by I G Hulme
“Mara, form up on me, I’m going after the ships on the Marianne, mark two-three, they’re heading for that hospital ship.”
Ryann heard Ashe’s steady voice over the comms.
“Ryann, see if you can take some of the heat off the Serena — she’s taking a pounding!”
Ryann glanced longingly back towards the Marianne as explosions rained all about her. All he could think of was Angelique, and he immediately went to protest. He spied the silver dart of Mara’s Interceptor form up beside Ashe as they tore effortlessly through the dizzying maze of the refugee fleet, hunting down the Luminal drones.
He cursed to himself and turned his ship back towards the station.
Sure enough the Serena was in a bad state. She was doggedly pushing on through a storm of fire as three drone-ships flew about her, their lasers tearing into the ship’s battered shields, causing arcs of electricity to spit into the darkness.
Just as Ryann was coming to the aid of the Serena, he caught a glow forming out of the corner of his eye.
But he didn’t have time to react.
The clouds of the Halion Belt were torn away, vaporised as another blast from the Luminal battleship cut through the ice-field, detonating upon the edge of the flotilla.
He felt the shockwave crash into his ship and was thrown all about as the little Interceptor was sent spinning uncontrollably through the storm.
Warning alarms blared out as Ryann fought to bring his ship back under control. He cursed as he made out the Guillemot, an old freighter that had been converted to house around two hundred refugees. It must have been caught directly in the Luminal’s blast, because one side of its hull had been completely torn away. Ryann could see the individual levels sliced open and the terrible sight of the refugees’ bodies being sucked out into the void.
Ryann felt a rage boiling up inside, and gunned the engines once more, his ship screaming back down into the battle.
He spied the Serena just as it was approaching the docking bay, still under constant attack from the three drones. His Interceptor swept down upon them, all six guns blazing.
The first Luminal ship erupted in flames as Ryann shot past in a blur. He dragged the Interceptor around, firing back at the second ship even as his momentum carried him further away.
He laughed at the firepower of his cannons as he saw the drone-ship torn apart, a line of cannon-fire cutting the ship clean in two.
“Nice shooting Ryann,” came Ashe’s voice in his earpiece and he looked around to locate her in the chaos.
“So we’re using comms all the time now are we?” he asked, hunting about the dizzying scene of explosions for his next target.
“You scared we’ll alert the Lumina?”
He laughed to hear Angelique’s voice in his ear.
“Watch it Anders, you’ve got two more marks on your tail!”
Mara’s voice cut in through the static and Ryann felt a pang of fear as he heard the urgent exchanges over the comms.
“Angelique! Where are you?” he called, swooping past the flaming hulk of the Guillemot.
“Stay on the Serena Ryann!” he heard Ashe command and he angrily pulled his ship around, trying to make out the exchanges over the comms.
He cursed as a sudden plume of flames erupted all around him — bright flashes of laser-fire streaking past. He threw the Interceptor down into a spin, heaving it aside as the dark shape of a row of shuttles loomed up out of the smoke and flames. He tried to take a glance behind, but he couldn’t catch sight of his attacker. Another burst of gunfire shook his ship just to confirm that he hadn’t managed to lose them.
“Ryann, get back on the Serena, she’s making another run for the Ibis,” came Ashe’s urgent voice over the radio.
“I’m trying dammit!” yelled Ryann, swooping and spinning as he tried to out-turn his pursuer. He winced as a shot struck his wing, knocking him into a spin.
“Fly to mark four-zero!” cut in Mara’s voice. “We’ll cover you.”
“I’m okay dammit!” cursed Ryann. “I just need to —” His voice was lost in another explosion that erupted so close to the cockpit that a web of cracks spread ominously across the canopy.
“We’ve got you.” Mara’s assured voice crackled into his earpiece, and he caught a blur of silver straight ahead of him. Before he could react, Ashe’s Interceptor tore past, the flames from her cannons lighting up the nose of her ship. Ryann ducked instinctively as first Ashe and then Mara screamed overhead, only a couple of metres from him, and then in an instant they were gone.
