Finaly fhinished the chapter, there is loads of more action in this chapter so enjoy.
Oh. And by the way. I made a few changes to the first chapter so you should check that out first.
Chapter two: The getaway. Part II
Planetary Ion-Cannon defense station
Sector 37-B Antiaga 5
The environment on the moon Antiaga 5 was mainly a desolate desert landscape, the moon lost its ability to sustain life for over a hundred-thousand years ago when some moron completely ruined the moons ozone layer when he demonstrated a device of some kind.
The only structures that are operating now are Antiaga's planetary defense station in sector 37-B.
The defense station is a key element in controlling the great Ion-cannons scattered around the sector.
The cannons were built during the Queltean war as Antiaga 3's primary defense since Antiaga 5 ran in a parallel orbit with Antiaga 3.
The cannons are connected by a matrix of tunnels that runs deep below the burning sand in sector 37-B.
The tunnels are all connected to an underground complex that was built deep below the defense station on the surface.
Ravor Kimard was the commander currently stationed at the station.
Ravor Kimard was 6,9 feet tall muscular Antiagan with a tan fur color and brown eyes.
He was wearing a red uniform with five golden stripes on the sleeves and a Leoran leaf pin on each shoulder.
One of the things others noticed about him was that a small piece of his left ear was missing.
He was in the control room as usual keeping the other technical units from ditching their work.
"Garaz, I want that fuse changed immediately", he yelled to one of the technical units.
"Sir, yes, sir" the technical unit named Garaz replied.
Discipline was one of those things commander Ravor valued most.
"Achyd, give the cerebral core another scan, I don't want any bugs in the system" Ravor yelled at the tech unit that sat at the nearest console.
"Yes sir" Achyd replied in a sarcastic tone.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Ravor yelled at Achyd.
"Nothing sir." Achyd replied.
"Sir. Incoming transmission from the platform." One of the tech units informed.
"WELL PATCH IT THROUGH YOU UTUYD!" Ravor yelled as a reply.
The tech unit just sighed as a reply, the entire crew on the defense station was used to the commanders nonstop yelling but that didn't change the fact that they had to endure several more years of it.
Meanwhile the cannon-status display on the main screen had been replaced with the Antiagan's military seal.
"What's taking so long?" Ravor yelled.
"It seams to be some interference on the current channel." The tech unit informed.
"THEN BOOST THE SIGNAL" Ravor yelled back.
A few seconds later a message on the main screen informed that contact was established.
Meanwhile aboard Marcadia platform…"We have established contact with the Defense station." Jacques informed.
"Good" Karen replied, " Bring them up on the main screen."
Commander Ravor appeared on the main screen moments later.
"What is it admiral?" he asked.
"Commander, we have a priority C situation up here, we need the E.M.P. cannon." Karen replied.
"Let me guess, Jacob let Peirce slip through his fingers, am I correct?" he asked.
"That is correct but we don't have time to discuss that right now, he will be here in less than an hour." Karen informed.
"Message acknowledged, we'll be ready to give him his welcome fireworks when he gets here. Ravor, out" Ravor informed before he terminated his link.
"Yoki, patch me through to the sensor station." Karen ordered.
"Aye admiral" she replied.
"This is the sensor station, go ahead." the sensor chief informed over the radio.
"This is the admiral speaking, we need your eyes and ears to search for this contact" Karen ordered as she transmitted Lex's ship's energy signatures to the sensor station.
"Roger that Admiral, we'll inform you when have something to report. Over and out" the chief replied over the radio.
Karen terminated the transmission and looked up at the view screen that displayed all contacts within the platforms sensor range, it was currently displaying two commercial freighters, three crew transports and a supertanker.
37 minutes later…
A small white mark appeared on the sensor display indicating that an unknown contact just had entered the sensor range.
One of the tech units pressed a few buttons on her console, a few seconds later a hologram appeared in the middle of the room.
The hologram was a complete replica of the space within the platforms sensor range.
"Enlarge ten times" Karen ordered.
Yoki used her console to enlarge the hologram, it was now so big that you could clearly see the platform in the middle of the hologram and clearly see Antiaga 5,s textures.
One more thing that was visible was a small white sphere at the edge of the hologram closing in on the station.
