A single plasma missile launched from the fighter thrust forward, leaving behind a straight white trail of mist. The missile exploded against the transport’s shields, causing it to break apart instantly. The lingering explosions caused by the plasma set the rear of the transport ablaze. Like the missile, the transport now left behind a steady stream of smoke. Black smoke.
The blast was strong enough to cause everyone inside the transport to shift suddenly. Jazz nearly fell over, as he wasn’t sitting down and strapped in with a seat belt. That might be a good idea right about now, he thought and retreated toward the back seats. Sparks sprayed out from every terminal while black smoke slowly filled the interior from the back.
“Shields down, and we got a fire in the back!” Whigli reported.
“One shot?” Jazz said, buckling his seat belt. “That thing hits like a fucking truck!”
“Taking evasive action.”
“Crash the ship,” Destiny interrupted, unfazed by the small fire burning in front of her.
“What?”
“One more hit, and we’re all dead,” she added. “This ship is too old and was not made for combat to start with, so crash it, and they’ll give up and leave us.”
An eerie silence followed as the horizon and the desert below it came into view from the windshield. The yellow sandy terrain quickly dominated everything in sight as Whigli yelled, “Brace for impact!”
“Nice prison escape, pal,” Danyal whispered to Jazz.
… … …
►► Crimson Arrow above Dasht-e Kavir desert, Earth
► Sol System
“Oh, Noylarlie is going to want to see this!” Parcisei said to himself upon witnessing a Hashmedai transport ship crash-land in the desert below.
“I already have.” Noylarlie’s voice echoed throughout the Crimson Arrow’s cockpit intercom.
“Were you seriously listening?”
“My mind is still partially linked to the ship,” she replied. “I’m heading over to look at the crash. Get those human attack ships away from me!”
… … …
The Crimson Arrow pivoted to face its attackers head-on and engaged in a back-and-forth exchange of plasma and rail gunfire and an invigorating show of evasive turns, rolls, and blue shield ripples as they got shot. Hijinks’s fighter doubled back to assist in the air show performance, as Noylarlie vanished from sight. A streak of blue light carried her away toward the crash site.
“Come and get me!” Parcisei taunted.
The Crimson Arrow quickly descended toward the surface, flying three meters above the arid and sandy landscape. It zigzagged between hills, large rocks, and small mountains, making it a hard target to tag while the three fighters’ gunfire rained down upon it. Small plumes of sand rose up into the air with the shots that missed, and massive explosions sending sand and rocks up from the missiles that failed to connect. The Crimson Arrow didn’t falter from its course of navigating through the dry and rocky maze of the Earth below.
… … …
►► Dasht-e Kavir desert, Earth
► Sol System
Jazz was the last person to exit the downed transport that quickly burst into flames. Whigli managed to extend his psionic shield to cover everyone aboard just long enough to survive the impact and flee from the growing flames unscathed. In the distance, Jazz saw a red ship of Hashmedai design take on two, no three, UNE fighters. Give ’em hell! Those motherfuckers shot up my ride! Jazz thought.
“Now what?” Eupiar asked.
“We’re clear of the mind shield, but I don’t have much left in me to teleport all of us,” said Whigli with exhaustion in his voice. Jazz couldn’t tell if the heat was affecting his Hashmedai body, or he had overworked his mind with his psionics.
“Save what power you have left for combat; there should be an HLF cell in Kashmar,” Destiny said. “We need to move on foot quickly before someone catches on that we’re alive.” Destiny looked around, assessing the environment they now found themselves in—a whole lot of sand, hills, mountains. “Wherever the fuck Kashmar is.”
“I’ll find it,” Eupiar said, removing her laptop.
Blue light flashed upon everyone at the crash, and it wasn’t Whigli’s handiwork. Turning around, Jazz saw a Hashmedai psionic hovering in the air above them. She had blue skin that glowed slightly as the cybernetics on her partly exposed upper body shimmered. Her long black hair was blowing in the wind; she was indeed a stunning yet familiar sight. Like a younger version of Phylarlie, just her skin was a shade darker than Phylarlie’s.
