“None taken. If he does we won’t continue, but I’m really curious about him. Wouldn’t you like to know yourself?”
Chris started jumping up and down. “Pleeeeease, Mommy, let me fight Gaia!”
Sarah wondered if Chris knew exactly how to act to make his plea work with her. One moment he was as serious as an adult, and then he would do something so totally kid-like. Maybe it wasn’t just how he was. Perhaps he was manipulating her. She had zero experience in parenting a child, and if he was as smart as she thought he was, he could very well be playing her. But damn, it was so cute and endearing. It made Sarah happy when he acted like a little boy, the way it should be.
“Okay, but you,” said Sarah, pointing a finger at Gaia, “make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”
“Don’t worry. He won’t be able to touch me unless I want him to.”
“Ah!” said Chris. “We’ll see about that.”
Before anyone could say anything Chris had teleported himself into the fighting arena and was stretching. He then sent a multitude of punches and kicks into the air.
Spiros’ jaw dropped. “That’s . . . not . . . possible.”
“Believe me, Spiros,” said Sarah, “you’ll soon learn the word impossible doesn’t apply to Chris. But I’ll admit I didn’t see that one coming.”
Gaia left the control room and joined Chris on the tatami-layered fighting arena. Chris was still throwing punches and kicks all around him.
“Alright, Chris,” said Gaia. “We’ll take this slowly, okay? First try to simply hit me, but in case you’re fast enough, don’t put all your strength into your blow. We don’t want you to break anything, okay?”
Chris stood up straight and shot Gaia a wide smile. “Okay!”
Chris started dancing from one foot to the other like an experienced boxer on fight night and soon a bright orange aura engulfed him.
“Whenever you’re read—” said Gaia, but she never finished her sentence.
Chris had thrown himself at her so quickly, punching her straight in the face, that he sent Gaia crashing into the shielded wall tens of yards behind her.
Sarah’s eyes widened. “Alright. Now this is impossible.”
15
When Argos and Ares arrived at Argos’ secret base, they were greeted by a full platoon of Zarlack foot soldiers who clearly decided to shoot first and ask questions later. Argos blocked the blaster fire sent towards him with ease.
Miseo must have discovered what he was doing. He wondered why he thought these Zarlack fools would be able to capture him, though. Did he underestimate him that much?
Argos grew his aura and lightning bolts shot from him and impaled all the Zarlack soldiers. They exploded in a bloody mess.
“Was that supposed to happen?” inquired Ares.
“What? The welcoming committee? Or their demise?”
“Both I guess.”
“I didn’t expect to get fired at by my own slave troops, but their reward for doing so? They got that coming the moment they opened fire on us.”
“We don’t have time to lose. Get the snake and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“For once we see eye to eye.”
Argos went towards his ready room but the doors opened and a Fury in full battle armor appeared from within. He clapped his hands.
“Impressive. These Zarlacks aren’t that strong, but I like how fast you dealt with them.”
The young Fury, who barely looked eighteen, was taller than Argos and had medium-length white hair. His hair looked as if it had exploded out of the top of his head. His eyes were naturally red. His pale skin confirmed his albino descent. This was surprising, since the Fury usually filtered genetically deficient children before they were even born. So an albino Fury was not common.
“And you are?” asked Argos.
“My name is Zath’ron. I’ve been asked by my uncle to bring back your head. He said something about you being a devious little traitor.”
Argos didn’t need to ask. He knew Miseo had sent him. He shouldn’t have left with Ares without wiping his base’s computer memory banks. It was too late now.
“You’re just a boy, Zath’ron, so let me take what I came for and you can go back home and play with your friends.”
“Hahaha, you’re funny. I wonder if you’ll still be laughing when I rip the spine from your body.”
Argos heard Ares in his head. What do we do now? We don’t have time for this fight.
I know, but he’s in my way. Just take the snake out of here and come get me afterwards.
Sounds good. It will only take a few minutes.
I’m not worried. I can hold this guy off for as long as needed but, like you said, we have other things to do, especially now that my only hope of regaining stature within the Fury ranks has been flushed down the toilet, thanks to you.
Then perhaps it’s time to defect.
Get going, old man. Now is not the time to have this conversation.
Argos grew his aura to the maximum and Zath’ron did the same.
Before long the two Furies were pounding one another, destroying everything around them inside the base.
When Ryonna opened her eyes she was in a regen tank. It was ending its cycle so the green liquid was being siphoned from the pod. The first breath of air back into the lungs was always painful. It triggered a gag reflex to expel the liquid from the lungs and throat, which was both very uncomfortable and a little irritating. But at least it only lasted a second or two.
When the light inside her pod turned green she opened the door and stepped out.
Keera was unconscious on a medical bed on the other side of the room. The other regen tank was occupied by Jonas, his cycle still running. She wasn’t surprised; his wounds were clearly the worst of the three. Ryonna noticed the sentry hovering not far from her position. She froze, thinking perhaps it hadn’t seen her, but there was no way its sensors could have missed her, unless it was defective. She took another step, aware that she might have to jump out of the bot’s line of fire should it register her movements. When it didn’t she deemed it not to be a threat and ran towards Keera.
