Interzeit: A Space Opera (26 page)

The tiger mech spins, flowing with the chain, rotating and diving in the drifting orbit. Nol sees them break off, reforming into an attack formation. Lucky for him, they break off just into his rifle’s shot
calculation range. From far off, he lances them with the energy rifle. The bolts crash into them and ripping the tight formation of ships to a pale remnant.

Nol exhales slowly, retraining his vision to the next shot.
Sailing closer and closer, they pick off the stragglers with quick shots from the rifle.

“Identify
yourself
,” A hail comes in from one of the nearby Lunar frigates.

“Tomson Nol, Earth Pilot”

“We weren’t briefed on your participation.” They official voice answers,

“Welcome to the club.”
He grumbles,

By the time he makes to Lei’s position, they are together with the frigates, taking pot shots at the fleeing invasion forces.

Lei hails, and he answer
s
, her face appears on a holoscreen to his right.
Drifting
through the void, the face says simply, “Nol.”

Knowing in her voice, he silently nods back at her. They regroup, landing onto the top curve of a frigate ship.

“I’m glad everything is under control here.” He says finally.

“Yes,” she answers, “Thank you for the assistance Nol, but its not over yet.”

“Of course,” he says.

She sends a network request, he accepts, linking into the tactical field data of the Protectorate ships. He sees their representations, coming the way the first ships had fled. Giant pyramidal cannon ships
close in on their position, carrying in their wake
more war making crafts of every shape and faction.

“ETA?”

“Less than hour,” She says carefully.

“Well, I’m glad I made it.”

Lei nods in disagreement, “You came here to save your people Nol. They are still down there fighting each other.”

“I can make the most difference here at the source Lei.”
He insists,

“No, I know you won’t listen to them, so listen to me Nol. Tactically you should be on Earth. We will hold things here, don’t worry, this kind of fight, is a specialty of the Protectorate fleet. What they are not trained to do, is fight on Earth.”

“Perhaps you’re right…” He trails off, “Have they told
you
who is leading the rebellion on Earth?”

“…No” She says, the word dropping heavy as lead.

“It’s the prince.
”
Nol
reveals,
“
I guess he was working with the Martian’s the whole time.”

“That’s impossible…” she replies,

“I know…” Nol says, “All these years, all the technology
and our lives swing in the wind
. I’m disappointed really…but we can make a difference.

Thank you Lei.
Stay strong, together we’ll bring stability back to the system.”

He drifts off the
Lunar
frigate, spinning and changing course, the orange streak falls towards the planet.

“
You sound ready,” Clara hums,

“
Everyone else seems to be
,” he answers

Lei stands
on the Frigate, contemplating the news. She never suspected Septis to be a traitor, or a terrorist. She felt sick and angry. Her focus sharpened in on the approaching fleet. Five pyramid class cannon ships. At least four dozen escort cruisers. A swarm of fluctuating drones, mechs and fighters, the tactical
read out
swinging from one hundred sixty-two to four hundred ninety.

“Ma’am,” Basil’s mechanized voice reverberates through the cockpit.

“Go ahead,” She says tersely.

“I have something of interest for you, if you don’t mind.”

He pulls
up
a screen, a feed from one of the frigate’s scout probes. Drifting through the black, it focuses in closer and closer to a cluster of cruiser escorts. Standing on a heavy wing cannon, its
there. The red f
o
r
m
is unmistakable, its body sharp
, and
its mechanical head is
configured into a bloodthirsty grin.

“You…” She says.

Her
minds spins
further, if the red mech was with the Martians, and Septis was also working with the Martians, then when he saved her…

“It was all a set-up,” She said angrily, “You bastards.”

Furious, she could still not comprehend the meaning behind the deception.
To keep her off the trail of the kidnapped engineers?
What were they up to? Was it this? The whole time, this was the plan?

“Basil, send word to the admiral.”
Lei orders

“What shall I communicate?”
Basil asks

…

Kales stands abroad one of the Martian enforcer ships. Deimos surrounds him, becomes him, it mingles into him
, passing through
his skin, into his mind, body
,
and soul. The crash and turmoil boils across space, he can feel it,
it’s
an intuition of his, sheer amounts of data flowing through the network. His enhanced self, his new self can sense it, the patterns revealing themselves.

Lei’s
message comes in across all of the general communication channels. It is written, and clear. Several figures, steadily proceeding up the chain of command
annoy him
, to groom him on his response. They are clear
with
endless
recombinations
of the same talking point. Do not go, stand your ground, await further orders, hold back, stand down, it goes on and on.

Tian Shan’s pilot Lei, he sees he
r
standing across the void, nestled on
a
ship. He feels her
fury,
it burns brightly through the noise of so much cold technology.

