Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Vahal Fort: Second part


On the bridge of the DSS Glorious Light, General Adam Freeman was studying his console, observing the progress of his team through a camera located inside Sandy's power suit.

He stood alone, showing a commanding, distant demeanor, standing with his back straight from a habit acquired through a life-long military career. His head lightly tilted downwards so he could silently follow the progress of his team on his console. His deep blue stare had something of a sad expression. Though he wasn't much taller than the average man, his presence made him stand out. His dark blue military uniform had an elongated coat to accommodate the esper-designed armor he always wore while on duty. He never wore his battle medals outside of official ceremonies, he preferred letting his hard stare speak for itself. Only his rank showed on his arms and shoulders. On his belt he wore his sidearm, called a Varista, a special handgun designed to paralyze his enemies through a series of electrically induced nerve impulses. If he needed to do more than paralyze, a gun would not be the tool he'd use. His very short dark blonde hair was neatly combed and his face was a picture of calm and composure.

His second in command's voice made him raise his head.

-General, we have two signals on approach.

-What can you make of them?

Freeman frowned. The last thing he needed now was a space battle.

-Pirate crafts. Two ships that resemble refitted Dominion class cruisers.

-I see. Open hailing frequencies.

-Opened, sir.

Freeman walked towards the outer view monitor.

-This is the DSS Glorious Light. In case you had not been informed of the obvious, pirates are to be shot on sight in Motavian space. If you wanted to turn yourselves in, Gaira is in the other direction. In any case, why don’t you get the hell out of my sky?


Freeman did not really expect an answer but he wanted to see if the intruders would show what they wanted.

…

-No response General. They keep coming closer. They are within firing range but they do nothing. I wonder what they're up to.

-They're probably trying to decide if two patched up Dominions can take on the flagship of our forces.

The Dominion class supercruiser with its 300 meters length was almost three times the size of the Glorious Light. It packed enough firepower to send Freeman's flagship to hell and back… providing it could hit it.

All the capital ships in the Mota-Dezo fleet had an energy shield technology that was not yet mastered by the Palmans. Since nearly all pirate ships were from Palman war defectors, the same applied to them. To add to that, Freeman's fleet was designed for speed and accuracy. The Dominions were specialized in powerful strike against huge, slow targets like moons or space stations. A ship as fast as the Glorious light, unless cornered or forced to stop, was not threatened by their weapons.

Where it lacked in size and solidity, the Glorious Light certainly did not lack in firepower. Designed to be an unique improved version of the Supernova class cruiser, the Glorious Light had a weapon called the Grantz cannon able to send a ship five times the size of a Dominion class cruiser to its doom, all it required was a powerful Force user able to generate the Grantz technique to power up the specialist device that turned technique energy into shields, teleports or in this case, beam weapons. The other Nova cannons were designed to make good use of techniques like the fire based foi or the electrical zonde. The grantz technique however was only usable by the very few most accomplished Forces in the Algo solar system. Freeman was such a person.

Freeman sat down and re-assured his crew.

-Their normal weapons cannot penetrate our shields and their main cannons will never hit us. If they don't leave in 20 seconds or if they try anything funny, fire a warning shot off their port bow.

Outside the ship, stars next to the Glorious Light shimmered for a second. Freeman's first officer shouted in alarm.

-General! A ship just de-cloaked! It's the Nemesis! It bears the brand of the pirate fleet!

One of the three surviving ships that had defected from their own fleet and joined the pirates was at last revealed! Freeman was about to give an order when his ship rocked under an explosion!

-General! The Nemesis opened fire on us! They used their technique cannons to bypass our shields! Our shield generators are hit and shields are down!

-Return fire!! Evasive actions! Full speed ahead!

A slow, determined voice spoke in the speakers.

-This is Vice-Admiral Tynon Hares of the free ship Praetor. We have turned your own weapons against you, this is our sky now. But, for history's sake, any last words, General Freeman?

Freeman smirked.

-Yes, Admiral. Thank you for returning our ship to us.

Freeman signed his officer to cut the communication.

-Warm up the grantz cannon, I'm going to see how long they try to make history with it pointed at their face. Prepare to fire on Praetor at my command.

Freeman got up and walked towards the door, eager to go to the cannon control room. His first officer asked just before he left:

-General, what do we do about the Nemesis?

Freeman hesitated, but only for a very short second.

-No sense in fighting on two fronts, we'll never be able to fire grantz if we have a Supernova cruiser burning us down. Signal the backup escorts to drop cloak and engage the Nemesis.

