by Kyle Mata
“That’s what Admiral Majex said, and he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t believe it.”
“Have you tried to comm them?” Roux asked, as she tried to comm them herself, unsuccessfully.
“Of course, I have! Are you going to get them or not?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll be right back.” Roux guided the Athena’s Owl into the atmosphere and immediately lost her comm connection with Thomas and the Cloak of Atlas.
Well, that’s odd. Do all of these Nomen have ionic clouds that tamper with communications or something? Roux thought to herself.
She flew nearly blind through the thick cloud layers as her navigational instruments struggled to make heads or tails of the planet’s poles through the ionic disruption. She punched through and spotted the cruiser she was pursuing. And, immediately, she knew she was too late.
Karr took no time to second guess killing the cheetah Rae, and he took no time to worry about anyone else aboard but himself and Daena. He had within him an entity that kept him alive no matter the circumstances—no matter how hopeless the situation—and it had obviously never let him down before. Now he depended on that entity to get him and Daena out alive. And the first thing that entity always did was shut off unnecessary thoughts. The Shadowri believe that everything, even thoughts, utilize energy, and, at a time like this, all energy his body produced needed to be put toward moving faster and faster. He pulled Daena out into the corridor and back toward the way they had come.
“Karr, what’s our plan?” Daena asked, out of breath, with her arm hurting from nearly being yanked out of its socket. Karr made it to the center of the corridor filled with trap-circles and turned to face her.
“Hold onto me, tight.” Karr said, as he attached his rifle to his back beside the Tirium katana. He put his arms under hers, lifting her so they were face-to-helmet. Then he kicked the lever and the trap-circle sucked them into the innards of the ship.
Karr did his best to judge which way the tubing was going to send them in order to move Daena away from any protrusions or rough turns. But the speed at which they traveled was incredible, and both Karr and Daena were bumped and slammed about as they sailed from the heart of the ship to the exterior. Daena tucked her head into his chest and did her best to hold onto Karr and deal with the darkness and unseen corners that knocked her about.
They were shot from the ship like a torpedo, but instead of floating freely in space, they began to fall toward the Nomen. Seconds after they were freed from the ship, the nose struck the surface and the ship collapsed on itself in a mighty explosion as the thrusters continued to push the rear of the ship up to meet the crumpled front. Debris rained upward and out from the newly formed crater, and a massive cloud of dust and smoke rushed off in all directions away from the point of impact.
“Karr!” Daena screamed as the wind of the freefall rushed past her ears. The ground quickly rushed up to meet them. Karr was running calculations in his HUD, figuring out their fall speed and weight, the strength of the planet’s gravity and air viscosity, and every other variable that he could account for in the current situation. The HUD finally displayed a satisfactory answer. Karr flipped in the air, so he began to fall feet first. He made sure Daena was in a proper position and prepped his leg and torso nano-motors to absorb the imminent impact.
Karr and Daena hit the ground like a mass-driver round. The nano-motors in Karr’s armor worked at maximum parameters to counteract the massive impact forces and prevent Karr from becoming a stain on the Nomen’s sandy gray surface. He took a few steps out of the small crater to allow his armor to run a built-in diagnostic that would determine if his suit was still in working order. When the results came back in the green, he let Daena down carefully. She starred at him in disbelief. They had fallen from the sky and landed, not only unharmed, but completely unscathed.
“Are you okay?” He asked her. Daena looked down at her body as if surprised it was still in one piece.
“Yeah, all things considered, I’d say I’m Powa, actually.”
The Liberator and the Defender looked around at their surroundings; a few hundred meters to the north was the crashed Rae vessel. All around them were familiar gray sand dunes. In the sky were the familiar ionized clouds.
“Scorpion,” Karr said.
“Didn’t Roux say this planet imploded?” Daena asked, as she started to walk up the tallest nearby sand dune.
“Yes,” Karr replied, following her.
