Keryn’s anger surged back to the surface. Cardax was still alive. She scrambled to read the radar and noted the second ship rapidly approaching the outer gravitational pull of the sun. As it grew closer, its speed increased exponentially. The second ship was never trying to hide on the back side of the sun. All along, Cardax intended to use the sun’s gravity as a slingshot in order to escape. And Keryn, blinded by emotion, had fallen right into his trap.
“Oh, don’t look surprised, little girl. You won’t catch me now, I can save you the trouble of trying to do the math. But you did great; better than I would have ever expected. But like I guessed, your best just wasn’t good enough.”
“You bastard!” Keryn yelled into the monitor. “I’m going to find you! I don’t care how long it takes, I will find you and I will kill you!”
“Such attitude,” Cardax said condescendingly. “I have no doubt that you’ll chase me. In fact, I’m counting on it. But last time I underestimated you. It won’t happen again. Next time we meet, I’ll make sure you’re good and dead before I leave the planet.”
“I swear that you will never get away from me.”
Cardax looked at something below the monitor screen. “I’m sorry, little girl. It seems that I’m losing the transmission. Apparently I was too busy escaping to keep you within range.” The Oterian shrugged. “Oh well, until next time. Bye now.”
With his parting words, the screen went black. Keryn howled in rage as she slammed her fist into the console until her hand was raw and bloodied. Collapsing in emotional turmoil, Keryn fell back into her chair and cried loudly into the lonely cockpit.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
“There are so many of them!” Alpha Two bemoaned over the radio.
“Forget about them and just keep flying,” Iana ordered as she sped away from Earth. “If we don’t draw them away, the ground forces won’t stand a chance.”
Though Iana sounded confident on the radio, she felt the same fear that was evident in her Avalon counterpart’s voice. The radar showed hundreds of Terran launches, as wave after wave of fighters and impromptu vessels joined in the chase of the fleeing Squadron. What she originally assumed was twenty to one odds was quickly growing, and not in her favor. She had heard the cries of her fellow pilots as they were struck by machine gun fire and plasma rocket explosions, the Alliance ships being destroyed in the dead of space and left as little more than obstacles for the rest of the Terran ships to bypass as they hunted down the rest of the Squadron.
Pressing her accelerator to the maximum, Iana’s Duun fighter launched from Earth’s orbit and sped through the dark void of space. Her fighter fought against her and the controls threatened to be pulled from her grip, as she sped through the darkness. The damaged wing, the one that had been pierced repeatedly by Terran machine gun fire, wobbled unsteadily under the increased gravitational pressures. Closing her eyes momentarily, Iana prayed to whatever God would listen that her fighter would stay together just a while longer.
Iana wished she had a better plan than she did. She had left orbit around Earth under the assumption that she could lure the Terrans away, but once she was free of the satellite ring, she realized that she was flying blindly in a solar system that she didn’t know. Leading the rest of the ships, Iana dove into an asteroid belt. Weaving through the chaotically drifting boulders, Iana tried to buy both her and her team time to devise a plan. Typing hastily on her console, she brought up a display of the planets, hoping to find another inhabitable planet nearby. The reports she scanned were incomplete and unhelpful. The Empire had settled on a nearby red planet, but the current orbit took it to the far side of their sun. The Terran sun was too hot to fly to the closer planets and beyond the inhabited red planet, it became little more than gas giants. Still, seeing little other option, she turned and sped at full speed toward the closest of the gas giants and the largest planet in the system.
Sweat beaded on Iana’s brow. The gas giant was still some ways off, though she could make out the distinct white and brown strata of the planet’s gaseous exterior. A number of small moons orbited the planet, but offered little assistance or escape for the fleeing Alliance force. For now, Iana was forced to fly through unobstructed empty space while hundreds of enemy ships pursued and continued a steady rate of fire on her small Duun ships. Flying at top speed, the improvised ships were lagging behind but the Terran fighters were still keeping pace. Their haphazardly fired plasma missiles streaked by, filling the space in front of Iana’s ship with choking grey smoke. It obscured her view of the planet but, simultaneously, gave her cover as the Terrans were now unable to lock onto her position. Dipping her wings, she spun lazily lower, hoping the change in position would further complicate the enemies’ weapons fire.
