Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure

by Christian Kallias

  Argos had no doubt that Miseo had sent the Shadow Hunter to do his dirty work. He also knew how difficult, and most likely impossible, would be the task of defeating this particular Fury. The Shadow Hunter was one of the most powerful in the ranks of Fury warriors, easily rivaling Miseo. But Argos only needed to buy time, so that Ares could arrive with the elixir and bring Chase back to finish the job.

  “There won’t be anything easy for you today, that much I can promise you.”

  Timoros swiped the forearm of his armor and it morphed to cover his face. Only his evil eyes shone through.

  Argos didn’t wait. He brought his energy to bear and grew his aura. The ground shook and he went on the offensive, attacking Timoros with a skillful display of martial arts, interspersed with fireballs at strategic moments. His technique was nearly flawless and he was managing his first objective well: keeping his enemy at bay. But Argos was not landing many blows and didn’t do any serious damage to his opponent.

  Argos couldn’t tell if this was enough to buy the time they needed, or if Timoros was just studying his fighting patterns. The Shadow Hunter’s ability to defeat more powerful enemies than himself was legendary amongst the Fury. He had an innate ability to find the chink in almost any armor. Still, Argos had no choice but to give everything he had as a diversion. It was a risky proposition at best. He had no idea how long he could keep this up.

  After only a couple of minutes, Timoros was blocking and dodging more attacks with increased efficiency, sometimes using Argos’ aggressiveness against him. At one point Timoros managed to use Argos’ own momentum to get the upper hand, sending him crashing to the ground. He then pressed his advantage and sent a flurry of small fireballs at Argos, finishing by fiercely kicking him around the med-bay.

  Argos recovered in midair by whirling in a ball and bouncing against the wall to thrust himself back at his opponent at incredible speed. Timoros didn’t expect this and Argos landed a crushing jab into the Fury’s face, forcing him backwards, away from Chase’s stasis chamber.

  Argos knew how volatile things would become if they stayed in the med-bay, so he pushed his current advantage by unleashing faster and more complex combos that forced Timoros to retreat further. Near the entrance, Timoros slipped in the pool of blood left by the officers he had slaughtered just minutes before.

  This gave Argos the perfect opportunity and he flew towards Timoros’ falling body with both his fists extended in front of him, effectively propelling the Shadow Hunter outside the med-bay and ramming him into the adjacent corridor wall.

  It wasn’t long before Timoros got back up, but he shook his head, which Argos decided was a good sign. He erected a force shield between them, determined to win as much time as possible. Timoros punched the wall made of pure energy several times but it held. Argos was optimizing the use of his pool of energy, even though it was already quite low, by choosing methods that would be most effective at delaying the inevitable. He couldn’t possibly hope to win this fight.

  Timoros lost patience and sent powerful fireballs at the energy wall. They grew bigger in size and power until one went through. Argos deflected it with the back of his hand and sent it towards the ceiling. The ceiling panels exploded and burned, and sparking wiring dropped down.

  “Why are you doing this, Argos? Why are you fighting against your own people? And why are you toying with me? None of your attacks seem designed to inflict serious damage.”

  Argos wasn’t surprised that Timoros had seen through his tactic.

  “My people? Are you talking about the same people who sent you to assassinate me and my brother? The same people who almost killed me as a thank you for releasing them from their eternal prison? I was a fool thinking I needed the rest of you. I should have let you rot in your damned dimension. There are only two Furies that deserve to live, and you’re trying to kill them both.”

  “Such arrogance! It’s not surprising Miseo asked me to kill you. I was astonished to learn my targets were Furies, but unlike you, I don’t question my orders. You two clearly don’t understand the power to be found in an organized, obedient society. You don’t ask questions, you just follow orders and things get done the right way. Follow this simple rule and you soon discover that order will trump chaos at every turn. The universe has been a witness to that. We were nearly undefeated.”

