The Excalibur (Space Lore Book 2) (36 page)

84

It was true that Westmoreland had been in more battles than anyone else in the CasterLan Kingdom. It was true that he had battled and been victorious against countless other armies and against every group of galactic scoundrel known to man. But it was also true that everyone, no matter who they were, eventually lost if they gambled too many times.

“Full shields, one-two,” he said to the officer over his shoulder.

Behind him, officers were scrambling to stabilize the ship. Every time an alarm was acknowledged, signaling that a portion of their Solar Carrier had experienced a breach and had to be sealed, another alarm began. Slowly, sections of the vessel were becoming uninhabitable.

Another proton torpedo hit the front of his ship. He watched a chunk of the Solar Carrier, entire floors where people worked and lived, float away into space.

“Shields lost, sir,” an officer behind him said.

A moment later, another officer said, “We are down to forty-one percent of the ship being inhabitable.”

He thought about trying to turn the ship around and moving to the back of the battle. At least from there, he could continue to command the action.

Before he could entertain the thought, however, the first officer added, “Catastrophic structural failure detected on the D-Frame,” and Westmoreland knew that the Solar Carrier would likely break into pieces if he tried anything other than flying straight forward or backward.

He thought about calling off the fleet altogether. At least then they could fight another day. Would the soldiers all around him regard him as a savior for allowing them to regroup, or would they think of him as a coward? He knew what Hector would have decided; the man would have refused to be in the battle in the first place. The thought made Westmoreland rub a hand through what remained of his gray hair as he closed his eyes for a moment.

He couldn’t order the fleet away. He had his orders. He had accepted the mission. Vere and Morgan were still down on the desert moon. The Excalibur ships were still running wild in the midst of the Athens Destroyers.

He thought about his life spent in space, about all the missions he had been on, all of the planets and species of aliens he had seen.

“Space armor helmets on,” he said and the officers around him who didn’t yet have their helmets on paused in their other duties to do so.

I’ve never cared for these things
, Westmoreland thought as the restrictive armored capsule came down over his head.

Then another volley of proton torpedoes came racing at the command deck and, watching them, Westmoreland knew it didn’t matter if he were wearing space armor or not. His time was up. The Solar Carrier he was aboard was so thoroughly obliterated that the other Solar Carriers nearby didn’t have to worry about moving out of the way. There wasn’t even a burned out shell of the flagship left for them to avoid.

85

Morgan watched in horror as Westmoreland’s ship crumbled into pieces following a final round of explosions. In that instant, she determined what she would do.

First, she would kill the two Fianna in front of her. There were nine of them and only one of her, but with the Meursault blade in her hand and with Traskk next to her, she thought she could do it.

Then, hastily and without being able to savor the moment as she would like, she would kill Scrope. Without time to waste, she would inflict whatever type of death she could, be it her sword through his chest, his head lopped off, or whatever other opportunity arose.

If Vere hadn’t yet killed Mowbray by then, Morgan would dash across the sand, put a blade in his back, then board her ship.

Once aboard the Pendragon, she would get to one of the Solar Carriers and command the battle the way she should have been the entire time. Yes, they were outnumbered. And yes, they now had to face Arc-Mi-Die’s and Ballona’s forces as well. But this was what her life had been leading up to. At the academy, she had been the top student in her graduating class. She had been the youngest officer to ever serve as a lieutenant under Hotspur. She was the youngest officer to ever lead the combined CasterLan forces. Regardless of how many Athens Destroyers and other Vonnegan-allied ships were up there, she was sure she could do something to change the tide of the battle.

All she needed was for Vere to give her the signal.

Looking over at the CasterLan leader, however, Morgan didn’t receive a nod of the head, a wink, or anything else. Vere was facing Mowbray, listening to something he was saying. Then, instead of cutting the Vonnegan ruler’s head off and opening the way for Morgan to do the same with the Fianna, Vere did the exact opposite thing.

She lowered her sword back down to her side and dropped her head in defeat.

