Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor (8 page)

Evelyn flicked a switch on her instrument console to activate her weapons as her eyes took in a spectacular panorama. The vast starfields vanished ahead into a brilliant, rainbow nebula of billowing gases cast off in a tremendous halo by a yellow star in the distance. Photoreceptive shielding in her canopy protected her eyesight from the blinding glare of the star, revealing the beautiful colours spanning the inky black heavens.

‘Reaper Two, weapons hot.’

‘Copy, Reaper One,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Battle flight, go.’

Evelyn broke hard left and the two Raythons separated as they raced away from Atlantia, Commander Ry’ere’s voice reaching Evelyn from Atlantia’s bridge as she manoeuvered.

‘Reaper Flight, stay sharp, system may be populated, unknown numbers, unknown allegiances. Form CAP at twenty thousand cubits.’

‘Copy, Reaper Flight, Combat Air Patrol at twenty, Reaper One.’

Evelyn levelled out into position a thousand cubits away from Reaper Two and on a parallel course. She glanced down at her displays.

‘Chiron system,’ she said over the intercom to Teera. ‘That’s a frontier post isn’t it?’

‘Bunch of moons and smuggler hideouts, way out from the core systems,’
Teera confirmed.
‘Nothing much here as far as I know.’

Evelyn scanned the vista ahead and figured it out.

‘Resources,’ she replied as she looked at the immense billowing clouds of ejecta. ‘That stellar nebula will contain billions of tonnes of hydrogen, oxygen, helium and metals.’

‘I’ve got a planetary body, dead ahead.’

Evelyn squinted ahead but could see nothing against the terminal halo ejected by the dying star. She glanced down at a tactical display and she spotted a planet, its orbit marked around the parent star and a brief data list scrolling alongside it.

‘Chiron IV, habitable surface and atmosphere, undocumented life-forms,’ she murmured as she read the list. ‘Second of two habitable worlds in the system.’

‘The first is already burned out,’
Teera confirmed.
‘Too close to the parent star when it started to swell.’

Chiron’s parent star had exhausted its fuel of hydrogen and begun burning helium in its core, in doing so producing more heat than the star’s mass could contain and thus casting off its atmosphere into space in gigantic outbursts. The once–stable star had thus swelled to many times its original size, consuming those worlds in close orbit around it.

‘Looks like Chiron IV’s days are numbered,’ Evelyn said. ‘Instruments are recording violent climatological change. The oceans are evaporating and the atmosphere’s already breaking down under the cosmic rays from the parent star.’

‘Lot of storms too,’
Teera reported.

Evelyn spotted the planet ahead, a tiny speck of black against the brilliant sunset hues of the dying star. She glanced at her instruments and called out to Teera.

‘We’re at twenty thou’, start CAP orbit.’

‘Roger that.’

CAP, or Combat Air Patrol, was their assigned role. Both aircraft set up a mutually supporting racetrack orbit between the Atlantia far behind and Chiron IV, ready to intercept any foreign craft while the rest of the air wing was prepped for patrol.

‘
I’m not seeing any sign of the Veng’en cruiser,
’ Teera reported.

‘Me either,’ Evelyn replied.

It wasn’t her job to question policy, but privately Evelyn and a lot of the other pilots were concerned about the captain’s decision to attempt to recruit the Veng’en to their cause. A violent and untrustworthy race who had despised humanity even before the emergence of the Word and its Legion, the Veng’en had actively pursued and destroyed human vessels fleeing Ethera in the wake of the apocalypse in the hope of containing the Word’s spread. Nobody knew how many men, woman and children had died at the hands of Veng’en commanders keen to slake their bloodlust.

There were many other races, further flung and likely still free of the Word, to whom the Atlantia could implore for help. Captain Sansin’s ploy of turning enemies into friends risked even greater losses than had already occurred should the Veng’en’s War Council reject any form of alliance with humanity.

‘I’ve got something,’
Teera reported.

Evelyn glanced at her holographic tactical display and spotted a small target moving away from Chiron IV. The track was accelerating with almost fighter-like rapidity away from the planet Chiron, but was still close enough that it would be fighting against the planet’s gravity and unable to make the jump to super-luminal velocity.

