Astral Legacy Book 1

20

Kershala had been gone seemingly for hours, when in reality, it was only about ten minutes. Kale braced himself against a console as the last volley from the Shironian ship grazed the Sironia's shielding. Kale was starting to feel a bit of nausea from the constant flying around. He could see the motion on the main viewer, and it was more than any roller coaster he had ever been on.

"Atondra, I can't stay ahead of them. They must be running some sort of predictive algorithm. It is like their weapons are predicting my maneuvers," explained Jelani tapping away at her console.

"Become unpredictable then, Jelani we are not out of the fire yet," Atondra remained calm Kale figured she likely had a strong leadership background and was doing as any good commander would do under the circumstances. The ship shook violently, and sparks flew from overhead as the ship took another heavy volley.

"I'm sorry Atondra, that just came out of nowhere."

"The barriers are down!" exclaimed Rotabu as his hands ran over his workstation. Kale felt a strange sensation behind him and turned as the light from a teleporter began to form.

"Look out!" He called immediately acting as the Shironian soldier formed in front of him. Kale body checked the soldier and knocked him off balance before striking at him like Kershala had shown him during their training.

"Atondra to all hands we are being boarded!" Atondra called before turning and subduing another of the invaders that had boarded.

"With the barriers down we will be overrun!" called Jelani. Atondra and Rotabu engaged with attackers as Kale had done. Kale could also hear an energy weapon discharge several times. He now grappled with the Shironian that had the advantage of armor over him. Kale had struck it several times but the armor both hurt his hands and stopped him from doing any damage to it. Kale gave everything he had and thrust the Shironian into a wall before it went limp. He took a step back as it fell to the ground seeing that Omall had killed it with an energy weapon along with two others.

"I have activated a scattering field throughout the ship. They will not be able to teleport in or out, but they have managed to get thirteen of them on board. You will need to deal with them," explained Anubis.

"Then we must clear the rest of the ship. Omall, come with me," said Rotabu.

"No, I need Omall to monitor our status with you gone. Take Kale and find Sashir just outside." Atondra interrupted as Omall stood to leave. Rotabu looked at Kale, he could tell that the man wasn't happy about it, but he also knew that Rotabu wouldn't disobey her. "Do you mind Kale?" she asked making eye contact with him.

"Of course not." Kale composed himself and let Rotabu take the lead.

"Kale take this!" Omall called and as Kale turned to him, he tossed him one of the energy weapons. It was small, and heavier than he expected it to be. The training he had undergone with Kershala had made mention of these weapons and having caught a glimpse of how Omall operated it, Kale was confident he would be able to use it reliably. As the door to the corridor opened Sashir joined the two of them and upon exiting Rotabu sealed the door. Sashir made eye contact with Kale, he knew that the security team had a bit of mistrust for him, but the man smiled at him thanking him with his eyes as they descended to the lower level.

As they approached the lab, they see a very large creature attempting to pry the doors open along with two smaller soldiers. Sashir acted seemingly on instinct and opened fire on the large creature. The beam from his weapon left a sizable hole in the creature's armor and it fell to the ground. The other Shironians quickly turned their attention to them opening fire with the pulse weapons that Kale had seen them use on Kershala in his memories. The three of them ducked before cover, Kale and Sashir dove behind a double workstation and Rotabu behind crates across from them. Kale tried to get a good look at where they were but started blind firing from behind his hiding place. A firefight broke out with the two Shironians firing at them and seeking cover themselves long enough for Sashir and Rotabu to return several volleys not hitting their attackers. Kale listened to their fire patterns and watched where their weapons fire landed he could tell they were aiming high so he rolled our going prone and firing several shots at the two of them he managed to hit one of them before rolling back into cover.