“I’ll have Hyperion protect the transports,” Red Lotus said as she and her plasma cannon outfitted fighters swarmed in to serve as defense sentries.
“Understood,” Aura said. “Gladius and Rapier squadrons spread out, search and watch out.”
“I still have nightmares about chasing the Crimson Arrow out here,” Orbital said, while his fighter along with the remaining Gladius and Rapier fighters conducted their search of the nearby asteroid cluster.
The search lasted two minutes before small asteroids began to rumble and move on their own toward the evacuation transports. Aura couldn’t believe what she saw as she rolled her craft away; narrowing being crushed by the huge chuck of rock that was flung her way.
“Watch it!” another pilot yelled over the radio as their fighter was nearly crushed by two hurling asteroids.
Aura saw four asteroids smack into a larger one where some of the transports had hid behind. The impact forced it to shift away and ultimately forced the transport to power its engines and move. Other asteroids that were tossed toward the evacuation transports stopped mid-way during their trajectory changed direction started moving again, chasing the transports as if they were remotely controlled.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Aura bellowed.
“We got it,” Red Lotus said as combined plasma fire from Hyperion squadron obliterated all threats spinning and spiraling toward them and the transport convoy.
More asteroids began to hurl toward them, some of them larger than the first wave. “It’s using telekinesis to move the asteroids,” Aura said.
The search for the psionic ace became a search for the nearest asteroid moving via the mind of the psionic, and blasting it into tiny fragments of rocks with plasma missiles or cannons. One after another, the asteroids exploded, their defense of the evacuation transports became a real-life game of Asteroids, on the hardest level.
Aura saw several more hurling rocks come toward them from her side. She spun her fighter to face them. “Got more coming in,” she said, while highlighting them with her HUD and sent the data to the rest of the group. “My targets follow me now.”
Four fighters joined her as she moved closer in firing range of the group of asteroids. Her HUD reported a lock and she fired a plasma missile. Four lines of smoke left in the wake of the missiles as they excelled ahead and exploded on impact, another asteroid was gone.
A red light flashed on her holographic HUD, a warning stating she had two missiles remaining. Oh bollocks, she thought as she noticed, multiple asteroids from all around them began to move. She and the fighters with her were far too spread out to take them all out, and like her, were probably low on missiles. It’s going to up to Hyperion to take these out if this keeps up. She knew damn well they too would be overwhelmed with the task. “We got to get the convoy out of here now!” Aura said.
“Where? Through the belt?” Wildfire asked. “It will only get worse.”
“Need to go up and around it.”
“It will take longer to get to the inner planets.”
“We got no choice,” Aura said, pulling her fighter closer toward the evacuation convoy. “Let’s get them moving now.”
The OK was given for the convoy to move. The transports powered their engines and pulled up above the asteroid belt, away from the rocks of death, and on a lengthy detour to the inner planets. Red Lotus ordered Hyperion to cover them from behind as another group of asteroids changed direction and began hauling toward the fleeing ships. Blue light streaked below Aura’s fighter, it was the engines from a Hashmedai interceptor with red stripes, it’s ace pilot exited from its hiding place beside a large asteroid. It arched itself upward, using the asteroids it was moving with its mind as cover as it got closer and closer into weapons range of Hyperion.
“There!” Aura shouted with excitement as she highlighted the psionic ace with her HUD. “My target, my target!”
Aura’s fighter began to chase the psionic ace without the aid of the rest of the fighters as they were still receiving her HUD’s transmission. As a result she found herself alone, shifting her sights as the psionic ace curved behind then out of its asteroid cover. The anger inside her, the thirst for vengeance, it took control of her thoughts. With all the work the ace was using to move the asteroids she thought for sure its pilot would be mentally drained. It had to be, there’s no way it was as powerful as it was earlier. It was killable, and it needed to die right fucking now.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Her targeting scanner began to lock on. Beep-beep. She got a lock and moved her thumb over the missile fire button. “This is Gladius lead, fox three!” She fired.
