“I can’t go to Droxia, Commodore. I need to stay here.”
“This is temporary. We need to get you to safety!”
“I understand and thank you for your help.” The ship started to shake once more upon entering firing range. “But I won’t leave Earth space.”
Saroudis swore in his head. “Alright, then they’ll escort you to the planet. Once you reach there, you’ll be escorted to a bunker that should withstand an orbital attack.”
“Thank you, Commodore. I’ll get to my ship at once.”
“Very well. Be safe.”
“You too, Commodore. Don’t let Earth fall.”
“I won’t.”
She exited the bridge and the commodore relayed orders to the two nearest wings to escort and protect her ship down to Earth, at Alliance Central multiplex in DC. After the terrorist bombing they had reconstructed and fortified the installation. It was now shielded, and they had constructed an underground bunker deep within the Earth’s surface. She should be safe there.
A few torpedoes and some multiple plasma fire impacted the Destiny’s shield, making it rock.
“This is going to be a very long, hard day,” said Saroudis out loud.
9
Fillio’s wing had dispatched the first wave of Zarlack starfighters. They were outnumbered five to one but the superiority of the StarFuries paid off. Especially in the hands of skilled fighters like her. She split her wing in two to repel the next pair of squadrons vectoring towards their position.
She painted her next target and let her drones pummel its shield and add to her own laser firepower. When it reached a satisfactory twenty percent, she fired a missile. Its target exploded in a fiery display. She flew through the flames, letting out a war cry for her own benefit as her shield lit up and deflected debris from the destroyed ship.
She acquired her next target and pummeled its port shields with her laser. When they became dangerously low it rotated on its axis and went evasive. She locked the port side with a missile and fired. She immediately veered towards her next prey, knowing the missile would finish the job.
The moment she engaged her next target, the previous bogie disappeared from her neuronal HUD’s translucent radar. She couldn’t help but smile. Her drones started draining the shields of the enemy craft quickly. It tried to go evasive but she wouldn’t let it breathe. Soon its shields were down. She tuned her firing to super charged and sent one volley down the craft’s engines. They exploded and the ship started madly rolling on all axes before ripping in two. For a brief moment she saw the reptilian Zarlack tumble through space before some of the debris cut him in half, guts and blood barely having time to spray before being flash frozen in place.
Now that’s a satisfying kill, she thought. The more these bastards suffer the better. Her train of thought was interrupted when a flurry of laser fire hit her starboard shields. She broke hard to port. Her HUD flashed red: two missiles were on their way. She put her ship in a spin and released countermeasures at the last moment, firing afterburners at the same time. When both missiles detonated she was long gone. Another five craft engaged her. Clearly her prior flying and quick kills had brought her some aggro from the ships in the area.
“The more the better. Bring it on!”
She went evasive and spun around like a mad bird, dodging most of the incoming fire. When all her pursuers were in a tight group, she spun her ship one hundred and eighty degrees and punched her engine to face them. Her aft shields took some hits but nothing her StarFury couldn’t handle. She programmed one of her drones to turn into a mine. When she was almost upon the wave of ships joyfully raining hellfire on her, she deployed the drone and punched the afterburners. She flew right through the five-ship formation.
“So long, suckers!”
She detonated the mine. The brunt of the explosion took three ships on the spot, the shockwave disabling the fourth ship, which collided with the fifth, ripping off one of its wings. It started spinning while leaving a smoke trail. She adjusted her vector, lined up behind it and put it out of its misery with a single, precise shot.
She ignored the disabled ship and vectored towards the next incoming squadron. Two of her wing mates, having just dealt with their own targets, rejoined her wing. They had lost more than half their shields but were otherwise undamaged. So far none of Alpha-wing’s craft had been destroyed.
Alpha Two got painted and three missiles came towards it. She put her ship right behind it and shot one of the incoming missiles, and when she lined up to destroy a second her neuronal HUD rapidly flashed red and the onboard AINI went vocal.
“Collision alert!”
Before she could do anything a Zarlack ship collided with her shields. It exploded on impact and for a brief moment all she saw through her canopy were flames. She checked her shields. They were down to twenty percent.
“Pheeeew, thank the gods these are tough ships.”
When she regained visual contact with the ship she had been covering she saw the other two missiles impact with it, taking its shields out. Sparks flew but the ship still seemed operational. But then it all went wrong.
Another approaching Zarlack fighter locked onto it with a red beam of light. A tractor beam. The Zarlack pushed its afterburners and went kamikaze. Both ships exploded.
“What the hell?” she shouted out loud.
That’s when three incoming ships started raining heavy fire on her, each locking two missiles on her. With some pretty fancy flying she managed to dodge most of the incoming fire and dispatched four of the missiles, but two got through and struck her aft shields, disabling them on the spot. Some sparks flew in her cockpit.
One of the Zarlacks locked its tractor beam onto her ship and started pulling her. She put her engines in reverse but the enemy craft pushed its afterburners, countering her maneuver. AINI spat out another collision alert and many of her virtual instruments went red.
“Fuck me!” was all that came to mind.
