Battleship Furiosa (17 page)

A light flashed
twice
, and he moved his eyes to the
central unit. It showed a handful of objects, and in the middle of
the display unit the large outline of the battleship. Just behind
her was the escort unit of three Viper warships. Around this large
projection were the senior officers, each facing inwards and their
backs to the wall. General Honorius spotted him and indicated
towards the central display.

"Commander. Everything
satisfactory?"

His translator obscured his
voice, but his expression betrayed his nerves. He might have been a
seasoned commander, but the stakes could not have been higher for
his people.

"All ready to go, General. The
Ironclads are prepared to launch on your command."

The alien nodded three times.

"Good work, Commander. Your
assistance and expertise in this time of crisis will not be
forgotten."

He then turned away and
concentrated on the large central display while the Byotai officers
went about their business. Commander Higgins rubbed his forehead
and then tapped on the outline of the first fighter.

"Ensign Lewis. I'm showing a pylon
failure on your third hardpoint."

The young pilot answered promptly, and
he immediately relaxed at hearing the calm and confident voice.

"Understood. Checking it now."

Good,
v
ery good.

Commander Higgins scanned along
the line of waiting spacecraft as he double-checked their status
and readiness.
At the same time, the
formation of Byotai ships continued on their course to the
Serpentis Rift. By the orders of General Honorius, they were
throwing caution to the wind and planning on making quite an
entrance. That meant ignoring the standard procedure for
approaching a Rift. It was normal to only use manoeuvring
thrusters, but that was becoming less common these days as the
stakes continued to rise. This was a protocol observed in most star
systems by starships, as both a courtesy and to keep the shipping
lanes safe. There was little worse than a ship arriving on the
other side a Spacebridge, only to be unable to alter heading or
velocity quickly enough to avoid a fatal collision.

"This is it."

The
Commander looked up to see the Byotai General speaking to
the other officers. His voice reverberated through the bridge, and
undoubtedly through the rest of the ship. There was no emotion to
his translated voice, but the reaction from the others made it
clear it was working.

"Furiosa will cross the
threshold, and we will not stop until we have located General Makos
and made contact with our kin. Ready yourselves, for we go to
war!"

Byotai Imperial Battleship
'Furiosa'

Approaching Serpentis System Rift,
Deadlands

24 December 2472

Nate waited patiently inside his
fighter. It was a tiny cockpit, and though he didn't suffer from
claustrophobia, he could see why it was a problem to many. There
was barely room to move, other than twisting the neck or moving his
arms, and even then the restraints held him in place. This was
perhaps the single biggest difference between the simulator game of
Star Crusader and that of the real world. It was always the
physical stimulus that proved difficult to replicate. In the
simulator there was no significant movement, apart from tactic
feedback on the controls.

This is nothing like the spheres.

Nate smiled to himself as he
recalled using one of the
gyro-spheres
sold by the CTC Corporation. These devices could actually roll and
move to recreate some of the force and stresses of actual flight.
None of that compared to the true reality of combat, though, and he
could see that now. The excitement of flying a fighter quickly
paled into insignificance next to the nervousness he felt when
placing his body in mortal danger. This was no simulation, and a
single bullet could end him as efficiently as an atomic
warhead.

This feels weird.

It
felt
like so many missions before, but today it was different. The
hangar deck was spacious and seemed so empty. Ten fighters was
nothing for what the ship could handle, and compared to the great
bulk of the battleship. Nate constantly felt apprehensive about
what they could actually achieve. The armour and guns on this ship
were designed to tear apart enemy capital ships, whereas his
Lightning fighter carried a mixture of long and medium range
missiles.

Focus on your job.

He checked the hardpoint
indicators again, now starting to feel a little paranoid about the
one pylon. Commander Higgins had identified the problem, but a
detailed diagnostic confirmed it was a sensor failure,
a
nd the technicians had checked that the
pylon itself was fully operational. The only way around the problem
for now was to deactivate the sensors, and that left him feeling
uncomfortable. Instead, he focussed his attention on the small
metallic motif that Valdis had given him. It still sat in the palm
of his hand, and as he examined it, he could see the reptilian
creature grasping bladed weapons.

The Sekieki?

Nate had read about them, but so
far he'd seen nothing that confirmed their existence. According to
explorers and traders that had now visited many parts of the Byotai
Empire, there was a world called Sovax, a place
wh
ere great, untamed reptiles live.
According to the stories, these creatures were a clade of
bird-hipped animals directly related to the Byotai. There were even
stories of the various tribal factions in the Tenth Quadrant using
these beasts to carry equipment and as mounts for scouting
parties.

Incredible.
I have to ask her about
them.

He leaned forward, only to find
the harness clamped him firmly in place. For a
second
, he was tempted to release the
unit, but the growing proximity to the Rift encouraged him
otherwise. He placed the device in a small, enclosed storage unit
on the side of the cockpit. At the same time, the transparent
canopy darkened until it was completely black. Nate was unconcerned
and looked to the left where the power level indicators were
situated. Everything remained in the green, much to his
relief.

She is...very different.

Things were moving fast for him,
and though he'd always been interested in
Cassandra, that now felt like it had all happened in a
different time. Since coming to Relentless, everything had changed
for him. He and his friends had gone from being kids playing
videogames to young adults flying combat fighters. Jack had been
killed, and all of them had been exposed to gunfire. They'd grown
up quickly, and he was finding himself more likely to take chances
and say what he thought, whereas in the past, he'd have kept quiet
and waited for things to happen by themselves.

