Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “We got incoming, multiple ships,” Orbital said.

  More Hashmedai? It must have been a trick when they left. “Ah hell, everyone get ready, looks like we’re still not in the clear,” Aura said.

  “It’s not the Hashmedai,” Red Lotus said over the broadcast.

  “Then who the hell is it?” Aura said as she looked at her long-range scanner which was slowly being updated as the group of ships got closer.

  “I’m detecting Radiance signatures!” Orbital said. “I reckon about a dozen or so Radiance transports headin’ to us.”

  Aura’s computers eventually updated, Orbital was right there were multiple Radiance transports inbound. Some were heading toward Mars while others were heading toward the struggling UNE fleet.

  ESV Sun Tzu, Mars orbit, Sol system

  “This is Viceroy Crimei of the Radiance Union, I heard you needed a hand.”

  The bridge crew couldn’t help but cheer as the Linl psionic’s face appeared on the central hologram. Stone cheered as well, internally, but it was a cheer nonetheless. She always projected the demeanor of a firm and emotionless leader and intended to keep that image in front of her skilled crew.

  “Late to the party,” Stone said to his hologram.

  “Second time that’s been said to me,” Crimei said. “I’m guessing that’s a common human saying?”

  “Admiral, Hashmedai interceptors are changing course,” Simons said. “They’re heading toward the Radiance transports.”

  Not on my watch, Stone thought. “I want every fighter not in engaged in combat to defend those transports at all costs!”

  Gladius squadron, Mars orbit, Sol system

  A race toward the Radiance transports began consisting of Hashmedai interceptors and UNE Solaris fighters shooting everything they had at them during the sudden charge. Aura pulled away to join in, but not to deal with the interceptors, but to find her dance partner that had joined in the pursuit toward Radiance. Of all the interceptors below her, the psionic one needed to be taken out, now more than ever.

  She found it within the swarm, it was still highlighted on her HUD from earlier, her fighter b-lined toward it at half burn as her targeting scanner began to acquire a missile lock. The psionic fighter adjusted course and propelled toward a formation of eight transports, eight transports that had psionics aboard, psionics the fleet desperately needed to help level the playing field.

  The psionic interceptor was fast, it ended up moving past its fellow interceptors and became the lone Hashmedai interceptor that approached the eight transports. It was also at risk of becoming the lone interceptor that could shoot down all the transports. Aura hoped that the psionics aboard those transports had some fancy sorcery they were holding back on, as there was nothing else the rest of the Solaris fighters or her could do until they caught up.

  The psionic interceptor entered weapons range then rapidly pulled up and away from the transports. There was something else that caught its attention, something it deemed a bigger threat. Aura pulled up as well to get a better view, she saw a solo Solaris fighter exit a sub light burn into the AO. It swooped down while its rail guns discharged red lines at the psionic fighter.

  All hits splashed across its barrier much to Aura’s surprise.

  “Who the hell?” Aura transmitted to the fighter.

  “Aura is that you?” It was Gavin’s voice.

  Bollocks, he’s dead. “Penetrator?” It was Gavin, she recognized his laugher. “You fucking wanker, you’re supposed to be dead!”

  “I’m back and better than ever.”

  He wasn’t lying about that. Gavin’s fighter entered a dog fight with the psionic fighter, one that she’d never seen from a psionic interceptor. The speed and psionic sorcery on both sides was breath taking. Both had psionic overshields and used telekinesis to aid in the effectiveness of their offense and defense skills. Gavin didn’t need a weapons lock, he just blindly fired his missiles and they followed the psionic interceptor like a pack of angry attack dogs.

  Aura jumped into the fray as she got closer and the two put a tremendous amount of pressure on the psionic interceptor to force it to flee. The remaining Hashmedai interceptors arrived, but were no match for Gavin. He was now the deadly ace that singlehandedly turned seven interceptors into flaming chunks of exploding metal and debris.

  Missiles and rail gun fire from the UNE fleet began to swerve and chase Hashmedai targets. The transports carrying the Radiance backup arrived and delivered their unexpected gift of shipboard psionics to the UNE fleet. Reports of fighting on the surface of Mars began to transmit back up to the fleet. Radiance rangers and combat psionics began to assist marines in the deadly urban battlefield. Marines that were once pinned down began to push back against the Hashmedai, civilians who thought their days would come to an end, were rescued by teleporting psionics.

  Finally the good guys were winning.

  Leviathan, Mars orbit, Sol system

  Chris was impressed how well he, Sarah and EVE meshed with Onatiasha and Zhinbryo as their boarding party passed deeper into the halls of the Leviathan. He suspected they were getting near the engine room as they found themselves boxed into a corner and faced attackers from all sides. Onatiasha stood at the tip of their defense spear like a medieval knight with her plasma sword and shield drawn.

  Chris, Sarah, and EVE’s rifles exploded from behind their cover as more Hashmedai warriors and guardians enter the halls. No psionics came after them, Chris suspected they were all busy using their powers to aid in the Leviathan’s combat powers. That was until two female psionics teleported behind them.

  And did the unthinkable.

  Protected them from the rest of the Hashmedai closing on them.

