Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) (30 page)

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Thank you.”

“It’s an honor to serve, my Master.”

Argos flicked the holo-conversation away.
Such a
dumb, spineless race these reptilian Zarlacks were, but they served their
purpose. For the time being. Once their former masters reclaimed the universe
that was once theirs, things would get back to how they should’ve been all
along.
Today was the day Argos would speed that future day along.

Spiros heard the long range detection alarm and
braced for what was coming, but not before one last check on all systems.
Everything was in the green, shields were at one hundred twenty percent
capacity, and he had his fingers placed on the firing controls, ready to open
fire on the Zarlack fleet.

“Let’s just make sure it’s not the Alliance jumping
in,” he murmured to himself. “After almost ninety years of service to the
Alliance, today is not the day I want a blemish on my file.” He chuckled.

A hyperspace window opened just outside of weapon’s
range, giving him time to confirm that indeed the ships were Zarlacks—quite the
fleet too. While he had no doubt that the Damocles-3 would be able to give them
pause, he wouldn’t be able to get rid of all of them on his own. But he
wouldn’t have to. Soon captain Athanatos would come to the rescue. All he had
to do was make sure that the station wasn’t destroyed and his work wasn’t
captured.

It would probably take years for them to crack his
encryption—unless of course they took him with it, in which case they might be
smart enough to try his DNA against the encryption, a decision that would
unlock it in no time. But Spiros would destroy everything from the ground up
rather than hand it to an enemy.

I really have to stop thinking
about worst case scenarios,
he thought.

Some of the ships entered firing range. That was
Spiros’ cue. He selected the ship that seemed to have suffered the most damage
in its previous battle with the Alliance fleet and targeted it. He diverted all
power to just one of his last-minute enhancements, a concentrated stream of
energy, and fired.

The purple stream of concentrated laser fire tore a
hole in the target ship and it exploded.

“Welcome to Damocles, bitches, it’s payback time!”

The Zarlack armada responded in kind, firing at will
at the station. The shields were holding pretty well, but he would have to get
rid of a few more ships or they might be in for the long haul. He activated all
laser turrets to concentrate their fire on the next ship on his list of
weakened targets, and once its shields were low enough, he fired another shot
of his main guns. Again, the purple burst of energy pierced its target, though
it did not explode. It did, however, cripple the ship. And that was more than
enough for Spiros to get to the next target, when he received an incoming
transmission.

“This is Argos to the engineer currently firing at
my troops.”

Spiros grinned. “I have a sure fire way for you to
not receive any more damage: get the fuck out of my space!”

“Your space?” Argos laughed. “Alright, let’s just
say it is your space for the moment. But that won’t last long and you know it.”

“Try me, asshole!”

“I’ll forgo the name calling for now, as I have a
proposition for you.”

“Not interested.”

“Very well, it’s your funeral.”

The communications turned off and one of the biggest
ships in the armada fired a very powerful shot at the station. The shields held
but the entire station shook.

“I know where you are now,” Spiros called out loud.
“See if you like my funeral arrangements.”

He targeted the behemoth Zarlack ship and fired
everything he had. After a minute of firing main weapons, and turret laser
fire, and even a few torpedoes, he saw that the impact on its shields had been
only twenty percent, while the station had lost more than that in the same
amount of time.

“Alright, not the right target to focus my limited
energy on… obviously.”

He changed his targeting priorities and resumed
attacking smaller ships in order of the more damaged to the less, now
completely ignoring the massive ship which had already almost recovered its
shields to full capacity.

“You’re lucky I didn’t have the time to install my
new guns,” Spiros said defiantly, clearly unaware he was speaking to himself.
But he couldn’t help but worry about the Alliance and the fact that his shields
were already down to fifty percent.

But as if to answer his wishes, multiple ships
jumped out of hyperspace just behind Argos’ armada. They lost no time engaging
them, reducing the amount of firepower Damocles-3 had to deal with. The newly
arrived fleet contained several Alliance ships, including one which he was
unfamiliar with, but, from the sensor data he was receiving, seemed to be the
most powerful of them all, and by a large margin.

The EAD
Hope
. That figures why it was Chase
who had picked up the call.

Spiros recognized the
Destiny
amongst the
other ships and wondered if it was still being captained by his friend and
pupil Adonis Saroudis, a resident star from his years teaching at the academy.
He was a smart and studious kid, one Spiros never doubted, even back then,
would be given his own command. Attentive and always asking the right
questions. Mind snapping back to the present, he then saw that the fleet also
had Droxian ships and they were fighting alongside the Alliance.

“I never thought the Droxians would ally with
anybody, but these are desperate times, I guess.”

He sank into the nearest chair, right after setting
firing controls to fully automatic, making sure the Droxians were treated as
allies, and exhaled deeply, his stress level lowering on the spot.

“Reinforcements are here. Now it’s time to enjoy the
show and be ready for pick up any time soon.”

*   *   *

Chase addressed the fleet as soon as they exited
hyperspace.

“Listen up, everyone, we need to deal with the
Zarlack fleet, but most importantly, we need to get a hold of the schematics
and rescue scientist Spiros Malayianis from the Damocles-3 station. This is a
top priority, so we cannot let the station fall until that part of the mission
is accomplished. Protect the station with your ships and lives if you have to.”

He opened a channel to Daniel.

“Dan, you and Sarah need to head to the station and
locate Spiros. Make sure you have his research and come back onboard the
Hope
when you’re done.”

“Acknowledged. How do we board?”

“Contact Spiros once you’re near the shields so he
can drop them around the landing bays long enough for you two to land on
Damocles.”

