The Expanding Universe 3 by Craig Martelle

Author:Craig Martelle [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781981638529
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2017-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

Two outer arms burned from within, their fires glowing yellow from the windows. Some of it escaped into space, snuffed out as it hit the vacuum like dozens of candles blown out over and over. Rance gasped. Had something happened to the Streaker as it flew away? Had James tried to evade Unity and caused an accident? Or worse, had they fired at him and caused him to crash into the station?

The floor vibrated again. “James?” she asked the comm.

No answer.

“James Fletcher, respond.”

When James’ face didn’t show on the screen, Rance glanced fearfully at Solaris.

“Maybe communications have been disrupted,” he said. “James said there was interference.”

“Why though?”

More people ran up the halls, more whispered voices. Like the other two guards, the Unity soldiers were regrouping, ignoring the station’s residents as they ran past. Rance and Solaris had just turned away from the window when an alarm sounded, blaring so loudly people covered their ears.

Abruptly, it cut off.

Then, all the screens lining the hallway flashed. Striking red text scrolled across them with a warning message. An announcement echoed through the station, using the pleasant voice of the station's AI.

“Attention, attention. We will accept your surrender. Lay down your weapons and line up along the walls. Attention, attention…” The message repeated over and over in that calm voice that chilled Rance to the bone.

“Pirates,” Solaris said grimly. “The station is being attacked.”

***

Rance groaned.

“Well, surrendering is out of the question,” Solaris said.

“We’ve got to make contact with the Streaker,” Rance said. She again attempted to raise James. Still no answer.

“Then we have to get to that airlock. If James can’t get in touch with us, he’ll meet us there.”

Without the map, they had to guess based on their last known location. They ran past another giant observation window, this one providing a stunning view of the outer hull.

“Hey,” Rance said, halting Solaris.

A distant star lit the space in front of them. Between it and the window, at least three enormous, repurposed Renegade ships had surrounded the station.

As they watched, ten Unity Dark Fighters shot toward the larger ships. Nimble Scorpion fighters—the pirates’—exited the ships to meet them. The UDFs fired together, taking advantage of the few precious seconds in which the pirates had lowered their shields to release their own fighters.

Blue and red streams of light streaked toward the first enemy ship—fire from the UDFs. They hit the Renegade in an explosion that lit up the entire stern.

Only one got through. The ship activated its shields, and the next blasts caused blue ripples as they impacted well away from their target’s hull. Unable to continue a barrage against the Renegade’s shields, the Unity fighters engaged the Scorpions that were now within range.

Rance and Solaris pressed their hands to the window, holding their breaths as the two groups of fighters quickly merged into a mass of flying metal that looked like flies buzzing around a corpse. But in this case, the body was the pirate ship, and it wasn't dead.

“I’m no fan of Unity,” Rance said, “but I hope they blow those pirates into another dimension.

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