"Boss! We need help down here! We estimate that there are nearly one thousand traitors that have decided to take part in the uprising against you! With a third of the men scattered across the ship, we are barely holding our own!"
With Truce distracted, Vultrel quietly scooted around the terminal so that he remained hidden from view. The Mage pressed the call button for the lift as he responded. "I'll gather some men and head down there. Have they said why they are—"
A gut-wrenching scream from the communicator was suddenly silenced, and Truce solemnly returned the device to his belt. He stepped into the lift without a word when the doors finally slid open and was gone a moment later.
"Looks like Muert wasn't bluffing about his numbers," Vultrel muttered, pushing himself to his feet. Carefully, he walked around the perimeter of the bridge until he came to the lift's control panel. The data indicated that it had stopped on level seven, which he found confusing. The lift to the cargo hold was located on the twelfth floor, which meant that Truce was either not headed for the cargo hold, or planning something else entirely. Either way, deck seven was where Vultrel needed to be. "Don't think you've won, Truce," he said, the broad smile returning to his face. "Our battle is far from over."
Chapter 6
The walk across the hangar bay was possibly the longest journey Arus ever made. No matter how much training he'd put in, no matter how much Kitreena and Damien had assured him that he was ready, and no matter how many times he told himself the same, nothing put a dent in his fears or eased the violent fluttering in his belly. Still, no amount of fear was going to hold him from what he knew he had to do, and there was nothing in the universe that could make him turn his back on his friends. Kitreena repeatedly told him that she believed he was capable of achieving anything he put his heart into, and there would be no shortage of heart in this mission. It was a fight for Terranias, his beloved home, and the people on the surface that he held so close to his heart. He would do what he had to do not only for the Alliance, but for Keroko, Asteria, and all of the kingdoms across the planet.
Arus gazed up at his starfighter in awe, surprised to find himself standing beside a full-sized version of the ships he had spent so many hours learning to pilot in the simulator. Despite flying formations and shooting down targets in a computerized reproduction of the ship, nothing compared to the impressive majesty of the actual craft, its wide wings resembling a bird's, the round cockpit mirroring the simulator's with flawless precision. Plated with grey titanium across the hull and equipped with four laser cannons and two rotating missile launchers, the fighter looked ready to take on the entire Vezulian Armada.
Kitreena stood beside him with an amused smile on her face as she watched his gaze go over the ship again and again. "I assume you like it?" she asked, visibly holding back her laughter.
"It's amazing," he breathed. "I feel like I'm standing inside one of my dreams or something. Knowing that the simulator is only an illusion dulls the excitement after a while, especially after being shot down a few times only to restart the exercise to try again. But this," he placed his hand against the titanium, "is real. The danger is real. The lasers are real, the enemies are real, the stars are real. The battle is real."
"Not something to be too excited about, in my opinion." Damien's voice came from behind the two. "If you get shot down out there, your career is over, along with your life."
"But if we win," Arus responded with a grin, "the victory is real."
"When we win," Kitreena put in, smiling. "We've struggled against the Armada for far too long to lose here."
Damien nodded in agreement, though the optimism never reached his face. "Let's get moving," he said softly. "There are people dying out there."
As if to punctuate his remark, a series of explosions rumbled across the hull of the Refuge. Damien said no more, turning on his heels and heading for his starfighter. Kitreena threw her arms around Arus the moment Damien's back was turned and nuzzled her face against his shoulder. "Be safe out there, all right? If you get into any trouble, you let me know, and I'll come for you."
"The same goes for you," he said, holding her close to him. "Don't let pride keep you from calling for help if you need it. You're not perfect, and no one expects you to be. Be smart, and we'll get through this just fine."
She nodded and gazed up at him, running her fingers across his implant before cupping his cheek in her palm. "If there was anything I could do to reverse all that has happened to you—"
"Don't," he interrupted. "I don't think I would be who I am today if not for the things that have happened, both good and bad. Nothing can change what was, and no one can predict what will be. I'm going to worry about today today, and worry about tomorrow tomorrow. It's all I can do."
She nodded and kissed him softly before backing away. "Take care out there." A sudden gleam in her eye reminded Arus of the day he first met her. "I don't want to think of what I'd do if something happened to you." The grin she flashed before turning away made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
With a final shake of his head, Arus climbed into the cockpit of his ship and pulled the glass hatch closed. He strapped on his harness and activated the communications device as the hangar crew initiated takeoff procedures. Just as it had in the simulator, the floor began to descend, lowering the fighter into the departure bay. When the sliding panels had locked together above, the bay doors began to pull apart in front of his ship. He'd gone through the procedure countless times in the simulator, but seeing his first real space battle unveil itself before him was both thrilling and terrifying beyond words. The first three switches beside his computer's flight screen brought both the stabilizers and main engines online, and once the craft had risen from the floor, the red switch below them retracted the landing struts. Preparations were complete. There was nothing left to do but . . . fly.
Gently, he pushed forward on both foot pedals, and the ship glided smoothly into space. He could see Damien's black and silver ship exiting to his left, and Kitreena's fighter to the right. Several more ships followed from either side, joining them in a diamond formation inside the half-sphere of the Aeden fleet.