“Sounds like a plan, Chase. Will report once the
mission is accomplished.”

“Be careful.”

“Same to you, Captain,” Daniel said cheerfully,
enjoying his friend’s acting title.

Chase didn’t like the idea of sitting this one out,
but it was vital for him to command this fleet and make sure he did everything
he needed to prevent the Damocles Station from being destroyed before they got
their hand on Spiros and his precious data.

With most of his crew now back on their feet and the
forces at play rightly balanced, he could, however, take the time to test a
F-147. He itched to see what the craft could do, and he was confident he could
still command the fleet and dogfight at the same time. So without a shadow of
hesitation, he stuck the neuronal interface devices to his temple and powered
up a StarFury in reserve onboard the
Destiny
.

The StarFury was mind-blowing, it flew like a dream,
and he enjoyed his first engagement with a Zarlack fighter—even though it
didn’t end up lasting very long after he deployed his drones. The tactical
advantages were undeniable. He blew his first prey out of the sky with such
ease he almost missed the thrill of the challenge. Then he brought his fighter
about and decided to see what the StarFury could do against an entire enemy
squadron.

Let’s even the odds a little,
shall we?

He hit his afterburners and destroyed his first
targeted enemy on the first pass, letting them pursue on purpose. He flew
evasively, but not too much. He wanted to test the shields next. After a few
seconds of letting them pound his aft shields down to forty percent, he punched
in his favorite command for such a situation, Theta-4. The ship killed the
engines and engaged reverse thrusters to maximum while seven Zarlack ships flew
in front of him like shooting stars.

He lined up his first target and rained deadly laser
fire on its aft shields just long enough to enjoy the moment before it exploded
in a fiery display. He then engaged the next two targets—dispatching one with
two missiles up its tail pipe, and finishing off the second with precise and
relentless laser fire.

The thrill was coming back, and oh boy it felt good
to pilot a starfighter again.

Sure he loved the manual feel of the stick, but he
didn’t miss the old days. He always had the simulator for that anyway. Nothing
could beat the high this perfectly synced neuronal interface was bringing. He
acquired the last enemy craft in this squadron and picked them off, one by one,
by perfectly lining laser fire and anticipating their every move. Once the last
one exploded, he looked at his radar and located another incoming squadron.

He checked the status of the fight and saw that the
Hope
was doing well on his automatic scripted commands. It had destroyed one Zarlack
destroyer and was giving another one hell. He had programmed it to alert him
whenever the
Hope’s
shields reached fifty percent, but from his brief
analysis of the sensor data, he could see that this was unlikely to happen for
the time being.

He could try something different now with the next
incoming squadron. He decided to use one of his drones as a shielded torpedo
and sent it in the center of the tightly formed squadron, detonating it without
a thought. The resulting explosion vaporized the entire squadron on the spot.
He knew full well that this was wasting ordnance, but he couldn’t help himself.
He needed to know if that would work and it did beyond his expectations.

One check on his scope told him that Daniel and
Sarah, covered by the rest of both
Destiny’s
and
Hope’s
Alpha
Squadrons, were arriving at destination and soon they would board the Damocles
Station.

But despite the all-around good news, he wondered
what Argos would think of next. He had to have something planned. He had beaten
them at every turn and Chase saw no reason why this time would be any
different.

A salvo of laser fire on his starboard as well as
the buzz of a missile lock brought Chase’s mind back to the fight. A Zarlack
frigate had decided that he was doing too much damage to their starfighter
wings.

Chase reconfigured his remaining drones for maximum
firepower and a spinning pattern, then he engaged the frigate and fired at max
power, redistributing the power on the fly each and every other second,
lowering his shield to achieve maximum firepower on the frigate’s shields and
boosting them back up when the incoming fire was becoming too focused and more
difficult to evade. Readjusting power levels with his mind really opened new
options and definitely boosted efficiency.

Once the frigate’s frontal shield reached twenty
percent, he locked two missiles and a torpedo and fired them all at once. The
faster missiles drained the shields completely as the torpedo tore through and
exploded in front of the ship. It stopped firing, its weapons disabled. Another
ten seconds of pounding laser fire from both his ship and drones did the job
and the vessel exploded out in space with a bright flash and a resounding bang
that shook the StarFury at its close range.

Then Chase’s ship blew up.

The broken link shook Chase to the core and he
opened his eyes, clearly disoriented from losing the neuronal link with his
StarFury.

“What happened?” he asked his crew.

“It looks like the behemoth ship fired a single,
concentrated shot of plasma on your remote fighter; it was destroyed from the
direct hit.”

“Son of a...” swore Chase.

He had been too cocky, not paying attention and
feeling indestructible, and Argos had taught him a lesson. That meant only one
thing though: he had felt that Chase wasn’t physically present on the ship. He
could sense his vital energy somehow. Chase closed his eyes and tried to
concentrate on Argos. If his brother could do it, perhaps so could he. He tried
to expand his mind and quiet down every external stimuli emanating from the
bridge, but instead of calming himself, his mind got agitated, his thoughts
went all over the place beyond his control until chaos ensued. He then received
three quick flashes in his mind.

He saw Daniel and Sarah meet with Spiros. Then he
saw himself fighting Argos onboard the station. And finally, he saw a StarFury
explode in space.

The power of the images cut the wind from his lungs
and he felt a terrible sense of dread and anxiety invade his mind and permeate
throughout his body. It was as if someone had stepped on his grave, and no
matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to catch his breath.

“Captain! Are you alright? Should I call a medic?”

What the hell was that
?