Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “I do not know how to explain this,” Gengei said. “We were the only ship in the sector, scans and psionics reported no vessel incoming!”

  “It’s like it appeared out of nowhere—”

  She lost her balance as the Sword took a hit from the side.

  “My people on the surface are being attacked as well,” she said.

  “They probably teleported an assault team to the surface,” Gengei said.

  The tremors continued, every three seconds it got worst, she wasn’t a ship expert, but she had a solid feeling their shields were on the verge of shattering.

  “Corporal,” Gomez transmitted frantically to her. “We’re gettin’ ripped apart here we could use some assistance.” She heard an explosion in the background of his last transmission, Gomez followed by saying. “Or an evac.”

  Rana relayed the situation to Gengei. “I will send my psionic team down. This ship, it is too powerful we cannot remain here, we will fall back once your people are aboard.”

  “If we’re still alive, I’m surprised they haven’t boarded us with their psionics.”

  “There are three psionics assigned to this ship,” Gengei said. “I had the mind shield modified to only allow for their signatures to be teleported on and off the ship.”

  “Didn’t know that was possible.”

  “With newer versions it is, most people won’t utilize it in case of unexpected emergencies.”

  “What made you want to use it?”

  “The command ship that attacked your world.” Gengei held up his artificial cybernetic arm for her to see. “This arm. I would not have lost it if the Hashmedai had not used the maximum security features.”

  The gravity on the bridge became nonexistent due to the absence of the psionic team. Rana wished she could have helped as the crew did their jobs during the battle. But she wasn’t Radiance nor navy personnel. She was a fighter, nothing more. She saw the view of Foicanta move away and the bright glare of the red dwarf Proxima Centauri came into sight. The Sword was on the move, which meant either everyone at the base below was dead or brought aboard.

  Proxima Centauri’s light slowly moved out of sight as the Sword entered sub light speeds and with that, came an end to the rumbling and frantic screaming bridge crew members. They were safe for now, and it didn’t seem like the modified enemy ship was in pursuit. Gengei asked his second in command to take control of the bridge, or so she assumed as he got up and moved toward the elevator, she followed behind.

  “There were casualties,” Gengei said to her as the elevator doors slid shut and made its descent to the lower decks.

  “How many made it out?”

  “Not enough.”

  The elevator doors opened rapidly and the brightly-lit hallways of the Radiance cruiser appeared. Gengei used handle bars on the walls to pull himself through as Rana followed behind. They entered the infirmary where dozens of EDF personnel were being treated by weightless doctors. Many of them were badly burned. A few others had dislocated arms and legs, signs that a psionic tossed them around with telekinesis.

  She saw Cooper amongst the survivors with a bloody gash on his forehead then later Stepanovich, not a scratch on her. Gomez? Shit, she couldn’t find him. She pushed further into the infirmary while Gengei spoke with the doctors. She wanted to personally thank the psionic team for risking their lives, but none of them were around, not a good sight. Gengei had mentioned there were only three psionics aboard.

  She meandered past a bed were doctors diligently worked on saving the life of one psionic from Gengei’s team. The burns and bullet holes on his body gave Rana enough information to know what happened to the rest, it was a vicious battle. She cringed to think of how many EDF personnel were left behind. She found Gomez at last as he floated next to armed rangers that hovered before Nodevar and Veinea. This must have been his doing, she thought as she looked at their captured POWs. There’s no way Radiance would have willfully rescued a Hashmedai and Celestial Order member, prisoner or not.

  “Someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?” Gomez shouted.

  “A cruiser, probably under control of the order, attacked us,” Rana said to him. “It just appeared out of nowhere.”

  “Like a space bridge jump?”

  “Like it passed through a hole in space.”

  “A wormhole,” Gengei said.

  The two faced him with confused looks on their face. “Is that even possible?” Rana asked.

  “If this was an hour ago I would have said no,” Gengei said. “But from what my crew tells me plus what we saw . . .”

