He checked the sensor logs to try to figure out what prevented the fleet from moving. A powerful magnetic field interfered with the ship’s engines. He tried locating the source, but it seemed to come from all around them, and he had trouble pinpointing a single source. Furthermore, no physical ship or object appeared on the scopes. It was as if the devices that generated that powerful field were not there.
“They’re cloaked,” realized Ronan.
He needed to do something. While the Phoenix was at the center of the fleet and mostly spared from the cowardly, vulture attack pattern of the Zarlack destroyers, soon the Phoenix would become a target itself. When that time came, Ronan had no doubt that his life would end, with that of everyone else aboard the ship.
He brought up the communication controls and tried to send a distress call on every band, but the computer indicated that the signal was being heavily jammed. His mind raced, trying to find a way. Then he remembered the device his mother had given him. Chase once gave her this device to activate in case she was in trouble during her mission to break him out of Hellstar. Upon their return, she had given it to him and told him to use it if he ever was in trouble. Today clearly qualified.
Since it was Alliance technology it would probably be jammed like the rest of the fleet’s signals though, unless he found a way to put distance between it and the fleet.
An escape pod!
If he could release one with the devices on board it might work. The ejection system didn’t rely on an engine and should not be affected by the field. At least, he hoped so. It wasn’t as if he had any other options at the moment, so Ronan brought up the schematics of the ship, determined the safest vector away from enemy fire, and located the best deck from which to launch the escape pod.
Three minutes later, he reached the fifth deck, entered the first escape pod and activated the device. He wondered if he should go with it, but decided against it. He wouldn’t abandon Arknon. First he had to make sure he woke up, and they could escape in a pod of their own. He exited the pod and sent it on its way. The hydraulic ejection system sent the pod away from the ship slowly.
When Ronan returned to the med-bay, he checked on Arknon, as the ship rocked more. The regen program was still running, but already many of his friend’s wounds had been healed. Hopefully he could revive his friend in the next few minutes. He returned to the nearest console to get a status report. The readings weren’t encouraging. Already a third of the vessels had either been fully disabled or destroyed.
He brushed his anger away for the moment. It wouldn’t help him achieve anything now. He looked at his holo-instruments and checked the status of the escape pod carrying the transmitter. It was still there, which was good, but it wasn’t advancing fast enough. It would take nearly two hours for it to exit the jamming range.
Ronan swore.
Nothing he could do about that now. Time to try and revive Arknon. He entered the command to stop the healing cycle and purge the regen liquid from the tank. A minute later he had removed his friend’s body from the regen tank and laid him on the nearest med-bed. He injected him with a stimulant and slapped his face a couple of times.
Arknon jumped and startled Ronan in the process.
“Thank god you’re okay.”
“What’s happening? Why am I in med-bay?”
“We’re being attacked by a Zarlack fleet and our ships are immobilized.”
“That would explain why the engines overloaded earlier when the captain ordered me to punch them to one hundred twenty percent. I don’t remember anything after that.”
“The fleet is being held in place by a powerful magnetic field. We need to find a way to either break the field or get the hell out of here before the Phoenix is destroyed.”
Arknon held his head between his hands.
“You alright?”
“I’m okay, don’t worry. I just have the mother of all headaches, that’s all.”
“Let me give you a painkiller.”
“No, it might slow me down. We need to hurry. Any idea how long we have?”
As if in answer, the ship rocked strongly and Ronan had to prevent Arknon from falling from the bed.
“Not very long if I had to take a wild guess.”
When Miseo and General Arkoolis exited the shuttle on the surface of Droxia, just outside one of the biggest cities on the planet, many armored vehicles came their way, both by land and air.
“Ah, good,” said the general. “A welcoming party.”
He cracked both his knuckles and neck.
Miseo just passed his hand through his hair and smiled.
The airborne Droxian attack craft were the first to reach their position. They fired a flurry of missiles.
The multiple concussive explosions sent rocks and flames flying high in the air. When the smoke settled, though, neither the general nor Miseo had moved an inch, and a circular area of a hundred yards around them seemed totally unscathed by the missile attack.
Miseo brushed some dust from his armor and took a step forward.
“My turn.”
He shot in the air so quickly that the shockwave behind him uprooted every tree in a five-mile radius around his point of departure. He passed through the first Droxian craft as if it was made of paper. It exploded and debris fell back toward the surface. The other seven craft turned about and adjusted their vector toward Miseo, who floated in the air, waiting for them.
They opened fire with lasers. Each laser ricocheted off Miseo a few inches before reaching him. He raised both his hands with open palms. He closed both fists and all seven craft exploded simultaneously, igniting like fireworks as they painted the sky orange for a brief moment.
Then black patches of smoke appeared all around Miseo’s position. Ground artillery. Miseo saw the far away tanks firing upon him in the sky and started laughing.
“They think they’ll kill a Fury with this primitive weaponry? I’m disappointed, given the Droxians’ warrior reputation.”
