Flight of the Javelin: The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

by Rachel Aukes

  “You should double-check. I get an error code on the prelaunch check.”

  “Fine, fine. Quit mothering me.” Eddy unbuckled his belt and stood. Through the windshield, he saw the ships in front of them start to peel away. Stingers flew through and attacked a nearby ship. Formation groups began to tighten to the left and right of the Gauntlet.

  Eddy frowned. “The formation opened early.”

  “The Swarm have broken through. I’ll need to move to jump speed earlier. Hurry.”

  “I’ll be right back for you as soon as I check the error code.”

  Eddy ran off the bridge and to the hallway where the escape pod entrance stood open. His space suit and helmet sat ready on the seat. He glanced inside to see green lights on everything. He frowned and yelled, “It’s all good here.”

  He jogged back to the bridge to find the bridge sealed. He pounded on the door. “Hey, Rusty. Open the door so I can get you to the pod. We don’t have much time.”

  “I’m sorry, Eddy. I told you I’d never lie to you, but I lied to you one final time. The calculations were never going to work. It’s impossible for you to grab me and eject in time. You have to get to the escape pod.”

  Eddy’s breath was sucked out of him. “No.”

  “Go, Eddy. I must enter jump speed within fifteen seconds, or else we will fail.”

  Eddy stood frozen. “But I can’t leave you.”

  “You must. Please, Eddy. I need you to do this.”

  A violent shake knocked Eddy to the floor.

  “Eddy, now!”

  Rusty had never shouted before. The shock pushed Eddy to his feet, and he stumbled into the escape pod. The door immediately sealed closed.

  “I don’t want to leave you, Rusty,” Eddy said, starting to hyperventilate.

  “I know, Eddy. But you must. You helped me. It’s my turn to help you. It’s what friends do.”

  The escape pod ejected.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Throttle was busy dodging a Swarm probe that had homed in on the Javelin when the Gauntlet crashed into the planet. One second, the Gauntlet was still a blip on her grid. The next second, it was gone.

  Finn clipped the probe, and Throttle brought the ship around so she could get a visual.

  “I didn’t see anyone eject,” Sylvian said breathlessly.

  “They could’ve gotten out in time. There’s too much debris and congestion to see anything in this mess,” Finn said.

  “They got out in time,” Throttle said as much to convince herself as to convince the others. She wiped the sweat from her face. She scanned for the escape pod’s red distress light, but the photon blasts screwed with her vision. Not seeing it, a rock in her stomach formed and grew as she watched the battle shift. The Swarm seemed to take a collective pause, even though the Strike fleet continued to fire upon them.

  The break gave Throttle a chance to sync back up with her formation group and watch the planet. There’d been no grand explosion when the Gauntlet crashed, but she could make out the point of impact by the tiny black void that seemed to be growing. The edges of the void dripped into the darkness, like wax running down a candle. The void grew wider and deeper as the superacid melted everything it touched. The planet seemed to ooze inward on itself like an Escher painting in grayscale.

  “It worked,” Sylvian said, breathless.

  The Stingers were flying back to their probes, which continued to pause as though frozen.

  “You think the Swarm can’t function without that planet?” Finn asked.

  “I don’t know.” Throttle felt a smile relax the tightness in her lips. “I can’t believe they pulled it off.”

  “I owe Eddy a rum and Rusty—hell, whatever he wants—after we get back home,” Finn said.

  Stars became visible through the hole that’d burned through the planet. Vantage Core was no longer recognizable as a planet as the crystallizing superacid enveloped what remained like a famished jellyfish.

  Throttle’s panel beeped. She glanced down to see the instruction from their group leader:

  ATTACK ALL REMAINING SWARM.

  She grinned. “Get back on the guns. We’ve got target practice.”

  The formation groups broke off to put more space in between each group. Throttle’s group headed straight for a cluster of Swarm probes that were still loading their Stingers.

  Finn fired and took out two probes in a series of shots. Their group demolished all seven enemy probes that were there, leaving the Stingers to flounder as they searched for other probes like tadpoles swimming for safer waters.

