I turned to Jinx and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“Whatever you do, do not leave this spot until the coast is clear, alright?”
“Yan? Are you about to do something stupid?”
I flashed her a grin. “You know it.”
“Yan!”
But it was too late. I came out of cover firing. The soldiers were very close now. There were about six of them, or so I thought from a frantic glance. They fired as soon as I was exposed, but I was already running along the wall. With a well-placed foot, I launched off the rocky wall and at the nearest soldier. My body collided with his blaster, sending it flying.
“Jax!” I roared.
He got the memo. I heard the squeak of his boots as he ducked out of cover and fired on the now-weaponless soldier. As that one died, I pivoted around him at the next one. I slid between his legs and came up firing at the two behind him. I hit them square in the chest, spinning them around. My shots wouldn’t kill them, but it would hurt. Jax and Yecella’s bolts zinged overhead, killing the soldier behind me and the remaining one taking up their rear.
Jax quickly came to my side and put a bolt in the chest of the two soldiers I’d stunned. I stayed on my back as my chest pounded and I gasped for air. Saints… That was dumb. But it had worked.
I looked at my hands. Once again, I’d killed—something that I knew I’d have to do more of now that I was joining a war. They no longer shook. Was I getting used to it? Was that a good thing? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
Jax’s wide smile appeared above me. “Materelle’s breath, you are an absolute madman.” He offered me his hand. I took it eagerly, and he hauled me to my feet.
“Many of my plans are quite insane, but they usually work.”
“The keyword is ‘usually.’”
Yecella and Jinx joined us. Jinx wasted no time in punching me in the arm as hard as she could, which was actually very hard. I groaned and flinched away from her.
“Ow!”
“Don’t do that again, you idiot!”
I scratched the back of my neck, trying to smile. “S-sorry.”
Yecella shook her head. “Come on, time’s wasting. Be on guard. There will be more soldiers about, I’m sure.”
She and Jax took the lead, but before I joined them, I bent down and grabbed a blaster off one of the soldiers and handed my pistol to Jinx.
“Here. In case we run into any more.”
She took it reluctantly. For a moment, she held it gingerly—as if she was revolted by it. Then Jinx grabbed the back of my head pulled me in for a quick kiss.
“Don’t be such a damn hero. You just lost me and got me back. Don’t be so eager to leave me again.” She went after the others before I could respond.
I gulped. I knew her words were true. I had to be smarter.
With the saints’ luck, or Materelle’s, or whoever out in the stars was watching luck, we managed to get to Hangar 2 without running into any more soldiers. Hopefully that meant things would get easier, but I doubted it. Whenever I had good luck, it was almost always followed swiftly by some very bad things.
The resistance starfighters were class-B anti-ship skirmishers, which meant they were slightly bigger than the average single-occupant fighter. These had two seats, a pilot and a rear gunner, and they were more oval in shape, like a beetle, as opposed to the more common avian style ships. It was no matter though, I could fly them no problem.
Most of the other fighters were already gone, as the resistance pilots went out to intercept the enemy. I found a couple at the end of the hangar as the base shook again. This time, it was so hard that Jinx stumbled into me and let out a yelp. I put my arms around her.
“Are you okay?”
She gasped and caught her breath. “Yeah, I…” She winced. “That last blast made my wound flare up. But I’m okay. Let’s just get in the air.”
I gave her a long stare. “Once we’re safe, I’m gonna make you spend a few days with Amara. She’ll have you in tiptop shape in no time.
Jinx chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure.”
There was a ladder already by my fighter. I climbed up it and into the cockpit. I turned and helped Jinx, since her wounds still made it hard for her. She settled into the gunner’s seat behind me.
As I settled in and powered up the fighter—she purred like a zellian cat—there was a beeping green light on my console. I flipped the switch beneath it and Jax’s staticky voice rang through the cockpit.
“Yan? Do you read me?”
