The Round Table (Space Lore Book 3)

by Chris Dietzel

At the same time, though, the Athens Destroyers had moved in to combat the Llyushin fighters at close range. It was something the much larger ships weren’t designed to do, so they also focused their laser cannons at the capital itself. But this had only enticed the Solar Carriers and all of the other Round Table’s navy vessels to descend closer to the planet’s atmosphere and begin unloading barrages of every kind on the Vonnegan flagships.

  One Athens Destroyer, already tearing apart from massive structural damage, took a dozen more blasts from as many allied starships and broke into so many pieces that there was barely any identifiable debris by the time all the wreckage hit the ground.

  A Supreme Athens Destroyer set a course for the space directly above the capital. Its captain apparently wanting to retreat and avoid taking direct fire, but forgetting that the only safe direction was backward. The enormous flagship only made it to the second layer of the planet’s atmosphere before the Crown—the mighty five-pronged cannon atop the capital—swiveled to face it and wiped out all of its systems with a single ion blast. Then, with its second shot, the Crown caused so much damage that every viewport, exhaust port, and opening on the Supreme Athens Destroyer was vaporized. And finally, with the third shot, the vessel, already a useless shell of atomized steel beams, was reduced to burnt scrap metal, tumbling back down toward the planet’s surface.

  In all his life, Quickly never thought he would see such a scene above the place he called home.

  The list of things he had never witnessed before didn’t end there, however. The next Solar Carrier to launch a projectile didn’t aim it at an Athens Destroyer or any other Vonnegan vessel. Instead, it headed directly toward the planet’s surface. It was longer than any other torpedo or missile he had seen fired during the battle. Segmented into three sections, each as long as an ordinary proton torpedo, the projectile rocketed toward the fields below. The front and back sections had a gold hue. The middle section was completely black.

  Although Quickly had never seen one fired during battle, he knew exactly what it was. A bunker buster. As he watched, the highly specialized bomb flew toward the ground, leaving a trail of gray smoke behind it.

  When it hit the ground, there was no explosion, only a puff of dirt. Anyone who didn’t know what the projectile was intended to do might have thought it was a dud. Quickly, however, knew it wasn’t supposed to explode until it got to a predetermined distance underground. It was the same type of bomb that, years earlier, had killed Firebrand the Heinous after the warlord had locked himself in a fortress half a mile below the surface of a moon colony.

  Another second went by without an explosion. Then another. Finally, when the bunker buster did detonate, the ground swelled in a hemisphere, exploding upward as if a giant balloon were being inflated under the field. After the underground explosion had dissipated, the ground fell once again, sending shockwaves of energy out in every direction and a crevice where the planet had been flattened.

  Quickly hoped there were no CasterLan troops in the underground tunnels anywhere near where the bomb had exploded. If there had been, they were all dead now, along with anything else in the blast radius.

  97

  The dead Fianna was Morgan’s only indication that she was in the right tunnel. No matter how far she went, though, she found no other trace of Mowbray or the other eight guards. All she could do was keep running and hope she caught up to them.

  “Mowbray!” she yelled again. The word echoed over and over.

  Another hundred yards further through the tunnel, the ground began to shake with the intensity of a severe earthquake. Further ahead, too far for her to see or hear, a projectile had hit the ground, carving a path a hundred yards into Edsall Dark’s belly. Morgan was knocked off her feet. Her ears were ringing.

  She was halfway back up to her feet—one hand and one knee still on the ground—when a wave of dirt and dust came blasting through the tunnel, knocking her down again. One hand kept her braced on the ground. The other held the straps of her breathing mask to her face until the force of the explosion had passed.

  The bunker buster that she had requested had gone off. After the tremors faded, she was back up to her feet, racing forward once again. Only two minutes later, she came across the spot where the bomb had detonated. On the far side of the blast, under an immense heap of rock and rubble, were the remains of two more Fianna.

  Then, ahead in the darkness, she saw his faint outline. The Vonnegan ruler.

