits, armed with eRifles with retractable plasma bayonets. Additional crew sprinted toward the weapon lockers of the armory as they recalled the lessons they learned in basic traini
ng. eRifles roared, plasma swords savagely sung back and forth and bodies hit the floor. Onatiasha, Zhinbryo and Di’aria held back, given the false pretense that they were here to fight, but took on a more defensive stance. Their reluctance resulted in nobody being killed by their hands.

  The same however couldn’t be said for those in lower fuselage as the Hashmedai there moved throughout the weightless compartments. Guardians used their arm mounted shields to protect riflemen who fired their plasma rifles at marines and crewmen in the corridors. Two crewmen were pulled out from their cover via the psionic telekinesis; their halved bodies were kicked away from a laughing warrior as he held his two-handed plasma blade. A path littered with dead human bodies was cleared and the Hashmedai moved forward, via jets on their armor, the bridge was their next stop now that they had confirmation that human reinforcements weren’t going to be near the bridge anytime soon.

  Their psionic teleported them in.

  Xavier aimed his side arm toward the invading Hashmedai on the bridge. The rest of the bridge crew did the same and utilized their seldom used combat training. It’s been ages since he fired a gun, he hoped his aim was still good.

  “They’ve reached the bridge!” yelled a frantic Yates over the radio.

  Xavier pointed his ePistol forward, took aim at this alien boarding party as they began to slaughter bridge personnel. And pulled the trigger rapidly.

  Chris’ rifle scanned the corridor outside of the flight deck. The carnage reminded him of the conflict aboard the JFK two months ago. Some people survived here good, he thought as saw crew drag maimed bodies away into the infirmary.

  He faced Sarah, Hijinks and Avearan upon hearing Yates’ frantic call for help over the radio. “Bridge now!”

  “Don’t suppose you could port us?” Sarah asked Avearan.

  “That I can’t do without the cybernetic upgrades.”

  Xavier ducked behind the central hologram console as plasma shot over his head, exploding on the wall further behind him. Benally was next to him, he saw her ePistol rapidly lay down covering fire as she peeked around the corner of the console every so often. The plasma bolts above his head stopped. He rose and shot more rounds into the battle and toward the Hashmedai riflemen. Something wasn’t right however.

  The psionic with them was gone. Good for them, bad for anyone else on the ship that might run into them. A thought he’d have to get back to later. One of his bullets ripped a hole through the chest of a Hashmedai rifleman. His yelp echoed throughout the bridge and raised the morale slightly. They were going to need it as two officers were already killed their floating headless bodies collided with the ceiling.

  “Oh fuck!” Sarah yelled as a Hashmedai psionic teleported behind them. “Keep moving!”

  Avearan knew they stood little chance moving around in the narrow corridors in zero-g. Chris and Sarah fired their rifles at the psionic but its barrier deflected their shots. The two EDF soldiers most likely had their MRF activated and so Avearan took on the role of support, using her telekinetic gifts to aid in their movement. She used a telekinetic thrust to launch Sarah’s body down the corridor past the psionic. It looked like a move of betrayal at first, until she forced Sarah’s body to stop moving and instantly face the psionic.

  She caught on quickly and continued her assault, the psionic was forced to protect itself from a target behind and two in front as Hijinks’ pistol joined the fight for survival. The visibly frustrated psionic hurled a fireball toward Chris, with the aid of Avearan’s telekinesis he launched his mass reduced body upward to the ceiling, avoiding the blast as Avearan and Hijinks pivoted to the side. Its heat was intense as it zipped past the two and exploded on the elevator doors behind them. A second fireball shot toward Sarah with similar results, Avearan lifted her body away from danger.

  Frustrated, the psionic jump ported behind Avearan, she was the bigger threat. Avearan’s body instantly became paralyzed, the psionics mind gripped onto her hard. The Hashmedai psionic’s arms began to glow orange, the sign it was conjuring a massive white fireball, probably aimed to get rid of her with one burst.

  Chris, Sarah, or Hijinks couldn’t fire because Avearan’s paralyzed body was blocking their shot. Cute, she thought, they do care about me. She used her ESP to scan the area, looking for something, anything that could give her an edge. She found it, the elevator doors. The previous fireball destroyed them and flames bellowed from doors ripped apart by the blast. They were loose enough for her mind to grab onto, and hurl toward the psionic.