The moment she arrived in front of the bed a hologram appeared behind it, startling Ryonna.
“Please do not touch the patient.”
One of those.
Well, as there were only two regen tanks in the med-bay, Ryonna was happy to see another holo-doc. It probably saved Keera’s life.
“I have repaired her injuries and she is now resting. I have provided her with a sedative, and have flushed out the cocktail of drugs with which she had erroneously injected herself.”
Ryonna wondered what that was all about. She would have to ask Keera later.
“How long until she can be woken up?”
“Thirty-seven minutes and forty seconds . . . thirty-nine seconds . . . thirty-eight seconds.”
“Alright, alright! I get it. Does she require additional medical help at the moment?”
“Negative.”
“Then please shut the hell off.”
The holo-doc complied.
“I really can’t stand these . . . things’ bedside manners. Come to think of it, can’t stand them period.” She sat next to Keera, holding her small hand in hers.
Miseo was called to the Crimson Shadow bridge.
“Report!”
“Master, we’ve detected a fleet of Brin ships in the area.”
“Good, I was hoping we would have some target practice along the way. I’ve been itching to test the capability of this ship. Order the Zarlack fleet to stay in hyperspace towards Earth. We’ll take care of this fleet on our own.”
“There are at least seven destroyers, Master. Perhaps we should take a couple of destroyers with us?”
“That won’t be necessary. Leave the strategy to me. Drop us out of hyperspace and engage the enemy.”
“Dropping out of hyperspace.”
The Fury destroyer was a massive starship. It looked like a c
ross between a giant spider and a dragon fruit, its matte black paint masking a large portion of the stars and nebulas behind it.
The Brin fleet’s admiral tried hailing the Crimson Shadow but Miseo had nothing to say to them. He only wanted to test the capabilities of his new flagship. It would also be good training for the Fury crew, who hadn’t fought a space battle for so long. Miseo ordered the Crimson Shadow to fire all laser batteries the minute they entered firing range. The firepower of that first salvo was a sight to be seen. The thousands of batteries lit up the darkness of space with a barrage that looked like red rain falling upon their targets.
The Brin fleet replied in kind, sending their own streams of yellow laser fire back at the Crimson Shadow’s shield, which had no problem holding off the incoming fire. The seven Brin ships combined barely provided equal firepower.
“How are our shields holding up?”
“They are holding strong at ninety-seven percent.”
“Very well, let’s thin the herd, shall we? Lock a full volley of torpedoes towards one of the ships and have main weapons target another.”
Fifty torpedoes were launched from the Crimson Shadow in sync. From afar it looked as if the spidery ship had spat a load of web threads to catch its enemies. But the multiple detonations told another story. The first Brin destroyer was obliterated long before the last torpedo had found its target. The resulting shockwave effectively drained parts of the shields of three of the nearest ships.
A second later a massive column of crimson energy shot from the tip of the Crimson Shadow towards the second targeted Brin ship. It pierced its target, overloading whatever shields it had left in just a few milliseconds. There was no time for the crew of that ship to abandon it as it blew out of existence only a second later.
The remaining five ships all launched fighters. Full squadrons of starfighters converged towards the Crimson Shadow, which looked as massive as a moon.
“Launch just two squadrons of fighters. Let’s see how they deal with them; but provide battery cover for them.”
“That will put them at a twenty-to-one disadvantage, Master. The Crimson Shadow has twenty-five squadrons. Why only use two?” asked the weapon’s officer.
“I’m trying to evaluate both the readiness and limits of my ship and crew. Just do as I say.”
“Squadrons launching.”
Miseo got up from the captain’s chair and walked towards the giant viewport from which he could see the battle unfold. The remaining destroyers had spread out, making sure that any further explosions wouldn’t damage the others. The Crimson Shadow’s shields were barely being taxed. Miseo wondered what the new races had been doing for thousands of years. Their level of technology was laughable, as were their warfare tactics; or, more accurately, their utterly pathetic lack of anything worth that name.
The first waves of fighters, which looked like locusts from a distance, entered firing range and the Fury wings engaged them. The Brin’s fighters were no match for their advanced plasma cannons and stronger shields. The Brin tried overwhelming a single Fury starfighter with full squadrons, but even then they couldn’t lower its shields completely. Throughout history the Fury’s technology was unrivalled. Especially their ultrafast recharging shield generators.
Just as Miseo expected, the two Fury squadrons quickly punched a hole in the ever-increasing incoming waves of Brin starfighters. They cut through their defenses like a hot knife through butter. There was no challenge, but that was not the point of the exercise. Just testing their battle readiness and seeing how thousands-of-years-old tech held against the current, pathetically primitive excuse for weapons of the opposition.
After punching a sizeable hole in the Brin starfighters’ wings, the Fury starfighters veered and came about for a second pass. Each of the squadrons took on half of the still overwhelming numbers of starfighters. Meanwhile the Brin destroyers stayed just inside long-range battery fire and sent volley after volley of torpedoes, very few making it past the barrage of defensive laser fire to finally tickle the superior shielding of the Crimson Shadow.
