Suddenly the whole ship reeled. Ranul was tossed into the ceiling of the lift then down to the floor hard. The lights flickered then faded as low intensity emergency lighting came on. It felt like an impact to the ship's hull, but he couldn't tell. The lift continued its climb, soon arriving at the bridge.
When the doors opened up, he could see the bridge crew locked into their chairs prepared for battle. On the display they were tracking several objects heading in their direction. Estall was barking out orders to the crew from the command chair.
'Estall, what's happening?!'
'The Baruk have launched some sort of projectiles from outside the sector; the shields are having difficulty with them. They're not strong enough to repel these things-they're some sort of grossly dense alloy.'
'The shields would have to deconstruct and disperse the matter; very difficult with objects of the density you're talking about.' Ranul jumped to a science station and began to look over the data. An alarm sounded on the bridge.
'Incoming!'
'It's another one of those projectiles,' said Estall. 'Ranul, what do you have!?'
'It's some kind of Tritarium variant, super density. Its normal molecular arrangement would put it at one thousand times the current size.'
'Evasive!!' shouted Estall to the helmsman.
'It's tracking with us!' said one of the science officers.
'I'm having trouble with the helm, sir. It's like we're being pulled into it.'
'It's exerting a localized gravitational pull on the ship; gets stronger as it approaches!' shouted Ranul from his station. 'Wait, wait! It's tracking on the Onicule now!'
'She's going to take a hit!'
The projectile shifted the flight path of the Onicule as it approached, pulling the Vorn cruiser into its path at the last moment. The shields on the ship activated as the object passed into field; trying to vaporize it. It seemed to sheer off half of its mass in vaporized layers but the remainder passed through the shield and crashed into the hull of the Onicule near the rear of the ship.
'She's hit!!' shouted Estall.
'Analyzing,' said one of the science officers. 'The Onicule took a hit just behind mid-ship; several decks destroyed; they're sealing them off. It's not a fatal blow.'
Ranul continued to monitor the ship. 'Wait! Something is happening! That thing is like a gravity bomb,' he mumbled as he turned to Estall.
On the main view screen the Onicule was beginning to crumble inward, imploding upon itself.
'Ranul, what's happening to them?' he asked as he watched.
'The localized gravitational field around the object is pulling the ship's structure inward upon it.'
They all watched helplessly as the Onicule caved in upon itself. Gases escaped in flame as the superstructure crumpled around the gravity projectile within.
'Sir, we are being hailed by the other fleet ships,' said the communications officer. 'They're all on a rendezvous course to this sector.'
'Estall, the Baruk formation of ships is entering the sector now,' said Ranul 'They're splitting up; spreading out against us. Another gravity bomb is approaching our position!'
'Evasive maneuvers!' shouted Estall.
'I'm trying to recalibrate the ship's shields to repel the object rather than vaporize it.'
'Twenty seconds to impact!' shouted another science officer.
'Hurry, Ranul,' gritted Estall as he watched the incoming object on the view screen.
'I think I've got it.'
The gravity bomb slammed into the shields of the Esyia and sent the ship reeling off of its flight path. The bridge crew would have been tossed about the chamber had they not been strapped into their flight chairs.
'How bad are we?' asked Estall over the groaning of the engines.
'The object did not penetrate!' shouted Ranul. 'It was deflected away. But the impact still damaged our hull by causing a reverberation in the shield.'
'How bad are we?' asked Estall.
'The hull is intact.'
'Are the Baruk within range yet?'
'Just now,' said the weapons officer.
'Lock and fire the dispersion cannon on the nearest ship.'
The large weapon swiveled upon its mount located on the topside of the Esyia, aiming off into the black of space toward the Baruk, still out of visual range. The weapons officer locked on target to the nearest Baruk warship and fired. The beam from the Castillian and Vorn engineered weapon flashed out into the darkness.
The Baruk warship Kosinok veered away from the formation of cruisers toward its designated heading. A beam flashed from ahead of its course and hit the ship, strafing across the surface. It vaporized everything it touched across the surface of the massive hull.
'Direct hit!' shouted the weapons officer.
'They're raising their shields!' said Ranul from his station.
'Fire again,' said Estall.
Once again the weapon adjusted slightly to reacquire the same target on its trajectory. Once locked, it fired again into the blackness of space. The beam hit the Kosinok square on, but its shields responded in kind.
'Their shields are drained significantly but it didn't go through,' said Ranul.
'The rest of the fleet is heading for the Baruk formation,' said the other science officer.
'Take us in with them, shields at full power, all weapons systems at the ready. Garret, fire all weapons systems at will as we come into range,' ordered Estall.
TIET sat uneasy on the exam table. His arm was throbbing terribly now, but his conscience was hurting him more. He had wanted so badly to drive the blade through Kale and avenge his family; his people, but it wasn't what he had expected. Seeing his brother standing there in the cell just waiting to receive his fury was very unsettling.
Tiet had expected a fight; he had wanted a fight. After attacking him mentally and seeing him writhing in pain from the kinetic grasp, Tiet had, for an instant, felt pity for him.
Wynn had stopped him from killing his own brother. At the time he would have struck his mentor for interfering, had he been able, but now he knew he would have regretted that as well. Wynn was no fool and he had no reason to protect Kale. There had to be a good reason for him to step in between them, and save his life.
The med-lab door opened, allowing Mirah K'ore to enter. 'So…the king has returned.'
'Hello, Mirah.'
'That's Dr. K'ore to you. Father said you were going to accept the Council's nomination to the throne…I haven't seen you lately.'
'I'm sorry. I've had a lot on my mind.'
'I understand. But don't think that gives you an excuse in the future. Now let's see that arm.'
Tiet raised the arm for her inspection. The sleeve was already cut away up to his shoulder. The med tech had managed to get that far before the message had come through to Tiet's com-link that Kale was a prisoner. His arm was severely bruised and swollen but there was no bone penetration.
Mirah picked up a hand held scanner and passed it over his arm. 'Well it looks like a clean break, ulna and radius. I won't ask you just how you managed this.'
'How long to put me back in action, Doc?'
'About two hours of osteoblast therapy and another half hour to bring down the edema.'
'Let's do it then.'
'OUR ships are really taking a pounding up there, Commander,' said Lieutenant Davers. 'They're outnumbered two to one. They've been using the new dispersion cannons, but the Baruk shields are too strong.'
