Chapter 15
“Greeny held Cold Fires sword at the Terrans neck.
“"Get out." He said. The Terran complied. Greeny climbed into the mans fighter and started the take off sequence. He felt the ship shudder and then vibrate as it rose a few feet into the air, then he hit the thrust and he flew out of the hangar. A few seconds later a voice erupted from the communications system on the ship.
“"Imperial Might Four, this is Control. Return to the hangar immediately, you do not have clearance to launch." Greeny ignored the voice. "Imperial Might Four, what is your status, I repeat, Might Four, what is your status?" Greeny reached down and pulled a panel open. He stared at the mesh of wires for a second and then traced the ones connected to the communications unit and pulled them out of their sockets. The comm chatter died instantly.
“
“Cold Fire stretched his neck slowly, the silence he now heard in his head was deafening. He looked at the hooded Darius who now sat at the side of the small command deck on the only console. Cold Fire looked at him and bared his teeth.
“"You should have got us a better ship." He said, not bothering to hide the anger or exhaustion from his voice.
“"Sorry master." Darius said, not turning around. "This is all that was in the area, and at the time I thought the hyper drive was working." Cold Fire opened his mouth to say something but Darius interrupted him before he could speak. "Sir, there is a small one person fighter heading for us."
“"Shoot it then." Cold Fire snapped impatiently.
“"Yes my lord." Darius said as he opened fire on the ship.
“
“"Where's Greeny?" Asked S117 looking around, a movement that seemed exaggerated to Dennis.
“"He has gone after Cold Fire." Dennis replied simply.
“"But we need him here!" S117 said "And why didn't he tell us?"
“"I guess that he was afraid that you would stop him, Admiral." Dennis replied, there was a slight hint of defeatism in his voice, a tone that S117 had heard a lot in the last few hours, despite the fact that the pirates had been defeated.
“"We would have!" S117 said. "As I said, he is needed here, and what if he goes off and gets himself killed, we have just got him back from the dead from what I hear, it wouldn't be good to lose him again."
“"Well, what if he does return? He doesn't seem to have the Empires best wishes at heart." Dennis said. S117 looked at him.
“"You're out of line Captain. Greeny has been our Emperor for years, you are a mere captain, trust that the Emperor will not lead us down a dark path." He said as Dennis nodded slowly.
“
“Greeny rolled the fighter seemingly at random, he accelerated and decelerated at irregular intervals, anything to stop the Dominator that Cold Fire had stolen from getting a decent lock on him. But he knew all that it would take is one lucky shot and he would be Solar Worm food. When the fighters HUD showed the Dominator, a factory new one, lacking the hyper drive and shields that were usually installed a few months into the service of the ships of that class, at twelve million kilometres Greeny opened fire. As the G-47 was armed with a laser cannon, firing shots at the speed of light, Greeny couldn't actually see the projectiles leaving his ship. But he looked down at the tactical screen on the fighter and saw that the hull strength of Cold Fire's ship had fallen to eighty nine p
ercent, but this number slowly increased as the materials that made up the ship started to repair themselves and knit back together.
“A siren blared out of the command console warning Greeny that a shot had passed within one hundred meters of his ship. Instinctively Greeny rolled to port, away from the shot, but this broke his target lock with Cold's ship. Greeny swung his ship around a hundred and eighty degrees, a maneuver that would have shredded the ship in an atmosphere, and then dove, after a few seconds he pulled up and swung his ship around again. By now Cold Fire's ship had fully repaired and Greeny had lost his lock on the ship, but he was now under the firing line of the Dominator. The captain of the ship began to tilt the ship to get a lock on Greeny again, but that didn't matter the Greeny, he had a few seconds where he could accelerate to full speed without having to worry about avoiding shots.
“
“Darius shouted and hit the console. "I can't get a lock on him, master, he is moving to fast and is too small." A siren suddenly blared to life and Darius looked at the tactical screen. "Not that it matters now. The Terrans have detected our weapons fire. We have several hundred ships incoming. The fastest will be here in weapons range within seven minutes." Cold Fire closed his eyes and leant back.
“"Don't worry Darius, I never go anywhere without a back up plan" He said, then he opened his eyes again "We have reinforcement's incoming. About five minutes. Keep us alive Captain" He said.
“
“Greeny's tactical screen lit up. Hundreds of Hive ships had suddenly hypered in around Cold Fires ship, screening it from fire. The siren in Greeny's ship started blaring very loudly so Greeny shut it off, he would need his full concentration if he was going to kill Cold Fire.
“
“"The Hive and that Dominator are hostile." Said S117, aboard the bridge of a Battle Cruiser leading the charge against Cold Fire. "But that fighter is friendly. Transmit that data to the rest of the Fleet, Commander."
“"Aye Sir." Replied the commander, saluting with military precision.
“"Prepare yourselves Terrans." Said S117, "This is for Greeny!" And with those words a cheer spread through out the command deck.
“
“Greeny looked out of his starboard window. The Hive ships had stopped shooting at him now and had turned their attention to the oncoming Terran armada. As he glanced down at his scanners he noticed that Cold Fires ship was fleeing, and was heavily damaged. Greeny slammed the fighter into full speed and pursued the Dominator.
“
“"Sir, someone has just teleported onto the ship!" Shouted Darius, turning to look at Cold Fire. Cold had his eyes closed and his face was screwed up in concentration.
“"Deal with it." He hissed.
“
“Greeny pressed himself against the wall by the door. As the door hissed open he readied Cold Fires long sword and waited.
“
“"Admiral, we have taken heavy casualties! Almost two thirds of the fleet is gone. The Hive have started ramming our ships, we need to pull back!" Called a Lieutenant from S117's left.
“"Bah. Commander, I…" Began S117.
“"He's dead Admiral." Said the Lieutenant.
“"Fine, you then, tell the fleet to fall back." Said the Admiral.
“"Aye Sir." Said the man.
“Cold Fire heard Darius return and take his seat at the command console. He took that as a sign that the intruder was dead and so concentrated harder on making the Hive chase the Terrans. It wasn't until a few seconds later when he realised that Darius was standing right in front of him did he open his eyes.
“"What is it Darius?" He said to the cloaked figure. It responded by drawing a long sword and slamming it into Cold Fires chest with lighting speed.
“"What is this?" Rasped Cold Fire, a small amount of blue blood dripping from his mouth. The sword wielder lowered his hood to reveal the twisted smile of Greeny. The Terran thought to himself for a moment and then spoke.
“"This," He said, twisting the sword slightly, "is The Pirates Revenge."