  “That ship looked very different compared to Radiance cruisers,” Rana said. “Someone did some heavy moding to it.”

  Heckling laugher left Veinea’s mouth as she overheard their conversation. Gomez faced her and grimaced. “What the fuck are you laughing at?” he said.

  “How little you know,” Veinea said.

  “If you got something else to add you better spit it now or unless you want another ice-cold session,” Rana said.

  “Honestly, I had no idea that ship was in service,” Veinea said. “It was an experiment, our associates found a way to merge our technology with Lyonria technology.”

  “Lyonria?” Gomez said.

  “An extinct ancient civilization,” Gengei said.

  “Not extinct,” Veinea said.

  “More of them exist?” Gengei asked.

  Veinea kept silent and looked at Nodevar who did the same.

  “Yo fuck this, put them both out the fucking airlock!” Gomez yelled.

  Gengei concurred and ordered two rangers to grab onto Veinea and Nodevar.

  “Wait!” Veinea said finally having realized they were serious.

  The Rangers stopped as Gengei directed them to hold. Gomez moved in front of Veinea and said. “Spill the beans. I saw some good people die for no fucking reason just now including the psionics that came to bail us out.”

  “Tell them everything,” Nodevar muttered in his Russian sounding accent. “Because from what it looks like we’ll be working together.”

  “Oh, is that so?”

  Nodevar pointed toward the dead psionic on the operating table. Rana took a double look and realized the doctors had moved away and covered his body up.

  “Unless you have other psionics available I’d say he was your last one,” Nodevar said. “Veinea was once a psionic aboard the Abyssal Explorer. She can be your replacement if you allow her to.”

  “Out of the question,” Gengei said.

  “Suit yourself,” Nodevar said. “But this system might be overrun with wraith unless you do something about it.”

  “Wraith,” Rana said under her breath. She remembered that word was used in the intel she had loaded into her data pad. She quickly grabbed a hold of her data pad and fingered the screen and flipped past page after page until she found it. Wraith, it was a label the order gave to the humans they successfully performed tests on. “Those things we saw in those cryopods,” she said, showing everyone the images on her data pad.

  “Weapons created by the Lyonria,” Nodevar said.

  “By the gods!” Veinea said to Nodevar.

  “Whatever.” Nodevar shrugged. “Lyonria ruins were discovered in the far reaches of this system, the order managed to convince the scientists there to join their cause and give the secrets they found to them.”

  Veinea stared angrily at him. “Nodevar . . .”

  Nodevar continued and revealed the information Gomez failed to extract from him. “Humans, for reasons I don’t know, when converted into wraith perform the best. The order has been trying to study this case in an attempt to build an army of human wraiths.”

  It all began to make sense to Rana. “The missing colonists.”

  “All became test subjects,” Nodevar said.

  “What about that ship?” Gengei asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nodevar said. “The answers to that are heading to Earth as we speak aboard the Abyssal S
eeker.”

  Rana began to sweat, and it wasn’t due to the hot, humid temperatures of the ship. “The Seeker, isn’t that the ship Major Vaughan and her team boarded?” she said.

  “The Major didn’t board it,” Veinea said. “A Whisper agent managed to infiltrate the base a few years ago and escaped, her name was Vaish. She swapped her body with the Major.”

  “You’re full of shit,” Gomez said, Rana hoped he was right.

  Veinea said. “Don’t believe me? Go through the data you stole from the base, there’s an incident report about it. The real Major Vaughan is on a ship traveling to Rasi under a new identity. Vaish is going to Earth to escape from our associates.”

  “Farhadi?” Gomez said to Rana, prompting her to search her data pad to confirm what was said.

  “It’s true,” Rana said, after finding the report. “It would also explain the attack in Unity city, you were asked to track and kill Vaish as she posed as the Major.”

  “The order wanted me to deal with her,” Nodevar said. “The empire wanted me to deal with a human male.”

  “The Major is fake, we got to warn Earth,” Gomez said to Gengei.

  “That won’t be possible, the battle damaged our long-range communication systems. We can only speak with close ships, and with no psionic . . .”