"All craft, report," Damien called.
One by one, each pilot identified themselves and reported ready for combat operations. Several familiar voices had joined them, such as Rollock and Nat, and two Svodesian men named Tomba and Runk. Arus was seventh out of twelve, and he spoke in a clear voice. "Arus Sheeth here. Ready for combat." Doman followed him, along with Samas and Orchi, then a human male named Theisan and a female Thanai named Shinal. The entire squadron curved downward, moving in perfect synchronization. Arus had little trouble keeping up, recognizing each code transmitted and each formation commanded. It wasn't long before they were headed straight for the Black Eagle, engines powered to maximum, weapons armed and ready.
The war that raged around them was larger than anything the simulator had ever reproduced. Across the stars, starfighters and assault transports twisted and turned amidst a glowing sea of lasers and explosions. It was as if there was no end to the fighters; each ship destroyed seemed to be quickly replaced by three more. The larger Vezulian starships were in the middle of shifting their formation—into what, Arus couldn't tell—but they continued to fire an endless barrage of lasers into the battlefield as they moved. The implant's sensors provided an unexpected surprise; Arus could track the location of every enemy ship mentally without even having to look at the starfighter's radar. That was an advantage he hadn't had in the simulator because the enemy pilots were not real and therefore did not register as life forms to the implant. And it was that advantage that gave him their first indication of trouble.
"I think we've been spotted," he warned, glancing into the space above. "Two squads of ships just altered their courses and are headed in this direction."
"I see them," Damien responded. "Keep heading for the Black Eagle. We'll engage them once they attack, but I want anyone who does not come under enem
y fire to stay on course. Our priority is Kindel, and we can't let the Vezulian fighters tie us up for too long."
If the Aeden squad maintained their course and speed, they'd reach the Black Eagle within ten minutes. The Vezulian ships were set to intercept in three. A battle was inevitable, though the Alliance fighters outnumbered them by four. That, of course, was provided that no other ships joined the fray. The bulk of the battle was still ahead of them, centered mostly around Kindel's ship and nearby escorts. As Damien took them closer, the threat of attack would grow substantially. Arus had practiced boarding an enemy ship plenty of times, but never against an enemy with so many starfighters defending it.
"I've been targeted!" Rollock shouted out. His ship rolled out of formation ahead of Arus and twisted back, cannons firing a barrage of lasers at the incoming fighters.
"They're on me," Nat's voice followed. His ship pulled up as well.
Arus didn't need to hear the beep of his computer's target alert system to know that one of the Vezulian fighters had set its sights on him. The implant continuously monitored the movements of the surrounding craft, projecting the paths of each. At least two would intercept with him if they continued on their present course. "Got a couple on my tail," he announced. "Breaking formation."
While there were several other rookies taking part in the battle, Arus was the only one to be piloting his first mission. Damien acknowledged the fact with a quiet "Be careful, Arus," over the comm. Arus clenched his jaw and fired his thrusters as he pulled the craft around to face the oncoming enemies. They were longer than they were wide, about half the width of the Aeden fighters with no wings and curved forward hulls where the glass cockpit hatches melded seamlessly with the rest of the ship. Palms sweating around the control stick, heart pounding through his chest, he targeted the closer of the two enemies and adjusted his energy shields to full capacity.
"Here we go," he thought aloud.
Enemy lasers flashed in streaks of blue and red through the sky, rattling Arus' ship as they beat away at the shields. Arus rotated sideways and returned fire as the Vezulian fighters split around him, their sleek black plates shining against the sun. They cut into tight loops in either direction as Arus pulled down on his control stick, bringing his ship around for another pass. Again, the ships exchanged fire, this time as Arus twisted in a constant spiral. One of the ships broke away before passing, darting away beneath the skirmish. Arus targeted the second and fired, successfully landing several laser blasts before the two passed each other again. Through the implant's sensors, Arus could see the second Vezulian ship coming around on his tail, and the missile-lock alarm went off. Without thinking, he fired the rear stabilizers and accelerated, driving his ship into a sharp downward turn. The fighter's computer showed the incoming missile on the radar as a blinking red dot, and it was quickly gaining. A whine came from the engines as he rerouted power from the laser systems into the thrusters for more speed, twisting and turning his ship. The other Vezulian ship came at him from above, and the implant made a calculation Arus could never have considered on his own. Without thinking, he eased off of the thrusters, bringing the starfighter to a mere crawl. Both the projectile and the enemy fighter gained quickly, the Vezulian ship opening fire the instant it was in range. A readout on the computer showed three seconds to missile impact. Two. One.
Again, he kicked the pedals to their maximum, and his ship rocketed away from the enemy lasers. The errant blasts that missed their target instead crashed into the missile, detonating it in a fiery explosion well behind Arus' starfighter. With a grin, he brought his craft around behind the Vezulian ship and launched a missile of his own, destroying it in a rolling ball of flame.