A plasma missile left the underside of her fighter and raced toward its target. This time the payload was delivered with dazzling results. It was indeed getting weaker.
“Gladius lead, guns, guns, guns!” Her guns roared loud, ripping apart its overshield, only its primary shield remained. A direct hit with another plasma missile should do the trick.
“Aura!” Orbital yelled to her.
“Not now I almost got this bugger!”
Orbital continued to call out to her, she continued to ignore him. Her next and final missile was ready and waiting to be launched as indicated by her HUD. One more shot, just one more!
“Aura check your six, check your six!”
Aura checked her scanner, a small asteroid was creeping up behind her with enough thrust to end her if it hit. She was so focused on the kill she hadn’t noticed it. She made her fighter pivot away, ending weapons lock, but saving her life in the process as the asteroid rushed forward. Aura came about and resumed her hunt. The psionic ace came back into view as well as the rapidly moving asteroid that had nearly ended her. It was moving . . . fast, faster than them, and was seconds away from crashing into one of the transports.
There was one missile left, the psionic ace was in range, the hurling asteroid as well but not for long. Green lines of plasma fire streaked back and forth from Hyperion, they were too busy with the other asteroids to notice the lone one coming up fast, not that it mattered, it was doubtful they could target and destroy it fast enough from their position. Aura however was directly behind it; her missile could take it out of play. Her missile could also end the psionic.
Fuck me! The choice was stressing her out.
Five seconds until the asteroid was out of range.
Aura began to lock onto the psionic ace. If it’s dead it can’t move asteroids anymore, right?
Beep, beep, beep, beep, almost got a lock.
Then it hit her, the momentum of the asteroid. It would still move forward regardless.
Beep, beep—
She switched targets, and hoped the asteroid was still in range. It was, but for only two more seconds.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Come on come on!
One second remained.
Beep-beep. Target lock acquired.
“Fox three, fox three!”
Her missile left her fighter and exploded on the asteroid seconds later, turning it into chunks of rock, too small to be a threat to the convoy. That got its attention, Aura thought as the psionic ace ended its climb toward the convoy and proceeded to assault the Hyperion fighters. Aura joined the fray with only rail guns at her disposal.
“Hang tight, we’re almost to you,” Wildfire said through the radio.
“Eyes on those rocks,” Aura said. “I think this psi still might pull a fast one on us.”
The Hyperion fighters knew when it was time to take cover and focus on survival. Their evasion forced the psionic fighter to focus less on them and more on the lone fighter that took on an offense stance, Aura.
“That’s right, you and me,” Aura said as both she and the psionic’s interceptor met head on, face to face. Close enough to see into each other’s cockpits. Close enough for Aura to see the sultry Hashmedai woman inside, her red glowing eyes gleaming at Aura’s helmet. “Let’s dance.”
Both cr
afts pulled a maneuver that threw them into a beautiful and nimble dog fight. Up, down, left, right, up and up, and an aileron roll. They fought and shot at each other, both their shields began to drop rapidly.
“Got a ship incoming,” Red Lotus said over the radio.
Aura was too busy with her fight for survival to reply.
“One of ours?” Wildfire asked.
“Unknown they aren’t transmitting any IFF, no signals, nothing,” Red Lotus said.
“Must be Hashmedai, damn it! This bastard must have called for backup!”
“Keep it together folks.” The one statement Aura managed to say as two dueling craft created a large enough gap to be out of weapons range. “We’re almost out of this!”
“That ship is coming in fast guys!”
“Move to intercept, the convoy is ready to enter sub light,” Aura said. “I got this bitch busy, don’t worry about me!”
The remaining Gladius, Rapier and Hyperion fighters accelerated toward the estimated drop out point for the unknown ship. A point that would place it next to the convoy, it was definitely a Hashmedai ship as far as Aura was concerned as she continued to dance and twirl her psionic ace partner. Aura’s short-range scanners revealed the unknown ship entering the sector, the convoy still was not in sub light, seconds away from it, but not there.