  “And we lost the base,” Gomez said as he looked toward Veinea. “How about her?”

  “I wouldn’t know what mind to reach anyways,” Veinea said.

  Nodevar formed a smug grin as he brushed his long black hair back. “So there you have it. Now you owe us.”

  “We owe you nothing!” Gengei shouted.

  “We know where to find that ship, if you want the lives of the humans and Radiance on the surface to continue you’ll destroy that ship,” Nodevar said.

  “You seem eager to help us kill your own people,” Gomez said.

  “As I said before, I’m not with the order. I’m only working for them to get my reward.”

  “And what is that?”

  “My mate, they said they could heal her. During your assault they took her cryopod aboard one of their ships. Help us find her, then you can do what you want with them.”

  “Us?”

  “Yes, us.”

  Both Gengei and Veinea sighed and said together. “Gods forgive me.”

  Abyssal Sword, edge of Proxima Centauri system

  The Abyssal Sword decelerated from its multi-hour sub light journey to the far reaches of the system. There was a small gathering of Radiance cruisers including the mysterious and heavily modified one, laced with Lyonria technology. The ships were all under control of the Celestial Order and took notice of the presence of the Sword as it approached, their weapons ports ready for a fight.

  Veinea’s slave collar was removed and given full access to the psionic station aboard the bridge. It seemed worth the risk. Gomez, Hawke, and Rana were fully geared in their protect suits with their shields active. They pointed their rifles toward Veinea, just in case she tried to pull something unwanted.

  “I can’t focus with weapons aimed at me, dear,” Veinea said to them.

  Gomez smirked. “Too bad. Dear.”

  Veinea shut her eyes to focus and carry out her part of the plan. Convince the order ships to stand-down and accept the story that she and Nodevar took control of the ship. More reason for EDF to point guns at her, she could have easily revealed the truth without anyone knowing. If the ships failed to stand down, they were going to deal with her, and were prepared for an all-out battle with a psionic.

  “Hmm they believe me but . . .” Veinea opened her eyes. “They want to speak face to face.”

  Nodevar laughed and walked toward Gengei’s captain’s chair. “What do you want demon?” Gengei said to him.

  “Your chair.”

  “Out of the question.”

  “We need to make this look convincing,” Nodevar said. “A Hashmedai sitting in the captain’s chair of a Radiance ship will do just the trick.”

  Gengei reluctantly played along and allowed Nodevar to take his seat like he owned the place. Rana and the rest of the EDF personnel were asked to step back toward the far end of the bridge to avoid being seen during the visual exchange. The rest of the Radiance bridge followed suit. The stage was set, and a holographic communication was established with Nodevar posing as the new commander of the ship, and Veinea behind as the new XO and shipboard psionic.

  Words were exchanged in their foreign alien language, Veinea said a few things before the communication ended. “Good news, I make a pretty convincing captain,” Nodevar said.

  Gengei wasted no time running back to his chair and demanded Nodevar to. “Get out!”

  Nodevar pointed to a ship at the far end of the small order fleet as everyone resumed their original positions on the bridge. “That one has my mate.” His finger pointed toward the mysterious ship from the most recent attack. “And that one there is the prototype ship.”

  “Prototype, the only one I hope?” Gengei said.

  “To our knowledge yes,” Veinea said. “Destroy it and they lose it forever since all data pertaining to it was wiped out during your raid.”

  “We are just one ship,” Gengei said.

  “They don’t expect us to be hostile,” Veinea said. “We’ll board it and take control of it.”

  “I’ll do the same and search for her,” Nodevar said.

  “You’ll be on your own for that,” Gomez said to him.

  “I don’t need your help once I’m aboard.”

  “Keep in mind, the order will attack and destroy that ship if they feel you will be taking control of it,” Veinea said.

  “If they can’t have it, nobody will. I’m fine with that outcome,” Hawke said. “With that said, we could use that tech.”

