Nemesis

by Christian Kallias

  It’s indestructible. But I doubt you can flatten the base with just your few StarFuries and my aerial support. My fire-breath attacks are way less powerful inside the atmosphere since I’m much smaller. Simple physics really, my fire-producing glands have been reduced at the moment and so has my lung capacity.

  Chase chuckled. At this point in time, our StarFuries are holding us back, Ka’Rij. If you’re okay with us leveling the base, trust us, it won’t take long.

  Laser turrets turned in place and opened fire on the incoming squadron. Aircraft lifted from the base and pierced through the shields on their way to intercept.

  I’m not sure I follow, said Ka’Rij. But yes, you have my approval to level the base.

  “Gamma Squadron,” said Argos, “engage and destroy the enemy fighters, but have them pursue you at a far distance, or you’ll get caught in the crossfire.”

  The pilots confirmed their orders and engaged the fighters briefly before veering left and steering them away from the base as ordered.

  Why are you doing this? asked Ka’Rij.

  Chris? said Chase. Wanna do the honors?

  I thought you’d never ask.

  Chris’ canopy opened, and he flew out of his ship. As the laser fire intensified toward Ka’Rij, Chris flew in front of him and formed a shield to deflect the laser streaks that would pose a potential threat to the Dragonman.

  “How are you doing this?” said the wide-eyed Dragonman.

  “What, that? That’s nothing, my friend. Watch this!”

  Chris’ green aura exploded like a supernova, and soon after, turned a similar shade as the Earth’s sun as he turned Ultra Fury. Chris thrust both his palms toward the base.

  Dozens upon dozens of orange fireballs shot from his hands and impacted the base’s blue shields, illuminating them like rain impacting a pond during a downpour in the middle of a storm.

  It took less than ten seconds for them to fail, and then Chris raised a hand to the heavens, and a rapidly growing fireball grew over him. In less than three seconds, it grew to double the boy’s size.

  Chris unleashed a mighty roar that echoed around the entire valley as he sent the fireball hurtling toward the base.

  Upon impact, there was a brief blinding flash before the inferno devoured metal structures and enemy flesh alike. Moments later, a large crater had replaced the base with heavy smoke rising from its center.

  “That’s—that’s not possible,” mumbled Ka’Rij.

  25

  The lights inside the bridge of the Hercules lost ninety percent of their brightness as every bit of energy was siphoned from its system. A ball of supercharged plasma energy grew in front of the Earth Alliance dreadnought and merged into the already thick energy beam, making it increase by another forty percent.

  Most of the lights inside and outside of the ship went off, making it look like the Earth Alliance ship was powering down, except for the massive plasma beam that was still shooting toward the smaller spider ship.

  This better work, thought Altair, or we’ll be sitting ducks.

  The spider ship moved and tried to deflect the blast from its center as if it knew that if its shields failed at that angle, it would be obliterated. The bright red shields blinked.

  “Almost there,” said Altair. “Keep it going! And try to adjust for the enemy’s drift while you’re at it.”

  “We’re running out of power, the beam will shut down in ten seconds, and we don’t have enough power in this firing mode to adjust the orientation, I’m afraid,” the weapons officer said as his voice trembled.

  Come on! thought Altair. Explode already.

  The shields flickered right before they gave up entirely; the beam was no longer hitting the spider ship dead center.

  The plasma energy cut through whatever was in its way, which resulted in a massive explosion that took out three of the four legs on the port side of the spider ship.

  Whatever few lights were still on in the bridge blinked off and sent the crew into relative darkness except for the light show coming from the viewport but eventually even that died out and full darkness ensued.

  We’re in trouble.

  Forty-five seconds without shields and weapons could very well be an eternity if the spider ship still had firing capability. That was plenty of time for them to either inflict massive damage or destroy the ship altogether if they knew where to fire, like the quadrinium chambers, especially now that they’d be working overtime to try and restore power to every system on the ship.

  Yanis had come up with this all-in firing system to give Chase a battle advantage with much stronger Fury destroyers during the war. But Chase had an uncanny ability that not many other captains had, which was a sense, or instinct, about when to use it. Altair swore internally about using this tactic.

  From Altair’s captain’s chair, a small, low-energy LED display turned on and counted down. It showed forty-three seconds.

  Taking down that spider ship was paramount for the Earth Alliance. And perhaps it had been a hidden remnant of the Fury War, but it could also be a new scout ship that hinted at a future full-scale invasion.

  The thought was too horrible to contemplate. Especially, seeing how hard it was to damage the damn thing with a ship that was considerably larger. Then he remembered the conversation with Chase where his friend indicated that the Spectres might return.

  It all made sense. Why would Tanak’Vor work in the shadows of the Furies, manipulating Arakan from day one to try and destroy the Earth Alliance if they didn’t have a bigger plan in the works? These dark thoughts were terrifying and sent Altair to a very uncomfortable place where fear reigned supreme.

  Right now, it all boiled down to whether they had damaged the ship enough so that it retreated, or at least was disabled enough so that the Hercules would have time to regain its power.

