Di’aria was trying to override them, or so it felt, as the craft jerked back and forth like two forces wanted it to do something different. Hijinks got the feeling Di’aria wanted the craft to face Gayir and so she pulled on the stick on an attempt to force the interceptor to move its nose toward the Archmage. Little by little they inched toward him, it was just enough for her to see Yominv about to enter another transport further up.
She began to fire.
Nothing happened.
She refused to give up, and kept hitting the fire command.
After many attempts one bolt of plasma released and smashed into the transport. It was enough to make Yominv think twice, but not enough to stop them.
Hijinks thumb repeatedly smashed onto the fire commands, she hoped that another blast of plasma might slip away as Di’aria fought to regain control of their ship. Their interceptor began to fire more shots consistently, Di’aria managed to regain control of the interceptor’s weapons Hijinks figured as she still wasn’t able to aim or fly the interceptor correctly. A random transport exploded during her unfocused barrage, then another one nearby, Hijinks wasn’t letting up on the assault. The explosive blast from the last transport that got hit was enough cover Gayir’s protective dome. The heat and debris combined with Hijinks flailing attacks created a distraction that took Gayir’s mind away from the task of remotely controlling their interceptor.
Gayir lost control of their craft Di’aria’s mind was free to control the drones and pick up where two feisty red headed women left off, attacking Gayir now more than ever as his shield was gone. Gayir attempted to jump port away. Half his body dematerialized, the other half was vaporized. Hijinks wasn’t sure where the rest of his body had landed, probably out in space as there was no psionic brain left to guide it. That’s one problem dealt with, now for the other, Hijinks thought as she faced the red striped interceptor whom still had partial control of their interceptor.
Zhinbryo’s leaping cleave dispatched the last of the Hashmedai boarding party on the bridge. Chris took a breather and prepared himself for another wave to teleport in. There was always another wave.
“Staff Sergeant, it would appear I have control of the ship would you like me to readjust the mind shield’s security protocol to only—”
“For gods sake yes!” Chris shouted.
“Very well, Staff Sergeant, readjusting mind shield.”
Everyone got up from their cover as EVE began to take control of the ship. Chris lost count of how many bullet-riddled, incinerated, and sliced in half bodies littered the bloody floor of the Leviathan’s bridge.
Zhinbryo said something in Hashmedai to Chris and he asked Onatiasha to translate. “What did he say?”
“He’s says he killed more targets than you, and that real warriors use melee weapons,” Onatiasha said.
“Is that so?”
“And he wants to have a drink with you after this is over,” Onatiasha said. “And so do I.”
Gladius squadron, near Oyuri, Barnard’s Star system
“Hey Aura,” Gavin said. “Wanna do something really crazy?”
With EVE’s announcement to the fleet that EDF had taken control of the Leviathan, she slipped in a transmission to Gavin that made his face lit up. The elusive psionic interceptor had entered the Leviathan’s massive interceptor bay and was not only trapped as EVE programmed the Leviathan’s shields to only iris for UNE ships, but the mind shield now rendered their powers useless.
“Define crazy,” Aura transmitted back.
“EVE has a gift for us inside the Leviathan.”
He piloted his fighter toward the Leviathan as Aura followed behind. They dodged missiles, plasma fire and the like from the epic battle around them and began to swoop downward to the underside of the Leviathan as they got in rage.
“Red Lotus cover us,” Aura transmitted.
“Been doing that since the action started,” Red Lotus said.
All interceptors that took notice of the two were promptly shot down by Red Lotus. The two the simultaneously slowed their approach to fly up and inside the Leviathan and entered its football stadium sized docking bay. The bay was slowly being set on fire by the battle by the red striped interceptor and an old psionic interceptor that hadn’t seen action since the first invasion of Earth.
“According to EVE that’s Hijinks,” Gavin said. “So let’s not shoot her, shall we?”
