by Richard Fox
“Took care of the drones,” Cortaro said, “no injuries. Breitenfeld’s been calling. I tried to tell them you three vanished inside a pyramid and we were trying to find you. Valdar didn’t seem too upset with that answer. Guess we’ve had stranger things happen.”
Malal pointed a finger at the distant moon hosting the Xaros-controlled Crucible. Hale made out a burning point of light within the crown of thorns.
A hum filled his ears. Hale tapped his helmet, but the sound wasn’t from his earpiece. A bow of green light formed across the sky, stretching from one horizon to the other. Bronze-colored lightning snapped across the bow.
“How I missed this,” Malal said.
A ray of green light erupted from the bow and shot straight at the Xaros Crucible. The ends of the bow retreated to the base of the ray as it cut across space to the moon. The ray blasted through the moon’s artificial rings and struck the surface almost dead center. Fissures broke across the surface…then the moon exploded with a flash of light. Fragments the size of mountains went spinning through space, obliterating the Xaros Crucible within seconds.
Hale’s jaw dropped open as the broken moon slowly spread across the sky.
“Hey, Malal,” Standish said, waving to the entity, “how about a couple of those for Earth? Sure would make defending the planet easier if we have a nice big Death Ray button to push.”
“Can I rip his tongue out?” Malal asked Stacey.
“No.” Stacey looked across the sky. Flashes from the raging void battle continued. “The Xaros reinforcements are cut off but we still have to deal with whatever got away from the gate. What else can you do?”
“The planet is drained. Let us move on to the gate you call the Key Hole,” Malal said.
“Hale, you heard him.” Stacey looked up at the celestial carnage. “All that’s going to come down here. We’ll see the first fragments in the atmosphere in hours. The entire planet will be a meteor-blasted wasteland in days. Hale?”
The captain had his head cocked up, staring at the destruction.
She slapped him on the shoulder.
“Yes! Calling evac.” Hale lowered his head and mumbled into an IR channel.
Chapter 15
Keeper watched as Sletari’s second moon broke apart. His essence stirred within the center of the Key Hole as he tried to control the remaining Crucible. It remained off-line, bent on repairing itself.
+Engineer. Where are you? We need a conduit to the rest of our drones. We are trapped without it.+
Keeper stretched out to Sletari…and couldn’t find his peer’s presence.
+Engineer?+
Keeper’s form contracted into a rapidly spinning neutron star. The humans and their allies stood on the threshold to the Apex with a massive fleet. They’d blocked or destroyed the only connections to the galaxy-spanning jump-gate network…and they must have killed the Engineer.
A sensation spread through Keeper’s being, an old, atavistic reaction that served the Xaros when they were primitives. A feeling not experienced since the annihilation wave began its inexorable march across their home galaxy.
Fear.
Keeper had already sent a distress signal through the Crucible network when the humans first arrived. The drones would swarm toward Sletari once they realized the jump gates in the system were off-line…but it would take months for the first reinforcements to arrive.
The drone armada that survived the destruction of the moon was large, capable of defeating the invaders. Keeper’s algorithms put his forces chance of victory well above seventy percent, but the humans had proved too nimble and adept for him to trust the odds. He scanned the human fleet and found a discrepancy beyond the Earth’s ship’s normal composition.
Two freighters full of omnium…and a second jump-engine signature within the Breitenfeld, a ship encountered by the Xaros far too many times. Keeper grasped his enemy’s plan after a few seconds of denial. They hadn’t come just to destroy the Key Hole…they were here for the Apex.
+I have a purpose.+ Keeper turned his attention to the jump gate leading back to the ark carrying all that remained of the Xaros. He was entrusted with the care of the Apex; his remit to shepherd his race across the intergalactic void was absolute. Any threat to the Apex meant he was a failure, and the Xaros did not tolerate failure.
