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

by Christian Kallias

  But there was no dodging it. This fight needed to happen. What made things really tricky was that they couldn’t really destroy the Fury ship. Ares had told Chase about the presence of Aphroditis on board the ship, and that concerned him greatly. He had no doubt Miseo had done that on purpose, and that would make things more complicated.

  The Alliance had churned out a large fleet in the past few weeks. All top of the line, powerful ships like the Hope, most of which would be mentally controlled by Chase. He had also requested an entire destroyer to be crewless, should he need to sacrifice it in the midst of battle. Based on her visions, Sarah had warned Chase that Saroudis might sacrifice the Destiny and his life. He decided it was better to sacrifice a crewless destroyer if that became necessary.

  Chase felt the ships approaching even before his crew relayed the information. Thirty-two Zarlack ships and the Fury destroyer in tow. The Fury ship was staying at the back of the formation, and no doubt they’d find out why soon enough.

  “Battle stations everyone,” said Chase.

  As soon as the Zarlack ships entered firing range, volleys of torpedoes flew and long range laser batteries opened fire on both sides. The Zarlacks also launched their waves of starfighters, and so did the Alliance.

  The largest battle the Earth Alliance had ever fought had begun.

  Chase lost no time firing the Hope’s main guns at the nearest Zarlack destroyer. He brought about two more destroyers and had them fire their main guns as well. The moment its shields were down, Chase sent a triple volley of torpedoes to take care of his first Zarlack ship. It was overkill, but he needed to make a statement early in the battle. The Zarlack destroyer exploded and briefly lit up the battle theater with a bright yellow flash.

  The first phase of Chase’s plan was to reduce the number of Zarlack destroyers in the armada down to the four ships they actually wanted to hijack, all the while evaluating the weapons and shield capabilities of the real threat, the Fury super destroyer. It was massive beyond reason. The already gigantic Zarlack behemoth-class ships looked small in comparison. It was tens of miles long, a beast of a ship really, probably able to move a hundred thousand troops at a time.

  The Destiny and four escort vessels used a similar tactic to dispatch their first kill. Two down. Twenty-six to go.

  * * *

  Sarah was amongst the first StarFuries to launch into space and engage the enemy. She was a little conflicted at having Chris on her backseat.

  “Ready, son?”

  “I am. Looking forward to it, in fact.”

  “If my father was still alive, I would never hear the end of the argument about taking you with me into the heart of battle.”

  “I wish I could have known Grandpa, but don’t worry. At least if the ship explodes I can save both our lives by erecting a shield around us.”

  And just like that, she realized that even though she had all the reflexes of a normal mother, she wasn’t one. Her son was a Fury hybrid with powers beyond understanding, probably second to none except for those of his father.

  “Entering firing range, Chris. Get ready. Engaging.”

  Sarah flew her wing in a standard V formation, her ship in front. Very soon the darkness of space was replaced with laser fire flying all over the place. Sarah went evasive and chose her first target. She deployed her drones and pounded its shields with great efficiency. As soon as they were down she claimed her first kill with a well-locked missile on her target’s engine. It exploded in a thousand pieces.

  “Nice kill!” exclaimed Chris.

  “Having fun?”

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to fly one on my own.”

  A second squadron came to add firepower to their own.

  “Seems like Dad is covering us,” said Chris.

  Sarah checked her instruments. Omega squadron was remotely controlled by Chase. He wanted to make sure nothing happened to the two most important people in his life. It was romantic, but also a little vexing. Sarah decided to focus on the romantic part. When her shields lit up from incoming enemy fire, she put her focus back into the battle, where it belonged.

  One thing was clear very rapidly: the Zarlacks no longer tried to crash their own ships into the StarFuries to take them down. Which was a surprise. That made them much easier targets, and Sarah wished she knew why the tactics had changed.

  She opened a channel to Argos.

  “Any reason the ships aren’t trying to ram us anymore?”

  There was a little static and she couldn’t make out his answer.

  Argos proceeded to answer telepathically. I think that damn cloak is interfering with my portable comm unit. To answer your question, I think the Furies have brought almost every last remaining behemoth Zarlack with them. I think Miseo would rather not waste resources unless absolutely necessary; but in this case it’s a mistake, since your StarFuries are so much more powerful. I was the one who decided that it would yield a more efficient kill ratio by sacrificing the starfighters to take out the StarFuries.

  “Well it’s a good thing for us, then. And we had figured as much about their kamikaze tactics back then.”

  Three fighters vectored towards Sarah’s ship. They inflicted damage on her starboard shields but she quickly reacted by going evasive, while her drones provided alternative targets as they fired on her pursuers aft shields. When they gained on her—at least that’s what she wanted them to believe—she activated her reverse engines and they shot past her. She picked them off one by one, eliminating the first and center bogie with two missiles and powerfully charged, slower laser fire. Then she sent her drones against one target while she locked onto the third. She rained ultra-rapid, low-power laser fire to bring its shield down and then did the switch: her ship and her drones inverted positions and the drones finished off the fighter with ease, while Sarah finished draining the third and last fighter’s shields. She switched her main firing weapons to heavy, slower fire and scored three direct hits. Pieces of armor flew towards her and she maneuvered her ship out of the way, to finally line up the kill shot. The Zarlack starfighter exploded and she flew through the explosion.

