Purge of Prometheus (43 page)

He pulled back on the stick, feeling the engines respond with heavy acceleration.
 
Unsure of how long he’d been unconscious, Yen was eager to find out how much of the battle he had missed and how much damage could be done to make up for his absence.
 
As he neared the edge of the atmosphere, the clouds clung to his ship like blue vines draped lazily over the wings.
 
Accelerating harder, Yen broke free of the planet, trailing blue tendrils from the atmosphere.

Though Yen was glad to see the stars glowing in the distance of space, he was surprised at the chaos around him as he exited the gas giant.
 
Alliance and Terran fighters danced around one another in a choreographed ballet of rockets and tracer fire from their machine guns.
 
Thousands of the small ships filled the once empty space, punctuated by small bursts of red flame and purple and blue plasma as explosions erupted haphazardly throughout.
 
The larger Cruisers and Destroyers of the two Fleets were hardly immune to the chaos.
 
They tore through the insect-like fighters like angry behemoths, alternating between firing massive volleys of plasma rockets and launching salvo after salvo of metal slugs from their rail guns.
 
Space had become a hell storm of destruction, and Yen had flown straight into the inferno.

As he strove to gain his bearings, warning sirens erupted in the tight cabin of his
Duun
ship, warning him of approaching enemy fighters.
 
Yen banked hard to the right, barely avoiding the first stream of tracer fire that threatened to tear through his hull.
 
Spinning into a barrel roll, Yen rotated his fighter barely out of the way as the first of the Terran ships flew by, missing his wing by only a few feet.
 
As the first ship began banking for a second pass, another Terran fighter dove in from Yen’s right.
 
With the side of his ship exposed to the oncoming enemy fire, Yen accelerated hard, driving himself back into his cushioned seat.
 
He didn’t have much hope of outrunning the Terran or his deadly volley, but Yen hoped to get the more fragile glass of his cabin window out of the stream of enemy machine gun fire.
 
As he flew away from the gas giant, however, the second Terran ship exploded, followed immediately by the first ripping apart as tracer fire tore through its right wing.
 

Yen craned his neck to see his saviors as his microphone crackled to life.

“Are you okay, sir?” Iana called over the radio, her voice muted by the wild cheering as Gregario activated his own microphone.

“I’m not only alive,” Yen said, “I’m damn glad to see you all.
 
Did I ever mention that you guys have great timing?”

“Sir,” a new voice, that of Warrant Wallace, called dejectedly over the radio.
 
“You didn’t really think that Team Six would leave you out here on your own, did you?”

“Give us some credit,” Warrant Byron added as the other members of Team Six fell into formation behind Yen.

Yen watched the four friendly ships appear on his radar, joining him in a spear formation with him at its tip.
 
As they flew into the fray, Yen took a second to assess the battle.
Already, five Alliance Cruisers drifted aimlessly through the void of space.
 
Their hulls breached and flames flickering weakly from within as the fire consumed the last of the breathable oxygen.
 
The large ships hung lifeless, becoming little more than obstructions around which the other ships maneuvered.
 
The Terrans didn’t fare much better.
 
As Yen watched, a seventh Destroyer erupted into flames as one of the plasma rockets slipped through the onslaught of protective fire and found its mark.

“This is insane,” Yen commented over the radio.
 
“We need to regroup with some of the other fighter Teams and start a more organized offensive action.”

“Roger that, sir,” Gregario replied.
 
“The problem is that the Teams from the
Revolution
are scattered.
 
In the short time you were in the gas giant, the clear lines of battle got a little blurred.
 
It was a free for all that is just now being sorted out.”

“Then let’s get to the
Revolution
and use that as our launching point,” Yen countered.
 
“Start sending a Squadron-wide call informing all ships to regroup around…”

Before Yen could finish, the Fleet-wide communications channel opened on his console and began relaying an emergency message.

“This is Captain Hodge of the
Revolution
,” the message began.
 
“We are swarmed with enemy fighters and have lost the majority of our defensive capabilities.
 
I am requesting immediate support from anyone receiving this message.
 
I say again, I am requesting immediate support for the
Revolution
.”

“It looks like our mind is made up for us, sir,” Wallace said as the message began playing again.

“Team Six, move out and rendezvous with the
Revolution
,” Yen ordered.
 
“Let’s go save our ship.”

Dodging a barrage of oncoming fire, Yen’s team worked in concert with one another, driving forward as a deadly team one moment only to split and chase down enemy fighters individually the next.
 
The team fought with deadly efficiency, clearing away the immediate Terran fighters and opening a path between them and the embattled
Revolution
.

As they approached, Yen saw Terran fighters crawling across the hull of the Alliance flagship like swarming ants.
 
Their weapons fire ignited small fires along the length of the ship, drawing the attention of the defensive weapons while the boarding parties cut holes in the thick protective steel of the
Revolution
.
 
Closing the distance, Yen’s radio crackled to life once again on the Fleet-wide channel.

“The
Revolution
is being boarded as we speak,” Captain Hodge said.
 
“We are requesting immediate support.”

Yen activated his own radio in response.
 
“
Revolution
, this is Team Six.
 
We are closing in on your location and will be assisting shortly.”

As Yen ended his transmission, numerous others began calling in, lending their support to the swarmed flagship.
 
Most of the Teams from the
Revolution
were arriving and engaging the Terran fighters.

“Team Six,” Yen said, changing his channel to the internal net.
 
“Our focus is on the boarding parties.
 
