Purge of Prometheus (54 page)

Adam smiled.
 
“I doubt it.”

Yen spent the next few days absently perusing his ship.
 
Thoughts of Keryn had begun to wane as the thought of combat filled him with barely contained enthusiasm.
 
After getting away so cleanly with the murders of Merric, Captain Hodge, Horace, and Vangore, Yen yearned to try his hand at murder once more.
 
He knew that if he could kill so high ranking and visible targets with no retribution, it would be nothing to do so again with a random crewmember on board the
Revolution
.

Sadly, he had been robbed of the prey he desired most.
 
Somehow, Iana had vanished from the ship.
 
After the Captains’ conference, he had scanned the ship three times trying to locate her transponder, all without luck.
 
Either she had destroyed it and remained on board, simply eluding his detection or, more likely, she had escaped during the departure of all the Captains and their entourages.
 
With that victim taken from him, Yen set out to find another.

Finding himself wandering aimlessly, Yen was surprised when he approached the hangar bay.
 
Though he was now the Commander of the Fleet, it shouldn’t have been so surprising to him that Yen wandered back to an area in which he had spent so much time as the Squadron Commander.
 
The responsibilities of Commander, as he knew had been passed on to the Team leader for Team Four, a Lithid named Warrant Vicrux.
 
Yen frowned as he stood before the hangar bay doors, which he had yet to open.
 
Feeling conflicted, Yen realized that he would have felt more confident if Iana were in charge of the Squadron instead of a glory-hound like Vicrux.
 
It was a shame that he wanted her dead, since Iana had consistently excelled in tactics and showed a genuine concern for pilots’ well being.
 
Vicrux, by comparison, strove only for self-promotion, always ensuring that his actions were visible to those of higher command, even at the risk of his pilots’ lives.
 
Team Four, under his command, had never truly exceeded Yen’s expectations and it was only by the Lithid’s seniority that he was promoted to Commander at all.
 
Yen arched an eyebrow as he wondered if Vicrux might not be a good choice for his next victim.
 
With Vicrux out of the picture, Command would fall to Warrant Salazar, a sheepish but quality Avalon pilot.
 
While Salazar lacked the confidence to ever get his own command of a Cruiser, he was a solid pilot and malleable enough that Yen could control his actions and, by proxy, those of the Squadron.

By the same account, though, Yen still eyed Warrant Scyant as a potential victim as well.
 
Her open hostility toward her new Captain continued even after his promotion and led to a drop in morale amongst the Crewmen and Warrants within the weapons bays.
 
With them getting ready to engage the Terrans in a final showdown, that sort of behavior just wouldn’t be acceptable.
 
Maybe it was time for a stern talk with Scyant, much like the stern talk he had intended for Iana.

“Can I help you with anything, Captain?” a small singing voice asked from behind Yen.

He spun and noticed a youthful Avalon standing behind him, waiting patiently to enter the hangar bay.
 
Yen wasn’t sure how long she had been standing behind him, but he also realized that he had no idea how long he had stood in the doorway reminiscing about his not-so distant days of reckless abandon.
 
Did Captainship truly take away his opportunity for wanton murder?
 
Would people notice his actions more now than they had a week earlier?
 
Did he have the power to alter the memories of everyone on board the
Revolution
?
 
Of course he did, Yen realized.
 
He had enough political and psychic power now to do anything he wanted.

“Sir?” the Avalon said, beginning to show concern.

Yen flashed a disarming smile.
 
“I’m fine.
 
Please let Squadron Commander Vicrux know that we should be approaching Arcendor soon.
 
Let him know that I need all pilots suited up and in their ships within the hour.”

“Commander Vicrux is just inside if you’d like to relay the message yourself,” the Avalon offered.

“No,” Yen answered.
 
Too many people would be inside for him to do what he truly
wanted
to do to Vicrux.
 
“No, I trust that you can relay my message for me.”

Yen turned and walked back toward the elevator that would take him to the bridge.
 
If he were lucky, Vicrux would have an accident during the battle and would save Yen the effort of having to kill him personally.
 
If he had the time, maybe Yen would arrange a failsafe to ensure Vicrux did encounter an accident out in space.
 
Maybe that young Avalon would be a good pilot to act as his failsafe.

He was sitting in the Captain’s chair later, contemplating the myriad of tortures he could inflict on either Vicrux or Scyant, when Tylgar began typing furiously on the navigation console.
 
“Sir, we’re approaching the far side of the galaxy.
 
Arcendor should be in view momentarily, but…”

“But?” Yen asked when Tylgar didn’t reply.

“But we didn’t get here first,” the Lithid said, his gravelly voice dropping.
 
He entered the last few lines of commands into his computer and the forward display switched to a three dimensional map of the solar system.
 
Dominating the map, a dark sun hung inert in space.
 
Four planets away, the capital of the Alliance, Arcendor, floated into view, the capital city dominating the largest continent on the mountainous world.
 
Hovering between the sun and Arcendor, however, over twenty red triangles flew in tight patterns between the planets, increasing their speed in preparation for battle.

“Put the Fleet on full alert!” Yen ordered as he pulled his tactical display toward him.

Red light filled the bridge as Crewmen scrambled to their battle positions.
 
Yen began reading the relays that were arriving from the other ships around the Fleet while, simultaneously, checked the statuses of his own weapons bays and Squadron.
 
He swore silently to himself, wishing any of his own Team had survived to take over the Squadron instead of Vicrux.

As the ships reported in, Yen noticed three ships pulling away from the rest of the Fleet.
 
