Once the other three were finished waving at C-Sec officers through the viewports, all five of them boarded the Starforge. There was a lighter tone to the newly freed Gomar. It wasn’t long before Telarn and Bal were also able to walk away from the super subconducer and be presented with their new exosuits. Bal brought up the holographic menu through the suit’s fingers and messed around with the colours, having the nanocelium display every colour in the spectrum until he settled on Conclave red. Once the others saw this, they were all flicking through their menus, changing the colour and style.
After Larna’s Harness had been removed she couldn’t stop floating up and down, twirling elegantly as she did. It was her laughter that captured Kalian’s attention. In all the time he had worked with them on Evalan, he had never heard any of them laugh with such joy.
“Thank you,” Ellik said, looking up at ALF’s physical form.
Kovak walked past him and put his hand out. “Ellik, put your damn suit on already!”
“I’ve just never felt so free!” Ellik replied with a ball of super-heated plasma in each hand.
“Well, could you be a little less free?” Nardel pleaded. Both sisters had settled on the same shade of green for their exosuits, making the job of telling them apart all the harder.
Kalian stood there for a moment, enjoying the sight. This was all he had wanted for them. For the first time since they had destroyed the Vanguard, Kalian felt hope. His unexpected positivity made him think of the cheeriest individual he had recently encountered, and he looked around the tall chamber, wondering why they hadn’t heard from Talli.
“Talli?” he called out to no reply. “Talli?”
Kalian leant against the wall and let his mind run through all the reasons why the AI wouldn’t be responding, but he only got as far as the third scenario before it made sense.
“You sneaky son of a bitch,” he said with a light chuckle to himself.
“Everything alright?” ALF asked, walking away from the others.
“I know why Talli isn’t saying anything…”
ALF shrugged his lanky form. “It’s a very big station. He’s just overseeing the integration of the new nanocelium, that’s all.”
Kalian raised his eyebrow. “Is he? Or is he, in fact, the Conclave’s new central AI?”
ALF looked up as he chewed over the answer. “Um…”
“ALF! You had me deliver a fully functioning artificial intelligence to the Conclave? Talli will be—”
“Everywhere by now,” ALF interrupted. “It’s for the best, really. He’ll whip that AI hub into shape in no time, plus, you know, he’s very chipper! It’s always good to have a chipper AI running your civilisation rather than a tyrannical one, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I told them any upgrade you integrated could be removed when the war is over.”
“Yeah… That’s not going to work, I’m afraid. Unless Talli wants to come out, but that kind of integration can make one feel like a god. It’ll be hard to give up.”
Kalian held up his hand. “Don’t tell me anything more. It’s probably best I know as little as possible.”
“Having Talli on the inside isn’t so bad. He’s already shut down over a hundred AI hubs across the Conclave and locked the Kellekt out. They attack the network with eight point six million viruses every second. Who do you think is keeping them at bay? Now we can mobilise the other half of the fleet and have them ready to jump to Evalan without our enemies knowing.”
Kalian looked up at ALF. “I take it, then, that you have a communications link with Talli?” ALF nodded. “Can you see what’s happening on Shandar?”
The AI raised his hand and the glass wall turned into viewing screen with a hundred different holographic images. Every screen was a feed taken from the external cameras on the C-Sec cruisers and inside their bridges.
It wasn’t going well.
Chapter 22
Roland wiped away the sweat trying to find its way through his eyebrows before he sent the Rackham into a spin, evading a trio of streaking missiles. He banked sharply to port, then back to starboard as a squadron of Shay light fighters cut across his flight path. They were quickly followed by a C-Sec squadron of red Darts who gave chase across the stars. Intrinium fire erupted in every direction, some of which the bounty hunter couldn’t avoid.
“How many nanocelium bastards are there?” He asked without taking his eyes from the viewport.
Ch’len checked over his console. “There are thirteen of those big ones, but most of the defence is made up of the Shays’ security force.”