  They only needed another twenty seconds for the Hercules to restore power and defend itself again. Altair’s heart froze when the spider ship started moving toward them.

  Tar’Lock finished installing the unconscious Talon into the only regen tank on board the Bellerophon. Minutes after activating the pod, Talon’s head stopped bleeding and a counter ticked down from one hour and thirty minutes, the time required to heal all of Talon’s wounds.

  The prognosis was not life-threatening though. A long sigh of relief escaped Tar’Lock.

  He returned to the bridge to see the battle still raging outside. Upon glancing at the scene, he nervously clicked as he wished he hadn’t been curious.

  The spider ship appeared damaged, but it was slowly advancing toward the Earth Alliance dreadnought. The ship looked disabled, and none of its usual deck lights were on.

  A very bad sign, thought Tar’Lock.

  He quickly entered a flurry of commands on the nearest holo-console, trying to see if he could bring any semblance of weapons to bear. But the Bellerophon was simply too damaged to be of any help. Its antiquated self-repairing circuitry would take hours, if not days, to restore it to flying shape.

  The spider ship didn’t fire on the Hercules, which Tar’Lock took as a good sign. After everything the enemy ship had been through, like exploding inside the jump gate and getting fired upon by the Earth Alliance dreadnought, it had to have sustained some level of damage.

  What Tar’Lock didn’t like was the sensor reading showing an increased amount of energy emanating from the power core of the ship. The rise was too rapid and could mean only one thing. The spider ship intended to self-destruct and send them all to hell in the process.

  He tried opening a channel to the Hercules but got no response.

  Tar’Lock’s heart rapidly beat as he looked on helplessly to the spider ship approaching and latching onto the hull of the Hercules. He swallowed hard and braced for what would inevitably come next.

  Nyx couldn’t believe the amount of power her body now possessed. She felt, for lack of a better word, godly.

  “This is unbelievable.”

  “Y
es, that’s the power of the Ultra Fury. I may be mistaken, but you seem to generate even more power than what I’ve witnessed from any Fury in this form.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “I don’t know, there’s something about how concentrated your aura is. It looks supercharged, which is good because three Ultra Furies barely managed to take out a single Spectre.”

  Nyx sensed Ares wanted to say something else, but he restrained himself.

  “What aren’t you telling me, Ares?”

  “Nothing of importance right now. You need to get to the bridge and kill the head of the snake while you still can.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “In this form, you’ll burn your energy pool way faster than you usually do. Sure, it’s larger than any I’ve ever sensed, but it’s not infinite, no matter how powerful you feel right this moment. Also, it’s your first time wielding this power and that could also impact the length at which you can keep this transformation going.”

  Right now, Nyx felt indestructible and that she commanded an infinite source of energy, but Ares had told her the truth until now, so she had no reason to doubt him.

  “What’s next, then?”

  “I’ll teleport you to the bridge; there you can take out the Spectre as fast as possible while I sabotage the ship so that it doesn’t survive the re-entry into our universe.”

  “And you’ll do that how?”

  “Let me worry about that. You just make sure the enemy is too busy with you wreaking havoc on the bridge. But, please try not to destroy the ship in the process, it’s the only prototype with inter-dimensional jump capabilities, so we need it to work its magic at least once, or we’ll get trapped here for gods knows how long.”

  “I’m sure they can build another one, or one is already being constructed.”

  “Perhaps, but from what I’ve gathered, they require some pretty rare ore to make it work, not to mention the time dilation between dimensions.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Months can pass in our dimension while only mere hours have gone through here.”

  Nyx tried doing the math in her head, but it gave her a slight headache.

  “How long was Erevos trapped here? After the first Fury War, I mean. Not just a few years?”

  “It’s been roughly ten thousand years between the time it first was sent to this dimension, then returned to be destroyed a few months later.”

  Nyx’s mind had a hard time assimilating what Ares was telling her. While her planet was in exile in this dimension, entire civilizations must have risen and fallen on the other side. Would she even recognize her universe of origin? But the thought of meeting with other Furies fueled her determination and bolstered her courage.

  “I know it’s a lot to process,” said Ares. “But, right now, none of that matters.”

  Agree to disagree, she thought.

  Nonetheless, she acknowledged that maybe this was their one and only shot to get the hell out of this gods-forsaken prison of a dimension once and for all. She sure wouldn’t miss this awful place.

  “Ready when you are,” she said.

  Ares put his energy-based hand on her shoulder. “You won’t feel a thing, but you’ll be transported directly onto the bridge.”

  She nodded. “Any last words of advice?”

  “Go in firing, be fast, surgical, and whatever you do, don’t underestimate the Spectre, or it will be the last thing you ever do.”

  Determination burned inside Nyx’s now orange-glowing eyes as she nodded.

  She turned around for a brief moment and fired fireballs at the pods containing the freak clones created from her DNA. She incinerated them, making sure nothing remained.

  She took a deep breath. “With that out of the way…let’s do this!”