-Do we hope to disable it? Destroying it seems like such a waste…

Freeman turned around and gave a grave look to his crew.

-How many did these pirates and cultists murdered as they tried to invade our capital planet? Last count was in the tens of thousands. Friends or relative of yours? Do you realize what will happen if we let this ship escape and allow the pirates to keep it? They're pirates, Captain. Their loyalty is to chaos and only themselves.

-Yes general.

Freeman left the command bridge and ran towards the cannon room. On his way through the last corridor, he tapped his wrist module and sent a message.


***

The corridor was dark again. Erad Stern expected some sort of alarm to go off after their short encounter with the security androids but all remained silent.

-How close are we to the objective?

Sandy Ryan scanned the area and quickly came up with an answer.

-There is a large room 300 feet in front of us, some sort of a warehouse. According to the schematics the intelligence guys gave us, it's directly adjacent to where the weapon development was done. The designated target currently emits a 5 giga-watt pulse set at a 500 Hz frequency. This is the hum we've been hearing for the last five minutes.

Aaron Kurtz looked back directly toward his commanding officer.

-Five freakin giga-watts? Just how big is this thing?

Sandy's golden eyes stared into the scanner again.

-I can't get a conclusive scan. We'll have to go take a look for ourselves.


They started moving again. From the absence of air movement, Stern guessed a door was between them and their objective. About one minute later, his suspicions proved accurate.

-Here's the access panel.

Kurtz's voice was low; he was already assessing the device. Stern frowned and looked at him.

-Our codes won't work. What options do we have?

A question to which Sandy quickly answered.

-Kurtz, see if you can crack it. If you can`t, I'll have to ask you gentlemen to move aside.

They both looked at Sandy and nodded. She was already positioning herself to maximize the impact from her arm cannon's blast. Stern heard the blocking mechanisms set into place as Sandy's powersuit was acquiring a static position to absorb the recoil from her charged up weapon.

-Before you set your pretty little head on blowing up those doors and possibly us in the process, just let me ask for some help.

Kurtz smiled as he finished his sentence. From his own wrist module, he pulled a small wire which he attached to an external port on the door control. Kurtz punched a few buttons on his wrist module and gave a very low voice command.

-Eva, would you please open this for me? Try to be discreet about it.

A few lights flashed on the wrist module. Somewhere, far on the planet Dezo, the supercomputer called Eva was scanning the lock using her near infinite computing capabilities to analyze the mechanism and find the flaw. With the speed of a machine and the gentleness of a woman, Eva worked her magic and the two security doors began to slide open.

Stern was the first one to speak.

-Oh. Crap.

Kurtz looked in the room but the sound came to his ears just before his eyes could see.

The sound made by a legion of security androids, slowly coming to life, heading their way.

-Gentlemen, if you please?

They both dove on the floor as Sandy unleashed the destructive force of her arm cannon on the horde that was slowly crawling towards them.


***

Space shimmered again. Deceit was a weapon everyone could use and it was no surprise to the pirates to see military ships de-cloak and open fire on them. The Supernova class D.S.S. Aeroprism appeared with its Nova wing in formation. Such a wing was made of three Nova class attack ships and one larger Supernova class cruiser, used as the focal point for the three wing ships to rely on. The Nova class ships were the gunners, using their destructive beams to charge up their leading ship's cannons for one devastating blast. Such an attack was next to impossible to achieve on a fast moving target such as the Nemesis, but their ordinary weapons alone were good enough to keep it from crippling the Glorious Light.

They opened fire mercilessly and a fierce space battle began.

The Glorious Light used her basic weaponry to pound the pirate ship Preator and kept trying to evade the angry blasts from her opponent's cannons. The Dominion class cruiser was literally a mass of weapons sewn together, guns pointing on every side. Being blocked by the other attacking ships, the Glorious had little room to benefit from its greater speed and was therefore taking heavy damage.

The other Dominion-class pirate ship was trying to move into position to attack the Glorious light or to force it into a prone position but being constantly attacked by Mota's Nova group made it impossible to close the trap on Freeman's ship. The pirate ship's cannons were firing on all sides but his three much smaller opponents were faster and kept stinging like tireless wasps. It was enough to keep it at bay, but without the freedom to use their combined blasts, the Nova ships were not inflicting any significant damage to this armored monster.

The deadliest duel remained between the Aeroprism and the Nemesis. Both ships were dancing in space, waltzing to the sound of their technique cannons, desperately trying to avoid total annihilation.

It was an awesome display of might, unseen since the last war.