The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) (30 page)

The closer the flight group drew towards it, the sharper
their target’s details came into relief. A graphic of a
magnificent, blue-scaled Chinese d
ragon
clung to the
battleship
’
s
hull, its claws appearing to be latched deep into the metal. Dozens
of tall yellow and red ridges covered the
creature
’
s back,
whilst a pair of long, curved, white horns rose from the top of its
head. Its mouth was open, drawn back into a ferocious snarl,
displaying row upon row of sharp, pointed teeth. Two red eyes
seemed to project a furious warning, warding off would-be
attackers.

But now, Parks was satisfied that the flight group were as
close as they needed to be. He turned to
his
chief communications officer.
“Mr O
’
Donnell,
send the code.”

“
Sending code,” O
’
Donnell acknowledged both the
commodore and the flight group. He made two brief strokes at his
console. “Code sent.”

Parks further relayed the update to all on the battlefield.
The confirmations came back. He then looked back to the holographic
screens and waited. But after only a few seconds, great
trepidations overcame him and his eyes flickered from one display
to the next, seeing the same thing in each: lights continued to
illuminate the surface of
Dragon
;
windows, portholes, and exterior components, all visual
indications that the ship was still operational. He looked past the
displays to the scene beyond the carrier’s frontal viewport,
considering that the feeds might not be running in real time,
perhaps delayed by a few seconds.
Dragon
still glittered with
light.

“
Mr O
’
Donnell? What’s happening?” Parks
said, not taking his eyes off the massive battleship.
Have I just done the unthinkable and
underestimated the Enemy upon my very first engagement?

“
Code was transmitted successfully, sir,”
O
’
Donnell
replied, fingers darting across the console to confirm what he had
just done. “Do you want me to try again?”

“
Will be within weapons range in thirty seconds. Please
advise,” came the voice of the flight group leader, calm, but with
a notable trace of urgency.

Parks’ mind raced to consider the possibilities and available
options. There remained but two: he could request that the code be
sent again, or he could immediately fall back to their other
approach. If he requested the code to be retried, it would mean
that the fighters, bombers, and landing parties would be vulnerable
to
Dragon
‘s
attack upon subsequent failure.
On the other hand, the lack of frigates in the system could mean it
would be easier to secure a forceful victory…

“
Target disabled, sir,”
O
’
Donnell
interrupted his thoughts.

Parks looked up from his musings and saw that
Dragon
had ceased
turning and now lay in darkness.

“
All systems terminated. Shielding, weapon systems and
mechanics have been shut down,” O’Donnell continued. “Life support
is the only detectable working component. There must have been a
delay in the transmission or reception of the code.”

“
Gravitation systems?” Parks asked, looking
to the various feeds to gain a better indication of
Dragon
‘s
impairment.

“
Down, sir,” O
’
Donnell said.

“
Good. Relay that information to the boarding
teams.”

“
Yes, sir.”

So far, so good
, Parks thought.
Aside from the minor delay, it looked as though everything was
going according to plan. There now only remained the matter of
flooding the interior of
Dragon
with toxins as arranged, picking off any
adversaries that may have managed to survive, and apprehending
Admiral Zackaria, before rushing medical assistance to
him.

A pity we could not have shut down life support,
too
, Parks mused.
There would be no need to board the ship. We could have
simply towed it back to Spirit and pulled the bodies out at the
other end.

“
Phase one of the operation is complete,”
Parks said to the holographic images of his fellow command.
“
Grendel
and
Leviathan
will continue as planned.
Griffin
and
Grendel
’
s
Mother
will stand their ground.
Should
Dragon
‘s
escorts arrive, then we will be
in a better position to engage them.”

“
Agreed,” came the resounding answer.

“
Passing weapons range,” the voice of the
Initial Run’s flight leader came again. Parks looked back to the
feed streaming from the Rook. Tension eased away as it and the rest
of the flight group passed the danger threshold of
Dragon
‘s
armaments, unchallenged.

The group were bearing broadside to the battleship, the
proximity now meaning that the flight leader’s cockpit view could
no longer fully accommodate the entire length of the colossal
vessel. The words “C.S.N.
Dragon
” inscribed in tall, bold red
lettering were now so close that Parks could start to make out
where the paintwork was in need of touching up.

He beckoned to a member of the bridge
’
s security team, who approached
him. “Please locate Andrea Kennedy and the other
Red Devils
,
and ask them to join me on the bridge.” The man
saluted and made his way to the bridge
’
s lift, heading to the lower decks.
Parks returned back to the mission still in progress, preparing to
co-ordinate and delegate duties further when the time
came.

“
Beginning final approach,” the flight leader said.

Perhaps I
’
ve
overestimated
the Enemy
, Parks thought, feeling
his spirits lift.
Maybe I can do this,
after all…

“
Target is live! Target is live!” the voice
of the flight leader suddenly cried over the
bridge
’
s
comms system, shattering Parks
’
illusions and bringing him back down with a
crash. The stunned man strode to the very front of
Griffin
‘s
bridge for a clearer view, feeling the need to
look upon the battleship with his own two eyes, rather than rely on
the carrier
’
s
cameras. The flight leader was not wrong. As lights on
Dragon
sprang
back into existence, disbelief hit him full
on.

