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Kage leaned in with eagerness, keen to see whether the tech he and Mirage had worked on for years would succeed. He wasn’t disappointed.
Suddenly the rattlers shrieking towards Mirage, and the Phantasm seemed to falter mid-air. Seeing over fifty rattlers and interceptors oscillating to a sudden stop and wheeling through space was incredible.
The capital ship’s rail guns that had taken a few potshots at Mirage and the Phantasm flailed about and collapsed on themselves. Lights all over the battleship flashed off and on. Small explosions bloomed all over the surface of the ship.
‘Status?’ Kainan called out.
‘I’m reading multiple system failures throughout the ship,’ Mirage replied. ‘Their shields are obliterated. Thrusters are gone, and station keeping is now inactive. As a result, they can’t dodge any debris, nor can they maintain their orbit for much longer. A few hours at the most.’
‘And that, people, is how you take out a dreadnought and an entire fleet,’ Kage said softly.
The Phantasm’s crew whooped in celebration.
Selene, however, had her mind elsewhere. ‘What about Sheba?’
Kage whirled his chair to look up at her on the higher deck. ‘Selene, remember the scout drone we sent ahead?’
She nodded.
‘Well, we used it to bounce a stealth-cloaked neural node signal towards the ship. With a message interlaced in the signal band. Mirage, how’s that going?’
The AI piped up. ‘I just got confirmation the message was received. I can’t tell by whom because the recipient has cloaked their signature. But that’s probably just common sense caution by Ki’Remi if he, indeed, is the one who sent the original message. He now has the same nano virus instructions. Here’s hoping he’s on it, securing Sheba and himself so they can leave the ship. We’ll keep broadcasting to him, so he knows where we’re at.’
‘He’ll need to move fast. Before any CO2 build-up chokes them because air is likely not circulating past the scrubbers,’ Kage added. ‘If systems have failed, then any breathable atmosphere in that ship is toast.’
Kainan nodded. ‘Then we’d better leg it! Mirage, send the gunship back to our cargo bay. Boarding party, let’s go.’
Kainan rose from his chair. Kage, Riv and Selene followed. They moved swiftly to Phantasm’s command deck lift.
Once inside, Selene moved to one corner and leaned against the railing, biting a lip nervously. Kainan proceeded to wrap Selene in his muscled arms. He bent down to kiss her forehead.
‘It’s going be alright,khamila. I’m here with you. So too are the Riders.’
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, lifting her face to his to press her mouth against his lips. ‘For everything,khaji.’
Kainan’s fellow Riders looked away while the couple shared what was to be their final kiss before the mission.
17
Auric Eyes
Selene
The lift doors opened to Phantasm’s expansive cargo bay.
It was a hubbub of activity as bots and a slim but highly efficient crew team swarmed over Mirage, quickly fixing any damage she’d sustained in her brief encounter with The Technocracy’s guns.
The boarding party jogged into the corvette.
The three Sable Riders slipped into their meta suits.
Accustomed to a quick change, they left the storage deck to give Selene some privacy.
She was soon done, and at her signal, the Riders filed back, checking weapons and suits in readiness for the fight ahead. Shortly, Mirage lifted from the grapples of the cargo hold and used thrusters to gently push towards the emptiness of space.
After weaving through the flotilla of the dead, floating and rolling rattlers, the quick flight was soon over. Mirage set the gunship a klick above the surface of the capital ship’s dock area.
‘Anything, Mirage?’ Kainan said urgently into everyone’s earpiece.