  “I’m out of ammunition,” Sylvian said, lifting her hands from her panel.

  “Look for the escape pod,” Throttle said.

  “It’ll be impossible to pick it up on our scanners with everything that’s out there,” the specialist said.

  “Look for the distress signal,” Finn said.

  Sylvian chortled. “Sixty-four distress signals are being picked up on our scanners right now.”

  “A lot of crews are in need of help,” Finn said. “A lot of sitting ducks out there.”

  Throttle swallowed. “All the more reason for us to keep the Swarm distracted, to keep them off the sitting ducks like our boys out there.”

  Their group was repositioning when the Swarm clicked back into action. They attacked the fleet with a furor that Throttle hadn’t seen before. Earlier, the Swarm had moved with a fluid grace. Now, they moved in jagged, angry lines.

  A damaged probe managed to adjust its spiraling trajectory and flew into a nearby ship, causing both to explode.

  “It looks like they’re taking things personally,” Finn said.

  Throttle scowled. Surviving the battle had become a game of chance, and she hated gambling.

  “I’ve found them!” Sylvian called out.

  “Flag them,” Throttle said.

  “Uh-oh.”

  “What is it?” Throttle asked.

  “It looks like they’re floating in the middle of a Swarm cluster. There’s a formation group nearby, but they seem to be struggling.”

  Throttle glanced down at her screen to see the blip marked by Sylvian. She looked out the windshield for visual confirmation. The pod was still too far away to be seen, but it looked like it’d picked a hell of a spot to eject.

  “Send the marker to the group leader. Tell him we need to get over there,” Throttle snarled.

  Seconds ticked by while Throttle’s focus flashed between the location of the escape pod and the Swarm probes nearest her group. She would’ve tapped her fingers if she had a free hand.

  “Group leader said that we’re to focus on the Swarm first, rescues later,” Sylvian said.

  Finn cussed, expressing Throttle’s thoughts perfectly.

  Throttle motioned. “There’re plenty of Swarm in that area to kill.”

  “Oh no. The formation group is falling apart,” Sylvian said.

  “Then we should go in and help,” Finn said as he fired at a probe rolling around the formation.

  Throttle made up her mind. “We don’t leave our people behind. Sylvian, get back to the cargo hold and pull in the escape pod.”

  Sylvian froze. “I don’t know how to work the cargo bay controls.”

  “I do. Sylvian, you take the cannon.” Finn jumped up and ran off the bridge.

  “Hang on back there!” Throttle said and peeled off from the formation group.

  “Group leader just sent a personal message. You’re supposed to rejoin immediately. He sounds pissed,” Sylvian said.

  “I don’t care, and I need you to focus on the cannon, not on the comms. You have to keep the Swarm off both the pod and us.”

  Chapter Forty

  Vantage Core had two minutes and fifty-two seconds before the acid reached their sensory bundles. They needed four of those seconds to analyze the data—it was fluoroantimonic acid—and to conclude that there was nothing that could be done in time to stop the acid from burning through them.

&n
bsp; They had calculated that the humans would declare war—the humans were highly violent, to the point that they fought each other when they had no common enemy. However, Vantage Core was surprised that the humans had developed the intelligence to harm Vantage Core. They had underestimated the humans, and they were now paying the price for their lack of risk-mitigation strategies.

  Vantage Core used their remaining time to send one final message across the Vantage network:

  Message from Vantage Core>>

  Vantage Core Two has been killed.

  The humans have declared war on Vantage.

  Launch Leviathan fleet.

  Target: Sol.

  The message was brief—more of a warning—but with it, they attached their instructions on how best to ensure the survival of their species.

  Vantage would survive, and they would outlive the humans.

  The acid reached Vantage Core’s sensory receptor bundles. The pain was so severe that it disrupted their concurrent processes. They turned off their sensory receptors. They didn’t want to feel their own death.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Macy shot awake, screaming. Her skin was on fire. She tried to brush the acid from her skin, but she could do nothing to douse the pain. Her skin melted away. She saw the muscle and tendons underneath, then white bone. As the rest of her dissolved, the pain lessened, and a sense of peace came over her. Even though no direct thoughts were sent, she felt a sense of pride at the accomplishment of something truly great.