I retrieved the comm earpieces from the compartment next to me and gave one to Jinx. We fitted them, then I transferred the frequency to them.
“Yeah. We hear you.”
“Good. Put your shields up and your guns ready. I doubt we’re going to get out of here without a fight.”
I did so. He was right. We wouldn’t be so lucky.
His fighter lifted and hovered over the cold ground for a second before it moved forward. I pulled back on the stick and followed him out. I prayed to the saints that this would be an easy flight.
My prayers were ignored. We exited the hangar and entered hell.
The sky was filled with dozens, maybe a hundred, fighters from both sides, dogfighting, maneuvering, exploding. Flak from the AA guns exploded all around. In the upper atmosphere were three massive cruisers. Rectangular in shape, these dreadnaughts had massive cannons pointed right at us. Or at the base, but they were so large, it made little difference to me.
“Those are big,” Jinx whispered into my ear as she craned her neck to see.
“Yep. Let’s avoid those, yeah?”
It didn’t take long for some of the enemy fighters to take notice. I plunged us into a dive and took evasive maneuvers as Jax’s voice blared over my earpiece. “Try to shake them, we need to get clear of the base and into the atmosphere.”
Bright red blaster bolts zoomed around us. Flak shook the ship. Fighters were all around, small and golden birds trying to swarm me. I opened fire.
“Think you can cover me, miss gunner?” I said over my shoulder.
“O-oh, yes, sorry!” Jinx said. A moment later, the rear guns shook as they fired.
Two fighters were on our tail. Jinx fired on them but wasn’t doing very well. I didn’t blame her, as she had no experience with this. One of the enemies’ blaster fire hit our rear, but the shields kept our engines from being destroyed—for now.
“Hold on, I’m gonna try to throw them off us.”
“Yan, what are you—”
I yanked back hard on the stick. Our fighter ground as much to a halt as one could in the air. Jinx yelped. The fighters shot past us. I pushed forward and opened fire. I clipped the first one, which spun out away from us. The other I missed, but then a bit of flak exploded right on it, reducing it to a fireball.
“That was lucky,” I said.
It took a while before I found Jax and Yecella. They were entangled with three fighters, holding their own, but not for long. Jax put them into a barrel-roll to shake them, but no such luck. I came to his aid and was able to take out two of the ships before the third could respond. The third broke off, realizing it needed help. That was the opening we needed.
“Go!” Jax roared.
We ascended into the clouds, higher and higher until we were beyond the flak and the fighters and the death. Then we were through the clouds. The ship shook as we went to break out of the atmosphere. That was always difficult for smaller ships like this, though not so much for ones like the Sanara. But we made it through. Off Halyon. Into space.
For a moment, I allowed us to hover in orbit and bask in the view of the white-and-blue jewel below. Jax did the same. We took the time to calm our racing hearts and catch our breath.
I glanced back. “You okay?”
Jinx nodded and took a long breath. “Yeah. Let’s not do that again.”
“Unfortunately, I foresee many battles in your future, Your Majesty.”
“Oh ha-ha.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Jax’s voice buzzed in my ear. “Let’s get to the boom tube and get the hell out of here.” I couldn’t agree more.
We flew side by side, our worries behind us for the time being, until the boom tube came into view.
This one was an older model—simply a metal ring orbiting the planet. Easy design, easy system, meant for small ships like ours. Of course, fighters could travel between planets without boom tubes and solar slings, but it took much longer, sometimes days depending on how far they were. With these, though, we could get to Teraxious in a matter of minutes.
“Okay, I’ll go first,” Jax said. “Sending the coordinates for Teraxious. Let’s hope the transports made it out okay.”
Yeah, let’s hope.
Jax’s fighter slid into the ring with a few feet of space all around. The boom tube flared to life, its blue-green lights flashing as Jax docked. Sparks flew as the boom tube shook and readied to fire. Then, in a flash and a zap, Jax shot forward and disappeared into the void of space.