The fight quickly turned into a one sided three on one bout. The red striped interceptor had nowhere to go, EVE wouldn’t let it out nor did it have any psionic abilities to use as Gavin and Aura’s rail gun fire shot at it with no issues. The red striped was no doubt trying to do as much damage as possible to the interior of the Leviathan.
Plasma fire from Hijinks’ interceptor delivered the blow that shattered its shields, while a plasma missile launched from Gavin’s fighter came under control of his telekinetic powers. He guided the missile to follow the zigzagging interceptor as it made one last attempt to start a major inferno inside the Leviathan. In the end his missile hit its mark and the red striped interceptor crash-landed on the last remaining catwalk.
Both Gavin and Aura’s fighters hovered above it and watched as the psionic pilot struggled to escape from her burning craft. “You gotta do the honors, Aura,” Gavin said.
“For Greg “Hammer” MacTavis,” Aura said. “And every other human being you killed, you fucking bitch.”
A single missile left Aura’s fighter and delivered its fatal payload onto the red striped interceptor, and turned it into an exploding bonfire of metal. There was nothing left of her body. Hammer’s death was finally avenged.
Yominv panted as he ran through the halls of the Leviathan having narrowly escaped the chaos inside the interceptor docking bay. He needed a way out and fast as he ordered Neviana to lay waste to the ship from the inside.
“Admiral are you there?”
Help at last, thank the gods! “Yes, I’m still on the Leviathan trying to find an escape pod.”
“Don’t do it sir, that human machine has them rigged,” the Hashmedai officer said. “Get to the airlock quickly we have a transport on the way.”
“At once!”
Yominv ran toward the airlock and saw the insides of a transport as it docked with it. This was it, his escape from the tragic situation. He ran as fast as his aged and out of shape legs would take him. The airlock doors opened and he let himself in, there was one set of doors left then freedom. The airlock doors that led directly into the Leviathan slid shut while the doors that led the transport remained closed, even after he inputted the command to open them. The transport pulled away seconds later.
“Wait! I haven’t boarded yet!”
A voice began to speak over the airlock’s speaker. It was a monotone human female voice that said in English. “Daisy, Daisy give me your heart to do.” It sounded like a song rather than direct speech. “I'm half crazy, hopeful in love with you—”
The airlock doors Yominv was frantically trying to open prior to the transport departing slid open. The problems he had with breathing due to running, was no longer a problem. Yominv’s body tumbled away from the Leviathan into space and the gargantuan battle around it.
Sarah patted EVE’s shoulder as she and the android watched Yominv get spaced via a projection on the bridge. “Was my attempt at humor better that time?” EVE asked.
“Well, I’m smiling,” Sarah said to her. “So I’m going to go with yes.”
Fake transmission, remotely operated transport to lure Yominv, it was all EVE’s idea of a joke that also resulted in them dealing with the last remaining Hashmedai target aboard the ship.
Abyssal Pelican, near Oyuri, Barnard’s Star system
Jainuzei wasn’t afraid of dying a glorious death in battle.
But it was clear the Celestial Order’s forces were falling, the Leviathan had been taken over and its mighty plasma cannon were used to destroy the last order loyal Hashmedai ships. The Pelican and the surviv
ing interceptors were all that remained. The combined fire power of the Leviathan, UNE, Radiance, and Imperial ships began to take its toll on the overshields of the Pelican.
It wasn’t going last any longer, and he knew it. The rest of the crew however insisted the gods would aid them in a form of divine intervention. Jainuzei too believed so, provided they did something that would make the gods want to perform such an act in the first place. Hannah had to finish her duties, she had to send the wraith into aether space and rid it of the evil ones. Then and only then would such divine intervention come into play, and not before. If Hannah failed then it wouldn’t happen, and who was there to ensure no harm came to Hannah?
Nobody.
Jainuzei needed to be that somebody, he needed to get off the Pelican and help Hannah in any way possible. While the crew remained at their posts, Jainuzei left the bridge to travel to the hanger bay; with Alisha of course. If he failed then the Pelican was doomed with her aboard, at least with her with him there was a chance she’d be spared. And if not, he’d be giving her one last chance to see her daughter.