  “I can teleport you all aboard your respective ships,” Veinea said. “However I can only risk one teleport to the prototype. Once they see me show up with armed fighters . . .”

  “All hell breaks loose,” Hawke said. “The question is who gets to join the fun?”

  “You will,” Gengei said. “My men would rather cut off their own cocks and put them out the airlock than except aid from a heretic. The fact that I’m allowing her to work as our psionic and had to adjust the mind shield to accept her powers is . . . Sacrilegious.”

  “I’m allowing myself to hurt my fellow order followers to save my own scales,” Veinea said. “That is sacrilegious.”

  “And I got to sit in your chair,” Nodevar said as he stepped closer to Veinea.

  “Do not remind me,” Gengei said. “Heretics and demons helping me. Gods forgive me!”

  Gomez looked at Gengei, then Nodevar, and Veinea and said. “I’m sorry but, you guys are fucked. Ya’ll need Jesus!”

  Prototype ship, edge of Proxima Centauri system

  Veinea teleported the two EDF teams aboard the prototype ship after dropping Nodevar off to search for his mate on an unsuspecting order controlled cruiser. EDF-2 and EDF-3 rematerialized from the teleport as Veinea left to resume her duties back on the Sword. The crew inside the prototype ship, as expected, ran for cover as the eight heavily armed Special Forces soldiers plowed through the halls. Strangely enough there was gravity aboard the ship.

  They made their way past unsuspecting rangers in gun battles that didn’t last thanks to the aid of their MRF and wall running or leaping skills. They interior of the ship was different from their experience of being aboard Radiance ships. They became lost quickly, it didn’t help that Veinea failed to teleport them directly to bridge. Rana suspected it could have been a set up for a trap. Nevertheless they pushed on and hoped for the best. Push came to shove, they could just leap out the airlock as they had the gear needed to survive.

  Their trek to take the bridge led them into a central room full of cryostasis pods, computers and surprised scientists with rangers protecting them. None of them survived the bullet storm created by the EDF teams as they entered. The room they entered didn’t l
ook like a cryo chamber, but rather a storage area, an area that held the pods and lab equipment that was taken from the order base. Rana examined some of the pods and saw wraith inside a few of them, and a Hashmedai female inside another. She wore black attire, assassin’s armor her hair was short and blue with fair skin tone.

  “Isn’t that his bitch?” Rana said, pointing to the pod.

  “Hashmedai female assassin,” Gomez said, looking at the pod. “The same one from the vids, that’s got to be her.”

  Hawke moved in closer to take a look and said. “If she’s here, then what the fuck is he doing over there?”

  “Captain,” Gomez transmitted to the Abyssal Sword. “We found Nodevar’s target here.”

  The ship thundered and made growling sounds, Rana looked out the window and saw the reason for it. All the order controlled ships began to fire upon the prototype ship. The Abyssal Sword swooped in and began to fire its main plasma cannons in an attempt to peel the ships off the prototype.

  “Guess they clued in on our assault,” she said. “We need to get to the bridge ASAP.”

  All of that was put on hold as psionics teleported next to them along with rangers decked out in full combat armor. “Take cover!” Hawke yelled.

  The eight were pinned down as they used overturned cryopods and computers for extra protection. They were trapped as there was only one way in and out of the room and the Celestial Order made sure nobody got past it as they formed a deadly choke point around it. Multiple calls for Veinea to teleport in were made, none were answered. They held their ground and hoped that Veinea would arrive. Fires broke out as a result of the battle inside and outside of the ship.

  One by one, their shields began to shatter within the smoke-filled room. Rana rose from her cover to assess the situation, at least three EDF personnel were dead as more Celestial Order forces came in into the room. A thunderous blast hit the ship, it’s shields were down for sure, plasma missiles and cannons were impacting directly unto the hull.

  The Celestial Order forces slowly backed away then teleported out one by one as a new group teleported aboard. It was Veinea and Nodevar. About fucking time! Rana thought as Gomez rose to direct them out of their dire situation. “Get us outta—”