Twilight of the Gods (Universe in Flames Book 8)

by Christian Kallias

  “Very well. Athena, let’s keep them in reserve, and we’ll call upon their help in case things get too heated up down there.”

  “What about the Asgardians?” asked Athena.

  “They’re not going to join the fight; they just helped with their more advanced FTL travel time.”

  Sarah brushed Chase’s arm and he lowered to head level. She whispered in his ear.

  “Remember what Daniel did to get the Droxians involved in the battle for Earth?”

  “Good idea. Thanks love,” said Chase as he kissed her cheek. “You have the bridge.”

  Chase returned his attention to the holo-screen. “Athena, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the Furies accidentally opened fire on the Asgardians, if you catch my drift.”

  Athena smiled. “Understood.”

  Chase sent her a telepathic message. When this is over, we need to talk.

  Very well.

  The holo-screen turned off and pretty soon the entire fleet engaged the Furies with everything they had.

  “I think I’m on the wrong ship,” said Daniel toward Sarah. “With your permission?”

  “Of course, you’re the Hope’s wing commander, so your place is with the rest of your pilots. Be careful out there,” she said.

  “Likewise,” said Daniel before sprinting out of the bridge.

  With the Droxian capital ships around the planet all but destroyed or disabled, the Furies changed their attack priorities and shifted their vectors to intercept the newly arrived Earth Alliance fleet. Very soon both armadas opened fire. Thousands of laser fire streaks and torpedo engine trails filled the blackness of space around Droxia.

  4

  Chase teleported to the surface of Droxia with both Chris and Argos in tow, not far from a large city engulfed in flames. Before they could get their bearings, a half dozen fireballs homed on their position.

  Chris was the first to react and he erected a force field bubble around the group. The incoming balls of energy impacted and exploded on his green shield, creating energy ripples similar to stones hitting still water.

  Argos cracked his neck bones first, then his fingers. “I’ve been looking forward to testing my powers against anything else other than visions or dumb battle bots.”

  “Looks like you’re going to get your chance,” said Chase, gazing beyond his son’s force field. He looked concerned.

  “What is it, Dad?”

  “Let’s stay on our toes. The energy level I sense from these Furies is troubling.”

  “Troubling how? They can’t possibly rival your own powers,” snorted Argos.

  “No, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking on all four on my own. So I don’t want the two of you to engage more than an enemy at once. In fact, if you can, try to team up against a single Fury.”

  “Nonsense,” said Argos as he walked toward the edge of the force field that Chris promptly dropped.

  “Argos,” insisted Chase. “Let’s stay focused, ok? Something doesn’t feel right here—”

  Argos waved the back of his hand dismissively as he kept walking toward where the fireballs had been fired.

  “Chris,” said Chase with a grave look, “no unnecessary risks today, you hear me?”

  Chris nodded. “We should go with Uncle though; I don’t think he’ll wait for us when the battle begins.”

  Uncle…Not long ago Argos was their nemesis, now he was Chris’s uncle, an almost accepted member of Chase’s growing family. And, boy, had it grown in the last few minutes alone. Chase couldn’t wait to tell Argos about their mother, though he didn’t know how Argos would react. But that would have to wait until the threat to Droxia had been dealt with.

  Chris was running after Argos when Chase felt a presence approach them fast, even though his eyes couldn’t lock on it. Chase closed his eyes and detected the energy source almost on top of Argos. He promptly teleported in front of his brother and blocked an incoming attack that would have smashed Argos’ face.

  To Argos and Chris, Chase just stood there in an awkward position. But in the next instant, a humanoid figure de-cloaked, giving the entire scene a lot more sense. He was a Fury alright, in full combat armor, his shoulder-length blue hair caught in the wind. His red eyes gazed and flashed at Chase.

  The Fury’s teeth were clenched; he obviously had put a lot of energy in that blow and Chase’s block had been unexpected.

  “They have personal cloaking devices,” said Chase.

