Rift Breaker (31 page)

‘Another thing,' Reelai added. ‘The enemy is scrambing its transmission sources. Tell me where the command is situated.' His colleague activated the large communication screen at the front of the room. Leroy glanced over its readings. The screen depicted what Reelai had been looking at since the battle began.

Leroy's soilders had programmed the hypersat station to extract the enemy communications. It was only now beginning to operate at optimum efficiency. The collage of transmissions the station received was a mess of vision and sound, chaotic, highly inefficient and nothing like the purity of thought transmission, unique to the Xoeloid and … the retched Vellnoa. Reelai used its information to direct his troops.

‘Command would most likely be at the Ministry of Defence,' said Leroy.

‘The building you speak of has been destroyed,' snapped Reelai.

‘Then the next in charge would be a fleet commander on a flagship. Wait …' Leroy paused and stepped towards the screen. ‘That voice. I don't believe it.'

Reelai used his thoughts to browse the data, shifting, enlarging and minimising. He found the so-called voice and intensified its clarity.

The speech boomed out decisively, ‘I want cover formation from the fighters and the gold quarter of artillery to concentrate fire on the enemy ship at the north side.'

‘It's Raegar,' said Leroy. ‘There. He's aboard the
Raticia
.' He pointed out the ship beyond the vapour trails of a missile. ‘That son of a bitch is still alive. He'd be the one leading the defence. Destroy Raegar and the planet is yours.'

‘Then he shall die,' said Reelai. He headed to the exit.

‘Downing his ship won't be enough either,' Leroy added with a smirk. ‘You have to make sure he's dead.'

Reelai strode back to the bridge to further execute his will over his warriors. He rhetorically asked his complaining colleague if the situation was to the appropriate standards. An answer came back in the positive as Leroy also seemed to find distraction in the display screen.

Reelai had adjusted perfectly to the setback. The situation was under control and he was satisfied, for now. But his temper still lingered above its saturation point. He calmed himself, for he had an invasion to attend to and he needed to concentrate.

Raegar kept an eye on the tactical layout. The
Dwarve
was subjected to concentrated fire. Three enemy ships had cornered the vessel to the side of the battle. He checked the
Dwarve
's status readings; shields had worn thin. He glanced up and saw the ship in the distance through the forward pane. An explosion thundered against its rear thrusters. Xoeloid fighters swarmed along its body. With the shield gone, heated rounds pierced its weakened pane and laid waste to the commander and crew. The ship dropped over the Nimbus, crushing one of the laser batteries from which it had sought cover. A violent crack reverberated through the foundation. The
Dwarve
weighed the platform down. Another laser battery slid and tumbled on the sinking slope. The battleship's hover thrusters died. The Nimbus thrusters flipped the platform over and launched the falling ship into the nearby residential towers. The
Dwarve
's graphic wiped from Raegar's tactical layout.

On the platform, ground troops couldn't afford to flinch. They worked tirelessly to man the primary cannons. Continuously reloading, aiming and blasting. Pulse, missiles and shells were launched in every direction in a sky mixed with Xoeloid and Composite forces.

The scream of a missile thundered from the
Raticia
's lower front. It curled its trajectory up and smashed into the side of an enemy ship. Composite fighters swarmed its hull and the enemy dropped out of Raegar's sight.

The enemy was now taking an interest in the
Raticia
. A group of the hostile vessels had broken off and closed in on Raegar's position. They somehow knew he possessed command. Heavier blasts came from multiple sides. The bridge shook violently. Three hostile ships were visible overhead through the forward pane.

A panicking voice came from his left. ‘Sir, main thrusters are failing.'

A great deal of his status screen readings started blinking red.

‘Guide her to a clearing,' he said, strapping himself for impact.

The
Raticia
used its remaining thrust to pull away from the battle. A dust cloud rose over the pane. A tense moment passed before a wide street appeared. Raegar clenched his armrests. The battleship slammed into the pavestones. The gravity system failed and Raegar was thrown forward against his seat restraints. Vehicles, trees, signs and everything else in the
Raticia
's path was crushed indiscriminately. A fierce impact quaked the bridge. The
crew held to their places. A moaning screech rumbled and the ship came to a halt.

‘Is everyone all right?' called Raegar. The responses came in the positive. ‘Damage report,' he added.

The
Raticia
had buckled. A large gash down her middle exposed the machine shop. Raegar's eyes narrowed and locked onto the hologram of the Cenyulone sky. He switched views and settings, searching for the next logical move. Spotting it, he pressed a button and spoke, ‘Attention all vessels. The
Raticia
has been shot down. Red Group, I want you to gather along the north side of the Nimbus where the defences are still strong.' An explosion blasted into the side of the bridge. Orange flames ripped through the monitoring stations. Consoles flared and sparked. The forward pane blinked out in a fuzz of flickering squares. Raegar raised his voice into the dying transmitter. ‘Those are my final orders. This is Commander Raegar bugging out. Leadership is to be assumed by Captain Tycull.'

His bridge crew bustled around him. Towards the back, glass seals were broken and the caches of sledge pistols were distributed.

An explosion rumbled elsewhere, vibrating the bridge. A shadow passed over Raegar. He looked up. Through the window, the back end of an invading ship slipped from a sparkling warphole. His view was then obscured by a burst of flame. The
Raticia
's energy shield was still in service. Its impact waves rolled across the view.

The fleet commander accessed his personal screens. He flicked through the outer views of the ship. He saw the road on which the
Raticia
had landed, a wide alley surrounded by tall buildings. The next screen was completely dark. He cycled to the next view to see another warphole. The occurrence stretched open and an enemy warrior stepped through. The creature scanned its surroundings. Others charged in behind. The group fired at the
Raticia
's hull, setting off the energy shield. Although the
Raticia
and its crew were no longer an immediate threat, the enemy continued to attack them. There was something sinister about this pattern of engagement.

