But at the last second, everything seemed to go wrong.
Both ships broke hard left and, almost at the same time, the Titanium got caught in the biggest explosion yet. The admiral put his hand to the glass as he watched Titanium and its vital anti-gravity engine go up in flames.
“How the hell did this happen?!” he shouted in a blind rage.
“Unknown, Admiral,” replied the tactical officer.
“Find out now! Or there will be hell to pay! In the meantime, deploy all ships and engage this pathetic excuse for a battlegroup. Wipe them out this second! You hear me!?”
The tactical officer thought he might have been having some kind of mild heart attack. But he finally managed to get control of himself and turned back to the comm.
“Relaying command to the battlegroup, Admiral.”
The admiral turned his back to his crew and returned to his place in front of the main screen, staying silent as if meditating on the situation. His brilliant plan had been thwarted by…what…two lousy ships? Two lousy starfighters?!
“Alpha Leader and Beta Leader, this is SAD Destiny. Congratulations on a job well done. Now hurry up home so we can jump the hell out of here.”
“Copy that!” said Chase. There was no reply from Daniel and he glanced down at the comm. “Are you alright, Alpha Leader?”
The radio crackled, and Daniel’s voice could barely be heard. “I think so...”
“You did it, Daniel! You blew up the ship; we can go home!”
“That’s great, but I don’t think my fighter is going anywhere.”
He was suddenly cut by photon fire from one of the battleships vectoring fast on their position. It blew off half his left wing.
Chase hit the comm and shouted, “Eject! I’m gonna tractor you through!”
Inside his failing craft, Daniel shook his head. “As much as I want to live, I don’t want to get us both killed. Get out of here, Chase.”
A second laser hit and blew up part of his cooling system.
“Your engines are going to blow; you have to eject!” Chase cried. “Listen, I won’t go without you, so unless you do want to get us both killed... Eject, eject! NOW!”
Daniel hit the ejection button, and suddenly his cockpit was spinning in open space. As the stars flashed by, he saw Chase’s fighter vectoring at a high velocity toward him. With a startled frown, he clicked the comm device in his suit.
“You’re not gonna grab me at afterburner velocity are you now my friend?”
“Unless you have a better idea?”
“Chase…do you have any idea what that would do to me?”
“Look at the bright side Dan, you already threw up your breakfast.”
As the ship hurtled toward his floating cockpit, Daniel couldn’t help but yell, “YOU ARE INSAAAAAAANE!”
The tractor beam got a good grab on him, but Daniel blacked out instantly. Chase tore through heavy enemy fire, not even engaging potentially easy targets, concentrating only on getting back to the Destiny as fast as possible.
“Destiny, this is Beta Leader. I have successfully tractored Alpha Leader after his ejection and I’m coming in hot. Have medical teams standing by on the landing pads for Daniel.”
“You got it, Beta Leader,” said Captain Saroudis. “Good job.”
“Thanks. It cost us dearly though, Captain.”
“I know, Lieutenant, but we did what we had to do.”
Chase nodded to himself. “Will we be jumping soon, Captain?”
“The second your craft has landed, Lieutenant, so hurry up.”
“Copy that.” Chase ground his teeth together and went as fast as he could.
He vectored his fighter into the landing bay, carefully unloading Daniel’s cockpit to the ground and then disengaging the tractor beam. The cockpit moved a bit, but secured itself quickly. Chase then landed his craft, jumped out of the cockpit, and started running toward his friend who was already being taken care of by the medical crew.
The medical first officer looked grimly at Chase. “We have to take him to a life support system right away; he’s in a coma and his vital signs are fluctuating radically.”
“Will he make it?” Chase gulped.
“It’s too soon to tell. I’m sorry,” replied the officer as they loaded Daniel up.
“I’m sorry too,” Chase said to no one in particular.
The medical team placed Daniel on a mobile health-bed and plugged him in with an oxygen flow and an automated cardiac stimulator. A few seconds later, they vanished through the doors on their way to the med-bay.
Chase watched them go with a strong pain deep in his chest. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for his friend’s condition. But just as he was replaying all his actions to see what he could have done differently, his comm system activated and the captain called his name.
“Lieutenant Athanatos, to the bridge on the double.”
Chase stared at the doors his friend had just been carried through, but clicked his comm and answered, “On my way, Captain.”
Just as the elevator opened up on the command deck, flames shot down and almost burned Chase where he stood. The fire quickly stopped, but the whole ship shook violently, and Chase was thrown to the floor along with several other people. When he got up, the bridge was filled with smoke and some equipment wiring was sparking on and off, but he could see that the battlegroup had successfully entered hyperspace.
He took an unbalanced step and came to stand beside the captain’s chair. When the captain saw him, he immediately got up and shook Chase’s hand.
“Well done, Lieutenant. I’ve been told that Alpha Leader is in critical condition; I’m really sorry about that. I know how you and the wing commander are close friends.”
“Thank you, Captain. We’ve lost a lot of good men and women today; I hope he won’t be added to the list.”
“So do I, Lieutenant, so do I. But since you’re the highest ranking officer for the time being, you’re temporarily our new wing commander. And, unfortunately, we have a lot more problems ahead of us, Lieutenant.”
Chase’s dream of a hot shower and a nice rest went up in smoke.
“I’m listening,” he said.
“We had to jump in a hurry with some heavily damaged systems. The computer was unable to determine all the coordinates in time, so the last two coordinates were randomly selected. As of now, we’re in critical condition. But I’m afraid if we hadn’t done the jump blindly when we did and not a moment later, we would have been blown to pieces. The SAD Faith and Courage are badly damaged as well, but fortunately they successfully slaved their jump engines to ours seconds before I gave the order to go. That being said, we’re not sure if any of them will be able to sustain such a long jump.”
“What about the dreadnoughts?”
“Four of them, including the Iron Fire, have managed to jump with us as well.”
Chase frowned. “How long a jump are we talking about here?”
The captain looked away a moment before reluctantly returning Chase’s gaze.
“Seventy-two hours, Lieutenant.”
Chase’s eyes grew wide and he put a hand on the chair to steady himself. “Seventy-two hours?” he repeated. “That’s madness—we’ve never done such a long jump! We could end up on the other side of the known universe. We should try to contact headquarters to send reinforcements to help us defeat this armada. Otherwise…I mean…god knows what they’ll do to the Star Alliance, sir.”
The captain’s face grew grave and he paused a moment, regarding Chase thoughtfully. “I don’t think you’re grasping something here, son. The Star Alliance is history.”
Chase blinked as the words settled over him like a fog. Sensing his temporary speechlessness, the captain continued.
“While you were engaging the enemy forces, we received multiple distress calls from all over the sector. All of the attacks happened at the same time; they were precisely orchestrated and surgically executed. There’s just nothing left.”
Chase’s mouth went dry and his throat closed up but he nodded robotically. Now was no time to fall apart. The enemy was still out there. And at least a few ships had survived.
“Did you notice that the second wave of ships was of a different design, Captain?”
Again, the captain seemed reluctant. “Yes I did. We’ve checked with our internal database and, while they weren’t an exact match, the computer came up with…”
Chase fought back his impatience. “With what, Captain? What were those ships?”
“Zarlack, Lieutenant. The computer thinks they must have been Zarlacks.”
Chase almost had to laugh. “That’s nonsense. The Zarlacks were wiped out a thousand years ago.”
“All evidence to the contrary… Or maybe our computer is wrong.”
Chase nodded confidently. “Maybe they just look like their ships. In any case, we’ll have to analyze the logs.”
“We already have a team working on it. But right now, we must proceed with caution. We could very well be the last of the Alliance.”
Chase’s throat closed up again and he shook his head wildly. “But we escaped the attack, Captain; maybe other battlegroups have as well.”
“Maybe, but even so. Imagine the difference in firepower they would be facing right about now. I don’t usually care much about the odds, but a few scattered ships against an armada of hundreds if not more battleships stand no chance. Our only possible course of action is to escape and survive at all costs.”
“How the hell did the Obsidian Empire get their hands on an armada like that so quickly, Captain?”
“I wish I knew. Obviously these new ships, Zarlack or not, gave Obsidian a serious advantage in firepower and numbers. That’s the only way they could have delivered such a death blow to the Alliance.”
Chase hesitated as he trod on shaky ground. “Did you consider going to Alpha Prime? The great council should make this decision…No offense, Captain.”
The captain shook his head. “None taken. But I’m afraid Alpha Prime was also targeted by the Obsidian Empire today. From what we can gather, we believe it fell within the first minutes of the attack. All our attempts at communication have gone unanswered. The logs show some distress calls that also mention vessels of unknown configuration and immense firepower. My best bet is that Obsidian made an alliance with a race we’ve never heard of and, if today was any indication, they must be very powerful. From the reports we’ve gotten…it seems they may have vaporized our forces throughout the entire sector.”
“My god.” Chase shook his head, trying to absorb everything. “I’m still not ready to accept the Zarlacks are still alive…but whatever this new race is, they have fundamentally shifted the balance of power in the universe as we know it.”
The captain nodded. “That was my reaction as well. I still hope I’m going to wake up from this nightmare…but it seems that this is all too real.”
“What are we going to do, Captain?”
“We’re going to find a refuge planet and try to stay out of trouble for a while. With any luck, we can find some allies of our own and begin the process of reconstructing the Alliance. But we must do that far, far away from what is now Obsidian space. We must put ourselves out of their reach or we’ll be hunted down and annihilated.”
Chase frowned thoughtfully. “But is there anywhere we can go? If they have so many ships, they can make blind jumps just like we did... Eventually, they will find us.”
“I suppose they will. But if we end our jump deep in the unknown regions, we might have a chance to buy ourselves at least some time to repair.”
“They’ll search the universe with everything they’ve got.”
“Perhaps, but the unknown regions are huge. It would take them a long time. Years if we’re lucky. Months or weeks if we aren’t.”
Chase resisted the urge to start pacing as his mind raced away. “Not necessarily. They could have calculated a partial vector from our escape; that would considerably lower the amount of space they’d need to search—”
The captain cut him off. “That’s a possibility, but right now we can’t think that far ahead. We need to concentrate on getting ourselves a new base of operations and see what we can do to ultimately survive.”
“I understand, Captain. Just one question… You said we made the jump with two random coordinates?”
“Yes. So basically we have absolutely no idea where we’re going to end up. This ship could be heading straight into a black hole for all we know. It’s out of our hands now, Lieutenant. We’ll know for sure in about seventy-two hours, but for now we’re in the hands of fate.”
Funny, I don’t believe in fate, Chase thought to himself.
4
Time seemed to freeze on the bridge of the Iron Claw. Not a word had been spoken since the Alliance fleet had managed to jump out of the battle scene, but Admiral Zan stayed fixed at the window, watching the lingering debris drift off into space.
“COWARDS!”
Everyone on the bridge found themselves holding their breath. The admiral’s wrath was legendary; he had killed fellow officers for less than this. The minutes seemed like hours, as everyone watched, while pretending not to, the admiral’s reaction.
A loud beep from the communication station suddenly broke the icy silence. The communications officer glanced up at the admiral, but found himself hesitating.
“Admiral, the...the Emperor would like to speak with you.”
The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
“Patch him through directly to my ready room.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
Without another word, Zan left the bridge, taking the stifling tension with him. When he arrived in his ready room, his wall screen activated and the gigantic face of the Emperor loomed up at him.
“Is it done, Zan?”
The admiral looked down for a split second, long enough for the Emperor to understand something went wrong.
“Don’t tell me…you failed your mission?”
“Not exactly. Some of the Alliance ships managed to jump out of the scene in the middle of the battle.”
The Emperor’s face tightened in rage. “You failed. Don’t try to hide behind a technicality. Why aren’t you pursuing as we speak?”
“They jumped in a hurry. I’m not even sure they had all their calculations...”
“Then find out and exterminate them all!” the Emperor exploded. “The Zarlacks won’t look at this mess too kindly.”
“I don’t understand why we must do their dirty work if they’re so powerful...” Zan replied. “Why do they need us?”
“Enough! If I want your advice, I’ll let you know. For now, you’ll either obey my orders without discussion, or I will find someone who will!”
Zan bowed his head at once. “That won’t be necessary, Emperor. I will track them down and eliminate them all, as per your wish.”
“Better. The next time I hear from you will be to confirm that you corrected your mistake; there’s no need to contact me otherwise. Is that clear?”
“Like crystal, my Emperor.”
The screen turned off and Admiral Zan sank into his chair to think. So what if a handful of ships had escaped? Today, the Obsidian Empire had crushed the Star Alliance. A few crippled ships wouldn’t make any difference in the long run. These Zarlacks seemed determined to see every single ship of the Alliance fall at once, but why? What did they have to win in this? And more importantly, why did they need the Obsidian Empire to do their dirty work? Maybe they didn’t want the Alliance to know they were involved… But still, something didn’t add up.
Zan shook his head and tried to clear his troubled mind. He had been given a mission, and this time he needed to make sure he would succeed. He took a deep breath and touched a button inlaid in the covering of his desk.
The tactical officer appeared at once. “What can I do for you, Admiral?”
“Mr. Telner, I want you to start calculating every possible jump coordin
ate that the Alliance Fleet could have plotted. I want to know where they went so we can track them down and finish them off.”
“Sir, we can only calculate partial vectors from their jump.”
“I don’t care what it takes or how much time you require. Assign as many people and ships as you need, calculate every single possible vector, and then have a ship accompanied by a fighter escort check every single trail. Ask our new allies to also dispatch ships to assist in the search.”
“Yes, Admiral. Should we limit the search to the known regions?”
“For the time being only. If we fail to find the Alliance ships at all the verified vectors, then expand your search to the unknown regions.”
“Very well, Admiral.” The officer disappeared as quickly as he’d come.
The admiral looked out at the stars. He didn’t like playing cat and mouse with the enemy. In fact, he didn’t like the idea of searching for his prey for an undetermined period of time. He was a man of action, and today, while his strategic abilities were known to many, he was forced to admit that he underestimated the Alliance. If he had planned his attack with just a little more care, none of this would have happened. His reliance on the Zarlack ships had also been a big mistake. While they indeed shifted the balance of power, it had only made the Alliance flee as a result. A hands-on battle without their support might have proven a success.
The Emperor sat on his throne in Obsidian Prime looking grim. Even lost in thought, he radiated a chilling authority. As one of the last descendants of the Raxin people, a humanoid race feared by everyone in the galaxy, he was used to having this effect. He had dark red skin with prominent orange tattoos that covered most of his face, and the bone spikes erupting from his forehand lent him the typical air of his warrior caste. Despite his fearsome exterior, the Emperor could sit this still for hours, calculating and planning, deciding the best course of action for his empire. But today, he didn’t have that luxury.
Loud footsteps resonated from the other side of the grand hall and the Emperor looked up in dread. The room was so dark that he wouldn’t be able to see who was coming until they were halfway to the throne, but he didn’t need to guess. He knew very well who the footsteps belonged to. How incredible that the leader of the Obsidian Empire dreaded anything, but the Zarlacks were not to be taken lightly. How the times had changed…
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 10