  One with short red hair used her powers to form a protective dome around them, while another with blue skin and long black hair destroyed their imposing adversaries with a torrent of white fighter balls from her arms. Once they were in the clear she faced them all, Chris saw she had two red gems with her. One was in the form of a pendant around her neck, the other was tucked way between her cleavage.

  Onatiasha and EVE began speaking to the two psionics that came to their aid in the Hashmedai language. The two ladies were clearly allies, and for that he was grateful. Maybe they’ll give us directions.

  Their conversation ended and EVE said to Chris in English. “Staff Sergeant, this is the Hashmedai psionic I encountered during their incursion aboard the Winston Churchill.”

  “The one that was aiding Onatiasha and Zhinbryo?”

  “Indeed this is her and she wishes to help us,” EVE said.

  “According to her more of our people are coming,” Onatiasha said. “It would be wise to accept her offer.”

  “She’s not kidding,” Sarah said as she looked at her motion detector. “Whatever they plan, they need to do it now those warriors are coming back for another run!”

  “Shall I instruct her to assist us?” EVE said.

  “Yes!” Chris and Sarah yelled.

  “Very well then,” EVE said and began to address the two psionic women in their language.

  Their group vanished via a wide teleportation. The warriors that arrived a minute later saw nothing but the aftermath of the chaos and violence as they stood above ash that was once their comrades.

  “Admiral we are . . .”

  “I know, I know,” Yominv said, grumbling.

  Yominv stood from his seat and watched from the bridge’s forward windshield as the human fleet gained increased support from the Radiance psionics. Reports from the surface of Mars weren’t very promising either. They failed in destroying the human capital ships, while they had lost several during the battle, but all wasn’t lost.

  Yominv realized with Radiance here perhaps just perhaps the humans would still consider joining the union. The events unfolding before him only proved that humanity can only defend their world via luck and Radiance’s protective hand. If that idea, that realization could make it back to the Presi
dent, it might be enough and if that’s the case, his job here was finished. True had the UNE fleet been destroyed and millions of human lives were killed it would increase the chances of that happening, but given the way things had played out he’d take those chances.

  “Have us and our loyal ships withdraw,” Yominv said as he sat back in his chair.

  “Understood,” Gayir said.

  “Find as many focused psionics as you can, I want to make a jump to Oyuri as soon as possible.”

  “What about the rest of our loyal ships?”

  “Have them leave the system for now and avoid the imperial loyal ships and humans. We’ll rendezvous with them when the time is right and . . . I want a full report of the commotion going on in the rest of the ship; I would hate to bring intruders back with us.”

  The Abyssal Pelican was the only other ship Yominv could rely on for assistance. Going back to the empire was not an option, the order lost their control if Kroshka took over. Hopefully our associates at Barnard’s Star converted more ships to our cause. He thought, for their days of manipulating fleets to do their bidding had come to an end.

  Chapter Thirty

  Kasidey’s transport, Perseus Galactic arm

  Whigli had enough.

  He began to get dressed after finishing his cold and cleaning shower and sought out Kasidey wherever she was on their ship. He grew tired of being in the dark, tired of questions being answered with more questions. And now they were in a region of the galaxy nobody had explored, at least nobody from the corner of the galaxy they came from.

  He entered the lounge where he saw Kasidey laying down on a black and grey couch wearing nothing but a towel around her body as she had finished taking a shower not long ago. How are we going to make the galaxy a better place? I need to know. Now.

  He sat with her. She was reading information on a holo pad. “We need to talk,” he said.

  “What’s on your mind?” She placed the pad on the cube shaped structure. It was transparent, almost invisible until the holo pad was resting on it when it became translucent with soft light blue colors.

  “Nothing, since you haven’t spoken much in last few days. What’s on your mind is what I should be asking.”

  “Well we’re far enough away from the arm of the galaxy everyone we knew is in.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You won’t compromise our mission if I tell you exactly what’s going on.”

  “So you have been keeping things from me?”

  “It was for your own good, for our own good.” Whigli grimaced with frustration. “Relax,” she said. “I’ll try to explain the best I can.”

  Captured Pirate ship, Derkurio orbit, Morutrin system

  Danyal searched for his data pad inside the medical lab Odelea made to help her study him and his immunity to the virus that caused people to turn into the wraith. Her most recent tests had put him on edge, just enough to make it hard for him to sleep at times. Expected side effects she told him. Their small team had made little progress in the last few days and it began to make him worry if their efforts would be for nothing, thus adding to his sleeping problems.

  If that was going to be the case, they were probably better off fixing up the ship and fleeing someplace far away where the wraith couldn’t follow. And perhaps help him search for Rana. At last he found his data pad amongst Odelea’s floating clutter, scanners, and test tubes.

  He began to read its contents, there was one more major log entry, followed by a long list of files and video recordings.

  EDF outpost Hope city, Foicanta, Proxima Centauri system

  Eight years ago . . .

  Days had passed since EDF’s deadly assault on the Celestial Order base in which several Radiance cruisers under order control tried to bombard the mountain complex with plasma to wipe out evidence of their actions. The Abyssal Sword singlehandedly managed to fend for itself during the battle and took minor damage as the order controlled ships fled. Lucky for Gengei and his crew most of the order controlled ships were interested in trying to glass the region rather than attack his ship.

