Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  The connection between their arrests? Their plot to control land on Eiri and manipulate voting to make it happen, all which had connections to the order actively as per the twin’s data leak. Byikanea and Armuzei were officially removed from the council pending the investigation. Gonvilei had officially stepped down and retired as the Aryile representative in preparation for the elections. Elections what were put on hold as a result of Dienei’s arrest.

  Two members stood on the council, Iey’liwea and Marchei. As a result an emergency meeting was called in the aftermath as the recent voting to withdraw support from Earth may have been influenced by the order. A revote on the matter was put forward, rather a debate amongst the two, why vote when only two people can cast? Both Iey’liwea and Marchei arrived at the decision to support Earth once again.

  Leadership in the union was crumbling and members of the order were being detained throughout the union, many of them in the military. Radiance was going to need an outside ally; Earth was going to be that ally, provided they could help save it in time from an order influenced imperial navy.

  Later in the afternoon, Marchei grew fearful as he sat in the council delegation chamber alone. The Celestial Order was falling apart slowly and he couldn’t remember where he went wrong. But at the same token he was grateful that after everything that transpired, nobody knew he was a member. Dienei, Armuzei and Byikanea, yes, they were part of his plan, but weren’t officially order members. He should have been the one to get taken away.

  He waited another hour before leaving, half expecting rangers to burst through the elevator doors. The doors swung open at last as unexpected guests came through them, but it wasn’t who he was expecting.

  It was Ienthei and Queenea.

  The both gave him a creepy yet smug smile as they stepped away from the elevator and stood in front of him at his desk.

  “You two,” Marchei said to them. “You must stay low.”

  “It’s you that must stay low,” Queenea said. “The order is coming apart.”

  “This must be all part of the gods plan, there must be something good going to happen as a result,” Marchei said.

  “This was part of our will,” Ienthei said as he handed Marchei his missing data pad. He held it in his tiny hands as anger built up inside him.

  “You! I trusted you!”

  “The drinks you had trusted me, your mind was someplace else,” Ienthei said. “And now we own you.”

  Marchei threw his pad on the floor, shattering the screen into thousands of shards. “I’ll make you pay for this! The others will find out—”

  “We could have let the rest of the union know you were behind this, you could have been among those arrested.”

  “We protected you,” Queenea said.

  “You owe us,” Ienthei said.

  “Betray us, and we’ll reveal the truth.”

  “What do you want?”

  The twins moved closer to Marchei as his face twitched with fear born from the anger that was once in his head. “I want to be back in the leadership race,” Ienthei said.

  “I want you to approve all funding requests to my future business,” Queenea said.

  “We want you to vote in favor of anything Iey’liwea supports, vote in favor of anything that will benefit us.”

  “That’s it.”

  “That’s all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  UNE Black site, Titan, Sol system

  Gavin’s head felt like someone took a drill and placed a six-inch screw into his brain. The rest of his body ached just as bad, like someone like some hammered some metal parts onto his body and arms and ran some small wires through it for good measure. A team of staff from the black site monitored his body from their computer terminals as he rose. He looked at his arms, they were indeed wired with cybernetics similar to the ones Michei had. It felt strange moving them with the added weight that pushed onto them. And to think, this wasn’t even Earth gravity, he began to shudder at the thought of moving his body on Earth.

  He wore nothing but his boxers, which gave him a chance to look at the changes done to his chest. Like his arms, they were wired up with cybernetics of alien origin, he’d have to get used to this look as he couldn’t have the upgrades covered up if wanted his newfound gifts to work correctly. Good thing he worked out a lot, his chest showed it clearly.

  He reached back to touch the area of his head where the incision to implant his psionic chip had been made. His hair was gone, all of it. They had shaved him bald to make the cut into his brain. Fuck they could have told me that first!

  The staff provided him with a cocktail of painkillers as he started to move about. He was eager to get back to his training and see what new powers he had unlocked with his upgrades; however the staff insisted he remained for observation. After all Radiance and Hashmedai psionics that undergo this procedure spent days recovering and adjusting. Then again, he didn’t get the full upgrade package.

  Michei arrived to visit and check up on him, Gavin grinned as the two were almost like twins, donning similar cybernetic upgrades, wearing no top. “Doing well Chambers?”

  “I’m starting to think you were right,” Gavin said.

  “I hope this won’t affect the skills you had prior.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he said then groaned, the painkillers were wearing off. “It’s just the pain, fuck me I need more meds!”

  Gavin raised his right arm and focused as he forced a package of painkillers to levitate in the air then move to hover before his face via telekinesis. The task was a lot easier with the upgrades, he didn’t need to focus as much, and it felt as if he physically picked up the package and held onto it. Only he didn’t, his brain did.

  “Gavin Chambers,” he said, “cybernetic space sorcerer.”

  “. . . right now!”

  It was the last words the holographic message President Mariana Salamanca sent Miriam König. She shut down the message as she sat at her desk and frowned. The President had been receiving regular reports of Gavin’s progress as a psionic. The most recent message demanded König release Gavin and send him to Mars for defense as the Hashmedai fleet was suspected of moving toward it.