  Argos snorted and sent the enemy Fury flying high in the sky with a powerful kick.

  “Don’t just stand there!” screamed Argos. “Let’s kick their asses!”

  But Chase was in no hurry to blindly go after the Fury, and Argos would soon understand why. As he flew upward, he didn’t get a chance to catch up with the Fury he had sent toward space at ballistic velocity, because his prey disappeared. Half a second later Argos got smashed in the face, crashing a few yards away from Chase, face first.

  DANIEL FINISHED his StarFury preflight check. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something felt different. Like he was in the wrong ship. But that couldn’t be. An incoming holo-transmission came in. It was Yanis.

  “I’m about to get loaded into the launch tube. What can I do for you, Chief?”

  “In this case, it’s more what I did for your fighter.”

  “When would you have had time to do anything on it, we’ve barely finished fighting Gaia 2. Unless—”

  “Yes, I’ve re-assigned one of the reserve ones as your main ship.”

  “Why would you do that? You’re going to jinx me. I am very particular with what ship I fly. I had my StarFury set up exactly how I liked it.”

  “Don’t worry, Daniel, I have duplicated your attack macros. And I kinda looked them over and if I didn’t know better, I’d say someone is trying to optimize Chase’s work.”

  “He doesn’t need macros anymore; the rest of us do, and it seemed only logical—”

  “Hey, no arguments from me. I was actually trying to give you a compliment, granted, I’m no fighter pilot, but this is some good work. I’m looking forward to seeing how effective it will be.”

  “Well, if you let me get out of the Hope we can find out.”

  Daniel noticed the Beta wing getting loaded in the launch tube first.

  “What’s going on? Why isn’t Alpha going in first?”

  “Cause we’re not done talking—”

  “Yanis— now is not the time. I’m the Hope’s wing commander, I should be the first one in space.”

  “You’ll be there soon enough, but I thought it prudent to have a chat about these new drones I’ve installed first—”

  Daniel expressed his frustration through a dragged out exhale.

  “You won’t be mad when I tell you what they can do.”

  “You have less than a minute before I’m loaded to the tube and launched to fight an armada of Fury ships. Give me the short version of your usual techie bragging speeches.”

  “Ouch, but fair enough, I guess. Okay, instead of four drones you now have eight smaller ones. They’re not as shielded as the previous ones, and slightly slower.”

  “So far I’m not impressed—”

  “That’s because you didn’t let me finish. They can’t be used as mines anymore, nor do they actually shoot at other fighters. I had to strip their laser cannons out too.”

  Daniel shook his head from side to side.

  “Don’t be quick to judge.”

  “Thirty seconds, twenty nine…twenty eight—”

  “Alright, alright. Once you lock a Fury starfighter, it will attach to its shield and destabilize them.”

  That got Daniel’s attention and he raised an eyebrow.

  “Destabilize them how? How efficient are we talking?”

  “That’s where the catch comes in. I’m fairly sure I got this right, but the first shots will serve as a test.”

  “You’ve got to be shitting me! I’m your guinea pig?”

  “
Well, with Chase planet bound at the moment, you’re the best pilot for the job.”

  “You’re lucky we’re having this discussion via holo-comm.”

  Yanis smiled nervously.

  “Okay, this is not ideal, but hear this, once I get a lock on the exact frequency rotation of their shields, the drones will effectively render them useless.”

  “As in—”

  Yanis didn’t let Daniel finish. “As in lasers, missiles and torpedoes will pass through them as if they weren’t there.”

  As much as Daniel wanted to reprimand Yanis on altering his fighter without his consent, he had to admit he liked the sound of what his chief engineer was telling him. The StarFuries had been superior to many of their smaller craft foes in the last few months, and especially effective against Zarlacks. But against Fury starfighters, it hadn’t been the case. In fact, only a considerably better pilot could take out a Fury’s short-range fighter and live to tell the tale.

  Daniel’s StarFury got picked up by the tractor beam loading mechanism and was inserted into the launch tube.