  Corporal Rana Farhadi felt grateful for the room she and Cooper found as it provided a place for them to stay safe as they found extracted data that was being purged from the computers and acquired their sought-after targets, Nodevar and his psionic partner Veinea. After Nodevar and Veinea’s capture, they were forced to use language learning interfaces. General knowledge of English was downloaded into their brains over the course of nine days, after that the second phase in their interrogation began.

  Rana entered an interrogation room in the EDF base and stood in front of a two-way mirror. She watched with a certain amount of enjoyment Gomez’s attempt to extract information from Nodevar. The Hashmedai assassin was bound with a slave collar around his neck as he was forced to lie on the floor with wet towel draped over his face. Gomez stood next him with a jug full of water.

  Waterboarding.

  Gomez’s method however was slightly modified. Hashmedai hated the heat, and so he used warm water to pour across Nodevar’s face. It caused the Hashmedai to gag and hiss as if he was drowning in a warm hot tub. Kasidey Hawke, days earlier, used a similar technique on Veinea to get information out of her, only ice-cold water was used. Aryile hated the cold. Rana had witnessed what might have been the first time human advanced interrogation methods, were used on aliens.

  Unlike Nodevar however, Veinea was cooperative and came forward with information. After three splashes of water, she revealed everything. Nodevar however continued to resist. Understandable, he’s a trained assassin; she was a shipboard psionic turned order member.

  “Still being a bitch, huh?” Rana said to Cooper as he watched Gomez do his thing.

  “He’s more resistant than the other,” Cooper said. “Surprisingly considering their allegiances Veinea is a fully-fledged member of the order, Nodevar is just a hired gun. He doesn’t believe in their gods or any other.”

  “So we’re wasting our time with him, she has answers he doesn’t.”

  “Colonel Irons isn’t convinced, he wants to hear what both have to say in case of any inconsistency with their story.”

  “Well I got better things to waste my time on,” Rana said as Gomez held the jug of water above Nodevar’s towel covered face.

  “Such as?”

  “Gengei’s team managed to decrypt the intel we found. They want to speak to one of us about what was discovered. Since Jefe has his hands full it looks like that’s me.”

  Nodevar’s bound body squirmed as the waterboarding continued. Gomez had a smirk on his face, the same one that was forming on Rana’s face. Nothing better than a suffering Hashmedai.

  “You’re the next one up? Wouldn’t it be Stepanovich?”

  “She isn’t one for words and asked me to go. You know how she is, plus Hawke and her team are busy . . . so.”

  Abyssal Sword, Foicanta orbit, Proxima Centauri system

  Rana traveled to the Abyssal Sword via a transport. She entered the bridge after boarding and walked toward Gengei who stood at a computer terminal next to two or three other Radiance officers. The screen in front of them shined with blue and white light across their faces as it projected a long list of text and numbers written in Radiance. English translations appeared next to those words as Rana stepped next to them.

  “Captain,” she said to Gengei.

  “Ah yes.” He nodded to her.

  “The lieutenant is busy right now, I’m here in his place.”

  “I see, speaking with your captured targets?”

  “Something like that.”

  Gengei pointed to the screen with his artificial arm. “As you know, the Celestial Order had a major operation here. This is the data that was retrieved before they escaped and purged their data banks. I will provide you a data crystal containing these findings. But . . .”

  He stopped to show her pictures and video of humans being experimented on, some of them started to tra
nsform into . . . What the hell? Psionic zombies?

  “The humans kidnapped on Foicanta were all tested on,” Gengei said. “The results of those tests were transmitted to an outpost in a system your people call Barnard’s Star.”

  Gengei handed her a data crystal that contained the findings from their efforts. She pulled out her data pad and inserted the crystal into it. She quickly swiped across the touch screen as the intel started to load. Chatter amongst the bridge crew increased. There was a certain level of urgency by the sounds of their Radiance voices. Something was afoot and she ended all thoughts of leaving to head back to the surface until she found out what was up.

  Gengei returned to his captain’s chair and began issuing orders. Rana looked toward the windshield and saw a strange sight. A blue wave appeared beyond the horizon of the tidally locked planet, it was a vortex that looked like a hole in space. A Radiance cruiser slipped out from it. Its configuration was different like it was refitted with some sort of high end tech. Light blue orbs covered the hull of the ship from top to bottom.

  Its main guns targeted the Sword.

  And opened fired.

  Rana quickly opened up a comm link to the base below. “This is corporal Farhadi, the Abyssal Sword is under attack!”

  There was no reply. At first, she assumed it was the communication delay, given their distance. Fifteen seconds passed, they should have replied by then. She tried repeatedly as the Sword jolted from the nonstop plasma barrage while Radiance battle stations alarms rang.

  “We’re under attack as well, Corporal!” Cooper said at last. “Please stand by.” She heard people yelling and gun fire in the background of his communication.

  That ship must have teleported troops into the base. “Captain?” Rana said to Gengei who neglected to speak any English to keep her in the loop.