There was only one way to reach the Apex. Keeper reached into the Key Hole’s command system and prepared the self-destruct protocols. He would destroy the humans’ only chance at striking at the heart of the Xaros, then he would flee to a neighboring star with a Crucible, persecute the war against the vermin infesting the galaxy, and rebuild a new Key Hole. It would be centuries before the Apex arrived. The others would not care how the galaxy was won, only that they arrived whole and to a sea of stars cleansed of all other intelligent life.
Keeper activated the self-destruct sequence…and nothing happened.
It felt the fabric of space-time shift as a wormhole formed almost on top of him.
+No! I have the situation under control. I can fix this!+
A midnight-blue claw reached out of the wormhole and snatched Keeper out of the void. Keeper sent his drones one final command before the claw snapped back into the wormhole.
****
Valdar clung to his holo tank as the Breitenfeld tilted onto her side.
“Number two battery, fire!” Valdar called out. The bridge shook as the rail cannons loosed another volley. In the holo tank, tiny red arrows extended away from his ship toward a Xaros battle-cruiser analog that had broken through the Ruhaald lines on a course toward the Breitenfeld.
Ruhaald fighters swarmed over the Xaros ship, destroying point defense positions as they spouted over the ship’s surface. Valdar watched as a dozen Ruhaald craft vanished off the holo tank, replaced with red X’s as the rail cannon shells closed the distance.
Valdar’s hands gripped tighter as the munitions closed…and one broke through the enemy’s defenses. The Xaros ship bucked like it had been kicked, its fore angled away from the rest of the craft, her keel broken. The Ruhaald fighters circled around to the breach in the ship’s hull and inundated the crater with fire. Cracks broke across the hull as it burned away from within.
“We’re still not even, Jarilla,” Valdar said under his breath.
“Drones in sector twelve!” Ericson called out.
“Clear them out.” Valdar swiped through the holo tank. His task force remained on course to the Key Hole, separated from the battling armadas. The alien structure loomed ahead, hundreds of miles in diameter.
“Flight deck, this is the captain.” Valdar held a finger between his ship and the Key Hole and nodded as the estimated time of flight between his ship and the innermost ring of the jump gate appeared. “Prepare to launch boarding party soon as we’ve dealt with these drones.”
“Valdar…” Ibarra came up in a window. He was in one of the combat-loaded Mules in the hangar and wore Ranger armor but carried no weapon. Having gotten used to the idea of the man as a ghost, Valdar still had trouble accepting that Ibarra finally walked amongst the living. “Our Qa’Resh probe tells me the Key Hole just activated. Very strange readings, nothing it’s ever seen before.”
“Is there something I’m supposed to do about it?” Valdar asked.
One of the forward windows cracked as a Xaros stalk tip broke through the blast plates. As the drone ripped the shutter away like it was opening a tin can, the bridge broke out in shouted warnings and a pair of Marines put themselves between the captain and the threat.
The drone exploded into burning fragments as gauss shells thumped against the bridge’s armor.
“I got it,” Durand said. “Everyone OK in there?”
“We appreciate your judicious aim,” Valdar said. “Ibarra, can you and that probe of yours get the job done or not?”
“We’ll see when we get into the command center. Torni is waiting for Malal to start work on the detonator. Are they back yet?”
A blinking
icon appeared behind the Breitenfeld, the Mule he’d sent to Sletari’s surface with a pair of Eagle fighters escorting it.
“They’ll land soon. Launch the boarding party. We’ll have Malal’s bomb put together as soon as we can,” Valdar said.
“Sir, something’s happening.” Ericson zoomed the tank out. The Xaros pulled away from the allied armada, and a swarm of drones formed a screen over the main force. As quadrium shells slammed against the screen, light crackled across the curtain of drones like static. Rail cannons shredded entire swathes of drones with fragmenting shells, but a gap never appeared in the screen.
“What are they doing?” she asked.
“I have a feeling we’re about to find out.” Valdar tapped a screen and opened a new channel. “Nugget, Stugots, engage docking maneuvers and prep the omnium for the trigger. Slave your control systems to my conn and abandon ship once the bomb is complete.”
