Miko snarled. Twisting in his harness, he signalled to Usk. “Veer toward that junkyard hauler. I’ll scatter its contents, use it as interference. Give me cover, Eagle 4, anything you got.”
“We’ve got too many on our tail, Eagle 1. You’re on your own!”
To port, a Zikri tugship remained oblivious to the conflict. Likely a drone. It hauled a spiked mass of hundreds of ships, probes, space junk and whatever else it had scavenged over the light years, wound together in steel netting. Like a spider towing its egg, it moved slowly towards the box-van.
Miko aimed the rear cannon and tore the belly from out of the netted ball. Junk jetted out into space. Eagle 4 dodged the wreckage but was targeted by the largest Orb. Uro bombs loosed and the Doraxu vessel glowed then yawed.
Eagle 5 gave a warning shout over the com.
But Eagle 4 was doomed. A triumphant Zikri Orb ravaged the glowing craft’s port bow and the vessel erupted in a ball of incandescent gas. The superior firepower of the Zikri bombs was wreaking havoc. The Orb circled in behind to target Eagle 5’s disintegrating shield. Another uro bomb deployed from the forward carriage at sub-light and Eagle 5 was caught broadside and exploded into fragments. It flared in a bright yellow ball, then was gone.
Zaul, observing all from the Kestrel, sucked in a tragic breath, clutching at his hair.
A shudder rocked Eagle 1’s hull; panels flew off the port fuselage and blue smoke rose from the controls at the bridge, knocking Usk out of his seat. Miko swore, stumbling to catch himself as Star was wrenched sideways. A klaxon started to shrill.
Star’s eyes darted in wild terror. She gripped the armrests as if she would claw them off.
“We’re hit, bad!” cried Laren.
“How bad?” Star’s voice cracked.
Miko looked to the smoking console. The escape pod diagnostic showed red. Dead. Ruined.
Miko grabbed the command controls. He cranked the volume on the universal translator to max, yelling words at Usk. “Quick! Down to Kraetoria. The range of the transmitter isn’t infinite. We have a fighting chance if we can escape its reach. That or fight on the ground.”
“Are you crazy?” cried Laren. He glared at the viewscreen full of glowing, hostile ships. He shook his head from its haze.
“They’ll blow us to atoms up here.” Miko twisted toward Usk. “Do it!”
Usk slapped himself back in his seat and clacked at the controls without argument. His pincers danced as if the hot metal pained the tips.
“Dodge them, Usk!” cried Miko. Another blast sprayed the starboard fins but the heavy shields caught the concussion. Despite megavolts of surge absorption, they were getting hammered. If not for the megawatt power of shield protection, Miko and his crewmates would have been dead long ago.
“Zaul will come and aid us,” Laren assured. “We should hold course.”
“The hell Zaul will! You heard him in his briefing. We’re on our own if we get into trouble. Hold where? We’re in the middle of a war zone on impulse power.”
Sket and Berlast were having their own troubles, their craft spinning sideways like a top. Miko caught a fiery glimpse of Fenli’s and Sket’s ships both spinning toward Kraetoria, the dark planet.
“Scatter!” Miko cried into the com. “Don’t let them target you!” But he didn’t know if they heard him. Nor was Zaul communicating.
Miko gazed out into space feeling suddenly sick. Fires raged everywhere and firefly ships hurtled amok through a ruin of metal and debris. More locust and Zikri flocked to the scene. Damn that light drive obstructor! Theirs was still offline.
Usk gave a chirruping cry. Miko craned his neck. A reckless Doraxu craft veered in, blasting a pesky locust tailgater that was stalking them.
Fenli? No, Fenli was hurtling planetside with Sket. Then who? Had the locusts figured out they were being impersonated?
A crippling blast smote the starboard shield. Their defenses came to an abrupt end. The ship shuddered at the stress and slowed.
“We’ll have to abandon ship,” Miko said.
Star hunched in a miserable heap, her eyes wide with fear. One set of fingers clenched the cockpit’s arm rest, another worked the auxiliary guns’ controls. Everywhere she fired was an enemy.
The planet loomed below, an eerie mass of mystery. The ship hurtled on. The curve of the barren landforms was wide enough to span the horizon, a dull brown, and ominous, uninviting black and grey. The atmosphere hit them hard. The whine of air resistance pained their ears and became a loud hiss.
Usk struggled bravely with the uncooperative controls. He chattered locust sounds, evading enemy fire as best he could.
Soon Miko saw craters, mountains, dips in the landscape, massive, slab-sided chunks of long-cooled molten rock. Eerie, arid valleys carved like veins out of a giant’s desiccated limbs.
Twilight was descending over Kraetoria. Under the dim moonlight the barren landscape had a ghostly pallor, like a wasteland upon a forgotten Earth. Shattered rock rose above the jagged ridges, metal structures too; monoliths, huge forks, abandoned communications towers. An ancient settlement? Canyons ribbed the forsaken terrain. There was no vegetation or trees to be seen. Or life. In the skies above, the fireworks raged and only a firefly spray of metal and ship superstructures flaring out of existence. These were the sights crowding Miko’s memory as the ship skimmed over the blasted craters. An unchecked holocaust of anger and violence was unleashed: two warlike races doomed to destroy each other. Lexia’s mission had succeeded—but at what cost?
A persistent Zikri orb rode their heels even as they plummeted landward. Usk chittered out a curse and skimmed the treacherous surface at a shallow tack, avoiding ripping the underbelly across sharp rock and enormous slanting boulders in a crumbled canyon. Miko manned the guns and shot wildly while Usk dodged
