Galaxy Unknown (Forgotten Galaxy Book 1), page 27
“You were supposed to keep him still, Ish,” he said as he ran along the side of the reactor, heading for the exit.
I’m not as ready as I believed I was. Where are we going?
“I told you, the reactor’s wired to blow. We need to get the hell out of here.”
You’re forgetting something.
“I’m not carrying the dead Empress along with me.”
That isn’t what I mean. The Legionnaire’s helmet. Take it.
“What good will it do me? The system locked as soon as the Legionnaire died.”
I doubt the Legion rewrote the software from the ground up. Besides, even if you can’t use the electronic functions, you’ll look just like one of them with a helmet swap.
“True.”
You would be so lost without me.
“I would be dead without you. Which was the only reason I knew you were still alive.”
Caleb returned to the downed Legionnaire. Crouching over the soldier, he quickly exchanged helmets, sliding the new one down over his head. As he’d expected, the tactical combat system was offline, the software locked. Ish was right that his master password would probably give him access to the tactical, but he didn’t see any current use for it. Instead, his eyes shifted to the small canister on the dead man’s hip. Nothing said Legionnaire like a box of khoron. He picked up the canister, magnetically attaching it to the leg of his armor, and hurried from the room.
CHAPTER 44
Caleb sprinted through the tunnels, racing to escape the underground compound before Glory lifted off and General Haas triggered the remote detonators that would bring the entire place down on itself. While the explosives in the tunnels hadn’t gone off as planned earlier, he was certain the reactor would blow on schedule. Whoever had tipped Crux off to the base, whoever had betrayed the Empress, no doubt wanted to literally bury any possible evidence.
Returning to the corridor where the last group of Guardians had confronted Legionnaires, Caleb found three dead Corpsmen strewn across the passageway, eyes rolled back, clearly killed by the poison pill they all carried in their mouths. The remainder of the Guardians he had seen were missing, indicating they had either escaped or failed to use the pills, instead falling victim to the khoron the enemy carried.
He hoped for the former, while the latter seemed more likely. As he started down the passageway, heading for the main entrance, a group of Legionnaires moved into the corridor behind him. He offered only a quick glance back, letting them see his helmet, while maintaining his dash to the exit. He was too far from Glory to feel the vibrations of the ship’s anti-gravity coils powering up, but he knew from experience the vessel would lift off at any moment.
He wasn’t surprised when the entire compound began to shake. The vibration created a roar within the tunnels, rattling loose chunks of rock and kicking up a cloud of dust. Glory was on her way up, pushing through the water to flee the planet, leaving their dead Empress behind.
Almost out of time, Caleb pumped his tiring legs as hard as he could, tearing through the corridors as quickly as possible. He careened into the walls as he cornered, letting them redirect his energy to preserve as much forward momentum as he could. The Legionnaires who had moved in behind him fell out of sight while a new group appeared ahead of him, also at a run, clearly aware of the need to escape.
He caught up to them in no time, drawing quick glances but no outright negative reactions. Wearing a Legionnaire helmet and similar dark armor so scuffed, burned, melted, and dented that it could easily be mistaken for the same model as theirs, he drew alongside them for a few seconds before passing them by.
Caleb had almost reached the main entrance when the reactor finally went. From his position, the detonation came off as a rapid series of low rumbles, followed by a louder crack that shook the entire compound violently enough to take him off his feet. He hit the wall and landed on his knees, looking back to see the Legionnaires he had passed also on the floor. Immediately springing back up, he growled audibly as he pushed himself still harder, forcing his body to perform beyond its normal limits. A hissing roar echoed through the tunnels behind him, lending added motivation to his mad dash to escape.
Reaching the main entrance, he winced beneath his helmet when he spotted Wilks and Habbib, the two gunners who had helped him with the plasma cannon, akimbo on the floor, faces bloody. Offering only a soft Godspeed as he passed, he glanced over his shoulder once more as the roar behind him finally caught up.