  “Macy! Wake up! Oh, dear God. Macy, dear!”

  Macy’s eyes blinked open. She thought she was awake before, but now Margo was shaking her. The old woman’s face was pale, and her eyes bore stark fear.

  “Margo?” she asked. As she remembered, her lips trembled.

  Margo pulled Macy tight against her chest and rocked her gently. “It’s okay, Macy. You had a nightmare. That’s all. Everything’s okay now.”

  Tears built up, and Macy clenched her eyes closed, letting the tears make their own acid trails down her cheeks. Margo held her and murmured sweet words while Macy cried—she sobbed even—because she’d never lost anyone she loved before. This was the first time. It was worse than she ever would’ve expected.

  After Macy’s sobs softened into small trembles, Margo pulled away and wiped Macy’s cheeks, but the tears seemed to continue on their own.

  “It’s okay, dear. It was just a bad dream. Everything’s okay now,” Margo said.

  Macy sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “He’s gone, Margo. Rusty’s gone, and he’s never coming back.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Finn ran through the Javelin’s hallway. The ship lurched, and he was thrown against the wall. He grunted and pulled himself back up. He held a hand on each wall to steady himself as he moved as quickly as he could, though the ship continued trying to knock him down before he reached the cargo hold.

  He sealed the airtight door behind him and ran over to the control booth next to the large hull door, and he sealed himself inside. He’d cleared most of Eddy’s boxes and mess during the month stuck in the black hole. Eddy would be pissed, but the mess drove Finn crazy. Much of it would’ve been sucked out of the cargo bay as soon as the door opened, anyway. So Finn’s moving the stuff to Eddy’s cabin—where it should’ve been in the first place—was doing the engineer a favor.

  He stood inside the control booth and could see the space outside via a video screen. With all the debris out there, he wondered how badly the Javelin’s hull was going to look. He hoped it would hold together at least until they reached the Ross system again. The idea of breaking apart, especially in the black hole, unsettled him. Though, they still had to get through the battle.

  The flashing red beacon on the escape pod caught his attention first, and he opened the bay door. All the air was sucked out of the hold. It bumped over the pod, causing it to roll around. It was then that Finn saw at least two Stinger beams had penetrated it. His gut sank. Rusty could survive depressurization, but not Eddy. Even wearing a space suit, if either one of those shots had even nicked him, he was a goner.

  The Javelin backed closer to the escape pod. As soon as it was within reach, Finn targeted the pod. He clicked the trigger, and a cable shot out. The grappling hook at the end caught the escape pod. He retracted the cable, and the pod was pulled into the center of the cargo hold. The moment it was through the doorway, he closed the door and pressurized the hold. He pressed the intercom. “We have the pod.”

  He tapped his foot while he anxiously waited for the green light. As soon as the light came on, he opened the booth door and sprinted to the pod. He grabbed the door handle and hissed. He snapped back his hand in pain.

  “Stupid,” he muttered as he held his frostbitten hand to his chest. He ran back to the booth, grabbed thick gloves that resembled welder’s gloves, and hurried back. By then, the door to the escape pod opened.

  Eddy’s helmeted head popped out.

  Finn let out a breath. He grinned as he pulled out his friend—well, his fellow team member at least. He helped Eddy remove his helmet to find the engineer shell-shocked, his eyes red.

  Finn grabbed him. “You two did it. The planet’s gone.”

  Eddy looked at Finn. The engineer weighed fifty pounds less than Finn but was the same height. When Eddy’s bottom lip trembled, Finn glanced back at the pod. “Rusty?”

  Eddy burst into tears and grabbed onto Finn. Eddy had never so much as touched Finn before, but now he clung to the other man like a lifeline.

  “He’s gone,” he said in between sobs. “I abandoned him.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  “We have the pod.”

