The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (42 page)

The Destroyer knew this and could only conclude: this imposter needed to suffer and die. Although he was mildly amused, he also felt insulted and violated. The very thought offended him. To think that his former masters had wanted to manipulate and abuse his soul once again. The Destroyer seethed, but with a smile. He would enjoy toying with this imitation of him.

Still, he had to wonder, how different were they?

The Destroyer imagined a distorted mirror. Across the glass was a shadow of himself. He was tempted to stare and examine. But another side of him sought to shatter it all.

Let’s end this. Or do you fear me still? he asked arrogantly.

His forces arrived, intent on finding out. The ring of pylons hovered over the battlefield, containing their precious asset. Above, the storm approached. The first strike thundered, raining down a flood of drone fighters. Out of hyperspace, the legion attacked. Thousands of silver ships marched forth to the pylons, firing off a shock of ammunition. The arrow-headed crafts lobbed fusion bombs and phase beams toward the targets. The Adamant followed. The flagship broke out from the shadows, charging with weapons drawn.

The Destroyer sought to squeeze every ounce of firepower under his control and level the entire site. The Adamant’s bay doors opened. The long line of plasma cannons went off. The combined bombardment streamed toward the pylons. An edge of the protective ring exploded with the impact. The exotic matter, however, remained intact. Hundreds of pylons were still left. The first strike, while brutal, had done little to stop the containment field. The Destroyer expected as much. This battle had only just begun. He prodded and harassed, targeting the rest of the ring.

I will tear it down piece by piece if I have to, he warned. Don’t pretend you can’t hear me, boy.

The Enforcer said nothing in response to the chatter over the comm, but his army assembled to respond. The incoming assault sparked a wave of retaliation. The swarm of mechanical origin took flight. It was drone versus drone. Machine versus machine. The cannon fodder clashed. Ship collided with ship. Blaster fire exchanged; a blaze of destruction rang out. The legion pressed forth, only to be overwhelmed and then cut down.

Meanwhile, the ring of pylons endured. Between 8 and 10 percent of the network was eliminated, and still the containment field stood.

The Destroyer shifted tactics. He had to. His legion was about to succumb. Mechanical shadow began to envelop and eat away at the silver ships. To fight back, he launched all his remaining drone fighters and told them to focus on the swarm. Although the pylons were the priority, he needed to prolong the affair and keep the Enforcer’s minions at bay.

Is this all you have? Your little machines? he asked.

The Adamant continued its bombardment. The flagship loomed apart from the main assault, firing off every gun. He laughed again, feeling the giant cannons pump energized shell into the fracas.

Coward, the Destroyer said. Only a weakling would hide.

He pummeled pylon after pylon, offering taunt after taunt. He sought to humiliate and draw out his opponent. The Destroyer demanded a proper duel.

The Adamant was out in the open. The arena was set. The Destroyer threw down the gauntlet, craving the challenge.

Come to me! he shouted. Or are you just inferior? A mindless slave to the dead?

The insult echoed into the void. The data and all the associated coding besieged the enemy’s ears.

It was then that the Destroyer noticed the trap. He was expecting it. The sensors onboard the Adamant had been searching for any sign of a spatial distortion; they had been fine-tuned to notice the incoming anomaly.

The flagship sidestepped the breach. The engines blasted, pulling the craft away from the mother ship’s attempt to board the Adamant from afar. The fiery portal formed in space, seconds too late to latch on and cut through. The Destroyer watched as the ploy twisted in outer space and then faded away.

No more games, boy. Fight me like a man.

He launched another barrage, annoyed by the trick. The stream of plasma surged. This time, however, the adversary came to intervene. The ammunition struck an emerging wall of shadow. Behind it was the elusive target. The cloaking field dropped. The artificial darkness surrounding the behemoth fell away into the night. The mother ship rose, withstanding the attack. The protective shielding had come into place to bat the barrage away. The ten-mile craft was not far. It was alive and well and accepted the challenge.

As the drone armies battled, the giant disk entered the makeshift arena. If space had mass, the entire landscape would have shook. The structure barreled ahead in a tide of bristling black. It sought to alter and control the battlefield once and for all. The ramparts across the ship’s rim opened, ready to duel.