“You’re all-clear Ryann,” came Ashe’s voice, and Ryann felt his hands shaking as the adrenaline coursed through his system. “Ryann? Are you okay back there?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he stuttered, still shaken up. “Thanks for getting them off my tail.”
“There’s plenty more to come,” he heard Mara laugh.
“Protect the Serena Ryann, she’s heading back out to the Ibis,” said Ashe. “Anders, how are you doing back there?”
There was a moment’s silence and Ryann held his breath as he turned his ship back towards the station.
“Anders? Anders, do you read me?”
Ryann looked all around, but he couldn’t find any other fighters amidst the densely-packed refugee fleet.
“Anders?” He heard Ashe’s concerned call once again.
To Ryann’s utter relief he made out Angelique’s voice cutting through the static.
“We’re okay,” she called over the comms, but Ryann could hear the concern in her voice. “But we’ve got trouble! Coming in at mark three-six, I think that Luminal battleship’s found its way through the Halion Belt!”
Ryann looked up to the glowing walls of the ice-field in horror. Above them, a little way beyond the Ibis he saw a dark silhouette forming in the clouds. A flash of lighting briefly illuminated the inhuman lines of the monstrous ship before plunging it back into shadow.
He heard Ashe’s voice over the comms, filled with a weary resignation.
“Okay, Mara, Ryann, form up on me. Wait for the Luminal to clear the ice-field.”
“And then what?” he heard Mara croak. “What the hell can we do against a battleship?”
“We do our best,” he heard Ashe’s grim reply.
Ryann saw the two Interceptors burst out from the maze of refugee ships heading up towards the Ibis. He turned his ship after them, quickly adjusting the frequency on his comms.
“Jean-Baptiste!” he called out frantically. “Jean-Baptiste! That Luminal battleship is almost upon us! You need to get the Ibis out of here right now!”
Grande’s voice came back faint and indistinct through the static.
“We’re almost there — we’re unloading the last of my people now!”
Ryann looked up in horror as the clouds began to part like a shroud, falling away as the vast Luminal battleship pushed through.
“Aren’t you listening?” yelled Ryann, staring up at the dark silhouette dwarfing all the other ships around it. “You need to get out of there now!”
“What the hell do we do?” croaked Mara. As they looked on, the ominous glow of the launch-tunnel began to illuminate the clouds as it opened up.
“Form up on me,” repeated Ashe in a leaden voice. “Anders, do you think you can keep the last of the drones busy?” he heard her call.
“They’re happy to follow!” came back Anders’ shout; Ryann could hear the sound of laser-fire crashing against the Marianne’s hull in the background of his transmission.
As he looked on, Ryann saw the drives of the Ibis flicker into life, and slowly she began to move off, sending the empty hulk of the Serena spinning off into space.
“Protect the Ibis,” he heard Ashe’s grim voice.
“What about the refugee fleet?” asked Mara angrily. Ryann didn’t reply, he was transfixed by the growing silhouette of the Luminal battleship as it pressed on towards them through the clouds. The light from its launch tunnel was growing in inte
nsity, until it was almost too bright to look upon.
“There’s nothing we can do for them now,” said Ashe flatly. “The Ibis is the only one with any chance of escape.”
Ryann willed the ponderous craft on as it turned, heading out towards the gas clouds.
“Here come the fighters,” murmured Ashe. “Use our speed as our advantage and keep on my wing, we’re stronger together.”
Ryann felt a surge of nervous energy coursing through his body and his hands shook on the flight column as his finger hovered over the trigger. The ship shuddered under the strain of its engines, ready to be unleashed upon Ashe’s command.
“Get ready…”
The Luminal battleship finally broke through the gas cloud in a shower of ice crystals, and at that moment Ryann made out the silhouettes of fighter ships issuing forth from the launch-tunnel.
