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

by Christian Kallias

  “Okay, so we should be mostly fine if they use this firing method, which is indeed great news. How long until you can have it ready? We will engage the enemy in less than ten minutes.”

  “As always it’s up to the geeky scientists to come up with last minute updates to save your asses, but I digress. As soon as we’re ready, within the next twenty minutes I hope,” said Yanis, looking at Cedric who flashed him a thumbs up. “Then we’ll send the necessary updates to the StarFuries onboard computers via subspace link. I’ve already written a program so they can receive and make the necessary changes on the fly, even if you’ve already left the carriers.”

  “Thanks, Yanis, as always. I don’t know what we would do without you.”

  “Now go, Captain, we really need to stay focused to deliver these modifications on time.”

  Chase smiled and teleported away from the engineering room directly to the bridge.

  “Did he just beam out of here?” said Cedric. “Did we install teleporters as standard now?”

  “No, while we can beam nukes and the such, we haven’t really had time to test biological beam outs, nor the side effects this means of transportation could have on living tissue.”

  “So how the hell did he do that?”

  “I’ve long since stopped asking such questions when Chase is concerned.”

  “Would you mind theorizing at least?”

  “Look, Cedric, Chase can fly, he can move objects with his mind, shoot fireballs, erect shields, control entire ships with his mind, heal the . . .” Yanis paused for a second and swallowed, that reference still being too fresh in his mind. “Heal the dying, so it was only a matter of time before he would add teleportation to that repertoire.”

  “Kewl,” said Cedric before resuming his work on the algorithm.

  Chase was glad to finally be back in the captain’s chair of the Hope. It had been a long time since he had piloted any starships. As agreed with Commodore Saroudis, he would control more than half of the fleet mentally. While Saroudis was still technically in charge of the fleet and had the final say, he trusted Chase when it came to tactics and thinking outside the box, so Chase would give the orders to the fleet.

  He had assigned Sarah, Daniel, Keera and Ryonna to StarFuries. While Ryonna and Keera weren’t the most apt fighter pilots, their other talents would come in handy. They had each been given a subspace-link Trojan horse device for their mission. While Chase wasn’t too keen on having Sarah go on her own aboard a Zarlack vessel, Chris argued he had to go with her and, while he didn’t like that much either, at least he knew that with his powers he could defend his mother should trouble arise. Keera and Ryonna had their super-suits for defense, and Argos agreed to go along with Daniel, though he would be flying outside the StarFury, since he was in charge of opening small windows in the enemies’ shields and he could only do that in space. Yanis had provided him with portable stealth tech so he wouldn’t be targeted by the destroyer, something Chase had no doubt would happen if Miseo saw Argos fly around in space.

  Argos also provided very good intel on where to hit the shields and where to enter the ships for maximum efficiency when boarding the Zarlack ships.

  The Earth Alliance fleet, while incomplete with most of the Droxian ships back on Droxia, was still massive, definitely the largest fleet they had ever taken into combat since the fall of the Star Alliance. More than sixty ships, including twenty next-generation destroyers like the Hope, older retrofitted vessels with now almost similar firepower, like the Destiny and the Cronos. And an additional twenty something Obsidian ships, which had also received some tech upgrades from the Alliance, and a dozen Droxian destroyers. And yet Chase had that same feeling he’d had during so many previous battles: that it would be a costly battle with some surprises they might not be ready for.

  But there was no dodging it. This fight needed to happen. What made things very tricky was that they couldn’t really destroy the Fury ship. Ares had told Chase about the presence of Aphroditis on board the ship, and that concerned him greatly. He had no doubt Miseo had done that on purpose, and that would make things more complicated.

  The Alliance had churned out a large fleet in the past few weeks. All top of the line, powerful ships like the Hope, most of which would be mentally controlled by Chase. He had also requested an entire destroyer to be crewless, should he need to sacrifice it in the midst of battle. Based on her visions, Sarah had warned Chase that Saroudis might sacrifice the Destiny and his life. He decided it was better to sacrifice a crewless destroyer if that became necessary.

  Chase felt the ships approaching even before his crew relayed the information. Thirty-two Zarlack ships and the Fury destroyer in tow. The Fury ship was staying at the back of the formation, and no doubt they’d find out why soon enough.

  “Battle stations everyone,” said Chase.

  As soon as the Zarlack ships entered firing range, volleys of torpedoes flew and long-range laser batteries opened fire on both sides. The Zarlacks also launched their waves of starfighters, and so did the Alliance.

  The largest battle the Earth Alliance had ever fought had begun.

  Chase lost no time firing the Hope’s main guns at the nearest Zarlack destroyer. He brought about two more destroyers and had them fire their main guns as well. The moment its shields were down, Chase sent a triple volley of torpedoes to take care of his first Zarlack ship. It was overkill, but he needed to make a statement early in the battle. The Zarlack destroyer exploded and briefly lit up the battle theater with a bright yellow flash.

