Shadow of the Blue Ring (26 page)

Any attempt to shoot the Hunters risked them hitting Saavoy, the only thing they could do was watch on, all of them with their weapons ready in case anything went wrong. Saavoy readied himself, staring down his enemy as it circled around him. Finally it sprang towards him, its blade drawn as it went. Saavoy blocked the first attack before jumping backwards to avoid the second strike. This Hunter was faster than the others and Saavoy wasn’t able to hit it with a quick counter like he had done before, he was forced to defend for his life.

Parrying another direct blow, Saavoy finally had an opening but the Hunter was too fast again and his strike only grazed it’s chest-plate. Before he know it, the Hunter struck at him again and he wasn’t fast enough in parrying it, the tip of it’s blade struck him across his left shoulder leaving a nasty looking gash. James wanted to jump in and help but there was nothing he could do, with the duel still going on before their eyes. Even though Saavoy was hurt, it didn’t seem to be affecting his focus but he was not moving as fast as he had been before and it looked like it was only a matter of time. Barely a minute in and Saavoy found himself knocked back again and this time the Hunter’s blade caught him across the thigh, leaving another nasty looking gash that finally brought him to his knees. Saavoy let out a deafening roar and swung his blade at the lead Hunter’s sword arm, catching it on the forearm and cutting the blade from it’s armour. The Hunter responded by kicking out at him, sending him sprawling across the ground.

“HELP HIM!” James called to the rest of his crew. At that second, each of them opened fire on the Hunters that had previously been standing watch. Kalmar picked off the closest one with a clean head shot clearing a path to where the Hunter captain had knocked Saavoy to the ground and was moving towards him with the intention of finishing him off. James and Kosare both ran in his direction, dodging several shots that came their way. James ducked out of the way of a nearby Hunter, sliding across the ground and allowing Kosare to deal a killing blow while it was distracted. Just as the the Hunter captain was less than a meter from Saavoy, James opened fire on it from close range, leaving it with no chance to dodge his attack. With his enemy fallen to his knees, James took his own blade from it’s sheath and cut the Hunter captain’s head from it’s body.

With the lead Hunter down, James turned his attention to the downed Saavoy. He was not getting up and he was bleeding badly, he was seriously hurt. Morelli was firing the turret towards the remaining Hunters, keeping them well back from where Saavoy was lain.

“How bad is it?”

“Well I’m not dead,” Saavoy gasped, although he wasn’t far from it, he had wounds on his arm, leg and another one across his chest, not to mention he was dazed from the impact of being struck by the Hunter.

“Come on, we’re getting you out of here.”

James, joined by Ansare and Julio carefully lifted him, being sure not to cause any more damage than had already been done but they needed to hurry as more Hunters were arriving on scene. Kosare quickly drew her pistols again and took aim, hitting the oncoming Hunters with everything she had, once again aiming for their legs to slow them down.

“Come on, we need to get moving!” Isha drew everyone’s attention to what was going on above them, the Evening Star had begun it’s descent towards the city and had now come into view, it was now or never. They quickly put Saavoy down on the floor of the flyer’s hold but Kosare was continuing to fire on the Hunters, bringing two more of them to their knees. James called for her to get on board but she was in her zone, she was felling them as they came. He had to spring from cover, Julio alongside him, and the two of them had to pull her onto the flyer away from the onrushing Hunters.

“We’re all on! Go, go, go!”

Melina took her place in the cockpit and shut the loading ramp the moment they were all aboard. With all of her years of gala experience, she expertly maneuvered them off the ground and out of the city, making for the Evening Star with all haste. As far as they could tell, the Hunters couldn’t reach them in the air. There was no moment for them to breathe easy though, not with one of the crew in such a bad way.

“We need to stabilise the bleeding!” James said anxiously, Saavoy continuing to lose blood. He was quick to put pressure on the wound on his shoulder, the others helping out and stopping the bleeding on his leg and chest. There was only so much they could do on the flyer though, they needed to get him to the medical bay urgently.

“What are you looking at?” Saavoy groaned, seeing the worried look on Morelli’s face.