The remaining starfighter swooped around the blast and opened fire, pummeling Arus' shields to near depletion. Arus decelerated to allow for a sharper turn as the Vezulian ship passed, then shot after the craft at full speed, firing lasers as the computer tried to attain a missile lock. The enemy fighter twisted and turned in typical evasive maneuvers—nothing Arus hadn't encountered in the simulator—and was abruptly torn apart by a missile from the opposite direction. Another Aeden ship burst through the billowing explosion.
"I'm sure you could've gotten that one," Kitreena said over the comm, "but since we're in a hurry, I figured I'd help out."
"Thanks," he responded, resetting the power generator for his shield systems. "I'll be sure to return the favor if it becomes necessary."
"I need some help over here," Nat called suddenly. "I've got two on me!"
Arus tried to sort through the countless life signs swirling around on the implant's radar, but he couldn't identify which was associated with Nat. That left the starfighter's targeting systems, and it took him a few moments to cycle through the friendly craft before he found Nat's ship. It was heavily damaged, but still operable. Blasting off at full speed, he targeted one of the pursuing fighters and opened fire. Kitreena swept in beside him, her own lasers crashing against the casing around the Vezulian ship's engines. The fuel tanks ignited, blowing the fighter apart in an explosion of fire and debris.
"Nice shooting," Arus said, pulling over her ship as he targeted the next enemy. A missile sent it spiraling away in a crimson blaze, and he brought his fighter down beside Nat's ship. "How's it going over there?" he asked.
"I don't know if I can make it to the Black Eagle," he said slowly. "Even if I make it to the ship, I'll never get through her defense in this condition."
"We'll cover you as best as we can," Damien said as he flew in above Nat. "It would be far more dangerous to send you back to the Refuge alone."
The rest of the squad formed up around the cluster of fighters in a tight formation, resuming their course toward the Black Eagle. More fighters tried to intercept them along the way, only to be taken down by a few well placed lasers and a missile or two where such attacks failed. The battle intensified as they grew closer to their destination, and Damien ordered a resumption of the diamond formation as they entered the heart of the struggle.
"The Black Eagle uses a docking system similar to the Refuge," he told them. "We'll need to wait until they open the doors to launch ships before we'll be able to force our way inside. Do not try to blast the departure bay doors open. You will not be able to safely enter the main hangar if there is nothing to separate you from the vacuum of space. We'll have to—"
"We have trouble." That was either Samas or Orchi; sometimes their voices were difficult to tell apart. "There is a battleship moving to intercept us."
Arus had seen the ship moving in his sensors, though it appeared as a tightly knit cluster of countless white dots that represented the life signs of every person onboard. The trouble was that it was difficult to predict precisely what the massive starship's intentions were this deep into the firefight. Life signals swirled about on his radar like bees around a hive, and any one of them might decide to open fire. "How can you be sure they're coming for us?"
"Whether they've realized our intentions or not is irrelevant," she said in that calm voice the two sisters always managed to maintain. "Their present course takes them between us and Kindel's starship, and we will be forced to either pull back or fight."
The battleship moved with surprising speed for a craft of its size, its countless turrets and missile launchers pointed toward the approaching squadron. It almost looked like an enormous grey boat, complete with three supercannons in the forward section that measured nearly three times the length of the Refuge and almost as wide. Arus couldn't fathom the amount of energy that would be required to fire such a laser, but then, he didn't really care to find out, either. More turrets, larger than the standard size but smaller than the supercannons, were arranged across the upper hull like archers atop a castle wall, poised to decimate anything they targeted. The first question that came out of Arus' mouth was clearly not what the rest of the squad had expected. "Can twelve starfighters take down a ship of that size?"
For a moment, there was only silence. It
was likely that the others had been hoping to evade the battleship in some way, though the details of such were hard to fathom. With such powerful weapons at its disposal, they would have to fly a good deal out of the way in order to get around the craft with any amount of safety, and even then they would have to fight their way through enemy starfighters. There was no time for that, not with Kindel on the brink of insanity and Terranias at his mercy. If that battleship wanted to place itself in their way, then they might just have to go through it.
Damien, apparently, was considering the same. "It's not going to be easy, but it can be done. The weakest point—"
His voice was drowned out by a deafening whine from the battleship. A blinding red bar of energy burst from one of the supercannons like something out of a nightmare, tearing a hole through a nearby Aeden starcruiser as though it were nothing more than paper. The thunderous explosion unleashed a shockwave that violently jostled the starfighters. Arus gripped the control stick tightly as he fought to keep his craft steady, his blood pumping so hard that he could feel it in his ears. When he finally managed to level his fighter, his gaze gravitated toward the two smoldering halves of the wrecked cruiser as they drifted apart from one another. "That was unreal," he muttered to no one in particular.
Doman's words were solemn. "How many people were on that starcruiser, Damien?"
There was a long silence before Damien replied. "At least six thousand. At least."
Just like that, six thousand lives had been extinguished. Arus couldn't help but feel at least some guilt, knowing that the conflict has escalated to this level because of his rash decision to grab the Lifestones from Kindel. Nevertheless, what was done was done, and he again reminded himself that Mateo had said that getting the stones had been nearly as important as retrieving the Blade of Kaleo itself. It didn't help to ease the sting of having lost so many, but their deaths didn't change what had to be done, either.
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