Rise of the Ultra Fury (Universe in Flames Book 5)

by Christian Kallias

  The Earth Alliance fleet was bigger than it had ever been, but the Droxians had taken more than half their contingent of ships back to defend whatever was left of their homeworld. Saroudis couldn’t blame them for doing so, even though he knew it was futile. If a single Fury ship decided to go there and finish the job, even every last one of their ships couldn’t do anything to prevent it.

  Saroudis hit the top of his desk with both hands in frustration.

  We don’t stand a chance.

  There was nothing more frustrating than trying to defeat a seemingly unbeatable enemy. Yet it had seemed that way ever since the Star Alliance had been nearly wiped out, and yet they had prevailed. Somehow, with Chase’s help, they had always found ingenious, if somewhat ludicrous at times, ways of turning the tide of battle in their favor.

  While briefing the captain of the fleet earlier, he had wished for Chase to make a surprise appearance, or at least Ares. Anything, anyone, to give them hope. Because they were surely running out of it. And then the one thought that Saroudis didn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole came front and center into his mind.

  Let’s assume we survive this attack. Then what?

  This was just a single Fury ship, with a strong Zarlack escort. This on its own was enough to worry about. But what would they do when three, five or ten of these ships, most likely already being constructed in orbit around Erevos, showed up? Then what?

  That brought up nothing but despair, which is why Saroudis had pushed the thought away for as long as he could.

  What would Chase do?

  Saroudis knew the answer. He’d been around the defiant lieutenant, his friend even, for long enough to know what he would do. And that was anything and everything possible; and even things impossible if needed. If he was here he would also tell him to forget about the next wave of ships sure to come one day soon. One problem at a time.

  Saroudis’ brooding was interrupted when Daniel called in with the news about a dead officer around one of the ships. Upon checking the records, the commodore noticed that the officer in question had been assigned to deliver supplies to the Hope.

  “This doesn’t make any sense, Commodore, unless . . .”

  “Unless someone took his place. Let me check with his commanding officer. Hold the line.”

  Saroudis opened another channel and asked for a status report on the missing officer. His direct superior informed the commodore that not only had he been seen just minutes ago, but he had suddenly disappeared. He closed the channel and got back to Daniel, who had heard the commodore’s second conversation.

  “I don’t like this. I think we have an intruder,” said Daniel.

  “And if he’s on board the Hope?”

  “He must be after Chase! Somehow the Furies know he’s still alive and they want to make sure he’s eliminated.”

  “We can’t let that happen.”

  “No shit. Vectoring towards the Hope now. Have as many guards as you can secure his location.”

  “Do you think it will make any difference if we’re dealing with a Fury?”

  “We can’t just stand by and hope for the best. Ares could come back any minute with ways to revive Chase. We need to buy Chase as much time as we can, no matter the cost.”

  “Very well. I’ll inform Sarah and deploy all available security to protect medbay two. I’m sending additional backup from other ships as well.”

  “I’m also going in, Commodore.”

  “Daniel, I don’t know that you can do anything.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not standing on the sidelines while someone tries to murder whatever family I have left.”

  “Understood. Godspeed, Commander.”

  “To us all, Commodore.”

  The transmission ended and Saroudis placed all the calls he had to. When he was done he got up and checked the charge levels of his side arm. He hadn’t fired that thing in years, but today could be the day. He put it back in his belt holster, took his jacket and walked out of his ready room. He still needed to call one person.

  * * *

  When Ares and Argos arrived back aboard the Silver Arrow, Argos was furious.

  “What the fuck took you so long?”

  “What? You said you could deal with that Fury. I thought you enjoyed fighting.”

  Argos spat a large quantity of blood on the floor.

  “Your teleporting ability is almost instantaneous, yet I had to fight for quite a while. I just want to know why. What sightseeing did you do?”

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you, but if you must know, I was on board the Fury ship, which is on its way towards Earth, by the way.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to see Aphroditis. She had something to tell me.”

  “Spit it out, old man, what was so important?”

  “The Furies have sent an assassin to kill Chase while he’s still in stasis.”

  Argos’ face changed completely. Ares thought he saw concern among the mixed emotions his revelation had triggered.

  “They would only select one Fury for such a job. The Shadow Hunter. And if that’s true . . .”

  “What?”

  “Chase is as good as dead.”

  “You need to stop him!”

  “I can’t! At best I can delay him, but I used a lot of juice back there, thanks to you. Even at full power I could never dream of defeating him. He’s at least as powerful as Miseo. We need that elixir, now!”

  They teleported from the empty bridge to the ship’s medbay.

  “How long do you need for the elixir to be ready?” asked Argos.

  “I’ve run into a little problem. Maybe another hour?”

  “You don’t have even a fraction of that time. Work faster!” said Argos.

  “Look, I’m trying my best. I haven’t worked on this formula for thousands of years, and my body has grown old and weak. I haven’t slept in so—”

  Argos didn’t let him finish his sentence. He slapped the old man instead.

  “What the hell? Is that supposed to motivate me?”

  “No, but this might.” Argos put his hand on the man’s shoulder and used his healing abilities to recharge the man’s tired body.

