A twenty metre bar tore through the deck below them, leaving the floor with a wide and nasty gash. Derek wasn’t sure how he was going to get out of this one. NorthCo soldiers were being picked off one by one, and the Icarus was being torn to shreds by the ruins of an allied ship.
CHAPTER 29
Pincer
Icarus, USOC Ship Graveyard, Solar System
An army of USOC forces were lined up outside. Floating and firing. The Symphony was in a billion pieces, all crew and soldiers there dead. That meant so was Martin Coves. Went down with one of his own ships. Plasma cartridges dented the hull of the Icarus, with many other shots decorating the walls. The USOC forces started to move in. Admiral Cheng shot frantically with a panicked look. His own forces were dwindling nonstop. USOC forces thrusted through where they came in while another team breached through to the right of them. They surrounded Derek and co. from both sides.
Derek finally got his rifle working and fired off a dozen shots into the invading attackers from the right. This EVA suit of his had no enhanced shielding and so a well-aimed bullet could end it for him, right then and there. He kept firing off at the soldiers. Those that were outside the window were the least of his worries. Suddenly, an image flashed into his mind, flashes of the battle he first saw on the Icarus. The same invading force, but under a different time and a different command. He remembered the chaos and the firefight that ensued, and the peace he found in the escape pod.
“Cheng!” he shouted. “We need to get to the escape pods! We cannot hold them off here!” The Admiral nodded swiftly and gestured for his men to follow.
“You lead! Let’s go!” commanded the Admiral. Surely USOC would have no regard for Derek’s life now that the container was out and about. The NorthCo soldiers dwindled down to just over a dozen men. And they were still getting constantly shot down. Derek boosted over to the elevator shaft and filled the doors with plasma bolts. The steel started to melt away, and Derek slipped through, hovering down. “We could have blown the doors!” said the Admiral, but Derek knew their time was limited. The Admiral and his company of surviving soldiers followed him down the shaft. Derek didn’t remember much, but the soldier housing deck with all the barracks would have had the most unused pods, seeing as how all the soldiers were busy dying to the USOC forces. History seems to repeat itself. Derek and the Admiral boosted out the shaft, into the new deck. It looked indifferent to the one above, retaining that same depressing colour palette.
The last NorthCo soldier through the shaft yelled out “they’re right on our tail!” as soon as orange spherical devices started to float down.
“Get down!” yelled the Admiral as the elevator shaft lit up in a ball of flame. The fire died as soon as it came, but by then it had already disintegrated two of the NorthCo soldiers and left the shaft with a gaping spherical hole still glowing orange.
“Corporal Higgins” ordered the Admiral “leave a surprise for them”
“Yes, sir!” the soldier replied as he went back to presumably set charges, or mines in anticipation of USOC’s speedy arrival.
Derek boosted through to the back of the deck, and sure enough there was a full row of escape pods. More than enough to evacuate the entirety of Derek and the Admiral’s remaining soldiers. They hurried over to the back. All nine of them. An explosion occurred not far behind them, it shook the ship. USOC were coming. The Admiral boosted over to the control panels and gestured for an engineer. “Power these up. Quickly.” Derek however, pressed down on the control panel and it lit up immediately.
“All pods are individually powered by stored solar energy as well as associated control objects” muttered Derek.
“Alright then” said the Admiral “let’s get out of here!”
The men took point, allowing Derek, the Admiral and the trunk to go in first. “You’ll have to load that box in separately!” ordered the Admiral. “It’s too big.” Just as he said that, USOC soldiers dropped into view and fired upon them. NorthCo defenders returned fire, picking off a good couple from cover. Footlockers and steel desks provided good cover from the fire, but it wouldn’t hold for long, not against the overwhelming USOC forces. “Keep shooting!” yelled the Admiral. “Or we lose everything!” Cheng proved to be a coward in the end, hitting release on his pod. It detached from its socket and started to boost away from the ship. Over the radio, he ordered “now launch the trunk and get out of there!” The NorthCo soldiers, in doing so were cut down reaching for the manual launch lever. All but two now survived. Derek didn’t care about that. He pushed his pod’s release button, and yet nothing happened. From the safety of his pod, he hammered at it. It was stuck.
