‘Arnald, is the shuttle ready?’
‘No, Defiant,’ the mechanic turned pilot responded, his voice betraying his shame.
James ignored the pitifulness.
‘What are our options?’
‘There’s a shuttle hangar in Cargo Beta,’ a Ganru added.
‘How we going to get there? Bridge blown up,’ a masked Defiant replied.
‘The same way we did in the first place.’
The icy wind buffeted on James’ clothes. He could hear explosions and fighting over the wind. Nexus was aflame. James steeled himself as he had done before. His harness was secure. He knew that. The technology was sound, even in such tumultuous and frigid weather.
‘As one!’ James announced after receiving the go ahead from the advance scouts ahead.
He kicked off the side of the building and shot through the icy air. As they rapidly approached the other side on their zip lines, he emitted a wall of Warp to slow down their descent as they approached the other side.
The advance scouts lay dead.
James and his comrades drew their weapons. A Ganru screamed as his arm was disintegrated. James let forth a Warp shard from the direction of the flash. A power-armour clad Imperial fell to the ground, a hole the size of a fist through its chest.
Marshal’s instincts took over and he sprinted for cover. An Imperial was there. He tackled the smaller framed being to the ground and shot it point-blank in the head. Alex followed suit, opening fire on a group of Imperials as they attempted to enter the room. Arnald and Gretswald hung back, the latter in a panicked awe.
Warp Shards shot into the room, piercing and killing Defiant. James responded with shards of his own. His shards dug deeper, but there just weren’t enough. He was one Warpmancer against an army. The Imperials gained ground. Warpmancers covered the advance of staff wielding Imperials, who used their weapons to keep the Defiant in cover with volley after volley of energy blasts.
The Imperials were calm, like syns, but then they broke. Some fled towards James, who cut them down. Behind the group was Nathan and a group of Defiant.
‘James!’
‘Nathan! I’m glad to see you.’
‘Likewise.’
Nathan entered, shotgun held in the air.
‘What’s the plan, Strike Leader?’
‘We need to take one of the orbit guns – make sure it stays functioning.’
Nathan nodded, but then frowned.
‘You needing a shuttle?’
‘Please don’t tell me that there’s none left…’
Nathan shook his head.
‘Imperials blew up the last one. Wasn’t able to secure it… Sorry, James.’
‘Skite!’ James swore.
Then Gretswald cried out.
Behind the group, from where they had zip lined into the open hangar, hovered a void black Xank craft. It bore the Word Lectorate emblem.
‘Need a lift?’ Krag-Zot asked in accented English over the speakers.
‘What by Terra are Xank doing here?’ Nathan shouted, levelling his shotgun at the craft. Many others did the same.
‘Hold your fire!’ James commanded.
‘Why, Defiant?’ Jasper asked. ‘They’re grako Xank.’
‘He ain’t Xank,’ James replied. ‘Well, not anymore. He’s a friend. He’s an enemy of the Imperials, like us. We can trust him.’
Nathan looked at James, his eyes wide through his goggles.
‘You worked with Xank?’
‘Never!’ James snapped. ‘And this isn’t the time for explanations!’
‘They aren’t Xank, Nathan,’ Marshal finally spoke.
The group turned to the veteran. He continued.
‘He used to be Xank. He works for the Defiant now. Their entire division does. The Word Lectorate left the Xank. They now work for James.’
‘Why?’ Nathan asked, disbelieving.
‘Because they know I’m the only one who can defeat the Imperials,’ James responded.
‘Imperial fighters are incoming. If you want a lift, get in!’
Krag-Zot lowered the ship until one only needed to step across the gap.
James entered. Marshal followed. Hesitantly, the rest entered, Nathan coming last. The gate closed, and they shot off.
Another Imperial attempted to charge into the room. Danny opened fire with a machine gun deployed atop a barricade of desks. Darren Peterson, behind him, fired with a sub-machine gun. All fell in a mash of torn metal, odd-coloured blood and sparks of metal scraping on metal.
They had held like this for an hour now. First, there had been around thirteen of them. Now, there was only Danny and Darren.
