The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4) (24 page)

When his back touched the nearest building he went through the concrete and metal and the fireball started consuming the skyscraper little by little.

Chase intensified his aura to the maximum and all his muscles doubled in size. He pushed with all his might.

I can do it! I have to!
he kept repeating to himself.

Then he felt an energy added to his own. The energy was loaded with love and warmth. It gave him a much-needed boost in power.

Chase pushed the gigantic ball of fire back as blue waves of energy emanated from his hands. The gigantic ball of energy soon turned blue. Chase repelled the attack, and he soon cleared the city’s skyscraper area.

“Careful, Dad, he’s coming at you. Push hard, NOW!”

Chase pushed as hard as he could and the sphere of energy shot into the heavens at tremendous speed. A fraction of second later, he sensed Arkoolis approaching him from the left and dodged his flying kick at the last possible instant. Losing no time he grabbed the leg of the general and whirled around. Soon he whirled so fast he looked like a miniature cyclone. He released the general’s leg and sent him crashing miles away into the dirt. When the general impacted with the ground at such high velocity he skidded for miles, destroying everything in his path and leaving a deep trail.

On board the last remaining Zarlack destroyer still in the fight, Argos had now to contend with the four remaining Alliance destroyers still battle worthy. Their combined firepower in their current state wasn’t enough to drain his shields completely, but he often needed to use evasive action and retreat away from the theater of battle in order to let them recharge.

Suddenly a gigantic ball of blue energy grazed his ship and illuminated his entire ready room with a blue tinge, for just half a second. The ship rocked and he was thrown away from his throne and unceremoniously dumped on the ground. Sparks flew from power conduits nearby and a large crack appeared in his viewport window.

What the hell was that?

He rushed back to his throne to check his instruments.

His destroyer’s shields were now offline. The ship rocked several more times as the enemy fleet started pounding its armor with battery fire and whatever torpedoes they still possessed.

A violent explosion on the bridge sent flames through to his ready room, obliterating the door that separated the rooms in the process.

Looks like it’s time to go.

Argos erected a force field around himself and levitated a few feet from the deck. He then flew downwards at incredible speed, punching through the different decks on his way to the landing bay, where his ship awaited him. He left a trail of red-hot burned metal as he traveled through his ship. Everything around him exploded and the Zarlack destroyer was only seconds from blowing up entirely.

He reached the
Dark Star
, sat in his pilot’s chair and boosted the engines to the maximum. He saw a Droxian destroyer on a collision course with his destroyer and lost no time activating his jump engines the second he was off the landing-bay deck. He micro-jumped away only a few thousand miles and activated the
Dark Star
’s cloak.

“This day isn’t going as well as I had hoped, but the general and Miseo have destroyed most of the planet already. It’s time to scoop them up.”

Or is it?

Argos pondered if perhaps he should leave them down there in the hope that Chase would dispatch them both, but there was so little chance of that happening that he quickly resigned himself to entering the atmosphere and vectoring the
Dark Star
towards Miseo’s last known coordinates. If any of them survived and he ran, he would be executed by the supreme commander. Of that he had no doubts whatsoever.

*   *   *

Miseo still held Ronan in the air and was about to send another of his piercing laser attacks, when he was suddenly hit by an invisible object traveling at an extremely high velocity.

The
Valken
had just rammed Miseo. The collision lit up its shields and sent the Fury tumbling to the ground hundreds of yards away. At the moment Miseo’s grasp on Ronan loosened he fell to the ground.

“Are you alright, son?” asked Ronan over the comms.

“Thanks. I’m okay, I guess.”

The
Valken
phased back into view as the cloaking field was turned off.

The back ramp of the ship was already lowering as it approached Ronan’s position. He got back up and jumped inside the ship.

“We should go,” said Ryonna.

“We need to get Arknon first. He’s over there.” Ronan pointed towards his unconscious friend.

The ship hovered over Arknon’s unconscious body and Ronan brought him on board. A fireball came from Miseo, but Keera saw it coming and dodged it at the last second.

The rocking of the ship sent both Ryonna and Ronan crashing against the wall.

“Hang one, everyone, we need to get out of here fast.”

The
Valken
’s ramp closed and Keera and started her ascent. She still needed a minute to activate the cloaking device that needed to recharge. But then three fireballs impacted with the ship’s shields. The first two drained the shields and the third one damaged the ship’s engine.

Keera lost control of the craft and it plummeted back towards the surface of the planet.

*   *   *

Daniel had left the Saroudis’ cabin and been in the woods for half an hour when he thought he heard footsteps trailing him. He turned around to check it out but couldn’t see anything.

“Anyone there?”

When no one answered he put the steps down to his imagination. He had been through quite a trauma, and it was entirely possible he had imagined it.

It took him almost two hours to reach the destroyed tower in his condition. He looked around the wreckage for any tech he could use to contact the
Destiny
but found nothing useful. He found his pocket communicator near the tree he’d fallen from but it had been damaged beyond repair.

“Just great.”

He retraced the steps his now defunct team had taken to arrive at the tower and soon reached the shuttle. He heard the recognizable sound of a tree branch cracking behind him. He took the blaster that Alexandra had kindly given him for the journey and pointed it at the trees.

“Alright, you’d better show yourself before I start shooting.”

“Don’t shoot, Daniel!”

It was Sendra’s voice.

“What the hell are you doing here? Does your mom know you followed me?”

“She thinks I went to get mushrooms for tonight’s meal.”

“You shouldn’t have come along. What if a Zarlack patrol or a battle droid had found us?”

“Then Reaper would have protected us.”

The pet wolfen walked from behind the tree where she had been hiding. He barked.