  The impact hit it hard enough to break its focus and weaken its psionic shields, perfect. With her body free, Avearan telekinetically pushed her body to the floor, out of the line of sight of Sarah and Chris, whose rifles chipped away at what remained of the Hashmedai psionics shields, shattering it to pieces. Multiple bullets tore through its chest, the high velocity rounds sent its body somersaulting backward until it hit wall, leaving behind globules of floating blood in its wake.

  They continued their race to the bridge.

  Park and Richards held their ground in the habitat ring as the invasion of the Winston Churchill continued with no end in sight. The comm lines were full of screams and reports of Hashmedai all over the ship as they tried to push toward the elevator that led to the central fuselage of the ship. There were just too many Hashmedai lurking in the halls. They formed a wedge between them and the scattered groups of marines and crew personnel struggling to deal with them. Getting down below was their best bet as their MFR would give them an advantage over the Hashmedai that would be forced to fight in zero-g, and now Boyd and Vaughan had boarded, their team mates were going to need assistance.

  Looks clear, Park thought as they saw the elevator doors and ran toward it. They summoned it and waited for it to arrive to their section as they stood, watching in anticipation for anything that wasn’t human to come into visual range. So far so good, all the Hashmedai on the habitat ring were busy fighting with the rest of the crew and hopefully losing. The elevator arrived, there were two figures inside. Neither was human.

  Richards pushed Park back as the doors opened and gave the two Hashmedai, a male guardian and warrior access to the habitat ring. His heroics saved her life as the warrior’s blade sung and smashed against his shields. Two cleaves later and his shields failed, a follow up thrust impaled him. Richards lost grip of his rifle as his life began to fade away, while his blood burned across the massive two-handed plasma sword that entered his back and exited his chest. It happened so fast, Park didn’t have enough time to get a hold of her rifle to counter as she got back to her feet.

  She fired and sprayed bullets all about. Anger, hatred, that’s all she felt as she looked at Richards’ body while life slipped away from his face. She hoped to avenge him, but it wasn’t turning up the results she wanted as the guardian quickly moved forward with his arm shield raised to deflect her incoming rounds. There wasn’t much in terms of cover around her in the empty halls other than to run toward a four-way intersection and fire from around the corner. She backtracked quickly and fired random shots toward them as the warrior pushed Richards’ body off his blade. The guardian used his tractor beam to pull her toward them, Park’s shields held and prevented it from doing its job, but at a cost. Her shield strength dropped rapidly with each passing second the tractor beam attempted to pull her. She needed to get to that four-way passage and fast.

  20 Percent.

  13 Percent.

  8 Percent.

  Almost there, just a few more seconds!

  0 Percent.

  Park’s body was viciously pulled back toward the guardian as if a rope had been tied around her waist. She heard the two Hashmedai brother’s laugh, then felt something painfully hot enter her body from behind, and exit through her abs. Pain, pure excruciating pain radiated throughout her body from the new wound. She couldn’t remember what happened next as her body was kicked forward and fell next to Richards.

  “Now we are even,” the Hashmedai said as her vis
ion turned to black.

  Xavier counted three Hashmedai remaining, a guardian and two warriors after Ensign Chavez pulled off a nice head shot ending the last rifleman and removing the last ranged enemy from the battle. Swords versus guns in zero-g, how bad could it be?

  Very bad.

  Yates popped up from her cover hoping to take a shot, the guardian countered with its sword mounted tractor beam, yanking her body toward him. Damn it no!

  Xavier rose, firing with little regard to what might happen to him. Four bridge officers and crewmen were dead, five people he hoped to provide promotions to when this war was over. Benally along with two others joined, it was enough weapons fire to make the guardian reconsider his actions as it held its shield up to defend rather than kill Yates, though it still held onto her. The two warriors used their jets to hide behind the guardian; they placed their backs toward the elevator entrance.

  “Everyone get down!” It was Staff Sergeant Boyd. His voice was coming from behind the elevator doors.

  The bridge crew complied and ducked quickly as the elevator doors became riddled with bullet holes, someone from the inside it was firing out into the bridge. The bullets that passed through the elevator doors ended up passing through the Hashmedai as well. The guardian’s grip on Yates loosened, Xavier saw her duck down to the floor seconds before a bullet exited the belly of the guardian, narrowly avoiding hitting her in the process.

  The bullet ridden elevator doors were forced open. Chris, Sarah, Hijinks held onto the maintenance ladder on the inside the shaft, their weapons were smoking hot in the aftermath. Behind them was Ella or Avearan? Hell, Xavier wasn’t sure what to call her at this point.