Parker stepped down and didn’t pause to look at the Alliance’s refugee camp. He headed straight for the minister’s private hangar.
Reaching it, he brushed past the guards and through the double doors.
Inside, he frantically looked around for Sarah. He expected her to be there, but she wasn’t. Instead, he saw Eamonn hobbling toward him with Shannon at his side, but with enough distance between them for Parker to know Eamonn was angry with her.
"Eamonn," he called. "Where is Sarah?"
"I don’t know," he said. "Where is Chloe?"
Chloe was behind me on the transport, Parker thought. Where is she? "She’s lingering behind, I guess. We were up in orbit during the battle."
"Parker!" Sarah shouted. He turned to see her running toward him. She wrapped her arms around him. "We have lost Mars. It is my fault."
He pulled away from her hug. "It is our fault. The MSA beat the Alliance."
"Tell me you found the megacruiser. Is there any hope for us?"
"I found it," he said, lowering his eyes. "It is destroyed, though. Jan and the builders should be headed into the sun any moment now."
"But it could help us rebuild the Alliance—"
"The engineers didn’t want its technology to be used for evil."
"I understand," Sarah said, but he knew her well enough to see the doubt on her face. The megacruiser was her father’s great gift to the planet. It, along with Aethpis colony, had been destroyed forever. "Where is Chloe? I need to find her."
Parker craned his neck. He didn’t see her. "She was right behind me."
"The MSA captured Seth," Shannon said. "He sacrificed himself to save Eamonn and me."
"So he is alive," Sarah said.
"Seth gave himself willingly to the MSA," Eamonn added. "He thinks he can save Gwen. He promised her when this all began he would come back for her."
Sarah’s eyes widened. "So those two were involved with one another."
"They were never involved," Eamonn said. "Seth’s priorities aren’t predicated on common sense. He has his own moral priorities. He doesn’t care about the Alliance and doesn’t fight for the people."
"His single drive is for Chloe," Parker said.
"You are right," Chloe said, from behind the group. "His priority is me. That is why it is asinine to think he would ever willingly imprison himself away from me without purpose."
"But he told me he is turning himself over because he wants to fulfill his promise to Gwen," Eamonn said.
"Do you think he would ever leave me for any length of time if he didn’t have to?" she said, moving toward them. "Seth could have killed the MSA and flown away with Eamonn and Shannon."
Shannon nodded in agreement. "I saw it. He could have taken out the MSA. He chose to go, but why? He seemed pretty determined to turn himself over to the MSA for us and to help his friend."
Chloe waved her hand toward Shannon. "That is all incidental. He needs Hans Bauer to cure me," she said. "I’m dying. He wants Hans Bauer to use him to find a way to transfer his healing power into me."
"Dying?" Parker said, grabbing Chloe’s hand. "We have doctors on Aethpis. We can use them to figure out how to cure you."
Chloe swallowed the urge to cry. "The nerves along my brain are deteriorating, and I only have two, maybe three years remaining. Dakota Lars told me it is fatal. I have accepted my fate. Seth has not. He’ll help the MSA as long as it will help me. No matter how much I beg him to stop."
"Dakota Lars can’t be trusted," Parker said. "Why would you take her word for it?"
"Because she’s telling the truth," Chloe said. "I can tell. Seth will use Hans Bauer to find a cure for me." She turned away from Parker. "I was so determined to come to Mars because I knew what Seth was going to do. I wanted the megacruiser so bad because I thought it could stop the MSA. In turn, that would stop Seth from joining them, from going through awful experiments. I failed him."
"No, you didn’t," Parker said. "He made his choice to seek help from the MSA. You chose the Alliance. The right side. My side. I’ll always protect you."
"I’ll do my best to serve the Alliance," Chloe said. "I believe in the Principles of Man. We’ll get Mars back before I die. I can feel the love for our goal."
Sarah stepped toward Chloe. "Gwen Arwell is looking for you. We have to get you out of here right away. I’ll be damned if I’m giving that woman anything I don’t have to. Come now with me. You need to escape into the underground of Mars."
"But where?" Chloe said. "The MSA control Mars, and we have nowhere to hide on Aethpis."