“The Red One must die.” A bold declaration, the message includes coordinates
.
T
hey are in the shrinking buffer zone out in s
pace, t
he space between which neither fleet can yet fire. Such terrain shrinks with every passing minute, so he must waste no time in deciding.

Someone overrides his communication
system,
Vice Admiral Lemont appears in front of him, obstructing his view.

“You will not go Kales,” he says sternly, “Too much depends on you for breaking through the orbital defense.”

“To you Lemont, this is a matter of strategy…
”
Kales responds
, “B
ut to her, it is something of honor, and revenge. No matter where you place me on the battlefield, she will follow.”

“Then we protect you, destroying one of their few war mechs will hurt them greatly.”

Kales nods
dismissively, “They will do the same for her. Then we will become embroiled in a proper pitched battle. The rebellion on the ground needs our support, not a victory thousands of miles away.
Let me dispose of her, and we can continue with the original plan.”

“Take an escort,” He answers, weakening.

Deimos launches off into the no man’s land, speeding ahead of the fleet.

“
Keep your distance
, no warnings.”
Kales says
.

Deimos
surges with excitement, the blood, the kill, and honor. It’s
an
omen, a gift almost from fate. Such a thing will mark their inevitable victory, freedom from the xenotyrants and ensure his proper place in history.

The sensors pick up the answer from Lei
Liang,
she departs as well, trajectory vectors pointing towards the submitted coordinates. She too, flies towards the zone against the wishes of her superiors. Once they are sufficiently close, he sends out a communications request.

It sits there for a minute, until her face finally appears on screen.

“Greetings Lei.”
He says, “
It’s
been a long time since I’ve seen your face.”

Her face c
hanges rapidly,
her eyes check and re-check, not believing themselves.

“But…you were supposed to have died, I saw the explosion, you both were utterly destroyed.”

The memories surge through him, a time before the
Deimos
, nostalgia, and her here now, evidence that i
t
was
all
real.

“Nearly, I didn’t know
it
, but I’m hard to kill. A trait we both share.”

“How could you…you’re a terrorist, you killed those people, I saw you do it. You tried…”

He answers her slowly, “To kill you?”

“Bastard!” she yells, “We’re supposed to represent the best of our kind!”

“Foolish,” He answers in kind, “The
u
nified
w
ar is not a war at all, but a game. In such a game we were no more than political pawns. Everyone has become ill, forgotten a time before peace. They are happy to let all humanity
slide
into the control of a few tyrants, all in the name
of a
game.

Wake up! There is no game anymore, there is only this. This rare moment w
h
ere we can break free of our bondage, this chance, in the chaos between eras, one per
son’s
will can
shape the future!

In the
interz
e
i
t
nothing is true. The past only serves to enslaven us, and the future is
undecided
, there is only now.

Join me Lei! We can free humanity together!”

Her face contorts with ange
r and fear, “You’re a mad man
, a husk,
and I
will never join you.”

“Are the people of Earth mad? Is the Prince of
Kuipterra
mad? I fight for them, I fight to free them!”

“
Maxelus
…” She says weakly, she contemplates, and then finally.
“Yes.”

The crafts close in towards each other, without firing a single shot.

“
You will die in the fires of history Lei
!”
he
shouts,

Deimos’s
twin green swords blast out of their sockets, Lei’s energy shield grows larger, flying forward. The white and red mech’s slash at each other in passing, the weapons clatter and spark in a bright eruption.

Bai Hu pulls from the fray
, and fires
it’s
rapidly spinning stardust cannon.
The shrapnel patterns explode, saturating the space around them. Deimos is rocked by several blasts, trying to spin under the fire.

Boosting, Deimos flips under, firing energy blasts in return.
Lei shifts
easily, letting them clatter uselessly against her shield
.
R
etraining the cannon, she continues the barrage, letting the recoil push her further away from his advance.

Deimos boosts from side to side, finally stopping in the direct path of the cannon. He thrusts straight into the storm. The red form dives in headlong, the stardust ripping against the hull ferociously. Deimos points the energy blades in front of the dive, hungrily eating the shrapnel headed most directly at him.

The blades travel true, plunging deep into the spinning cannon. The
multitude of barr
els explode
. The spin strips
them off in melted fiery mess.

“The same old tricks, Lei. Don’t you any original thoughts in that thick head of yours?”

The cannon ejects from Bai Hu’s arm.

“Hmph,” she answers, “
At least
I’m still human
Max
.”

He grins widely, his face melding almost becoming one with Deimos’s thirsty glare. The remnants of the star dust cannon
blast
in all direction
s
. The debris clears,
a slender stave remains in its place
.
Lei snatches
it
,
the stave
blazes to life in a plasmatic spear point.

Escaping a flurry of stabs, Deimos flanks around spinning.
Lei catches
his
attacks on the shield handily. She bashes him backwards, breaking his attack, boosting
forward, she smashes the pike on him
.