Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor (37 page)

The helmsman engaged Atlantia’s main engines and the frigate surged out from beneath the huge Veng’en cruiser. Almost immediately Lael called out.

‘She’s charging weapons and targeting the surface captain!’

‘Helm, maximum power!’

The helmsman leaned across his console and pushed the throttles wide open.

‘Belay that order!’ Lael cried out. ‘The jamming signal has been broken!’

Mikhain’s eyes widened as in the same instant the sounds of the pilots of the Raythons broke through, the radio static clearing.

‘The Veng’en’s sensor array has been destroyed!’
one of them yelled.
‘Get Arcadia up here now!’

Mikhain’s brain could not comprehend how the fighters and bombers had gotten through, but he did not waste time finding out. He whirled to Lael.

‘Hack the ship’s systems, now!’

‘Signal’s already being emitted!’ Lael replied. ‘Computers are accessing Arcadia’s control networks!’

‘Helm, reverse course, engage the Veng’en cruiser, full attack!’ Mikhain snapped.

‘Aye sir!’

‘Tactical, open fire as soon as our cannons come to bear!’

‘Aye sir!’ Ensign Scott replied.

Mikhain clenched his fists as he felt the Atlantia heel over once more, swinging around to broadside the Veng’en ship.

‘How long before Arcadia reaches us?’ he demanded.

‘She’s climbing now,’ Lael replied. ‘Her trajectory will take her into orbit far from our position. Salim must be in control of her, and he’s too far out for our signals system to hack the controls!’

Mikhain grasped at his hair. On the surface below, hundreds of innocent lives that he could not abandon. Far away, Arcadia slipping away from them with her massive arsenal of guns. Ahead, he saw the Veng’en cruiser’s massive cannons open fire.

‘Intercept, now! Maximum power!’ he yelled.

The Atlantia surged forward as the shower of massive plasma charges rained down toward the planet below.

‘Brace for impact!’ Mikhain bellowed as the displays showed the Veng’en broadside rocketing down toward the surface and Atlantia rushing in to intercept them.

The salvo of blasts smashed down across Atlantia’s hull and the entire vessel shuddered as the lights flickered erratically and panels were blasted from the bridge walls as circuits overloaded and sprayed showers of sparks across display consoles.

‘Hull breach astern!’ Lael called. ‘Fires through multiple decks, hull integrity at twelve per cent! Another salvo and we’re done for!’

Mikhain saw a handful of plasma shots race past Atlantia and rocket down toward the surface below.

‘Wait,’ Mikhain ordered. ‘We can hold on, just a little longer! Helm, maintain position but keep jinking!’

‘Aye sir!’

‘And keep hitting her with everything we’ve got left!’ Mikhain bellowed. ‘We’ve got to give Captain Sansin more time!’

***

‘Take cover!’

Evelyn heard General Bra’hiv’s bellowed command even as the shrill din from Arcadia’s enormous engines shattered the air around them, the already turbulent winds of Chiron’s atmosphere amplified by the gigantic intakes sucking in vast quantities of air.

Evelyn ducked down as the wind howled past her, hundreds of others mirroring her actions. Ahead, she saw clouds of Hunters being sucked up off the ground and whipped upward toward the huge engines.

The massive docking cradles groaned and shrieked as metal under tension was warped by the shifting weight of the huge frigate above them. She tried to aim her pistol straight at the Veng’en warriors advancing from cover to cover on their position, but she could not draw an accurate bead as the gusting winds tugged at her body and arm.

‘Where’s Teera?!’ Ishira cried out.

Evelyn could not reply as the wind buffeted her head, and then she heard the Marines cry out together in unison.

‘Fire in the hole!’

A flamethrowing soldier opened up on the liquid drenching the Hunters, the jet of flame licking out and caressing the machines with brutal efficiency. Even though the winds were racing past, the heat was enough to spark the fluid into flame and suddenly the entire wave of Hunters was transformed into a sea of burning machines, heat haze rippling upward from their surface.

‘Get down!’

Evelyn threw her hands over her head and crouched down as the flames crackled overhead, the Ogrin around them fleeing in pain as the super-heated air scorched their faces and burned their clothes. The dense, acrid smoke soared upward in billowing veils toward Arcadia’s huge engine intakes, thousands of burning Hunters aglow with flame flying up into the air with them as Evelyn squinted against the force of the wind and saw Arcadia’s hull lift off its massive cradles and begin to ascend.