“Maybe this is just a twin planet, like Hunah and Balanque are.” Daena suggested, but when she made it to the top of the dune she knew she was wrong. Before them was a large flat stretch of desert, and in the middle of it was a crashed Nyrotsi frigate. Hauntingly displayed on the hull were the words NRS Red Drake. “Logos,” Daena muttered quietly.
The crashed Rae vessel at their backs exploded when the reactor’s protective casing finally melted away.
CHAPTER 27
SEPARATED
Roux watched as what was left of the Rae vessel exploded, making the initial impact crater instantly double in size. Roux circled the ship at a high altitude while running scans along the debris for life signs, but the readings came up empty—twice.
She decided to pop up out of the atmosphere in order to update Thomas. Then she would come back to do another search, hopefully with the aid of some Nightfang search and rescue ships, which had more advanced sensors specifically designed for such tasks.
Once she punched through the clouds and broke out of the atmosphere, her comms were immediately filled with Nyrotsi fleet chatter. Commanding officers were giving status reports of hull integrity and ammunition levels while search and rescue boats were coordinating sectors for searches. Suddenly, though, they were all silenced.
“All ships, this is Admiral Majex. As you all know, the Rae fleet is in full retreat. We are making a cautious chase so as to not let the enemy slip away without incident, but we also do not want to step foolishly into an ambush.”
The Nyrotsi fleet continued to fire missiles and guns at the retreating fleet, when one by one the Rae ships slipped away into warp pockets.
Roux opened a comm channel to Thomas once Admiral Majex had finished giving orders to begin the meander back to Fortshione.
“Thomas, the ship crashed and exploded on the surface. I only did a brief search, but I found no life signs on board…” Roux said.
“I think we know Karr and Daena better than that. I’ll dispatch CSAR teams to help you search,” Thomas said.
“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll head down there now, and the rescue teams can catch up.” Thomas agreed, and once again, the Athena’s Owl disappeared into the thick atmosphere.
“I want two search and rescue squadrons down on that planet. Have them return to orbit every hour with updates.” Thomas ordered.
“Right away, sir.” Came the obedient response.
Suddenly the planet glowed brightly. Thomas and everyone else aboard the bridge had to shield their eyes and look away. The external cameras on the ship feeding the forward viewscreens had to temporarily shut off and reset to prevent overexposure damage.
Karr and Daena stood atop the gray dune and tried to decide upon a plan. They had no means of communication off world, and no one knew they were there to search for.
“We should head to the Red Drake and get the Puma vehicle and weapons we left behind our first time here,” Karr stated.
“Okay, but why?” Daena asked. Karr shrugged and put his hands up in a ‘why not?’ gesture. To him, having more weapons and a vehicle was better than having fewer weapons and no vehicle. “Eh, okay, we have nothing better to do.”
They began to trek down the dune when the entire planet started to shake violently—even more violently than Vurumon had when it began to collapse. Soon, the sky began to glow brightly. The ionic clouds themselves started glowing brighter than the luminous blue variable star of the Cellest system. Karr’s HUD automatically darkened and, from what he could see, it looked as
though each cloud made up a small part of a massive warp pocket.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Daena said, shielding her eyes from the light.
“So do I…” Karr admitted.
“Karr?” Daena took a step closer to him. Karr looked down from the sky and at her. “Take your helmet off, please.”
Karr hesitated but figured she might have a plan, and that plan might be time sensitive. So, he trusted her judgement and pulled off his helmet.
“Wh—”
Karr began to enquire about her plan when she grabbed his head with both hands and pulled him closer to her. She kissed him passionately. He was not an overly experienced man when it came to the subject, but he was no fool either. He pulled her in closer and enjoyed the warmth and energy of her lips upon his.
A bright light encompassed the planet, enveloping the couple. Beneath their feet, the ground gave like wet sand as the planet crumbled away.
The bright light faded after a few seconds and the cameras reset. Thomas watched impatiently as the screen rebooted. It finally did and all that could be seen was the first and twentieth fleets.
