by Sam Hval
"Be safe kiddo," he managed to say.
"You too," Angel said back.
***
The smoke, fire, and cloudy sand gradually cleared out, as Stelly rolled the gyroscopic vehicle farther and farther away from the battle behind them. "Looks like we suffered some critical damage," his voice said over the comm. "We might not be able to roll it back."
Cross looked over at Goldan to his right. He was about ready to pass out from all of the excessive cranking to keep the shields up. "You all right pal?" Cross asked.
"Yeah," he said with a heavy breath. "I'm just happy I don't gotta crank this damn thing anymore."
"Are we ready to go, Stelly?"
"Yeah, we're about there now. Hope you’re in shape. There'll be quite a lot of walking to do," Stelly replied.
"We can do it."
"Good."
The vehicle slowly came to a stop. Cross held on to his seat, as the ball wobbled back and forth, eventually staying still. He heard a barely audible swing of the hatch below, and then heard Stelly shout for them to come out.
Cross unstrapped himself out, and did the same for Goldan. "Thanks," he said, still practically out of breath.
"No problem."
Cross slid down the ladder, hopped out of the vehicle, and gripped Goldan's arm to help him down. Everyone stretched their arms and legs out for a bit, while Stelly pulled out their supplies. All three got their weapons, locked and loaded them, and started their trek toward the rocky cliffs ahead.
***
Angel tried to keep up with the Admiral's quick pace. For an older man he was pretty fast. She dodged her way around the groups of people traveling back and forth through the bay.
Eventually, she found herself staring at the massive transport vessel Torkin called 'The Dominant'. Its diamond shape extended out through the entire area. The bottom was flat, with a few large exhaust ports and engine coolers sticking out the sides. The top curved out upwards, and she could barely make out the main control room window at the top of the curve.
"There she is," Admiral Torkin proclaimed. "Beautiful isn't it?"
"Tell me about it," Angel said back, still gazing in wonder at its massive size.
"Keep close with me, and try not to get lost."
"Yes sir."
Torkin began walking towards the ships t a considerably slower pace than before. Angel followed him and watched as pilot after pilot, and crewman after crewman, saluted him with respect.
The size of the wide ramp they took into the ship was enough to keep Angel in shock. She had never seen anything this big before. What seemed like miles of hallways, rooms, and doors later, they finally reached the control room.
A tall, gray command sat at the front of the huge room, with the tall floor-to-ceiling window in front of it. Behind the chair, rows and rows of computers, desks, and tables filled the area. Her eyes continued to follow their pattern all the way to the back of the room. There were hundreds of them!
"Woah!" Angel said with awe. Torkin gave her a gentle smile, and extended out his hand in a gesture that spoke "ladies first".
As she entered through the tall, glass door, the Admiral followed behind her. "You'll be designated one of the monitoring computers to check up on William," Angel nodded, and Torkin called for one of the crewmen to hand her a small slip. "This is your number. Good luck."
"Thanks," Angel replied, and shook his hand one more time. And off the Admiral went. He headed towards his command chair. Angel looked down at the slip of paper. A-C1, the note said. She looked up at the rows of desks. Each row was labeled by every letter of the alphabet, with another letter and number marking each desk.
This is gonna take forever, she thought to herself. Angel now knew what the Admiral had meant when he said, 'Good luck'.
Chapter 29
Their feet were sore from the climbing. They were dehydrated from all the sweating. It seemed they would never make it.
Cross pulled put his portable holoprojector and activated it. The hazy white formation of the map General Terren had shown them earlier came into view. They should have been right next to it, but there was no cavern to be seen.
"I don't see anything," Stelly said, looking around for any sign of where to go from here. The orange glow of the rocks around them covered up any sign of an opening.
"We'll find it," Goldan assured him. "Don't worry. Any clues, Cross?"
Cross looked up from studying the map. "Nope. How about all three of us split up and search around. Press on anything that looks like it could move out of place, or pick up rocks and-"
He was cut off by the loud rumble of falling boulders "I found it!" He heard Stelly yell.
Cross smiled and said, "I'll go first."
***
William tried his best to get comfortable in the hard seat of the small fighter ship he was probably going to spend the next few hours in. For the first time in many years, he felt nervous.
He thought about where he was, and reflected on how he got here. Never before had he felt such a snowball effect in his life. He ended up with a teenage girl he didn't want anything to do with, and lost his only good friend. He lost his ship, and gained a new one. And somehow, he managed to be wrapped up in a civil war. All because he wanted to make a few sectorial credits on a bounty.
His thoughts were interrupted by Admiral Torkin's voice over the comm in his helmet. "If you haven't already, make sure you get yourself familiarized with the control," he said. "We're shuffling out in about ten minutes."
"Roger that," William replied, realizing he hadn't even taken a glance at the array of buttons and switches in front of him.
They were pretty standard controls. Nothing he couldn't handle.
