Free Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor by Dean Crawford

clouds of ejecta. ‘That stellar nebula will contain billions of tonnes of hydrogen, oxygen, helium and metals.’
    ‘I’ve got a planetary body, dead ahead.’
     
    Evelyn squinted ahead but could see nothing against the terminal halo ejected by the dying star. She glanced down at a tactical display and she spotted a planet, its orbit marked around the parent star and a brief data list scrolling alongside it.
    ‘Chiron IV, habitable surface and atmosphere, undocumented life-forms,’ she murmured as she read the list. ‘Second of two habitable worlds in the system.’
    ‘The first is already burned out,’ Teera confirmed. ‘Too close to the parent star when it started to swell.’
    Chiron’s parent star had exhausted its fuel of hydrogen and begun burning helium in its core, in doing so producing more heat than the star’s mass could contain and thus casting off its atmosphere into space in gigantic outbursts. The once–stable star had thus swelled to many times its original size, consuming those worlds in close orbit around it.
    ‘Looks like Chiron IV’s days are numbered,’ Evelyn said. ‘Instruments are recording violent climatological change. The oceans are evaporating and the atmosphere’s already breaking down under the cosmic rays from the parent star.’
    ‘Lot of storms too,’ Teera reported.
    Evelyn spotted the planet ahead, a tiny speck of black against the brilliant sunset hues of the dying star. She glanced at her instruments and called out to Teera.
    ‘We’re at twenty thou’, start CAP orbit.’
    ‘Roger that.’
     
    CAP, or Combat Air Patrol, was their assigned role. Both aircraft set up a mutually supporting racetrack orbit between the Atlantia far behind and Chiron IV, ready to intercept any foreign craft while the rest of the air wing was prepped for patrol.
    ‘ I’m not seeing any sign of the Veng’en cruiser, ’ Teera reported.
    ‘Me either,’ Evelyn replied.
    It wasn’t her job to question policy, but privately Evelyn and a lot of the other pilots were concerned about the captain’s decision to attempt to recruit the Veng’en to their cause. A violent and untrustworthy race who had despised humanity even before the emergence of the Word and its Legion, the Veng’en had actively pursued and destroyed human vessels fleeing Ethera in the wake of the apocalypse in the hope of containing the Word’s spread. Nobody knew how many men, woman and children had died at the hands of Veng’en commanders keen to slake their bloodlust.
    There were many other races, further flung and likely still free of the Word, to whom the Atlantia could implore for help. Captain Sansin’s ploy of turning enemies into friends risked even greater losses than had already occurred should the Veng’en’s War Council reject any form of alliance with humanity.
    ‘I’ve got something,’ Teera reported.
    Evelyn glanced at her holographic tactical display and spotted a small target moving away from Chiron IV. The track was accelerating with almost fighter-like rapidity away from the planet Chiron, but was still close enough that it would be fighting against the planet’s gravity and unable to make the jump to super-luminal velocity.
    ‘Looks like a freighter climbing out of orbit,’ Evelyn replied. ‘No transponder code.’
    ‘Unlicensed, two hundred fifty tonnes,’ Teera confirmed.
    ‘And she’s fast,’ Evelyn noted as she checked the vessel’s course and velocity. ‘Looks like she’s spotted us and doesn’t want to play.’
    ‘Let’s give her a run for her money, shall we?’ Teera suggested.
    ‘Roger that,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Reaper flight, buster buster !’
    The Raythons rocketed at full power toward the target, the merchant vessel turning away from them and making a desperate attempt to escape the two fighters.
    ***

VIII
    ‘Damn she’s quick,’ Evelyn replied as she glanced at her instruments and noted that the fighters were already nearing their maximum velocity.
    She