"I have a few spots where no one will ever find you. The Alliance isn’t dead yet."
"Eamonn better come with us, too," Parker added. "He killed Gwen’s father. They’ll be hunting him down, also."
"I’m coming then," Shannon said. "I was involved in the assassinations, too, and I’m not letting Adol anywhere within a parsec of Samantha Burns."
"Let’s stop arguing about who is coming, and let’s get going," Sarah said, grabbing Chloe by the hand and leading her toward the doors to the back of the cavern. "Harry, Emily, and Adol are already waiting for us."
THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…
Lunara
Parker and the Protector
Part I
Chapter 1
Parker McCloud understood why Atalo Grove’s voice hesitated as he surveyed the dilemma in front of him. Everything Parker had asked Atalo to do, he did without questioning any of the information presented to him.
For more than a year and a half, Parker had commanded—unbeknownst to the Martian Supremacy Authority (MSA)—the various Alliance cells throughout the solar system. He and Captain Nathan Terry were the unspoken leaders while Parker’s wife languished in a hollow position as commander of Aethpis colony. The two men had overseen the last remnants of a dying rebellion.
Jupiter hung on the viewscreen with its ominous presence. The famed yellow, orange, and white streaks stretched across the planet. The storms twirled, giving life to the giant ball. Quickly, Parker’s gaze caught the more famous sight, the stormy eye of the supergiant searching for any cosmic bodies to seize. Even at this distance, the gravitation alerts were chirping warnings of impending disaster. Although Parker had prepared his splinter fleet with extra thrusters to combat the immense gravity around the planet, his stomach still fluttered at the thought of compressing to the size of a grain of sand if Jupiter pulled them into the atmosphere.
Parker keyed to his proximity radar screen. His fleet consisted of five Asterfighters and one heavy fighter. The heavy fighter had served him well. The twin gun turrets mounted on the top of the ship’s sleek hull were capable of checking any MSA fighter before it came too close. He felt confident within it.
Parker swiveled his chair toward an awaiting Atalo Grove only feet away, who was manning the sensor controls of the Iron Chunk.
"The freighter is leaving the moon Ganymede." Grove keyed the coordinates into the navigational computer. "It’s heading away from us, northern hemisphere."
Parker adjusted their course to match the freighter’s course. Their target was a huge bulk freighter, carrying fifty million cubic meters of ice to Mars. This shipment was one in a long line of freighters his squadron had stopped in the last six months, and as Mars dried up, so did the MSA’s grip on the planet. He squinted; its tiny lights were barely visible. Jupiter’s glow washed out most of the incidental reflections.
After he had checked the freighter’s telemetry, a concern tingled within him. Mostly, he was worried about the direct flight path to the cratered moon Callista. Likely, the freighter was headed to Callista to slingshot around the moon, a maneuver to gain more speed in an attempt to escape the gravitational forces of Jupiter. At least, that is what he would have done.
By nature, freighter captains were conservative, unwilling to risk the cargo unless necessity warranted it. Heading straight out on thrusters seemed a more obvious and safe course. So, Parker was left where he started.
Why was the freighter heading toward the far side of Callista?
He scrolled through his infrared screen, checking for any inference around Callista. Nothing was apparent.
"Alliance One, this is Red Dust," pilot James Hunton radioed. Parker didn’t know why he had chosen the call sign of Red Dust for Hunton. It just fit Hunton’s flying style. Hunton disappeared into the surroundings when the simulator machines thought they had him. Like dust blowing along the Martian terrain, he always escaped. "We should be engaging. The freighter is at its slowest—"
"And we are at our fastest cruising speed with Jupiter’s gravity pulling us toward it instead of against it," said Parker—or Alliance One for the mission, interrupting the pilot’s unwanted concerns. "I understand."
"I have to agree with Red Dust," pilot Allison Hargrowth—Quartz—radioed back. "We can sting that freighter into Callista with a volley into its port side."
"Quartz, hold your positioning and your tongue," Parker replied. Even though they were a rogue Alliance squadron, they still needed discipline. He didn’t want his pilots doubting his efforts, especially in mid mission.
