Inherited War 1: Retribution (42 page)

63

Sky threw herself into Cole’s command chair and started to undo what that Esii bitch had done to Hal.  Sky had been busy in the med bay patching up disorientated pilots when out of nowhere the human female had come alive and attacked the occupants of the med bay.  She had gotten hold of a gun rather fast and it was over.  She killed everyone in the room and knocked out Sky.  Sky had awoken all trussed up and with a large explosive attached to her.  Her heart broke when she saw Cole being led at gun point to the rear air lock.  She tried to put all of her love and longing into one final look before he disappeared through the door.  She hoped he understood that last look and took it with him where ever he was going

Now it was time to save this ship.  She knew the human had done something to Hal because he was nowhere to be seen in any program.  Then she saw that Cole had ejected the computer core.  Hal was safely on his way to Nixa and she should be too.  Sky abandoned the bridge and headed to the last life pod.  She ejected and as she spun away from the doomed ship she saw the
Reckoning
bearing down on the Sun Eater.  It was too late, the super ship was powering up and starting to draw its energy from the systems secondary star.

Her world would be destroyed and she would see it just as Cole had seen his.  The
Retribution
suddenly shot forward and Sky saw that the last command Cole had given the repair drones was to get the engines back up and running at top speed.  It appeared they had done just that.

The
Retribution
followed the
Reckoning
on its attack run and got as close to the Sun Eater as possible.  The
Reckoning
peeled away and made its best speed for open space.  The
Retribution
sped along the hull of the Sun Eater for what seemed like hours.  The
Retribution
came to a sudden halt and turned to directly face the Sun Eater, it fired its engines one more time and buried itself as deep into the ship as it could.  The gravity collectors onboard the
Retribution
reached maximum capacity and the fail-safe’s stripped away, according to Cole’s last orders.

The two ships disappeared into a bright flash of light
and turned into an expanding cloud of debris in a fraction of a second.  They released such an enormous amount of energy that it actually interrupted the orbit of Nixa’s second sun.  It moved the whole gaseous ball a few hundred feet away from its usual position.

Sky turned on her com
m system and listened to the reports flying around local space.  The
Reckoning
had survived, as well as the other five ships the Pures had built for them.  They had sustained heavy damage but were finishing mopping up the remaining Esii.  Her people’s fleet had lost nearly sixty percent of its combat strength and it would be some time till they got it back.  The Esii that could run were and those that couldn’t were fighting to the death or self destructing.  The day had been carried but at what cost?  The man she loved was gone and her people’s defenses were in ruins.

Thalo's voice
sounded over her small ships comm speaker.  “Split is with him, he won’t let Cole die.  I swear we will get him back.”

The only response that came back w
as the quiet sobs of a devastated Sky.

THE END OF BOOK ONE

THE INHERITED WAR VOLUME II: RESURRECTION

FORTHCOMING