Roland banked to starboard and let rip with the Rackham’s cannons, easily tearing through the light craft ahead. “That was nanocelium ammunition,” he observed.
“So?” Ch’len replied. “It did the job!”
“Save it for them. The Brightstar loaded us up with Intrinium so let’s use it against the Shay.” He glanced at the holographic readout to the left of his face to check that the little Ch’kara had swapped them out.
The next time he opened fire, blue streaks of Intrinium shot out across the void and tore through the transport vessel attempting to dock with one of the C-Sec cruisers.
A female voice came over the channel. “Rackham, this is Brightstar. We’re diverting Nova Squadron to your position. They will help you reach the surface.”
“Reach the surface?” Roland echoed, looking out over Shandar and its web of floating buildings. “There isn’t a single cruiser that’s managed to reach the upper city yet! How are we going to punch through the atmosphere? We need to gain more ground first!”
Hox’s voice replaced the female’s. “We need to get boots on the surface. Without the Crucible, most of our opposition up here will come to a sudden halt.”
“You hope,” Roland said under his breath. “The Rackham can slip through the gaps, but your cruisers need to provide me with those gaps! If I break away from the battle now and make for the surface, every enemy ship is going to see us and blow us to pieces!”
“Nova Squadron are coming to assist,” was Hox’s only reply before the channel went dead.
“Shit!” Roland banked to port and squeezed the trigger, forcing the light craft in front of them to disperse to avoid any collision.
A bright light flared across the starboard side of the viewport. Roland redirected the Rackham and watched the back end of a Nexus-Class battlecruiser explode as a nanocelium-based ship rammed its way through. What was left of the cruiser was pulled in by Shandar’s gravity well and raged through layer after layer of floating towers. Two more flares illuminated the viewport when a pair of Nebula-Class cruisers burst apart under the enemy’s constant barrage. Every one of them carried thousands of crew…
Roland yelled at the top of his voice as he opened fire on the hull of a Shay cruiser. It barely damaged the larger ship, but it made the bounty hunter feel better. He pulled back on the stick and sent the Rackham looping around to bring them up behind a cluster of Shay light craft. He managed to eviscerate four of them before the remaining three dispersed, only to be shot down by Darts.
“Rackham, this is Nova Leader, do you copy?”
Roland stole a quick glance at Ch’len. “Does everyone have our number?”
“Rackham, this is Nova Leader, do you copy?” the Novaarian voice repeated.
“We copy, Nova Leader,” Roland replied. “Are you here to take us to the dance?”
The Novaarian hesitated. “We are going to see you to the surface, sir. We have the coordinates for the Starforge’s deployment.”
“Whoa!” Roland was forced to divert from his path when another battlecruiser exploded in front of them. The Rackham shook violently until the bounty hunter could find a new vector, far away from the explosion. “How’s the Forge?” he asked.
Ch’len was already checking over the seals that kept the Starforge attached to the Rackham’s underbelly. “No damage. Seals are holding,” he reported.
A bright flash washed over the bl
ackness of space, only this time it wasn’t due to the loss of yet another battlecruiser. Roland’s jaw fell open when the Marillion emerged from subspace at full speed and rammed its way through the battle. C-Sec ships avoided its mass in time, prompting Roland to finally take notice of the warnings on his battle map that had been flashing for the last five minutes, alerting them to the sphere’s arrival.
“You should probably look at that more often,” Ch’len commented.
Roland couldn’t think of a reply as he watched the golden orb sacrifice most of its hull. Shay cruisers, light craft, and transport vessels shattered against both hemispheres of the Marillion, the resulting explosions tarnishing its golden hull.
“The nanocelium ships are diverting from the battle,” Ch’len announced excitedly.
Roland looked over the battle map, wondering if their exit would open up a gap in the defences. A proximity alert sounded from his console and stole all of his attention. The bounty hunter dropped the ship under an oncoming cloud of enemy light craft and gave Nova Squadron something to think about. The Darts weaved into one of their formations and drifted between the light craft, all the while letting loose with their cannons.