Yet, he couldn’t help but think there was more to her familiar looks. He’d seen this woman before, and a psionic who looked like her, wore the same revealing outfit, same long hair. But where?
The psionic lowered her body closer to the ground, but still hovered above it. She and Jazz made direct eye contact. He could tell that whatever thoughts were going through her head were probably the same ones that were going through his. She’d seen Jazz before, but couldn’t quite remember where.
“Who the hell are you?” Jazz finally said in the Hashmedai language.
“You speak our language? Not bad for a primitive creature,” she replied.
“Unless you’re backup we weren’t aware of, get the fuck out of my way.”
“Jazz!” Veloshira cried out from behind. “Please, Archmage, forgive him.” Veloshira stepped closer toward the psionic and knelt in front of her as if she was some kind of damn deity. “He doesn’t know.”
The Archmage laughed in a devious manner while Jazz’s hand slowly reached back toward his katana. “What are you waiting for, human? Take a knee.”
“I don’t bow to anyone,” Jazz defiantly said and then drew his blade. “Now step aside or help us. I’m having a terrible day right now.”
“I insist,” the Archmage said and then snapped her fingers. Her telekinetic power overwhelmed Jazz’s body. It felt like hundreds of strong hands violently grabbed and forced his body to bow and kneel next to Veloshira. He was powerless. No part of his body responded to him except for his teeth, which ground furiously once he felt the heat of the sand in his kneecaps. “A fitting stance, for a human, in my presence.”
Jazz heard Destiny’s rifle activate…and then softly fall in the sand. The Archmage’s hands extended toward her. He couldn’t see what she was doing to her, only hear. And what he heard was Eupiar screaming, Destiny gasping for air, and then a loud thud. Goddamn it! He saw a short blue streak of light flash. It brought Whigli behind the Archmage.
… … …
Whigli’s white fireballs blasted the Archmage from behind. He hoped it was enough to get her to focus on him, and less on his human friends below, namely Destiny, who lay next to the burning transport ship with a large bloody gash across the back of her head.
Blue light carried the Archmage higher in the sky, white bursts of light temporarily blinded Whigli as her fiery wrath hit his psionic shields from above. He began to focus and jump ported in front of her, entering a dangerous game of chance. His mind was still weakened from the assault on the prison and keeping everyone alive during the crash. Whatever he did next, needed to be short, accurate, and deadly. And Veloshira called her an Archmage? A sacrifice on his part was the only thing that would get everyone out of this. The last time he tried to sacrifice himself, Chidorli was hit with a brainjack device, while he got to escape.
Whigli’s cybernetic arms gathered energy and started to glow orange. He mentally prepared himself for a short jump port just in case this psionic before him counted with another blast of white fire or worse.
She floated with her arms forward, slowly glowing orange like his, and then unexpectedly lost their glow. He saw lips curl, while her arms retracted back toward her sides. “Whigli…is that you?” she asked. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
She knew his name…but how? No Archmages were aboard the command ship that invaded Earth. So that rules her out from being one of the psionics who lived through
the invasion, though her younger age and red eyes gave that away. The eyes of every Hashmedai who was around during the invasion changed from red to orange by now, or orange to yellow. This woman, this Archmage, was from the empire, and she knew his name.
It finally hit him. I must be getting old, he thought.
“Noylarlie?” he said. The glowing in his arms dimmed. “Sorry, it’s been so long. I forgot about you.”
“After everything I’ve done for you! You forgot?” she retorted. “The psionic training, keeping your sorry ass alive because you didn’t have what it took at the time to win Chidorli’s heart!” There was intense fury in her voice. She hadn’t changed at all or aged. “The space bridge…and for what?”
“I’m sorry, I have a mission to complete, and it looked like you were here to interfere.”
