Chapter Eleven

Ptah

ARAZIS

"Well hello there, outsider," she said to herself. She gave the black ship a sinister grin and started up her attack run towards the ship to the left of the black ship.

She spun the ship up and around to get more of an attack run. The three enemy ships attacked. They didn't quite hit her, but they came close. In fact, it seemed as only the one she was targeting as directly aiming for her. The other two were hesitant.

"This might be easier than I thought!" she said once again to herself.

She came up right beside the black ship going at the same speed. "Peekaboo I see you!" she said jokingly. She was making jokes and talking to herself not to go insane.

This battle was the most intense action she had ever been in. she had trained on Swarmers her whole life and knew everything about her ship. She built this one herself. She added in a couple of extra surprises, but decided to save them for a special occasion.

She slammed into the hull of the black ship and heard her own ship's hull bang. That was good, it sent the black ship farther away. She now had a clear path to her target. She took aim, and fired the guns.

MARK

"No!" I cried. The enemy had fired on Jeroll. I got a good look at her. I recognized the pilot as a 'her'. Her hair was the most striking. It was really the color of blood just as Isel described. I of all people would know. She had pale but not 'Turanic white' skin, blue eyes, a confident expression, and her sort-cut red hair.

At that moment, however, was not the time to think about all that. Jeroll was under fire. Isel and I tried to stop the pilot; I even slammed my own ship into hers as she had done to me. Nothing seemed to stop her. The guns kept firing, and slowly, but surely, Jeroll's ship was gaining damage.

"Well, I guess I lose. I accept my fate now. I really wanted to see Hiigara. But I guess I cannot. It was not meant to be. Mark, I believe in you." Those few words lifted a huge load off my back even if I knew he was about to die. "Become the leader! Mark! Guide us all to Hiigara!" as he screamed out that last line, his ship was destroyed. My friend was lost. He was dead. No, he was not lost. He had made his way to Balcora among the heroes. I knew he deserved it. He may not have been as great as my father, but he was a warrior who accepted his defeat and died his last moments fighting for what he believed in. that is how I will remember him.

Green Squad was destroyed. Isel and I were alone with this enemy, this one enemy that managed to take out the two most powerful squadrons in our strike force . . . almost entirely. There were still the two of us. We had to hope that Jay would make it safely the rest of the way to the Mothership on his own. We had a huge small problem to deal with.

But just as we were about to attack, the ship took off! Just like that. it took off.

"Mark, should we pursue her?" she asked.

"No. Let her go. She may have just killed my friend, but she'll be back. I know it."

"How?"

"She'll find us. What else does she do? And besides. I have barely enough fuel to make it to the Mothership."

"Yeah I'm about half-tank, but I'm not rushing in there alone. Let's go find John." Was her logical answer. Yes. John. That's right.

"Let's go." And we were off, headed for home, following the Porter carrying the remains of the command bridge of the Ifriit 2.

ARAZIS

She felt like taking the other two ships on, but realized her fuel was critically low, and Saiin had gone back to the Amun without her to try and figure out why the Suteh didn't hyper-repair. She wanted to know. She didn't want the Amun to be next. Her whole life was on that Needleship. She couldn't lose it to some dumb malfunction.

When she docked with barely enough fuel, she found where Saiin and her usually park, and there was a Swarmer under heavy repair.

She headed down there. She got out, and immediately, a fuelling crew was already getting to work.

As she walked off, one of them asked, "Where are you going?"

"To find out why the Suteh got destroyed. Keep her parked. I won't be long." At least she guessed she wouldn't.

She ran up to the command bridge. No she sprinted up there. Her legs hurt, she had cramps, but she didn't care. She hat to know. When she got there, she saw Saiin and the captain in a long conversation.

"Saiin! What happened?" she yelled.

He knew exactly what she was saying.

"It's the Ptah. Here, ask the captain. He can explain things better."

"Jeremiah, why did the Suteh die?"

"Your friend is right. The Ptah had a malfunction."

"But how does a malfunction on the Ptah affect the Suteh?"

"Please let me finish. The inhibitor field generator failed. No, it didn't fail, it made it over powerful. The ship had a short circuit or someone was not doing his job, and the generator had an explosion but didn't break. It trapped us here too. The inhibitor field no longer recognizes friendly signatures. We're all trapped. Us, and them."

The thought actually made her dizzy. Saiin had to help her regain balance.

"So that's it then. It has become a fight to the death."

"Yes. It has I'm afraid. We will win. We have to. Or this may be the last battle the Amun ever sees again.

It was a grim thought for her. She had no idea this could happen. Just two days before, she was safely on the world she called First Colony unaware of the existence of these outsiders. Now, they may as well be the very death of her.

JOHN

The crew as well as its captain felt a huge relief. They witnessed as the broken chunk of frigate was brought safely within the Mothership. The Porter set them down in the resupply hangar and they were met with a team of marines. They usually use that hangar for capturing enemy ships, but now it was going to be used to break into the remnants of the command bridge.