“Damn you Kasha!” Morelli snapped, a tear forming in her eye, “I swear if you die on me like this, I’ll kill you.”

“Drama queen,” Saavoy muttered. The colour was starting to drain from his cheeks and he was starting to feel cold. Morelli grabbed his hand, holding it as tightly as she could, seeing her former lover in this state was tearing her apart. James was quick to get on the commlink back to the ship.

“This is captain Tavarez to the Evening Star. We’re right outside, have the doors open for us and have a medical team meet us in the hangar bay, we have a medical emergency down here!”

“Will do captain, I’ll have Markova meet you down there as soon as you arrive.”

The Evening Star was in position at the exact time they had needed it to be. The Shuttle bay door was open for them and Melina took them inside with all possible haste, bringing them to a screeching halt as soon as they touched down, the whole group being briefly thrown off balance. As promised, Markova and her team had arrived on scene and made straight for the flyer, Melina lowering the loading ramp to allow them aboard. They could not have arrived sooner, Saavoy was beginning to lose consciousness and he was feeling cold.

“You do not get to die on me now!” Morelli yelled at him, “you hear me!? You don’t get to die!”

One of the medical staff was quick to help her up and onto crutches but she was refusing to leave Saavoy’s side, even as Markova attended to him, her team lifting him onto a stretcher and giving him an oxygen mask.

“We’ve got this,” said Markova, “get back to the bridge captain, that Hunter ship is still out there. We’re not out of this yet.”

“I’m on my way,” said James, “all of you not heading to the medical bay, come with me, we have to get back to the bridge.”

He wanted to go with Morelli and Saavoy but he was needed on the bridge. They still had a Hunter ship to deal with and an escape to make and there was no way their enemy was going to make it easy for them. James sprinted out of the hangar bay, ripping off his re-breather mask now that he was in a breathable atmosphere once more, and made for the bridge as quickly as he could.

“We’re just clearing the atmosphere now,” Daniels informed him as he rejoined his command crew, “the Hunter ship is on an intercept course sir… orders?”

“Hold your course helmsman,” James said confidently, “raise shields and arm weapons. Divert all reserve power to the shock cannons, I think it’s time we tested them out.”

“Sir… I don’t think I need to remind you what these ships are capable of…”

“No lieutenant, you don’t,” James cut Daniels off mid-sentence, “you have your orders helmsman, increase speed and head directly for the Hunter ship.”

“Going to get us killed,” James head Daniels mutter under his breath as he obliged. James had no intention of getting anyone killed but he certainly wanted to make a statement of intent to these Hunters.

“What are you doing, James?” Kalmar said as he arrived on the bridge, “we already tried this in the simulation and we lost every time.”

“I know what I’m doing, Kalmar,” said James, “we just need to maintain our speed. Wait until they open fire, dodge them and then return fire right into the these coordinates.”

James entered the coordinates in question into Ivanov’s tactical console. Not one other person on the ship shared his optimism but James knew what he was doing. The two ships were about to come into firing range of each other… the Hunter ship opened fire first, spraying powerful blue beams of energy in their direction, Daniels doing his best to dodge out of their way and continuing to keep up the ship’s speed. They were closing in on each other fast.

“OPEN FIRE!

Just as he had ordered, Ivanov activated the shock guns, searing white blasts of energy striking the Hunter ship right where James had specified, on the forward starboard section of the Hunter ship where it’s guns were placed. The Hunter ship hit home with one of it’s shots but the full forward firepower of the Evening Star continued to strike it in a concentrated pattern and there was a noticeable strain on it’s shields. The two ships were getting closer and closer, the Evening Star bearing down on it at an incredible speed.

“Prepare all forward torpedo launchers, fire on my mark.”

They were almost on a collision course, they were going head to head with the Hunter ship, dodging and weaving in and out between it’s shots, another one skimming the shields on the Evening Star.

“NOW! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!”

At that second, the Evening Star launched a full volley of torpedoes right into the weakened section of the Hunter ship’s shields, the close proximity of the ship allowing them all to hit at almost the exact same time, the resulting explosion impacting on the surface of the ship and bursting into a fireball, spreading debris from the Hunter ship in all directions, they had broken through it’s shields.