  “You’re out of time. Anything else I should be aware of?”

  “You may have lost about ten percent shield capacity.”

  “Yanis!”

  “Before you argue,” said Yanis as Daniel’s StarFury got ejected at maximum speed out of the tube, “I’ve tweaked the random frequency rotation algorithm, so in theory even though they’re at lower capacity, your shields should be stronger against Fury starfighter fire.”

  Daniel loaded his new macros into the fighter’s main computer.

  “Yeah, if you didn’t screw up.”

  “Give me some credit, when was the last time that happened?”

  When Daniel mentally hit the comm’s command in his projected Heads-Up Display, the holo-interface disappeared and every light in his cockpit turned off.

  “Yanis! What did you do?”

  But with all systems down, Yanis probably couldn’t hear him anymore.

  Daniel felt a sense of dread fill his mind and soul as he saw three Fury starfighters vectoring toward his now dead in the water StarFury.

  YANIS’ eyes grew wide with surprise when he saw the telemetry, or lack of, from Daniel’s fighter and his latest pet-projects.

  “I told you not to screw around with the wing commander’s ship in a moment like this,” said Kvasir.

  “Not now!”

  Kvasir returned to his holo-console and started entering commands rapidly. His hands were going so fast they looked blurred.

  “What are you doing?” yelled Yanis.

  “Correcting your mistake. You have good ideas, but you need to learn to choose when to test new weaponry and when not to.”

  “Coming from someone the Asgardian council considers a war criminal, that’s precious.”

  Kvasir growled, and his tattoos flashed strongly.

  Yanis regretted his words the moment he said them; Kvasir’s current predicament was not a joking matter. If it hadn’t been for his foresight in calling Thor to the rescue, none of them would be breathing right now.

  “I’m sorry— that was not fair.”

  “Shut up, Yanis! Let me save your friend’s life, will you?”

  “Tell me what to do to help.”

  Kvasir offered Yanis a cold stare before returning to his console. “I’ve sent you a macro; load it to the communication’s tower nearest to Daniel’s StarFury.”

  “Very well. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” said Yanis as he frantically interacted with his own console.

  Yanis wasn’t used to failure. In fact, he rarely screwed up. The last time he had, his sister had died. Back then he had deployed a new tech without enough testing. Now Daniel’s life was on the line. No, Kvasir was right; he had been reckless.

  “Done,” he told Kvasir.

  “Let’s hope this works.”

  “If it doesn’t?”

  “Daniel dies,” said Kvasir, hesitating a second before activating the holo-command he had written on the fly. Five quick bleeps emanated from the console in front of him. “Let’s just hope, for his sake, that I’m better at improvising than you are.”

  ARAKAN HAD his face buried in his palm when a Fury subordinate walked to the throne.

  “Supreme Commander,” said the Fury.

  “What is it?” answered Arakan without looking up.

  “Our forces on Droxia have been engaged by the enemy.”

  That seemed to get Arakan’s attention as he raised his head. “What?”

  “The Earth Alliance fleet with both Olympian and Asgardian ships have entered the system and engaged our forces right after they had finished dealing with the defenses around the planet.”

  Arakan’s eyes lit up with fire as he ground his teeth together.

  “Is the fleet strong enough to deal with them?”

  “The Earth Alliance and Obsidian forces, perhaps, but the Olympian ships are on par with us and with the Asgardians in the mix, it’s doubtful.”

  Damn Asgardians! They have been a thorn in my side for more than ten thousand years. Odin will regret the day he defied me.

  The Earth Alliance had their hands full only a couple of hours ago, which meant the Asgardians had helped them get to Droxia in such a little amount of time. Their superior FTL drives and superior weaponry had already been a problem in their first confrontation, before the Alliance sent the Furies to the time-dilated dimensional prison.

  They should have wiped us out when they had the chance. Now that we’re back I’ll make them pay. I won’t stop until every last Olympian and Asgardian scum are turned to dust!

  “What are your orders, Master?”