A ball of smoke and fire turned the corner behind him, quickly enveloping the Legionnaires he had outpaced and rapidly approaching him. Shouting under his helmet, chest throbbing, legs pumping, he reached the edge of the tunnel and threw himself forward, away from the enclosed space and face down onto muddy ground that had been covered in dense vegetation only thirty minutes earlier. Smoke and fire spewed over him, heat penetrating the back of his armor as it exploded out from the tunnel like dragonbreath, igniting the line of barrel-bellies a dozen meters away.
Caleb remained inert until the heat subsided. Wiping the mud off the faceplate of his helmet,he climbed back to his feet. Looking up through a thinned-out canopy he watched Glory rising under the power of her three large thrusters and anti-gravity coils. As quickly as she could climb, she pushed up toward the atmosphere, a handful of Nightmares were already firing energy blasts into the barge’s tenuous shields. Too few cannons fired back at the ships, the only thing keeping the enemy from totally overwhelming the vessel.
Ish, we need to get up there.
How?
Aren’t you an Advocate, not a basic khoron?
Yes, but I’m also two-thirds dead.
Which isn’t all dead, which we’ll be if we don’t get up there.
I don’t see how—oh, you wouldn’t.
I might, Caleb answered after Ishek read his intentions.
You can’t always use the threat of self-destruction to manipulate me.
It’s worked great for me so far.
I hate you.
Caleb allowed himself a small smile. Can you do it?
Working on it.
Caleb glanced over his shoulder, noticing movement behind him. A pair of Legionnaires stepped out of the smoke, barely escaping the fireball. They approached him, their posture hardly threatening.
“Why is your tactical offline?” one of them asked.
“Damaged in the fighting,” Caleb replied. “I can’t locate the dropship on my HUD.”
“It’s this way,” the other Legionnaire said. “A little over a klick away.”
“Did anyone else survive?” He immediately sensed Ishek’s dismay over the question.
“Survive? Who cares? We did. What’s your unit designation?”Caleb realized he had blundered by showing even a hint of concern for the other Legionnaires. This one had picked up on his unbidden error, immediately becoming suspicious. “Designation?” he asked again, turning to face him.
“It’s…” He lunged at both of them, one hand on each of their faceplates. Catching them by surprise, he bashed their heads together, stunning them long enough to bring his plasma rifle up and blast one in the side of his head. The close range allowed the bolt to pierce the Legionnaire’s helmet, killing him instantly. Just as his corpse hit the ground, Caleb smashed the other Legionnaire in the faceplate with the stock of his rifle before turning the muzzle on him and quickly finishing him off.
Rookie mistake.
I know. It’s been a long day.
A light overhead drew Caleb’s attention. Obviously designed to instill fear in its enemy, a Nightmare hung above the clearing. All severe angles and sharp points, it was made from the same dark alloy as his combat armor. Multiple rocket tubes jutted out from each side of the fuselage. Yet its most frightening features were the two large cannons mounted to triangular turrets beneath each angular wings.
This isn’t going to be easy.
Caleb watched as it began to shake unsteadily, its pilot in a fight for dominance with Ish. At first, he thought the enemy pilot might win the battle, but it finally stopped shivering and descended smoothly to the muddy ground.
Your chariot…a…waits.
It was obvious that his effort to gain control of the lesser khoron pilot had drained Ishek of a lot of the energy he’d regained, but Caleb knew his renewed exhaustion was worth it.
He ran to the ship, the hatch amidships opening as he approached. A Legionnaire awaited him just inside. “You’re lucky we saw you,” he said as soon as Caleb leaped onboard.
“And that makes you unlucky,” he said, booting the Legionnaire out through the open hatch. Closing it, he quickly moved toward the flight deck. While Centurion ships seated flight crews deeper in the ship with cameras and screens behind armored bulkheads, the Nightmare’s flight deck sat in greater peril at the front of the starship, a large transparency allowing for a direct view into space.