  “Until chaos managed to trap our entire race, with no hope of return. And I loathe the day I helped you come back. You’re just a bunch of mindless drones, obeying the orders of madmen without question.”

  Argos scarcely believed what he was saying. Yet, it came from deep within his soul: untouched, unbridled and pure truth.

  What the hell was happening to him? He didn’t know and right now it mattered not, but one thing was for sure, some powerful shift was happening inside him.

  “Get off your high horse, Argos. You’re no different. Your entire life has been driven by a lust for power, and now you’re gonna lecture me?”

  That was true and Argos knew it. But for the first time in his life he felt compelled to do the right thing. He didn’t fully understand why, but it didn’t matter.

  Timoros cracked his knuckles under his armor. “I will take great pleasure in killing you, Argos.”

  “Then get it over with, you pathetic, mindless drone.”

  That sent Timoros into a fit of rage and he fired a flurry of fireballs at Argos, who canceled most of them with fireballs of his own and deflected the rest. The destruction inside the Hope was growing by the minute. Soon the pristine hallways were a charred mess of burned metal, electronics and flames. The ship’s automatic anti-fire systems kicked in and a thick, opaque gas filled the area.

  This made Argos’ job much more difficult. He soon lost most visibility. No doubt Timoros’ armor would help him cope better in such an environment. Argos took more fire and succumbed to more attacks.

  Timoros had the upper hand but Argos did his best not to be overwhelmed. When the fires were out, Argos regained some of the visibility he desperately needed to keep the Shadow Hunter from pushing his advantage. He was running on fumes and badly needed a distraction, any distraction.

  As an answer, perhaps from the universe itself, three platoons of heavily armored soldiers came from both sides and fired at both of them.

  Argos couldn’t blame them for shooting him as well. They couldn’t know he was trying to help. Their paltry, inefficient blasters were nothing more than mosquito bites to either of them, but they diverted Timoros’ attention and that was all Argos needed. He grabbed the Shadow Hunter’s arm and locked it behind his back.

  “You cowardly piece of shi—” But Timoros didn’t finish his sentence. Argos broke his arm and dislocated it from its shoulder socket.

  But then something went wrong.

  Timoros’ armor released a deadly electrical current that ran through Argos’ body and forced him to release him.

  The Shadow Hunter’s reaction was not only immediate but deadly. In a three-pronged move, he regained control over the entire situation. He slashed his good arm in a swift, circular motion that unleashed a powerful shockwave which sent the left group of soldiers crashing against the walls, either killing or disabling them. He then pivoted his body and unleashed a powerful column of red energy towards the other end of the corridor that incinerated the rest of the soldiers still firing upon them. And, finally, before Argos could recover, Timoros head-butted him with such force that he was thrown through the metal wall and back into the med-bay.

  Timoros climbed through the Argos-sized hole. On the other side, he locked his arm back into place with a bone-cracking sound. He then walked towards Argos, who was still lying on the ground, his head ringing. As Timoros approached, his armor morphed, removing the helmet part.

  “I want to look into your treacherous eyes as I rip the life away from you,” said Timoros.

  Daniel burst into engineering like a madman and ran towards Yanis, who was eating some Danish pastry.

  “H
ey, man, how are you doing?” Yanis’ mouth was half full.

  “No time for that, Yanis. Please tell me you have developed a weapon, any weapon, to repel Furies at close range.”

  “Okay, a little rude. I have indeed been working on a defensive weapon. There’s no way, that I know of, to replicate offensive sources of energy such as the Furies’ fireballs. It wasn’t for lack of trying.”

  “What does your weapon do? And please tell me you have a working prototype.”

  “What’s going on exactly?”

  “There’s a Fury loose on the ship, probably trying to kill Chase. I need something to hit him with.”

  “I’ve been working on a shockwave shotgun in my spare time. Which isn’t much, by the way. But it’s nowhere near ready. It might be good for a few shots, but it could blow up in your face as well. I haven’t managed to stabilize its power distribution.”