ESV Winston Churchill, near Oyuri, Barnard’s Star system
“Yo, I found it!” Eupiar voice transmitted to Chloe’s ear piece communicator.
And it was her voice that triggered Chloe to move double-time past hordes of damage control teams amongst the sounds of battle alarms screeching to the flight deck. “Send me its location,” Chloe said a minute later.
A small projection appeared on Chloe’s visor, it showed an image of the Silver Raven packed on top of the Lyonria structure on Oyuri beneath the eternal eclipse. Next to it was a Radiance transport.
“I’m looking over the security vids from the cockpit, Jazz was the one that did it, and he looked pretty spaced out,” Eupiar said. “Then there’s this fucker.”
The projection changed as Eupiar sent Chloe the data. She saw cam footage from the Silver Raven show Torval meeting Jazz outside of the Silver Raven. In Torval’s hands was a pendant with the all too familiar sight of the red gem on it. Jazz was indeed about to follow the path she was forced to. Chloe eyed a dormant transport as the jets of her protect suit gave her enough thrust to move toward it.
“Captain, permission to take a transport to the surface?” she transmitted to the bridge.
“Major there’s a shite show going on in case you haven’t noticed,” Xavier said.
“With all due respect Captain, remember the last time you doubted me?”
“Major . . .”
“This is important, as in this whole battle will be for nothing if I say aboard.”
“There’s still a lot of interceptors in play and Oyuri is six minutes away at sub light.”
“I’ll be careful.”
She sat inside the cockpit of the transport and took a few minutes to try to remember all the flight knowledge she had gained from Vaish’s memories. It all came back to her, including some of Vaish’s personal thoughts. It made her grimace, Vaishea stuck in her brain was bad enough, but having fragments of Vaish’s as well?
I’m going to need a fucking therapist after this.
Lyonria Structure, Oyuri, Barnard’s Star system
Chloe’s transport landed next to the Silver Raven. It became the third ship to reside on the raised platform on the side of the structure. She exited as the darkness of the eternal eclipse covered the region, she kept her rifle forward and pivoted her head left to right, no wraith, no unwanted company. She made her way toward the Silver Raven, its doors were shut, and she had doubts that knocking was going to get any reply.
“Hey Chloe,” Eupiar said over her comms. “There’s a three-minute communication delay so I’ll give the heads up. I’m unlocking the door and changing the password now. Pretty easy when they selected the ‘remember me’ option, when you arrive all of this should be happening or in the process of it, so good luck.”
Eupiar’s timing was impeccable, the Silver Raven’s door opened. She was impressed on how well it all worked considering it would have taken Eupiar’s signals three minutes to reach the Silver Raven, then another three minutes for her to receive the data, only for her next ping to take another three minutes. She must have started work before Chloe had left the Winston Churchill only for those results to be experienced as she got there.
There was no sign of activity aboard the ship. That was until Chloe made it to the upper deck and saw Veloshira exit from her room she was trapped in. Veloshira didn’t seem happy to see Chloe, though Chloe did stand before her with rifle drawn and protect suit on. Veloshira hissed at her and took on an aggressive stance.
“Stand down,” Chloe said to her.
Veloshira spoke in her native language, a language Chloe couldn’t reply to.
“I didn’t do this, this was Jazz,” Chloe said, knowing fully well Veloshira too had no idea what she had said. Veloshira spoke louder, Chloe sensed that perhaps she was accusing her of hijacking the Silver Raven. “Look out the window, why the fuck would I fly this to some strange floating alien fortress on Oyuri.”
Chloe pointed toward the cockpit’s window. Veloshira walked toward it and looked out of it then began to mumble more words. Chloe joined her and replayed the footage Eupiar had sent her via a holographic screen. It was all she had to work with as far as communicating with Veloshira went. Veloshira watched the playback closely.
“Torval,” Veloshira said. It was the only word Chloe understood from her as Veloshira quickly began the process of suiting up and picking her weapons up off the floor.