  Poseidon helped Athena onto her captain’s chair aboard the Prometheus.

  “You should really get some rest,” said Poseidon.

  “I’ll rest later, for the time being, someone needs our help. Fortunately, we’re not far away from the source of the distress call, so we’ll first render assistance. That’s the least we can do for the Earth Alliance.”

  “Not disputing that.”

  “I’m getting a newfound understanding why Menelas didn’t want me to fight these beasts. I did not expect them to be so powerful.”

  “Yes, and I can tell you that this one was much weaker than Tanak’Vor. By a huge factor.”

  Athena’s eyes shot open at this realization, even though her uncle words did make sense. If the Spectre she fought had been as strong as the one her sons defeated, she wouldn’t have lasted as long as she did. She had no delusions of grandeur when it came to her own battle powers, and knew full well Chase and Argos, and even Menelas, were stronger warriors; no matter how much she had trained after the end of the Fury War.

  The training had been a way for her to externalize her anger and frustration at having been denied the choice to participate in the last battle. And her own way to cope with her grief. Well, today she got a taste of what she had missed, and knowing there were more of these Spectres, some of them more powerful than Ergon’Kar, was not a pleasant thought.

  “Menelas did what he did because he loved you. I understand your earlier frustration and anger, but it won’t change the simple fact that he wanted you to stay alive. I wish I had done that for my brother. But Zeus is the one who saved my life instead.”

  Athena quickly wiped away a forming tear.

  She missed them both. Menelas and her father Zeus. The hope she felt that he might still be out there was what helped her get up every day since the end of the war.

  “I know. What’s our ETA?” she said, trying to change the subject.

  “We’ll jump out of hyperspace in a little under two minutes,” said commander Actarios.

  “Be battle ready, engage shields, and power all weapons the moment we jump out,” she ordered.

  “As you command,” answered her crewman.

  Ka’Rij hovered over what was once the enemy base, flapping his wings to stay level with the young Fury. Ka’Rij’s people had tried for years and failed to severely damage this base, and now it was gone.

  “I—I can’t believe your powers. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Chris smiled. “Well, believe me, there are beings infinitely stronger than us.”

  The look of shock on Ka’Rij needed no interpretation as to how he received this new bit of information.

  “What are these beings you’re talking about?”

  “Spectres. One alone almost destroyed us all. My father eventually defeated it, but not before my mother was mortally wounded,” said Chris, his face expressing the deep sadness hacking at his heart with every new beat.

  “I hope we can help your mother.”

  “We hope that too, Ka’Rij.”

  “I do have a question, though. Why didn’t you use these powers to dispatch the fleet in orbit?”

  “You see, in space, you have these incredible powers, you can turn into a full-blown dragon and destroy larger targets. Well, with Furies it’s the opposite. We can unleash these powers only when we’re planet-bound. Well, that’s technically inaccurate, but when we use our powers in space, we risk creating rifts in the very fabric of space and time.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Because it has happened already, pushing our energy levels to their maximum and unleashing energy-based attacks has resulted in the formation of black holes in the past. If one had formed in orbit, your world and people would be gone now.”

  “I understand.”

  “What I don’t is why we didn’t create any against the hydra? By all accounts, all three of us used our powers in that battle, and yet we haven’t created a black hole.”

  “Could it be because the part of space I found you isn’t like any other place in the galaxy? It…it’s where Kyria once stood. Where my planet died, and it has affected the space around in ways that no one understa
nds. It was once an entire solar system with twin stars, but after the demon war that took out my home, it became this strange space where the only creatures that dare roam it are large beings like the space hydra.”

  “I see. That could explain why.”

  Chase flew in and joined them. “Speaking of which. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but you talked of a possible cure for my wife?”

  Ka’Rij looked at Chase. He could sense a sadness looming in the Fury’s heart.

  “Of course. You’ve helped us achieve a major victory today. I’ll come back with you, and we’ll try the cure.”

  “You have it on you?”

  “Tears of the Dragonmen are the most powerful health elixir we have.”

  “That’s not the name of the potion, you mean it’s your own tears?” asked Chase.

  “Yes. Now that you chased away the Hellion Empire, my people will have time to attack and destroy smaller targets on the remainder of the surface of the planet.”

  “We could probably blast a few of these from orbit, too. Or, if you prefer, we can take care of all of them for you. It won’t take long”

  “That’s very generous of you, and on any other day, I would gladly accept your offer, but we Dragonmen are very sensitive beings. The best way to explain it is that we have a direct communication line with the universe.”

  Chase raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”

  “The universe is a breathing, living entity. It’s connected in ways most beings inhabiting it are oblivious to. We do not know why Dragonmen have this intimate link, but it’s both a gift and a curse. When we come in contact with new people, we not only feel what they feel, but we sense emotions from everyone whose lives they’ve touched or important people they’ve interacted with. The stronger the bond a person has with someone, the more his or her emotions, like echoes if you will, will reach us. And right now, a lot of people you care about are in danger. I can sense this through this universal ripple effect.”

  Argos rejoined the group.