Shot to pieces, the remaining NorthCo soldiers still tried to carry on. The last man standing fell on the lever with his dying breath, launching the box into space.
“No!” cried a voice from the back of the USOC army. Operations Commander Wyatt Nathaniel stepped out in front, along with four USOC Knights. Blood covered him like a cloak. His helmet was stained to the point of having his eyes barely visible underneath. Wyatt stepped up in front of the trapped Derek. He sighed but didn’t seem too frustrated. “No matter. Your friend and my box have nowhere to hide. And you will die with them.” Wyatt raised his rifle to the glass of Derek’s pod.
“Wait” said Derek. “First tell me why you betrayed my father.” Wyatt smirked, and looked down. “Everything you’ve heard is true” he replied. “USOC offered me well. Offered me better. I never cared much for your father anyway. I mean he did kill mine, but then again, who was he to remember each and every face he wiped off the face of the earth with every robbery, every heist, each act of arson and genocide. I’d feel no different killing him a thousand times over. And the same goes for you.” Wyatt raised his rifle back up, back to the glass and fired. It shattered the pod’s window right open and pierced right into Derek’s EVA helmet. But it didn’t hit him. And he was left with a hole in his helm, draining all the air out. He quickly put a hand over the hole but as soon as he did, Wyatt pulled the manual release for his pod.
Derek’s pod detached and went boosting away. Gasping for air, and holding on for dear life, Derek’s helmet comms came back to life. “Derek!” shouted Admiral Cheng through the earpiece, although he couldn’t see at all where the Admiral was. “They’ve found us! Orbi-Sec! They’ve stolen Coves’ Flagship and are picking us up! Just hold on a few more minutes!”
Further cracks started to develop in Derek’s helmet. The facepiece started to fall apart. Small chips of glass flew out into space, and Derek couldn’t block the gaps enough. The holographic display started to flicker, with the oxygen counter lowing drastically every second. A light shone in the distance while the Admiral’s voice crackled on. Derek gasped more, and started to feel a slight fizzing sensation…
CHAPTER 30
Endgame
Reckoning, USOC Ship Graveyard, Solar System
“Derek! You made it!” laughed the Admiral. Bright lights and an overwhelming headache blinded his senses, but Derek tried to sit up. A room started to come into view. It was all white, with hints of gold. A silhouette stood in front of him. Cheng. “You’re safe. Orbi-Sec and my men control this ship now, and I must say it is the best ship I have ever stolen!” He laughed more as he continued. “The trunk is safe. The plans are safe and soon so will be the universe. We have control of the single greatest weapon of the 25th century. All the uncooperative nations can face the lightning!”
Derek, with his hand still caressing his headache and potential trauma, tried to look back up. Admiral Cheng faded into view. He looked unscathed. Although the same probably couldn’t be said for his EVA suit, wherever it was. He continued “you have helped us greatly. I am willing to offer you a ranking position in our military, although I can understand if you want to leave all of this behind. Either way, I can guarantee you a life unlike any other.”
Derek’s sight started to return to him. He looke
d around, seeing gold painted walls, floors and furniture, much like the Lullaby. He was sitting on a platform, a large semicircle shaped device sat to the left of him. “That would be the automatic medical procedure station. AMPS, they call them. We only have four back on the Symphony. I don’t even know how many Coves had installed on this ship. We found you floating around and brought you back.”
Starting to stand, Derek inquired “if this could heal me, then-”
“I’m sorry, but it would be far too late for your friends. The fallen men and women of both Orbi-Sec and the Northern Coalition died noble deaths, and will be remembered” stated the Admiral. “Regardless, it was an overwhelming victory for us.” Derek didn’t feel so victorious.