Concealed within the smoke, Iana turned back to her console, eager to search for any hint that might give her the edge she needed to survive this battle. The gas giant’s moons offered little reprieve, being little more than empty rocks. The planet itself, however, offered quite a few more possibilities. It seemed to be radiating a significant amount of both heat and radiation. Though they were far from the amounts present near the sun, the levels of radiation were still high enough that they might be used as a blanket that would scatter radar signals. If that were the case, the Terrans would have to fire manually without computer-aided targeting arrays. Since most pilots were unused to that style of fighting, it gave yet another boost to the Alliance forces.
Aside from the radiation, Iana also intended to use the intense gravitational forces being emitted by the gas giant. Much like the Alliance Cruisers had done before in order to hurry from one destination to another, a fighter could sling shot around the planet and open a significant gap between itself and any pursuing enemy.
Switching on her radio, Iana spoke over the Squadron-wide channel. “All Squadron elements, head toward the gas giant. Getting close to the planet should diffuse the Terran radars and buy us some more time.”
“I think I’m already ahead of you on that, ma’am,” Alpha Two called back.
Iana checked her radar and was surprised to find that the Avalon was right. While Iana was diving in order to avoid the Terran rockets, Alpha Two had passed her by and was now on her way toward the gas giant, quite a few miles ahead of Iana’s Duun fighter.
“Roger, I’ve got you on radar,” Iana confirmed. “Stay on course and I will catch up to you shortly.”
Another vibration rolled through Iana’s ship. Glancing out the window, she could see scraps of metal, peeled back by the Terran machine gun fire, flickering as though threatening to tear free. Beneath, she could see ice crystals forming on the intricate network of wires and cables within the wing’s core. The Duun fighter wasn’t made to sustain long, exceptionally fast flights like she was now experiencing, much less two wormhole jumps and exposure to repeated enemy fire. Her Duun fighter was reaching the end of its life expectancy and was quickly dropping Iana’s life expectancy with it.
“Hold together, you piece of crap,” Iana growled as she tried to compensate for the damaged wing. In her cockpit window, the smoke cleared from the rockets and the gas giant came into view. Though still some ways off, Iana now dared to hope that she would reach it before the Terrans caught her. As to what she intended to do once she was there, that still remained to be seen.
“Alpha Leader, I’ve got a problem,” Alpha Two called to her. “I’m getting some pretty serious fluctuations on my command console.”
Iana furrowed her brow in concern. She wondered if this wasn’t another Terran trap. “What sort of fluctuations?”
“I…” the Avalon began before pausing. “I don’t know. My radar is going haywire. Controls are jerky and growing unresponsive!”
“Get yourself out of there,” Iana said nervously, sensing that there was something going on that she couldn’t understand. “Alpha Two, do you copy? Alpha Two?”
Other ships began calling over the radio, experiencing similar issues. Iana ignored them, inste
ad angling her ship toward her wingman’s position. In the distance, she could see the Duun fighter, its engines still burning brightly as it sped forward. Its path, however, was erratic, taking Alpha Two first toward one of the faint rings of small stone debris before launching her back in the other direction. From the chaotic flight pattern, Iana was sure that the Avalon was no longer in control of her ship. Her new trajectory, Iana noticed, now had Alpha Two flying into danger. One of the planet’s moons had passed into view and was moving in an intercept course with the small Duun ship. Dwarfed by the moon, her counterpart wouldn’t stand a chance in a collision.
“Alpha Two, get out of there!”