Yet…
Red Dust and Quartz had a point. There was no better time to strike against them than now, when it was escaping the gravity of Jupiter and Parker’s fleet propelled toward it. Still, Parker couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The freighter, using Callista as a slingshot, didn’t seem to care about their presence. Europa station—and its security fleet—was on the other side of Jupiter, and leaving Jupiter’s orbit in the quickest way possible should be priority one.
"Callista…what was on Callista?" he muttered.
Grove answered with the obvious. "Water miners."
"Really nothing," Parker muttered. "It is barely surveyed. No stations are built on it, not with the instability of the surface ice." He leaned back in his chair, searching his mind for a reason to be cautious. He couldn’t find one. "Quartz, Red Dust, you are the most eager, you take lead position on this one," he radioed to the squad. "Grey Cloud and Devastator will be flanking us. And Olympus, you’re defensive rear."
"Affirmative," Quartz and Red Dust said in unison.
"Aim for the portside engine mount." Parker continued to stare at Callista. "I want it to jerk into Callista."
Parker steered the heavy cruiser—which he had nicknamed Iron Chunk for its unspectacular agility but surprisingly fortified hull—toward the freighter.
"Activating attack plasma shielding," Grove said, as the fizzle of the plasma shields trickled over the hull. "Asterfighters are powered up as well. We are ready for the attack."
"Excellent," Parker replied, not really hearing what Grove had said. Repeatedly, he glanced at Callista, which kept reminding him of something. A sense of déjà vu weaved through his nerves…
Over the last two years, Parker had been involved in many skirmishes. His squadron had always come out on top, except for their failed pirating of a freighter debarking from Lunara. An ill-advised plan had been their failure. He hadn’t anticipated the dozen extra fighters assigned to the cargo transfer. But that wasn’t happening here. This was Jupiter, seven times the distance from Mars that Lunara was, and too remote of an outpost for a large escort.
Still, this was familiar.
His squadron streaked toward the freighter.
Suddenly, the freighter dove toward Callista. Someone spotted it.
A cool tingle swept across Parker’s skin. He licked his dry lips. This was it. Battle time.
Quartz and Red Dust splashed their sonic bullets across the port engine mount of the freighter. Its plasma shielding flickered with each subsequent blow.
In his peripheral vision, Grey Cloud and Devastator made sure they didn’t arc too close or too far away from their flanking patterns. Parker needed them to maintain the course for the freighter. If they allowed it to twist away, it would gain an advantage on its way out of the Jovian system.
An alert blatted in his ear. The freighter’s turret guns were active, tracking Quartz and Red Dust as they swept across its hull.
"Fire our missiles!" Parker shouted to Grove. He banked the Iron Chunk toward the evading freighter and fired a salvo of missiles. They streaked away with a brilliant blue blaze.
Moments later, the missiles collided with the plasma shielding, shaking the freighter mightily but causing no serious damage.
Parker fretted. Definitely, the MSA had reinforced the plasma shielding. How did they know?
The freighter chugged along toward Callista, still determined to reach the cratered moon and avoiding escape to the emptiness of space, where it could engage its quickdrives. The Asterfighters buzzed around the freighter, weakening the plasma shield with each successive pass.
Parker adjusted his viewscreen along their flight path. "Where are you heading to?" he muttered. The viewscreen displayed only the cratered moon. Then he remembered.
"Grey Cloud, get away from Callista," he radioed. "Get away now."
"I have to keep the freighter from sling shooting. I’m maintaining course," Mark Terratak—Grey Cloud—replied.
"Get out now. Everyone else circle back toward Olympus and the rally point. Let the freighter go."
"Alliance One," Quartz radioed back. "This freighter can’t go…there is no reason…"
"Jinx to that!" he shouted. "An MSA squadron rests inside the Callista craters. The freighter is drawing you right into it."
"I don’t read anything. No weapons fire is coming from Callista."
"The magnetic interference around Jupiter is masking their presence. They’re there," Parker replied.