He gripped on to the control stick in front of him, took a deep breath, and prepared for the command to leave.
***
Angel sat still in her chair, unsure of what she was actually supposed to be doing right now. She slid on the thin microphone in front of her, and gazed at the computer screen. After investigating around a bit, she had a pretty good idea of what her job was.
She could switch between different viewpoints in and out of William's ship, get constant updates on the status of the fighter, and communicate with him over the microphone.
"You ready, Will?" She asked, testing out the microphone. She watched him get jolted in surprise.
"Huh? Yeah I'm fine. Where are you?"
"I'm on the main command bridge. I can see all your stats, viewpoints, and will be able to give you constant updates when you need them."
"Alright," he said. "I hope you know what you're doing. I'd hate to get killed because you weren't paying attention."
"Don't worry," she assured him. "Everything's gonna be okay."
He grunted in response, and folded his arms across his chest. There was silence for about a minute. Angel decided to break the tension.
"You nervous too?" She saw him uncross his arms and look down.
He sighed and said, "Yeah."
"If we don't make it out alive," Angel said softly. "Thanks for saving me back on Parker."
"You don't need to say that," William argued. "You saved yourself. I just happened to be there and stun the guy."
"Whatever you say," at the mention of Red, a thought occurred to Angel. "Speaking of that, where is Red?"
"He's in one of the bombers," Torkin came in. "He'll be fine."
"Thanks," William replied for Angel.
"I hope you two are ready, countdown starts soon."
"Ready as I'll ever be," William said.
"Same," Angel added.
She heard Torkin switch off his comm, and later heard his voice over the speakers in the room. "Prepare for launch, I repeat prepare for launch Dominance. We're lifting off in ten..."
Angel held her breath.
"Nine..."
A scratching sound came from under the ship.
"Eight..."
Alarms beeped from the speakers as well.
"Seven..."
Angel could almost feel the pads under the ship he pulled away.
"Six..."
The engines came in full blast now. The noise echoed through the room.
"Five..."
Gravity seemed to lose its grasp on Angel, as the ship hovered above the floor.
"Four..."
The noise of the ship starting up got louder and louder, as it began traveling forward.
"Three..."
After moving forward a little bit, the ship stopped.
"Two..."
The noise went quiet.
"One..."
Everyone in the room became silent.
"Let's go kick some ass," Torkin finally said as The Dominance slid out of the bay into the blackness of space.
***
"Let's go kick some ass," William heard Torkin say over the comm. He watched as the hundreds of ships began lifting off of the ground, and then hovering a few feet from it. William followed their movements.
Then, they all left in formation. Row after row began hovering toward the exit. When it finally got to William's turn, he pushed forward on the control stick and felt tit move forward. He matched the speed of the ships ahead of him, and followed.
"Can you still see me?" William asked Angel over the microphone.
"Yup,"
"I guess I just gotta follow their movements."
"I think so," Angel replied with a hint of uncertainty. "If you're specifically ordered to do something, it's my job to tell you. So listen carefully."
"Yes sir," William said jokingly, as the Novidian Fleet traveled out into the starlit beauty of space, ready to make history.
PART THREE
Chapter 30
From deep within the expanse of space, the Novidian Fleet would have appeared as an army of small gray dots. They inched ever closer towards the floating mass of Sector 5.
William tried his best to look over the ships ahead of him to see the view of Sector 5from above. Even if he didn’t have the best view of the ongoing battle, he could still tell it had escalated even further.
The explosive firework display of colorful lasers, fire, and dust was easily identifiable in the rolling sandy hills. As they got closer, William began to notice something quite unprecedented. He stared in shock as the view of the war became more clear.
***
"You see what I'm seeing?" Angel heard William ask over the comm. She switched the camera's view over to the front of the ship, and became flabbergasted by the view. She watched dozens... No, hundreds of dragons soar over the explosions and laserfire.
"My..." She couldn't even finish her sentence.
"Does the Admiral know?"
"I hope s-"
"Attention fleet!" Torkin interrupted through the comm. "It appears the battle is much larger than we anticipated," Understatement of the century, Angel thought to herself. "This does not mean we will retreat. We will attack, but know this: Some of us will not make it out alive. And to those who will perish in this battle, I give an early salute. In Reydon's name, may the gods help us."
The comm shut off, and Angel braced herself for one hell of a fight.
***
William was about to head into battle, when Angel came back on. "William,"
"Yeah?"
"Be safe."
"I'll be fine don't worry."
"You don't know that."
"You're right, I don't..." William gave a soft sigh and paused a bit before saying, "But that's not what matters. What matters is that I hope that I'm fine. And hope is the only thing we have to keep us safe."
Angel didn't reply. For a moment he swore he could almost hear her unspoken thought. She was scared.
***
Cross placed one careful step with his right boot into the dark cave. "Anyone got a light?" He asked, as he felt around his red combat vest for one. "I must have lost mine."