The machine gun began to click. Danny picked up his pistol and fired as Darren began reloading. Danny heard him swear.
‘We out?’
‘Skiting grakos. We out.’
‘We need to get out of here.’
Darren didn’t delay. He opened fire on the doorway again, backing away. Danny followed suit.
‘Go! I’ll cover you,’ Danny shouted.
Darren turned and bolted through the doorway. Danny fired a few more shots and then sprinted there himself, narrowly dodging a blast of searing blue energy.
Neither of them spoke as they sprinted down the hallway. They only panted, sweat pouring down their bodies. Danny checked his cartridge. Eight more shots. They needed to resupply.
‘Darren,’ Danny panted. ‘Where can we re-stock?’
Darren stopped at a crossroads. As he contemplated in which direction to turn, a flash hit him in the leg. He fell with a shout.
Danny jumped forward and dragged the man into a side-office. The small room only had one entrance. Danny could see a veritable light-show erupting outside its small window as the battle for Nexus continued. With Darren stowed against a geradite desk, Danny slammed the door closed and pushed a cabinet full of server hardware in front of it. He was just in time, as something metal collided with the door, denting it. Bangs followed. Danny could make out alien voices on the other side.
Darren was wheezing, clutching his scorched leg. He had dropped his gun. Danny backed away from the door and turned to him. There was no blood, but he was still in pain. He crouched next to the wounded man and pulled his arms away. The smell of burnt, burning, flesh. Danny tore off some of Darren’s clothing to reveal the wound. It was still bubbling around the blackened epicentre. Danny watched as blisters formed before his eyes.
‘Ice! Need ice,’ Danny anxiously muttered to himself.
He started tearing open drawers or anything that could reasonably be a fridge. As he did so, the banging intensified. More foot falls. There were more of them.
A corner of the door gave way and began to bend. Danny gave up his search and dragged the pain addled Darren behind the desk.
Eight shots.
Danny took aim.
The door burst open to reveal an Imperial. Danny fired, hitting one in the head. It fell and its allies took cover on either side of the door. They blindly fired their crystal staffs around the corner, hitting furniture and the wall, leaving scorch marks. Danny fired conservatively, waiting for an opening. An Imperial peaked. He fired, but the bullet diverted as another Imperial gestured towards the ground.
Six shots. Darren groaned and slumped, falling to the ground. This seemed to cue the Imperials to charge. Danny fired, hitting one in the chest. Its death slowed its companion.
Four shots. Danny ducked as a volley of searing energy came his way. He was pinned. He dove to the right and shot again, flanking the attackers. One fell, a wound in the hip. It retaliated with a blast that Danny dodged. He fired again, hitting it in the shoulder. The shot barely phased it. He swore and dove back into cover.
They weren’t advancing. Danny crouched low. Preparing for…he didn’t know what. What it took, he guessed.
He’d lived a gunslinger. He might as well die one. Danny let out a breath and then stood to release his fin
al shots.
An explosion shook the entire room, filling it with debris and ash. Out of the smoke and flames came a dark figure, pirouetting and cutting into the Imperials, leaving ribbons of blood to fall in circles upon the floor. More Imperials poured in. More died. The figure ended the pirouette to reveal itself to be an individual clad in power armour, wielding a katana in one hand and an assault rifle in the other.
An Imperial crossed over the threshold and the power-armour wearer brought its sword down upon it. The Imperial blocked with its staff, but was ended with a point-blank blast from the rifle. A kick from the armoured boot sent it into a comrade, who was barrelled over. The figure then impaled it on its sword. Energy blasts were fired but ricocheted off its protective shoulder guard. It fired without looking. A thud followed.
Then all was quiet. The black figure stood up, unsheathing its sword from the chest of the Imperial. As no enemy came, it finally flicked the blood off its sword and sheathed it with a flourish. It then turned to face him.
Danny was surprised that such a bulky power suit could exhibit such agility. It was void black and huge, either possessing thick armour plating or a very large occupant.
‘Thank you…’ Danny started. The figure didn’t respond, rather advancing.