"How—"
"I just know." Parker fired the repulse engines on the Iron Chunk. The hull groaned in protest as the retro thrusters fought the heavy cruiser. After a long thrust, the Iron Chunk settled to a dead stop.
Olympus positioned his Asterfighter beside him. Parker watched helplessly as Quartz and Red Dust kept sweeping across the freighter’s hull. Grey Cloud continued to speed toward Callista. All three of them are doomed, he thought.
"Alliance One, we need to help them," Olympus radioed, his deep voice a pitch higher, apprehension registering in his tone. "They can’t take the freighter down without your bombs."
"I told them to regroup back here," Parker replied. "They are disobeying my order."
"Why are we falling back? There is no sign of—" Olympus was cut off.
A flash of light lit the Iron Chunk’s cabin. It took a few moments for Parker’s eyes to adjust. But when they finally did—
Jinx to him, he was right. In the distance, the MSA squadron had taken Grey Cloud out with a single salvo of missiles.
"MSA trap!" Quartz cried. "Red Dust, watch your flank. They are coming hard."
"I see ’em," Red Dust replied, his voice strained. He snap-rolled his fighter in a violent turn away from Callista toward the rally point, aligning himself with Quartz’s trajectory. But it was too late for either of them to escape. The MSA advanced fighters were too fast for them; they cut off their escape window, and Red Dust and Quartz adjusted back to Callista, into the salvo of sonic bullets that awaited them. They dove downward, avoiding the salvo and leaving themselves naked to the incoming MSA fighters.
Another flash of light came from the starboard side this time. Devastator was gone, too. They must have spotted him early, tracking him with a smaller missile hidden in Jupiter’s sensor glare. Parker fretted.
"Olympus, help Quartz. We’ll clear a path for Red Dust," Parker said, accelerating the Iron Chunk toward the battle. He wasn’t happy. Two members of his squadron were dead, and they had died disobeying his order.
By the time the Iron Chunk reached the fray, six MSA fighters had twisted their way around Quartz and Grey Cloud. The Asterfighter’s agility had kept them alive for this long. But not much longer. Once the MSA fighters realized no more Alliance help was in the area, they would break off from the fortified freighter and come toward their location. Advantage MSA.
/> An MSA fighter swooped down, coming fast upon Red Dust’s aft. Parker blasted his turret gun at its nose. The sonic bullet sprayed across the plasma shielding and sent it diving for cover behind the two MSA fighters looping around and heading straight at the Iron Chunk. Parker jerked the control stick. The force of the turn pressed him into his seat and sent the Iron Chunk knifing between the MSA fighters, scaring them into a looping turn away from him.
"Nice of you to rejoin us," Red Dust radioed dryly, but it was a little too sarcastic for Parker’s irritated state.
"Shut up and try to get back to our rally point," he radioed. "Thanks to you and Quartz, we can only survive. The freighter has escaped."
"Sitting back at the rally point wouldn’t have downed it faster than what we did," Red Dust radioed back.
The cabin rattled violently. Parker’s hands shook uncontrollably. He punched with some effort the course corrections. The Iron Chunk swung around and spit bullets across the MSA-controlled space.
"Devastator and Grey Cloud would be alive!" Parker shouldn’t have said it. It was a betrayal of both Quartz and Red Dust, but he was so damned irritated. They had no right to be upset with him. He ordered them to safety.
And maybe…just maybe, they could reverse this debacle by hitting the freighter farther from Callista, where they had the tactical advantage. Instead, Olympus and the Iron Chunk had to bail them out.
"Understood," Red Dust radioed somberly. Apparently, Parker’s words stuck to the young man.
Parker yanked his control stick toward the rallying point. The MSA fighters countered with their own flanking maneuver from the port side. He expected the basic tactical move and counteracted with his own corkscrewing drop out of their line of sight. Red Dust anticipated the ploy and followed him in the angled descent away from the battle zone.
A jolt shook Parker. His teeth ached and his head swam. Impact alerts chirped in his ear, sobering his mind. He quieted them with his left hand and called up the assessment screen with his right.
The report scrolled across the screen: Single missile impact. Port side. Plasma shield powered down: 50%.
Lunara: The Original Trilogy Page 66