But something was wrong. They weren’t the familiar shapes of Luminal drones. And the battleship itself — it wasn’t the same one that he had seen before.
“Let’s go.”
Ashe’s voice was leaden as she gunned her engines, her ship surging towards the vast craft.
But Ryann just gazed on in amazement as the first of the fighters emerged.
“Stand down!” he screamed into his comms. “Ashe! Mara! Stand down! It’s the Defiance! It’s the Defiance!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CONTACT
Ryann heard the cheers of delight over the comms as he quickly took his weapons’ target offline. He watched the stream of fighters, the Ghost-Runners, as they poured from the launch-tunnel. And to his joy, there at the head of the group he spied the unmistakable lines of the old Conqueror, his father’s ship.
He yelled jubilantly as the fighters neared them, and was overjoyed to hear his father’s voice come crackling into his earpiece.
“Ryann? Ryann is that you? Son, I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear your voice! I thought I’d lost you!”
“I’m fine dad!” replied Ryann. “For the moment at any rate!”
But they didn’t have time to speak further, and in seconds the Ghost-Runners were streaming down to the aid of the Marianne, mopping up the last of the Luminal drone-ships.
“Ryann! Meet us down on the station, landing deck B!” came his father’s urgent voice, and Ryann looped the Interceptor around, heading back into the heart of the refugee fleet.
He looked on in horror at the devastation all around. There seemed to be burning vessels everywhere, some still anchored to the rest of the fleet, while others had broken loose and were spinning forlornly in space.
He gunned the engines, swooping down to the station and straight into the docking bay, setting the little ship down beside his father’s Conqueror.
“Ryann!”
Grayell embraced his son the moment that he stepped down from his ship.
“Ryann, thank god you’re safe!”
“Are we safe?” asked Ryann with a grim smile, glancing up as another flash of light from the Luminal bombardment lit up the ice-field. “What the hell’s going on dad? Jean-Baptiste told me that you’d attacked the Ibis and brought the Lumina down on us.”
Grayell’s face fell for a moment.
“Those Outlanders brought this on themselves,” he said grimly. “But there’s no time now, we’ve got to be quick! I’ve sent Mellarnne with most of the Ghost-Runners off through the Halion Belt — they’re engaging the Luminal battleship, trying to draw it away from us.”
“But, but that’s suicide!” exclaimed Ryann.
“Not if they stay to the edges of the ice-field,” replied Grayell, looking up as two more Ghost-Runner ships broke through the docking shields and set down beside them. “They don’t know how many refugees we have hidden here, otherwise they’d be straight in. As far as they know there’s only the Ibis and a handful of fighters — they’ll be more interested in chasing down Mellarnne’s group.”
“But they’ll have seen the Defiance.”
“Yes, we were almost back to the Halion Belt, searching for you and the Marianne when that Luminal jumped back into the system.
“So far the disguise seems to have worked, and they think we’re one of there’s. They won’t be able to scan us in the Halion Belt, so we’re just hoping that it will buy us enough time,” said Grayell, waving over to his men as they alighted from their ships.
“Time for what?” asked Ryann with a terrible feeling that he already knew the answer.
“For the evacuation,” said Grayell, his voice leaden. “We have almost a thousand refugees in New Eden — we can’t leave them here to die.” He motioned back out through the docking-bay doors. Sure enough, already a small fleet of tug-boats were issuing from the Defiance’s launch tunnel. They crowded around one of the larger ships, the Aurora, that had escaped the drone-ship attack relatively unscathed. Worker droids were buzzing about the vessel, the arcs of their lasers lighting up the darkness as they cut away the burning ships still anchored to her.
And then, inch by slow inch, the tugs, heaving upon their gravity hawsers, towed the great ship back towards the Defiance.
“But dad, we can’t take everyone aboard the Defiance!” stuttered Ryann in shock. “We don’t have the capabilities to sustain so many!”