  And just like that Asclepios looked and felt ten years younger.

  “We need that elixir as soon as possible. Do whatever it takes or I’ll take back what I’ve just given you, with interest.”

  “Argos,” Ares tried to interrupt.

  “What the fuck are you waiting for, Ares? Teleport me directly in front of Chase’s stasis pod.”

  Ares knew better than to argue.

  * * *

  Sarah stood in front of Chase’s pod, her hand on the glass separating her from the love of her life.

  “We need you, Chase. Our son . . . Chris is very powerful, but he needs his father and, truth be told, I need you back in my arms.”

  Sarah stared at Chase’s flash-frozen body, his eyes closed, his pale and pained expression a sad reminder of how near death he had been when he was put into this pod.

  “Chris will be a great fighter. I think he can even become stronger than you. But as soon as you’re out of this frozen prison of yours, we need to find a way to help him. You hear me, Chase? Or he won’t live for long . . .”

  She received an incoming call from Commodore Saroudis.

  “Where are you, Sarah?”

  “I’m with Chase. Can I be of assistance, Sir?”

  “Listen to me very carefully. There’s someone coming for—”

  There was a burst of static, and at almost the same time the door of the medbay slid open and an officer entered the room.

  “Come in, Commodore? I didn’t get your last transmission. Saroudis, please come in.”

  But the communication had ended. Her heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong, but she had no idea what. Soon, the officer was nearly upon her.

  “What can I do for you, Major? This is a restricted area.”

  When the man didn�
��t answer, Sarah didn’t hesitate. She drew her side arm and pointed it at the man who was still walking towards her. His face had no expression and he looked like a robot.

  “Last warning. Stop right there or I’ll shoot.”

  Since her verbal warning had no effect, she opened fire. The first bullet ricocheted from his torso and she saw a brief red flash.

  What the hell?

  She emptied the clip of her gun but none of the bullets found their targets. Most were deflected by a shield, while the last was caught in midair by the major.

  He looked at it.

  “Such crude and inefficient weapons. Move aside. I have no grievance with you.”

  “Who do you have a grievance with? And who the fuck are you? I refuse to believe you’re a member of the crew.”

  The man touched something on his arm and the holo-field projector turned off to reveal a Fury in full combat armor. He was taller than the man he was impersonating a second ago.

  “Move away, lady, or I’ll be forced to remove you.”

  “No way. You’ll have to go through me to get to Chase.”

  “Easily arranged,” said Timoros as he grabbed Sarah by the throat and lifted her off the floor.

  She tried hitting his forearm with her fists but that achieved nothing. After a few seconds she was gasping for air and getting dizzy. An entire platoon of soldiers stormed the medbay and shot at the Fury’s back without warning. Without turning he lifted his free hand and they all levitated. When he made a fist, they exploded from the inside out, painting most of the medbay’s entrance red.

  Sarah was suffocating and about to lose consciousness when someone kicked her assailant in the face and sent him flying against the far wall of the medbay. Sarah fell on the ground and much needed air finally entered her system. She wheezed heavily.

  When she looked at who had intervened she couldn’t believe her eyes. She must have been hallucinating from the lack of oxygen.

  Argos!

  C H A P T E R

  XVIII

  It took a while for Keera and Jonas to defeat all the security protocols protecting the ancient tech, but after several hours they finally broke through the last lock. The doors to the heavily secured room split open.

  “Good job you two,” said Ryonna.

  The room was so dark they couldn’t see anything inside. But then a scanning beam hit them from head to toe.

  “Unauthorized personnel detected,” said the onboard station computer. “Security protocol ninety-nine activated.”

  Two yellow, animalistic eyes turned on against the darkness of the room, not far from them.

  Lights came on and revealed a feline-looking, four-legged battle droid in front of a large glass cylinder. Its giant mouth opened and unleashed a synthetic roar that froze everyone’s blood.

  Ryonna was the first to react and started shooting at the mechanical beast with her freshly charged blaster, but the shots were deflected by the droid’s heavy shields. It reacted to the attack nonetheless and thrust its large, metal paws at Ryonna, who barely managed to dodge the attack by rolling to the side. Jonas wasn’t so lucky. He was thrown against the corridor wall with so much force that the wall bent upon impact. Blood shot from his mouth.

  Keera went for her battle rifle and opened fire on the beast while running towards it. It tried to slash her too but she dropped and slid under it and rolled to the side. By that time Ryonna had resumed fire, but the droid’s shields were holding.

  “This is not happening,” said Keera. “Its shields are too strong.” She used her combat rifle in grenade-launcher mode. Again to no avail, other than illuminating the droid’s shield and making sure she kept its attention on her.

  Ryonna caught sight of one of the super-suits.

  “Distract it just for a few more seconds,” she said. “I’ve got an idea.”

  The droid’s gaze turned to Ryonna so Keera resumed firing rapid, heavy laser shots at the beast, which once again turned its attention towards her.