Miseo waved his right hand in the air and the area where the tanks were exploded, churning red hot pieces of metal and large rocks into the air.
Another squadron of aerial craft approached Miseo’s position.
Before they could enter firing range Miseo waved two fingers in the air in every direction, very quickly. The result was highly destructive. The approaching craft were cut to pieces and exploded in midair.
Five drop ships landed ground troops less than a mile away.
“Finally, some fun. Let’s see how strong these Droxians really are.”
Miseo returned to the ground and walked toward the incoming ground forces. Soon laser fire rained down on him. It ricocheted away from him, inches before impact. After a while the troops stopped firing and charged toward Miseo with their bare hands.
Their speed was pathetic and Miseo had no trouble dodging every single punch and kick, even when they were all around him. After a few seconds he unleashed a shockwave that sent the foot soldiers flying for hundreds of yards. He smiled.
“I thought Droxians were formidable foes. I guess you guys don’t live up to your reputation.”
“How dare you?” said someone from behind him.
Miseo turned and saw a very tall and muscular Droxian, covered in scars, approaching him. The ground shook a little with every step he took. He was twice the size of Miseo and when he arrived next to him, he blocked the sunlight and plunged Miseo into the shadows.
“Let’s hope you’re stronger than your comrades.”
“You’re about to find out.”
The Droxian sent a powerful punch right into Miseo’s face. Upon impact dust and small rocks flew backward, but Miseo didn’t budge an inch.
The Droxian took a step back.
“How can this be?”
“As expected, you’re only slightly more powerful than these fools.”
The Droxian spat on the ground and launched a combo of powerful hooks and kicks, each impacting Miseo; but again he didn’t
budge. The Droxian screamed as he gave it all he had.
“This is pointless. Your race will die today. We will kill you all.”
The Droxian was panting heavily from his efforts, which had no effect whatsoever.
“My turn,” said Miseo with a smirk.
Miseo extended two fingers upwards and the Droxian levitated off the ground, a look of utter terror on its face.
Miseo jumped toward him and slashed him in two with a single, flying kick, sending blood and guts into the air. Both parts of the already dead Droxian fell to the ground.
Miseo landed back on the ground and shook his head from side to side to express his disappointment.
The ground shook as three mechs landed near his position. They were fifty feet tall, a Droxian piloting each of them near the center of its steel torso. Each extended one arm and fired an extremely powerful plasma shot toward him.
Upon impact a large explosion engulfed Miseo. He emerged from the flames unscathed and flew at impossible speed toward the first mech, with his right arm extended, and punched though the torso of the mech warrior, exploding the pilot into pieces. The mech exploded soon after.
The other two mechs directed more plasma attacks toward Miseo’s position in the air. None of them found their targets. Miseo appeared as though he teleported in and out of thin air, dodging every shot with ease. The previously dispatched soldiers were returning, and added their blasters’ firepower to the mix, but to no avail. Not a single shot touched the Fury.
“This is getting boring,” he said before unleashing an animalistic roar that froze everyone’s blood.
A dark-red aura grew around him as he crossed both his arms across his chest, fire burning in his eyes. When he slashed both his arms away from his thorax it released two giant shockwaves that sliced both mechs in two, and split the ground beneath them. Two-mile-long crevasses were created and half the soldiers fell to their deaths in them. Those few remaining tried to run for it.
“Not so fast!” said Miseo, a look of pure evil in his eyes.
He extended his fist forward and they ran into an invisible wall. As he raised his fist slightly they all levitated into the air, flailing their limbs in vain.
“You’re all just a pathetic bunch of helpless bugs, and bugs need to crushed.”
Miseo then opened his fist and every one of the flying soldiers exploded from the inside out, providing a disgusting fireworks display of purple blood, guts and broken bones.
Miseo levitated back next to General Arkoolis.
“Looks like there isn’t going to be any challenge today,” said the general with disappointment in his voice.
“I’m afraid not. It will just be a matter of flattening these cities and annihilating these fools. Would you like to do the honors with this city, general?”
“Gladly. Thank you, Miseo.”
Arkoolis extended his left arm forward with his palm open. He held his left bicep with his right hand while a wavy, bright-red aura engulfed him. A purple, spherical fireball grew quickly in front of his palm. It soon grew to six feet in diameter. Black lightning bolts crackled all around its surface. The general unleashed a war cry as he sent the fireball toward the city. It only took an instant for the attack to travel above the center of the city.
The general closed his palm and the attack detonated. The resulting explosion was devastating. It lit up the landscape with bright, white light first. Then everything around—trees, mountains, even clouds—was sucked into the center of the city. Buildings broke into a million pieces. Everything was sucked into the center of the attack, which acted like a localized black hole. After only a couple of seconds it all exploded with a powerful shockwave that went for thousands of miles. Both the explosion and resulting shockwave could be seen from orbit. A minute later a giant, smoky mushroom rose above what once was a very lively and busy city.
Nothing remained, no trace of civilization as far as the eye could see.
“Tell me something, Miseo, why don’t we just explode the core of this planet and go?”