"Here catch," Goldan said behind him. Cross turned around and caught the light, turning it on in the process.
"Thanks," he said to Goldan.
Cross shone the light over the wall next to him. "Smaller than I thought," he said, looking at the orange rock. "I don't think a dragon could have flown out of here. You sure this is it?"
"You're the one with the map," Stelly's voice echoed, as they trekked further into blackness of the cave.
"Touche," Cross replied.
Cross continued to walk through the tunnel, before being stopped by something. "Hold on,"
"What is it?" Goldan asked.
"Dead end."
"I knew this wasn't it!" Stelly yelled in frustration.
"You don't know jack!" Goldan said.
"Says the guy who's supposed to be second in command! Last time I remember hearing you lead was five years ago back when Cross got kidnapped in Alistone!"
"Ladies," Cross broke in. "Quit complaining. We'll figure something out."
"I don't know about you Cross, but I'm heading back," Stelly proclaimed.
Cross continued to feel around. When his hand reached the wall to the left of the blocked off part, it sunk in a little. "Wait just a minute," he commanded.
He pushed forward more, and eventually the rock wall in front of him began sliding down. Orange dust clouded his view as the wall slid into the ground. "This way," Cross said, waving his hand toward the newly discovered tunnel.
He flailed his arms around to clear out the dust, and stepped through the new path. Pulling out the small cylindrical light revealed that this wasn’t just another long tunnel, it was a cavern. It stretched on for hundreds of meters in all directions.
Towards the front of the area, light peeked in through a tall hole in the wall. Next to that, there appeared to be another tunnel.
"Looks like we found it," Cross said.
"You really think that many dragons could have hung out in here for that long?"
"You make a good point. That hole over there is certainly not big enough for any sized dragon to get through."
"Let's just keep going," Goldan reminded them. "There could be something through that other tunnel over there.
Cross casually walked through the cavern, with Goldan and Stelly trailing behind him. As they got closer and closer towards the tunnel, a small yellow glow came from the hole.
"What's th-" Cross was cut off by a fiery blast of yellow light.
Chapter 31
William felt the ship rumble as it exited space. The thick air of Sector 5 blasted the metal, and shook him around a bit.
"Any idea what the hell I'm supposed to do?" He asked Angel over the comm.
"Well, you have a ship with guns, and there's an army of dragons... So..."
"Yeah, yeah. I was just making sure if there were any specific orders."
"Like I said, if I have anything to tell you, I will," Angel said sternly.
I can't believe this, William thought to himself. I'm taking orders from a teenager.
"Here we go," William declared.
Admiral Torkin's voice came through. "Alright everyone, shoot anything you see. Good luck out there."
William pushed forward on the control stick, and watched as the dozens of ships in front and behind him swerved around to pick their targets. He could hear the sound of laserfire and arrows smacking against the ship.
William took a deep breath, pushed down even further with the control stick, and felt the ship lean completely down. He soared straight toward the ground, and then at the last second, swooped upward under the beasts. He began spraying red pellets of laserfire on the bellies of the beasts, as he traveled beneath them.
He got startled by a group of bombers flying past the window, and pulled back on the control stick. He looked to his right and saw the bombers drop explosives down on the dragons. A couple of them fell down to the ground in an cloud of sand. One of those bombers could have been Red, but who knew.
William continued his flight up to the sky. He squeezed in between two of the beasts, tilting sideways to fit thr
ough. Red flames burst across his window, blinding his view. He swung the ship to the right. The fire stopped, and William was flying straight towards a small, fat dragon with curled horns.
He sprayed his laserfire straight into it. The beast was annoyed at best, and covered its face. It began tailing William as he flew past it.
"I got one a little angry," William yelled over the comm. "And I don't think it's gonna let go of it."
"Sending help," Angel replied.
"I'm coming," Red came in.
"You see me on your radar?"
"Yes."
William looked behind him and saw a small bomber ship fly above the dragon, and drop several blasts down on it. The beast roared in pain, then fell to the ground.
"Great shot! Thanks," William told him.
"No problem," he replied.
William tilted up and around to go back toward the swarm of dragons. He blindly sprayed laserfire straight at the swarms, as he cut straight through them.
"You're doing great so far," Angel's voice came back through.
"I hope so," William replied.
"And hope is all you have to keep you safe."
"Exactly," William said with a grin.
***
Kelling Torkin sat still in his command chair, and looked out the viewport at the battle raging on below. In all his years as an Admiral, he had never seen anything like this. He pressed down on the comm switch on in right armrest.
"Be ready to prepare the first cannon blast," he told the weapons crew.
"We're all up and ready, Admiral."
"Great. On my command."
"Yes sir."
"Ten..." He began. "Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."
"Ready," one of the managers said through the comm.
"Fire!" Torkin ordered. He watched the brilliant, long streaks of red penetrate the beasts below. Several of them went down. "Great work gentlemen, prepare for another."