Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (15 page)

“Do we know how
many
. . .” Daniel
couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“Not yet, but the
targeted cities were most likely leveled upon impact. We don’t think there will
be many survivors there.”

“This is
. . .” He glared at Argos, a look
of murder in his eyes.

Argos gestured
towards Ryonna and Tar’Lock, clearly prepared to execute his previous threat.

“A nightmare,”
completed Saroudis.

“Yes
. . .”

“What about you? Did
you manage to locate Chase?”

“No, but we
believe he might be on his way back to Earth also.”

“That’s what I
thought too. We could have used him today. I could have used you too.”

“I’m sorry,
Commodore. I shouldn’t have left to look for Chase.”

“I gave you my
blessing for this mission, Daniel. You shouldn’t blame yourself. None of this
could have been prevented by your presence anyway.”

*  
*   *

On board the
Valken
Chase stepped into the cockpit. Keera was sleeping, so he sat without making
too much noise. They were not far from their destination now.

He felt a mixture
of emotions, the very fact of being back generating good but also painful
memories. Still, he longed to see his friend Daniel, and hoped he would find
the courage to apologize for how he left things between them. He was now the only
family left. In his heart, at least. His only real blood family member, Argos,
would die soon after their next meeting; that was the only certainty within
Chase’s heart and soul at the moment.

That last thought
brought hate back to the center of Chase’s mind. Never before had he felt so
much anger, hate and the will to kill someone. But the fact that his mind could
project so much violence, imagining that moment, so much brutality, worried him
for a brief instant. Perhaps all Furies had this hate hardcoded in them, he
thought. Before meeting Argos, though, he never felt like that. At least not in
the last ten years. He couldn’t remember anything before then anyway.

There had been
some strange dreams and nightmares, in which Argos was present as well, but he
didn’t appear as an enemy in these. Chase had most of these dreams before he’d
even learned he had a twin brother. So he always assumed he was seeing himself
in them.

Keera opened her
eyes and produced a very long and noisy yawn.

“Hello,
sleepyhead.”

“Hey, Chase, how
long was I asleep?”

“Quite a while. We
should arrive on Earth shortly.”

“Alright,” she
said, still yawning. “Did you sleep as well?”

“Not so much.”

The
Valken
jumped out of hyperspace not far from Mars. Chase checked the sensors to assess
the situation, to see if they could approach or if the battle was still raging.
While the starfighter pilot in him tingled at the opportunity to engage in some
dogfighting, that was not why he was here. Unless, of course, Argos was on board
one of the enemy ships.

The scans
revealed the battle was over. Only Earth Alliance and Obsidian ships were now
in orbit. Chase activated the
Valken
’s engines at max burn. Soon they
received a hail.

“This is
Commodore Saroudis of the Earth Alliance to unknown ship. Please identify and
state your intentions.”

Chase turned on
video.

“Hello,
Commodore.”

“Chase! It
. . . it’s good to see you, boy. Wish
you’d arrived earlier.”

“I know.”

“So it was true. You
intervened to help Aphroditis?”

Chase nodded.

“Your powers are
really impressive. How far away were you? Never mind that. Daniel just arrived
on board the
Iron Fire
less than an hour ago. He went looking for you.”

Daniel
. Of course he did.

“Can you give me
a status on Aphroditis, Commodore? She’s the only reason for my visit today.”
Chase cursed himself the moment he uttered the words. He didn’t need to be so
cold. “But now that I’m here I’d love to have a drink with my friends as well,
if that’s possible?”

“Aphroditis is
fine, thanks to your intervention. She was escorted by Fillio to an underground
bunker in DC. As for drinks, I look forward to it, Chase. But Earth has been
hit hard. New York, Toronto and Dallas are all gone, leveled by Zarlack ships
crashing into them. It’s really bad. I will be busy for the next few hours. Hopefully
I can see you when the dust settles.”

“Let me know if
you need me for anything. I’ll swing by the
Iron Fire
for the time
being.”

“That’s a good
idea. I’m sure Daniel is looking forward to it. Good to see you, Chase.”

“You too, Adonis.
Chase out.”

He turned off the
comms.

“Friend of
yours?” inquired Keera.

“Yeah, my former
commanding officer.”

“And that Daniel
he spoke about?”

“My dearest
friend. More like a brother, really.”

She nodded. “So
we’re going onto that
Iron Fire
ship?”

“Yes. If you
don’t mind, I’d really like to see Daniel.”

“Sure. Should I
come too?”

“Only if you want
to.”

“Well, I’ve had
it with the
Valken
. We’ve been cooped up in here for long enough. It would
do me good to see something different.”

“Alright, let’s
hail them, tell them we’re going to land in their cargo bay.”

Chase opened a
channel.

“Daniel, please
respond.”

“Chase?”

“Hello, buddy,
yeah it’s me. It’s been a while.”

“You can say that
again. When did you arrive?”

“Just now. I’m
swinging by the
Iron Fire
aboard the
Valken
, requesting
permission to land.”

“Permission
granted. I
. . . I
look forward to see you, my friend.”

A shiver ran down
Chase’s back. “Me too. See you shortly.”

He turned off the
comms and frowned.

“What is it?”
inquired Keera.

“Something
. . . I think something’s wrong.”

“How can you
tell?”

“I don’t know. When
he hesitated, I think I felt fear in his voice.”

“You’re probably
reading too much into it. I didn’t hear fear.”

