START AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST SECTION
“Monsoon, this is Fort Wallace Naval Air Control. Over.”
Wu’s eyes narrowed, focused on the targeting console. Shannon had served his purpose but returned now at the beck of his master’s hand like a trained hawk. Ahead, the Recluse danced and rolled, free of Mir’s gravity, headed for deep space, but Wu already had hard lock on his target. He let it blare, drowning out the urgent calls from the tower as he fired a barrage of energy at the ship’s hind quarter. The missile lock was a weapon of the mind which he used to unnerve his prey, for he knew that in the cockpit of the Recluse, that same tone was keening relentlessly like the metallic buzz of an angry wasp.
Wu fired another hail of bolts. He could see them hitting in the distance, a riot of energy, eating away at the aft shields. The nose shield had dropped as soon as Shannon’s first heater landed, power diverted to bolster the rear panel. Now the flank shields had dwindled as well to maintain it. The ship was his. This was to be his final kill with the Empire and no administrator sitting in a distant tower would interfere.
Dogs show their teeth and then run before the storm but you shall be to them as the lion, whose voice rumbles like thunder upon the sands and finds weakness in the hearts of his enemies. The dog shall not command you and men shall bow before you, who are the host of Zu.
“Monsoon, this is Tower Chief Michael Bailey. You have entered restricted space. Return your craft to base. You are in violation of…”
The voice faded to obscurity, became meaningless. Wu fired again and again, implacable, pure. He watched as the shield sensors faded from green to yellow, from yellow to red, and from red to nothing, until infrared began picking up heat spikes where the lasers bit into the ship’s hull.
“Monsoon, this is Captain Reissel.”
“Morning, Captain.”
“What seems to be the situation, Commander?”
Wu still had tone on engine two and thumbed the red button. The missile trailed out smooth as silk. He could feel Zu reach out and take hold of it, driving it home with unerring force, sending it up inside the center-starboard engine which blew apart and flamed out.
“Nothing you would understand, Al,” said Wu.
“Time for you to stand down, Commander. You have entered restricted space.“
Wu cocked his head. "Restricted space? What are you talking about, Al?"
"Back off that tango, soldier, and proceed to waypoint Charlie. Battalion is going to fire a neutron pulse from the Zeus platform. I repeat. Clear the target."
Wu shook his head. "Sorry, my friend, but I am not your pigeon. I am a sun god and I would rather burn up in the sky than wither on the ground like you. This is my prey and I will bring him down. Do what you have to do."
Wu punched up Talon two and listened to the tracker pulse. The light went amber as he got a lock on engine four and fired. The Recluse went into a barrel roll, trying to throw the incoming missile which began to corkscrew as it closed on the port engine. It curled in and struck the fuel manifold, detonating, the engine disintegrating into a cloud of shredded metal.
Reissel was barking in his ear, but Wu had made his choice. The Recluse was as defenseless as a bird with a broken wing, only two engines remaining. The blistering speed was gone. Even on full afterburners it could only manage moderate acceleration. It was his prey—his now by right.
Wu swooped out below the Recluse. He boxed the gunner in the forward turret and zoomed in three mags for a visual. The kid was swiveling the barrels of the plasma cannon around with desperate eyes: eyes of dread.
Wu let loose, watched him vaporize, watched the stellex panels mist with a patina of gore as the gunnery cockpit warped and split under the pounding. The Recluse rolled again and the lower cockpit disappeared but Wu didn’t stop firing. He winged out on the solar wind, turning, raking with one weapon and then another, dancing on the cosmic void, so close to the Recluse that it could not bring most weapons to bear, ablative armor tiles searing and popping as his lasers bored and scorched.
Zeal filled him and he vocalized the ancestral prayer in the ancient tongue. “Zu possess the body of your servant. Unsheath thine talons and descend upon my prey.” He soared in nose-first, metal blistering and pitting with every ion pulse, the structure finally catching fire at some unfathomable temperature.
And then it was gone.
At first, Wu thought he had somehow destroyed the Recluse, had somehow triggered an engine core detonation, but there was no fireball and no debris. He checked the scanners. He rolled his head, searching in every direction. There was nothing. It was just gone.
Wu let out a cry of rage. It was inconceivable. The Recluse had found a jump-point. The Recluse had jumped.
BACK TO PART ONE: SECTION ONE
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