  The first phase of Chase’s plan was to reduce the number of Zarlack destroyers in the armada down to the four ships they actually wanted to hijack, all the while evaluating the weapons and shield capabilities of the real threat, the Fury super destroyer. It was massive beyond reason. The already gigantic Zarlack behemoth-class ships looked small in comparison. It was tens of miles long, a beast of a ship really, probably able to move a hundred thousand troops at a time.

  The Destiny and four escort vessels used a similar tactic to dispatch their first kill. Two down. Twenty-six to go.

  Sarah was amongst the first StarFuries to launch into space and engage the enemy. She was a little conflicted at having Chris on her backseat.

  “Ready, son?”

  “I am. Looking forward to it, in fact.”

  “If my father was still alive, I would never hear the end of the argument about taking you with me into the heart of battle.”

  “I wish I could have known Grandpa, but don’t worry. At least if the ship explodes I can save both our lives by erecting a shield around us.”

  And just like that, she realized that even though she had all the reflexes of a normal mother, she wasn’t one. Her son was a Fury hybrid with powers beyond understanding, probably second to none except for those of his father.

  “Entering firing range, Chris. Get ready. Engaging.”

  Sarah flew her wing in a standard V formation, her ship in front. Very soon the darkness of space was replaced with laser fire flying all over the place. Sarah went evasive and chose her first target. She deployed her drones and pounded its shields with great efficiency. As soon as they were down she claimed her first kill with a well-locked missile on her target’s engine. It exploded in a thousand pieces.

  “Nice kill!” exclaimed Chris.

  “Having fun?”

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to fly one on my own.”

  A second squadron came to add firepower to their own.

  “Seems like Dad is covering us,” said Chris.

  Sarah checked her instruments. Omega squadron was remotely controlled by Chase. He wanted to make sure nothing happened to the two most important people in his life. It was romantic, but also a little vexing. Sarah decided to focus on the romantic part. When her shields lit up from incoming enemy fire, she put her focus back into the battle, where it belonged.

  One thing was clear very rapidly: the Zarlacks no longer tried to crash their own ships into
the StarFuries to take them down. Which was a surprise. That made them much easier targets, and Sarah wished she knew why the tactics had changed.

  She opened a channel to Argos.

  “Any reason the ships aren’t trying to ram us anymore?”

  There was a little static and she couldn’t make out his answer.

  Argos proceeded to answer telepathically. I think that damn cloak is interfering with my portable comm unit. To answer your question, I think the Furies have brought almost every last remaining behemoth Zarlack with them. I think Miseo would rather not waste resources unless absolutely necessary; but in this case it’s a mistake, since your StarFuries are so much more powerful. I was the one who decided that it would yield a more efficient kill ratio by sacrificing the starfighters to take out the StarFuries.

  “Well it’s a good thing for us, then. And we had figured as much about their kamikaze tactics back then.”

  Three fighters vectored towards Sarah’s ship. They inflicted damage on her starboard shields but she quickly reacted by going evasive, while her drones provided alternative targets as they fired on her pursuers aft shields. When they gained on her—at least that’s what she wanted them to believe—she activated her reverse engines and they shot past her. She picked them off one by one, eliminating the first and center bogie with two missiles and powerfully charged, slower laser fire. Then she sent her drones against one target while she locked onto the third. She rained ultra-rapid, low-power laser fire to bring its shield down and then did the switch: her ship and her drones inverted positions and the drones finished off the fighter with ease, while Sarah finished draining the third and last fighter’s shields. She switched her main firing weapons to heavy, slower fire and scored three direct hits. Pieces of armor flew towards her and she maneuvered her ship out of the way, to finally line up the kill shot. The Zarlack starfighter exploded and she flew through the explosion.

  Then something happened. A large column of energy shot past her ship a good three miles away and was no danger to her or her squadron, but not only did it take out three Alliance destroyers that were on its path, but the massive energy beam impacted with the planet’s shield as well. A gigantic yellow shield illuminated and deflected the beam, radiating orange-red, secondary pulses of energy away from the point of impact. It looked like a titanic version of the Hope’s own plasma beam Heracles cannon.

  Sarah looked at the source. It came from the Fury destroyer. Its range was immense. The ship was so far away from the main battle theater, and yet its shot reached Earth. It had been suspiciously inactive until now, but a quick look at her ship’s instruments told her that this weapon could drain Earth’s defensive shield quickly.

  22

  And here comes Miseo’s ace in the hole. Now the real battle begins.

  Chase knew that the Fury super destroyer would eventually come into the equation. But he never thought it would be able to shoot such a powerful beam of energy at such long distances. This would really complicate things. Not only did it put the entire planet at risk, but it also effectively put a ticking deadline on this battle. This weapon had to be disabled within the next hour or Chase couldn’t even imagine the kind of damage it would do to the planet. It could very well, in time, pierce through its crust and destroy it altogether by destabilizing the core.

  Chase would have to remove the main opposition forces first, the twenty plus behemoth Zarlack ships they were currently engaged with. Chase brought about five of the Alliance destroyers on the next target and their added firepower quickly brought its shields down. Before they reached fifteen percent, Chase locked a volley of torpedoes and fired them.