Danny felt unnerved and backed away slightly, almost tripping over Darren, then steam poured out of the neck of the figure. As the hydraulics disengaged, the massive helmet receded into the armour.
‘Krena!’ Danny exclaimed.
Before he could say anything else, she was in front of him, holding him between two massive exoskeleton hands, with her lips upon his.
After a blissful and too short a time, Krena pulled back. Her face was the same that it had been at the Battle for Titan City. Determination, but there was something new – a hint of relief. She glanced down at Darren and crouched. Holding his wound, she then emitted some sort of gel upon it.
‘He’s scorched, but he may live. Tissue can be regrown.’
‘I’m…glad to see you, Krena.’
Krena smiled, slightly, but then hardened as they heard metal foot falls approaching. She tossed him a pistol. He caught it and cocked it.
Nodding in respect, she re-equipped the helmet. They stood side by side. The Imperials came rushing in.
‘Mayday, mayday. This is Sylith Storm going down.’
‘Hold on, Sylith Storm. Kolheim covering your descent. Eject, eject.’
Erryn engaged thrusters, ramming the Kolheim into the Imperial fighter. The smaller vessel was no match for the repurposed freighter. Erryn had only done this a few times before. That time, it was a Pegg ship and it was in space. The results here were much more devastating. The light metal and small frame of the fighter shattered on the hull of the Kolheim. It didn’t so much split, but explode in debris and blue sparks.
‘Sylith Storm, you’re clear.’
Silence.
‘Sylith Storm?’
Erryn descended, feeling the momentum of her fall push her into her seat. Her radar showed the remnants of Sylith Storm’s communication signal. Twin Imperial fighters attempted to intercept her as she approached the roof of a domed building, where Imperial infantry were dropping down. She opened fire with her civilian-issued cannons. The projectiles knocked the fighters out of her way but their shields were able to reflect most of the damage. They formed up once again, blocking her path and firing.
Erryn engaged thrusters and burst right through them, sending the one spiralling into a squad of Imperials upon the roof. The other dodged at the last second, then attempted to tail her.
‘Skite!’ Erryn swore. Her ship wasn’t outfitted for rear defence.
She took evasive action, plunging deeper into the towering city.
‘Think you can outmanoeuvre me just cause I’m a freighter.’
She broke right, tearing past the windows of a suburban mega-structure. Some of the geradite plating warped at her passing. The Imperial fighter maintained pursuit. Her hull monitors detected minor damage on her wings.
‘Kolheim’s survived worse, grako!’
She sped up, speeding through the maze of Nexus’ underbelly. Large support columns and the lower areas underneath the glassy and silver façade of the city became Erryn’s hunting ground. To be more accurate, she was the prey – but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Not with Sylith Storm on the ground.
A warning signal, a blinking red light. Damage on the starboard wing. She let go of the thrust and plummeted towards the toxic crystals below. The fumes were visible at this point, covering her windscreen with tiny fragments of blue, pink and purple crystals. The monitor wasn’t registering anymore hits. She drifted just metres off the jagged surface of this crystal world, then sped towards a clearing, where the miners had been much more productive. From this clearing, she saw the smoking remains of an escape pod.
‘Sylith Storm, do you read me?’
‘Kolheim. This is Rhodes III. Sylith Storm is KIA. Get in formation.’
‘Roger, Rhodes III.’
Erryn sharply steered upwards, leaving the crashed remains of her fellow pilot and the entangling labyrinth of the city. The formation was just above her, an open space at the tip for her freighter. It had only just formed up. There were no Imperial fighters in the immediate vicinity. Finally, a respite.
Upon learning of the Imperial attack, all those capable scrambled to engage the enemies. There was very little direction and very little need for it. The enemies were everywhere. Orders would have accomplished little, as every pilot was forced to fight their own battle. Erryn had to pilot the Kolheim alone, as Imperial infantry pressed her for time. It was chaos.
Only the Kolheim’s abnormally thick hull allowed her to survive long enough to meet up with other Defiant pilots. Sylith Storm had been one of them.