  Then something happened. A large column of energy shot past her ship a good three miles away and was no danger to her or her squadron, but not only did it take out three Alliance destroyers that were on its path, but the massive energy beam impacted with the planet’s shield as well. A gigantic yellow shield illuminated and deflected the beam, radiating orange-red, secondary pulses of energy away from the point of impact. It looked like a titanic version of the Hope’s own plasma beam Damocles cannon.

  Sarah looked at the source. It came from the Fury destroyer. Its range was immense. The ship was so far away from the main battle theater, and yet its shot reached Earth. It had been suspiciously inactive until now, but a quick look at her ship’s instruments told her that this weapon could drain Earth’s defensive shield quickly.

  C H A P T E R

  XXII

  And here comes Miseo’s ace in the hole. Now the real battle begins.

  Chase knew that the Fury super destroyer would eventually come into the equation. But he never thought it would be able to shoot such a powerful beam of energy at such long distances. This would really complicate things. Not only did it put the entire planet at risk, but it also effectively put a ticking deadline on this battle. This weapon had to be disabled within the next hour or Chase couldn’t even imagine the kind of damage it would do to the planet. It could very well, in time, pierce through its crust and destroy it altogether by destabilizing the core.

  Chase would have to remove the main opposition forces first, the twenty plus behemoth Zarlack ships they were currently engaged with. Chase brought about five of the Alliance destroyers on the next target and their added firepower quickly brought its shields down. Before they reached fifteen percent, Chase locked a volley of torpedoes and fired them.

  But then an energy beam from the Fury super destroyer hit the Zarlack ship before the torpedoes were eve
n halfway to their target. It radiated over its shields and split into smaller energy beams that hit the plating armor of the behemoth destroyer. It lasted only a couple of seconds but it recharged the Zarlack’s shield back to one hundred percent.

  When the torpedoes hit them, they exploded without any significant damage besides lowering the shields a negligible amount.

  The same tactic was repeated with three other Zarlack ships currently engaged by the Destiny, the Cronos and a mixed group of Droxian and Obsidian destroyers.

  “We have a serious problem,” said Chase out loud.

  Chase was aware how much of an understatement that was. If the Fury kept recharging the shields of the Zarlack ships before they were destroyed, they could keep this going for a long time, and time was exactly what the Alliance was lacking.

  To make things worse, Fury starfighters were launched and added their superior firepower to the Zarlack squadrons. Things were looking grim, and Chase had to come up with a plan to turn things around, and fast.

  They would need more firepower for each target now, which would leave them more vulnerable to attack, but there was no choice. They also needed to find a way to destroy that weapon before it drained Earth’s shields. The first layer made of defense satellites would soon fail.

  Chase ordered tighter formations of destroyers to attack the Zarlack behemoth destroyers. Eight Alliance ships fired their superior main weapons at the next target, leaving it no chance to recharge. It was obliterated in seconds. That left them open to receiving more fire from other enemy ships. Chase made a quick mental calculation as to how long they could keep up this tactic and it came short. This was temporary at best. Eventually he would have to come up with something else.

  He also needed to move on the second part of his plan faster, so he sent the boarding StarFuries on their mission ahead of schedule. Sarah, Daniel, Keera and Ryonna received the orders to each infiltrate a Zarlack destroyer, which would be a much more difficult proposition in the midst of the current chaotic battle, but they couldn’t wait anymore.

  Chase felt mentally tired, having to orchestrate the battle while piloting a full squadron of StarFuries, as well as the crewless destroyer in his formation. He heard Chris’s voice inside his mind. Dad, I can take over flying the StarFuries for you.

  Your mission is to protect your mother when you board the enemy ship. I’d rather you didn’t split your focus.

  Don’t worry about me. I can take the strain, plus I have an idea to reduce the numbers of ships currently targeting your battle group.

  Chase hesitated for a second but could use all the help he could get. He remembered what he had learned in the underworld. Victory no longer rested on his shoulders alone. If they were to succeed, they would all need to play their part and he would have to trust them.

  Very well, son, you can take over Omega squadron. Thanks for the help.

  My pleasure.

  Chase’s battle group homed in on their next target the moment their main guns had recharged. As soon as it entered firing range, the enemy Zarlack destroyer would be history, and while each kill was satisfying and lowered the enemy’s overall firepower, the shields of the ships within his battle group were dropping at an alarming rate. Chase made the necessary power distribution adjustments, like redirecting secondary power and some of life support to the shields, which only provided a short-lived boost in shield efficiency. This was only a temporary patch while he thought of a way to turn things around.