Destroy those and let the other Teams take care of the fighters.”

They all called back, letting Yen know that they had received the orders.
 
Yen, however, didn’t wait for their reply, instead putting the
Duun Riddell
into a dive that brought it rapidly toward the flagship.
 
Barely slowing, Yen eased up on the controls until his fighter was skimming the hull of the ship.
 
This close, he was able to examine the damage already done to the ship he called home.
 
Numerous blast marks scorched the hull, exposing the chambers and hallways underneath.
 
Breaches in the hull were automatically sealed off from the rest of the ship to ensure the entire Cruiser wasn’t lost during a depressurization, but it left dozens of Crewmen trapped in a slow, suffocating death.

Ahead, Yen could see the first of several Terran personnel ships attached to the
Revolution
.
 
From the bottom of the ships, long, flexible tubes extended until they were firmly affixed around the breaching holes cut by the boarding parties.
 
Yen angled his fighter toward the first of these tubes and opened fire.
 
The machine gun roared to life, spitting tracer rounds through the flimsy fabric.
 
The ship above jerked as its anchor broke free.
 
Byron, flying up behind Yen, destroyed the personnel ship with a well-placed plasma rocket.
 
The bigger effect, however, happened to the members of the boarding party itself.
 
Though they were protected in suits from the sudden lack of oxygen, they could do nothing against the sudden depressurization.
 
Jerked backwards as breathable air vented into space, the boarding party shot out of the breaching hole and drifted helplessly into the void.
 
Yen barely noticed as he turned and engaged the next ship, but he felt his adrenaline surge at the sight of such wanton destruction.
 
He yearned for more.
 
Firing his rocket at the next personnel carrier, he watched as it exploded, destroying the ship and tearing loose the fabric tube.
 
He watched as the venting gases mixed with the clinging, burning plasma.
 
The fire cooked the boarding party alive as they were jettisoned out of the
Revolution
.
 

“We got enemy fighters closing in from behind us,” Iana warned as new red ships’ blips appeared on Yen’s radar.
 
He tried to turn to look over his shoulder, but the Terrans were grazing the hull of the flagship, making it impossible to see them amidst all the chaos.

“Pull up and loop around to engage,” Yen ordered, bringing up the nose of his fighter in a tight circle that would turn him to face the incoming Terrans.

“They’re firing!” Wallace yelled into the radio.

“I’m hit!” Byron screamed.
 
“Oh Gods, I’m…”

The transmission went dead as Byron’s ship was consumed by enemy machine gun fire.
 
The vessel broke apart, crashing and exploding into the hull of the
Revolution
.

Yen finished his turn and charged toward the oncoming Terran fighters.
 
As he wove through the hail of gunfire, Yen returned fire on the closest ship.
 
His rounds tore through the armored cabin of the fighter and slammed into the pilot.
 
As the Terran slumped over the controls, the ship spun out of control until it, too, crashed into the hull beneath.
 
Yen’s powers responded to the excitement with rabid enthusiasm.
 
His psyche reached out and grabbed onto the front of an approaching Terran fighter.
 
Jerking it to the side, Yen slammed the ship into its wingman.
 
Both ships exploded in bright orange flame.
 
With the rest of Team Six joining him, they finished off the Terran fighters, removing most of the remaining threat to the
Revolution
.

With his adrenaline now waning, Yen felt a moment of reprieve and switched his communications array to the Fleet channel.
 
The sudden eruption of sound surprised him as a multitude of distress calls rang out over the radio.
 
Fidgeting with the controls, Yen was able to identify a number of the requests.

“…under heavy fire.
 
Requesting assistance…”

“…engaged with a Terran Destroyer.
 
Taking heavy damage…”

One call, however, caught his attention more than the others.

“This is the
Zenith
.
 
We are being engaged by the Terran flagship.”
 
The voice paused as explosions and screams were heard in the background.
 
“We are taking severe damage.
 
I’ve sent most of my crew to the escape ships already, but the
Zenith
is a loss.
 
I say again, we have lost the
Zenith
!”

Yen turned in the direction of the hailing ship, making out the bulky shape of the Cruiser amidst the smaller fighter engagements in between.
 
The
Zenith
was limping through space, its hull battered and engines firing weakly.
 
As it tried to flee, a second ship flew forward until the two ships flew side by side.
 
The Terran ship dwarfed the Alliance Cruiser; its bulbous body resembled a swollen balloon, bristling with heavy weapons.
 
Its gleaming white hull, painted with the blue and gold lines of the Terran Empire, glistened even in the dim light of space.

The Terran flagship slowed until it had matched speed with the Zenith.
 
The side exposed to the Terrans had been decimated by plasma rockets, leaving the metallic hull sweltering and molten.
 
Weapons platforms that had once been housed on that side of the Cruiser had been destroyed, leaving the Zenith incapable of firing on the deadly enemy.
 
As Yen watched, hundreds of smoke trails leapt from the Terran ship as they fired volley after volley from their twenty launchers on that side of their vessel.
 
The rockets struck the disabled Cruiser in overlapping, blossoming flowers of plasma.
 
The blue and purple plasma engulfed the entire port side of the
Zenith
, leaving Yen very little view of the explosions.
 
From where Team Six watched, however, they could see the hull of the Zenith buckling from the assault, the starboard side of the Cruiser collapsing inward as the ship quickly imploded from the rapid depressurization.
 
Though the Fleet channel was open, Yen didn’t even hear a scream of protest as the
Zenith
was obliterated.