“Prepare for new contact,” Red Lotus said. “Three, two.” Aura took a deep breath. “One.” The unknown ship dropped out of sub light between the convoy and Aura and her dog fight.
It was the ESV Wilfrid Laurier.
Aura’s eyes opened wide. “Oh my god.”
The Wilfrid Laurier’s anti fighter rail guns locked onto the psionic ace and blazed. Aura quickly moved her fighter away from the action to avoid becoming a victim of friendly fire as the raging Earth battleship gave the psionic ace something else to think about. That something else was to flee and never return as it entered a sub light burn and traveled deeper into the asteroid belt.
Wildfire’s cries of jubilation echoed across the radio, as annoying as it sounded, Aura was glad to hear it. “Twice they saved our arse,” she said.
“Why aren’t they transmitting?” Red Lotus asked.
“I couldn’t tell you ma’am,” Orbital said.
They made an excellent point, no communication, no heads up, no IFF signal nothing. It was risky as hell to be traveling through the system like that as far as Aura was concerned, no IFF meant it was a UFO or Hashmedai vessel. “Rapier lead?” she asked Wildfire.
“I’m trying to hail them, no response.”
ESV Wilfrid Laurier, Asteroid belt, Sol system
“Captain they keep trying to communicate with us,” Vick said.
Captain Chevallier nodded as she looked away from the bridge’s central hologram toward the young lieutenant. “Send no reply. We can’t risk that virus spreading to them or the convoy.”
A temporary fix, eventually they would have to find some way to speak to each other. The convoy would need guidance; the fighters would need to land and be restocked and supplied. But how can they get that message across. Of course, we could do that. “Monsieur, Harkin please head to the flight deck.”
Gladius, Hyperion and Rapier squadron, Asteroid belt, Sol system
A single transport moved away from the Wilfrid Laurier and came to a full stop before the group of fighters that surrounded the ship.
“What’s going here?” Aura said.
The forward headlights on the transport began to flash on and off for some strange reason. It was puzzling to Aura. No, not a strange reason, Morse code perhaps. Too bad she never learnt it.
“Wait,” Wildfire said as his fighter moved in close to look.
“Please tell me you know something?” Aura asked him.
He began to laugh. “They’re communicating with us using Morse code.”
“You’re joking . . .” Orbital said.
“The captain insisted we all learn it in case of an emergency,” Wildfire said.
Aura smirked. “That’s some old school stuff Rapier lead.”
“The captain’s an old school lady what can I say?”
“Well I’m glad someone knows it,” Orbital said. “’Cause I sure as hell don’t!”
The message ended, and Wildfire reported to the rest. “They’re giving us clearance to dock. They’ve been infected with a computer virus, hence the comm black out.”
Neviana’s Interceptor, Ceres orbit, Sol system
Neviana’s interceptor swung and hid behind Ceres, deep within the asteroid belt. She started to fold her hands together and meditate as the strain to her psionic mind became unbearable. Her computers reported the damage to her ship to be minor, fuel however was running low thanks to the battle. Her stunt didn’t net the results she had hoped, but that was okay for it was intended to be a practice run, after all no Hashmedai psionic did what she did, pilot an interceptor solo using her mind. Attacking the human ships, hurling asteroids at them, the close-range combat, it was all a test to see what she was capable of doing and what her limitations were. When the real battle started, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
With what little psionic strength she had left, she used her ESP to keep track of the human battleship that forced her to flee. It wasn’t moving much, by the looks it seemed it was resupplying the fighters as well as launching transports to and from the evacuation transports from Titan. Admiral Yominv will want to know of this, she thought as she searched around amongst the darkness of her cockpit looking for a vital of mind stims.