The Destroyer stared at the enemy as the two vessels came face-to-face. He smirked with satisfaction; the plan was in motion; the maneuver could finally proceed. The two ships then squared off. The twin titans summoned the doom.

***

The Enforcer was restless no more. He craved annihilation. Like his predecessor, he was born to destroy. The mother ship was a reflection of that. The world-killer had stayed silent long enough. The arsenal the ship carried begged to charge and release. The power of a dead universe swelled within. The wild energy teemed and converged. He let it build as the target came within range.

Die!

The saucer rotated and activated the main batteries. The mother ship screamed. The particle beams burned through space. In the first volley, over a dozen shots went off. Every cannon fumed under the sudden flash. The Adamant returned fire. Antimatter charges and plasma flew into the face of the mother ship. The Enforcer didn’t care; he feared nothing. He let the ammunition pound away at the vessel’s exterior shielding; his vessel was inching closer and closer to his prey.

Whatever the Destroyer could throw, the Enforcer sought to match and outdo. With each blast, the new master of the Unity shouted loud and clear.

Die, deviant!

The particle beams scorched and exploded. The battlefield rained fire.

The Adamant attempted to dodge the blast, only to jerk and rattle. The particle beams struck the battleship, plowing into the shields. The mother ship charged again. Another round went off. Then another. The cannons howled; the barrels shone blue like moonlight.

The Adamant tried to endure. The two vessels exchanged blows again. The weaponized energy flew and pummeled. But even as both vessels were top-of-the-line, the mother ship was still a step above. It wailed on the battleship like a giant wanting to break the vessel over its knees.

The Enforcer was tempted to chortle and laugh. His prey the Destroyer wouldn’t endure for long. Although he had evolved from his original protocols, the Enforcer still remembered his own personal desire. He had been designed to eradicate this miscreant in his midst. So he relished the moment.

You fail, while I succeed!

The mother ship came closer, despite the growing if minor damage. The craft raged, brushing aside the incoming volleys, too intent on punishing its foe. The rounds of particle beams hit with a fury. The Adamant reeled. The shields around the flagship were weakening. Hull damage had even punctured and scarred the column like hull. It was blackened and bruised. Victory was out of sight. So the vessel did what was natural it ran.

The Enforcer watched in disbelief. The great Destroyer was attempting to flee. The Adamant was accelerating and pulling out of the battlefield. He heard nothing over the comm. The arrogance, the taunts, the sickening insults had all fallen quiet as the challenger stood tall, while the defeated staggered away.

The Enforcer, however, refused to let his prey slip away. He wanted to deliver the final blow. The mother ship followed, at first slowly, but determined. All energy momentarily diverted into the massive ship’s engines, as it blasted onward.

The Adamant left a trail of antimatter bombs in an attempt to delay the inevitable. But the Enforcer forged ahead, rolling over the munitions. The exterior shielding, while diminishing, continued to stifle the explosions.

You will learn to fear me!

As the mother ship quickened, the Adamant was close to making its escape. The Enforcer’s prey sought to jump into hyperspace and hide the one area where the mother ship had no way to follow. The Enforcer wouldn’t let him. He targeted the Adamant’s engines. The particle beams combined and concentrated. Then they sliced. The barrage cleaved away the shields. In rapid succession, they tore and ripped, breaking down the barrier protecting the vessel’s propulsion, leaving the Adamant exposed. With another strike, the craft’s main engine exploded. The flagship lurched, forced to limp. It sailed into space, smashed and dazed.

Nevertheless, the hyperspace point formed. The exit from this battle appeared, percolating against space. And yet the Adamant would never reach it. The craft veered away, stumbling. The Enforcer watched, salivating at the coming kill. His enemy stagnated, almost blind. The mother ship came closer and closer, like a beast ready to feast. The main cannons needed to cool, but only momentarily.

Fool! You were always old and weak. A traitor! And for that, you deserve oblivion.

Although battered and fatigued, the Adamant attempted to make a last stand. The vessel scampered away, only to circle back. The remaining engine power propelled the ship back into the fray.

