Altiris Knights:The Fall

Chapter 3:A Trap

Erean, Silas, Ryala and Haelor sat in an Alliance ship, en route back to Vanraael.

Suddenly, the hyper drive engines deactivated, and the ship dropped out of lightspeed. Another vessel approached them. Erean drew light into his eyes, and directed the power to the ship. "Uriaks!" he said.

The vessel got closer, and several dozen smaller ships exited it. Green orbs were launched at them. The Alliance ship's shields held, and it retaliated, sending golden plasma bolts at the attackers, taking down a few of them. The rest evaded the shots and kept firing. More fighters joined them.

"Get into the fighters", Erean said.

The four rushed to the hangar.

The 200 Alliance fighters flew into the open space, and unleashed a volley of golden plasma bolts on the nearest uriak ships, destroying them. The other vessels took notice, and swerved to avoid the next volley. Several more uriak cruisers appeared, and disgorged dozens of fighters. They engaged the Alliance vessels.

The Alliance ships were being overwhelmed. As more uriak reinforcements arrived, the remaining 87 Alliance ships started retreating back to the battleship. The capital ship blasted the nearest enemy fighters, and took down two of the already damaged uriak cruisers.

However, by now, it was clear the Alliance forces would lose. A green charge clipped Silas's wing, and another charge hit his other wing.

"Silas, return to the flagship. We will cover you", Erean said. "Too late. My ship will blow before I reach halfway. I might as well take a few of them with me", Silas replied, pointing his guns at a flaming uriak cruiser. "Retreat at once! That's an order", Erean said, raising his voice. "I can't. It's my duty. It's been an honor, sir", Silas said, and activated his hyper drive. He released his remaining missiles, and directed his ship to the cruiser. As the fighter jumped, he closed his eyes, and all went black.

Erean, Haelor and Ryala watched in silence, as Silas's ship tore through the uriak cruiser, and into another. The blast wave destroyed all three ships, along with a few around them.

The remainder of the uriak fleet swarmed the survivors, and within a few minutes, only 46 remained. The Alliance battleship was heavily damaged, and flaming.

Then, as they lost all hope of escape, another fleet came out of lightspeed.

The Alliance pilots cheered, as they watched several dozen Republic capital ships and at least 3000 fighters tear into the uriaks.

Erean's comm beeped, and he grinned, hearing Loeras's voice come through. "Let's finish them off."

Loeras, Irma, Elana, Qirzan, and four newly trained Republic Knights blitzed through an uriak formation, destroying every ship. The Republic capital ships surrounded the remaining uriak cruisers, and destroyed them. Together, the two fleets shot down those who tried to flee, and then took care of the rest.

"You came in at the right time", Erean said. "It was mostly due to sheer luck. I happened to catch a glimpse of the battle. A small portion of our local fleet was nearby, so we called for them and headed to your position as fast as we could", Loeras replied.

"How are things going in the Alliance?" asked Irma. "Based on what I could gather from Kirtan and Allura's garbled messages, not well. Emperor Arlen and Empress Selta are also struggling. So many uriaks appeared. Arlen's teams to Kaeltos and the nearby regions have not been heard from for weeks. Pyros, Deila, Exaera, Raelin, Heogarma, Merela, Kyma and Durian went to Xaraeon a month ago. No news from them either. Of our newly graduated fighters, only Rohalla, Kelta, Valaeon, Freya, Ryala, Zaeron and Erjana are still alive. The others were killed, or turned into uriaks. And in the Republic?" Erean replied.

"We also had an uriak infestation. It was small at first, but spread out. Most of our order were killed by the creatures. There are only a few dozen left. We are the only ones the Chancellor was able to send out", Elana said. "Then our predicament is even worse than we originally thought", Erean frowned.

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