  König didn’t believe he was ready for combat just yet. The thought made her grin as she was starting to sound like Michei not long ago, insisting Gavin wasn’t ready. König reviewed her options or lack of. The message from Earth Cube took over an hour for her to receive as it traveled from Earth to Titan at the speed of light. A reply would take just as long, in which the President would probably force or strong-arm her into sending him anyways, that reply would take another hour plus to receive. It would take Gavin nearly two hours to fly from the Saturn sector to the Mars sector, assuming the Hashmedai didn’t wipe out everyone on Earth and Mars during that time. In the end, it was probably faster to send him and hope for the best.

  A communication was sent to the lab Gavin had rested in recovering from the surgery, requesting he get ready and meet her in the hanger bay ASAP. Gavin arrived along with Michei while König stood waiting. He wore pants and his boots, nothing else. He was a psionic now, that’s all he could use during combat situations. She saw the surprise on his face as he lay eyes on a Solaris fighter sitting there waiting for him. The name Cassie “Hijinks” Piller was still painted on the side of it, König forgot to have at scratched off.

  “It crashed on the rooftop last week during the attack,” König said as Gavin took a closer look at the fighter. “Some of our engineering teams were bored so I had them restore it in hopes of shipping it back to the fleet. The President has new plans however.”

  Gavin faced König with massive smile. “She wants me to fly it eh?”

  “Something is brewing at Mars and they need everyone able to fight to head there,” König said. “You wanted back into the fight, well it looks like you got your wish, Chambers.”

  “Fuck yes.”

  “You are to depart ASAP.”

  Michei stepped closer to Gav
in as she quickly explained some of the modifications made to the fighter. Biggest one being atmosphere inside the cockpit. Fight suits weren’t going to be an option for him and keeping a psionic shield over his body to keep him alive would only drain his abilities.

  “Well this is going to be new for all of us,” Michei said to Gavin, patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t screw it up. Rookie.”

  Gavin ran his hands across the hull of the craft; he was still mesmerized at what he was about to experience. “Gavin Chambers, Cybernetic space sorcerer fighter pilot.”

  König winced. “That’s a terrible title.”

  “Indeed,” he concurred.

  Leviathan, Mars orbit, Sol system

  “We have arrived, Admiral,” Archmage Gayir and the lead shipboard psionic said.

  Admiral Yominv Crossblade pushed aside a holographic window that was blocking his view of the red planet from the forward window. The pitiful space stations in orbit, tiny transport ships. It was all going to burn.

  “Let’s begin,” Yominv said as he clapped his hands.

  The Leviathan came to a full stop before the three sphere shaped command ships behind it. The hulking doors of the command ships opened and the fleets inside it swarmed out and began to acquire random targets as they released their green glowing gift of plasma rain. The orbital defense network responded, automated plasma cannons in orbit around Marsh returned fired with minimal results as most of the Hashmedai fleet was out of weapons range.

  Interceptor fighters launched from all carriers and the Leviathan and used the full power of their thrusts to evade plasma from the defense platform as their weapons began to target and destroy it one by one. Had this been Earth the results would have been different as the Earth’s platform not only had more orbitals but were much more powerful in terms of raw fire power.

  “Hold here for now,” Yominv said, satisfied at the slow progress the interceptors were making along with the destroyers taking point in the assault. “We can’t start the party without our friends.”

  The simultaneous destruction of the UNE fleet was Yominv’s primary objective at Mars.

  ESV Wilfrid Laurier, Mars orbit, Sol system

  “Captain!”

  Captain Agatha Chevallier showed no emotion on her face at the sight of the imperial ships beginning their assault on Mars. The central hologram updated them with reports of Hashmedai assault forces attacking the civilian population below as a cluster of red appeared next to the 3D projection of Mars. There were so many red dots all clustered together that it looked more like a blob.

  “Battle stations!” Chevallier shouted, prompting her crew to focus on their duties, and stow away floating items like holo pads as they were still without gravity on the bridge.

  Alarms roared throughout the ship as nuclear missile pods were prepped and awaited the command from the captain to launch. Chevallier adjusted the hologram’s view to give her a zoomed in view of the area of Mars they were in orbit over, and the destroyers coming around the horizon to fight them.

  “Reminder we are still without comms or network access,” Vick said.

  “I’m aware of that lieutenant,” Chevallier said. “The fighters will have to be our voice.”

  The Wilfrid Laurier engines fired up thrusting the UNE battle ship forward as the Gladius, Hyperion, and Rapier squadrons around it moved forward. Fighters from Mars’ defense network broke away from the Martian gravity minutes later to assist. Some directly engaged the imperial fleet while others protected the sole UNE battle ship tasked with the duty of meeting the Hashmedai.

  Gladius squadron, Mars orbit, Sol system

  “I hope you boys and girls got plenty of sleep,” Aura said as she read the data projected to her from her holographic HUD. “Because the real fight is about to start!”

  “Okay people, just like last time, cover our heavy hitters,” Wildfire transmitted over the radio.

  “We got more heavy hitters joining the fight as well,” Aura said as she looked to her side as Mars’ Solaris fighters came into view. “Show ‘em how it’s done Red Lotus.”

