Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) by Christian Kallias Page B

no doubt, those were
Alliance battle destroyers, and quite the armada too.
    “Am I seeing this right?” Daniel’s voice came over
the comm system.
    “Yeah, that’s the Fifth Fleet.”
    “But how is that even possible?”
    “Does it really matter?”
    “No I guess not. I’m just stunned. For a second I
thought it was more Zarlack reinforcements and more bad luck.”
    “You and me both, my friend.”
    Soon every ship from the newly arrived Alliance
armada started spewing fighters. It looked like a swarm of bees, beautiful and
extremely effective too. Both Obsidian and Zarlack starfighters started
disappearing off the radar at an exponential rate.
    “Wow, looks like this battle will be over sooner
than we expected,” Daniel said.
    “Yes, but let’s go assist anyway.” Chase grinned.
“It’s not every day we have the numbers on our side. Let’s savor this moment.”
    “Agreed.”
    “Care to make it interesting?”
    Daniel chuckled. “What did you have in mind?”
    “The one with the least kills is on drink duty for a
week.”
    “Deal!”
    Both Daniel and Chase vectored towards the nearest
wings of enemy ships and engaged them. Clearly surprised by getting fired on by
no less than three fronts now, they were easy pickings. They exploded one after
the other. Chase aligned a perfect couple of shots toward his nearest target,
successfully exploding the fighter wing, which promptly started spinning and
went crashing into another foe, the explosion claiming both fighters
simultaneously.
    “Buy one, get one free!”
    “Show off,” Daniel replied.
    “That’s seventeen, my friend. Now who’s showing
off?”
    “I’m still gonna say you.”
    “Fair enough.” Chase laughed.
    Then something happened. The Cronos fired an
intense beam of laser fire that instantly took out the biggest Obsidian
battleship still in play. Two successive shots then took down the next two
biggest Zarlack battleships, the first hit splitting the ship in half and the
second provoking a major explosion that disabled the targeted ship.
    “I don’t know what that was, but I’ll take five,
please!” exclaimed Chase.
    “I had heard the Cronos was getting equipped
with next generation R&D weaponry.”
    “I’m also getting a newer signature on the radar but
haven’t seen any of the ships on visuals.”
    “Oh,” Daniel said knowingly, “that must be the Omega
starfighters.”
    “What are those? And why am I not flying one?”
    “They’re the next generation of dogfighting war
machines. I had heard about them in passing but never thought they were
actually ready for combat.”
    “Why don’t we see any?”
    Right on cue, an impressive looking fighter with
sharp lines and glistening armor de-cloaked in front of Chase’s fighter.
    “Hey, rookie! How do you like my new set of wings?”
called a familiar female voice over the comm.
    “No way! Fillio?”
    “Still as reckless as ever I see,” she replied.
    “Well, you know me. That’s one sweet machine you’re
flying.”
    “Very, and it’s been invaluable to our survival. The
cloak only works for a few minutes, but it definitely gave us the edge we needed
with our enemy encounters.”
    “I bet! I want one of those, yesterday!” Chase was
almost giddy looking at the ship.
    “You’ll have to ask Admiral Thassos for one, flyboy.
We don’t exactly grow them on trees, especially nowadays. Speaking of
starfighters, what the hell are you flying? I don’t recognize the design.”
    “Oh, say hello to the F-140 Thunderbird, the first
Earth Alliance ship. I helped design it.”
    “Really? What’s Earth?”
    “Long story. We’ll talk about it over drinks. And
from the looks of it, Commander Tharaleos will be the one fetching them, for a
whole week,” Chase taunted.
    “Alright, boys, see you later then.”
    “See you soon, Fillio; really glad to see you.”
    “Always a pleasure, Chasy boy!”
    “Chasy boy?” echoed Daniel, trying not to laugh too
much over the comm.
    “If