Raegar picked up the intercom and addressed his crew. ‘This is your captain. All exits are to remain sealed. All able-bodied personnel are to arm themselves and report to the machine shop. The hull there is breached and must be secured. I repeat, arm yourselves and report to the machine shop.' Upon ending the address, he strapped on a sledge pistol and joined his crew.

Raegar glided quickly through the rumbling bowels of the
Raticia
. A heavy vibration moaned from above. The sound shot forward and the ceiling collapsed. Raegar pulled his comms officer back. Detached girders stabbed into the hallway. When the debris had settled they ventured on, weaving through the crawl space with the creaking of metal all around. Through the twisted hallway he found the entrance to the machine shop.

The space was a long room with machines under construction or repair on either side. The vertical gash of the hull revealed the
dusty street outside. Armed members of his crew used an out-of-commissioned tank as cover. They leaned out and exchanged fire with the invaders who attempted to swarm the opening from outside. The ship's power shield also had a hole. The energy snapped and crackled as stray blasts winged its sides.

Raegar stepped down from the twisted hallway and ducked beneath an engine suspended by chains. He went to the tank and crouched with his crew. An officer with floppy ears acknowledged him. ‘Sir, they aren't letting up. They keep warping in.'

‘No enemy may set foot in this hold,' Raegar yelled. He pointed at a crew member with a comms device. ‘You, call the armoury; tell them to bring weapons.'

Raegar peered over the barricade. Through the gash he spied an invader, running across the outside of the breach. Pulsefire from several crewmembers missed. The invader took cover. Raegar made out the sparkling dust again, lingering in the street. Another cluster of emerging warpholes.

The commander inched out further and looked at the warship above. Through the glare and the dusty concealment, the black spikes lingered over the
Raticia
. The warship unleashed another bombardment somewhere else, sending further ripples through the energy shield and wearing down its colour.

A group of invaders charged. Raegar yelled the order and every armed soldier leapt up from cover to join him. The heavy blitz nailed the enemy. The first two dropped. The others returned fire in their advance. A shot hit a surface just forward of
Raegar's head. The officers around him flinched but he locked his deadly gaze, holding his pistol steady.

Sparks and slag splashed off the enemy armour. Another dropped and the last stepped over it. Raegar levelled at its head and kept pulling his trigger. The creature spun to the ground in a swirl of burning smoke.

Howls of victory rose up. Raegar scanned the room. A magnetic traction-mounted cannon sat against the back wall. ‘Are there any engineers here?' he screamed. A few people signalled their identities. ‘If we are to escape, that warship must be destroyed!' Raegar pointed. ‘Get that thing working,' he yelled. A tech team handed over their weapons and set to work, carrying out the order.

Sparks gushed from a blowtorch flame at a wall next to a set of double doors. When it stopped, four people pried the door open from the other side, bearing excess weapons. They dropped down and distributed them.

Down the passage behind, a Huldron lizard stomped on the floor. His pointed head swooped from side to side as he dragged the straps of two armoury crates in its clawed hands. The lizard entered and other crew helped him pull the munitions into the centre of the space.

‘Sssssir,' said the Huldron, flicking its forked tongue. ‘There issssss more to come.'

‘Well done,' said Raegar. ‘Take your group and gather as much firepower as you can.'

The crew pried open the crates. The first box had an extractable rack of pulse rifles. Raegar grabbed the handle inside and pulled it up. The rack sheathed out on the rails and locked in place when its bottom hit the crater rim. The second box was full of ammo. Raegar gave someone an order to wheel it to the front liners at the tank. He yelled over the pulsefire and issued further orders, assigning troops to distribute weapons, while organising his front line to better cover the breach.

Twenty-seven

Blood dripped down Tazman's leg. The adrenaline burst he'd felt earlier had worn off and his chest throbbed. Two sets of restraints landed at his feet.

‘Cuff yourselves,' spat Leroy. Tazman raised an eyebrow.

Luylla collected the devices and handed him a set. Tazman reluctantly slipped them over his wrists, not taking his eyes off the man ahead.

‘Something wrong?' said Leroy. He pressed a button on his wrist device and the cuffs tightened.

The control room was in a large rectangular hall, the floor of which was tiled with a smooth stone, cold against Tazman's feet. A balcony overlooked everything; it stretched round the sides and back of the room, accessible via a set of metal stairs to the rear. Alleys of gold-lined computer stations and equipment faced the huge monitoring screen at the front.

The screen swapped through the shaky images of the surface battle between the Composite defence and the Xoeloid invaders. Included in the mess were various point of views lifted from the targeting systems and sensors of Composite defence vessels, their fighters, missile mechs, mobile defence cannons as well as the holographic tactical radar, which, by its calculations, tied the whole system together. It seemed the hypersat's superior receivers had been tuned against the Tranquillian Composite.

Leroy sat on a console to their left, across the open path, where he got a decent view of both his prisoners and the screen. The long-coated moron casually pointed his pulse rifle with one hand, shifting focus from the screen to Luylla's anatomy.

Tazman glanced back to the three Xoeloid dotted about the consoles. Their outstretched hands floated over the equipment. Their eyes were different. Images, and what seemed to be computer code, flashed in them. Having no facial features didn't stop them from having smug looks on their faces.

The main attraction was at the front, below the screen — a dark spiny mass of a Xoeloid machine, the thing from the forbidden zone in Reelai's playhouse. Thick power cables grew from its base, snaking up to and merging with the computer equipment on the floor.