  “Mowbray!” she yelled, this time with excitement in her voice. A smile spread across her face.

  Mowbray turned to see who was calling him. Then, either dismissing her ability to threaten him or else being focused only on his goal, he turned and continued forward through the tunnel. As he did, the six surviving Fianna formed a circle around him.

  She raced forward to the epicenter where the bunker buster had detonated. There, she had to watch where she stepped for fear of breaking an ankle or stepping on a shard of metal that would slice her foot open before she ever got to lay a hand on the Vonnegan ruler. As she passed through the blast zone and the rubble where the two dead Fianna lay, she observed that it looked as if the bomb had come down as close to Mowbray as possible without killing him. If the two Fianna hadn’t been surrounding him, the shrapnel and stone that had killed them would have certainly killed the Vonnegan ruler.

  Past the crater, she pulled out her Meursault blade and called his name again. “I’m coming for you,” she added. “I’m going to kill you.”

  Three of the six remaining Fianna turned to look at her and assess the possible danger to their lord. Deciding she was a legitimate threat, they stopped following Mowbray and waited for her to approach. The other three tightened into a triangle formation around their ruler and continued further through the tunnel.

  The three Fianna waited with their vibro halberds glowing and ready. Inhaling deeply through her nose, she rushed toward them. Behind her, the trail of vapor behind her Meursault blade glowed gray, the color of the dust raised by the bunker buster.

  The glowing edge of a vibro halberd came streaking down at her with lightning speed. She deflected it with her sword, then slashed at the second Fianna, who was trying to circle around behind her. If circumstances had allowed, she would have preferred to face off against one Fianna at a time. Even the best trained fighters all too often focused on the target they deemed the biggest threat, allowing the inevitable second or third guard to sneak behind them. Once he was out of sight, the guard would easily slice her down. Because of this, Morgan made it her goal to keep all three Fianna in front of her.

  With a chuckle, she smiled and said, “Not here, not me,” then brought her blade in a wide arc to keep all three Fianna within ninety degrees of each other.

  She turned her focus to the Fianna who had tried to sneak past her left side, cutting off the edge of the purple cloth that protruded from his shoulder guard. Then, just as quickly, she spun and brought the blade of her sword down at the other two Fianna, who would no doubt like to sneak around to her blind spot.

  An explosion of sparks flew in every direction when her blade glanced off the side of a Fianna’s vibro halberd. Another Fianna came at her, giving the others a chance to regroup. She growled and brought her sword up in a diagonal arc.

  Their speed was impressive. Usually, it was only her weapon that was invisible, and only because it was too thin to be seen unless looking at its broad side. The Fianna, however, moved with such speed that their vibro halberds also became blurs, leaving trails of light through the air where the electrified blade passed but never being visible until the Fianna holding it allowed the weapon to come to a stop.

  For a split second, she lost sight of the Fianna to her left. Just as fast, she heard the hiss of his blade coming at her shoulder. She collapsed and rolled, knowing she needed to somehow evade the attack. Then, standing again, she saw the vibro halberd lodged in the stone beside where she had been standing. If she had moved a split second later, the glowing
weapon would have sliced her cleanly in half.

  The Fianna tried to pull his weapon back to his chest, but it was stuck in the rock. Knowing she was open for attack from the other two but also seeing her chance to strike, she lunged forward and cut the Fianna’s weapon in half. The best he could do was use half of the staff to protect himself. To her, he was no longer the threat that the other two still were.

  It was a small, fleeting victory though. Before she could move out of the way, a vibro halberd came down, slicing off the back edge of her right shoulder, deep enough to nick the bone.

  She turned and faced the Fianna to her right, her anger and bloodlust rising. The rage in her made her want to drop her sword, tackle the Fianna, and rip his face off. The fury engulfed her, so pure and intense that she felt willing to sacrifice herself if it meant thoroughly destroying this purple guard that had just injured her. It didn’t matter that the other two Fianna would easily kill her moments later. The anger overwhelmed her, making everything else seem trivial.

