But the larger section continued its course straight towards the broken moon.
“It’s going to hit us!” called out Mellarnne. “All hands, brace for impact!”
Like some slow-motion catastrophe, the vast wreckage of the Luminal battleship came inexorably onward, ploughing through the debris field, smashing into asteroids, sending them flying off in all directions.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though it was on a direct collision course. But then, as it came closer and closer, Ryann saw the wreck slide past them, barely three hundred metres from their positions.
With a cataclysmic crash, the remains of the ship impacted upon the surface of the broken moon.
Ryann just had time to see the golden warship disappearing off into the distance before a wave of rock and ash erupted out from the moon, filling the space around them and hiding them from view.
The Defiance lurched violently in the the shockwave; the lights flickered and went out, plunging the control room into blackness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE HOLY EMPIRE
“My god, what the hell just happened,” croaked Ryann as he slumped back into his chair. “Was that a Navy fleet? I never knew they had so many ships left.”
“They don’t.”
Grayell spoke as though he were unaware of his own words; he looked as pale as a ghost. “Those weren’t Navy ships.”
He was sitting at the head of the conference table in the briefing room just off the control centre. They had waited for the past few minutes in a strained silence, but to their relief, had seen no more ships beyond the flashes of battle that lit up the debris-field. For the moment at least, it seemed that they were hidden.
Ryann went to speak, but at that moment a bustle of officers came in through the door led by Mellarnne. They all took their seats around the table, and Ryann’s mood lifted as he saw Angelique file in behind Anders and some of the other fighter captains. But it was quickly replaced with a pang of jealousy as Mara Kobo appeared just behind her.
Upon seeing Ryann, Angelique smiled and approached him, slumping down heavily in the seat at his side.
“Good to see you with a bit more colour,” she whispered, leaning in close as the officers settled down at the table. “You looked like crap earlier.” She laughed quietly, but Ryann couldn’t share her levity. He found himself staring angrily at Mara Kobo, seated in the chair across the table.
“What the hell’s going on Ryann?” continued Angelique. Ryann felt himself bristle as he thought she were confronting him about his mood. But then she continued, “We’ve been hearing all kinds of stuff about another fleet appearing out of nowhere, taking on the Lumina and giving them a good kicking — is it true?”
Ryann went to reply, but before he could speak, Mellarnne’s voice cut across the briefing room.
“It certainly is true Angelique,” he said with a smile, adding, “Though I’m not certain that they gave the Lumina a good kicking.”
The room fell silent and Angelique lowered her gaze towards the table in embarrassment.
“I had thought that this was a briefing for senior officers,” continued Mellarnne, raising a questioning eyebrow towards Anders.
The gruff pilot just waved him away with a lazy gesture.
“I promoted her — to admiral,” he muttered sarcastically, leaning back in his chair. “Can we just get on with what’s happening? Are the Lumina on the run or not? Should we be helping out this fleet while they have the advantage?”
Mellarnne simply shrugged and turned towards Grayell who was still sitting deep in thought at the end of the table; he didn’t reply.
Mellarnne continued in a weary tone, “Now that we’re hidden in the debris-field, all we can tell is that by the way the clouds are lighting up, the battle is showing no signs of abating. We can’t tell who is kicking who.”
“But who the hell are they?” replied Anders in his gruff voice. “Every report we had told us that Unity was on its knees. They couldn’t hope to field a fleet on this scale. And unless I’ve been hearing some gross exaggerations, they haven’t got anything on the scale of these ships. If you ask me it sounds more like a battle-fleet from the New Crusades a hundred years ago.”
Ryann grinned at the thought, but then the look on Mellarnne’s face caused him to pause.
“You’re not being serious are you?” he asked uncertainly.
“It was an Empire fleet to rival the Millennia Wars of old.”
Grayell’s voice sounded frail and lifeless, and he still stared into nothingness as though reliving the sight of that golden armada.
“Empire?” scoffed Ryann, looking up at the grim-faced officers seated around the table. “Surely, you don’t mean the Holy Empire? You can’t be serious — I kind of thought the Crusades were all a bit of a myth really.”
“Jeez, what were they teaching you at all those fancy schools Grayell kept sending you to?” asked Mellarnne with a sarcastic smile.
“I barely made it out of the Academy at sixteen,” laughed Ryann. “I might have gone back one day — if it hadn’t been torched by the Lumina. No, who am I kidding. But, I was taught that we drove the Empire all the way back from Earthspace to the Third Spiral.”
“I have to admit, I’m with Ryann on this one,” cut in Angelique. “I was never much of a one for history lessons at school, but didn’t we beat the Holy Empire over a hundred years ago?”
“Well, the New Crusades were no myth — they were very real I can assure you, and the last of the Rift Wars only finished a little over sixty years ago now. My grandfather was a bomber pilot over at the Battle of the Alhasseen Trench. It wasn’t much of a myth for him.”
“But, we won though, right? I thought Unity beat the Empire.”
“We did, we pushed them right back to the Aula system.