‘Get flat on the ground!’ she cried out around her. ‘Lay flat!’

Hundreds of slaves within earshot dropped onto their bellies as Arcadia’s main engines engaged and the huge ship eased forward, thousands of atmospheric thrusters blasting jets of vapour at supersonic speed in support of the massive internal anti-gravity gyroscopes that enabled Arcadia to lift off. Evelyn, her eyes squinted against the immense force of the wind, saw clouds of flaming Hunters blasted through the air over their heads like flaming meteors to vanish into the distance.

‘We’re out of Devlamine fluid!’ a Marine shouted in desperation.

Arcadia’s thrusters blasted downward into the deep valley of her docking bay and then upwards out of it, clouds of dust and rock spraying up into the sky as she lifted off and thundered away over the cliffs and the ocean. Clouds of debris, vortexes of dust and whorls of burning Hunters swirled through the skies around them as they crouched and watched the frigate escape.

‘Enemy front!’

Bra’hiv’s cry alerted the Marines as the remaining swathes of Hunters, immune to distraction from their murderous primary goal, surged ever forward as the deafening roar of Arcadia’s engines began to fade away. The Marines opened fire again but there was little chance of them holding back the dense sea of machines sweeping toward them.

Evelyn turned and saw more Hunters swarming in across the landscape behind them, running like oil down watercourses and flattening seas of grass as they advanced in their millions.

The Marines switched positions, dashing to encircle the entire crowd of slaves and Ogrin as they began drawing together and away from the advancing machines. The densely packed slaves stood shoulder to shoulder with each other and stared wide eyed as they were encircled by the Hunters. The entire field was littered with the dead bodies of countless Veng’en, their corpses being consumed and torn apart as the Hunters advanced.

‘This is it!’ Bra’hiv roared.

Evelyn suddenly felt a bizarre sense of calm descend upon her. Faced with certain death and with no possible means of escape, it was as if a terrible burden had been released from her shoulders. Evelyn lowered her pistol, realising that it was useless against the massive army of machines bearing down upon them.

It was over.

‘Let’s take as many of them down with us as we can!’ Bra’hiv yelled.

Evelyn watched as the Marines opened fire as one, and then suddenly a series of massive plasma blasts ripped through the Hunters. Evelyn’s eyes widened and she whirled to see a Raython hovering nearby, its engines whining as it fired repeated blasts into the sea of Hunters. Evelyn felt a wave of relief as she recognised Teera’s face in the cockpit.

‘It’s not enough!’ Bra’hiv yelled.

Evelyn was about to wave her arms at Teera and try to indicate that she should clear a path for them as best she could when another series of blasts hammered the Hunters around them. The plasma rounds thundered closer and closer as cries of alarm went up from the crowd, explosions rippling toward Evelyn and churning the earth and with it thousands of the nanites.

Evelyn almost ducked as a nearby blast showered the crowd with debris and a ship rushed out of the distance and rocketed overhead, low enough that she felt a rush of wind as it blasted by and pulled up into a steep climb.

The Phoenix rolled over and dove back down, her powerful cannons firing in all directions at the Hunters as it lowered its landing struts and swept in to touch down. Teera’s Raython switched position and raked the ground leading to the Phoenix with plasma fire, scorching the soil and blasting Hunters clear.

‘Everybody on me!’ Bra’hiv yelled. ‘Marines to the rearguard!’

Evelyn dashed to Bra’hiv’s side as the Marines repositioned again, covering the side of the crowd opposite the landing freighter. The Phoenix touched down on the uneven ground even as her boarding ramp was lowering, and Evelyn glimpsed Taron Forge already there, his pistol drawn as he fired randomly at the nearest clusters of Hunters and waved frantically for them to board his ship.

‘Covering fire!’ Bra’hiv ordered.

The Marines fired by sections, rifles and flamethrowers blazing as they held the Hunters at bay and withdrew toward the Phoenix. Evelyn fired at anything small, black and metallic, and saw from the corner of her eye Ishira and Stefan with plasma rifles cradled in their grasp and firing a steady stream of blasts to either side of the crowd.

‘Get aboard the Phoenix!’ Evelyn insisted. ‘Go, now!’

The slaves poured past them into the freighter, and Evelyn searched desperately for some sign of Kordaz amid the terrified throng, but she could not see the Veng’en and she could not see Qayin either.