She didn’t reply and Iana watched in horror as the Duun fighter slammed into the moon, creating little more than a minor explosion on the moon’s surface. Iana cringed, then shook her head slowly. The anguish of losing yet another pilot pained Iana. The loss also caused a deeper confusion within her. She knew that flying straight ahead was a death trap. Whatever had disabled Alpha Two was doing the same to a number of the Squadron fighters that passed too close to the gas giant. Behind her, however, hundreds of Terran ships were still gaining on her. If she slowed down, even for a second, they would catch her and destroy her ship. From her current position, there wasn’t even time to adjust her angle and fly away from the gas giant. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Iana realized that she didn’t truly have much of an option. Continuing forward, Iana charged toward the planet. If she were going to die, she wasn’t going to give the Terrans the satisfaction of pulling the trigger.
Almost immediately, Iana’s consoles began to flicker as something interfered with her electronic systems. Her Duun fighter tilted slightly, changing its flight path. She pulled hard against the controls and managed to realign her trajectory. No sooner had she regained control of her ship, however, that it was pulled violently in the other direction. The screen flickered wildly before fading to black. She tugged on the controls, but they moved limply in her hand without having any effect on the ship. The engines still burned at full speed, unaffected by whatever had taken control of her ship, but she had lost the ability to maneuver. The memory of Alpha Two flying uncontrollably into one of the gas giant’s moons ran through her mind and Iana frowned at the thought.
Suddenly, Iana was jerked to the right, nearly pulling her from her seat. Her shoulder slammed into the cockpit’s glass window, bruising the skin, as the seat restraints bit into her flesh. Awkwardly, Iana pushed back against the alien force and slid back into the seat. Slowly, she felt the tugging sensation building again, threatening to pull her in another direction. Along her waist and boots, the sleeves of her one-piece flight suit, and the buckles of the restraints, Iana felt the tug growing. She realized, in horror, that it wasn’t a Terran weapon that had disabled her ship. It was the planet itself. On top of the radiation, the gas giant was emitting an incredible magnetic field, one that was strong enough to short out her controls while leaving the ship itself intact. Alpha Two’s erratic flight pattern suddenly made perfect sense as she passed from one part of the field to another. And Iana, foolishly, had flown right into the field without a second thought.
Realizing that her fate was now in the hands of chaotically overlapping magnetic fields, she slumped in her chair and stared out the front window. Though she had been jerked from side to side repeatedly upon entering the field, it seemed that her pattern had now stabilized. Growing closer to the planet, the nose of her Duun fighter angled away from the gas giant’s core. Instead of flying headlong into the atmosphere, it appeared that the magnetic fields would keep her skimming along its surface.
A knot grew in her stomach at the thought. The planet was creating intense gravitational fields as well as the magnetic fields. Much like the Fleet had done when advancing on Earth, she would be slung around the edge of the planet. The difference was that she would not be in control. Instead of being able to slow or control her rapid acceleration, she would simply be along for the ride. Iana found herself wondering if either she or her ship would be able to survive such an intense trip.
The forces began pulling on her fighter and it sped up rapidly, quickly outstripping the normal capabilities of her engine. The inhibitors did little to lessen the pressure that began to build on her chest and limbs. The skin on her face grew taunt and strained as the speed increased; Iana found her arms pinned to the sides of the pilot’s chair.
Speeding around the planet, Iana covered half the circumference of the gas giant in mere minutes. Air was stolen from her lungs and she strained to find replacement breaths. Pain lanced through her joints as the acceleration increased beyond the realm of what was safe for a pilot. The vibrations she had felt before returned with such ferocity that it jarred her in her seat, despite the gravity holding her in place. Rolling her head to the left, she stared out the window at the already damaged wing. It shook in opposition to the bouncing the rest of the ship was experiencing. Sheets of metal peeled away as piping within the wing’s interior collapsed from the force. With a loud screeching, the wing tore down its center, half of the wing ripping free and tumbling out of sight.
The loss of the wing unbalanced her Duun fighter and catapulted Iana free from the decaying orbit she had been in around the gas giant. Weight slammed into her skull as her fighter tumbled away from the intense gravity. Sparks of light danced in her vision briefly before fading, replaced instead by a hazy darkness that crept along the edges of her sight. The world seemed to close in tightly around her, as unconsciousness found root in the recesses of her mind.