“So what happened then? What happens now?” he asked.
The Admiral replied gladly “Now we sit on the Reckoning, Martin Coves’ Flagship. The largest and fastest military vessel ever to be constructed. Although all the gold and polish may be a bit unnecessary. In addition to that, we fired upon the Icarus as soon as you were retrieved and safely on board. I was told that Wyatt showed up there in an attempt to capture the plans. Well I’m glad to say that he and everyone else on board has been completely and utterly destroyed. I am sorry about the Icarus. It lies in pieces, but I am confident we have cut off the heads of USOC. And now with the lightning bomb plans, their bases on Earth and the other colonies will be dealt with swiftly and easily. Their current leadership would fall to General Lax Cross. Strict fellow, but smart. Nonetheless, he will fall too. In chains or in pieces.”
Derek stood up and tried to move. It was slow and difficult. “I just want out. Take me back to Earth, as far as possible from anything USOC, NorthCo or Orbi-Sec. I will take you up on that offer. This is something I’d rather never have to deal with ever again.”
“I understand you perfectly” said the Admiral. I think you deserve a mansion or a villa for your contributions to our cause.”
“Fine” replied Derek, as long as I don’t have to hear about any of this again.
“That I can promise” smiled the Admiral. “We can start preparing right away. And again, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done.” He patted Derek on the back yet again. “I’ll show you to your room on this ship for now while we get things ready.”
“Sure” replied Derek as he followed the Admiral out.
And despite all that he had heard and experienced, he knew that he didn’t make the right choice. There was never a right choice. The time he spent at Geisen made USOC seem like the savoir, the answer to all of the galaxy’s problems, and that he was raised by a pirate, and a mass murderer. NorthCo’s intentions weren’t close to pure either. An end goal of complete USOC elimination and then controlling the galaxy to their liking. At least under USOC’s influence, the galaxy was stable. Derek believed that he was raised by his father, not a pirate, and to believe that, he had to believe in Orbi-Sec, and in turn, NorthCo. It was inevitable that there will be more conflicts to come, but at least this time he can live them out in peace. Mansions were always too big for him. A decent sized house with good security. He could seem to agree with that.
THE END
A note from the writer
I began writing this novel in 2014 when I was 15. It was a small project of mine I wanted to finish. At the time, I knew I was capable at writing by my grades never really reflected that. I aimed for about 30,000 words, but that was unrealistic. Soon I learnt that practicality is more important than a fixed word goal.
I like science fiction. I like guns and space battles, and lately the concept of power, greed and large military forces became ideas I really admired. Directions changed as I wrote this book but in the end, the endgame remains more or less the same. I did aim for an unhappy or bittersweet ending, but the more I wrote, the less appropriate it seemed.
I think I’m done with Orbital for now, but this story is open for a sequel, and if it is demanded enough, I might write it.
I am aware that the plot, characters and dialogue here is a complete mess, but this was never a huge focus for me which is why this novella took over two years to write. Perhaps even close to three. I can’t say for sure. I started off writing the first eight chapters in more or less a close time period. After that, it became incremental, slower, months could pass before I wrote again and by then I would have forgotten everything I had written before. And I was too lazy to read through it so I kept going with whatever knowledge I knew. I also felt that if I read my earlier chapters, the cringe would do much more damage to me than the story, so I kept it at that which (in retrospect) was a bad idea.
The whole midsection (act 2 and parts of act 3) might have been poorly structured with varying tones. The last ten chapters however, I pushed myself to write, close to each other especially. I still worked quickly, with little regard to specific plot details, but in the end I think I managed a product worthy of the internet. Heck, maybe a heavily edited copy might even make it onto shelves one day.
So in the end, I thank you for reading this and (enduring through) my work. Hopefully you enjoyed it. I know I did, writing this story (as much of an effort it sounds). Actually comparatively, I put very little effort into this (compared to actual authors) only with the odd minute of research here and there. So yeah. Thanks.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends