Atlas: Infinity Verge Trilogy: Book II (20 page)

“Ready and willing ma'am, awaiting your order,” he replied.

“Waiting!? Damnit man, fire at will. That ship is the reason we're out here!” Echo yelled.

Andrew Boulson flinched and nodded, “All weapons free, fire at will.”

The laser turrets on the underside of the Justice flared to life. The pulsating fire could be heard throughout the ship. The
WHAHM WHAHM
of the pulse turrets was followed by the higher pitched sound of the forward battery of lasers.

The lasers penetrated the ship's defenses and caused scoring on the hull. Echo knew that the damage was superficial at best, but the URSA pivoted away from the firing destroyer anyway. The smaller gunship engaged its engines and moved away from the
Justice
quickly. Echo worried they would lose the ship and ordered pursuit.

“All ahead full, keep the battery up. When we lose charge on the lasers Lieutenant, I want you to switch to kinetic weaponry. We're not letting them get away!” Echo ordered. “Chief Petty Officer, how is the engineering team doing?”

“We have twenty-five percent power in the starboard stabilizer. They're rerouting power through the secondary coupling,” Martinez replied.

“Very good. Master Chief, give me a status on that URSA's weapon capabilities. They're doing a hit and run for a reason,” Echo said.

She tapped her Writcom and connected with Fleet Commander Doyle, “Commander, I need you to slave the remaining RAVEN-S vessels out there to your ship and then slave yours to mine. We may have to use the Warp-T drive and I'd rather not leave you all stranded here.”

“Understood Captain,” Commander Doyle said. His voice was strained and Echo could hear the
PEW PEW PEW
of the Commander's fighter.

“Martinez, start charting their flight path, I want to know what we're walking into. When you get a moment start working on prepping the Warp-T drive in the event they run,” Echo ordered.

“Yes ma'am.”

Come on, come on,
Echo urged her ship forward. They were not gaining on the URSA class ship, but they were not losing ground either. The laser turrets kept up and Echo was sure she could see more than superficial damages now.

“Ma'am,” Martinez said. “The lasers are eating the power, at this rate we'll not be able to use the warp drive.”

“How much longer until we're too depleted to use warp Chief Petty Officer?”

“Worst case, two minutes. Best case, five.” Martinez responded.

“Alright. Lieutenant, switch to kinetics. Keep the missiles on standby.”

“Captain, I am reading a magnetic build up. It could be an attack or they are preparing to jump to warp.” the Master Chief said.

“Which is it Six?” Echo asked.

“Best guess is they're jumping,” Six said.

“Martinez do we have a path mapped?” Echo said. Her face was beginning to show her stress as she wiped sweat from her brow.

“I'll have it in three … two … one. They're heading in system ma'am.” Martinez said.

“Prepare to deploy the warp nacelles,” Echo lifted her Writcom again, “Commander have you done as I've asked?”

“Yes. Ma'am,” the reply came back.

“Very good. Prepare for warp, move your ships in as close to the
Justice
as you can. Make sure your men withdraw from the target,” Echo ordered.

“First Fleet is forming up on us Captain,” Six said.

The URSA class gunship blurred for a moment then leapt forward into space. The vessel was completely out of site and only the light vapor trail of its departure was left behind. Seconds afterward the
Justice
lurched forward. The stars that shone in the distance became beams of light stretching forward and away from the destroyer.

The
Justice
was in hot pursuit.

21:
SPACE FLIGHT

EXO URSA Class Gunship: Mirage

2973 ESD - Monday, June 7th 20:01 hours

Commander Breaker Jones stood in front of the Transteel viewer and grinned. He had focused all fire on the starboard gravity stabilizer. He did not want to cripple the destroyer, but instead draw it in. He had half a mind to steal it for his own. The EXO Prime wouldn't approve, though. Breaker had been sent to draw out the EFNF and Abel.

So far as Breaker could tell he had failed to draw Abel. Breaker harrumphed, “He’s probably not even on the planet.”

The EXO Prime had devised the plan, but Breaker liked the idea. It had been Breaker's decision to attack Quintar IV, the EXO Prime wouldn’t have approved. As Breaker had hoped, the attack garnered a response. This new destroyer was not led by Abel. Breaker hoped that if he managed to capture, or crash, this vessel it may draw Abel out of hiding.

“EXOs shut down our shields,” Breaker said. “Not all the way. Just low enough to make them want to follow us.”

The EXOs were bound by programming to follow Breaker's every directive. They shut down the shields, reducing them to a fraction of a percent.

“Shields at point zero one two five percent power,” one of the EXOs droned.

“Very good,” Breaker said.

Breaker did not like having the EXOs aboard. They were a constant reminder of what he had become, but he was glad they were efficient in following orders. However, he tried not to think of himself as an EXO, even though he could feel the virus crawling through his body. He could feel them in his blood, too. The nanotechnology swarmed through him like an uncatchable entity. The itching beneath his skin and the life enhancing power that flooded into his mind and body was both blessing and curse. Breaker feared what would happen if his body decided to start rejecting the virus.

Will I become like these mindless drones?
He speculated.

The feeling of the EXO virus was like none he had ever felt before. The feeling was one he wished he did not have to feel again. However, it would never stop. Breaker watched as the destroyer unleashed a barrage of laser fire at his ship.

“Make damn sure those lasers do not hit any of our vital parts, Joop,” Breaker loomed over his defensive coordinator.

Marcus
Joop
Jupiter put all his effort into controlling the quantum plates, angling them at the right positions to deflect the majority of the laser fire, but they were not nearly as sophisticated as they looked. Despite Joop's best efforts, the
Mirage
was still rocked by the concussive fire from the destroyer. The quantum plating could not block every angle and the drain on the shields was starting to show.