"Target the unknown contact" Karen ordered.
One of the tech units brought up a mini replica of the hologram in front of her, she then touched the white sphere with her finger causing it to light up.
A small textbox appeared under the white sphere in the main hologram displaying various information about the contact.
"Megan, are you getting this?" Karen asked over the radio.
"Loud and clear Karen. Hold on a minute while we compare the signatures." Megan replied over the radio.
"Bring up the inhibitor radius" Karen ordered.
An area in a spherical shape lit up on the hologram with the platform in the middle of the area.
"The contact will be inside the field radius in about five minutes" Kaori informed.
"Karen, are you still there?" Megan asked over the radio.
"I'm here. What do you got for me Megan?" Karen asked.
"It's him, there is no doubt about it." Megan informed.
"Good, Transmit the information to the mainframe." Karen ordered.
"Ok, it should be in right… Now." Megan informed.
The second Megan said now the white sphere in the hologram changed into a small ship.
"He is within firing range." Yoki informed nine minutes later.
"Kaori, tell the inhibitor station to fire up the field." Karen ordered.
"Aye admiral." Kaori replied.
They could hear the field power up two minutes later.
"Put me through to the defense station" Karen ordered.
"Aye admiral, hailing frequencies open." Jacques informed.
"How is the status down there Ravor?" Karen asked.
"We are set to direct power to the E.M.P. cannon." Ravor informed.
"Good. Proceed with firing sequence." Karen ordered.
Down at the defense station Ravor started to chuckle.
"It's what I live for Karen" he said before he terminated the link.
He then turned back to the crew.
"Well you heard her, initiate firing sequence." Ravor yelled at the crew.
Several of the stations crewmembers started to run towards their combat stations.
But then the commander's eyes fell on one particular tech unit that was just sitting in his chair doing nothing at all.
Ravor growled as he walked up to the lazy tech unit.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TRIGGER?" Ravor yelled at the tech unit called Trigger.
"As little as possible sir." He replied.
"I'm endangering this operation. Total moral crusher." Trigger added.
"You do know that this job is completely voluntary?" Ravor asked in a rather annoyed tone.
"No not for me it isn't. My father is an admiral. He thinks this job will straighten me up. HA! I'll show him." Trigger replied.
But then Ravor noticed one of the mechanics that was coming towards them, he also noticed the gigantic wrench he was holding with both hands.
"Well in that case I have no choice but to relocate you" Ravor said.
"Really?" Trigger asked.
"Yes." Ravor replied.
"BUCKMAN!" Ravor yelled as the mechanic reached them.
"Yes sir." The mechanic said as he turned to face Ravor and at the same time accidentally hitting Trigger's head with the wrench, sending Trigger flying of the chair.
"Thank you Buckman, that will be all." Ravor said.
Buckman just shrugged as he started to run towards his post again.
Trigger was now lying five feet away from the chair he sat on a few seconds ago.
"Get this utuyd to sick bay." Ravor ordered one of the tech units before he walked back to the command area
"Prepare to transfer power to E.M.P. 2" Ravor ordered as he sat down in the command chair.
"Ready for power transfer" the computer informed.
"Energize" Ravor commanded.
The main screens display changed from the Antiagan's military seal to a row of eight vertical progress bars that was slowly rising, each of the bars represented the power input to the designated defense cannon.
Back at the platform Karen was briefing the interception squad.
The interception squad consisted of seven top trained pilots designated to carry out high-risk interception missions.
"Ok people, don't expect this to be an easy mission, even with the planetary defense cannons there is a chance that he can find a way to use the cannons to his advantage.
Just remember that we are not dealing with a madman here, we are dealing with one of the most dangerous mercenaries in the galaxy and he will stop at nothing to complete his mission.
We don't know where he is headed but we must use all means necessary to stop this criminal."
"Ready for duty." the pilots said in unison.
"Good, move out." Karen ordered
"Aye admiral." the flight leader replied before he lead his squad toward the main hangar.
"Open a channel to the ship." Karen ordered as she was walking back to the command post.
"Opening cannels" Jacques informed.
A blue crosshair targeted the ship on the large holodisplay in the middle of the room.
"Channel open" Jacques informed.