The lone pilot was still in his seat, hands shaking on the controls, clearly still fighting Ishek’s domination. If Ish hadn’t been so weakened by the Relyeh who killed the Empress, the pilot would have already been dead. Caleb stepped up to him, ripping him from the seat and throwing him down on the deck. He pinned him there with his boot and shot him in the head.
“I hope this thing uses manual controls,” he said, dropping into the freshly vacated seat and pulling the simple hardened restraint over his head. It snapped audibly into place, not allowing him to adjust the tight fit, making him wonder how he was going to get out of the seat. Getting a closer look at the instrument panel, he quickly realized the Nightmare didn’t have external controls at all. “What the hell?” he remarked, staring at the column. There were only a pair of small displays, providing a rear and bottom view outside the craft, proving that it did use cameras, just not anywhere that might better protect the pilot.
I’m discerning a separate collux-compatible network originating from the starship.
“You mean that it’s designed for you to fly it?” Caleb asked.
The Legionnaires are khoron with bonded human hosts submissive to their will. Is it a surprise their ships are designed in this way?
“No, but you’ve never piloted a starship before.”
I’ve watched you do it.
“That’s not exactly the same. And like you said, you’re two-thirds dead.”
Closer to three-quarters after wrangling with the pilot of this ship. I am exhausted.
“And there’s no way for me to take over?”
Not directly, but I can tap into your thoughts to help guide my reactions. It is not unlike flying Spirit. Besides, Crux’s other ships won’t know we’ve gained control of this one.
“They will once we start attacking them. We have to help Glory escape.”
We don’t have to.
“Ham is on Glory, along with almost two thousand other humans, including Private Marley. I owe her for getting her into this mess, and I promised myself I would get Ham back to his family.”
I didn’t make that promise.
“Too bad. That’s the plan.”
Ishek’s mental tone expressed capitulation.
Very well. Here we go.
CHAPTER 45
The Nightmare’s anti-gravity plates hummed as the ship rose out of the mud. As soon as they cleared the top of the canopy, the twin thrusters on the back of the ship ignited, shoving Caleb back in the seat as the starship launched powerfully forward. A heads-up display activated on the instrument panel. It provided Caleb and Ishek with a threat-based sensor grid, including information on shield integrity, weapons capabilities, and energy availability. The HUD was only mildly different from the starships he had flown on in the past, reinforcing the fact that despite being designed for a Relyeh, it was partially dependent on humans for operation.
The Nightmare immediately painted its four sister ships chasing Glory as friendlies, while the fleeing transport barge was clearly marked as the target. As Ishek guided the Nightmare onto an intercept course with the barge and the ships harassing it, Caleb got a good look at the outside of Glory.
The size was about what he expected based on the interior layout, the shape comparable to a stick of butter with a pair of massive ion thrusters on each side of the aft section. Its only offense was the limited number of hastily bolted on guns currently firing ineffectively at the Nightmares trying to rip it from the sky.
As maneuverable as a school bus, Caleb immediately guessed Ham was at the stick by the way it rocked and rolled, shook and jerked, often accelerating and slowing down. The chaotic randomness of the maneuvers was probably the only reason Glory’s trajectory still pointed upward.
“Hold on, Ham,” he said softly. “We’re coming.”
He watched as one of the Nightmares launched an energy blast at the barge. Shields captured some of the hit, but not all, and a part of the hull melted beneath the heat, creating a hole into the interior. Debris spilled out of the depressurized area, but thankfully no people were sucked out of the damage, the compartments likely sealed off right away.
“Come on, Ish. Faster.”
The Nightmare sped up, racing toward the action as it neared the planet’s troposphere.
I’m attempting to target the Nightmares with the ship’s fire control system. It will not allow me to do so.
“Not a surprise. Can you override it?”
Do you recall when I suggested the combat armor might still be unlockable through the software root password?