  But then an energy beam from the Fury super destroyer hit the Zarlack ship before the torpedoes were even halfway to their target. It radiated over its shields and split into smaller energy beams that hit the plating armor of the behemoth destroyer. It lasted only a couple of seconds but it recharged the Zarlack’s shield back to one hundred percent.

  When the torpedoes hit them, they exploded without any significant damage besides lowering the shields a negligible amount.

  The same tactic was repeated with three other Zarlack ships currently engaged by the Destiny, the Cronos and a mixed group of Droxian and Obsidian destroyers.

  “We have a serious problem,” said Chase out loud.

  Chase was aware how much of an understatement that was. If the Fury kept recharging the shields of the Zarlack ships before they were destroyed, they could keep this going for a long time, and time was exactly what the Alliance was lacking.

  To make things worse, Fury starfighters were launched and added their superior firepower to the Zarlack squadrons. Things were looking grim, and Chase had to come up with a plan to turn things around, and fast.

  They would need more firepower for each target now, which would leave them more vulnerable to attack, but there was no choice. They also needed to find a way to destroy that weapon before it drained Earth’s shields. The first layer made of defense satellites would soon fail.

  Chase ordered tighter formations of destroyers to attack the Zarlack behemoth destroyers. Eight Alliance ships fired their superior main weapons at the next target, leaving it no chance to recharge. It was obliterated in seconds. That left them open to receiving more fire from other enemy ships. Chase made a quick mental calculation as to how long they could keep up this tactic and it came short. This was temporary at best. Eventually he would have to come up with something else.

  He also needed to move on the second part of his plan faster, so he sent the boarding StarFuries on their mission ahead of schedule. Sarah, Daniel, Keera and Ryonna received the orders to each infiltrate a Zarlack destroyer, which would be a much more difficult proposition in the midst of the current chaotic battle, but they couldn’t wait anymore.

  Chase felt mentally tired, having to orchestrate the battle while piloting a full squadron of StarFuries, as well as the crewless destroyer in his formation. He heard Chris’s voice inside his mind. Dad, I can take over flying the StarFuries for you.

  Your mission is to protect your mother when you board the enemy ship. I’d rather you didn’t split your focus.

  Don’t worry about me. I can take the strain, plus I have an idea to reduce the numbers of ships currently targeting your battlegroup.

  Chase hesitated for a second but could use all the help he could get. He remembered what he had learned in the Underworld. Victory no longer rested on his shoulders alone. If they were to succeed, they would all need to play their part and he would have to trust them.

  Very well, son, you can take over Omega squadron. Thanks for the help.

  My pleasure.

  Chase’s battlegroup homed in on their next target the moment their main guns had recharged. As soon as it entered firing range, the enemy Zarlack destroyer would be history, and while each kill was satisfying and lowered the enemy’s overall firepower, the shields of the ships within his battlegroup were dropping at an alarming rate. Chase made the necessary power distribution adjustments, like redirecting secondary power and some of life support to the shields, which only provided a short-lived boost in shield efficiency. This was only a temporary patch while he thought of a way to turn things around.

  Spiros was watching the battle unfold on the holo-screen in the training facility control room. It didn’t look good. While it was a balanced conflict more or less, with losses on both sides, he didn’t like that the Fury ship had not taken part in the battle itself. But perhaps that could be explained by the unimaginable amount of power that the main weapon was delivering against the planet’s shields. When Spiros had first seen the specs, power requirement and efficiency of those shields, he hadn’t thought a beam of energy from a single ship could take it down so quickly.

  “Gaia. We have to find a way to either boost the shields or reduce the amount of power reaching them,” said Spiros

  “I know. I’ve been using all my CPU to come up with a solution.”

  “Any bright ide
as?”

  “The ones I have are neither efficient nor long term.”

  “We may have to implement short term patches to give our ships time to disable that weapon altogether.”

  “I have run a simulation on the battle as well, and I’m afraid the odds don’t look good in that regard either.”

  “It’s understandable that you’d do something like this, but you can’t discount Man’s ability to come up with a solution to avoid his own demise. Chase seems to shine in these exact situations.”

  “And while my analysis of previous battles would support your statement, today he seems unable to come up with such tactics, though I have to admit that he has implemented the most logical, efficient way to deal with such overwhelming forces so far.”

  “Give him time. How can we boost the shields?”

  “I have written a way to super-fast charge the shields, but it would require a moment of respite from the current constant taxing they are subjected to. Another solution, which I cannot in good conscience propose, is to overload the power stations with every single ounce of juice from the entire planet in order to boost their power by fifty percent.”

  “Wouldn’t that cut all power on Earth besides the shields?”

  “That’s why I didn’t suggested it earlier. It would take weeks or more for normal operation to resume on the surface, and it would most definitely lead to casualties.”

  “We may have to flip that switch, and you know it.”

  Gaia stayed silent.

  Spiros looked at his sensors and saw a subspace transmission being emitted from their ship. Its power levels were off the charts.

  “What’s that?” he inquired. “Why are we transmitting gibberish on all channels? What’s going on?”

  “I’m sorry but . . . I think it’s our only chance.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What did you do? What is that signal for?”