The Nomen was gone.
He tried to comm Roux, but he got no answer. He tried Karr and Daena as well, knowing he would get no response.
“Where did it go?!” Thomas called aloud over the bridge, to no one and everyone at the same time. “Activate long range sensors—as far as they can go—and monitor extended fleet chatter. I want that Nomen found.”
“Sir, it appears as though it was collapsed by a warp pocket, most likely due to a Rae vessel attempting to warp-jump too close to the gravitational body, similar to the tragedy of Septimus.” Years ago, when warp-jump drives were experimental technology, a ship attempted to warp-jump from the surface of the planet Septimus, where the technology was originally developed. The warp pocket destroyed the entire planet within seconds. The event was the single largest loss of life in human history at the time. Though tragic, many valuable lessons were learned about warp pockets and warp-jump drives for the future.
“I know how it appears, Chief, but few things are ever as they appear when it comes to the Rae. If that Nomen moved somehow, I want its location. Am I clear?” Thomas barked, anger and fear welling up inside him.
“Yes, sir!” The Chief Petty Officer replied crisply and got to work.
Admiral Majex appeared on screen. He was silent for a moment, as if he was unsure about his next words.
“All ships… proceed to rendezvous point alpha; coordinates are being transmitted now.”
Thomas silently cursed while every ship in the fleet began to blip away via warp-jumps. The Cloak of Atlas was the last to jump, as Thomas’s hand hovered over the command console button. The carrier floated in the vast emptiness of space. Thomas suddenly felt very alone, as though he was accompanied only by the ghosts of his previous battles and the heavy weight of failing his friends.
“Sir?” Lieutenant Nova looked up at him from her console, wondering about his hesitation. Thomas depressed the key and the ship warp-jumped away.
Mory Wolfprin went back to analyzing video feeds and comm chatter on Fortshione, in hopes of finding something he may have missed about the whereabouts of the Dominar. After his conversation with Spartanis Thimma, he was feeling confident and upbeat.
The Shadowri Liberator leader was taking a team to Shardonilia to meet with the Tique survivors. Mory and Karr had planned a long time ago to head there themselves after the war, and he felt guilty for never making good on the accord. Mory wondered if he subconsciously put off the trek for fear of what they might find. If the rexils had torn the survivors to shreds, he worried Karr would be scarred in a permanent way.
He tried his hand at tapping into the secure network of the Capital Bastion once more. He had tried several times to break in, but the firewall was not a traditional firewall; the network was monitored by several dozen Nyrotsi technicians around the clock. Breaking through a firewall was always just a matter of time, but sneaking by actual people was a different game altogether.
He masked his entry attempt as an advertisement service coming from a sporting goods company based on the Nyrotsi planet Myles. He started working his way through halfheartedly. Around now was the time he was usually caught and cut off, to a point where it took him hours to work his way back, but suddenly, he was in. He had to do a double take in disbelief when he realized he had full access to the entire network. Before he was found out, he immediately got to work making copies of every file he could get his hands on. While that was working, he started searching for news on Fortshione and the general Nyrotsi networks.
He suddenly understood why he was able to get in. Fortshione was under siege, along with most other heavily populated planets in the human local galactic group.
Once he had copies of literally everything, he disconnected and got out of the system—but not before leaving himself a backdoor for an easy return in the future. He wondered for a moment if searching for the Dominar should still be his main priority, given the situation unfolding in the galaxy. But Karr had given him the task, and he trusted his friend. Mory proceeded to scour over the data he had acquired and found some clues. There was a massive hole in an accounting document, where raumgeld was being siphoned off somewhere. There was a section of a star map that was deleted; high-profile prisoners seemed to be talked about in the news and then suddenly vanish, and fleet movements in an area that apparently didn’t exist, and they were all linked some way or another.
