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

by Christian Kallias

  “Looks like I’m late to this party.”

  “That’s alright. We’re fine,” said Chase.

  He rose and vigorously rubbed his hand in his son’s hair. “Thanks in part for this one.”

  Sarah took Chase’s hand. “Haven’t you forgotten someone?”

  Chase looked in her eyes and then turned towards Argos, who was unconscious and still bleeding with his back against the wall. “What? Him? Are we seriously entertaining the thought of healing him?”

  Ares took a step forward. “If it wasn’t for him we would never have procured the elixir to bring you back. As much as it pains me to say this, I think we owe him that much.”

  “And he saved my life too, Chase. Twice,” added Sarah.

  “Very well. Let’s hope we’re not gonna regret this one day.”

  Chase shot a white spherical energy blast at his brother Argos. Upon impact the energy diffused all over Argos’s body and his wounds healed in a matter of seconds.

  Argos opened his eyes and saw everyone’s attention directed at him.

  “Where’s the Shadow Hunter?”

  “He’s been taken care of,” said Chase coldly.

  “Good. Why is everyone looking at me?”

  “No reason,” said Chase. “Congratulations. You’ve managed to help us defeat your former friends and, in doing so, made yourself their enemy as well. I can’t imagine what must be going through your mind this instant, but thank you.”

  Argos didn’t answer. He rose and dusted himself off before crossing his arms against his chest. “What now?”

  “Now,” said Ares, “I wish I could tell you we could all go and rest, but there is an armada of Zarlack ships coming to Earth as we speak, accompanied by a fully functional Fury super destroyer.”

  “Business as usual then,” said Chase with a smile.

  “Chase. This won’t be an easy battle,” retorted Ares.

  “They never are. But together I know we can prevail,” answered Chase with more calm than he ever thought possible.

  * * *

  Chase and Saroudis went over the commodore’s battle plan aboard the Hope, in the captain’s ready room with Cedric and Yanis. They presented their new tech, which they thought could be useful if they managed to find a way to get them on board multiple Zarlack ships.

  They discussed their strategy and went over all the data they had received from their long-range probes.

  “The Fury shields will be our biggest issue, as well as their firepower.”

  Chase went to the viewport and looked at the magnificent view of Earth and the distant stars all around it.

  It had been so long since he saw the stars. It felt good to be home.

  “When will they arrive?” Chase inquired.

  “Long range sensors have detected their approach. They’ll be here in less than an hour,” said Saroudis.

  “Then we’d better prepare.”

  The communication officer entered. “We have an incoming transmission from an unidentified ship requesting to talk with either Lieutenant Athanatos or Commodore Saroudis.”

  The call was transferred to the ready room’s main holo-projector. It was Keera and Ryonna.

  “It’s really good to see you up and about, Chase. We’re bringing in a piece of ancient tech that could be very helpful in developing new, powerful weapons. If we can reverse engineer it, that is.”

  Yanis stepped in. “I think she means me. I mean us,” Yanis corrected himself when Cedric looked at him.

  Ryonna then proceeded to detail what types of weapons had already been made using this tech, including the armor they still wore. That gave Chase an idea about how to put them to good use in what was to come next.

  “Good job to the both of you. You’re authorized to land aboard the Hope. We might need your help in what’s to come,” said Chase.

  When both Ryonna and Keera joined them, they continued their briefing and Chase exposed his plan on how to repel the incoming attack. It was a gamble, but the crew had learned to trust his ideas, no matter how farfetched they sounded.

  “Everyone clear on what they need to do?”

  All of Chase’s friends responded positively.

  “Then let’s protect our home. Earth has been our last sanctuary this past year, a beacon of hope in this galaxy, and there’s no way we’re going to let it fall today.”

  * * *

  Chase went to see Argos in the mess hall. The place was empty except for his brother. Chase could understand why other members of his crew would not want to be anywhere near Argos. He had been responsible for so much death, and Chase could feel the tension on board with Argos permitted to roam free.

  He had issued a security bulletin to inform the members of the Earth Alliance about Argos’ new status as an ally, at least temporarily. But he could feel the disdain, fear and sometimes hatred that others felt.

  Chase’s senses seemed so much more attuned than they ever were before. He could perceive so many things now that he had to make a conscious effort to tune most of it out so he could hear his own thoughts. It took some getting used to.

  “We need to talk,” said Chase, sitting in front of Argos.

  “What about? I wasn’t invited to your briefing. So I take it you don’t trust me.” Argos took a large chunk from a yellow-red apple.

  “Can you blame us? Everything that is happening right now is because of you. And while you’ve done a lot to redeem yourself today, you know very well that you can’t erase the past. Billions have died. You nearly exterminated an entire world. Droxia is a mere shadow of itself.”

  “I don’t need a lecture. What do you want me to do?”

  “Right now I don’t really know. We have more urgent matters than discussing your fate. I can’t guarantee that the Earth Alliance won’t eventually demand your execution. But if you have anything to contribute, any information that could help us, then maybe it could help your case.”

  “You know I could just get away during the battle.”

  “I know. But where would you go? You’re all alone now. You don’t have any forces left. It’s time to ask yourself what you really want.”

