“This is a trap. I can feel it.”
“Lieutenant Commander, I don’t need this right now. We’re here, their shields are down; god knows for how long. If we’re going to do something, we should do it now.”
Chase’s mind raced with an ever-increasing flurry, intensifying every second now. What was going on?
“Alright, let me make it simple, Lieutenant Commander: all ships engage! This is a direct order: destroy these ships and structures, now. Fire at will.”
The entire fleet but the Hope opened fire, pouring forth a beautiful light show of blue, red and green laser fire. Explosions burst out across the shipyard. A ship and its construction scaffolding burst into a fiery display of yellow-orange tones that illuminated the foggy atmosphere all around it.
The door of the bridge opened and Sarah stepped in.
“What’s happening? Why aren’t we firing on anything?”
“Why did you exit your starfighter? You're this ship’s wing commander. I might need you out there at a moment’s notice!”
Sarah looked puzzled. Not by the remark, which seemed valid, but more by the tone behind it.
“What is it, Chase?”
“Something isn’t right; everything is too easy.”
“Wasn’t that the plan all along behind the emperor giving us an advantage? Wasn’t the plan that we would then take out Argos’ shipyard with minimal damage?”
“I expected some resistance.”
“And I expected to blow up more ships, but I’m glad to watch the fireworks from here. Now will you please shoot at something?”
Before Chase could answer, his tactical officer interjected.
“Captain, there’s a behemoth class ship in that larger structure—”
“What about it?”
“It’s powering up, Captain. So are other ships. They’ve already raised shields.”
“I knew it!”
Sarah started running towards the doors. Chase rose up from his chair.
“Commander Kepler! Stand fast!” he shouted.
Everyone on the bridge was stunned. But not as stunned as Sarah was. The tone of his voice hit her like the simmering explosions outside. She stopped in shock and spun around to face Chase.
“What the hell? You’ve just reprimanded me for leaving my post, and now what?”
“Now you stay on the bridge. That’s an order.”
“Mind explaining why?”
“Argos orchestrated this. He knows full well that I’ll do anything to protect you, which is true,” Chase muttered, not comfortable saying this in front of his crew. “I cannot take the risk he uses you to get at me; or the Alliance. The safest place for you to be right now is onboard the most powerful destroyer ever created.”
She stayed silent but cast him a blistering look. She was furious he was trying to shield her like a child. Part of her knew it was just how much he loved her, and she wondered if she wouldn’t act the same if the situation was reversed. And of course she didn’t want a repeat of what had happened in orbit of Earth the last time Argos was involved: she had enough nightmares about being tortured as it was. But at the end of the day, this was war. She was a soldier, and her place was in a cockpit, blowing the enemy to pieces.
“Captain,” cut in the tactical officer, “incoming fighters.”
“Chase!” she implored loudly.
“I’m sorry. Request denied.”
He could feel her anger and frustration boil near the point of explosion, but then he remembered something. He lifted his index finger slowly.
“However,” he began, grabbing the round neuronal link devices from the armrest of his captain’s chair, which he threw to her, “you can still be part of the battle. All I ask is that you do it from here, onboard this ship. These devices are configured to give orders to the Hope as well, so just don’t use these subroutines please. It looks like today isn’t the day I’m gonna fly the F-147 remotely and command this ship at the same time.”
She instinctually wanted to stay mad, but smiled automatically when she put the devices on her temples. She was greeted with a similar HUD experience as she’d found onboard the StarFury, except that she was seeing two images at once: both what her own eyes were seeing and the view from the ship’s screen—currently still onboard. She sat down at the chair nearest Chase on his right. Closing her eyes helped her block out confusion from the double imposed image. Immediately, she felt like she was onboard the ship.
On one corner of the HUD there was a dedicated EAD Hope command menu. She simplified, selecting only to see the ship’s vitals at all times: its shield level, currently at maximum, engine energy levels, and hull damage. That way she could always keep half an eye on local status while flying, though she was sure if the ship started shaking, commotion around her would alert her of trouble onboard anyway.
Or would it? Her eyes set upon a command called immersivity and noise cancellation. Once selected, suddenly all she could hear was the humming of the StarFury engines as she activated them. In less than ten seconds, she’d completed her pre-flight checks, inspected her ordnance and was blasting out into the green-orange foggy space. She headed towards the incoming fighters that spewed from the behemoth Zarlack ship. Soon she would be entering firing range. The rest of her wing came about.
“Sledgehammer to Firefly?” buzzed in Fillio.
“Yeah, I’m here.” She was amazed to hear herself speak the moment she thought about it. She didn’t even have to open her mouth. This was a practical consideration; this way she wouldn’t interfere with the rest of the bridge’s operations locally.
“Firefly, how come you’re flying the reserve StarFury?”
“Long story. I’m actually onboard the Hope physically, but still here with you, remote flying this craft instead.”
“Now why am I not surprised? Would I be right in assuming that ship would normally have been flown by Phoenix?”
She was not used to using call-signs, but apparently the admiral’s wing commander did things differently.
“That’s correct. Heads up; enemy entering firing range. All ships, engage and destroy.”
She received multiple comm clicks as acknowledgement of her orders. She loved this. She had to admit, the part of her who wanted to rip Chase a new one had quickly been tamed by the experience of flying a craft remotely with her mind, all while comfortably seated onboard the Hope. She could get used to this!
The first wave of Zarlack ships flared out a barrage of laser fire, but the Omega fighters simply vanished from view as they cloaked. Sarah activated drones on her fighter and assigned offensive patterns to them. She then locked two of the incoming ships with missiles, rained down laser fire on their frontal shields with the help of her drones for added firepower, and when she felt satiated depleting shields, she fired both her missiles and blew them out of the sky.
Chase commed in. “Having fun?”
“You and I still have things to discuss when this is over. But yeah, right now I’m enjoying your precious toy. Surely you’ll get to play, eventually.”
“Next time, next time. There will always be a next time. Today doesn’t seem like the day I will fly the StarFury either.”
She felt a little selfishness beneath her glee, but considering the situation, Chase needed to give his full attention to captaining the Hope. Even though she had little doubt that his Fury mind could probably handle both ships at once; intimidating in and of itself.
“Just don’t break my toy, please.”
She laughed.
“Roger that, Phoenix.”
The communication ended right when two bandits started to tickle her aft shields with heavy fire and missiles.
The prospect of relative risklessness gave her wings. She thought about trying new tactics she wouldn’t have dared in a normal craft, and started a bit of impulsive improvising. She spun her craft around by cutting the twin engines and engaging the reverse thrusters to max power as she ended her turn. When she saw the two incomi
ng missiles, she decided to shoot them out of the sky with laser fire; and it worked. She was amazed how precise the neuronal targeting was. Whatever she thought, the ship did to the letter, at the exact time she thought it.
With both missiles out of the way, she rained heavy fire and the drones did the rest. The first bogey didn’t have time to react and was quickly obliterated. The second fighter veered just before its front shield gave in, but she’d already locked on another missile, and experimented with the new, advanced targeting upgrades of the StarFury. She discovered she could select which part of the shields the missile was to impact with, and cooed with joy. She selected aft, fired her missile, and disengaged to acquire a new prey, as the forgotten ship melted into fire. She moved towards the next ship on her starboard, but before she could engage, it exploded. Blue fire from two separate cloaked Omega fighters had blown it right out of the sky. It never had a chance.
She checked her virtual instruments. Even if that behemoth ship spewed fifteen squadrons, they’d all be easily dispatched by this alliance fleet. She casually targeted another ship with a missile, just to see it disappear into another blue fireball when it impacted.
She cracked a smile. I have to thank Yanis for his wizardry in terms of engineering, she thought.
It took another three minutes to dispatch what was left of the incoming fighters, and for a moment it seemed like the action was all over. But then something unexpected happened: broad, glowing bands of much stronger firepower sizzled past her ship, lightly grazing her shields. They were still holding at ninety percent, but she recognized she was facing something new, something more dangerous. The Zarlack starfighters had all been destroyed. That’s when an incoming transmission from Chase addressed the fleet.
“This is Captain Athanatos. The enemy’s supposedly disabled defense systems have reactivated. These are your new targets. Seek and destroy first, then we’ll take care of the capital ships.”
She had to give it to Chase’s instinct: he’d felt something was wrong right away. He couldn’t have been more right! But at present it still almost seemed like the situation was under control; the ships being assembled were attempting to power up, but they weren’t firing at the fleet or the starfighter wings at all. Perhaps their weapons systems weren’t fully ready yet?
“Alpha Wing, you heard the captain. Attack these sentries; follow instructions on your targeting systems.”
It took less than a split second to paint targets and assign ships with the neuronal interface. She was delighted that she could actually do all that, while additionally giving vocal commands with her mind, silently aboard the bridge.
She then acquired the nearest sentry, the one which had almost scored a direct hit on her ship a few moments earlier. She performed a dance of speedy evasive maneuvers as its fire intensified upon approach. Mentally on autopilot, she sent out her drones to fire and lower the shields. Overenthusiastic with risks, though, she took a few hits on her own shields, which were lowered to forty-seven percent. With an internal promise to be more careful, she added the firepower of her lasers, and finally degraded the opponents’ shields enough for her to terminate the sentry with a couple of missiles.
On the bridge Chase got up from his chair and looked at Sarah, who was clearly highly focused on piloting the remote F-147. He shot a look at the emperor.
“I thought you said that the codes you provided would disable this shipyard’s automated defense systems.”
The emperor grunted. “It did. They were deactivated. Someone has reactivated them. I can only surmise your spy is to blame. Argos should not have been aware of our presence in the first place. We should not stay here.”
This last statement made sense. Chase couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew without a doubt something was wrong. He could feel it in every fiber of his being.
“For once we agree, Emperor,” said Chase. Turning to his communications officer, he added quietly, “Open a channel to the Destiny.”
“Yes, Chase, what is it?”
“This is clearly a trap. As much as I hate to say this, I think we should retreat for the time being.”
“I agree. Sending the retreat order to the fleet.”
The Droxian and Obsidian ships turned about first, as most of their starfighter wings had already re-boarded, victorious. The Alliance ships also adhered to the retreat request, and recalled their starfighter regiment back to their ship as well. But the Hope’s Alpha and Beta Squadrons, as well as the Destiny’s Alpha Squadron, were finishing off the defense sentries that had seriously started damaging the Destiny as well as other Alliance destroyers.
Suddenly the entire shipyard got illuminated bright red, as a major explosion shook a Droxian ship departing the nebula. The resulting shockwave damaged the nearest Obsidian battleship, disabling it in the process.
On board the Destiny, Commodore Saroudis shouted altered orders to the fleet.
“Reverse position! Do not, I repeat DO NOT try to exit the nebula. The shipyard’s shields are back up. Stay away from them!”
On the Hope’s bridge, Chase clenched both fists and teeth. How could they have been so stupid? The fact that Argos’ forces engaged them earlier at the rendezvous point should have been warning enough to scrap this mission. He cursed himself for insisting they destroy the shipyard.
He turned to the emperor.
“Where’s the shield’s generator?”
The emperor approached Chase’s chair and projected a 3D map of the shipyard on his holo-display.
The emperor somberly pointed to a heavily shielded node, situated behind the structure currently assembling the behemoth Zarlack ship, which had sent all the fighter waves their way. “Here, but you’ll need a lot of firepower.”
“You saw what this ship can do first hand.”
“Let’s hope it will be enough. The power requirement for these shields is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. You may need to have every ship add their firepower to yours, if you aim to take it out.”
“Very well.” He turned to his communications officer and had him relay the targeting coordinates to the rest of the fleet.
“Captain,” said his science officer, “I’m detecting an energy build up in every Zarlack ship. This doesn’t look good.”
“What do you make of it?”
“I’ve never seen such energy signatures. I think they’re intentionally overloading their engines.”
That was the end game here, of course! Argos would have them trapped by their own greed. He could then blow everything up, destroying most, if not all, of the task force dreaming to destroy his shipyard. Even if that meant sacrificing it in the process, he saw a clear win.
“Dammit! Time to firing solution on that shield generator?”
“Twenty seconds, Captain. I estimate we have less than five minutes before the engines of the ships go critical.”
Chase did not like these odds. Even if they destroyed the shields within a few minutes, they might not have enough time to get out of here, without inflicting catastrophic damage to the fleet.
“Can we jump as soon as the shields are down?”
“The composition of this nebula is highly unstable, Captain. We could blow up upon opening a jump corridor. I... I can’t recommend it.”
Chase felt rage fill his soul. His mind raced, trying to think of a way out of this. He tapped Sarah on her shoulder. She hummed as she opened her eyes, and made an automatic happy gesture. “Yes, I’ve just dispatched the last defensive sentry. The rest of the starfighters are already on their way back to the ship.”
“Reroute them to the Destiny.”
“What?! Why?”
“No time to explain, just do it!”
She relayed the order with her mind, and informed Commodore Saroudis.
“Done. Should I bring in the StarFury as well?”
“No, I will need you to pilot it towards that shielded installation.”
“What’s the plan here?”
“Honestly, i
t’s the biggest gamble ever. If we had time I would send you over to the Destiny, but I don’t think we have any other choice.”
On board his capital ship, Argos looked at his tactical holo-display and snickered. The Alliance was trapped. He could end them all right here and right now, but first he had to make sure the EAD Hope would survive. He opened a channel to his tactical officer on the bridge.
“Are you absolutely certain that the added explosions in that kill box zone will not take out the ship that I tagged?”
“Pretty sure it should survive.”
“Pretty sure? I need absolute certainty!”
“Technically, I cannot guarantee it. It will depend on the state of their shields and proximity to the Black Death.”
“Which happens to be exactly where the EAD Hope is heading right now.”
“I see that, so there’s no way to be sure.”
“Get me the Black Death’s captain right now!”
“Communications established.”
Chase called Commodore Saroudis and explained his plan.
“This is insane, even by your standards, Chase. But under the circumstances, I don’t see that we have a choice. You do understand that this is a suicide mission for the EAD Hope?”
“I do, but what other choices do we have? If we don’t try this we all get vaporized anyway.”
“Actually it’s entirely possible that not all the ships would get destroyed if we stay at the outskirts of the shield’s limits. Your ship has the stronger shields. If you use the maximum power of your main guns, you’ll be entirely disabled for one full minute, and that’s the real risk. Your shields won’t have time to recharge enough to protect you from the multiple explosions.”
“It will give the battlegroup time to escape the nebula. If things get too hot, I’ll try to jump.”
“My science officer tells me that could go either way, because of the highly volatile composition of this particular nebula.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 73