Angrily, Iana bit her lip to stave off the weariness that she felt. Struggling, she reached out for the controls, fighting against the pressure on her limbs. As her fingers closed around the controls, she battled with the ship, slowly stopping the spinning and haphazard flight until, eventually, she regained a small semblance of control.
Alone, gasping for breath and moaning against the pain she felt throughout her body, Iana fell heavily into the pilot’s chair. Her controls were still sporadic at best and radar was not functioning. Her trip had taken her most of the way around the gas giant, meaning that she had been expelled somewhere close to where the Terran forces now lay in wait. Shaking her head slowly, Iana wondered why she had bothered. Her ship was now severely damaged and she had no idea the scope of her own injuries. And, throughout all of her pain and suffering, she had wound up almost directly back where she had started, staring down a Terran assault group.
Through the cockpit window, Iana could see some of the Terran fighters breaking away from the main pack and moving in her direction. Judging from their movements, she assumed that they knew where the danger areas were around the gas giant and were quick to avoid them. The fighters moved to intercept her, leading Iana to believe that she had been tossed completely clear of the magnetic interference. A small smile spread across her face, a mirth that didn’t reach her eyes. Though she appreciated the irony, she didn’t find the humor in realizing that the gas giant had only thrown her free of its grasp after completely disabling her ship. In essence, it had left her debilitated but left the dirty work of killing her to the Terran pilots.
Letting go of the controls, she crossed her arms across her chest and stared at the approaching pilots. Stoic to the end, Iana refused to look away from her executioners. Rapidly, the Terran fighters closed the distance until she was sure that they were within range of their deadly missiles. Frowning, she stared straight ahead, a sense of dread filling her chest and making it hard to swallow.
To her surprise, the closest fighters erupted in flames; obliterated within seconds from an unseen enemy. The rest of the Terran fighters turned quickly and tried to speed away from Iana’s Duun. As they fled, dark projectiles shot through the air from somewhere beyond Iana’s view, striking the Terran ships and tearing unceremoniously through their thick hulls.
In the distance, the swarm of Terran ships scattered and tried to flee. Blue and purple plasma filled Iana’s vision as the entire univer
se in front of her erupted into flames. Small fighters, silhouetted in the explosion, sped away only to be consumed by the rolling shockwave as rocket after rocket exploded in the empty space.
As Iana stared in awe at the devastating firepower, a dark shadow passed over her ship. Looking upward, Iana stared into the dark underbelly of an Alliance Cruiser as it passed overhead, still raining down its rail gun slugs and large yield plasma rockets on the surprised Terran forces. In its wake, another Cruiser passed followed by yet another. From around the far side of the gas giant, dozens more Cruisers entered the solar system and destroyed the fleeing fighters.
All around her, walls of metal appeared as her Duun fighter was swallowed by an open Cruiser hangar bay. In front of her, the large hangar doors slid shut and her Duun set down heavily on the metallic floor. Alliance soldiers hurried to her ship to render aid. Iana smiled as they cut away on the cockpit, trying to free the trapped pilot within. Her salvation had come not in some carefully devised plan by her and the other members of the Squadron. It had come instead from an Alliance Fleet who was willing to fly at such incredible speeds that they arrived ahead of schedule.
Finally, after all she had been through, Iana allowed tears to stream down her face. The Fleet had arrived. In her heart, she knew the fall of the Empire was now inevitable.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Yen’s lungs screamed for air as he was suspended in the air above the rectangular, manmade pond. Achilles’ psychic, vice-like grip tightened around his throat, choking out what little oxygen remained in his body. Though Yen struggled against the Terran’s power, he was helplessly trapped. There was no physical hand crushing the life from his body against which he could break free. And with a lack of air clouding his mind, Yen couldn’t find the mental clarity to concentrate on severing Achilles’ psychic control. Instead, Yen felt his limbs growing heavy as darkness crept into the corners of his vision. His legs slowly stopped kicking in the cool, damp breeze. His arms clawed weakly at his throat before flopping, limply to his side. The muscles on the sides of his neck tightened until it caused Yen physical pain, but he was unable to find the smallest iota of breathable air.
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