86

A lone Llyushin fighter soared past one Athens Destroyer after another. Off in a distant part of the battlefield, another Excalibur ship detonated. The blast was so strong that it not only wiped out the five Athens Destroyers near it, but the wave of residual energy hit the Llyushin fighter, causing the pilot to have to reset his sensors and limp back toward the Solar Carriers.

In another part of the battle, two more Llyushin fighters were trying to get a squadron of Thunderbolts to chase them into the vicinity of Ballona’s forces. Once there, they hoped the modified fighters and cargo loaders would become unnerved by the crazed shooting of the Vonnegan fighter pilots and return fire. Instead, five of Ballona’s fighters joined the chase, angling in beside the Thunderbolts, and all ten ships unloaded blaster fire at the Llyushin fighters until both were gone.

In yet another part of the fighting, a pair of gravity mines erupted in front of a Solar Carrier. The flagship was much too large to be destroyed by the ensuing vortex, but the vessel’s general didn’t appreciate the true purpose of the gravity mines until it was too late. The next time the Solar Carrier tried to fire a proton torpedo of its own, the projectile was immediately sucked into the temporary gravity field, which was at the head of the Solar Carrier, where it exploded. The ship’s own proton torpedo destroyed ten levels of its front frame.

87

An overwhelming rage engulfed Morgan when she saw Vere lower her blade from Mowbray’s neck.

“What are you doing?” she screamed.

As Vere and Mowbray began walking back toward the command tent, Vere refused to look up from her feet and make eye contact with Morgan or any of the others.

“What are you doing, Vere?” Morgan yelled again.

When the two leaders had rejoined the others, Morgan couldn’t take it anymore. She yelled and lunged at the Fianna in front of her.

By the time her sword came slashing through the air, however, the guard had disappeared from where he had been standing. Then she was moving backward, the glowing edge of the Fianna’s halberd racing toward her from the side.

Traskk turned and looked at Vere, then looked at the two other Fianna who had moved away from the main group and were in an attacking position. If he turned and helped Morgan, he could easily help her kill one Fianna together, but their backs would be turned to the other eight. It would be their last mistake. Without ever making a sound, the glowing halberd would cut them clean in half.

Moving to the side, seeing Scrope hiding behind the guards, Traskk roared and stepped forward. The blade of the closest Fianna’s halberd also came to life before racing toward Traskk’s face.

He jumped backward before the blade was halfway to him. The Fianna, rather than stopping the weapon’s movement, used it to swing himself into one complete circle with the weapon outstretched. By the time the guard was facing Traskk again, both of them were already a dozen yards away from Scrope and the rest of the Fianna.

Even with her Meursault blade, Morgan was in a standoff with the armored guard in front of her. Her blade could cut through the long staff of his vibro halberd, but any time she attacked, he would be in a new position and could use the longer reach of his weapon to counterattack. If she lunged at him, she was fairly confident she could kill him, but at the expense of being killed herself. Under normal circumstances, in a one-on-one fight, that was all that would concern her. But knowing that there were still eight more Fianna changed her priorities. She would take no glory in sacrificing herself to kill just one enemy; she would only sacrifice herself if she could take out every last one of them.

Changing tactics, she began to wind back with her sword again, but once more the Fianna moved and slashed at her and she had to backpedal.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Traskk was in a similar situation. He could pounce on the one guard in front of him and clamp his fangs down on the Fianna’s neck, ripping his head off in the process, but only after taking considerable damage in the process. And the other guards would all have a chance to kill the Basilisk before he was able to regroup. Without a weapon of his own, only his tail, fangs, and claws, Traskk was no match against eight glowing halberds.

Moving closer to him, Morgan began twirling her sword in circles, a trail of yellow vapor following the invisible blade everywhere it went.

Seeing that he and Morgan were at the same crossroads, Traskk did the one thing he could think of: he wound up his tail and, instead of attacking the guard facing him, hit the Fianna in front of Morgan.

The guard grunted and flew ten feet through the air before crumpling on the sand. Even with his armor on, it was likely that his ribs and back were broken from the force of Traskk’s mighty tail. That didn’t keep Morgan from taking two long strides and bringing her sword down across the guard’s waist. When Morgan raised her weapon again, the Fianna’s legs and hips were cleanly separated from his torso. His dark red blood soaked into the desert. To his credit, the guard made no noise as Morgan had come upon him or as he died.