‘Where’s Qayin?!’ she cried out to Bra’hiv.

‘We can’t stay!’ the general replied. ‘Get aboard, now! That’s an order!’

Evelyn scanned the smouldering masses of Hunters, already being crawled over by their seemingly endless surviving brethren, and then she spotted a narrow course through their metallic corpses toward her own parked Raython high on the hillside.

Evelyn whirled and sprinted away from the Phoenix toward the gap. Bra’hiv’s bellowed commands followed her but she did not hear them as she dashed between heaps of metal corpses, glowing red-hot where plasma blasts had hit them and melted them to slag. Thick, acrid grey smoke clogged the air around her as she ran, aching in her lungs as she hit the slope and began climbing toward the parked craft.

The whine of Teera’s Raython followed her and she heard plasma blasts strike the ground close behind. She dared to look over her shoulder and saw Hunters streaming in pursuit from all directions. The Phoenix raised her ramp and blasted off into the skies above, packed with surviving slaves and the compound now devoid of humans. She ran harder, her chest heaving as she forged up the hillside and broke free atop the ridge.

Her Raython was still where she had landed, but almost immediately she saw the body sprawled across the ground nearby. Evelyn turned on instinct and sprinted toward it, fear clogging her lungs as she realised that it was Kordaz and that several Hunters were scattered across his body and around him, probably gusted up here when Arcadia took off.

Evelyn screamed as she smashed the machines off his body, stamping on them as they landed and firing her pistol at their damaged bodies until they no longer moved.

She slumped down alongside the Veng’en and looked at the massive wound in his chest. The flesh was blackened and scarred, wisps of blue smoke drifting on the wind. Kordaz’s eyes were open but his breathing was shallow and weak.

‘Can you hear me?’ Evelyn shouted above the wind, checking behind her to ensure they were not about to be overrun by more Hunters.

Kordaz’s mouth gaped and he tried to speak, but she could tell that he was too weak. As he stared at her, she saw small black specks drifting behind his eyes and with terrible certainty she knew that Kordaz was infected. She glanced at the dead Hunters around her and recalled that they often carried a small number of Infectors inside them, the better to spread the Legion into other species.

Evelyn tried to drag Kordaz toward her Raython, but his body was far too heavy to move even one cubit. She turned as she heard the Phoenix’s engines whine into the distance and Teera’s Raython turn to follow the freighter. Below, down the slope, she saw the remaining Hunters swarming toward her as Teera fired a few lasts blasts down upon them.

Kordaz’s powerful hand grabbed Evelyn and pulled her close. Even above the roar of the Raython’s engines and plasma cannons, she heard the Veng’en speak with the last of his strength.

‘Beware, Qayin.’

Kordaz slumped back onto the ground as his eyes rolled up into their sockets. Evelyn stared at the Veng’en for a long moment, and then a terrific blast smashed into the dock below her. She whirled in shock as the massive plasma barrage hammered into the ground and excavated a huge crater, the debris rocketing upward into the sky as the shockwave hit her and hurled her backwards.

Evelyn tumbled over and slammed into the ground, then struggled to her feet and dashed for her Raython as from the skies above a rain of massive red plasma blasts burst through the clouds and smashed down into the ground.

The shockwaves battered the air about her and rang in her ears as she vaulted into the Raython’s cockpit and hit a row of switches concealed beneath the control panel. The fighter’s emergency launch sequence initiated, the cockpit closing and shielding her from the deafening noise outside as the controls glowed into life and the engines spun-up under emergency generator power.

Evelyn did not even fasten her harness as she grabbed the control column and throttle and hauled the Raython into the air. She pointed the nose at the sky, away from the shower of giant plasma rounds as she threw the throttles open and the Raython accelerated away from the cliff tops and toward the boiling clouds above.

As she climbed, the Raython shuddered as the shockwaves continued to pound the fighter, the entire pirate compound vaporised behind her in a massive inferno of flame. Evelyn saw towering thunderheads soaring into the skies, the aurora as bright now in daylight as it had been at night, and she knew that any forms of life on Chiron IV were now doomed.

***

Idris Sansin dashed through Arcadia’s corridors as he sprinted toward the War Room, his footfalls echoing through the empty ship. He slowed as he reached the heavily fortified chamber than contained the War Room and managed to get his breathing under control as he eased his way around the corner.