“
What the hell just happened?” Parks spun back
around.

“
Power has just returned to
Dragon
!
All systems are fully active!”
O
’
Donnell said,
poring over his console’s readouts. “Shields are returning…
Weapons and engine systems are powering up!”

“
Resend the code!” Parks said, fighting to keep the shock out
of his voice.

O
’
Donnell
’
s
fingers raced across the console. “
Dragon
is rejecting it, sir!” he
said after multiple attempts.

Parks flew to the man
’
s side, leaning over the console
display and seeing the multitude of errors that were greeting
O
’
Donnell upon
each unsuccessful attempt,

Authentication Failure

Permission Denied

PAM
Error #80401

Connection Refused

Not
Permitted

Invalid
Security Code

Clearance Violation – This incident has been
reported

“
Abort! Abort!” the cries of the flight
leader came once more over the bridge
’
s comms system, accompanied by the
noise of screaming computer systems, warning him of multiple weapon
locks.

Parks watched as the man pulled out of his approach to
Dragon
, trying with all
his might to shake off the battleship
’
s targeting systems. All around
him, other craft could be seen attempting the same. Parks caught
sight of a massive turret swinging around to face the flight
leader. His eyes shifted to another of the feeds, seeing, moments
later, bright green bolts of plasma belch forth, striking those
behind him, scoring critical hits on some, whilst obliterating
others.

The half-dozen bolts become a veritable hail of fire,
luminous bright green light flying in every direction, lighting
dozens of surfaces on both
Dragon
herself and the allied forces.

“
Pulling ba-” the flight leader began,
before the audio became an ear splitting screech of static. The
video tore, froze, and then shut off altogether. In another feed,
Parks saw the damaged Rook wheel for a brief second before it
exploded, unable to evade
Dragon
‘s
cannons any longer.

The
sound of loud voices spilled from the holographic links of the
three other frontal carriers as they became a hive of noise, the
captains barking new orders to their teams, instructing them to
fall back and move out of weapons range. They, as he, all appeared
stunned by the battleship’s miraculous recovery.

Parks swallowed. T
his dragon had
been watching them the whole time; it had just been pretending to
sleep.
And unless he was able to take back
control of the operation that seemed to be falling apart in front
of him, there was little doubt that the Enemy would not hesitate to
turn the full power of the battleship against them.

He
fought to realign himself and concentrate on falling back to
attempting a forceful victory. With the absence of the frigates, it
might just be possible. Just as he prepared to do so, his eyes were
grabbed by one of the remaining three feeds… and his blood
froze.

With the allied fighter squadron all but destroyed and
its power restored,
Dragon
continued
to turn, bringing its bow around to face
Grendel
, the closest of the allied
vessels to it. All along
Dragon
‘s
bow, locks and components began to release, shifting and
docking into new positions. Gears engaged. A vertical seam
appeared, running the length of the bow. The seam split, both sides
moving aside, as if a great mouth were opening; the throat a cold,
dark tunnel, leading to oblivion. Parks felt his own throat close
up, as the implications of the move became all too clear: the Enemy
were preparing to use the battleship’s main gun.

Grendel
had made little progress in
its attempt to evade
Dragon
‘s
attention, and as the enormous battleship brought itself
around to face, Parks wished for nothing more than to be able to
leap through the screen and pull them out of harm’s way. But
instead, he stood rooted to the spot. There was nothing he could
do. Silverthorne was shouting orders, his image turned away in the
projection. He then looked back and Parks saw terror in his
eyes.

Had it not been for the fact that the man had turned grey
during his early twenties, Parks may have thought that the
predicament Silverthorne now faced was wholly responsible for his
appearance. Parks stared at him, as he looked back in silence. The
somewhat stone-faced man paled as he lowered his eyes to looked out
of
Grendel
‘s
frontal viewport.

“
Edward…” Parks started, before his own
eyes fell to
Dragon
‘s holographic feed. For a few
seconds, the battleship
’
s “throat” was lit by an intense
violet hue. Then
Dragon
fired.

What looked like an enormous bright white ball leapt from the
front of the Confederation battleship and hurtled towards
Grendel
at a staggering
velocity, taking mere seconds to traverse the distance between the
two vessels, where it struck it broadside on. A tremendous
explosion followed, for an instant appearing brighter than the Sun
and causing Parks to shield his eyes.

Silverthorne’s feed died, the CSN insignia replacing it as it
had done with the flight leader’s. Parks blinked, staring out the
front of his ship to where
Grendel
had once stood. One moment it was there and the
next… nothing. Not a single piece of
Grendel
remained. All that could be
seen was a shower of particles, that began to spread out and
diminish, rippling as an invisible wave expanded behind them. The
sea of debris that often followed the destruction of such a large
vessel was nowhere to be seen.