  Arakan took a deep breath to calm his boiling rage. He knew very well how impulsive he could be in times like these. This needed a calm mind. He had sent almost a third of his forces to Droxia, and there was no time to send reinforcements. The battle would be over by then. The situation was getting more and more complicated. First, the Olympians had joined the Earth Alliance and now the Asgardians. He was well aware what that meant. When the Furies tried to conquer the universe ten thousand years ago, the same thing had happened. Both Zeus and Odin were responsible for the death of his father and Arakan ached for revenge.

  He could retreat his forces to keep ships for a larger assault, but that would send a signal to the Alliance that the Furies were afraid, something he couldn’t afford.

  “Keep attacking Droxia, and instruct our forces to make as much damage as possible. What’s the status of the elite force we sent to the planet?”

  “They’ve just engaged three Furies.”

  That for sure meant the traitors Chase and Argos were with them. Was Oryn with them, too? She hadn’t reported. Arakan didn’t even know if she was still alive. The ship she had stolen had been destroyed on orbit around Earth. If she was with them though, could he take the chance to have her killed? Arakan hesitated but decided that if she was there, then it meant she was also a traitor. Chase had that uncanny ability to turn a foe into an ally. Whether or not he was the legendary Ultra Fury mattered not; either way he was a problem Arakan needed to deal with.

  “Divert one of the super-destroyers and have it crash on their location. It’s time we take this Chase Athanatos out of the picture once and for all. Have the destroyer overload its engine core so it explodes upon impact on the surface.”

  “Very well, Master,” answered the Fury.

  Arakan waved his hand. “You’re dismissed. Go away.”

  The Fury saluted and left the throne room quickly.

  That’s a mistake, heard Arakan from a familiar voice in his head.

  I don’t remember asking for your opinion.

  Chase can teleport; you’d just be sacrificing a precious destroyer.

  Arakan decided to ignore the shadowy character that at least had the good sense to not appear before him this time. Arakan still didn’t know if he was a figment of his imagination or if he was real. But he had decided to stop his treatm
ent. It clouded his thoughts and judgment, and he didn’t like the way it made him feel. But that meant contending with advice he’d rather not have to hear.

  When the Fury subordinate was far enough from the throne, the shadowy figure appeared in front of Arakan.

  “You should heed my warnings, Supreme Commander. You know you have a better way to get to the traitor.”

  “Don’t underestimate the team of elite warriors I’ve sent on Droxia. They tend to get the job done. But right now I’m more interested in dealing with both Olympians and Asgardians. However, our fleet is not yet strong enough for a full frontal assault.”

  “And you shouldn’t underestimate the Ultra Fury, or one day he will kill you. As for his new allies, there is another way to deal with them. Simply cut the head of the snake; that will buy you the necessary time to grow your forces and deal a deadly blow to the Alliance.”

  Arakan thought about it. For once he had to admit that that was a decent piece of advice. It would require a lot of planning and precise execution, but if he could remove Zeus and Odin from the equation, perhaps the Alliance would stumble. Arakan wondered who he would kill first.

  “That’s not the right way to approach this,” said the shadow.

  “And I suppose you have a better way?”

  “As much as you seem to want to deny it, I’m here to serve you to the best of my abilities. And to answer your question, yes.”

  “I’m listening.”

  5

  Oryn and Zeus walked by the gardens near Zeus’ temple. It was a sunny day and the place was teeming with more life than Oryn had ever seen in her life. Wonderful purple-blue birds chirped an intricate high-pitched song, while multiple feline species ran in circles around Zeus and Oryn, keeping their distance but, all the while, looking intrigued by their new guest.

  A high-flying bird cast a shadow over them for just a second as its cry resonated throughout the valley. The place was peaceful and Oryn felt a serenity she’d seldom ever experienced. The world she knew, Erevos, was a desert with harsh conditions; everything there looked dry and with red tones, which was a stark contrast with the array of blue, green and yellow vegetation found all around Olympus. The entire place felt like a dream.