"This is fleet admiral Karen Soban of Marcadia platform, there is no escape, surrender yourself now." Karen ordered.
For a few moments there was absolute silence, but then a cold chuckle echoed over the radio cannel.
"Do you really think I don't know about the inhibitor field, Karen." an ice-cold voice with a German accent replied over the radio.
"I also know about your attempt to disable my ship with one of the planetary E.M.P. cannons." He continued.
"Don't be so sure you'll escape this time Lex" Karen replied.
"We shall see Karen, we shall se" Lex replied before he terminated the link.
"Admiral, his ship is accelerating." Yoki informed, "He is powering up his weapons."
"We are ready for interception, awaiting further orders." The interception squads flight leader informed over the secure channel.
"Initiate interception." Karen ordered.
"Roger that." The flight leader replied.
Seven ships launched from the main hangar a few moments later.
The ships looked like a high-tech version of earth fighter plains.
The ships hull plates had a blue color similar to sapphires and two tail rudders that pointed slightly outwards.
The ship also had two Vulcan plasma guns attached on the top of each wing and instead of a jet engine on the back of the ship it had a powerful ion drive attached under each wing.
The seven ships quickly aligned in an arrow formation and started to make their way towards Lex's ship.
Lex turned his corvette towards the attackers and started to charge towards them.
The interception squad then started to fire their Vulcan plasma guns at Lex's ship but Lex quickly dodged the plasma charges and then turned towards the ship on the left edge of the formation and fired to compact ion beams towards the ship.
The red beams hit the ships left engine and blow it up causing the ship to lose control.
"Control, Az is hit" the flight leader informed over the radio.
Az managed to regain control of the ship a few moments later, "I'm ok." She said over the radio, "But I can't fly like this, I'm returning to the station."
"Roger that." The officer in the fire control tower replied, "Find a new ship as soon as you land in the main hangar."
Meanwhile Lex had managed to cripple one of the other ships by hitting it with an E.M.P. Charge.
Back in the command module, Karen was watching the fight on the holodisplay in the middle of the room with the rest of the crew.
The remaining ships had now split up into two groups and were trying to attack Lex from both sides.
They shot a volley of plasma charges at him and managed to damage his starboard laser turret.
But then Lex managed to get behind one of the ships and shot two stinger missiles towards it.
The missiles found their mark blowing the small ship to pieces.
"D'Arvit, we lost Mouser." The flight leader said over the radio.
The four remaining ships joined up in a new formation and started to Chase Lex.
But then Lex did something completely unexpected, he turned his ship around and started to fly towards the platform at a very high velocity.
The Interception squad immediately started to follow Lex towards the station.
Back at the defense station, the power transfer was almost complete.
"Power transfer at ninety-one percent." Achyd informed.
"Prepare to fire." Ravor ordered.
But suddenly Achyd's console started to shoot a cascade of sparks causing Achyd to jerk back from the console.
A picture of a black Kafit bird holding a hard drive in its talons appeared on all the screens a few seconds later.
"Power transfer from E.M.P. 2 to Ion 5 confirmed." The computer informed.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Ravor yelled.
"We have lost all control over the stations systems." Achyd informed, "By the looks of it, we've been hacked by the Black Kafit´."
"But I thought he was arrested a week ago." Ravor Said confused.
"He was, but he hacked the courts computer and erased the files concerning him and the countless computer crimes he pulled off." One of the others replied.
"But don't just stand there, DO SOMETHING!" Ravor yelled back.
"What do you expect me to do?" he asked, "He locked all the systems."
"GARAZ, GET OVER HERE NOW!" Ravor yelled.
Garaz arrived a few second later, "What is it?" He asked.
"I want you to hotwire the console and stop the countdown." Ravor yelled.
"Right." He replied before he grabbed a screwdriver from his toolbox and started to open the side panel on the main console.
"Power at twenty-seven percent, activating targeting systems." The computer informed.
"Hurry it up." Ravor shouted.
Garaz didn't answer but just continued to open the panel.
He unscrewed the last screw a few seconds later.
He then tossed the panel aside and started rearranging the wires inside.
"But why would he hack the defense grid, what could he gain in that?" One of the other units wondered.
Ravor thought for a while before he answered, "If my guesses are correct, he has allied with Peirce and is helping him escape." He answered.