Nate shook his head and then
rubbed at his brow. There was just so much to think about. Even
before all of this, there had been Cassandra. Although his friend,
the two had never seemed to hit it off, and that had not been for
his lack of trying. Following that had been the violent attack on
the station that sent them fleeing in panic. That was the point at
which his life had really changed, marked by meeting Valentine; the
sure-footed Marine who had already shown him how childish Cassandra
was in comparison.

Like that's going to happen.

The ship was a stressful place,
filled with nervous people living on the edge. He'd had a few
moments with her, but she seemed little interested in letting
anything else happen, and he was beginning to think she just wanted
another friend on
board a ship with
limited people. Whenever he tried to see her, she seemed to be busy
with her Marine Corps colleagues. Then there was Valdis, the
attractive and rather alluring alien who seemed quite taken by
Nate.

You're probably taking this completely
the wrong way.

He laughed to himself.
It wouldn't be the first time he'd misread a
situation, and these Byotai females were certainly not easy to
fully understand. Yet as he thought about them all, he found it
hard to shake off the image of Valdis. She was unlike any woman
he'd met before, and combined many of the traits of Lieutenant
Commander Holder and Private Valentine.

Okay, that's enough.

Nate shook his head and
laughed
to himself, before realising his
intercom was set to transmit when he spoke.

"Everything okay back there?"
Lieutenant Commander Holder asked.

"Yes, Sir. Just had a...shiver.
Altering my climate control now."

"Understood."

Nate chuckled, but this time he
kept his audio system deactivated to avoid another accident. The
last thing he needed was for the rest of his fellow pilots to hear
what he was saying or thinking. That could be a fate worse than
death.

Get
you
r mind off girls, and on
the job, you idiot!

He knew what he had to do, and
with a final shake of his head
banished
the thoughts of the tough and demure Valentine, or the exotic and
very forward alien, Valdis.

"Okay, Ironclads, your break is
over," said Lieutenant Commander Holder, "It's time to move to the
upper deck and to ready for launch. Standby."

Nate licked his lips as the
plinth beneath shuddered. It was a subtle movement, but after
sitting stationary for so long, it was actually a pleasant change
to know he was moving from the secondary deck and to the combat
deck. The elevator system pushed his fighter up from the deck in
relatively little time. It took a number of seconds to reach the
ceiling, and as he moved through the short tunnel, the hangar deck
vanished from view.

Here we go again.

For just a few seconds it was all
darkness, but as the feeling of weightlessness arrived, so did the
lights from the upper deck. It was the firs
t time he'd seen it since they first arrived. One by one,
the elevator units stopped and then moved back into the ship,
leaving them in the marked zones.

"All looking good, pilots.
According to Commander Higgins, we are fifteen
minutes from the Rift. That gives us time to acclimatize the
fighters."

Nate's brow tightened as he
listened. It was a common problem when taking a craft into
different levels of gravitational force, and the stress could cause
all sorts of problems to the mechanics of a fighter. A minute on
the top deck would mean both he and his fighter would be completely
ready for combat.

"Okay, let's run through our
checks one more time."

Nate reached ahead and activated
his computer system. One by one his systems flicked on. The
internal computer system, helmet overlay, and navigation system all
showed as operational.

"Power up your engines, thrusters
at zero."

He
activated his engines and relaxed at seeing the green
lights. He looked to his left where the four interceptors were
waiting. It felt like the Star Crusader videogame once more, and he
started to relax until spotting the myriad of small gun turrets. As
before, they rotated slowly, constantly checking for signs of
danger. It brought back the reality of what they were about to
do.

This is for real, Nate. Get yourself
ready for it.

* * *

A gentle tremor spread through the
battleship as her engines roared with power. Long tendrils of flame
shot out as she moved ever closer to the Serpentis Rift. Far behind
the ship were the rest of the Allied fleet, and Admiral Churchill
and Prince Kratha. Commander Higgins watched the ever-shrinking
image of his comrades as they moved from the safety of the fleet,
and on to their own special mission.

"Ten seconds,
" said General Honorius.

All eyes turned to the
virtual windows installed along the front of the
bridge. The pulsing ripples of the Rift moved quickly towards them.
There was no space station or control unit nearby, and that could
only mean this was a stabilised Spacebridge, one no longer
requiring management or maintenance, like the majority of those
inside the former Byotai Empire.

"This is it," said General
Honorius, "All crew standby. W
e have no
idea what is waiting for us on the other side. We must be ready for
anything!"

The interior lights of the bridge
changed to a dul
l red, in much the same
way the lights on Alliance ships worked. Commander Higgins smiled
as he watched the same routines carried out by an entirely
different species. They had evolved differently, yet there remained
much commonality between them, especially in how they commanded
their ships. He was just thankful that as part of the military
alliance with the Byotai, he'd already been exposed to their
computer and control systems.

Don't let there be a
fleet on the other side
!

Commander Higgins held his breath
as they punched through the flashing lights and on into the new
system, light year
s away. They were
travelling so fast that the transition from one side to the other
occurred in little more than a fraction of a second. A pulse of
light marked the transition, and then they were through. He half
expected to find an entire Star Empire fleet arrayed for battle and
with their gun ports open.