‘Looks like a freighter climbing out of orbit,’ Evelyn replied. ‘No transponder code.’

‘Unlicensed, two hundred fifty tonnes,’
Teera confirmed.

‘And she’s fast,’ Evelyn noted as she checked the vessel’s course and velocity. ‘Looks like she’s spotted us and doesn’t want to play.’

‘Let’s give her a run for her money, shall we?’
Teera suggested.

‘Roger that,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Reaper flight,
buster buster
!’

The Raythons rocketed at full power toward the target, the merchant vessel turning away from them and making a desperate attempt to escape the two fighters.

***

‘Damn she’s quick,’ Evelyn replied as she glanced at her instruments and noted that the fighters were already nearing their maximum velocity.

She spotted the freighter visually against the brilliant sky as a tiny black speck and a small aiming reticule appeared on Evelyn’s canopy, projected over the target with range, velocity and trajectory information.

‘She’s building up to super-luminal,’
Teera guessed.
‘I’m detecting a mass-drive spinning up.’

Evelyn gauged the distance between them and the freighter, and made her decision. ‘Transfer all power to engines, give them all we’ve got. Let’s catch her up before she leaps.’

‘That’s risky!’
Teera called.
‘We’re at thirty thousand cubits already!’

‘Atlantia can still see us,’ Evelyn replied, ‘and I don’t want this one getting away.’

Evelyn deactivated her weapons, shields and all non-essential devices, including her radar, and re-routed the power to her engines. The Raython accelerated further, now travelling at over a thousand cubits per second as it raced in pursuit of the merchant vessel. Although accelerating ever faster in the vacuum of space, all craft had a natural maximum velocity and range based upon how much fuel they had remaining in order to be used to slow down again. Faster than the Atlantia, if a Raython exhausted its fuel at maximum velocity, at a distant enough range, there were no other craft that could ever catch up with it again. The pilot would be forced to eject on a trajectory that would slow them down enough to be rescued, thus losing the valuable fighter to the void of space.

‘Almost there,’ she said, looking briefly over her shoulder to see Teera’s Raython keeping pace, a tiny silvery speck against the star fields.

‘Reaper Flight, Atlantia, pu.. b… ne.. cont…’

The communication from Atlantia crackled with bursts of static interference caused by Chiron’s massive stellar storms.

‘We’re losing Atlantia,’
Teera warned.
‘Tactical orders are to always remain within comms range!’

‘Stay on target, I’ve almost got her,’ Evelyn replied, the Devlamine coursing through her veins shielding her from hubris or doubt and super-charging her determination.

The freighter’s hull glinted in the light, and Evelyn saw her powerful engines glowing white hot as they propelled her toward a velocity high enough for her mass-drive to engage. Long, slender and sleek, the freighter was perfect for high-speed trade.

‘Why is she running?’
Teera asked.

‘Probbaly thinks we’re infected with the Word,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Don’t activate weapons, we’ll just pull in alongside and signal that we’re not infected.’

‘I’ll go wide,’
she reported.
‘Get out in front of them.’

It was a simple fact that most of the human race had been infected by the Word, which was now hunting down any survivors with extreme prejudice. Any survivors were thus extremely wary of anybody they encountered, and would likely flee a heavily armed frigate upon first sight and...

‘It’s turning toward us!’

Evelyn looked up in surprise to see the digitised track on her viewing screen veer suddenly onto an intercept course.

‘It’s doing
what
?’

‘They’re engaging us!’

Evelyn barely had time to think when the onrushing ship zoomed toward them and a burst of plasma fire rocketed toward her Raython. Evelyn hauled her fighter over and yanked hard on the control column as she rolled around the salvo, the plasma shots zipping past outside as she glimpsed the ship flash by and terrific speed.

‘Defensive break!’ Evelyn yelled.

She hauled the Raython around a tight turn as she saw Teera’s Raython flash by in the opposite direction, each covering the other’s tail as they reversed course to engage or pursue the unknown ship.

‘She’s out of range!’
Teera called as they levelled out on a pursuit course.

The craft was now drawing away from them, already out of effective weapons range.

‘Damn,’ Evelyn cursed.

The pilot, whoever they were, was good and didn’t lack courage. Charging two Raythons head-on was the last thing they would have expected the unknown craft to do.

