An explosion on the bridge of the
Horopila
sent the command staff flying across the room. Captain Gurlio’s head hit the monitor. He slumped to the side and his body slid down the console. A large metal girder sliced across him. Suddenly, without warning, there was a massive explosion and a blinding flash. Sparkling debris moved across the void. The
Horopila
had gone.
‘AURORA
CLEARED FOR DEPARTURE.’
‘Captain Brasdoi, we’re going to have to retreat,’ Isistia said.
Two explosions rocked the bridge of the
Lonori
.
‘There are too many ships. We can’t afford to lose any more of our own. Good luck!’
*****
With a loud bang, the inner event horizon drives of the
Aurora
started and James heard a loud crack from each side of the ship, signally that the docking clamps had disengaged.
‘CLAMPING STATION FIVE RETRACTED.’
With great speed and accuracy the
Aurora
quickly moved away from its clamping station and powered out through the
Lonori’s
open bay doors. Then, with a roar the
Aurora
spun towards Dagnamk. As it turned, James fired all front plasma tubes at a Treitan destroyer closing rapidly.
Directly ahead of the
Aurora
were two enemy heavy cruisers.
Straight down the middle, Kalrea!
James thought.
The
Aurora’s
front and rear lasers struck out at passing fighters.
‘FIVE INCOMING DIAMOND SPREAD.’
‘SIX INCOMING FLAT SPREAD.’
The
Aurora
banked sharply away from one of the cruisers, but two missiles hit the underside of the ship, pushing it off course. James looked out the front of the ship. It was now heading directly towards the other enemy cruiser.
‘WARNING! COLLISION ALERT.’
‘FRONT PLASMA TORPEDOES GENERATED.’
The
Aurora
was already too close to the Treitan cruiser.
James watched in horror.
Oh shit!
he thought.
The
Aurora
tried to twist and bank over the top of the cruiser but it was travelling too quickly. The edge of the
Aurora
crashed against the Treitan ship, and like a mighty sword striking its enemy, sliced through the hull of the cruiser. Air and debris escaped from the gaping wound left behind, and Treitan bodies blown into space, spun away in the wake of the ship.
James looked back into the distance. The Qinant fleet had turned. Explosions erupting from the
Rellopila
lit the path of the retreating ships. He could see that the rear of the
Thardopila
was on fire and one of the
Lonori’s
port event horizon drives was flickering.
The
Aurora
was now under heavy attack. Both its multi-directional lasers worked relentlessly to intercept the missiles.
‘SIX INCOMING!’
James fired three rear plasma torpedoes at the incoming missiles. There were massive explosions behind the ship. Then, suddenly three more missiles came hurtling out of the fading plasma.
‘THREE INCOMING!’
Like a stone thrown violently into a lake, the
Aurora
entered the Dagnamk atmosphere. The perusing missiles hit the atmosphere and detonated but did not cause any damage to the
Aurora
. The explosions obscured James’ view of the battle.
*****
Seeing the ground approaching rapidly Gulino grabbed the arms of his seat. He noticed Londuo looking across at him, worried. The
Aurora
strained to pull out of its dive and he could hear the drives desperately trying to slow the ship descent. Gulino held his breath and instinctively pulled upwards on his arm rests, as if it were possible for him to control the ship in some way. Through the seat, he could feel vibrations increasing in magnitude, caused by the ‘G’ force. The consoles in front of him started to shake.
‘WARNING! COLLISION ALERT.’
*****
On the bridge of the
Lonori,
Isistia was preparing the jump to light speed.
‘Recall the frigates and fighters!’ Isistia ordered.
‘Captain, they’re still trying to recover the fighter pilots who ejected,’ a lieutenant replied.
‘Lieutenant, we’re out of time, so issue the recall. All ships jump to light speed when able.’
Another explosion rocked the bridge.
‘Adonti, I need that drive online now!’
Adonti was frantically communicating with engineering.
‘Captain, the enemy cruisers off the port side are closing fast!’ the lieutenant reported.
All the destroyers except the
Thardopila
disappeared rapidly into the distance.
‘One minute! Engineering need one minute!’ Adonti said, looking anxiously over at Isistia.
‘But we don’t have a minute! That last explosion almost took us out.’
Isistia hit the panel in front of her with a clenched fist.
‘Captain, the
Thardopila;
it’s turning!’ the lieutenant said suddenly.
Isistia looked at a monitor.
‘Captain Keivom, I ordered you to get out of here!’ Isistia said angrily.
‘Sorry, Captain, I can’t hear you.’ Captain Keivom replied. ‘We’ll make them pay for their attack on Qintaino.’
Isistia addressed the captain by his first name,
‘Regyio! Regyio!’
But communications had been cut.
Isistia watched the
Thardopila
powering towards the advancing Treitan ships and firing a volley of torpedoes. The Treitan cruisers targeted the lone ship and fired. She watched on while the
Thardopila
was hit relentlessly by plasma missiles, slicing it in two. The
Thardopila
was torn apart, dissected, until all that remained was the twisted skeleton.
‘Event horizon drives online, Captain,’ Adonti said.