“Well, besides the fun of this approach, it sends a better message if we destroy these cities one by one, but let the planet stand as a reminder of our superiority. When the rest of the Alliance gets here they’ll witness what only two Furies did in so little time. It should infuse the fear of their pathetic gods into all their hearts.”
“Speaking of which, when do we settle the score with the Olympians?”
“One thing at the time. The Olympians are not an immediate threat, the Alliance is.”
“Doesn’t seem so from where I’m standing.”
“Perhaps I should rephrase that. Argos’ brother needs to be dealt with. He is one of us and could be a problem.”
“Is he that powerful?”
Miseo knew how close the general and his father were so he needed to be careful what information he gave him.
“No, most likely not. Perhaps a good, low-class Fighter; but we’d better deal with him nonetheless. The other races are no threat to us.”
“The Asgardians could be.”
“And yet they are nowhere to be seen. I think it’s safe to assume they’re not interested in joining this pathetic Alliance.”
“Who could blame them? These races are utterly powerless; the sooner we cleanse them from the universe the better for everyone.”
Miseo smiled. “We should split up and get the show on the road. Don’t worry about killing people outside of big cities. It’s good to let a few survivors witness what we do to their world.”
“Very well. I would tell you to be careful but . . .”
“Clearly not needed.”
Onboard the Valken, Keera had just exited from hyperspace at the outskirts of the Droxian system to investigate the weird readings she was getting from her navigational computer. She looked at her scopes with horror. Droxia was under a full-scale attack. She engaged her stealth systems and tried to hail the Droxian ships, but the signal was jammed. She wondered if she should activate the new cloak that Yanis had installed on her ship as a thank you for helping Chase and his friends, but at that distance she was pretty sure the Zarlacks wouldn’t find her with her stealth systems on. It looked as though they had other things on their minds anyway.
“So much for my uneventful delivery run . . .”
She engaged her top-of-the-line anti-jamming communication array. It took a while for the computer to bypass the jamming frequency, but after a few minutes she opened a channel.
“This is Keera Hawking of the Valken. Anybody, please respond?”
A boyish voice answered. “This is Ronan, son of Ryonna and Jax Isch’ys.”
“Ronan? Wait, as in Ryonna’s boy? I know your mother!”
“Is she with you? Please tell me you have her on board.”
“Afraid not, Ronan, she’s deep in Alliance territory helping Chase regain Alpha Prime, last I heard.”
“Understood. How did you manage to get a signal inside the jamming field?”
“I have specific tech designed to break or transmit through jamming fields. Very expensive tech; not exactly legal either.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We need your help. Can you please let the Earth Alliance and my mother know what is transpiring here? Soon the fleet will be wiped out.”
“I can see that. Sneaky tactic they’ve used.”
“These Zarlacks have no honor. This is not how warfare is fought!”
Keera could sense the anger in Ronan’s tone.
“Having had the displeasure of meeting Argos briefly I can tell you he will do whatever is necessary to achieve his goals. I don’t think he cares one bit about being honorable.”
“Can you send that distress call?”
“Hang on, I’m contacting Earth now. Okay, I’ve relayed the message, but it will take three hours for them to travel to Droxia with the jumpgate.”
“The jumpgate has been destroyed already.”
“Of course it has. Then the nearest help is at least seven
hours away.”
“We’ll be long dead by then.”
Keera wanted to find words to reassure Ronan, but she didn’t know what she could tell him to make him feel better.
“You need to get out of there, Ronan.”
“We know, but aside from the escape pods I don’t see how. We’d be sitting ducks the moment we launched them.”
“I might be able to do something about that.”
“First things first. I’ve launched an escape pod transmitting a distress call to my mother a while back. Do you see it?”
“Let me check. I see a small and slow-moving object traveling away from the fleet on my scopes, yes.”
“Is there any way you can use whatever tech you’re using to talk with us to replicate and amplify this signal through the jamming fields?”
“I think so. Give me a minute . . . and, done.”
“Good, that should let my mother know we need help here.”
“Look, Ronan, if you escape using an escape pod I could tractor you out.”
“You’d risk becoming a target yourself.”
“I have a cloak. It only lasts a few minutes but that’s all I would need.”
“I’m afraid the magnetic field trapping us would trap your ship as well, unless your tractor beam has at least a fifty-thousand-mile range?”
“Not even close, I’m afraid.”
“Then don’t even risk it. Enough people are going to die today. No need to add yourself to the list in a futile attempt to get us out of here.”
“There has to be something I can do. I can’t just stand here and let you and thousands of others die.”
“If only we could pinpoint the devices that generate the fields, we could fire on them.”
“I’m getting garbled readings. Let me try some more and get back to you shortly, okay?”
“Understood. Thanks for your help, Keera!”
“Sure thing. Hang on, Ronan, I’ll do everything I can to get you out of here.”
Keera tried different algorithms to try and detect the source of the fields but came up empty each time.
“Dammit!”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” said a male voice behind her.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 128