The Fianna that had been in front of Traskk became more aggressive. The Basilisk moved side to side, avoiding blows from the humming, electrified staff as he put the Fianna on the defensive with swipes of his long tail.

The lone Fianna composed himself, saw Traskk’s tail coming at him, and put his halberd up. The last section of Traskk’s tail was cut clean off and went sailing into the sand. Traskk roared so loudly that Scrope, even though he was safely behind the remaining guards, let out a squeal.

The Fianna moved forward, hitting Traskk square in the chest with the blunt side of his weapon. In one smooth motion, the guard continued forward, bringing the bladed side down next. But right before it hit Traskk’s face, the blade went flying off in the sand, landing near Traskk’s tail.

Morgan was there. A trail of vapor in the air where she had brought her sword up to meet the Fianna’s weapon. The Meursault blade could cut through anything. By leaving it in the halberd’s path, the Fianna effectively destroyed his own weapon.

Five of the remaining eight Fianna moved forward. For a moment, Morgan with her Meursault blade and Traskk with his claws and teeth bared, faced them, each side waiting for the other to attack.

“Stop.”

Morgan turned and saw Vere and Mowbray there.

She breathed deeply, her nostrils flaring, her grip tight on her sword. She started to bring her blade up to begin the next attack, but before she could Vere told her to put the weapon down.

“What are you talking about?” Morgan said, turning to face the Fianna again.

Traskk gave a growl that even Morgan knew was directed at Vere.

Vere pointed to the sky. Only four Excalibur Armada ships were still in space, roaming back and forth across the battlefield. But the Athens Destroyers were getting better at avoiding Excalibur ships, evading the four lumbering time bombs while continuing to attack the Solar Carriers. Another Excalibur ship detonated, but this one only took two Athens Destroyers with it. Over one hundred of Mowbray’s ships had been destroyed, but he still had nearly two hundred more at his disposal, plus all of Arc-Mi-Die’s and Ballona’s forces. Westmoreland was gone. Only forty Solar Carriers were still functioning.

The battle was lost.

“Stop,” Vere said again. “I’ve made enough mistakes for one day. I’m the one who should pay for them, not everyone else.”

Mowbray nodded at her. Two of the five Fianna who had been ready to strike at Morgan and Traskk lowered their weapons and walked to either side of the CasterLan leader.

With their vibro blades no longer glowing and deadly, the Fianna used the flat of the blade to nudge Vere forward, toward Mowbray’s shuttle. Instead of resisting, she went where they pushed her.

Almost immediately, the Athens Destroyers in the space above Dela Turkomann slowed their barrage of cannon fire. The Solar Carriers had the opportunity to escape if that was what their captains wished to do.

Seeing her being led away, Traskk didn’t even growl, let alone roar. In one quick motion he was in front of Mowbray, his claws wrapped around the Vonnegan leader’s neck. Mowbray had to stand on his toes to keep Traskk’s claws from tearing into his throat. A tiny gurgle of pain escaped as the Basilisk roared and roared, waiting for the Fianna to let Vere go.

Vere only turned and, with a look of sadness in her eyes greater than her friend had ever seen, said, “Don’t, Traskk. Let him go. We made a deal.”

Unable to breathe, Mowbray coughed and gasped under Traskk’s grip.

Vere held up a hand and reached out. If she were closer, her hand would have rested on Traskk’s chest.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Let him go. This was all my decision.”

Traskk’s hand remained at the Vonnegan leader’s throat.

Morgan said, “Vere, I don’t know what you think you’re doing but you’re crazy if you think we’re letting them take you.”

“What choice do we have?” Vere said, more as a statement than a question.

For the first time, Morgan saw Vere’s eyes glistening with the weight of her mistakes.

Vere said, “My life for everyone else’s. I’m not worth everyone aboard those Solar Carriers up there. I’m not worth your life and Traskk’s life. I’m not worth anyone’s.”

The reptile, still holding Mowbray by the throat, growled his disagreement.