No sooner had they hit, Daniels pulled of an evasive maneuver, passing within barely a few hundred meters of the Hunter ship itself. At the speed they were going, the Hunter ship didn’t have time to aim nor turn to engage them, they were past it and in the clear.

“Engaging warp engines now,” said a very relieved Daniels, hitting the lever and sending the ship forward into hyperspace. For the second time since they had entered the Blue Ring sector, they had gone head to head with the Hunters and survived.

“I guess they aren’t so tough after all,” said Isha, who had looked a little panicked over the whole ordeal, “that was still very risky though, how did you know it would work?”

“It was all thanks to the simulations actually,” said James, “when I was testing out attack strategies, I noticed that when the Hunter ship fired, the shielding around it’s main guns was very briefly weakened due to the power their weapons would draw from nearby systems. The shock cannons are designed to overload shields and break through them so it was a double advantage to us, but only if we could hit them with precise timing which Ivanov was able to do.”

“Happy to be of service” Ivanov was always happy to see his work appreciated.

“But we never managed to get through their shields in those simulations,” said Kalmar, “we would always lose because we would always get outmaneuvered after the first attack.”

“But there was also a noticeable pattern that I was able to spot,” James revealed, “the Hunter ships are relatively slow and each time we ran the battle simulation, we would get maybe about ten to fifteen seconds with which to work an opening because we had the greater speed. Only this time, we weren’t trying to battle them, we just needed to get past them. By building up enough speed from escaping the planet’s atmosphere, we took advantage of their lack of mobility and we were able to get past them by exposing that small window of opportunity. By passing them at such close quarters, by the time they could turn to engage us, we were already far out of range.”

“And there I was thinking the whole thing had been a waste of time,” said Kalmar, “but even though we did score a hit on them, I doubt the damage was any more than superficial. It takes an incredible amount of firepower to take one of those down. They aren’t going to be too happy that we just damaged one of their ships, you can bet they will be coming for us now. Now that they know we have the Shadow Bringer too, I think they will have even more reason to come looking for us.”

“Well we aren’t going to wait around and let them find us,” said James, “helmsman, set a course for Tolis, I think it’s time to go back and see the council and let them know what we’ve found. I’m sure we’ll have some words for them too. Meanwhile, crew is dismissed until we reach the Valoran sector. I think we all need a break, we had it rough down there and we were lucky that everyone got out alive.”

He allowed everyone from his command crew and his bridge crew to take their leave, the reserve bridge officers stepping in to take over for their shifts. There was little for them to do until they were back in the Valoran sector and in the relative safety of the alliance fleets. If the Hunter ship decided to follow them, they would have the strength to fight it off, especially as it had just taken damage. As the rest of the group left, James noticed Isha making a quick retreat towards their quarters and he was quick to follow behind her.

“How did I know you would be following me,” Isha sighed, clearly reading James’s intentions, “I guess there’s no point me dragging this out anymore.”

James followed Isha back to their quarters, hoping that she might finally be willing to open up about what had been bothering her so much.

“Time to come clean then Isha,” James said as they stepped inside, trying not to sound hard on her but still wanting to get the truth out of her.

“Well… I…” she replied awkwardly, “. . . I suppose I should talk to you about something.”

Isha took a seat next to him on the bed and took his hand. She was looking directly into his eyes, something on her mind clearly desperate to come out.

“What is it?” James asked her.

“James, I… I’m pregnant,” Isha finally revealed her big secret.

“What? How… how do you know?”

“I took a test yesterday, it was positive, I’m six weeks gone. That’s why I was feeling sick before, it wasn’t the bodies back on the Churian ships that did it, it was the first symptoms of the pregnancy kicking in. I had Kaydenne get me some medication for the sickness so I can carry on with the mission but it’s only a temporary fix for now.”

James was speechless. He hadn’t predicted this happening, not at this time, not in the middle of this potential crisis. He had always wanted children of his own, he had always known the two of them would start a family eventually but… of all the times for the news to break… this was not it.