“That seems like a very courageous animal, but Zarlacks are incredibly tough to kill.”

“And yet he has killed his fair share. They have a weak spot in the back of their necks where their scales aren’t as tough as the rest of their bodies. Reaper has killed many that way.”

“Impressive. I didn’t know about that weak spot.”

“Neither did we until Reaper killed his first prey. Later, when we had to fend off a couple of their attacks, it became clear that sniping them in the back of their neck would kill them with a single shot.”

“Good to know, but we shouldn’t stay here in the open. Let’s climb into the shuttle and try to contact your father.”

“My father? He is alive?” Tears filled Sendra’s eyes.

Daniel realized that Alexandra must not have shared the talk he had with her. It also explained why she had sent her away prior to it.

“I thought your mom told you.”

“She is bitter lately; she blames him for everything that happened to us.”

“But you don’t?”

“Why would I? He would never abandon us on purpose. But my mom never liked that he went for a career in the military. Ever since the war with the Obsidian escalated on all fronts, my mother had a real tough time dealing with the long tours he had to do.”

“That’s war for you.”

“And is it still ongoing? My mom often tells me that the war must be over by now.”

“Let’s just say things have changed. But I think it’s best you talk with her about it or with your dad. Now come, let’s try to call him from the shuttle.”

She joined him and Reaper shadowed her.

Daniel opened a channel.

“Commodore Saroudis? Do you hear me?”

There was a little silence and Daniel grew worried for a moment.

“Commander, it’s good to hear your voice. We’re on our way to your position. When you missed your scheduled contact time we worried something happened to you.”

“It did. I lost my whole team, Commodore.”

“I see. Did you manage to find out who sent the communication?”

“I’m afraid not. The communications tower was booby-trapped and I was lucky to escape it with my life.”

“Are you injured?”

“I’ll live, thanks to someone who would like to talk with you.”

“What? Who?”

Daniel waved for Sendra to join him on the co-pilot’s chair. She had stayed quiet until now, probably still in shock at hearing her father’s voice.

“Talk with him.”

“Dad?”

“Sendra?” The commodore’s voice was trembling. “Is it really you?”

“It’s me, Daddy.” Tears flowed like rivers on her cheeks.

“Thank the gods. Are your mother and brothers with you?”

“Mom is well, but . . .”

There was an awkward silence.

“I’m so happy to hear your voice, munchkin. You’ll tell me more about it soon when we get off this planet.”

“I don’t think Mom wants us to leave.”

“Let’s not worry about that right now, baby. For now I’m just so happy to hear your voice.”

“Me too, Daddy. I’ve missed you so much.”

“So have I, Sendra, so have I.”

*   *   *

Chase hovered a few miles away from the city and then let himself fall towards the ground. The moment he felt the ground under his feet, he closed his eyes and concentrated a lot more energy within himself. He checked his power levels and they were, surprisingly, at more than sixty percent. His son’s help deflecting the general’s giant fireball into space had probably also acted as a top up of his own internal pool of energy. Chase focused to bring more of it to the surface, to continue his fight.

That’s it, Chase
, said Ares in his mind.

Hey, I wondered where you had been.

I’m not really here; only a part of my consciousness is.

You’ll have to explain how all this works one day.

I’m honestly not sure I could explain it. The usual laws simply don’t apply in this non-corporeal form, I guess.

If you’re not really here, then where are you?

We have very little time to talk. I’m visiting my Olympian brothers and sisters.

What about Zeus?

Well, I tried earlier but he didn’t seem keen to listen to me. I’m trying to gauge how other Olympians are reacting to the resurgence of Furies.

I’m about to attack Arkoolis, so I’d love to stay and chat but . . .

I’ve slowed down time at the exact moment you started powering up, so don’t worry about it.

Practical. So what did they say?

It’s a little early, but I feel we could enlist a few of them. Perhaps in time they can help us make our case with Zeus. If he would agree to help us, every Olympian would fall in line.

I thought not many of you were left.

We’re only a few compared to how many we once were, but the most powerful of us . . . Let me rephrase that, most of the powerful ones are still alive.

Is that what you came to tell me?

No, not really.

What is it then, Ares?

You’re just inches away from accessing the power you managed to attain when you fought Argos before. With that intensive training of yours you’ve really got a better grasp on your powers and it’s within your reach.

Why do I sense a but coming?

However, that last inch requires an emotion to trigger it.

And that emotion would be?

I wish I could say love, and one day it might very well be, but at your current level of power and state of mind, I think you need to feed yourself some anger, or even rage, to reach your higher level of power.

How am I supposed to do that? The other times it was Argos who brought these emotions to the surface, like when he nearly killed Daniel. I’m far less angry and prone to rage now than I was back then. You’ve always told me I let my emotion get the better of me, and now that it’s taken me months to get them in check you actually want me to let them guide my actions again?

I know, and that’s actually a good thing. You might have felt that boost of confidence in you.

Yeah, I even surprise myself.

It’s all a matter of balance, Chase. You should not overdo it either. If your ego is too strong, you may become overconfident, and in a fight against the Furies, you really don’t want that.

I see. So how do I reach my maximum potential?

You need to use anger as the trigger. Perhaps try remembering how you felt when you had to shoot Sarah’s ship?

I don’t want to go back there, Ares. Once was hard enough.

I’m not telling you to relive the scene, just let the anger that memory brings infuse and overload your current powering up.

Look, Ares, I had a really hard time putting all this behind me. Thanks to the training I managed to control these emotions and I’d rather not go there.

It’s your choice, Chase, but these are powerful memories. They deal with life, death, love. No matter how much pain they bring they might be needed one day.

Let’s say today isn’t that day, then what?