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Discarding all need for stealth and radio silence, the airwaves between the incursion fleet lit up as the alliance fleet cheered loudly with shouts of victory.
Selene could hardly believe it.But, thank Dunia, their plan looked like it was working.The swarm of Edenite stealth ships had become The Technocracy’s worst nightmare.
The Phantasm’s bridge crew celebrated. Selene spontaneously hugged Luka, the science officer whose station was next to hers.
She felt an arc of energy from across the room. Her eyes were instantly pulled to the deck below when she stepped back from Luka’s embrace. Her heart jumped when her gaze clashed with the hooded, heated one of Phantasm’s captain.
He jerked his head and looked away, but not before she noticed the micro expression that had flashed across his chiselled face.
Jealousy? Her traitorous heart pounded for a moment until her logic took over.
No. Just NO.
She couldn’t take the heartache once more of hoping against all hope.
Kainan’s commanding voice cut through her thoughts. ‘Stage One of the incursion is complete—great work, crew, officers and team. The next stage is the more protracted one. Landers and shuttles on the ready. Corvettes protect those helos and troops on their way down. Cilia, you have the chair.’
The young pilot beamed, hopping up to salute her captain. ‘I’ll keep an eye on all event ETAs up on the net and holo and keep you across anything extraordinary.’
Kainan nodded curtly. ‘Sante.’
He flicked his eyes over the command deck and the reports scrolling on the screens and the ship’s net, and finally conceding there was nothing urgent that needed his attention, he rose from his chair. Kainan gathered his comm tab and great coat, which he slipped over his vast shoulders.
‘Selene, Mirage, with me,’ he said brusquely.
He strode towards the sliding doors at the bridge’s entrance. Selene nabbed her comm tab, reached for her duffle bag and jacket, and ran out of the command centre after the swiftly disappearing man.
His long legs ate up the miles of the deck, and she found herself breathing hard to keep up. Yet she kept a small distance between them, taking the cowardly decision to stay as far away as she could from him.
He paid her no attention, keeping his eyes forward and chin hardened.
He nodded to the few recruits and officers they passed. They saluted as he swept by, their eyes worshipful.
Some even gave whoops of joy when he saluted back, their yells of elation like those given to a rock star.
What else could he seem like to them besides a hulking, chiselled superhuman hero? Who was leading an elite army of badass warriors in obliterating The Technocracy into oblivion?Selene thought.
Soon, they rounded a corner into a corridor leading to one of the Phantasm’s airlocks. It led to an air bridge that slotted neatly into Kainan’s gunship airlock.
Kainan lifted a hand, waving his wrist comm. The airlock slid silently open, and he strode forward while Selene trailed in after him, storing her bag away in Mirage’s storage lockers.
They went through the familiar preflight sequence in silence.
Selene strapped in while Kainan patched into his screens, speaking quietly with Mirage.
‘Phantasm, we’re detaching now.’
Selene felt the grapples fall away as Mirage and Kainan manoeuvred the sleek gunship away from the gargantuan cruiser.
When they were at a safe distance, their engines rumbled up, and they pulled away from the fleet.
‘We’re going in, people,’ Kainan said, warning the fleet of Mirage’s descent to Dunia’s surface.
Selene tightened her seat straps in anticipation of the bumpy ride down.
‘I can report that our corvettes have also succeeded,’ Mirage announced. ‘Most of the One Dunia Coalition’s surface defences have been hammered into submission from a stand-off range without being intercepted and destroyed. The spaceport especially is ours. Another victory.’
The AI followed the victorious report with a sober reminder. ‘However, we’ve lost one corvette, and we can’t get a hold of it - too much atmospheric interference.’