“Boss, if we keep this farce up with the shields and we're going to lose the plating.” Joop said.

“Flak it. Alright, EXOs bring up the shields. Tymon!” Breaker called to his navigation specialist.

Tymon Porter turned and looked at Breaker. The wiry man squinted as another flash from the destroyer lit up the command deck, “Commander?”

“Get us the flak out of here, back to Quintar V,” Breaker ordered.

“On it commander,” he replied.

The
Mirage
pivoted on its central axis and flipped over. Tymon hit the acceleration before they had completed rotating. It took him an extra couple of seconds to right the
Mirage
. Several more flashes from the Destroyer’s laser turrets flared across the shields. Everyone onboard, with the exception of Breaker and the EXOs felt the shift in their equilibrium as the
Mirage
dropped out of a roll. Baxter
Cat
Perez nearly vomited and Joop swooned.

Breaker noted the reaction of his grew and he gave Tymon a menacing glare. Tymon gulped and nodded his head. The ship throttled back and leveled out. As Breaker had anticipated the destroyer leapt in pursuit.

“They’re eager now,” Breaker commented quietly. “Half speed, let them catch up, then make a jump for Quintar V.”

“Aye. Commander,” Tymon said subdued.

The shields absorbed most of the laser fire, but Breaker could see the view screen and the alert lights indicating the quantum plates were taking significant damage. Breaker knew that most EFNF weapons would run out of power if sustained too long, which meant that the destroyer would switch to kinetic or missile weapons next. He planned to be gone before they started firing projectiles.

The laser fire stopped and Breaker looked to Tymon, “Get us the flak out of here immediately!”

The
Mirage
leapt into warp almost instantly. The stars stretched and the engines flared to life. Breaker knew the destroyer would have tracked their course. He hoped that Tymon had not made it too obvious. The damage to the
Mirage
was superficial at best. He was not worried about that. He only cared if that destroyer took the bait.

* * * *

Near Quintar V - EFNF Destroyer: TP-D Justice

2973 ESD - Monday, June 7th 21:01 hours

“I want a full system scan the moment we mesh out,” Echo barked. “I am not keen on waltzing into a trap.”

“Aye. Captain.” Ensign Kay stood stoically, but sweat beaded on her brow. The Quintarran was not prone to signs of stress. Echo worried that she was pushing the crew too hard.

The TP-D
Justice
continued at warp for the better part of an hour. The distance from Quintar IV to their destination was not far but Echo wanted to be cautious. She expected a trap. The fight with the URSA gunship had not lasted long and it was not the knock out drag out she expected; not by any means. Echo knew that the EXO Prime was crafty. Echo still had her suspicions regarding the circumstances surrounding Abel’s imprisonment on Quintar VII.

The Fleet Admiral had sent out emissaries following Echo's report and found that the entire city had been leveled. Fleet Admiral Clark believed it to be the work of the EXO Prime in retaliation, but something about the convenience of the place and the supposedly freed EXOs nagged at her. Echo believed that the EXO Prime had only eliminated the people on New Exodus because they no longer had any use. She suspected an elaborate ruse in order to catch Abel. Echo suspected another elaborate ruse now to the same effect. The EXO Prime was obsessed with Abel and she wouldn’t put it past him to lay a trap to draw him out.

The URSA class gunship and the attack on Quintar IV seemed too coincidental. The EXOs in her apartment, the attack on Quintar IV, the freed people on Quintar VII, and now the fight with the gunship all were connected - she was sure of it. She was missing the critical piece to put it all together. Echo felt there was something at the heart of it all, she just couldn’t place it.

Aurora Rigel,
she thought.
That she-devil.

The woman that had mysteriously showed up and helped Abel recover and rebuild the
Kodiak
. If she had the
Kodiak
, how had the EXO Prime managed to create a copy of the URSA gunship? As she thought about it, Echo was surer that Aurora Rigel had some role to play in the attack.

Did Abel vet her? Probably not, she has a smoking hot body and that face,
she thought.
The kind of face a man would kill for.

“Drop us out of warp!” Echo yelled. “We're going back, this is a trap.”

“It is too late Captain. We have reached our exit vector. We are exiting warp at this moment,” Ensign Kay said.

The TP-D
Justice
dropped out of warp. No sooner than the warp core powered down a barrage of fire impacted the destroyer. Klaxons blared throughout the ship as various systems began to fail.

“Get our flakking shields up now!” Echo was yelling.

“Systems are failing in sectors seven and twenty-one. Primary propulsion is offline, we're on sub-light only. Evasive maneuvers will be impossible. Long range scanners are also offline,” Six said.

Echo was about to respond when a massive explosion came from within the ship. The shockwave shook the vessel and Echo could hear the groan of the ship's engines.

We're going to die out here,
she thought.

“I need a status report now, what the flak was that?” Echo said.

Martinez was the first to respond, “It was the hangar bay ma'am. One of the RAVEN-Fs exploded. The others deployed the moment we exited warp.”

“How did that happen?” Echo asked.

Six replied, “No weapons targeted the hangar bay. All fire was focused on our primary propulsion systems. They knew we'd be without shields when we exited warp, they were waiting. The explosion in the hangar was timed too perfectly and the other RAVENs disembarked. It couldn't have
all
been accidental.”

Six let the silence hang. He knew he was accusing the Fleet Commander and First Fleet, but he had little doubt what had just happened. As the silence drew on, Echo realized that they were no longer being fired upon. Sub-light and primary propulsion were both offline now, the Transteel viewer indicated as much. They were working off of emergency power only.