She found them floating under her seat, and injected her body with it. The blue chemicals within the device traveled to her brain and helped it heal from the psionic trauma she forced it to endure thus allowing her gifts and focus to float back up to peak performance temporarily.
Ten minutes later, her mind was strong enough and she established a telepathic link with one of the many ship board psionics on the Leviathan. She transmitted to them her location and what her ESP scanned in regard to the human convoy and what was going on beyond the belt.
Mars had a lot of evacuation transports in orbit.
Chapter Seventeen
Abyssal Sword, Interstellar space, Edge of Proxima Centauri system
Eight years ago . . .
The voyage from Alpha Centauri to Proxima Centauri took the Abyssal Sword five months and two days. Five months to travel there via sub light speeds, two days of waiting for both Radiance and EDF higher ups to approve of the joint team venturing this far out to chase their prey. Members of EDF-2 and 3 lay dormant in cryostasis tubes alongside the crew of the Abyssal Sword, silent and motionless during the trip, unaware of what was going on outside. And unaware of what became of Nodevar and Veinea as they had a head start.
Corporal Rana Farhadi’s pod flipped open, her eyes slowly adjusted to from the blurry state they were in as her body returned to normal functions during the revival process. A figure stood in front of her, she was unaware of who they were, and would continue to be so until her vision cleared up, probably within the next forty seconds.
“Wakey-wakey corporal.” That voice, it was Lieutenant Diego Gomez
Rana held onto the sides of her pod and pulled forcing her weightless body to float away from it. Her eyesight returned to normal afterward, rows upon rows of cryostasis pods were lined up in the narrow corridor. The remaining EDF teams along with various Radiance crewmembers were in the process of being revived, all were reacting to the revival in a similar manner. Other pods had already been opened with no signs of the person resting in it anywhere.
Guess we all woke up at different times. “My fucking head . . .” she said, rubbing the side of her forehead. “Where’s everyone else?”
“In the galley eating.”
“Don’t we got shit to do?”
“They haven’t eaten in like five months girl, give ‘em a break,” Gomez said. “Besides Gengei’s crew is reviewing sensor logs. The transport isn’t anywhere close by.”
&nb
sp; Six hours had passed and the human members spent the time checking their equipment . . . then checking it again. There wasn’t a whole lot from them to do. Cooper groaned, commenting on how he should have brought a pack of playing cards to pass the time. The huge time gap wasn’t an issue for Rana as it gave her the chance to update her dairy on the data pad she brought with her. Some of the sights and sounds aboard the Abyssal Sword were recorded with its built-in camera.
A few selfies with the EDF teams were taken as well followed by an amazing recording of the red draft star Proxima Centauri, as they quickly approached. Then it hit her. They were travelling to the inner planets of the system. That could only mean one thing, they were heading to Foicanta.
The EDF teams were called up to the bridge fifteen minutes later. They arrived and felt gravity once again as they exited the elevator. The main forward windshield confirmed Rana’s theory; the tidally locked planet of Foicanta was visible. It was a planet with a baked desert on one side, darkness on the other, with a ring of green vegetation and sparse lakes separating those two sections of the planet.
Rana grimaced. “I was hoping I’d never have to see this planet again.”
“First battle EDF participated in,” Gomez said. “Nearly lost Major Vaughan that day.”
“We have reason to believe Nodevar and Veinea fled here or at least someplace close.” Captain Gengei interrupted as he stepped over to the two EDF teams. “Sensor logs indeed revealed a ship dropped out of sub light to retrieve their transport then travelled here while we were still in stasis. It was one of ours.”
Kasidey’s stare remained fixed on Foicanta as they remained in orbit. “This still a hot spot for order activity?” she asked Gengei.
“Indeed.”
“Well we’re useless up here,” Kasidey said. “We should spread our two teams out on the surface to conduct our search.”
“Agreed,” Gomez said. “Gengei and his crew can search the system in the meantime.”
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2 Page 28