Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) (3 page)

* * *

“Good job!” Liori’s Condor floated up to my side, taking up the position of a wingman.

I switched to autopilot, unsealed my helmet and used the back of my gloved hand to wipe the perspiration from my forehead.

My fingertips twitched. I’d never noticed this before.

A couple more minutes, then everything would be over. Our new life, what was it going to be like? In a moment, the Relic would engage the asteroid with her tractor beams and drag it to the star system’s edge. There we’d mop up the old mine and get to the Founders’ device discovered by the Outlaws. We would then use it to digitize our identities. Basically, we were about to conquer death in emulation of the ancient alien race.

“Scanners report an unidentified signature!”

Danezerath’s report brought me back to reality. My visor’s drives squeaked, sealing the helmet. Both my mind expander and metabolic implant went into overdrive.

Just next to the shipyard, the cloud of diamond-shaped armor segments revealed large clots of swirling matter. The Founders’ drones stopped whatever they’d been doing and surrounded these new formations, pumping them up with energy.

I did a quick evaluation of their power imprints and flinched. “They’re Phantom Raiders!”

I’d been the only one “lucky” enough to witness the alien ships’ materialization just before they had attacked Argus. You just couldn’t mistake it for anything else.

“Give me one minute!” Jurgen’s voice pleaded in the earphones. “I’ve already activated the tractor beams!”

“Foggs,” I snapped, “dock your ship in the Relic! Charon, I want you to cover Liori and myself!”

Flash!

My Condor’s optical multipliers streamed the frightful scene into my mind as a fighter ship complete with an AI module loomed out of the incandescent cloud, fire scales still flaking off its armor. Its 10-megawatt shields glowed, betraying their presence; its hull bristled with gun ports, its bow reflected the phantom light of its antimatter engines. The Raider began to accelerate.

I double-checked its course. It was heading for the Relic!

“Just one more moment!” interference drowned out Jurgen’s voice. “I’m busy with the asteroid!”

The vicinity of the shipyard was lit up with yet more arrivals. A volley from a giant laser system missed the Relic by a hair’s breadth, hitting the chaotically rotating asteroid instead.

The enormous rock, already deorbited by the frigate’s tractor beams, spewed flaming slag into space.

186,000 miles was a perfect effective fire range for a weapon firing at the speed of light!

“Jurgen, try to maneuver out of their arc of fire! Take cover behind the asteroids!”

Too late.

A fresh volley hit the frigate. In order to activate the tractor beams, Jurgen had to transfer part of the energy from the shields. The frigate’s power fields surged, then extinguished, unable to absorb all the damage. The laser beam sliced through the frigate’s hull. Luckily, it wasn’t fatal: the impact zone was one of the ship’s already-damaged depressurized areas which luckily prevented an explosion. The ship’s hull was peppered with about a dozen fire-polished breach holes, not large caliber even, but at least it stayed in one piece.

The two Wearongs headed forward, blocking the danger zone and taking the next volley onto themselves.

“Jurgen, get the ship out, now!”

The Relic’s bow glowed with the activated plasma engines. The ship accelerated smoothly, heading toward Argus. This must have been the best decision. For a while at least, they could use the destroyed space station as cover.

The Wearongs (who now resembled two gigantic medusas, their translucent bodies permeated by red-hot veins throbbing with electricity) blocked another volley, then began to fade away. Their glow was rapidly losing its intensity.

The Relic spat back from her main calibers, obliterating the nearest asteroids in a cloud of rock debris which shielded her from the enemy, forcing the Raiders to abort the firefight in order to close in.

Unexpectedly, the Raiders split. Five of them continued their assault while the rest turned back toward the shipyard. Why would they do that?

Their signatures gave the answer. They looked pale and distorted. Did that mean that the shipyard’s AI had failed to build fully-fledged combat ships with whatever Molecular Mist it had available for armor plate replication?

“The Raiders’ antimatter engines are at 30%!” Liori confirmed my suspicions. “They don’t have enough antiprotons!”

“Attack!”

* * *

We’d been just one step away from a new life, and what now?

Five Phantom Raiders were coming for us head-on. The rest had been swallowed up by the clouds of Molecular Mist swirling around the shipyard. They’d left in search of more nanites but they were bound to be back!

Even despite their replication faults, the enemy’s combat characteristics were way out of our league. Both Liori and myself had already encountered them in battle and knew well what they were capable of. Still, we’d come on a lot since then. We’d done some decent leveling and acquired new abilities. If only we could prevent the Phantom Raiders from getting to the Relic!

Slowly the frigate accelerated, heading for Argus. Tethered by tractor beams, the asteroid obediently followed in her wake.

I squeezed every ounce of power out of the engines. We needed to smoke the Raiders ASAP! Liori by my side held a confident course while the Haash
yrobs
intentionally lagged behind, maneuvering non-stop. Our Haash friends hadn’t wavered under fire: they were diverting the enemy’s attention to themselves, allowing us to regroup for a surprise attack.

The Raiders continued to close in. Still, their scanners couldn’t see us yet, their sensors powerless against the Steel Mist.

Ten thousand miles. Seven... six.

I nudged my thrusters into a strafe. My Condor was still closing with the enemy while shifting to one side. I kept a bead on the Raiders, waiting for the right firing angle that could allow me to attack them all at once.

Got it. Their outlines began to superimpose. I opened fire from all four coil guns.

We were exposed. Spewing fire, my ship strafed to one side, leaving a large plasma arc fading in her wake.

The Raiders’ shields weakened sharply, absorbing damage. Liori’s Condor was strafing in the opposite direction.