‘Maintain a pursuit course,’ Evelyn ordered as she glanced at her instruments and noted that the fighters were already again nearing their maximum velocity.

‘Where’s Atlantia?’

Evelyn glanced at her displays and grinned to herself. The frigate was nowhere to be seen, and she realised that the captain must have reacted to what was happening.

‘She’s deploying countermeasures, hiding herself,’ she replied. ‘They’re going to sneak up on this guy and intercept him. Stay on his tail.’

The two Raythons streaked through space, the fleeing spacecraft ahead leaving a faint ion trail behind it as it raced clear of Chiron’s gravitational field. Evelyn kept one eye on her display as she waited for the Atlantia to reappear. Against the vast blackness of space, even a large vessel like a frigate was essentially invisible unless illuminated, and even with the veils of stellar material glowing all around them the Atlantia would be just a speck until the last moment.

‘Got her!’
Teera yelled.

The Atlantia reappeared on their displays, far ahead but almost right in front of the fleeing craft’s path.

‘Prepare to intercept!’ Evelyn snapped.

There was only one thing that their quarry could do and that was alter course to avoid the frigate, which would keep her inside Chiron’s gravitational influence for a little longer and give the Raythons a further chance to intercept and get in close.

‘There she goes, breaking left!’

Evelyn laid in a fresh intercept course as she turned left, Teera just ahead of her, and the Atlantia also altered course to close in from the far side of the engagement. Evelyn spotted new contacts appearing as more fighters were launched by the Atlantia to aid the chase.

‘You’re not going anywhere now,’ Evelyn grinned.

Her grin vanished as she saw their quarry reverse course in a tight, aggressive turn and race back toward her.

‘They’re engaging again!’
Teera called.

A flash of plasma burst past Evelyn’s cockpit and she saw the spacecraft bank heavily and turn as it raced past her canopy.

Evelyn hauled the Raython over into a hard turn in response, disbelief in her voice. ‘They’re closing for a fight!’

To her amazement the craft turned rapidly with her Raython as she looked up out of her canopy and saw it matching her position, vying to turn more tightly and get in on her tail. A bolt of plasma fired straight up at her from turrets mounted on the craft’s upper fuselage caught her unawares and she yelped with fright as she rolled the Raython and jerked it out of the line of fire.

‘Weapons hot!’ Evelyn yelled. ‘Engage!’

She saw Teera’s Raython rushing down upon the craft as Evelyn kept it busy.

‘I’ve got her,’
Teera replied as she settled neatly down in the turn behind the ship, which flashed by above Evelyn.

Evelyn reversed her turn, rolling to keep the two spacecraft in sight above her as she moved to support her wingman.

‘Firing now,’
Teera called.

Evelyn waited for the shots from Teera’s Raython, but nothing happened. The spacecraft broke hard right but Teera’s Raython continued silently on out into space.

‘Teera, what’s wrong?’ No answer came from the Raython. ‘Teera, respond!’

Silence filled Evelyn’s cockpit and then a burst of plasma fire smashed into her Raython as the freighter’s turrets opened fire. Sparks flashed through the cockpit to the sound of warning alarms and the acrid stench of burning circuitry as Evelyn pulled hard right to throw off the freighter’s aim.

‘I’m hit!’ she yelled.

One of her engines flamed out even as she scrambled to shut off fuel lines and isolate fires while throwing the fighter about in evasive manoeuvres. She craned her neck back and saw the freighter following her, plasma blasts flashing by as it tried to hit her again.

‘Atlantia, Reaper One, respond, ETA?’

‘Reaper One, Renegade Flight, ETA three minutes.’

Damn, not quick enough.

Evelyn broke hard left as she shut off the damaged engine, and then on an impulse she threw the throttles wide open and kicked in a boot full of rudder. The Raython yawed violently and span on its axis to point back at the pursuing freighter.

Evelyn saw the ship track through her sights and she fired twice, her senses heightened by adrenaline mixing with the Devalimine coursing through her veins. Two plasma rounds leaped from her weapons, one flashing past the ship but the other striking it square on the bow with a bright flare of dissipated energy as the ship’s shields absorbed the blow.