“Perhaps
. . .” said Chase, not convinced
one bit.

*   *  
*

Keera and Chase
exited the
Valken
and went towards the nearest lift.

“You seem
nervous” she said.

“I am
. . . There’s something
. . . I don’t know what, but I
feel something’s wrong.”

“Alright, I don’t
know how this works, but when you’re worried I decided that I should worry as
well.” She smiled.

“Be prepared for
anything, just in case.”

“Alright.”

The door of the
lift opened to the bridge. Daniel was standing there. He didn’t smile.

Chase walked
towards him, followed by Keera, when he heard
him
!
“Hello,
brother, miss me?”

Keera turned
around and, when she saw Argos, immediately drew her blaster and started
firing.

Argos lifted his
hand and blocked the shots. A little smoke rose from his hand. He snatched the
blaster with his mind and made it explode in midair.

Chase signaled for
Keera not to interfere.

She nodded in
agreement, still shaken by what had happened.

“Who’s that?
Already replacing Sarah?”

Chase entered
rage mode, and the ship started to shake.

“Easy there. We need
to talk,” said Argos.

“We have nothing
to talk about. You’re a dead man walking.”

“Let’s not
escalate this in front of your friends. We wouldn’t want them all spaced
because of us, would we?” said Argos with a defiant smile.

As much as Chase
wanted to attack Argos right here and now, he looked around the room and saw
not only Daniel, but also Ryonna and Tar’Lock. One of Ryonna’s arms was seriously
injured. Chase walked towards them. “Hello, you two.”

“Hi, Chase,” said
Tar’Lock casually.

Ryonna just smiled
painfully.

“Are you alright,
Ryonna?”

“I tried to kill
him for you,” answered Ryonna.

Chase smiled
back. “I appreciate the gesture, my friend, but I’m glad you didn’t succeed.
And even gladder he didn’t kill you. Mind if I heal this?” Chase pointed at her
poorly bandaged arm.

She nodded.

Chase put his
hand on her and quickly healed her wounds.

“Will you let me
help?”

“No, this fight
is mine and mine alone. You should go.” Chase turned around and raised his
voice so everyone could hear. “You should all go, now. Get on board the
Valken
at once. Keera will take you down to Earth.”

“Chase,” said
Daniel, “let us help.”

Chase simply
shook his head. He sent a message telepathically to Daniel.
I’m sorry for
leaving and for what I said to you when I did. It was unfair of me. Today is
the day I make it right. But I need you to get all my friends out of here. Now,
please!

Daniel hesitated,
but then he saw the look of determination in his friend’s eyes. He nodded and
addressed the room. “You heard him. Let’s go, now!”

Keera approached
Chase and whispered to him. “You’ll try and leave a body as proof for the
bounty, won’t you?”

“I’ll try.”

“Be careful.”

He looked into
her eyes and smiled.

“Miss?” said
Daniel to Keera.

“Keera. I’m
coming.”

She rejoined the
others in the lift. Its door slid closed.

Chase didn’t look
towards Argos. Instead he kept his back to him. He felt that anger rise, the
rage, the will to kill. Like an insatiable bloodlust. But he remembered what
Ares had taught him as well. He was not going to blindly throw himself into a fit
of rage. He would take this fight very seriously. But for now he needed to wait
until his friends departed the ship.

Argos made a
noise in his throat.

Chase raised his hand,
palm outwards. When he saw the
Valken
in space, that was his cue. He
closed his eyes, and a purple aura shone brightly around him. He saw Sarah’s
face in his mind.
I will avenge you
.

Then he
disappeared and re-appeared behind Argos, throwing a powerful knee strike, only
to hit nothing but air. Argos had moved away as fast as he had arrived behind him,
appearing again a few feet away.

“We need to talk!”
he shouted.

“I have nothing
to say to you!” Chase prepared a fireball in his right hand.

“Oh, but you’ll
want to hear—”

Argos couldn’t
finish his sentence because Chase had already launched the fireball at him. He
blocked it with one hand, but something happened. It wasn’t that easy to block.
The fireball crackled and exploded in Argos’ hand, burning it in the process.

“Not bad. I’m
glad you’ve trained. But I’d rather you didn’t waste—”

Again Chase,
having no interest in letting Argos speak, launched himself at him, throwing
one blow after another, jabs, uppercuts, power punches, all blocked by Argos. But
he was forced to retreat so far he was eventually backed against a wall.

Chase threw both
his hands forwards and unleashed a powerful, energy-based attack. Argos
protected himself with his elbows crossed in front of his face. The bulkhead
near where he stood exploded in a bright, flashing display, causing much damage
to that part of the bridge.

When the smoke
settled, Argos was still there, some of his skin slightly burned; but he seemed
otherwise undamaged by the brunt of the attack.

“Alright then, if
I need to kick your ass first,” he said.

His eyes shone a
bright red and he launched himself at Chase. He was fast, very fast. Like Chase
before him, he attacked with a flurry of punches and kicks in quick succession.
Chase dodged and blocked the attacks for a good minute, when suddenly Argos’
speed increased tenfold. Chase struggled to keep up and one punch broke through
his defenses. With Chase losing balance, Argos pressed his advantage and
started pounding Chase heavily, left jab, right punch, left knee to the face,
and then sent Chase flying into the wall with a powerful fireball. Chase broke
three ribs on impact and groaned in pain. Argos remained where he had last
attacked Chase, who took a second to heal his ribs.