“Tylgar, identify the three ships pulling away from formation.”

“They are the
Ballistae
,
Defiant
, and
Phalanx
,” the pilot replied.
 
“The three ships placed under Captains Riddell and Alcent.”

Yen contemplated opening a channel to demand why they were not engaging in the upcoming combat, but thought better.
 
“Whatever you have planned, Keryn,” Yen growled, “it had better be damn important!”

Instead, Yen ordered the rest of the Fleet into a tight formation as they flew into the system.
 
As they entered, he pulled up a magnified display of Arcendor.
 
His heart hardened as he saw thick smoke filling the atmosphere of the planet, a clear sign that plasma bombs had been dropped on key cities throughout the continent.
 
Not only had the Terrans beat them to the system, they had already destroyed the capital.
 
Yen had no idea how many had died because of the artificial winters imposed throughout Alliance space, but he did know how many millions more would have just lost their life in a bombing of that magnitude.

Emerging from behind the third planet, the Terran Fleet broke formation and began spreading out in an attack line in front of the planet.
 
Yen turned the Fleet to meet them head on.
 
In retribution for destroying Arcendor, Yen now intended to see every Terran in the known universe die a painful death.

Within the bridge of the
Revolution
, energy started to build.
 
Yen let his spines bristle as his anger grew.
 
He had lost so many of his kinsmen when the suns disappeared.
 
Many more of his mentors and teachers had been on Arcendor when it was bombed.
 
Blue sparks ignited on the hull of the
Revolution
as Yen allowed his anger to spread throughout the ship.
 
Crewman who rushed to their battle positions paused as the smell of ozone permeated the ship.
 
His anger would bring a sweet revenge to all those losses.
 
He couldn’t bring back his dead friends, but he would be the harbinger of the Terran’s devastation.

As the two Fleets hurtled toward each other, firing their first salvos, Yen yearned to watch the Terrans die.

CHAPTER 38:

The first barrage of rockets slammed into the Alliance Fleet shortly after it entered the galaxy.
 
Onboard the
Revolution
, Yen rocked violently in the Captain’s chair as a shockwave reverberated against the hull.

“The
Legacy
has been destroyed,” Tylgar reported while simultaneously evading incoming missiles.
 
“The
Tyrant
and
Sycophant
are both too badly damaged to continue the engagement and are breaking contact with the Terran Fleet.”

Yen growled in the chair as he raised his own defenses around the
Revolution
.
 
Bolts of blue lightning arced from the hull, slamming into incoming rockets and deflecting them harmlessly away from the ship.

His temples pounding, Yen began barking orders to both his ship and the rest of the Fleet.
 
“Fire at will!
 
Consolidate your fire on the center of their formation!
 
If we can break up their combined firepower, we might just win this war!”

With rounds exploding all around them, the Alliance Fleet quickly closed the distance between themselves and the Terran Destroyers.
 
With lashes of psychic energy, Yen batted aside the annoying Terran fighters that got too close.
 
The Fleet fired volleys of rockets toward the charging Terran Destroyers.
 
Small explosions erupted sporadically amongst the enemy ships, puncturing the thick hulls.
 
Though a couple of the Terran ships drifted listlessly away from the advancing Alliance Fleet, the others continued their advance.
 
Hornet-like Terran fighters intermixed with the thinner Alliance fighters as they dodged in between the barreling Cruisers and Destroyers.
 
Throughout both Fleets, the fronts of the larger ships began glowing from the heat as they passed through clouds of exploding plasma.

“Tylgar,” Yen yelled from his command position, “get us as close as possible to the Destroyer straight ahead.”

“Sir?” Tylgar asked, stealing a glance over his shoulder as the ship rattled from another close explosion.
 
“We’ll be devastated if we get too much closer.”

Yen knew that his pilot was right.
 
The eruptions of plasma were superheating the hull.
 
A number of his radar antennas had already melted away under the heat, leaving blind spots throughout whole sectors of nearby space.
 
If they continued their advance without further protection, it would only be a matter of time before the blistering plasma coursed through one of the ejection tubes and ignited the rockets within.
 
The resulting explosion would be devastating to the
Revolution
.
 
Yen, however, already had a plan to protect the ship.

“Leave that to me,” Yen hissed, his dark eyes sparkling with a faint blue glow.
 
Reaching out, Yen let his hands settle on the cool metallic alloy of the Captain’s chair.
 
He let his consciousness ebb from his body.
 
Slowly, his mind wound its ways through the walls of the ship, becoming one with the wiring, piping, and passageways until, finally, he became one with the
Revolution
.
 
The front view screen became his eyes while the radar antenna became his ears.
 
Letting his power ripple through the ship as though it were his own skin, blue energy crackled over the hull and expanded until the entire Cruiser was covered in a sheen of psychic shielding.

Speaking in a hauntingly distant voice, Yen continued calling orders to Tylgar.
 
“Fly forward at maximum speed.”

Tylgar stole a second glance, but turned around quickly when he saw the Captain.
 
Yen’s body pulsed with an inner light as the psychic power infused him.
 
His eyes, open on his corporeal body on the bridge, flared brightly with an inner energy.

As the
Revolution
hurtled through the chaos of battle, rockets reflected harmlessly off the psychic shield.
 
The metal slugs rebounded harmlessly in random directions, whirling aimlessly into space.
 
Undaunted, the
Revolution
continued forward, driving through the insignificantly amassed Terran fighters.
 
Yen felt exalted as the small fighters ignited and exploded on his shield.
 
He reveled in the massive loss of life and yearned for more.