  “Please give it to me now.”

  “Have you been listening to me? It might blow up in your face! And it hasn’t been tested in the field. It might not work at all.”

  “Well, consider this live testing. Where is it?”

  Yanis went to the back of his office and fetched the large gun.

  “I can’t stress enough how insane it is to use this weapon this early in its developmental stage.”

  Daniel grabbed the weapon, which was surprisingly light. He cocked the chromed gauge and the weapon hummed to life.

  “How many shots does this fire?”

  “Around ten, then it needs a new power clip.”

  “Of which you have a spare or two?”

  Yanis opened a drawer and threw the portable power source to his friend. “There. Not sure it’s fully charged, but I doubt you’ll have the chance to check it for yourself. I got three shots from this gun. I always thought a fourth would blow the weapon, and probably my hands with it.”

  “It will do, thanks!” Daniel ran from engineering even faster than when he came in.

  He was long gone when Yanis spoke next. “And there goes another piece of tech I’ll never see again. I’d better start working on its replacement.”

  Sarah saw Argos crash through a wall on the other side of the med-bay. She was still trying to get enough oxygen to her brain. The Fury had nearly crushed her windpipe and breathing was still painful and difficult. Argos crashed not far from her.

  Part of her was happy to see him getting his ass kicked, something she had dreamt of doing herself many times. But he was trying to protect Chase, for what reason she didn’t know. After all the evil he had done, why on Earth was he trying to help? She could only assume that Ares must have been behind Argos’ change of heart. But now was not the time to speculate.

  Soon her original aggressor stepped through the hole Argos had involuntarily created when catapulted back inside the med-bay. He did something to his arm with an icky, bone-cracking sound, which sent a shiver down her spine. Then his head helmet morphed away from his face.

  Argos looked done for. Sarah didn’t see him getting up from that last blow.

  The Shadow Hunter approached and aimed an open palm towards Argos.

  Sarah swallowed hard. She had to do something to stop the man. She instinctively reached for a blaster belonging to one of the troops that the Fury had killed earlier. It must have been thrown her way when the men exploded. She set its power source to overload. She then threw the dangerously hot weapon towards the Fury’s head.

  He caught the blaster with his other hand and it exploded. Sarah covered her face with her arms.

  When she lowered them, she was surprised to see the hand part of his armor unscathed. Not a scratch; not even any burn residue.

  Crap!

  He turned his attention to her briefly. “No cutting in line; but don’t worry, you’re next!”

  A fireball crackled to life in the open palm of his other hand, still aiming at Argos’ torso.

  Sarah heard a familiar sound as a heavy pulse of charged laser fire grazed and burned the Fury’s neck. A small cut appeared and a little blood flowed from the point of impact. As Timoros turned to see who had shot him, Sarah also looked towards the med-bay’s open door to see Commodore Saroudis, with his gun still aimed at the Fury. He charged another power shot and released it the moment it was ready. It was an old-generation Alliance gun that could charge very powerful blaster shots, at the expense of rate of fire. When he fired the second time, Timoros deflected it with his free hand and brought the fireball meant to finish Argos to bear on Saroudis instead.

  Saroudis jumped out of the way, but he was still partly caught in the explosion and landed unceremoniously on the floor nearby.

  Timoros was furious. “Damn insects. When will you understand you can’t do anything to stop us?”

  He fired a second fireball at Saroudis, who was in no shape to dodge this time. Sarah wanted to look away but it happened so quickly she could only watch it unfold. Another fireball impacted with the one destined to finish off Saroudis, and the resulting explosion sent the commodore tumbling to the side, where he hit his head against a nearby console, losing consciousness.

  Argos had fired the second fireball and Sarah saw a slight grin on his face. Timoros was not amused though, and he repeatedly thumped Argos in the stomach. Blood ran from Argos’ mouth but he kept laughing.

  “What’s the matter with you? You’re about to die. It’s all over for you, and yet you somehow find it funny?”

