Rebels

by Richard Alonzo

  * * * *

  Alarms were sounding on the bridge of the Fury.

  “Status report.” demanded Jasper.

  Alice was struggling to keep pace with the volume of information the sensors were throwing at her. “First and second battle group are closing in on our position. All weapons running hot, multiple locks detected, they'll be in firing range within ninety seconds. The Vesperon and Haldyne fleets are breaking off to join the attack as well. There throwing everything apart from their flagships at us.”

  “Requesting permission to launch all fighter wings Sir.” said Wilkes.

  Jasper held up his hand. “Request denied. This must be Fords doing.” His nostrils flared in anger, his cybernetic eye whirring and clicking manically as scoured the battlefield for a solution. “Somehow he’s taken control of their fleets and he's putting them between us and his precious planet.”

  “Engaging the enemy sir.” said Alice. “Rail, beam and particle weapons are firing at will, we're taking return fire.”

  “Shields?”

  “They're at eighty-five percent and holding, we're remodulating their frequency too rapidly to allow any significant penetration.” replied Alice. “Energy reserves at seventy-five percent and falling.”

  “Good. Lets punch our way through with our heavy weapons, blow that miserable planet apart, and jump to hyperspace.”

  Jackson shook his head. “I'm afraid even with the Fury's reactors running at full capacity we won't be able to sustain the engagement long enough to hold off three fleets, destroy the planet and jump to hyperspace.”

  “I thought this ship was state of art, top of the line.” it was Jasper's turn to slam his fist into his chair in frustration.

  “It is.” replied Jackson. “Any normal ship would have been, as you would so elegantly put it, fragged by now. I can give you two out the three at best.”

  “Very well, what's the status of the Armageddon Array?”

  “Eighty-percent, but shields and weapons are drawing too much power to complete the charge.” confirmed Alice. “Shields are at seventy-eight percent, energy reserves at sixty-eight. We've destroyed a Vesperon cruiser and disabled two ships from the first battle group.”

  “Helm prepare to bring us about in a one hundred and eighty degree arc and fire the array on my mark.”

  “We're too far away from the planet sir.” protested Wilkes.

  “I'm not aiming for the planet.” yelled Jasper. “Bring us around now and transfer control of the array to me. If Ford wants to sacrifice the three fleets to save his miserable hide, then I'll give him a sacrifice to remember.” As they swept around in broad arc across the advancing ships he discharged the Armageddon Array, holding back his head and roaring the liturgy. “No mercy or compassion for the weak, only the spoils of victory for the strong, as it was meant to be.”

  The three crystalline capacitors beneath the ship discharged their deadly payload of raw energy into the reflector dish. Which focused it into a devastating beam of violet fury cleaving through anything and everything in its path. It sliced though hulls, pulverising and vaporising as it went, leaving a trail of explosive decompressions, twisted metal and bodies in its wake. Reactor cores caught in its path simply dissolved and boiled away to nothing such was the force of the destruction he had unleashed. The bridge fell silent, dumbstruck, as the beam cut mercilessly through ship after ship. Their crews powerless to avoid the onslaught that engulfed them. Till finally as they turned away from the ruinous jumble of hulks they left in their wake it faded and died, it murderous fury spent.

  “It's an atrocity, an absolute atrocity.” gasped Angelica breaking the silence as they all turned to stare at her. “A terrorist atrocity committed by the cold blood killers of Anobar. We'll add mass murder to Ford's long list of crimes. He'll be the most infamous face in the galaxy.”

  Jasper smiled. “Withdraw the array, bring the wormhole generator on-line, it’s time to jump to hyperspace. I think we've outstayed our welcome here.”

  “Aye, aye, sir, destination?” said Wilkes.

  Jasper turned to Jackson.

  “I have a few leads that might interest you, after all Anobar was merely home to an ark, not the ark of the ancients. I'll forward the co-ordinates from my station to Wilkes.” said Jackson.

  Jasper settled back into his chair and opened a channel to the planet. “Be seeing you Ford.”