‘I wonder how bad the Gabriel is?’ said Andy, as they watched the Arena dragging the Hope’s remains out into clear space.
‘Everyone’s alive, that’s the most important thing,’ said Ed. ‘The ship can always be fixed.’
‘Shall we go and give Bache a hand?’ Andy asked.
Ed swept his array around to concentrate on the conflict raging a few hundred thousand kilometres away. He could see Bache must have deployed a swarm of personnel fighters similar to their own, as missiles and laser fire attacking the enemy fleet seemed to appear out of thin air. The remains of the fleet fired randomly in all directions in their customary undisciplined way and, as usual, completely unproductively.
They listened to a transmission Bache had sent out on all frequencies, instructing the fleet that any Mogul ships wishing to disengage and save themselves should leave the area, power down their weapons and wait in orbit around a designated moon of another of the system’s planets.
‘He doesn’t seem to be doing such a bad job,’ said Andy.
Almost as he said it, one of the Blend cruisers exploded, sending lumps of ship and shrapnel in all directions.
‘There’s not much fire coming from that last attack ship,’ said Ed.
‘D’you think that’s where Triyl will be lurking?’ Andy asked.
‘Possibly, but we know how slippery that bastard is. I’ll ask Bache if he wants us to go in and find him.’
They didn’t have to wait long for the reply. Bache, who sounded a little happier now, came straight back.
‘Is the Gabriel okay?’ he asked. ‘Last thing we saw was her shields failing and then disappearing.’
‘The Gabriel and crew are safe inside the Arena planetoid,’ said Ed.
‘Thank the Ancients for that,’ he said. ‘As for Triyl, I will order a temporary ceasefire against their command ship to give you some time. But don’t bust a gut trying to take him or any other Mogul alive. A body lasered into Earth Swiss cheese will be just as acceptable.’
‘We understand. Thank you, Commander,’ said Ed.
It took them ten minutes to reach the battle area and a further four swerving around to avoid debris and damaged ships to reach the last surviving attack ship.
‘Well, that explains the lack of firepower,’ said Ed, as he noticed the vessel’s heavy weapons were mostly powered down. ‘Let’s have a look what’s occurring on the bridge.’
They both used their DOVIs to infiltrate the giant vessel’s camera feeds.
‘There’s a gunfight on the bridge,’ said Andy. ‘Those are some of the Mogul’s black guards.’
‘Where’s Triyl?’ Ed asked.
They could see some of the crew were attacking the bridge and the black guards had barricaded themselves in and were intimidating the bridge crew into continuing the fight.
‘There’s no ship in the bridge hangar,’ said Andy. ‘D’you think he’s already buggered off?’
‘Knowing that coward, most likely,’ said Ed. ‘Which means he’s probably got a small ship with fully operational cloaking – we didn’t check any of the shuttles.’
‘There’s no jump signature within the system, so he could still be here.’
‘Powering away cloaked at full chat,’ said Ed. ‘The Gabriel’s the only ship that could detect him and it’s out of commission.’
‘We can’t let the arsehole get away again,’ said Andy.
‘Taking his flagship out of the fight is my immediate concern,’ said Ed. ‘I reckon if we close this ship down and let the rest of the fleet know he’s run away, they’ll probably throw in the towel.’
‘D’you want me to risk the hangar trick again?’
‘Possibly,’ said Ed. ‘How good a shot are you with the rail gun?’
‘From that range, I could scrape the tartar off someone’s teeth.’
Ed grinned at the analogy.
‘Okay, if you jump inside the bridge hangar, I’ll give those black guards an ultimatum and you keep taking them out until they surrender the bridge to the regular crew.’
‘On my way,’ said Andy, taking his gunship quickly down underneath the Mogul ship to avoid the random laser fire. He scanned the hangar for its dimensions, fed them into the jump computer and a split second later materialised within the deserted space. Activating his rail gun and checking out the bridge cameras again, he sat back and listened to Ed transmitting over the ship’s tannoy.
‘Attention the black guards on the bridge of this vessel. I am Edward Virr representing the GDA. You will lay your weapons down and surrender the bridge to the legitimate ship’s crew. Failure to comply will result in your forced removal. You have ten seconds.’
They could see the guards glance up at the ceiling and then at each other. One of them stepped up onto the Mogul’s raised area. Even though Ed and Andy had no sound from the room, they could tell from the guard’s body language and gesticulations with his weapon, he wasn’t planning on surrendering any time soon.
‘Fire when ready,’ said Ed.
He’d barely finished speaking when the guard leader’s head exploded, showering lumps of helmet, brain and skull over the central bridge area. The now headless corpse dropped like a stone and rolled off the raised platform, jetting a trail of blood as it went.
One of the navigation officers nearby vomited as the other guards hit the floor and could be seen shouting to each other.
‘We’re waiting, gentlemen,’ Ed’s voice boomed around the bridge again.
Another of the guards jumped up and began shooting out the cameras around the room, until a large hole appeared in his chest armour and he too slumped to the ground. At this moment the bridge door opened and a posse of crew swept through with guns up. Three more of the guards were hit before the remainder lay flat on the floor and surrendered.
A senior officer instructed crewmen to seal the two sucking holes punched in the walls by the rail gun’s titanium slugs on their way out of the ship. He then made his way to the communications desk and transmitted on a wide band.
‘This is Captain Jiccain of the attack ship Los’enyat calling Edward Virr. My vessel will now stand down as requested. All offensive weaponry will be deactivated and shields reduced to standard operating levels. The Mogul Hassik Triyl left the ship some time ago, destination unknown. The only other remaining Moguls, Finik’ack and Xarch, are somewhere within the fleet, present whereabouts also unknown. I will take this vessel to the prearranged surrender coordinates and await further instructions. Jiccain out.’
‘Thank you, Captain,’ said Ed. ‘You have just saved the lives of your crew and we will ensure you all get home to Andromeda safely.’
Andy jumped back out into space just as the huge ship moved off and they both scanned around for any other targets. It quickly became apparent that the surrender of the flagship had made a huge difference to the ferocity of the battle. Two thirds of the remaining fleet stood down and made their way slowly towards the surrender zone.
‘I don’t know what you did to that attack ship, Edward,’ called Bache, ‘but it certainly took the fight out of a lot of them.’
‘He threatened them with your cooking,’ said Andy.
‘I thought you liked my Deelataynian desert curry, Mr Faux.’
‘He does,’ said Ed. ‘But you don’t have to live with his farts the next day.’