  She heard Red Lotus laugh and say, “With pleasure.”

  Interceptors plowed past the two destroyers that were on route to the Wilfrid Laurier. Aura’s targeting scanner began to beep that familiar sound, as her weapons began to lock on.

  ESV Sun Tzu, UNE fleet, Sol system

  “Admiral we’re receiving reports that the Hashmedai are attacking Mars.”

  Admiral Linda Stone’s voice became irritated. “How the hell did we miss that?”

  “Looks like they were hidden behind Jupiter before b-lining toward Mars.”

  “Let’s not delay any longer,” Stone said. “Contact all ships, set a course to Mars at once!”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  “Engage!”

  The ESV Sun Tzu led the charge as ESV John F. Kennedy, ESV Benjamin Franklin, ESV Shaka Zulu, ESV Barack Obama and ESV Enterprise followed behind on a sub light speed journey to the UNE’s first interstellar fleet versus fleet battle.

  She flicked the projection of the fleet status away and replaced it with a tactical layout of Mars. It would be awhile before they receive battle data and she wanted to be the first to see it as it came in.

  Leviathan, Mars orbit, Sol system

  “I sense one human attack vessel in the sector,” Gayir said from his ESP trance. “Six more have just entered sub light.”

  “Have attack wings three through seven swarm the single human ship,” Yominv said. “Destroy it if need be.”

  The imperial fleet received and carried out Yominv’s request. The battle data slowly populated their displays. The Wilfrid Laurier was backing away, the fighters around it moved out even further.

  “What are they doing?” Gayir asked. “Running?”

  “No provoking us to follow into a clearing,” Yominv said. “They want to use atomic weapons. Let them do what they want, it will be over soon. Have the fleet focus on the surface if they can, let’s raise the civilian death toll.”

  “Yes admiral.”

  “Only slightly of course,” Yominv said. “We need most of the human race alive after all.”

  ESV Winston Churchill, En route to Mars, Sol system

  Xavier grew tired of watching the stars in the distance from the windshield. What he wanted to see was Mars, preferably still intact, with the imperial fleet torn to shreds. “How much longer?” he asked in an impatient tone of voice.

  “Still another hour, Captain,” Chavez said from his terminal.

  “What about the fleet?”

  “Wilfrid Laurier is the only ship in the sector, the rest of the UNE will be there within next few minutes.”

  “Captain,” Avearan said from her shipboard psionic post behind him.

  Xavier faced her and grinned. She may have been a Hashmedai trapped in a human’s body, but the sight alone made him wonder about the future. A future where human psionics could handle stations like this, rather than humans relying on alien allies to do it for them.

  “Are you ready?” Xavier asked her.

  “Do keep in mind I’m still limited,” she said. “I can’t interface with your computers for example.”

  “Just tell us what’s going that our sensors aren’t picking up,” Xavier said.

  “That I can do,” Avearan said. “But I have some important information to share with you.”

  He grimaced as he walked over to her, his mag boots snapped to the floor with every step. “What is it?”

  She showed him a projection that listed text written in the Hashmedai language. “Remember the intel you wanted me to translate? There was a word I wasn’t familiar with.”

  “Have you figured it out?”

  “I might have, but it doesn’t make sense,” she said as she scrolled the text to the words in question. “The word is nuclear weapons, only your kind developed and uses those, Hashmedai don’t. According to the data, they have eight of them.”

  “Jesus Christ.
” Hashmedai possessing nuclear weapons would be a game changer. The sole reason why humanity was where it was at that moment was because of nukes, the one weapon they had that could take out a Hashmedai ship in seconds.

  “Again, I probably misunderstood it but—”

  “No, I don’t think you did.”

  “Captain?”

  “Commander,” Xavier said to Benally. “Remember the gong show two months ago with the JFK?”

  “A couple of nukes got launched,” Benally said. “And vanished.”

  “Not vanished, not according to Major Vaughan and the Silver Raven’s crew.” Xavier returned to his post at the central hologram. “There was a wormhole over Jupiter that evaporated shortly after they went through it. The order members that hijacked the JFK shot those nukes through the wormhole; the empire must have found them.”

  “I thought that wormhole led to Barnard’s Star?” Benally said.

  “Does it matter? The empire has the power to make wormholes at will,” Xavier said. “They got our nukes and clearly plan to use it against us.”

  “Eight isn’t enough to take us all out, our shields can hold.”

  “What about from the inside?” Avearan asked. “Isn’t that what your people did to destroy the command ship that attacked your world years ago?”

  Avearan was right. A single nuke launched and impacting the side of a command ship with its shields active wouldn’t be enough to take it down. One would need multiple nukes to do damage. But from the inside? Major Vaughan and her team proved that a single nuke exploding inside a command ship, not only destroyed it, but damaged beyond repair all the ships inside it at the same time.

  “A nuke going off inside our ships,” Xavier said. “Well, fuck me, you just need one to take out one ship.”

  “Eight nukes, one for each of our ships,” Benally said. “And a disabled mind shield that will allow a psionic to teleport aboard with a nuke ready to detonate.”