The Zygan Emprise: Renegade Paladins and Abyssal Redemption Read Online Free Page A

of missiles
struck our ship. “For the moment.”
    “Can you ID their ships?” I called out,
struggling to dodge the torpedoes and, at the same time, pull up a
perimeter holo scan.
    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
    “There must be hundreds of them,” I growled
as I fought to stabilize our vessel. “I thought this was just
supposed to be a mock search and rescue mission. Where’s our
pedagogue’s ship?”
    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
    “Armor at 70%,” he said, adding, “Probably
far back out of our range. I’ve located two singularities at the
rim of our scan range. I shall endeavour to localise their signals.
And, alas, I see no other Zygfed vessels in our perimeter. I’ve
sent a distress signal to Deneb 5, but it looks as if we are on our
own.”
    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
    “Damn!” Our ship rolled to starboard with the
latest barrage, as I compensated for yaw. “Evasive maneuvers aren’t
working. Can we outrun them?”
    “Unlikely. The torpedos are coming in
full-circle 360 degrees. Armor is now at 50%.” Spud’s words escaped
through gritted teeth.
    “Then fire our fission grenades. That’ll buy
us some time.” Unfortunately, we both knew that our limited weapons
cache couldn’t overcome the obvious firepower levels of our
invisible assailants.
    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
    Spud launched a wide dispersion of our own
armaments to pick out some of our avionic assailants, but our
meager hits didn’t do much to stem the flow. As I fixed my gaze on
our viewscreen, something caught my eye.
    “Their torpedoes don’t seem to be dodging
very well.” I frowned. “Internal torpedo controls should respond as
soon as they see our grenades and change course to evade. Check out
the two second response delay in their maneuvers—I’ll bet these
torpedoes are remote controlled.”
    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
    Spud sent out another barrage of fission
grenades and nodded as he, too, observed the subtle discrepancy. He
spun towards another holo screen and ran his fingers over the data
display.
    “Got ‘em!” Spud cried. “Two Andart ships
hiding in the Veil Nebula at 20.62 h D +42.03°. Obviously gunning
for us through their titanium messengers. Armor at 30%” He raised
an eyebrow as he saw me lean over to our weapons holo. “What are
you doing?”
    “I’m going to rattle their cage.” I keyed a
few instructions into the holo and shot out the next volley of
fission grenades—only this time, rather than aiming each grenade at
an attacking torpedo, I guided our grenades to crash into each
other and explode all at once.
    The resonant blast waves rocked our ship onto
its back and sent us flying several light years towards Deneb.
Fortunately, grav sensors kept us tractored in our seats and we
were able to regain control of the Scooter to re-con. We stared at
the viewscreens in amazement as we watched all the surviving
torpedoes retreating rapidly in the direction of the shrouded
Andart ships.
    “Andarts withdrawing,” Spud announced,
nodding at his holo. “In hyperdrive, I might add.” He paused.
“Surely a distant grenade explosion shouldn’t have frightened them
away. And they should not be able to hear sounds in space. What did
you do?”
    I leaned back in my chair, grinning broadly.
“Our fission grenades are made of copper, tin, and silver,
right?”
    “Bronze, correct.”
    “Well, the vibration of the fragmented bronze
components enhanced by the explosion created a giant blast wave.
The flash disrupted the remote wireless communications and flipped
the torpedoes into default mode, sending them racing back home
towards the Andart ships. Hope the Andarts have enough fuel to
outrun their dangerous toys.”
    To my surprise, Spud actually laughed. “In
other words, as in Heracles’ sixth labour, you created a bronze
rattle. Brah-vah.”
    “ De nada ,” I shrugged, sitting
casually on my hands until the adrenaline tremors wore off. I
certainly wouldn’t want Spud to have gotten the wrong idea, you
know.
     
     
    * * *
     
    Spud