“We have no choice!” snapped Grayell running his hand anxiously through his white hair. More ships were coming in through the docking gates now, and Ryann noticed in alarm that refugees were beginning to stream into the landing-bay from within the station. They must have come in to take shelter here after Grande had opened the airlocks that linked the station to the refugee fleet, thought Ryann.
Already, the Ghost-Runner crews were sending the crowds towards the waiting ships as hundreds of frightened civilians poured into the hangar.
“Are they really going to be any safer aboard the Defiance?” asked Ryann in a hushed voice as the refugees streamed past them. “That ship is one giant bomb! One stray shot from a Luminal and everyone will go up in flames!”
“It’s been no different for us so far,” retorted Grayell. “We have no choice! Now Ryann, I want you with me while we’re evacuating — we’ll head back to the Defiance in the Conqueror.”
“I need to see Angelique first,” replied Ryann, glancing around the crowded hangar. “The Marianne took a beating from those drone-ships — I want to make sure she’s okay.”
He caught Grayell’s look of concern.
“Dad? Where’s Angelique?” he asked urgently.
“Anders took the Marianne and a few other fighters to help out Mellarnne against that Luminal battleship.”
Ryann just stood and stared at his father in horror.
“What? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” he spat. He turned back towards the Interceptor.
“Ryann! I need you here with me!” called Grayell.
But Ryann barely heard him. He was already pulling himself back up into the cockpit. In a few moments he heard the deep growl of the drives powering up once again, and then he pushed the Interceptor forwards at full throttle. The little ship blasted out of the docking-bay in a blur, and Ryann urged it on faster towards the glowing clouds of the Halion Belt.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE FLIGHT OF THE IBIS
The Interceptor streaked out through the chaos of the refugee fleet. All about, burning ships drifted as the Ghost-Runners fought to cut them free.
The Aurora was already nearing the open launch tunnel of the Defiance, which waited upon the edge of the fleet dwarfing every other ship.
The vessels were moving painstakingly slowly though, thought Ryann. It would take hours to get the refugees aboard the Defiance.
“Ryann! Ryann, come back! I need you here to help with the evacuation!”
Grayell’s desperate voice cut into Ryann’s earpiece, but he ignored it, searching about the glowing walls of the Halion Belt for any sign of Angelique and the other Ghost-Runners.
Far above him, he saw the clouds lighting up in sporadic bur
sts, the unmistakable signs of laser-fire on the distant edge of the field. He swung the Interceptor up towards them, ready to gun the engines.
He paused for a second, glancing around the chaos of ships. He suddenly realised that there was no sign of the Ibis anywhere amongst the fleet.
“Dad, what happened to the Ibis?” he called into his radio.
“Don’t worry, we let them go,” came back his father’s voice. “They headed out of the Halion Belt just after we arrived.”
Ryann almost cried out in frustration.
He stared longingly up to where Angelique and the others were engaged with the Luminal battleship, and then turned back to the dark shadow of the corridor leading out of the ice-field. He felt helpless, torn in two.
With a last look up at the glowing clouds he turned the Interceptor about, heading at full speed in pursuit of the Ibis.
“Ryann! What the hell are you doing?” called his father as Ryann plunged into the corridor that would lead him out of the Halion Belt.
“I have to catch Jean-Baptiste!” he called, throwing his ship this way and that through the narrow channel between ice and rock.
Lightning arced across the open space and his comms were already disappearing behind a sea of interference as he plunged deeper into the field.
“Grande’s people know secret routes back through the occupied territories!” he called out, unsure of whether his father could still hear him. “We need to get those star charts!”
There was a long pause where Ryann heard nothing but static, and then he just made out Grayell’s distant voice.
“It’s too dangerous Ryann! The Luminal battleship is right on them! Get back here — there’s nothing more you can do!”
“I have to try and get those charts,” said Ryann with grim determination. “Don’t worry — I’ll make it back!”
“Half an hour Ryann! We leave in half an hour!” He just made out his father’s words before they were abruptly cut off.
“I’ll be there,” he called, but he had no way of knowing if his father had heard him.