Patterns of Chaos: Book One - The First War
Chapter 29

Jennifer Safyo stared in horror at the news reports. Words like ‘catastrophic ’, ‘devastation’, and most chillingly, ‘vaporized’ were being used to describe what had just happened to her former home.

All those people I saved back then…

Tears flooded her eyes. She had bought the small town a reprieve when she’d left Paul to die, but that was all.

Looking at her screens, she saw a flight of ships breaking the atmosphere to engage. She reacted instantly, running for the cockpit of her captured ship.

She was going to end this. If she had to strangle him, today it would end.

“Sir, several servos in the main cannon burned out and need replacement!”

“Fix them, then!” Dalth barked.

Next to her, the Emperor smiled reassuringly. “Calm yourself, Admiral. This was bound to happen. But overall, a very successful test.”

Calixta was confused. Before that cannon blast, her read of her husband’s mind had been as if his skull was full of writhing vipers. Now he was calm, collected, charming.

“Let’s give them another thirty seconds or so to think that over before we-”

“Sir, an armada of ships is inbound from the planet surface!”

Calixta’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “I guess that’s their answer.”

Stragdoc was scowling. “Their ships shouldn’t be able to make it far enough out to engage us…” He shot to his feet snarling. “That bitch. She stole our engine designs!”

Dalth turned to him. “Wait, sir, our engine designs? Does that include…?”

His head swiveled to her, and then back at the screen. “Give me an aft view, now!”

Calixta could feel the storm brewing in his mind, and was afraid...for him.

When his squadron first cut their FTL engines, Christopher St. George had simply marveled at the stark beauty of Venus. He knew that the toxic atmosphere concealed a hellstorm of lava and lightning storms, but the clouds of sulfuric acid concealed all of it, only allowing a view of an ivory ball.

Chris would have loved to just sit and admire the view, but knew that there was absolutely no time. “Okay boys, report in! Everyone accounted for?”

Names and call signs sounded off. Personally, Chris had been rather surprised at the relative smoothness of the trip. He really had not expected FTL travel to be like in movies and television, but yeah, the flight had been smooth and simple. Calming even.

“Ok, reset course back to Earth. Let’s surprise the hell out of the enemy!”

The area of space behind the Red Talon was filling with Earth ships. Stragdoc was screaming in rage, not only physically but mentally as well, crewmen clutching their heads in psychic agony.

“Deploy our ships now! I want every Earth vessel erased from existence, is that clear?!” Slamming his fist onto a communications console, he snarled at the repair teams. “I want that cannon ready to fire in the next five minutes or I will personally come down there and rip your hearts from your chests!”

“Al-all ships deployed, engaging enemy fleet…” Dalth stuttered, still recovering from the psychic backlash unleashed by the Emperor.

Calixta was picking herself up from the floor; having been closest to him, she had taken the brunt of his psionic fury. “My...love…?” she whispered. Blood was trickling from her eyes, red tears staining the deck plate.

Stragdoc’s head twisted to face her, and then he jumped over his seat and picked her up gently. “I’m sorry, Calixta, I didn’t mean to…”

She smiled, the damage already repairing itself. “Not...your fault...”

On the main screen, Psi-Omegan vessels were moving en masse towards both of the Earth fleets. Ships began exploding in the cold vacuum. The Red Talon itself began shaking imperceptibly under impacts from the rear. “All defensive batteries open fire!” Dalth ordered, glancing back at the Emperor clutching his bride.

The defensive guns did what they could, but there was a problem. In his supreme arrogance, Stragdoc had neglected to allow the cannons to rotate towards the rear, expecting only to be possibly facing vessels coming directly at him.

His mind had ignored the possibility of a sneak attack, and it was costing the dreadnaught.

Calixta suddenly sat up in Stragdoc’s arms, rage boiling in her eyes. “She’s coming.,” she hissed. “Stay here, I’ll finish her.” Scrambling out of her husband’s reach, she ran for the hall, knowing instinctively where Jennifer would be.

This time when Tazer Squadron exited FTL, things were hardly serene. Faced with the glowing propulsion system of the massive vessel, Chris barked the command to open fire. Rockets and laser cannons filled the space between them and the massive vessel, doing significant damage before large squadrons of ships deployed from Red Talon’s flanks, flying straight at them.

“Engage the enemy, but keep the pressure on that ship! Make sure they don’t get a chance to fire that cannon again!” Chris barrel-rolled to avoid an incoming blast.

“Roger that, Tazer One!” The acknowledgements came fast and hard as his teammates dodged the enemy fire, returning it where they could.

“Try to save your ordinance for the big guy, regular weapons against the small ships!” Chris launched another salvo into the Talon’s flank. Inwardly he was nervous: he was not sure that they had enough firepower to down the thing.

-Don’t worry; I’m going to finish this.

A voice in his head, strangely familiar. “Ashpool?” he whispered.

-I’m going in, if you can provide some covering fire.

Looking to his right, he spotted an unfamiliar ship streaking towards the Psi-Omegan monster’s hangers. “Guys, that ship could use some help getting in! Cover her!”

“Who is that, Tazer One?”

“Doesn’t matter. A friend. Make sure it gets inside!” A Psi-Omegan vessel shattered under his guns. Several other ships going after Ashpool’s vessel equally disintegrated.

-Thanks. Be careful out there.

“You too.” He said aloud, not sure that the woman could hear him as her ship flew into the docking bay.

A new voice over the comms. Hasegawa. “Captain, who was piloting that ship?”

“Classified, sir.” Chris replied lamely. “But the pilot is the one who gave us our shot at stopping that thing.”

“I...see.” A pause. “I seem to be someone’s choice of target, I need assistance.”

“You got it, Admiral, on my way. Tazer Two, Tazer Four, let’s do it!”

They raced towards the Admiral’s location, just in time to see his vessel crack like an egg under Victor Karman’s cannons.