  “I was just finally understanding why our people will lose this war. No matter how powerful we are, the humans will fight, till the last one. When they run out of guns they’ll use knives. When they run out of those, they’ll use stones or their bare hands. But they’ll never give up.”

  “I’m glad you found something positive to think about. Keep that thought alive for the whole three seconds you have left to live.”

  Timoros grew another fireball and pointed it towards Argos’ chest. “Time’s up!”

  19

  Keera accessed the weapons in her armor via the intuitive neuronal HUD. She looked at the repulsor weapons embedded in the palms of the armor. She ran towards the beast using the super-speed option. She just had to focus on what she needed to do and the armor would translate these brain impulses and act accordingly. She rammed the droid with her shoulder and threw it off Ryonna’s back.

  She landed with a roll on the floor, got up to one knee, extended both her hands and fired the repulsor weapons. Two very powerful yellow plasma bolts shot from her hands and hit the droid beast, which was still tumbling from her previous attack. Its shields took the brunt of the attack but her GUI indicated that they were now lower than forty percent. Ryonna added her own firepower.

  The beast growled and ran towards them, but they used their super speed to get away, reposition themselves and resume firing. It took a good three minutes, but soon the droid’s shield went down and they started doing real damage with every new shot.

  The eyes of the beast glowed an intense yellow and something rose from its back: a missile launcher. Three small missiles were on their way towards Keera. She fired at them but only managed to hit one. When she thought she would get hit by the other two, Ryonna jumped into her line of sight, blasted another missile in midair and grabbed the last one with her super speed. She swung in midair and threw it back at the droid’s head.

  It opened its mouth wide to growl and the missile went in.

  Its head exploded and it collapsed to the ground with a satisfying metal clunk.

  “Wow, that was badass!” said Keera. “You could’ve been seriously hurt if that stunt didn’t work.”

  “What matters is that it did. Thank you for the assist. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Keera thought about smiling at Ryonna and the armor reacted by morphing the helmet away from her face.

  “We make a good team, that’s for sure.”

  “Agreed. Now let’s grab the tech and be on our way.”

  “Aren’t we forgetting something?�
�

  Ryonna hadn’t forgotten. “Nope, I scanned Jonas’ life signs with the suit while we were battling the droid. He’s pretty knocked up but he didn’t suffer any internal injury. The med-bay aboard my ship will easily mend his bruises. But we’ve got to get back to the Alliance. Hopefully this was all worthwhile and Yanis can do something positive with this ancient tech.”

  Keera approached the glass cylinder in the middle of the room that contained the tech. Her helmet morphed back onto her head and she smashed the glass with a mix of her suit’s super strength and super speed. She grabbed the spherical alien device, which floated in midair with the aid of a magnetic field.

  “Such a small thing,” she said, looking at the heavily engraved device.

  All the lights in the room turned red and an alarm wailed through the entire base. “Self-destruct sequence activated. You have five minutes to evacuate before the facility is destroyed.”

  “That’s our cue,” said Ryonna. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  When Daniel ran towards med-bay two, it was apparent that a huge battle had been fought. The walls were bent, burnt and in some cases destroyed. There were the bodies of officers, most of them dead at first glance, which didn’t bode well. But his main priority was to make sure nothing happened to Chase, so he didn’t stop to check any of them. He ran between them, trying his best not to step on them. Occasionally he had no choice.

  When he stormed into the med-bay, he heard a Fury say something to Argos, who was lying on the ground not far from Sarah, who also looked injured and scared. The Fury was about to finish off Argos. It looked as though Argos was on their side now, so he intervened.

  “I don’t think so!” Daniel brought his shockwave shotgun to bear and shot the Fury in the back. The gun unleashed a shockwave that sent the Fury flying. The recoil from the gun was a surprise. Some of the shockwave’s force was lost as the recoil deflected the gun from its intended target. Still, it clearly had an effect on the Fury.