Chloe repeated Veloshira’s last word, the only word she knew to say to Veloshira. Veloshira hissed, said several words in her language followed by Torval’s name again as she pointed toward her plasma daggers.
Torval’s head is the key to her husband and child survival, Chloe thought. Veloshira moved toward the exit and motioned her head toward Chloe for her to join her. You want to go with me eh? Good, didn’t want to die alone anyways.
Hannah leaped up and down excitedly. She saw Jazz and Torval enter the box-shaped room with Kroshka’s gem in hand it was a moment she been waiting weeks to witness. “You brought it! You brought him! We can begin!” Hannah shouted and continued to leap up and down manically.
Hannah swiped the pendant out from his hands and slid it on Jazz. The gem part of the pendant slowly dangled in front of Jazz’s chest. She felt Emelia’s force exit Jazz and return to her chosen gem. Afterward Hannah returned to the disk-shaped object the two existing goddess gems were placed into. She moved quickly as the mind control over Jazz’s body would not last long during the transition. Ella was a different story as her body and Avearan’s had been swapped. Ella’s and Avearan’s mental ethereal connection only enabled prolonged mind control.
The disk rose from the floor on its own and hovered in front of the oval wormhole gate. The third gem at last, and it’s the right one! Hannah thought as she slotted it in. Her focus on having all three distracted her from noticing that the wormhole had opened prior to her placing it in. She silently cursed as her plans to open a wormhole that would lead deep into aether space met yet another unexpected delay. As long as there was another incoming wormhole, she couldn’t do anything. It needed to be shut down first before she could use it to go anywhere. Forcing an incoming wormhole to end prematurely was easy, forcing it to do that while someone was using it, was impossible due to the built-in safety protocols.
Phylarlie.
Hannah sensed her presence as she slipped through the wormhole. Nobody could see her, she was cloaked. But Hannah knew, she always did. She saw through it as if it there was no cloaking field to start with, one of many talents the goddesses blessed her with.
“Phylarlie, how delightful for you to join us!” Hannah shouted. It caused Phylarlie to stop moving, shocked that her cloaked body was found easily. “It’s me. Hannah! Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember how I saw you all the time?”
Phylarlie backed away as she deactivated her cloak, it made no difference to Hann
ah, she still saw her sultry pale-blue-skinned body as she held her daggers out in preparation for a fight. Hannah snapped her fingers in response, and a dozen wraiths flocked to her side. She reached out and patted several of them as if they were pets.
“Kill with her,” Hannah said to the wraith.
Phylarlie’s tactics were unexpected to Hannah. She had expected the assassin to directly attack and try to kill the wraith with her blades. Instead she stunned many of them with her disks then followed up by injecting them with a medical device with her fast Hashmedai hand movement. The injected wraith stopped moving, Hannah sensed the viral agent in their body dissipate and reject the host all out as per its programming.
“What are you doing?” Hannah yelped. Phylarlie didn’t answer, she only continued to disable and inject wraith with a slick combination of stun or kinetic disks and high speed acrobatic maneuvers. She should have been sent to Earth not Jazz! We wouldn’t be in this mess! “What are you doing!” Hannah yelled.
The wraiths were slowly reverting back to their original form. It had to stop. The wormhole had to be shut down and reactivated. Phylarlie needed to be taken care of first. Hannah wasn’t indestructible, she was still flesh and blood, and Phylarlie was more than capable to put her down if she tried to interface with the wormhole. Hannah had gifts however, and they became enhanced as the goddesses transferred their psionic force into her body, that was with two gems inserted. Now that all three gems were in place, all three goddesses lent their gifts to Hannah.
Mind control, that will do the trick, she thought. Sorry it had to come down to this, Phylarlie, you were so nice to me! The last wraith fell as Phylarlie went to inject it. Hannah envisioned Phylarlie slitting her wrists with her daggers, she did no such thing. Her gifts had faded. No, someone was interfering.
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2 Page 56