They were afraid and they ought to be. With even triple their force they would still not win this fight. Miseo was toying with them. He hoped Earth Alliance vessels would at least provide a little more of a challenge. There was no glory in winning fights like this. Not that Miseo cared much for glory anyway. Only results mattered.
“Major,” said Miseo, addressing his tactical officer, “order the starfighter wings to use their secondary weapons. I want to see how efficient they are.”
“Orders relayed, Master.”
The Fury wings stopped tearing the Brin’s smaller fighters to bits with their plasma charged weapons and released short-range shockwaves. It looked as if their shields were expanding. They were, in fact, releasing an electromagnetic pulse designed to affect any known tech except Fury’s. The result was deadly. The Fury wings had spread far from one another for maximum efficiency. In less than a minute, ninety percent of the enemy fighters where disabled and floating aimlessly in space, only to be picked off by stray, defensive long-range fire, initially intended to deal with the incoming torpedoes from their carriers. Which none of these pilots would ever set foot on again.
“Now, have the wings take care of a destroyer each, on their own. Set batteries to only fire at incoming targets.”
As the still unscathed duo of squadrons made their way towards the nearest Brin destroyers, they split in two and each vectored towards a target. Miseo then ordered a volley of torpedoes to be sent to where the Brin’s disabled starfighters floated in space. Soon they detonated and were incinerated.
The Fury squadrons were soon under attack by long-range fire from their targeted destroyers. Just before entering their own firing range they assumed a semi-spherical formation, with one main fighter in the center while other ships rotated all around it, all firing forward at a high rate. The center fighter released slower, fully charged plasma fireballs every few seconds. From afar the squadron looked like a single cruiser releasing an intense stream of plasma with a flashing, stronger core along its way. The attack pulse looked magnificent.
But more important was how efficient it was. The faster plasma stream fired in a perfect circle but the rotating fighters drained the target’s shield at a rate normally impossible for starfighter-class ships, and their combined firepower and perfect flying skills made them deadly. The main fighter in the center of that dance sent powerful, plasma-charged fire that would pass through the ship’s weakened shields. They were taxed too much to be efficient any longer, and the plasma shots started to bite off pieces of plating from the destroyers in a satisfying light show of explosions. Entire decks decompressed, spewing metal debris and Brin soldiers into space to their inevitable deaths.
A minute later and both targeted ships were destroyed by the squadrons, one after the other.
The remaining destroyers turned tail and fled. There was nothing more they could do.
“Should we pursue and destroy?” inquired the Crimson Shadow’s tactical officer.
“No need. We made our point and the exercise was a complete success. Have the squadrons back on board on the double and enter hyperspace the moment they’re back.”
“Understood, Master.”
Soon the Crimson Shadow opened the massive hyperspace window and resumed its course towards Earth.
This once peaceful part of space had been transformed into a creepy graveyard of Brin ships, spewing sparks into the void. And all that destruction had only taken a few minutes.
On board the Destiny, Commodore Saroudis was reviewing the defensive capabilities of his fleet when he received a data transmission from one of their long-range probes.
The information came from the territory of the Brin, a race that had refused to join the Earth Alliance. Their old rivalry with the Droxians, the other major member of the Alliance, had been the reason for their refusal. They had lost heavily in their war against the Droxians, who nearly annihilated the
m to make an example of them and send a clear message to the other races. The message was simple: the cost of trying to invade Droxian space was high and it would be paid in blood. While the Brin military forces had since then been rebuilt, they were no longer the major power they used to be.
The video feed revealed a fleet of Brin destroyers being torn to pieces by a single, massive, black vessel with a design Saroudis hadn’t seen before. He knew what that meant, but he asked his onboard computer for confirmation nonetheless.
“The closest match in the database is to a Fury wraith-class destroyer,” said the Destiny’s computer.
“They’re coming,” he said to himself before closing his eyes for a brief moment.
He checked all the probe’s logs, only to detect multiple Zarlack signatures on a hyperspace vector towards Earth. They would reach Earth within a few hours.
The ease with which that ship had destroyed an entire fleet only made things worse. He transmitted all the data from that fight to Engineering and tasked Chief Engineer Yanis Tixichos to analyze them in the hope that he would be able to find a crack in their seemingly impenetrable shields.
He ordered an emergency meeting of all commanding officers in the fleet on board Destiny in an hour in order to discuss their upcoming battle strategy. Then he returned to his quarters.
“What is it, Adonis?” asked his wife.
“Listen, I want you to board a cruiser that is heading towards Droxia.”
“What? Why?”
“There’s a fleet of ships on their way here, and I want you out of the line of fire on this one.”
“You’ve survived fine until now. Why should this be any different?”
“This time the Furies are coming, and I’ve just received intelligence showing how destructive their ships are. There will be heavy casualties, and I don’t want to take any chances.”
There was another reason he wanted his wife and daughter off the ship, but he didn’t want them to know about it.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 159