  Chase got up from his chair.

  “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. But I’m grateful for your help these past few days. I never expected you to do this.”

  “Since we’re being honest with each other, I never expected it either. Right now you have a battle to fight, and I’m willing to pledge my allegiance to you one more time. If only to wipe Miseo’s smug smile off his face. So if you need me, I’ll fight for you.”

  Chase could use his help. Part of him still didn’t trust Argos, but he had to admit that he could be of strategic value in his plan to repel the enemy.

  “And after this battle . . .” said Argos.

  “What?”

  “Well, if you want your memory back, it can be arranged.”

  “I’ll have to think about that. I like who I am. I’m not sure I want to know who I was before all this started. I am, however, more interested in knowing if you can help my son regarding his accelerated growth. He wants to reach the age of seventeen before allowing us to try to stop his growth. But at the rate he’s growing, this is just a matter of days. Is there anything you can do for him?”

  “I’ll need to take a closer look at him. While I can’t promise anything, I’m willing to give it a try.”

  “That’s good enough for me. Thanks. Now suit up. You’ll be needed soon.”

  C H A P T E R

  XXI

  Miseo was before the bridge’s large viewport when the Crimson Shadow exited hyperspace near Pluto. He had arrived a little earlier than the Zarlack fleet, thanks to his ship’s more advanced hyperspace engines.

  “Your orders, Master?” Inquired a crew member.

  Miseo didn’t care to know the names of his underlings. They just needed to obey his every order.

  “Wait for the Zarlack fleet to arrive and
then set a course for Earth at maximum sub-light speed.”

  “There’s an incoming transmission from Supreme Commander Arakan.”

  “I’ll take it in my ready room.”

  When Miseo sat comfortably in his command chair, in his spacious and luxuriously furnished ready room, he took his father’s call.

  “How dare you making me wait so long before answering my call?”

  “I didn’t want to talk in front of the crew. What can I do for you, Father?”

  “I’ve just been informed that the Olympian was never transferred back to the surface as I had ordered. Is she still on board your ship?”

  “I’ve been busy preparing the plan of attack, so I’ll take your word for it. Why is it a problem anyway?”

  “We have no way of knowing what will happen if the device is either destroyed or stolen! It was reckless of you to take it with you. Perhaps you should delay your attack on Earth and bring her back here. Or at least have her transferred to one of the Zarlack ships and sent back home.”

  “Too risky. The Earth Alliance could easily destroy that ship. It’s unfortunate that she’s still on board, but it can be used to my advantage, should the unlikely scenario of losing this battle ever arise.”

  Arakan’s eyes grew smaller.

  “You’ve done it on purpose? As insurance? What if the Crimson Shadow is destroyed? This could send us back to the dimensional prison!”

  “Or it wouldn’t and you would be forever safe from it.”

  “That was not your gamble to make! There will be repercussions for this.”

  Arakan cut off the communication.

  I have no doubt. Except that when I’m done dealing with the pathetic Earthlings, I’m coming for you next.

  A bright flash coming from the viewport caught Miseo’s attention and for a second he thought the rest of the Zarlack fleet had arrived. He rose from his chair and walked to the viewport to take a closer look.

  Chase stood there, less than two hundred yards outside the ship, protected by a light-blue force field.

  So Argos managed to save Chase’s life. I should never have trusted that snake.

  A body hung from one of Chase’s hands. He threw it towards Miseo’s viewport. There was no mistaking it, no matter how wounded he was and without his armor. Timoros was free flying towards Miseo. As he exited Chase’s force field, the cold of space flash-froze whatever was left of the Shadow Hunter, and his body broke into a thousand frozen pieces when it impacted with the reinforced glass of the Crimson Shadow’s viewport.

  You’re next, heard Miseo in his mind before Chase disappeared.

  “We’ll just see about that,” answered Miseo out loud.

  The Zarlack fleet jumped out of hyperspace and, as ordered, the entire fleet accelerated to maximum sub-light speed on their way towards Earth.

  * * *

  When Chase returned to the Hope, he paid a visit to Yanis and Cedric, who were both hard at work analyzing whatever they could from the piece of technology Ryonna and Keera had brought back with them, as well as whatever was left of the Shadow Hunter’s armor.

  “Anything to report?” asked Chase.

  “You do realize it’s barely been an hour, right?” answered Yanis.

  “So nothing?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. While it will take a significant time to determine all that this technology has to offer, we did find, accidentally, what we think its origins might be.”

  “Pray tell?”

  “It’s Fury tech. It’s very old, but we knew that already. But when we started scanning the thing I noticed something familiar about its frequency, something I had seen not too long ago. And guess what, my eidetic memory paid off. This thing emits the same frequency as the shields on board the smaller Fury craft, their starfighters.”

  “Please tell me it means what I think it means?”

  “Yes, we can adapt our weapons to be able to penetrate Fury shields. At least the starfighter ones.”

  “What about the destroyer?”

  “Not a chance. It’s a completely different frequency. I don’t think the smaller ships and their destroyers share a similar design, for what reason I don’t know.”