"But how can hacking the defense grid help him?" someone else asked.
"Power at 57 percent, Target: Marcadia platform. Sub-target: Hyperspace inhibitor module." The computer informed as the display screen changed to show the platform in the space above them.
"I think that's your answer." Ravor replied.
Back in the space around the platform Lex was racing towards the platform with his four pursuers on his tail.
The four interception ships fired at Lex's Corvette but he managed to dodge the plasma charges and shot E.M.P. charges from his aft turret back at his pursuers.
One of the charges hit the left engine of the ship farthest to the right causing the engine to power down and send the ship flying into the platform's hull plates.
Karen was still watching it all on the holodisplay in the command module.
But suddenly several alarms broke out on the station and red alert symbols appeared at most of the screens.
"Warning, The station has been targeted by unknown source." The computer informed.
"Locate!" Karen ordered.
"Aye, initiating scan." Yoki replied.
She pressed some buttons on her console and waited, a noise indicating that the scan was complete was hared a few minutes later but Yoki didn't say anything, she was just staring at the display screen on her console with her mouth wide open.
Karen noticed this and walked over to her, "What's wrong." Karen asked her in a worried tone.
She just looked at Karen and then pointed at the screen.
What Karen saw made her jaws drop as well, the screen displayed that one of the anti-cruiser ion-cannons on the surface was targeting their inhibitor module.
There was total silence while the crew awaited her response.
Karen then rose up in her full height and started to shout orders.
"GO TO RED ALERT! BRING THE SHIELDS TO MAXIMUM!" She shouted while she ran back towards her console.
The crew didn't hesitate to follow her orders because when Karen began to shout like that they knew things was serious.
"OPEN A CHANNEL TO THE STATION!" She shouted.
"I'm trying but they are not responding." Jacques responded.
"ADMIRAL, THE SENSORS ARE REPORTING THAT THEY WILL BE READY TO FIRE IN LESS THAN 10 MINUTES!" One of the others reported.
"TRANSFER POWER FROM LONG-RANGE SENSORS TO SHIELDS!" Karen ordered.
Outside Lex was now slaloming between the towers and turrets with the three ships still on his tail.
"Ok people, stay on my wing." The flight leader ordered the ships left in his squad.
"Rog… HEADS UP, THEY ARE ACTIVATING THE FLACK TURRETS!" One of the other pilots reported.
"Just follow my lead and we'll be fine." The flight leader reassured.
The turrets turned towards Lex's ship and started to fire but they missed the ship with mere inches each time.
"Why aren't the turrets working." The other pilot asked.
"He's to close, they can't get a proper lock on him." The flight leader answered.
Back inside the command module Yoki reported that she had found something.
"What do you got?" Karen asked.
"I have detected a low beam transmission directed towards the planet." Yoki reported.
"Source?" Karen asked.
"It appears that the transmission is being emitted from the communications dish on Peirce's ship." Yoki answered.
Give the interception squad following orders. They are to disable the communications dish on Peirce's ship." Karen ordered as she turned towards the holodisplay.
Outside Lex had cleared the platform and was now moving away from the platform with the three interceptors still following him.
"Ok, this is it. See if you can get a clear shot at him." The flight leader informed.
"This is flight control, you've got new orders." The officer in the tower radioed.
"This is Sanders, go ahead." The flight leader responded.
"You are to disable the Communications dish on Peirce's ship."
"Roger that flight control." Sanders replied.
But then Lex made a U-turn with his ship and started to race towards the three ships, firing his twin laser turrets at them.
The lasers hit one of the ships head on and the ship exploded seconds later.
The two other ships suffered some minor splash damage from the explosion but were knocked out of their current heading.
"D'Arvit. We are loosing to many ships, we need backup." Sanders radioed back to the tower.
But then the left laser turret on Lex's ship was destroyed by a laser blast.
"Did I miss anything?" A familiar voice said over the radio.
Sanders looked to the left and saw a laser-corvette flying up to the side of his ship.
"Just an explosion and a few laser shots, Az." Sanders replied.
Sanders could see Az smiling in the cockpit on the corvette and he smiled back.
But the moment was quickly interrupted by an E.M.P. charge that flew past them.