In two seconds the enemy craft would impact and take her out. It felt as if her heart stopped, but her mind raced beyond light speed. She mentally triggered a micro-jump. What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion and time slowed to a crawl. She saw the hyperspace window open in front of her, the ship entered it, and just before she jumped she saw flames all around. The next second her craft exited hyperspace, not too far from the moon.
“Holy crap, that was close.”
She flew behind one of the satellites, letting her shields recharge. But then she had a perfect view of two members of her squadron, and in less than a minute they were obliterated by the same tactic.
That’s new, she thought.
That changed the odds radically. If enemy pilots were happily sacrificing themselves to take down StarFuries, that would complicate things. A lot.
She opened a channel to the Destiny.
“Commodore, the Zarlacks are sacrificing their starfighters to take out our StarFuries!”
“I see it. This is bad.”
“Yeah, what do we do?”
“Don’t let their tractor beams lock onto your craft, that’s what you do.”
“Easier said than done, with all due respect, Commodore.”
“Can’t really debate this with you right now, Sledgehammer. We’ve got heavy incoming. Saroudis out.”
So much for the pep talk, she thought.
Her ship’s shields were back to a satisfactory seventy-seven percent when she decided to re-engage; but this time she would pick her targets, making sure she didn’t get pinned down as before and expose herself to this new batshit crazy tactic that was currently decimating the Earth Alliance StarFuries one by one.
Aphroditis’ ship was approaching one of the defense satellites when red beams locked on to two of her escorts, and Zarlack ships started throwing themselves at them. They exploded upon impact. The remainder of her protection detail fought bravely, but soon they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of ships adopting kamikaze tactics.
She had passed the satellite when three Zarlack ships came out of nowhere and crashed upon her ship’s shields. The light within her cockpit started flickering and her craft went into a wild spin. She tried in vain to get out of it but her controls weren’t responding.
She opened a channel.
“Commodore! Please help. I’ve lost control of my ship. I’m currently accelerating towards Earth with no control of my engines. I don’t know what to do!”
“Hang on, Aphroditis. I’m sending help.”
Her heart pounded and she remembered her nightmare vision. Could that be it? Was her time up as well? A sense of dread filled her.
She closed her eyes and focused all her energy on Chase.
“Chase! Please help me!”
“Sledgehammer, this is Saroudis. Aphroditis’ ship is being attacked and her ship is out of control. Please assist her now. This is a top priority.”
“Understood, Commodore. Sledgehammer out.”
She vectored her ship to intercept the Olympian, but she was too far out. She needed to jump to get there fast enough. She tried micro-jumping but her HUD blinked orange.
Jump engines inoperable.
No doubt a side effect of her last jump so near the Zarlack ship that tried ramming her. She cursed. She used her instruments to locate the nearest ship. There was only one in range. She hailed it. “Epsilon Four, please respond?”
“Listening, Wing Commander.”
“I have a mission for you. This is top priority. There’s an Olympian ship plummeting towards the planet. You need to tractor it and help it any way you can. We cannot lose the person on board this ship, do you understand?”
“Copy. I’m on it. MetalMonster out.”
On board the Valken, Chase was resting in one of the bunk beds in the back of the ship. He had just finished eating a sandwich and had to admit he missed Earth’s culinary delights. He could really go for a pizza or some Chinese deep-fried meal right now. His hands were locked behind his head as he thought about what it would be like to be back on the beautiful blue planet.
There was no denying he dreaded it more than anything else. Just knowing he was travelling towards Earth gave him a headache. But that was most likely because he felt remorse and shame, leaving everything behind as he had. He could still remember the heated discussion he had with his once commanding officer and friend Adonis Saroudis.
He had tried to convince him that time would heal his wounds and that revenge wasn’t the way to go. But how could he know? Nobody could. All Chase knew was how much he hated his brother, how every minute of every day he envisioned killing him with his bare hands, as he should have done on board Damocles-3. God, why didn’t he do it? Why didn’t he just end Argos then and there?
That brought another set of shameful memories. The way he and Daniel had argued before his departure and resignation from the Earth Alliance. He hoped Daniel would forgive him. He didn’t intend to hurt his feelings. But he did say things he shouldn’t have. When he blurted out that it was his fault for not letting him execute Argos, Chase knew that these had been harsh words uttered in a moment of anger and utter sadness. He hoped Daniel knew that as well. The last thing he wanted was his brother-in-arms to blame himself.
Blame. There was only one person to blame for everything that had gone wrong for as long as he could remember now. The fall of the Alliance, the fight for Earth’s survival, Sarah’s torture and her ultimate demise. And now Ares’ death.
Tears of hate welled at the corners of Chase’s eyes.
Argos was the one responsible for all that pain, chaos, misery and death. But a day would come when Chase would at least rectify the mistake that his brother’s birth had been. On that day he would make him wish he was never born. Killing him was only part of it. He needed to suffer. Chase would often daydream about how much pain he would inflict on Argos before putting him out of his misery. He felt as if the day of reckoning was approaching.
Then he heard her shout in his mind. Aphroditis.
Chase, help me!
No visions though, just a mental call, as Argos had done so many times. That couldn’t be a good sign. Ares had made him promise to protect her. Chase already felt responsible for Ares’ death as well as great sadness for the loss of his mentor.