‘This is Adderley Alpha, formation leader. The city is overrun. We can’t do anything more on the ground, so our task is to prevent anymore reinforcements from hitting planet-side. We’re gonna approach orbit and shoot down every grako that dares cross over that threshold.’
‘Roger, leader,’ Erryn and the others responded in unison.
As one, they pitched upwards and sped towards the stratosphere in a wedge formation. The Kolheim led the way, battering into Imperial drops ships and fighters. Those that dodged or were missed by the Kolheim were mopped up by fighters on the flanks.
Energy weapons, missiles, bombs, high velocity kinetics – all flooded the skies, creating a light show for the now darkened Nexus below. The loser of each prompt duel plummeted in fire. Some of the wrecks collided harmlessly with the buildings or crystal fields below. Others met the structures with explosions and fire. Erryn only hoped that the buildings had already been evacuated. She tried to find solace in that the lower levels would be safe from the falling debris. But would it be safe from the Imperial soldiers in these dropships?
Jilly. Erryn frowned.
‘Prepare for sub-Warp. We’re taking them at the stratosphere.’
Erryn engaged the Warp thrust charger. The screen showed the charge. Adderley Alpha spoke over the communication channel.
‘Synchronise. Engage charger. Prepare for combat upon release. Three…two…one…’
The buzz, the silence. The stretching of light, sound, energy itself. Erryn had felt this many times before, but never under these circumstances. Warping was for when you were already in space. It was for leaving the system and shooting towards another. It wasn’t meant for firing into orbit. But they did not have the luxury of the norm.
There was a bang and then space. They appeared in the middle of an Imperial formation. Explosions wracked the Kolheim and the other members of the flight group as some of them Warped into Imperial vessels, destroying both.
‘Fire at will! Break formation!’
Erryn burst forth and drove the Kolheim into a group of Imperial drop ships. Fighters sortied and attempted to shoot her down. Defiant ships retaliated. Refurbi
shed merchant vessels, freighters, personal vehicles, among a few captured Berrin and Yellow ships fought against the superpower of the galaxy. Laser met metal. Erryn tasted metal and blood as she bit her tongue.
She fired her rockets at a troop dropship as it sped towards the icy planet below. The rockets detonated prematurely as drones sallied forth and blocked her attack.
Rhodes III attempted to flank another dropship. His railguns were unable to pierce the hull of the speeding pod. He engaged his thrusters.
‘What are you doing?’ Erryn shouted at him.
‘For the Defiant!’ was his answer, as he collided into the dropship. An explosion of Warp energy was left in their wake.
‘Don’t throw your lives away…’ Adderley Alpha was cut short. Erryn couldn’t see the fate of his ship.
As the Defiant sortie fell, one by one, they were replaced by white and red ships. The Aegis starbombers, defended by their fighters, made better headway. Finally, one of them managed to enter their comm channel.
‘Kolheim? This is Aegis Delta leader. Requesting battalion merger.’
‘Roger, Delta leader,’ Erryn responded. ‘Orders?’
‘We need your freighter to penetrate their frigate’s shields, Kolheim.’
‘That will destroy my ship!’
‘Their cannons will destroy your ship, and everything else! Kolheim, I’m not asking. Attack, full ramming speed, at that frigate!’
Erryn, despite her better judgement, pivoted and aimed at the frigate. Her home. Her birthplace. She didn’t know why she did it. The Kolheim was everything. It was her. It was more. It had flown a hundred years. It was to fly a hundred more. But that frigate had to go down. It had to.
Dropships and fighters stood in her way.
‘Clear a path, Delta!’ the leader shouted.
Fighters sped forward and engaged the Imperial vessels. Erryn didn’t delay. She put her ship into full throttle, and shut her eyes.
‘Get those guns operational!’
James shouted as he flung a group of Imperials into the wall, crushing them. Krag-Zot covered his back, launching a barrage of shards at a squad. His comrades used the lull in the Imperial onslaught to pour out of Krag-Zot’s ship.
Rise of the Defiant: Book Two of the Warpmancer Series Page 23