“Incoming!” Ericson shouted.
Five silver lances, each half the size of the Breitenfeld, burst through the Xaros drones. Hundreds of drones broke apart as the lances bulldozed right through them. They sped toward a cluster of Ruhaald cruisers.
The line of human and Ruhaald ships opened fire, and bright specks of light from rail cannons and Ruhaald energy blasts spat toward the lances. The Xaros weapons changed their flight path…angling toward the Breitenfeld and dodging every shot sent against them.
Valdar watched as the lances’ trajectory plots stabilized…and his heart skipped a beat.
“Nugget, Stugots, break off docking and take evasive maneuvers, now!”
“What about us, sir?” Geller asked.
“Hold steady. Guns, load quadrium shells and set a wide dispersion pattern.”
Utrecht nodded and tapped madly. “Q-shells won’t stop those things, sir.”
“It’ll stop them from changing course. Easier to hit.” He opened a new channel. “Task Force Gabriel, protect the omnium haulers at all cost. Manticore destroyers, there is no fight after this. Burn out your crystals if you have to.”
“Firing!” Utrecht announced.
The q-shells raced to intercept. The lances angled to one side, their path now missing two of the three shells.
“Utrecht…”
“We’re working up the new firing solution.”
The three shells ignited, casting webs of electric filament into the void. One tendril latched onto a lance and arced to two more. The affected Xaros weapons stopped accelerating and went tumbling end over end.
“Guns, another volley of q-shells. All ships, open fire!”
The Manticore-class ships twisted toward the incoming projectiles and opened fire. A wave of energy blasts streaked away from the Task Force like sparks off a welding arc. The ship shook again as the batteries sent up another q-shell volley.
The two active lances jinked from side to side, maneuvers that would have turned his crew into pulp if his ship tried the same thing.
“Load canister shells and fire at will,” Valdar said.
Two of the disabled lances took hits from energy cannons and burned away. A gauss cannon shot off the forward anti-air turrets nicked one of the Xaros weapons screaming toward the Nugget. It bounced to the side and into a hail of energy bolts.
Valdar looked through the rip in the front blast shields and saw a glint of silver against the void.
“Slew to two-seven mark nine and fire!” Utrecht said.
The recoil sent Valdar into the side of the holo tank. He looked up, praying the lance had taken a hit…and saw it streak across his bow.
“Nugget! Abandon ship! That is a direct—”
The lance slammed into the Nugget, ripping it in half. Glowing omnium cubes spilled into the void. The lance kept moving and embedded against the Stugots. The impact sent the conjoined pair spinning around.
“Guns,” said Valdar, slamming a fist against the holo tank, “target the Stugots. The Xaros used this tactic against Eighth Fleet. That lance will break into drones if we don’t destroy it now.”
“But the Stugots, the crew…” Utrecht said.
Valdar zoomed toward the Stugots and saw the lance slide into the ship’s hull. Sparks of ruby light flashed through portholes and from within the bridge.
“They’re already dead. Do it.”
“Valdar, Ibarra here. We’re in the Key Hole’s command dome. Ben says he can have a wormhole to the Apex in a few more minutes.” Ibarra’s transmission came up as a voice wave within the tank.
Valdar bit his lip, unsure how exactly to convey that their mission was a failure.
“More lances!” Ericson said. “Eight more, all vectoring right for us.”
Valdar looked over his video screens. On the flight deck, Torni and Malal huddled around the jump engine from the Ruhaald. He came up with a solution—a long shot—but still a solution.
“Conn, all ahead full, take us into the Key Hole. Torni, can you hear me?” Valdar asked.
“Sir?” She looked up from the bomb to the camera.
“Can you ignite the weapon without the omnium supply?”
“No, we need a significant amount of energy to begin the cascade—”
“What about the Breitenfeld’s jump engine? She’s got a full charge in her dark-energy batteries. Can you do it with that?”
A hush fell across the bridge. The crew looked up from their workstations to their captain.