“Len…?”
The Ch’kara’s fat fingers danced across his glass console. “I can’t find a path through to the surface. Even with the nanocelium vessels occupied, there’s just too many Shay between us and the planet.”
Roland groaned and continued to evade the Intrinium fire that flared past the viewport. The occasional bolt struck true and dinged off the Rackham’s hull, sending vibrations through to the bridge. Squeezing the trigger was the only satisfying thing the bounty hunter could do right now. Blue streaks shot out from the forward cannons and tore off the back end of a transport before continuing into the light craft escorting it. Both exploded behind the Rackham after it flew by, already targeting another transport.
Trying his luck, Roland yanked the Rackham into a spin and barrelled over the Shay cruiser, a move that drastically altered their trajectory and put them on course for Shandar. A trio of large cannons attached to the cruiser’s hull took aim and fired potshots as they glided over the surface of the bigger ship, but the Rackham was too close to accurately shoot it down.
Once they had cleared the back end of the cruiser, Roland and Ch’len were presented with a viewport filled with the upper city of Shandar. That was when dozens of Intrinium bolts skimmed past the Rackham’s bronze hull. A quick glance at his console showed sixteen light craft breaking away from the battle and targeting them.
“Up ahead!” Ch’len screamed.
Roland whipped his head up to see more of the bastards emerging from behind the floating towers. As their Intrinium bolts traversed the distance, the Rackham was caught in a mesh of super-heated energy, most of which its nanocelium could handle, but the Starforge under its belly was not so protected.
“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Roland weaved and bobbed the Rackham this way and that, evading enough of the bolts to cause problems for the light craft who took friendly fire, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Forge safe.
“It’s taking damage!” Ch’len warned.
Roland kept his finger pressed on the trigger and took out as many as were stupid enough to stay their course. His other hand hovered over the command that gave over control of the ship to the AI. It would have been easy to let the Rackham find its own way through this mess, but Roland was confident that no machine could make the same decisions as a living person. He needed to stay in control to deal with the next problem, as only he could.
That, and this was also the most fun he’d had in a while…
At their current speed, it didn’t take long for the Rackham to pass through the oncoming light craft and make for the upper city. The sixteen Shay chasing them were now thirteen, but the oncoming ships quickly turned about and raised their numbers to nineteen, all of which were soon firing on them with no regard for the towers and spindly bridges that connected the web.
The black towers were inevitably ripped to shreds by the light craft when the Rackham dodged between them. Roland himself fired on and destroyed a couple of bridges he didn’t feel like losing speed to avoid. Flashes and glimpses of fire flared in the corners of the viewport, all of which served to keep Roland focused on flying. He had to stay ahead of the barrage and evade the solid walls of the floating city.
Roland sacrificed some speed to make a sharp turn around the corner of a tower. The light craft were not as efficient as the Rackham and their Shay pilots were unable to push their fighters back up to speed as quickly as Roland could. The gap between them was becoming bigger, but they would be hounded all the way to the surface.
“Rackham, this is Nova Leader,” came the familiar Novaarian voice. “We lost you for a moment there.”
The bounty hunter brought up a three dimensional hologram of the city in front of the ship, noting the squadron of Darts that was currently flying vertically down a massive tower designated as the Saban Hotel. With the Rackham’s angle of approach and that of the chasing light craft, the Darts were hidden from view on the other side of the hotel. That gave Roland an idea.
“Nova Leader, this is the Rackham. I need you stay on course and prepare to fire everything you’ve got straight ahead.”
There was a pause on the leader’s end. “Straight ahead? What are we firing at, Rackham?”
“Check your scans of that hotel. Do you see the hangar near the bottom?”
Roland didn’t wait for any reply or even listen to what was said back, he just pushed the thrusters to maximum and hurtled on to the bright hangar. He flew straight through, not even bothering to check on Nova Squadron’s position. This was either going to work or they’d never make it to the surface, at least not with a working Starforge, anyway.