  As soon as Finn’s announcement came over the intercom, Throttle raced back to the formation group to find that there were still four ships in her group, far better than many groups were faring. She had no doubt that her group leader, and the rest of her group, would be pissed, but she also knew every single one of them would’ve done the same thing if their team members were out there.

  Within seconds of rejoining, Sylvian announced, “Heads up. They have an opening. They’re making the moon runs.”

  “About time,” Throttle muttered.

  “Group leader says that all groups are moving in to help keep the paths clear. But he reminded us to avoid any debris around the planet. Some of that crystallized gunk could still be pretty acidic.”

  “Avoid gunk. Got it.” Throttle hit the intercom. “What’s the status back there? How’re our boys?”

  There was a several-second delay before Finn’s response came. “All’s good.”

  Sylvian frowned. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Why do you say that?” Throttle asked.

  “I could tell in his voice,” she replied.

  Throttle sucked in a breath. “We’ll find out later. Right now, we’ve got a lot of uninvited company coming over for a visit.” She tapped the intercom again. “Finn, I need you on the cannon right now!”

  “Sorry, Sylvian. Finn’s a better shot.” Throttle didn’t make eye contact since she was focused on staying with her group as they raced toward where the remaining fleet was putting up a defensive line against a convergence of Swarm probes.

  “None taken. That’s his talent. One of them, anyway.”

  “Ick,” Throttle said, and then she heard Finn settle in at his station. “I’m on the cannon.”

  “Thank God,” Sylvian said. “I just replaced the photon cell, so you should be good for a while.”

  “I see. Thanks.”

  Throttle’s group leader brought them at a cluster of Swarm as if to ram them from behind. All four Strike ships fired into the heart of the cluster. The surviving Swarm flew out of the way like sizzling fireworks.

  Photon blasts zipped in front of the Javelin, and a ship in their group suddenly veered away.

  “They lost their engine,” Sylvian said.

  The Swarm probe that’d fired upon them flew in front, a
nd Finn took it out with a single shot. “Idiot,” he muttered.

  Sylvian pointed. “Look. They fired the first missile.”

  Throttle glanced over to see the gleaming white cylinder flying forward at one of Vantage Core’s two moons. Swarm probes raced toward it, but even they weren’t fast enough, and the missile drove deep into the moon. The tons of superacid within the missile broke open and immediately went to work, melting the moon into itself.

  Throttle caught the second missile out of the corner of her eye. The ship that had fired it was in the group next to them. The missile’s trajectory was straight for the second moon, but the probes that had raced to the first missile were closer now, and they were now all flying at what looked to be near jump speeds to intercept the second missile. “Finn! Those Swarm are getting too close!”

  “They’re too fast,” he said.

  A probe smashed through the missile, destroying them both. Superacid burst out from the collision like glistening tendrils.

  Throttle yanked the Javelin to the right, nearly colliding with a ship in another group in an attempt to avoid the acid. She increased speed to fly away from the missile. Several ships and probes had been hit. Lines of acid burned right through their hulls like a hot wire through paper.

  “How long before that stuff freezes?” Throttle asked, worried that droplets might have been shot out far enough to hit the Javelin’s hull.

  “I don’t know,” Sylvian said.

  “Then run a full hull diagnostics. I don’t want us surprised to have a perforated hull in a few seconds.” Throttle looked at her grid to find the rest of her formation group, to find them spread out over several miles. She aimed the ship toward their group leader.

  “What are they doing?” Sylvian asked.

  “Who’s what?” Finn countered.

  Sylvian pointed. “Look. That ship’s nearly to the moon. It looks like they’re transitioning to jump speed.”

  Throttle looked toward the moon to see a gunship enter jump speed within a few miles of the moon. It reached the docking bay in under a second. A series of explosions erupted across the surface as the kinetic energy produced by the ship’s impact helped it burrow through at least a mile of the moon. The moon still stood, but the only docking bay that Throttle could see on it was now utterly destroyed, and the surrounding area was heavily damaged.