  She ran around the room, still blindly firing at the droid which was in full pursuit. She almost dodged the beast’s next slash of its metal claws, but the tip slashed through part of her light body armor. Before she could register the pain, the metallic tail of the beast hit her squarely in the jaw and sent her crashing yards away.

  When she blinked her eyes opened, the beast was above her, on its two back legs, ready to strike the final blow that would carve her into human sashimi. She tried moving away but her body refused to obey.

  Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the fully extended claws came towards her. But then a dark, armored silhouette jumped at the droid beast and pushed it out of the way. One of the droid’s claws passed near Keera’s eyes, cutting some of the green hair that hung down in front of her forehead.

  Keera managed to get back on one knee as the droid beast and the armored silhouette tumbled, rolled and crashed against the nearby wall, destroying much of the room’s equipment on their way. Sparks flew from the dented walls. Small pieces of glass from a nearby wall monitor were thrown all over the place as it exploded shortly after the impact. Keera protected her eyes as many of the glass shards flew her way.

  “Keera!” That was Ryonna’s voice.

  Keera realized the armored person was Ryonna.

  “Enter the other combat suit! It’s our only chance,” yelled Ryonna.

  Keera ran towards it without hesitation. For a fraction of a second she didn’t know what to do, but there was one big, green control button next to the glass holding the suit. When she pressed it, the cylinder turned on its vertical axis and the back of the suit melted away. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but the adrenaline pumping through her system compelled her to enter the suit from the back. Soon a holo-display appeared in her field of view and she felt the back of the suit close on her backside.

  * * *

  “Pick on someone your own size, Shadow Hunter,” said Argos.

  Timoros got back up and swiped a little blood from the cut in his right cheek before smiling.

  “This must be my lucky day. Both my targets in the same place. This will make my job easier.”

  Argos had no doubt that Miseo had sent the Shadow Hunter to do his dirty work. He also knew how difficult, and most likely impossible, would be the task of defeating this particular Fury. The Shadow Hunter was one of the most powerful in the ranks of Fury warriors, easily rivalling Miseo. But Argos only needed to buy time, so that Ares could arrive with the elixir and bring Chase back to finish the job.

  “There won’t be anything easy for you today, that much I can promise you.”

  Timoros swiped the forearm of his armor and it morphed to cover his face. Only his evil eyes shone through.

  Argos didn’t wait. He brought his energy to bear and grew his aura. The ground shook and he went on the offensive, attacking Timoros with a skillful display of martial arts, interspersed with fireballs at strategic moments. His technique was nearly flawless and he was managing his first objective well: keeping his enemy at bay. But Argos was not landing many blows and didn’t do any serious damage to his opponent.

  Argos couldn’t tell if this was enough to buy the time they needed, or if Timoros was just studying his fighting patterns. The Shadow Hunter’s ability to defeat more powerful enemies than himself was legendary amongst the Fury. He had an innate ability to find the chink in almost any armor. Still, Argos had no choice but to give everything he had as a diversion. It was a risky proposition at best. He had no idea how long he could keep this up.

  After only a couple of minutes, Timoros was blocking and dodging more attacks with increased efficiency, sometimes using Argos’ aggressiveness against him. At one point Timoros managed to use Argos’ own momentum to get the upper hand, sending him crashing to the ground. He then pressed his advantage and sent a flurry of small fireballs at Argos, finishing by fiercely kicking him around the medbay.

  Argos recovered in midair by whirling in a ball and boun
cing against the wall to thrust himself back at his opponent at incredible speed. Timoros didn’t expect this and Argos landed a crushing jab into the Fury’s face, forcing him backwards, away from Chase’s stasis chamber.

  Argos knew how volatile things would become if they stayed in the medbay, so he pushed his current advantage by unleashing faster and more complex combos that forced Timoros to retreat further. Near the entrance Timoros slipped in the pool of blood left by the officers he had slaughtered just minutes before.

  This gave Argos the perfect opportunity and he flew towards Timoros’ falling body with both his fists extended in front of him, effectively propelling the Shadow Hunter outside the medbay and ramming him into the adjacent corridor wall.

  It wasn’t long before Timoros got back up, but he shook his head, which Argos decided was a good sign. He erected a force shield between them, determined to win as much time as possible. Timoros punched the wall made of pure energy several times but it held. Argos was optimizing the use of his pool of energy, even though it was already quite low, by choosing methods that would be most effective at delaying the inevitable. He couldn’t possible hope to win this fight.

  Timoros lost patience and sent powerful fireballs at the energy wall. They grew bigger in size and power until one went through. Argos deflected it with the back of his hand and sent it towards the ceiling. The ceiling panels exploded and burned, and sparking wiring dropped down.

  “Why are you doing this, Argos? Why are you fighting against your own people? And why are you toying with me? None of your attacks seem designed to inflict serious damage.”

  Argos wasn’t surprised that Timoros had seen through his tactic.

  “My people? Are you talking about the same people who sent you to assassinate me and my brother? The same people who almost killed me as a thank you for releasing them from their eternal prison? I was a fool thinking I needed the rest of you. I should have let you rot in your damned dimension. There are only two Furies that deserve to live, and you’re trying to kill them both.”