  Instead, she gave four quick swings of her sword, three diagonal and one straight down, until the Fianna that had cut her was backed against the far side of the tunnel wall. Before the other two could come to his aid, Morgan drove the Meursault blade through the chest plate of the Fianna’s armor, roaring in triumph as she did.

  Sparks flew as the sword was driven through the Fianna and into the stone behind him. Unlike the vibro halberd, however, the infinitesimally thin blade came out cleanly. When it did, the drops of blood that flew off the sword made a faint crimson mist as the weapon sliced through the air.

  Another hiss came at her. Just in time to see a glowing blade come down, she moved out of the way.

  She dodged left, but not fast enough.

  Searing pain. She screamed without realizing it. Looking down, she saw the front part of her boot and all of the toes on her right foot were gone.

  After her momentary cry of pain, her anger welled up again. With a yell, she lunged at the Fianna.

  Behind her, the Fianna whose weapon had been cut in half picked up the vibro halberd of the one that had been driven through with the Meursault blade. Mortally wounded, that Fianna had fallen to the ground and couldn’t get back up to his feet no matter how much he tried.

  Sparks exploded again as her sword glanced off the edge of the vibro halberd. She swung right. The Fianna swung upward. Both dodged the other.

  Glancing behind her as rapidly as she could manage, she saw the second Fianna, once more with a weapon in his hands, coming up from behind. She swung her Meursault in a large arc at the Fianna in front of her, pivoting to continue the swing at the Fianna approaching from behind her. As she did, her wounded foot ground into the dirt and stone and a flash of pain turned her cheeks white.

  Then, just as fast, she darted forward, forcing one Fianna back, then turning and doing the same to the other. With both of them at a safer distance, she retreated two steps so they were both in front of her again.

  No longer could she see Mowbray and his other three Fianna. They were getting away. All of this was going to be for nothing.

  “I need another bunker buster,” she said into her comm device. “Coordinates 23, 39, point 6000.”

  She ducked one vibro halberd and moved sideways to avoid the other.

  When she still didn’t hear anything back, she said, “Hello? Vere?”

  A moment later, the sound of laser blasts and grunting came through the comm device. Morgan heard what sounded like Vere crushing a Vonnegan trooper’s helmet.

  Then Vere said, “It’s too close to the capital wall. We can’t risk it.”

  Morgan jumped backward just in time to avoid a blade cutting off the front of her face, then yelled when the other Fianna brought his weapon down along the side of her forearm, slashing it wide open.

  “Morgan? Are you okay?”

  “Just send whatever you can. Doesn’t matter what it is. Just send anything. Point 6000. I need it right now.”

  Then she turned her comm unit back off and hoped the next round of explosions would keep Mowbray from escaping.

  She dodged to the side to avoid another of the Fianna’s strikes. In a blur, she brought her sword up so it sliced off that guard’s left arm at the elbow. The Fianna stumbled backward in confusion while the other one brought his vibro halberd down as hard as he could. Morgan defended easily. In fact, the force of the Fianna’s strike against the Meursault blade broke the vibro halberd in half. Instead of retreating and rearming, however, the Fianna lunged forward and tackled Morgan to the ground.

  She tried to roll him off to the side but he blocked her hips. Over the Fianna’s shoulder, she saw the one-armed Fianna coming back with his vibro halberd in the only hand he had remaining.

  Rather than trying to hit her or strangle her, the Fianna on top of her seemed content to hold her in place while the other approached. With her arms pinned down, Morgan couldn’t move her hand enough to do anything with her sword.

  The one-armed Fianna towered over her, then pulled his vibro halberd back.

  She thought about telling the Fianna on top of her to move or else they would both die, but of course the Vonnegan behind the purple armor already knew that. His job was to protect Mowbray at all costs. He would gladly sacrifice himself in order to hold Morgan in place just long enough for the other to kill her.

  The vibro halberd came down. As it did, she bucked her hips and squirmed her elbows in as much as she could. It wasn’t enough, though. The glowing blade sliced through the Fianna that was on top of her, then tore into her torso, slicing between two of her ribs.