“A mission? With these humans? You serve them now? The race who allied themselves with the Radiance Union? The people who helped kill Chidorli?”
“What?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? She’s dead.”
His heart began to beat in a manner it hadn’t in twenty-two years. In fact, the last time he felt it like this…was when he realized Chidorli was hit with the brainjack. And that she might die from the injuries. “No, you’re lying,” he said, terrified. “Jazz said he’s seen her in the empire.”
Noylarlie’s mouth roared with laughter aimed directly toward his comment. “You’ll believe the word of a human over me? She is dead; the brainjacking killed her.”
“No!”
“I was hoping you had died with her—or at least died trying to avenge her! But it turns out, you are alive and slowly becoming a weak and pathetic old man.”
Chidorli is gone…twenty-two years of hoping for the best. Believing she survived, believing she might have given birth to their child. False hope. And Jazz lied about it. “I tried…I tried to protect her; I offered to be the victim of the brainjack.”
“And failed, just like how the empire failed her, you and all of the survivors from the attack on this world.” And then she whispered, “And it failed me.”
“I…I.”
“Get out of my sight, old man.”
Whigli’s shields rippled and flashed as a burst of energy was hurled towards him from Noylarlie. A second blast sent his body tumbling to the surface below.
… … …
With Whigli dealt with, Noylarlie’s gaze returned below to the crashed transport. She saw that human who spoke the Hashmedai language was still bound by her psionic chains. And a path of footprints in the sands, leading away from the crash. Her head tilted upward, and she saw the individual responsible for the footprints. It was Danyal, the half-breed Hannah told her about. He was running away. Cute, she thought, and then blue light swiftly carried her away to appear directly in front of him.
He stopped instantly upon seeing her; there was a heightened level of weariness in his eyes. His run away from the crash turned into a run back toward it, but only briefly, Noylarlie jump ported in front of him yet again. Her heckling sent a critical message to him, one she wanted him to know very well: she had the power.
Noylarlie’s cybernetic implants across her body started to glow brightly as she entered a trance. Seconds later, she and Danyal vanished from sight, swept away from the brilliant blue light of her teleport.
… … …
►► Skies above Dasht-e Kavir Desert Earth
► Sol System
“It’s going up!” Aura reported upon seeing the Crimson Arrow ascend from its run close to the surface.
Her holographic HUD reported a lock on the rising Hashmedai ship. “Fox three, fox three!” she announced, and then her thumb pressed down on the missile launch button.
The contrail of her plasma missile raced toward the Crimson Arrow. Seconds before impact, the Crimson Arrow zipped into the vacuum of space at sublight speeds. Her launched radar guided missile was now confused as to what do and self-detonated midair in a green and flaming display of energy discharge.
“Fuck me,” Gavin’s voice transmitted over the radio.
Aura’s helmet counseled the rage flowing across her soft ebony face. She was, after all, leading the first real combat mission with the UNE fleet and with that unexpected jump into sublight speed, about to become the first combat mission that failed to complete its objective. Not something she wanted to go down in history for.
“Everyone form up,” Aura ordered. “We’re going to chase! Get ready for sublight.”
Chapter 23
►► Dasht-e Kavir Desert, Earth
► Sol System
One crate of supplies was salvaged from the crash of the transport, and it brought anger to Jazz, especially when he saw no food rations within the burned crate. At least they had water; how long that was going to last was another story. Eupiar and Veloshira were going to need it the most, given their Hashmedai bodies and low tolerance for the heat.
On the plus side, there were fewer bodies to provide for; Whigli’s body was nowhere to be found after hours of searching the surrounding area. And Danyal was straight up snatched by that Archmage. What angered him and Destiny the most was that Veloshira could have stopped him from running in the first place, and did nothing but continue to bow. Speaking of which, Jazz never got answers from Veloshira.
His hands held on to two water bottles and walked over to Veloshira who sat in the shade next to a large rock as the heat was taking its toll on her quickly. He knelt down toward the petite assassin and extended one of the water bottles toward her.