Torni nodded slowly. “I can do that for you, sir.” She looked at Malal quickly then said, “But if you can get us to the Apex, we might—”
“Get to the engine room and do what you have to. I’m taking us through the Key Hole. We came here to destroy the Apex, no other reason.” He cut the transmission. “Conn?”
“Aye aye, course laid. Full speed ahead.”
Valdar opened a ship-wide channel. “Crew of the Breitenfeld, this is Valdar. Our chance to destroy the Xaros threat once and for all is almost lost. We have one chance left—to take our ship through the Key Hole. There, we will turn our own ship into the instrument of their destruction. We won’t come back, but we will pay the price to ensure that Earth—all of humanity—has a future. I will remain on the bridge. All nonessential personnel are permitted to abandon ship.”
Silence reigned for a few seconds, then the bridge crew turned back to their stations. The normal chatter of a ship in the middle of a battle returned.
“We’re with you all the way, sir,” Ericson said. “Have been since the moment you first came aboard.”
Valdar gave her a half smile.
“Ibarra, this is Valdar. Need you to open a wormhole for my ship to the Apex. We’ll be there in three minutes.”
“Ben, can you do that? Just the one ship? Better than nothing. Hey, unhand me you knuckle-dragging oafs!…Valdar! Tell these Rangers to let me go! Because I have to be with the ship when she goes through…I finally have my own two feet and I will use them to walk on my own, thank you very much…Isaac, did you catch any of that? Your wormhole is waiting, but we can get your ship through only if your jump engine…I’ll explain it when I get there. Ben will stay behind, keep the door open for us to come back. If we’re that lucky.”
“I monitored. Get in your Mule. We’ll do a scoop landing on our way through. Torni?”
“At the jump engine. It will take us at least an hour to prep the Breit’s engine. If you can get me and the bomb to a high-energy mass in the Apex, we can pull the trigger a lot faster.”
“Prep for the worst-case scenario. We need to be ready, not hopeful.”
“I’ve seen the inside of the Apex, sir. We might have an option.”
“Get to it.” Valdar swiped a finger across a control panel and called up an overlay with all the active escape pods. All present.
“I hope this is the right call,” he said. “Gott Mit Uns.”
The Breitenfeld neared the center of the Key Hole, and a white-hot portal opened before the ship.
Chapter 16
Keeper fell through the abyss,
his form reduced to the Xaros’ base humanoid shape. Arms and legs flailed as air rushed around him. A plain of volcanic rock appeared, riven by thin streaks of magma. He slowed, then came to a stop gently on his feet. The sensation of ground against his skin, something he hadn’t experienced in eons, appalled him.
To be forced back into his pre-exalted shape was humiliating.
The ground morphed into overlapping disks of roiling omnium as a circle of thrones rose around him, each ornately beautiful and distinct from the others. The sky shifted to the constellations once visible above the Xaros’ annihilated home world.
One throne grew taller and wider than the others, the backing covered in small spikes of shimmering jewels that mimicked the mountain range where the most powerful Xaros once called home.
The now familiar sensation of fear coursed through Keeper.
Red smoke seeped from the thrones and coalesced into Xaros, all much larger than Keeper. Three yellow eyes opened on each of their faces, all boring into Keeper.
The Xaros on the high throne arrived last. Scaled armor covered his body, each half-moon shape holding a star cluster within, denoting property from his holdings that once spanned a galaxy. There was only one way to greet the High King. Keeper fell to his knees and bared his throat.
+Keeper…we are disappointed,+ the High King said.
+We expected the General to try to destroy the gate from our Apex to our new home,+ one of the other Masters said. +We prepared for his betrayal. Imagine our surprise when it came from you.+
+Where is the General?+ The High King leaned forward, his third eye ablaze.
+Lost!+ Keeper backpedaled, but froze as the High King’s telekinetic grip snarled around him. +He failed in his task to cleanse the galaxy of pollution, died at the hands of a race called—+
An invisible tendril wrapped around Keeper’s throat, loosening only to let him breathe every so often.