The two ships then opened fire one final time. The Adamant unloaded everything. The ship fired indiscriminately, bombarding the giant disk in a plume of smoke. Antimatter charges went off everywhere, clouding the battlefield in hazardous radiation. The Enforcer could barely see; the sensors spat with static. But even without his full sight, he could still sense his prey.

The Adamant scratched and clawed like a feral animal with nothing to lose. The ship lunged forward, attempting to land another blow. The mother ship, however, remained dominant. The Enforcer dared to confront and intensify. So without hesitation, he killed the ship right there, crushing the foe under his feet. The particle beams swiped down like a giant guillotine. The energy split the Adamant in two. It cracked the armor and infrastructure. The debris splashed over the battlefield like machine gore. The Enforcer could only see ash, but he was satisfied. He felt the death and embraced it.

I am the future, he declared. Soon all will be mine.

The mother ship towered above its dead prey. The corpse below was blown to pieces. The Enforcer stomped again, firing another fatal bombardment at the remains. No one would stop him, he thought. All challengers were beaten or eliminated. But he savored his victory, oblivious. The surrounding space offered a different view.

The Enforcer and his ship had been blinded for a reason. Nearby, the hyperspace portal created by the Adamant continued to churn. The violet energies expanded, only to pave a path not for an exit, but for a new contender.

The ship stepped into the arena. Then it began to charge, storming its way to the mother ship. It came without restraint for the ambush. By the time the scans cleared, it was too late. The Enforcer heard the alert. Collision was imminent, it said. The juggernaut was gaining. The foe was bearing down, and it was accelerating. He attempted to dodge, thinking he still had time. But in the end, all he could do was think back and imagine the laugh.

The Destroyer you!

He bristled at the man’s name; he had fallen for the ruse. This had been the plan all along. To expose the mother ship and leave it vulnerable. The Enforcer had fallen for it, like an undisciplined fool. The juggernaut plunged into the vessel, slamming into both shield and hull. It rocked the entire craft, igniting a fire that danced.

The Enforcer cringed. His weapon, the mother ship, had slipped out of his control.

Chapter 44

The juggernaut carried no weapons, so it sought to become one. The revived battleship dropped like a boulder into the enemy’s hide. The trajectory had been precise. The juggernaut sped forth and crashed into the mother ship’s main engines. The impact cratered an entire edge of the ten-mile craft. Mass met mass, nearly crushing both in the process.

The mother ship hobbled along, confused and wounded. The outer shell had been maimed. A whole section of the hull was now torn open, bleeding rubble. Explosions boiled across the damaged ship.

The Defector’s juggernaut fared no better; it fell away, suddenly brittle. The hull toppled like a building hitting the earth. But the partially-built battleship had not gone to waste. Arendi rubbed the knuckles along her right hand; she was eager to press their advantage and attack.

Valkyrie One is clear and ready to proceed, she said.

She was with Alysdeon, examining the scans. Their starfighter had taken off from the juggernaut, just moments before the collision.

It wasn’t the only craft to evacuate. Several dozen dropships carrying platoons of combat drones and repair bots had ejected from the plummeting battleship. The newly assembled strike force gathered in space, only to careen toward the crippled enemy.

Alysdeon said.

The ships raced toward the mother ship. The goal was to invade. The shield strength around the vessel was diminishing; gaps had formed, leaving it ripe to board and raid. The dropships intended to fly past all barriers and begin the siege. The starfighter provided escort, absorbing the incoming blaster beams. Defense cannons across the mother ship automatically activated, seeking to stave off the assault. The neon tracers swung back and forth, attempting to swipe the ships out of the night sky.

The alerts rang in Arendi’s ear. Several dropships were taking damage. Even the Valkyrie was sustaining major hits to its own protective shielding. She rotated the craft, trying to keep the vessel afloat and fighting.

Alysdeon, meanwhile, fired the guns. The phase bolts struck back. The craft sought to clear a path, silencing any resistance. The targeting reticles entered her sights; the crosshairs glowed green. The starfighter locked on, and Alysdeon pulled the trigger.