He closed his eyes and tried projecting his mind towards the source of the voice. He couldn’t even visualize it, though. He thought of Earth, but that didn’t seem to help.
Then he felt a warm energy engulf him from head to toe. The energy was familiar somehow, but Chase couldn’t place it. He tried again and suddenly felt his consciousness travel at faster than hyperspace speed, and when he opened his eyes he was next to her. He tried to put his hand on her shoulder but it passed right through it. Right, I’m not actually there, thought Chase. He tried talking but she didn’t seem to hear.
Chase watched Aphroditis frantically trying to bring the engines of her ship back online. The ship was spinning madly, and she was about to enter Earth’s atmosphere. He needed to find a way to help her. He saw a StarFury during one of the rotations of her ship. He also saw multiple capital ships engaged in combat. From what he could make of that millisecond view, Zarlacks were attacking the Earth Alliance and Droxian ships defending it.
At this moment, Chase regretted leaving Earth. Argos had to be on one of those ships, so if he had stayed put . . . Another cry for help from Aphroditis snapped Chase out of his current thought pattern. He closed his eyes again and concentrated, trying to project his mind to the nearest StarFury.
When he opened his eyes again he was aboard a StarFury in a launching bay he knew well: one of the satellites. He immediately fired up the craft and took off. As he flew outside the landing bay’s force field he saw another StarFury being pounded by a Zarlack starfighter. Its shields were down and the enemy had locked onto it with a tractor beam. It was on an intercept course at full burn.
That’s new, thought Chase. The StarFury pilot ejected mere seconds before impact. That was when Chase micro-jumped and arrived in front of the Zarlack ship, which promptly impacted with his shields, bringing them down to fifty percent but obliterating the incoming vessel on the spot.
When the flames settled and the blue flashing from his shields faded, Chase mentally snatched the now pilotless craft and hit the afterburners. He could see Aphroditis’ ship from here. It had just ignited from entering the atmosphere. He had to hurry. There was still a Zarlack ship closing on her six and it would soon enter firing range.
Chase vectored his ships towards the pursuing starfighter, which also entered Earth’s atmosphere in pursuit of Aphroditis’ ship. It started firing at Aphroditis’ ship, but Chase was still too far away. He wondered if a micro-jump would work from his position to inside the planet’s atmosphere. That seemed a risky proposition at best, but he wasn’t really on board the ship, after all. When debris and smoke appeared from the back of the Olympian ship, that’s when Chase did it.
He positioned the other StarFury mere feet from his own ship so the hyperspace window would engulf it. He micro-jumped again, arriving right on top of the Zarlack fighter. He pummeled it with laser fire, locked four missiles and fired them all. No time to waste here. In less than a minute Aphroditis’ craft would crash into the ground.
He started to go after her ship, trusting his missiles would finish the job, and soon enough they did. He heard an explosion behind and the ship disappeared from the radar. Earth’s gravity had taken a hold on Aphroditis’ ship and it was accelerating towards the ground.
Chase vectored towards her ship. Time was running out. Her current spin was problematic so he fired three, well-timed shots to try to stabilize her trajectory. It worked to some extent. He dared not fire more salvos; already his hits, even if low powered, had left nasty burn marks on the reflective chrome armor. He put his ship in a similar spin and approached it. The ground was approaching fast. He mentally maneuvered the other ship to approach Aphroditis’ craft from the underbelly, and soon bot
h ships where only a few feet away. Chase reversed his ship and approached the Olympian ship’s canopy. He saw Aphroditis flailing her hands all over her controls but nothing happened.
He waved at her. She looked up but didn’t understand what she was seeing. Right, the cockpit was empty from her perspective.
Chase engaged tractor beams on both StarFuries and they locked onto Aphroditis’ ship. The StarFuries groaned. Tractor beams were not designed to be used at these velocities. Chase had trouble stabilizing the now-linked trio of ships. A quick look at his instruments showed he had only a handful of seconds before impact. He engaged both StarFuries’ reverse engines to the maximum. When that didn’t work he diverted every ounce of power to them, including life support. The StarFuries were empty anyway. That did the trick and he managed to slow down the Olympian ship a few hundred feet from the ground. He then proceeded to help the ship gently touch down, in the middle of nowhere.
Once Aphroditis’ ship was safely down, he landed the StarFuries nearby and extended both their shields so they would protect her ship from any debris or incoming fire.
Chase opened his eyes again and he was back, looking at the ceiling of his Valken quarters. He heard Ares in his mind. Thank you, Chase.
A promise is a promise. I’m surprised I managed to do anything from this distance, though.
About that. You had help.
So that was you?
It’s the least I could do.
Fillio’s StarFury entered Earth’s atmosphere in a hurry. Her heart was beating fast. She had tried hailing Epsilon Four and had not received any answer. If something had happened to Aphroditis she would get her ass handed to her.
But that wasn’t what she was worried about. Letting an Olympian die in any circumstances had to be bad. Sure, she was amongst those who didn’t believe in them and their myths; still, from what she had gathered from Daniel, they had played a major role saving this world from Argos and his Zarlack army.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 100