The Raiders’ AIs didn’t like our three-dimensional crossfire! They became nervous and left the Haash alone, reacting instantly by switching their targets.

Liori and I were reversing toward the shipyard, picking the targets off one by one.

The AIs hadn’t dared leave us in their rear. They about-faced. Their shields were virtually dead, barely glowing at one megawatt and unable to restore. They’d channeled all their power to their weapons, hoping to wipe us out in one fell swoop.

The Haash jumped at their chance and opened up rapid bursts of laser fire. The already-compromised power shields of two of the Raiders flashed and went out. Crimson scars covered the ships’ hulls; then they exploded in a shower of debris.

Their antimatter engines blew up, blinding my sensors momentarily.

The two leaders were toast! The remaining three were left without shields. I sliced through one with my ECGs. Liori shot down another one. Only one last Raider managed to escape: maneuvering dangerously, it ducked into the safety of the Molecular Mist.

* * *

The ammo loading indicator kept blinking.

Sweat trickled down my spine. My light onboard suit was soaked.

Switching your mind expander to overdrive always costs you. The seconds of combat burn your body’s resources, followed by acute bouts of sickness when reality seems to lag. Still, it doesn’t last long.

We’d shot down four of the Phantom Raiders. My Condor had gotten away with minimum damage: weakened shields, a couple of red-hot scars still glowing crimson on her hull plus the scorched sensors which had already been replaced by the backups.

I killed the speed and surveyed the scene. The shipyard was a meager seven thousand miles away. Thin clouds of slowly cooling Molecular Mist were camouflaging me from the enemy but it was a mixed blessing as my scanning range had been decimated. Liori’s Condor was nowhere to be seen. Gremlins prevented my communications with the Haash.

One thing I could detect very well was the Relic’s power imprint. Which was bad news. The ship was still within the asteroid belt and leaving it wasn’t going to be easy.

An unread message icon persistently blinked within my interactive visor. Mechanically I opened it,

You’ve received a new level!

You’ve received +1 to the following skills:

Piloting of Small Spacecraft, 11 (+0.93)

Combat Maneuvering, 13 (+0,74)

Your Navigation skill is at 15 (+0,3)

So the in-game interface was still functioning. Apparently, we’d have to learn to live with it. “Liori?”

No answer. Where was she now?

I maneuvered my Condor along the edge of the artificial cloud enveloping the shipyard, looking for a gap in the incandescent molecular mist large enough to take stock of the situation. No Raiders in sight. Plenty of drones scurrying around though, plus occasional clusters of armor plates that they’d failed to deliver to the ship under construction.

The location where our asteroid had just been was now aglow with silent explosions as its absence had affected other asteroids’ orbits, causing them to collide and crumble into red-hot boulders.

Finally, the Relic was within my line of sight, allowing me to employ laser communications. “Jurgen, report!”

“We’ve got about a dozen breach holes but we’ll live,” he replied instantly. “The tractor beams survived!”

“What’s with the asteroid?”

“Unstable energy emissions. An intense heat imprint. I think that the impact followed by the acceleration might have caused damage to some equipment. The artifact it still there but I really couldn’t tell you whether it’s still operable. Foggs and Vandal are itching to find out.”

“Tell them to wait. You can’t send assault groups down the mine yet. It’s not safe. Can you contact the Haash?”

“I can indeed.”

“Tell Charon I want them to cover the Relic. Whatever it takes. What’s with the Wearongs?”

“Dead.”

“You sure?”

What a shame. Such amazing mysterious creatures.

“Frieda has lost mnemonic contact with them. Our sensors detected two disintegrating signatures. I just hope they have a respawn point back on Wearong somewhere,” he didn’t sound too sure.

“Has Liori contacted you?”

“No,” he sounded surprised and anxious. “Isn’t she with you?”

“She was. We lost each other. She must have chased after a Raider. I’ll go and look for her. I might check what happened to the other Raiders while I’m at it.”

“Zander, be careful!”

He didn’t need to tell me. I just hoped that today Lady Luck had sided up with us for a change.

I approached the shipyard.

The gossamer structure I’d noticed earlier turned out to be part of a much larger installation that counted dozens of shipyards. An entire fleet was currently being built there.

The sheer scope of it humbled you. The Outlaws had resurrected Avatroid without pausing to consider the consequences of their daring experiment. And when they finally had, it had been too late.

I scanned the ships’ bodies. To my surprise, I detected neither sign of bustling activity inside nor the presence of complex equipment.

What could that mean? Could Avatroid lack all the necessary knowledge? Does that imply that he too had to study the Founders’ technological legacy to fill in the gaps, just like we had?

“Zander!” Liori’s Condor slipped out of the crimson cloud just in front of me. “I’ve found them! Eleven Raiders! They’re heading for the Relic!”

* * *

The Founders’ fighter ships sliced through the dark. Liori was right: they were heading for the frigate. They moved fast, concealed within the plumes of Molecular Mist.

Although our Mnemotechnics skill put us at a slight advantage, our enemy was better armed and protected with their 10-megawatt shields. They'd managed to find the necessary source material and replenish their active matter stocks for the ships’ antimatter units.

Two against eleven? A chill ran down my spine.

What was it Charon had said?
You need to use your old skills.
His words pierced my mind. “Liori, we should attack them with nanites, then retreat toward the shipyard.”

“We can’t do it! Nanites can’t penetrate their force fields!”

“I know! We’re going to use Molecular Mist,” I forwarded her my mind expander data.

“You’re crazy...”

We banked in synch, approaching the Raiders. Still safely camouflaged, we breezed through their formations without opening fire, leaving their AIs dumb with amazement.