  Further down the tunnel, a great rumbling began. Morgan closed her eyes. The second blast had detonated, hopefully far enough ahead to kill Mowbray or at least block his way. The Fianna standing over her withdrew the vibro halberd from her side, then brought it up to his shoulder as best as he could with his one remaining arm.

  “Come on,” she muttered, opening her eyes and staring directly at the purple demon helmet above her. “Come on.”

  The glowing blade came down at her face.

  Before it hit, however, the force wave of the second bunker buster hit the Fianna in the back and sent him tumbling. Morgan pushed the dead Fianna off her and got to her feet. She was missing half of a foot and a chunk of her shoulder, and she judged the wound in her ribs could end up killing her. Nevertheless, she got her weapon and attacked faster than the Fianna could gather himself.

  The pain in her abdomen and chest was excruciating when she brought the Meursault down. Even so, the blade disappeared into the Fianna’s chest plate, then appeared again by his hip on the other side of his armor. The top half of the Fianna slid away and dropped to the ground a foot away from his bottom half.

  A series of coughs racked her. Each time, blood came up, into her mask. Every step she took sent pain shooting up to her hip. Blood was gushing from her shoulder. Pain bolted through her chest. It was becoming difficult to breathe.

  Still she yelled. “Mowbray, I’m coming for you!”

  After taking two limping steps further down the tunnel she remembered the third Fianna, still twitching on the ground, his back against the tunnel wall. Without saying anything, she thrust her Meursault blade into his chest one more time for good measure. The Fianna groaned, then stopped breathing. Once she was sure he was dead, she withdrew the blade and began limping further down the tunnel in search of Mowbray.

  Darkness enveloped her.

  98

  No amount of Vonnegan firepower could unblock the jam that had been created in the narrows. A seemingly free path toward the capital wall had turned into the site of the Vonnegan Empire’s greatest defeat. Eventually, there were no more mechs on hand capable of traveling across the field and entering the deadly funnel.

  Ten Gur-Khan soldiers were credited with destroying nearly five hundred armored mechs and transports, thousands of Vonnegan troops, and a handful of Thunderbolts. In some parts of the narrows, the charred frames of smokin
g mechs were stacked three and four high upon each other.

  A dozen more Athens Destroyers littered the fields of Aromath the Solemn, brought down by the Solar Carriers and other Round Table forces. The wrecked remains of other Vonnegan warships drifted out into space. Still others crashed in random, remote parts of the planet. In the mountains behind the forest. At the bottom of the SaiHoku Sea.

  Once the concentrated Vonnegan fleet above Edsall Dark had divided, some going toward the planet surface and others engaging the Round Table fleet in space, neither group had been able to maintain an offensive advantage. Every enemy warship that approached the fields of Aromath the Solemn was thoroughly destroyed. The majority of the Athens Destroyers that faced the Solar Carriers were also defeated, although some were only disabled to allow the Vonnegans a chance for peaceful surrender. Only a few commanders were able to disengage from the battle above the planet in order to regroup.

  These, however, seeing that the battle was utterly lost, powered down their weapons systems. Some set off banners directly in front of their own ships, the galactic sign that they were surrendering. Others set a course away from the battle and flew back toward what had been the Vonnegan Empire, their futures unknown.

  99

  After the final cannon blast, the focus turned to rescue and recovery. The task started above ground, where Round Table soldiers were taken back to CamaLon’s medical facilities and treated. While these efforts took place, Vere wandered alone through the tunnels underneath Edsall Dark.

  Traskk had warned her that there might be remnants of the Vonnegan army hiding down there, and she knew it would indeed make an ideal hiding spot. She encountered no other living thing, however, neither Vonnegan nor Round Table, until she came upon Hector. He was on the ground, his energy platform no longer functioning. Several dead Vonnegan troopers lay further down the tunnel. With his back against the dirt wall and one arm draped limply across his lap, Hector offered a nod as she approached.