FutureSight - a YEAR 10000 story

11 - The Battle of Fortimus Palus

The main fleet of the Consheir rogues floated in orbit above Dampheere. Daren was on his ship, the Anvil, waiting for jump orders from Vergeir.

Just as he was thinking that, a few more ships appeared in orbit. From the design, he could tell that they were Sel Sarrak Combine vessels. Now what the hell was the Combine doing over here?

He called up Vergeir and decided to ask around.

The phone rang for a little bit, and eventually picked up. "Hey Vergeir, what's with these Combine ships? And you better not tell me they're coming along for the ride."

There was some static, and Vergeir answered. "Actually, they are. The Sel Sarrak are powerful allies when going up against the Triad. They believe this is just an attack on Fortimus Palus. What they don't know about is that FutureSight is likely there."

"I wouldn't trust them if I were you," Daren said back. "And it wouldn't surprise me if the Sel Sarrak knew about FutureSight. You watch them. Daren out."

He hung up and sat back in his seat. Now he was getting that edgy nervous feeling one always got before shit hit the fan.

His jump coordinates appeared. It looked like the Sel Sarrak fleet was going to attack the capitol world of Sesimar while the rest of the Consheir rebels went at Fortimus Palus. He was with the rebels, which would jump not long after Sel Sarrak jumped.

Daren looked at his map. Dampheere was on the edge of Triad territory, and some distance from Sel Sarrak territory. Sesimar wasn't too far in, and neither was Fortimus Palus. He guessed maybe an hour long flight before they landed in the action. That means they should jump maybe thirty minutes after the Sel Sarrak jump.

He saw the Sel Sarrak ships vanish one by one, disappearing into post-lightspeed. They were all gone now, and now he just had time to kill.

He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking about Koe. That horrid beast had killed him just the other day it seemed. He was still coping with the loss.

Daren had lost people before – a lot of people, actually – but it had been a long time. One of the many reasons he lived alone, flew alone.

"Damn Koe, why'd it have to be you?" he thought. It was a hard loss.

The communications buzzed, and he got a signal from Vergeir. "Daren, we'll be jumping in ten seconds. Make sure your coordinates are all laid in and stuff."

"Already?" he questioned, looking at the time. "It's only been maybe...one...minute..." He noticed that the clock had said thirty minutes had passed. Well how do you like that? He killed time pretty fast it seemed.

"Alright, laying in coordinates Vergeir," he said," jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...jump!"

There was a flash, and they began hurtling through space.

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Roughly an hour later, Daren stirred to consciousness. His ship had just alerted him to the fact that the jump was over.

He stood upright, rubbing his eyes and going over the instrument panels. Everything was checked and cleared. Through the dirty glass of his cockpit window he saw a jungle world suspended before a red supergiant. Two small moons seemed to be orbiting it.

"Warning! Incoming projectiles!" his computer blared.

That was fast.

He threw his ship into a sideways roll which took it behind a larger ship, offering some cover. He used his light particle beams to slice and dice the missiles that followed him. Which was most of them.