They turned their attention back towards Lex's ship and continued the chase.
Back at the defense station on the surface Ravor was shouting out orders while Garaz did his best to hotwire the system.
Garaz was lying on his back while he rearranged and reconnected wires.
He cut a green wire and connected one of the ends to a blue wire.
"Manual power outlet control accessed." The computer informed.
He then grabbed a red wire and a white wire and connected them.
He then grabbed the other half of the blue wire and connected it with one of the control cards inside the console.
"Ok. Here goes." He said as he connected a black wire to the same card.
It was complete silence for two seconds but just when they thought it had worked the card with the wires attached to it shot a cascade of sparks.
"Warning, backup generator three through seven connected to cannon grid, charging time decreased by thirty-seven percent." The computer informed.
"Garaz!" Ravor nearly shouted.
"Well, do you know how to hotwire this thing." Garaz snapped back.
"Warning. Power at ninety-seven percent. Firing in five minutes." The computer informed.
Ravor and his crew could only watch helplessly while the targeting system aligned the ion cannon towards the target.
Back at the platform everyone was scurrying around trying to find a solution when suddenly the computer came with a message.
"Warning, Approximately one minute to ion cannon fire." The computer informed.
"Admiral, we have actively scanned the station and the scans show that the power-input is so great that this will be twenty times more powerful than the regular beam." One of the tech units informed.
"The shields will newer hold against such magnitude." Karen spoke. "Hurry. Redirect all of the shields to center around the inhibitor module."
"Warning. Ion cannon fire in fifteen seconds." The computer informed.
"All hands, brace for impact!" Karen shouted
Down on the surface the giant ion cannon aligned with its target and fired.
A massive blue ion-beam shot from the planets surface and impacted with the shields right above the inhibitor module.
The shockwave from the impact trawled through the station, stretching the shield to unknown limits, causing the structural integrity to nearly fail in many compartments.
Chunks of steel fell from the sealing and cascades of sparks shot from many of the consoles.
The ion onslaught vent on for thirty seconds though for many it seamed like an eternity.
Karen lifted herself up and looked around the devastation the ion attack had caused.
Large chunks of steel had fallen down and crushed much of the equipment and crew, and some of the consoles were on fire.
"Report." She managed to say before she lost grip and fell back down to the floor.
"Shields at three percent… and holding." A tech unit informed after he managed to climb up from the floor and get to a console.
"Good. How is the situation in the rest of the platform?" Karen asked.
Yoki Got up and back to her console and accessed the main grid.
"Admiral, similar outcomes is reported all over the station." She informed.
"What about the field." Karen asked.
"It's still up." Yoki informed.
"How's captain Anderson?" Karen asked.
Kaori ran up to an Antiagan in a Dark grey uniform that lay motionless on the floor by the holo projector.
"He's dead." Kaori informed after he had checked the Antiagan's pulse.
"Same goes for Captain Leon." Yoki informed.
Yoki looked over at Karen, she then gasped at what she saw and ran up to her.
"Karen, you're hurt." She said.
Karen looked down and saw that a large part of the blue uniform was stained red with her own blood around her waist.
"It's just a scratch." Karen said with confidence.
"Yeah right." Yoki replied sarcastically.
"Where is it?" she mumbled while she looked around for something.
She jerked back as a small gray cabinet with a white winged creature painted on the door hit the floor a few feet away from her.
"Right." She said as she walked up to the cabinet and opened the doors and took out a small package.
When she got back to Karen she opened the package and took out a small blue spray bottle.
She pointed the nozzle of the spray bottle at the red parts of Karen's uniform.
She sprayed a white substance that contained a regenerative solution ant that acted like a bandage once it dried over the wound..
"I think I have some bad news." Leon reported.
"WHAT?" Yoki shouted back.
"The cannon is preparing to fire another shot." He replied.
"What about the interception squad?" Karen asked as she slowly tried to get up on her feet.
"We lost contact when the beam hit us." Leon reported.
"Can you activate the view screen?" Karen asked.
"I'll try." He said as he ran up to another console and started to press a number of buttons.
A few seconds later the view screen started to flicker and after a few second it showed an external view of the platform from the command module.
There at the edge of the screen they could see a small interceptor together with a laser corvette chasing Lex's corvette.