The marines cut into the glass of the viewport and into the ship.

"Are you all okay?" one of them asked.

The crew had been freezing in there. The heating systems had been turned off and they were freezing. Inside the hangar, they were defrosting. They had been saved.

"I-I think so." Paul said standing up to the returned gravity. John tried as well. It was hard and he was cold. He only made it as far as getting into his chair.

"Command check." He said.

"Sensors here." Paul said.

"Communications here."

"Engineering here."

"Fighter repair here."

"Corvette repair here."

"Fiira here, I think that's everyone. I have a list."

"Okay then. I think command is all here. The crew is lost, but at least we're safe."

"The crew was helped out of the command bridge, and onto the hangar floor. John stayed in his chair until everyone was out. He walked around the room of central command; he found the piece of the Ifriit Nabaal and took it out of the glass casing. He also found a small piece of the ship on the ground next to his feet.

"I guess luck plays in weird ways." He chuckled to himself. He picked up the piece and put the two objects in his pocket and headed for the hole cut in the window.

\his legs were no longer cold and he felt like after he had a nap he would be as good as new. But where would he go? He had the answer quickly enough. Standing right outside on the hangar floor in front of him, were his two friends, Mark and Isel. And running towards them, was Jay who was the pilot for the Porter that saved them.

John jumped out onto a metal staircase that led down. He joined up with them.

"Well I haven't seen you in a while," Mark said.

ERIC

"Glad you're awake," He heard a man's voice. He slowly opened his eyes but it was still all fuzzy.

"Your vision will return later. It's the drugs they gave you to sleep." He said as if knowing exactly what he was thinking.

"Brutus?" he asked.

"Yeah, we'll talk about our little adventure to the prison area later. They say you've been asleep long enough. They need to know what happened in the hangar."

He didn't know how much good he would be, even he had no idea. "Okay." was his tired answer.

He slowly and carefully got up and started walking. He was feeling better already, but still not good enough to make it all the way across to the hangar section. He collapsed in a chair just outside the room.

"I don't think I'll make it to the hangar." Eric said sitting down relieved.

"Wait here until your vision returns. You should be able to move when the medication wears off." So he did. He waited.

MARK

"Hey!" John said after joining us in the hangar.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked.

"I am now." He said and gave me a friendly hug.

"You lost your ship again," there goes Isel ruining the moment.

"Yeah. Pretty inconvenient, don't you think?" at least he wasn't sad about it. "I still have some pieces though." He said taking two pieces of machinery out of his pocket.

"I would love to stay and get caught up, but we have a battle to attend."

"I understand. We'll catch up later." Seeing John again covered the loss of Jeroll. I felt a little better after that. "Good luck!" he shouted as we were getting into our ships.

"Don't need it! Got all the luck I need." I shouted back leaving him and Jay alone to talk.

I got in, closed the hatch, and turned to see Isel doing the same.

"You ready for this?" I asked over the intercom.

"When am I not?" And we were off.

Flying out the blue colour hangar was all too familiar to me. Once again, I'm fully expecting not to make it out alive. And this time I really mean it. I have no one to cover my back . . . or almost no one. I only have one partner left out there.

"So where to, Captain Soban?" Okay, she's never called me that before, has a nice ring to it though, Captain Soban.

"Like the name. We should go join the fight near the second enemy mothership."

Piloting there was easy. The whole fight seemed to be there. I think it's because the enemy mothership was smoking. We had it. The second of the three was ours. In a few seconds, I know I'd see the escape pods launch. And a minute later, the ship would be doomed to a huge energetic blast.

That's when I saw it. Or should I say her. It had to be. The rest of those fighters were in swarms around the Tempests. This one was headed straight for me. Again. but this time, she had a friend.

"Looks like she found us after all." Isel said.

JOHN

Mark had to leave. He and Isel were pilots. Their place was in battle. Mine was onboard the Ifriit 2. Now, the ship is no more, and he, as well as the rest of the surviving crew, was out of a job.

"Well, I should get going too. My crew awaits me." Jay said in an excited tone. He had grown to love being in a battle these past few months. He had probably the most dangerous job. He had to make sure his Porter got where it needed to be, and, if at all possible, dodge incoming fire. Then, transport the captured target safely within a hangar bay.

"I understand. Don't die out there, okay?" John said as he was already headed away.

"You worry too much!" he yelled back.

He watched as the corvette moved out the hangar and headed for . . . somewhere.

"You have strange friends." He turned to see Fiira standing next to him.

"Yeah, you don't know the half of it."

"I'm guessing the kid from earlier was Mark? I haven't seen him yet, but I expected him to be a bit older." She said with a slight smile.

"You get used to it. He's only sixteen, you know. And Isel, she's only fourteen!"

"You're kidding. And they're two of the best pilots out there? Unbelievable . . ."

ARAZIS

"There he is Saiin. Let's get him." Her low and dark tone made Saiin question if she was feeling okay, but decided not to ask just in case. They headed for the black ship and another joining him.