The Rackham shot out the other side of the hangar, trailing nineteen enemy light craft and a lot of Intrinium bolts, most of which had reduced the hotel’s hangar to pieces. Since the Darts didn’t crash into him, Roland assumed he’d judged the whole thing correctly.
“Everything you’ve got, Nova Leader!”
The squadron opened fire with Intrinium and missiles alike, creating a waterfall-like effect of violent energy and death. The Shay could do nothing but fly out of the hangar and be annihilated. Roland brought the Rackham around to see it with his own eyes, finding two of the lucky aliens had made it through unscathed. He squeezed the trigger again and intercepted them head on. Beyond the enemy’s fiery death, Nova Squadron continued down the Saban Hotel, through the debris, and curved up to join the Rackham.
Wasting no time, Roland took the ship further down, passing through the many levels of the Shay city. Not one tower was alike, though the cybernetic species had ensured that every one of them was black, almost matching the storms that swirled below.
“Okay, Nova Leader. We’re heading for the coordinates to deploy the Forge. It’s going to put us pretty close to the Crucible, so be ready to face some more defences.”
“Copy that, Rackham. Nova Squadron is ready for anything.”
“Um…” Ch’len dipped his head closer to the console in confusion. “Roland, there’s something inside that storm.”
The bounty hunter looked ahead at the spinning mass of dark clouds between the city’s lower levels. He narrowed his eyes, desperately trying to pierce the cloud cover.
Like a monster emerging from the pit of hell, a nanocelium vessel pushed up through the storm. Shaped like tuning fork, as the others were, its two limbs bristled with cannons and the light of streaking missiles illuminated the gap between them.
“Evade!” Roland screamed down the channel.
Nova Squadron peeled away, scattering in every direction in the hope of finding cover behind the towers. The Rackham, ahead of them all, was forced to weave between the nanocelium fire and even shoot down a pair of missiles before banking to starboard. The bottom corner of the tower behind them was obliterated by a chasing missile, before several bolts o
f nanocelium shredded the rest of the building and pierced the Rackham’s hull.
“Shit!” Roland ducked his head when a yellow streak blew through the floor a metre away from his foot and carried on into the ceiling. The Rackham’s nanocelium sealed the hull instantly, but it reminded the bounty hunter what he was up against.
“It’s in pursuit!” Ch’len cried.
Indeed, behind them, the rest of the damaged tower was split in half when the forked ship rammed its way through. Roland could only watch on his scans as two of the Darts from Nova Squadron perished in the ensuing explosion.
More missiles were launched from the enemy ship and it took everything the Rackham had to offer to stay ahead of them and escape their detonations. The city itself was beyond repair as the forked ship showed no care for anything in its way. From miles above, anyone could follow its path simply by observing the trail of destruction and havoc it left in its wake.
“Roland, the Forge is taking some serious shrapnel damage.”
The bounty hunter didn’t have time to take in the little alien’s words. He had to find some way of losing the nanocelium vessel. If he flew down, there was nowhere to go where it couldn’t follow and it certainly wouldn’t allow them to deploy the Forge. If he flew up and made for the space battle above, there was nothing but open space between the upper city and the potential safety of the C-Sec cruisers.
“Rackham, this is Nova Leader. We’re hitting this thing with everything we’ve got but it isn’t making so much as a dent. It isn’t even bothering to return fire.”
Roland took the Rackham through another hangar and barely managed to slip out the other side before the enemy rammed its way through, causing another tower to fall into the planet. Three more nanocelium bolts tore through the bulkhead and sent sparks flying.
“I’m open to suggestions!” Roland yelled.
Ch’len hurriedly brought up hologram after hologram, his beady eyes searching for a solution. “There’s maybe… oh, wait!” The Ch’kara wiped the holograms away, checked his console, and then brought up a variety of new scans and data. “I don’t believe it.”
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