He concluded that there was an unidentified planet being funded with an unknown amount of raumgeld in an uncharted section of space and high-profile prisoners seemed to vanish, but none were ever marked as dead or missing. Their records simply had the letter L where their location should have been. Mory contacted Karr, but he received no response. He tried Daena, assuming she was with him, or at least knew when he’d be available, but she also didn’t respond. He tried to contact the Athena’s Owl—no response either. He tried them all a second time with identical results.
“Well, Karr, I guess I’ll just save humanity by myself,” Mory said sarcastically with a sigh. He considered attempting calls a third time, but he remembered the definition of insanity and refrained.
“It seems I’ve lost all contact with my field agents,” Mory said to himself aloud. He stood up from his desk and stretched. “I have sensitive information that can’t simply be trusted with hired guns.” Mory put on his armor laced jacket and go-pack and began to tie his boots. “It seems there’s only one option left.” He walked over to the wall and pulled down a high-power sniper rifle. He blew some dust off it and slung it over his shoulder, then he grabbed his sidearm off the desk and dropped it into his thigh holster. He walked to the door and punched the code to open it. The bright light of the outdoors shined in, and he stepped out and flipped down his technogoggles, which acted as an interface to the micro-supercomputer he had hidden in his go-pack. He stepped off into the streets of Fordia. “Once more into the breach.”
CHAPTER 28
TASK FORCE GREEN PHANTOM
Six Nyrotsi fleets were already engaged with the Rae forces in orbit over Fortshione and on the ground on the capital planet when Admiral Majex and Admiral Moody’s fleets arrived, and they, too, immediately joined the battle. With the unexpected arrival of two additional fleets, the Rae space forces began to retreat, abandoning their land forces, which were sizable horde-like swarming armies of the pink aliens, led by a few Rae themselves.
Once the last Rae ships jumped away, Majex began examining situational reports from other planets and dispatching fleets to reinforce. He quickly assessed and prioritized based upon current known friendly forces, current known enemy forces, leader and force experience levels, planet importance, population, and proximity to other fleets for further movements, and, most importantly, he factored in how much of the unknown he had to account for and the risk he was willing to take. Seven Nyrotsi fleets received their orders and quickly scramble
d to do their part across the galaxy. First fleet stayed to defend Fortshione, because Majex believed the capital planet’s defense was of the utmost importance and his fleet was the best suited to shoulder the responsibility.
“I want all Nightfang, including marines, on the ground reinforcing current ground forces. All fighters and bombers will provide air support,” Majex said on the open fleet wide channel. He then began to broadcast to every speaker and screen on every ship in his fleet.
“Fellow Nyrotsi, brothers and sisters, fellow humans.” The Admiral began, pausing as he contemplated what he might say, how he could encompass all of his emotions into words. The first officer thought quickly and began broadcasting on every channel and every frequency; he bounced the signal to every planet and ship that would accept it in the entire human local galactic group. Majex continued, “We stand now against a powerful and largely mysterious foe. History is being written, in stone, as I speak these very words. Our families, our loved ones, our homes, are all threatened. Our livelihood, our very existence, is at stake. What we do now, our actions, or inaction, will set the scene for our children, and their children, and the future of humanity forever. We stand as the guardians of everything we know and love.” Majex paused and watched as hundreds of fighters, bombers, and transports sped off toward the planet. Every soul in the fleet was silent, as trillions of humans across every faction and allegiance tuned in to listen. “The Rae have underestimated us, I think. I think they have bitten off more than they can chew, and best of all, I think they know it. So many years ago, our ancestors defended humanity against another terrible alien foe, and so many years ago, they stood victorious. The Rae will rue the day they put humanity in their cross-hairs. I ask that you all stand with me now, for we are the last line of defense. We are the only thing standing between victory and extinction. We aren’t fighting for land or resources—we are fighting for life. I have faith in you all, and I ask that you have faith in me. And together we will be victorious; this I assure you or my name is not Aidmen Majex. We will defeat the Rae, and WE WILL NEVER GO QUIETLY!”