"Well, well, well. Two-on-two is it? Saiin, you take the other one. The black ship's mine."

Saiin didn't argue. He broke to the side, and fired on the other ship. The pilot was good. Better than he was. He was questioning if Arazis should take out this one being harder, but turned to see that the black ship was even better than this one he was fighting.

The black ship activated its boosters and was headed straight for her. She pulled up, turned around, and started firing. He didn't take many of the hits she was delivering. And the ones he did take were as if nothing had happened. There was something different about that black hull, and she wanted to know why. But decided she may never know, so decided it was just a minor setback.

"Stronger are you? Well let's just see how strong your ship really is!" With that, she sped full force, not holding back anything. She was on full attack mode. She noticed Saiin having trouble, but that as the only time she was not unfocused on this fighter.

A few spins and turns to follow him, a few manoeuvres to dodge his fire, it was a messy but elegant battle of pure piloting mastery. They may have been enemies, but their moves were like they were synchronized.

She was about to mess up. Her ship was hit with more fire from the other ship, but Saiin was able to distract it. She continued on.

"Why can't I get you!" she yelled to herself. She was getting angry. It was getting to her. She couldn't last in this pursuit much longer, and she knew it.

The black ship was moving straight in one direction, and she sought it time to unleash her secret weapon. She followed, pressed a button, and fired a single missile hidden within the lower end of the ship.

"Come on, come on!" it was very stressful. If a single thing went wrong, then it was all over. She couldn't fight anymore. She was getting tired from the stress and the heat of the battle. This one shot had to blow him to bits, or there was no way. Saiin was already out of sight. She didn't know if he was alive or not.

The missile was seconds from hitting. Come on! Come on! The last moments of the battle. So she hoped.

The missile exploded. She saw debris fly out from everywhere. "Yes!" she had killed the black ship. So she thought.

MARK

I was hit. I didn't know with what. From the weapons I've seen these enemies fire, there was nothing like the impact. I was in a daze until I realised I wasn't dead.

System scan showed me that the boosters were long gone. There was nothing left of them. The main engine was working, but not to its fullest. Whatever hit, it did some serious damage. Then, another taught occurred to me. The boosters were the only parts of the ship that I hadn't covered with the reinforcement material. Then another one came to me. It was that extra armour that saved me. The system scan showed huge scars across the entire back end of the ship. It seemed that the upgrade I did had saved my life . . . but from what?

I had no idea. The one thing I did know, if it was a normal interceptor hit with this kind of weapon, it would have been blown to smithereens. Whatever that term actually means.

I saw the skip that shot it. It was definitely the same red-haired enemy from earlier. I caught a glimpse of that blood color as she sped by.

I put all the power I had into the engines to see if I could catch up. It took a while, but it seemed like she was slowing down, but for what reason? I opened fire, and only a few shots came out. The weapons stopped. That wasn't what I was most interested in.

Those few moments passed a while ago. The ship had exploded directly in front of me. For a second, I thought I was in the danger zone. But I wasn't. I had to cover my eyes, but that was it. Like the first, though much louder, the shockwave slammed into my ship causing a huge BANG sound.

As the first, the explosion had lasted longer than I thought possible. But it ended, and once again, there was nothing left of the ship. No debris to trace.

That's when I clued in. my other hand was still on the trigger. I was out of bullets! How inconvenient was that! I did what I had to, and sped at her. It was the only thing I could do.

I flew after her for several minutes, maybe even fifteen. We passed the main battleground, and were headed far away. There was nothing in our path but dense nebulosity and the marks of a few derelict ships. I saw only eight multi-beam frigates, but they didn't pay any attention to me. I feared there was more up ahead. There wasn't.

It lasted for a while longer, and then the enemy came to a stop. I couldn't understand what happened until the Ferin Sha did as well. It stopped, unwilling to move. I saw why. My fuel was empty. I imagined the same for the enemy.

Her ship turned to face mine. I saw her. It looked as if only a few meters away. I could make out her face like I could see her standing beside me. It was an odd feeling. We were enemies from different fleets, in battle, yet there was a moment of peace. The thing that struck me as the most surprise was that she was crying.

Not just a tear in her eye, she was crying. She looked both sad and frightened. She looked like I did when I saw Kharak burning into glass. It was the sense of my whole world and sense of reality crashing down on my shoulders, my mind, my heart, and my soul. I knew how she was reacting to the situation, and it made my own heart stop. Even if I had weapons, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't kill someone who I could relate to so well, even after only knowing her for a few minutes. I decided to do the one thing I could do.

I decided to let her see her nemesis. I found the knob that changed the tint of the windshield and set it to clear. The light shown in and I had to squint. I opened them wide after I got them adjusted. Now, she looked more confused than anything. Just great. I made her feel completely the way I did when I was dealing with the Genocide. I had to shake my head in irony.

She saw it. She actually tried to smile. But then, something odd caught my eye. Something impossible. Out to my far right, one of the derelicts looked ominously familiar . . . what I saw, floating maybe fifty meters from here, was the Khar Toba!