Chapter 9
Nomad Jumpgate, Omicron Minor System
The bridge on the Invader battleship Relentless was quite different than those found on the battleships in human fleets. There were no windows, for reasons regarding security and structural integrity. To compensate, large monitors that displayed the ship's surroundings were mounted on the walls above simplistic instrument panels. Everything was dirty. The floor and walls were smeared with grease, grime, hair, and even splatters of yellow blood where two rival crew members had brutishly engaged each other a few weeks back.
Orad-Porel carelessly spat a rather large gob of saliva onto the deck as he surveyed the monitors. He had not waited for orders to advance the battle group. His eagerness, if not his impatience, had gotten the better of him. This action was against regulations, and he would probably be punished for it, but who knew? If his decision brought a strategic victory, he might be given an exception, maybe even praised.
Through the monitors, Orad-Porel spotted a trail of lights that led into the nebula – the navigation buoys to Planet Toledo. Orad allowed himself a quick thought of how stupid the humans were to do such a thing, and then gave the order to follow the lights. As the engines were ignited, the lights on the bridge dimmed for several seconds before returning to their normal glare, and the deck trembled as the massive ship began to move.
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Trent, Juni, and Orillion raced across the landing pad to their ships. As Trent neared his ship, he saw that two engineers standing beside it – the repair crew that he had ordered earlier. Trent ran up to them. "Is my ship fixed?"
The engineer of the left, somewhat distracted by the current situation, began to speak rapidly. "We've been working at full speed, sir." The engineer was obviously eager to leave. "Most of the ship's been fixed. You have two new engines, a new shield and thruster, but the cargo hold is still ruptured."
"It'll have to do. Go, get out of here!"
"Yessir!" said the engineer without hesitation. He shot Trent a salute and quickly ran off.
Juni and Orillion had already taken off by the time that Trent climbed the ladder into the Sabre's cockpit. He closed the hatch, unlocked the controls, and pushed the ignition key. He heard the reactor whine as it heated the H-fuel within its chambers, followed by the sensation of the entire ship shuddering as the reactor began produce plasma. A quick diagnostic proved that all of the Sabre's new components had taken. Trent disengaged the levitation pad and headed out into space along with the stragglers who had lagged behind.
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Juni exited the docking ring shortly after Orillion and positioned her ship a short distance from the planet. The transports were beginning to depart, heading to the Osiris hidden somewhere in the surrounding nebula. She noticed with much relief that the Invaders had yet to arrive. But she also noted with dismay that there were only a few other fighters.
"We need to hold off the Invaders as long as we can, Colonel Zane."
"Roger that, sir."
Juni activated her long range sensors and scanned for approaching ships. The scan came up negative. But she knew that they had to be coming.
Juni ran the scanner again. There - an Invader fighter, coming out of the nebula. Juni held her position; if she flew out to attack it, it could teleport around her and attack the transports. She didn't want that to happen.
An Invader battleship emerged from the giant chlorine nebula, forcing the noxious green gas to billow outwards as the massive ship pushed it aside. More fighters came out of the nebula. All of them were headed directly for the planet.
Orillion keyed the system-wide comm. "Good luck to us all."
"Good Luck," Juni responded.
No sooner than Juni had closed her comm. channel that she heard a THUMP, and an Invader fighter appeared to her right. She took evasive maneuvers, working her Defender to get behind the alien ship before it got a chance to counter her attack. But before Juni was able to take down the fighter, it disappeared with its characteristic red flash and audible boom. Another THUMP and a second fighter popped into existence above her. It turned and pounded away at her shields, which quickly dissipated. Juni felt her ship lurch violently as one of the shots impacted upon her ship's hull. The alien guns cycled again, and antimatter ate away at the Defender once more. The ship groaned in agony as its frame began to buckle. This dogfight was a death match, and it seemed pretty apparent who was going to emerge victorious.
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An impatient Edison Trent at long last emerged form the docking ring, ready to fight for the survival of the retreating humans – and his fiancée. Even though be believed he was prepared for the worst, he was not prepared for what he saw.
"Holy f---!"
The space around Toledo was utter chaos. The Invaders had already arrived, and were currently in the process of whittling the defending forces down into nothing. Trent took a moment to survey the fleeing transports, and was relieved by what he saw: none of the transports were under attack. The Invaders were too busy to pay any attention to them.
A panicked voice came though Trent's comm. "Edison! Help Me!"
"Jun'ko!" Trent said to himself.
Trent scanned the ship ID tags and located Juni's Defender. Trent saw that it was in bad shape, and that was all he needed to know.
"Hang on, Juni, I'm coming!"
Trent punched the accelerator and raced towards Juni's location. As he got closer, he noticed that she was under attack by an Invader fighter. Trent lined up his ship with the alien craft, took careful aim, and slammed the trigger. His guns rained fire down upon the oddly shaped fighter and exploded upon its hull, burrowing into its greasy insides. A critical component was hit, knocking out the ship's entire power grid. The ship spun wildly out of control, trailing black smoke as its own inertia carried it to the center of the battle, where it was found by stray mine. The mine overcame the ex-fighter's speed, made physical contact, and blew itself to kingdom come, taking the alien craft with it. With the immediate threat gone, Juni finally had the chance to deploy nanobots, which she did gladly.
Juni sighed with relief over the comm. channel. "Thanks, Edison."
Orillion suddenly came over the comm. "To all ships, retreat into the nebula. Fly to a random vector, and then change course to the Osiris.
"Affirmative," Juni said. "Edison, see you at the rendezvous."
"Alright." Trent closed the channel.
With all the transports successfully hidden in the nebula, it was time for the fighters to disengage and remove themselves from the battle with best speed. All the remaining fighters broke off their attacks and fled the scene in all different directions. Once well hidden in the nebula, they turned and headed for the Osiris. Once they had all docked, the Osiris activated its cloaking device and disappeared.