There was no response from Isistia; she just stood and looked at the remains of the
Thardopila
being pushed aside.
‘Captain!’
Adonti tapped her gently on the shoulder. She jumped.
‘Get us out of here, Adonti!’
The drives shook the ship, punching the
Lonori
into light speed.
‘Are they following?’ Isistia asked, concerned.
‘No, they’re turning away. They’re heading back to Dagnamk.’
‘I hope this is all worth it,’ Isistia said sadly, as she turned toward the door. ‘You have the bridge commander.’
*****
The
Aurora
finally levelled from its dive.
That was close!
Kalrea said, sounding relieved.
Find the base, Kalrea! We may not have much time,
James thought.
Searching.
James looked at the Dagnamk landscape covered with deep rocky canyons, which criss-crossed the ground, like large hollow veins. Large mountain ranges and dormant volcanoes rose high into the bleak night sky. The rocky and sandy surface exhibited very little vegetation and there was no sign of animal life.
The
Aurora
suddenly banked over and accelerated. It thundered across the planet contours, kicking up sand from its dry surface, which swirled in large vortexes in the wake of the ship.
Two minutes to target. Nine fighters dead ahead,
Kalrea informed James.
The front laser of the
Aurora
fired. Streaks of flame and plumes of smoke filled the view ahead as the fighters were destroyed, one by one. The
Aurora
swept over a large mountain and descended rapidly towards the base. There, stretched out below, James could see a concentration of buildings laid out in a large square matrix, like a gigantic chessboard at least three kilometres square. Most of the buildings were very low and appeared to be partially buried.
What are the defences?
James thought.
Our scanners shows plasma batteries, lasers in the towers and—
Suddenly streaks of light lit the path of enemy missiles fired at the
Aurora
forcing it to bank away from the base. The missiles flew harmlessly by.
Access their systems. Collect all the data you can, Kalrea. I need to know how to destroy that base.
I’m already on it.
Kalrea paused for a few seconds.
I’ve found only one sure way of destroying the entire base. We need to breach the reactor.
Right; where is it?
James thought eagerly.
James, it’s not going to be that easy. What you see are just the access points to the base. It covers an area of over one thousand cubic kilometres beneath the surface. The reactor is located two point four kilometres inside.
Damn! How are we going to get to it?
I’m studying the plans of the base now,
Kalrea replied.
It’s well protected.
You must find a way, Kalrea!
James thought.
As the
Aurora
sat high in the night sky the batteries of the closest building fired again but they weren’t energy missiles.
Suddenly an alarm sounded.
‘SIXTEEN INCOMING!’
Lomip mechanised missiles. They’ve locked on to us,
Kalrea said.
What?
James said in surprise.
Jamming
, Kalrea said.
The
Aurora
held station as the missiles approached. They suddenly veered downwards and exploded beneath the ship.
There’s no way of reaching the reactor,
Kalrea said.
It’s just too far underground.
James felt frustrated.
Then, we’ll have to just destroy as much of it as we can.
The main control rooms are deeper within the base than the reactor. We can’t do any serious damage, James.
I don’t believe this. We have to do something,
and soon! We can’t wait here forever!
That’s it!
Kalrea said suddenly.
What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?
James thought.
Kalrea replied,
The answer’s in the history of Dagnamk.
You’re not making any sense, Kalrea.
Look at the landscape. The mountains and in particular the volcanoes,
Kalrea said.
Up to two thousand sykals ago Dagnamk was a very violent planet. Lava once flowed throughout the entire planet and across the surface in large rivers. Many of those volcanoes you see are registering signs of activity.
Yes, but I don’t see how that helps us?
The lava has retreated near the core, but Dagnamk is still very active deep underground. If we could release the lava near the base it would do the job for us.
You’ve got my attention. How do we do it?
Beneath the surface there’s a labyrinth of tunnels and caverns where the lava once flowed. They lead deep into the planet, down to within metres of the active lava. If we break through, the pressure of the lava will force its way to the surface. Anything in its path will be consumed. I’ve mapped all the tunnels in this area. There’s an entrance we can use below us.
James viewed the craggy split in the rocky ground below.
It’s not very big
.
No,
Kalrea replied.
The Aurora is far too big to enter.
Could a fighter make it?
Yes, but it would never get out in time. The fighter would be able to outrun the lava but not the explosion from the reactor, when the lava reached it.
There must be another way,
James thought.
There is,
Kalrea said.
I can control a single fighter remotely, but because of the distance below ground, I would need another to act as a booster; a relay node halfway.
You can control the other fighter?
James thought, optimistically.
No. I would need too much bandwidth to control two. Someone will have to fly the fighter acting as my booster. I’ve calculated they would have only twenty-two seconds to reach the surface once the lava is released. The reactor will be breached in between twelve and fifteen seconds. The explosion from the reactor will then take only ten seconds to destroy the base.
And is that the only way we can do this?
Yes.
‘Gulino, we’ve got a problem,’ James said, over the
Aurora’s
address system.
Kalrea showed the route on the monitor and explained the plan.
‘There are twenty-five bends to negotiate and a thick layer of rock to blast through,’ she added.