“Figured you’ll need this more than the rest of us,” he said. Her hand slowly moved over to grab it, and then he pulled the bottle away from her. “First, I need to know why you let Danyal go.”
Veloshira frowned and gave Jazz a ferocious gaze with her orange eyes, a gaze he had never seen before. Her hand shot up again, this time grabbing the bottle away from Jazz. Her Hashmedai speed was too much for him that time. She held the bottle to her lips, draining it of its contents in one long continuous gulp.
“It was necessary,” was her reply after tossing the empty bottle into the sunlight.
“He could be the future emperor. He’s of the imperial family, and you let him go?”
“Have you forgotten what I said? Y’lin will not accept him; it will be assassins like us who will be ordered to end him, should he be in the position to take the throne.”
“That’s not the point!” His hands held on to her shoulders and he leaned his head closer to her face. “Destiny lost her fucking husband to get this far! You single-handedly made this operation a waste of time!”
“You really are forgetful. You are making our operation a waste of time. And continue to do so.”
“Oh please.”
She hissed her fangs aggressively at him and said, “We are here to kill Chris Boyd and the president of Earth. I came close to Boyd, but he slipped away, and we haven’t done anything productive since then!”
“I told you, we’ll get to it.”
“I’ve had enough! I am the master, and you are the apprentice. We will break off from these humans and find our targets alone. Or else.”
He loosened the grip around her shoulders after processing what she said. “Or else what?”
“If you hesitate to follow my lead, I will kill you.” She pushed her hands hard across his chest, causing him to slightly fall backward. “Then I’ll kill Destiny and place that half-breed in an imperial zoo.”
“We’re lost in a fucking desert, and you want to break off the people who can get us out of here?”
“We can stay with them for now.” The second bottle of water was quickly snatched away by Veloshira’s hands. “But we will be returning to the Silver Raven. Do you understand?”
He replied sarcastically. “Yes…master.”
“Jazz!” Destiny called out from the still burning transport. He turned around to look at her and the bandage around her head. “Stop flirting with Vel. We need to get moving!”
… … …
►► Asteroid Belt
► Sol System
“Steady as she goes!” Gavin said as he jerked his fighter away from a stray asteroid.
The pursuit of the Crimson Arrow lasted over an hour, taking the five Solaris fighters directly into the asteroid belt beyond Mars. The Crimson Arrow swerved into and out of sight as its trajectory used the asteroids as cover from missile strikes and rail gunfire. Gavin started to become concerned after losing contact with the Hashmedai ship for more than thirty seconds. With all the floating mountainous objects in the way, the Crimson Arrow could very well be lurking around the corner, setting up an ambush for the five.
Seconds turned into minutes, while the five fighters split up to conduct a larger search of the asteroid field. There was nothing; the only form of heat came from the small mining operations on a few the asteroids. The Crimson Arrow had to have cut its engines somehow to mask its presence. A searchlight lit up the surface of one asteroid Gavin flew in front of. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a crevasse with a deep gash along the surface of it, a perfect hiding spot.
“Check for openings; it may be hiding inside one!” Gavin transmitted.
Nearly an hour had passed; the asteroids he was attending to had no alien ship hiding inside. Pulling up, he saw the rest of his team, doing the same thing, searching asteroid after asteroid with their white blinding searchlights. An alarm sounded, and a heat source was located, which later translated into a red dot on his holographic display. It was the Crimson Arrow. Plasma launched upward, tearing the shields of Hijinks’s fighter to pieces.
“Shit!” she yelled over the radio.
“Five, move now!”
“You don’t need to tell me twice!”
Gavin piloted his craft toward the green bolts; the Crimson Arrow flew out from a massive crater on the underside of an asteroid and disappeared from his sight behind another. Seconds later, he heard Hammer in a panic screaming. “I’m hit, I’m hit!”
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 33