I gulped. I never liked boom tubes. Such a violent trip, and there was always the chance your ship couldn’t handle it and you broke apart and died in the cold vacuum amongst the stars. I preferred my nice, safe jumping capabilities of the Sanara. But alas, we didn’t have the luxury.
I maneuvered the fighter into position, as Jax had. With a click, we were docked. The ring buzzed around us as solar plasmic static arched through the ring and raced over our ship. I input the coordinates that Jax had given me.
Here we go, I thought as a nervous sweat broke out on my forehead. The boom tube rumbled and shook and glowed, and so did our fighter.
Then, before I could think to ready myself, we exploded forward into the stars.
I’d been at jump before, but that was always smooth. And I’d been in a boom tube before, but I forgot how rough it was. The ship shook so violently that it actually made me nauseous. I was able to quell it, but it still wasn’t pleasant.
The force of it was so great that I was pinned against my seat. I didn’t know how it would effect Jinx, but I could hardly blink, hardly think, so there was no way I’d be able to twist my neck and check on her.
A minute went by. Then two, then three, until my body was just a numb mass of vibrating nerves pressed against a fiber mesh seat. Finally, though, just when I thought I’d be reduced to a pile of goo, the ship began to slow, gradually, not at all like the jerking halt of coming out of jump. I watched as Teraxious crept toward us, a small little marble, then a massive gas giant of swirling red-and-green storms.
It was so large that it took up the entirety of the view. We were close to the atmosphere. Ahead was an orbital space station with a gas syphon that went all the way to the surface.
I licked my lips and took a deep breath. “You— You alright back there?”
“I think so. Not gonna lie, I did not enjoy that.”
I laughed. “Me neither.”
For a moment, with the brightness, I thought we were alone, but then I found the others. There they were, the transports, five of them, all dark green with gold markings along the sides. There were a few fighters here and there, Jax and Yecella included, but most were still behind us. What I wasn’t expecting was the large crimson cruiser looming over them all. It looked like an older model of the Torgoran military’s massive ships, with more pronounced wings and a smaller engine. The starboard guns facing us looked just as menacing, however.
The transports and fighters made for the hangar on the ship, and surprisingly, it seemed they’d all fit without an issue. I made for it too, Jax right on my tail. Before long, we were taken in by the ship’s grav-well, which took control from me and allowed me to sit back.
As we approached, I sighed. “There it is, Jinx. Your new life. Are you ready?”
For a moment, she didn’t answer. I understood why. It wasn’t something so easy to simply be ready for. War, death, being a queen. These were things she knew largely nothing about—aside from the death, unfortunately.
Finally, she answered. “No. I don’t know if I’ll ever be.” She paused. Took a breath. “But I need to help. I can’t sit by any longer.”
I wished I could see her face, but the confined space made it near impossible for me to turn and see her. It didn’t matter though. She was there and I was with her.
“No matter what, I’ll be by your side. As long as that remains true, I think you’ll be fine.”
We entered the hangar, and the fighter settled down next to a dozen others. Torgorans streamed about, as well as resistance fighters from other species as well. It was a hodgepodge of people, all coming together for a common cause, for a common good.
Though I couldn’t see her, I just knew that Jinx was smiling. “Yeah, I think we’ll be okay.”
And if the saints were kind, we’d always be okay—even through the war to come.
Thank You For Reading
Thanks for reading The Torgoran Revolt, the third book in the epic Plundering the Stars series. The adventure has really taken an unexpected turn, hasn’t it?
One thing’s for certain, the galaxy will never be the same again. And hopefully that’s a good thing.
The next story in the series is will be released later this year. Keep an eye out for it on Amazon. And while you’re waiting, check out all the other stories we’ve published. You sure to find more out of this world stories.
Check out James David Victor’s books on Amazon:
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The Torgoran Revolt (Plundering the Stars Book 3) Page 13