  * * *

  Spiros was watching the battle unfold on the holo-screen in the training facility control room. It didn’t look good. While it was a balanced conflict more or less, with losses on both sides, he didn’t like that the Fury ship had not taken part in the battle itself. But perhaps that could be explained by the unimaginable amount of power that main weapon was delivering against the planet’s shields. When Spiros had first seen the specs, power requirement and efficiency of those shields, he hadn’t thought a beam of energy from a single ship could take it down so quickly.

  “Gaia. We have to find a way to either boost the shields or reduce the amount of power reaching them,” said Spiros

  “I know. I’ve been using all my CPU to come up with a solution.”

  “Any bright ideas?”

  “The ones I have are neither efficient nor long term.”

  “We may have to implement short term patches to give our ships time to disable that weapon altogether.”

  “I have run a simulation on the battle as well, and I’m afraid the odds don’t look good in that regard either.”

  “It’s understandable that you’d do something like this, but you can’t discount Man’s ability to come up with a solution to avoid his own demise. Chase seems to shine in these exact situations.”

  “And while my analysis of previous battles would support your statement, today he seems unable to come up with such tactics, though I have to admit that he has implemented the most logical, efficient way to deal with such overwhelming forces so far.”

  “Give him time. How can we boost the shields?”

  “I have written a way to super-fast charge the shields, but it would require a moment of respite from the current constant taxing they are subjected to. Another solution, which I cannot in good conscience propose, is to overload the power stations with every single ounce of juice from the entire planet in order to boost their power by fifty percent.”

  “Wouldn’t that cut all power on Earth besides the shields?”

  “That’s why I didn’t suggested it earlier. It would take weeks or more for normal operation to resume on the surface, and it would most definitely lead to casualties.”

  “We may have to flip that switch, and you know it.”

  Gaia stayed silent.

  Spiros looked at his sensors and saw a subspace transmission being emitted from their ship. Its power levels were off the charts.

  “What’s that?” he inquired. “Why are we transmitting gibberish on all channels? What’s going on?”

  “I’m sorry but . . . I think it’s our only chance.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What did you do? What is that signal for?”

  * * *

  Chris took over the StarFury squadrons. He loved the feeling. Using his mind to take control of the starfighters was exhilarating. And even though this was his first dogfight, he was very proficient in flying the squadrons, and he soon got rid of enemy fighters by the dozen. He decided to use every one of the StarFuries’ drones as a single entity, granting the full squadron the biggest firepower outside the destroyers engaged in the battle.

  Meanwhile his mother was approaching the shields of the Zarlack target they needed to board and hack. He vectored his remote squadron to make a hole in the opposing heavy resistance her wing was facing while in approach. For the last part of the approach she would use the cloak to avoid as much heavy defensive fire as possible from the destroyer’s laser batteries.

  Once he had successfully carved a path for their own StarFury to make its final approach towards their target, Argos did his part and created a hole in the ship’s shields. Soon they landed at their target coordinates aboard the Zarlack destroyer and exited their StarFury.

  They encountered resistance in the form of Zarlack guards the moment they exited their now-cloaked starfighter.

  Chris was the first to exit and it didn’t take long to take out the guards with fireballs. When the firing stopped Sarah exited the ship.

  While they moved towards the data point where they needed to install their hacking device, Chris kept flying the remote StarFuries in order to provide the other three teams with support, so they could also land their ships and accomplish their missions.

  It took only a few minutes to reach the location Argos had given them for implanting the device.

  “Cover me,” said Sarah as she deployed the device according to Yanis’ instructions.

  The ship’s internal alarms wailed all around them and two platoons
of Zarlack foot soldiers converged on them. Chris erected a shield big enough to engulf his mother while he dispatched the Zarlack soldiers with a mix of shockwaves and fireballs.

  “How much longer?” he asked.

  “I’m almost done.”

  “The sooner we go the better.”

  “Done. Let’s go.”

  Chris easily dispatched the foot soldiers on their path while they retraced their steps towards the StarFury, only to find something they didn’t expect waiting for them in front of their starfighter. A Fury stood there in full combat armor.

  “This wasn’t part of the plan,” said Sarah.

  “No, not to mention that the other teams don’t have the firepower to take even a single Fury, should one of them await them on board as well.”

  Chris sent a telepathic message to inform Chase of this new development and then engaged the Fury blocking their way out.

  Fortunately for them, he was nowhere near as powerful as the Shadow Hunter Chris had fought earlier.

  But Chris had lost a lot of juice repelling wave after wave of Zarlack troops, so he needed to make this fight short. And short it was. The Fury clearly underestimated the young boy, and when he sent three fireballs to get rid of him, he lowered his guard, thinking the battle was over.

  When Chris emerged from the smoke of the explosion made by the Fury’s weak attacks, he caught the enemy off guard. Chris unleashed a series of ultrafast combos and finished with a beam of energy that consumed the Fury’s head.

  When the attack ended, the headless Fury fell on its back, smoke still rising from his neck.