“Yeah.”
It appears I may have been incorrect. The Nightmare’s system is rejecting the password.
“So you can’t override the fire control system?”
I can turn the system off completely and switch over to manual.
“What manual? There are no physical controls.”
A figure of speech. There will be no assisted targeting.
“I’ll take what I can get. How can I help?”
Concentrate on the targets. It will ease the effort of flying, shooting, and staying conscious.
“I’d appreciate it if you stayed conscious.”
Concentrate.
Caleb looked through the flight deck transparency, picking out the nearest Nightmare as Ishek vectored toward it. Coming up on its tail, he opened with the energy cannons, blasting it multiple times in the rear. Not expecting a friendly to attack it, the Nightmare never knew what hit it. It broke apart in a fireball that quickly dissipated, leaving the remains to slow before beginning the long fall back to the surface.
Yeah, one down!
“Don’t get cocky. The first one’s a freebie with the element of surprise.” Even now, one of the remaining Nightmares was peeling away from Glory, while the other two remained on the barge’s tail. Climbing higher, Caleb spotted a pair of larger ships squatting in orbit, no doubt the warships that had launched the ground attack. “Ignore the one that’s breaking off for us, keep on the Nightmares attacking Glory.”
We cannot help Glory if we get dead.
“For once, try not to be like you, and more like me. Glory is more important than we are.”
Maybe to you.
“Exactly.”
Ishek didn’t like the instructions, but he was too weak to continue arguing. He guided the Nightmare toward the Glory’s two attacking ships, nearly achieving an angle of attack when the other Nightmare darted in from the port side, energy blasts raking them. Shields flared, absorbing the blows while Caleb maintained the target for Ishek.
“We can’t take these hits forever,” he said, watching the shield integrity drop.
Neither can they.
The symbiote triggered the cannons, pouring energy into one of the Nightmares chasing Glory. Its shields captured some of the firepower as it peeled away from the target rather than face being destroyed.
Growing more comfortable at the controls, Ishek hit the throttle, picking up speed a little too quickly as they approached the Nightmare still firing on Glory. No alarms went off. The flight deck remained totally silent, but Caleb was sure they were going to hit the ship. The fire control system activated, targeting Glory.
“Ish?” he shouted in question, gut tensing, panic building as he feared he’d again lost control of his symbiote to the unknown Relyeh, and would soon lose control of himself, too. The moment was short-lived as rockets launched from their Nightmare, the distance to Glory too short for the projectiles to hit anything other than the enemy ship directly ahead of them. The warheads slammed into the back of the enemy Nightmare and detonated. Ishek fired retro-rockets and dove away from the scene, shields active, the ship shivering as they blew through the edge of the explosive concussions and its resulting debris field.
I think I’m getting the hang of this.
Ishek swung them wide of Glory, hitting the throttle to overtake the barge. The remaining pair of enemy Nightmares were angling to regain their positions behind the fleeing rebels while the larger orbiting warships slowly changed position, their heavy gun batteries swiveling around to open up on both them and Glory at any moment.
“We’re running out of time.”
We just need to buy them a little more.
Caleb couldn’t disagree. He focused his attention on the HUD, thinking about how he would approach the destruction of the remaining two Nightmares if he were flying their ship. Able to pick up on his thoughts, Ishek integrated some of his own, and their Nightmare flew out ahead of Glory. Caleb tensed his gut for the sudden change of Gs as the Nightmare flipped over. The throttle maxed out, thrusters slowing their ascent. Glory shot past them, only a couple hundred meters off their port side.
Throwing their Nightmare into a quick turn that tested Caleb’s ability to withstand the heavy inertia, Ishek opened fire on the Nightmare closing on their port flank. He sent literally everything they had at the craft. Missiles poured from launch tubes and energy blasts crackled from the cannons, the air between them and the enemy ship suddenly so thick with ordnance it had no chance of passing through it unscathed.