Outside Lex was racing towards the platform with Sanders and Az still on his tail.
"Stay on my wing." Sanders ordered.
"Roger that. Target at 005." Az replied.
"Good, target the main Communication dish and wait till you get a clear shot." Sanders said.
They reached the platform and started to fly just a few meters over the platforms hull plating.
Lex than brought his ship to a high speed and raced toward an array of turrets.
"Stay sharp, he's trying to shake us off in that turret array." Sanders informed.
"Won't be a problem." Az replied with confidence.
They flew through the array with ease and cleared the platform on the other side.
Lex then brought his ship to a steep dive and leveled out after a short while.
"Bad move Peirce." Az said as she moved her ship into position over him and locked on to her target.
She pulled the trigger and shot several bursts of laser shots from the turrets on her ship.
They found their mark right on the comm. Dish on Lex's ship, instantly destroying the dish.
Back down at the defense station on the surface Ravor was yelling at Garaz.
"I think at least some of that is English." Buckman commented to his friend.
Ravor was yelling and swearing on at least twenty different languages at the same time and poor Garaz was backed up in a corner unable to escape.
Some of the few words understandable was "Should have loaded you into that cannon." and "It's a miracle it's still standing."
"Hey, calm down, it wasn't his fault." Achyd said.
"You. Stay out of this." Ravor snapped back.
"Err. You guys might want to check this out." Buckman said from one of the consoles.
"What?" Ravor said as he walked up to the console Buckman was pointing at.
He then looked down at the view screen and noticed that they had regained control of the system.
"Fifteen minutes to fire." The computer informed.
"Well don't just stand there." Ravor yelled at the others, "Terminate the bliznack firing sequence!"
The tech units rushed back to their consoles and started to terminate the sequence.
"Firing sequence terminated." The computer informed a few minutes later.
Back at the platform the command module was filled with technician and medical teams that was trying to undo the damage.
"How's repairs on the main communication array?" the chief engineer asked.
"Zero-G teams are reporting that we can send transmissions back to H.Q. now." One of the technicians's reported.
Karen was surrounded by medics that applied administrative treating to her wound.
"How did you know what treating to administer to her?" the chief medic asked Yoki.
"When I was with her crew at the Dauntless during the Queltean war a few years ago, things like this happened almost twice a week." Yoki replied.
"Admiral." Someone called from the platform below.
One of the medics helped Karen up so she could take command again.
"What is it?" she replied.
"We have just radioed our condition back to H.Q. they are sending repair ships to help us" Jacques informed, "But in a condition like this, the shields wouldn't even stop a LEP (Light explosive projectile) torpedo"
"Admiral." One of the others called.
"What?" Karen replied.
"The hyperspace sensor log's are showing that a contact dropped out of hyperspace just outside the hyperspace inhibitor field just a few minutes ago." He informed.
"What kind of ship?" Karen asked.
"I'll check the database." He informed as he accessed the main grid.
"By the spirits!" he exclaimed a few second later.
"What's the problem?" Karen asked.
"The only signal code that match is that of a Black hammer shield-piercing torpedo frigate."
Karen's mind quickly resonated what this meant, "Hurry, grab on to something!" she yelled.
A white orb of energy was shown traveling towards the station at a high velocity.
It impacted with the platform's inhibitor module a few seconds after Karen figured out the danger they where in.
The module lit up in a bright explosion that completely obliterated the module and heavily damaged the hull plates around the module.
The platform shock violently from the powerful explosion, causing even more damage to the platform's compartments.
Several alarms broke out on the platform after the blast.
Not just alarms that signaled hull breaches but also the alarm that signaled that an unidentified fleet was emerging from hyperspace.
The hyperspace sensor display was brought up on the main holo projector in the middle of the room.
The hologram showed that several hyper signatures were heading towards the platform.
Karen looked over at the main view screen that still showed an external view of the module they where in.
What she saw would have made most people retreat in fear, but she knew that escaping from this was near to impossible.
Authors Note: This was originaly meant to be tha last chapter on marcadia platform but the chapter got so long thet i simply had to split it in two.
I'm actualy suprised that i managed to write this much in one chapter, espesialy since im still a newbie in writing.