  “Does that mean we can destroy their starfighters easily?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. Cedric is working on the random rotation algorithm used to cycle their shields. Like most advanced starfighters, ours included, the shields are in a constant frequency cycle so that the enemy can never just scan the current frequency and adapt their weapons to match it. Having the source frequency makes the job easier, but it will take days if not weeks to find the exact rotation cycle, to be a one hundred percent match to their shields. However, we should have an approximated mathematical formula that should allow us to be much more efficient against them. That means our StarFuries will more often than not deliver effective hits on their shields, sometimes even blast through them.”

  “That’s the kind of news I was hoping for.”

  “And yet that’s not the best news.”

  “Oh?” Chase was genuinely surprised. “What’s the best news then?”

  “We’ve analyzed their secondary firing mode, and it seems to be linked to the ship’s shields. It’s definitely part of the same system. As I’m sure the commodore told you, their ability to disable other starfighters in close proximity makes them way more dangerous than any other starfighter-class ships we have encountered until now. With that ability alone they could wipe out our StarFuries. Since it’s based on their shield frequency, we think, in fact, that it’s an extended pulse emanating from their shields as they fire that weapon. We can program our StarFuries’ shields with that algorithm so the pulse won’t pass through and disable our fighters, which would be bad.”

  “Very bad indeed.”

  “But then again, since we will use the same approximated algorithm, it means our StarFuries will still get hit every time they fire that particular weapon, which we hope won’t be too often once they realize it has little to no effect.”

  “How much of a drain will it take?”

  “Depending on distance, anywhere between fifteen and forty-five percent. So it’s still not something we want them to use on us too much, but I doubt they can fire it that often.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “The sensor logs showed a very big drop in power when the starfighters used that tactic against the Brin squadrons. While they’re probably not a one-off type of weapon, such a power drain indicates it requires a long charging time.”

  “Okay, so we should be mostly fine if they use this firing method, which is indeed great news. How long until you can have it ready? We will engage the enemy in less than ten minutes.”

  “As always it’s up to the geeky scientists to come up with last minute updates to save your asses, but I digress. As soon as we’re ready, within the next twenty minutes I hope,” said Yanis, looking at Cedric who flashed him a thumbs up. “Then we’ll send the necessary updates to the StarFuries onboard computers via subspace link. I’ve already written a program so they can receive and make the necessary changes on the fly, even if you’ve already left the carriers.”

  “Thanks, Yanis, as always. I don’t know what we would do without you.”

  “Now go, Captain, we really need to stay focused to deliver these modifications on time.”

  Chase smiled and teleported away from the engineering room directly to the bridge.

  “Did he just beam out of here?” said Cedric. “Did we install teleporters as standard now?”

  “No, while we can beam nukes and the such, we haven’t really had time to test biological beam outs, nor the side effects this means of transportation could have on living tissue.”

  “So how the hell did he do that?”

  “I’ve long since stopped asking such questions when Chase is concerned.”

  “Would you mind theorizing at least?”

  “Look, Cedric, Chase can fly, he can move objects with his
mind, shoot fireballs, erect shields, control entire ships with his mind, heal the . . .” Yanis paused for a second and swallowed, that reference still being too fresh in his mind. “Heal the dying, so it was only a matter of time before he would add teleportation to that repertoire.”

  “Kewl,” said Cedric before resuming his work on the algorithm.

  * * *

  Chase was glad to finally be back in the captain’s chair of the Hope. It had been a long time since he had piloted any starships. As agreed with Commodore Saroudis, he would control more than half of the fleet mentally. While Saroudis was still technically in charge of the fleet and had the final say, he trusted Chase when it came to tactics and thinking outside the box, so Chase would give the orders to the fleet.

  He had assigned Sarah, Daniel, Keera and Ryonna to StarFuries. While Ryonna and Keera weren’t the most apt fighter pilots, their other talents would come in handy. They had each been given a subspace-link Trojan horse device for their mission. While Chase wasn’t too keen on having Sarah go on her own aboard a Zarlack vessel, Chris argued he had to go with her and, while he didn’t like that much either, at least he knew that with his powers he could defend his mother should trouble arise. Keera and Ryonna had their super-suits for defense, and Argos agreed to go along with Daniel, though he would be flying outside the StarFury, since he was in charge of opening small windows in the enemies’ shields and he could only do that in space. Yanis had provided him with portable stealth tech so he wouldn’t be targeted by the destroyer, something Chase had no doubt would happen if Miseo saw Argos fly around in space.

  Argos also provided very good intel on where to hit the shields and where to enter the ships for maximum efficiency when boarding the Zarlack ships.

  The Earth Alliance fleet, while incomplete with most of the Droxian ships back on Droxia, was still massive, definitely the largest fleet they had ever taken into combat since the fall of the Star Alliance. More than sixty ships, including twenty next-generation destroyers like the Hope, older retrofitted vessels with now almost similar fire power, like the Destiny and the Cronos. And an additional twenty something Obsidian ships, which had also received some tech upgrades from the Alliance, and a dozen Droxian destroyers. And yet Chase had that same feeling he’d had during so many previous battles: that it would be a costly battle with some surprises they might not be ready for.