Galaxy of Heroes

Spade emerged from the mining tunnels on the other side of the ridgeline. He skirted the backside of the ridge, moving as fast as he could, ducking for cover whenever a drone zoomed overhead.

The Diocon squad rushed out of the mine after him, following his tracks with their sensors.

From high up on the ridgeline, Spade could see the battle raging out on the plain beyond the glowing Naos Rift. The Diocons appeared to be in disarray. Without their Noctish mastermind, their battle plan had lost coherence.

The control center for the Diocon missile shield had been the command and control vehicle, which Spade had destroyed.

With the Diocon missile shield out of commission, the surviving ships from the Craaldan fleet had their opening and were now bombarding the Diocon positions from orbit. Missiles streaked down from space and exploded on the surface in great domes of light.

A missile shot upward from a Craaldan position on the Bleak Range and arced over the plain toward Zander City. Spade watched from his vantage point until he lost sight of it behind the jagged black peaks of the Craggy Mountains.

A blinding white light flashed and the mountains lurched and shook. A giant mushroom cloud expanded behind the ridgeline.

The Craaldans had nuked Zander City.

The shockwave knocked Spade to the ground. He tumbled down the steep mountainside, accompanied by crashing boulders, stones and chunks of black ice. He landed on a flat ledge and regained his footing, dodging stones and boulders that careened past him. He ran through a ravine and out onto the foothills until he reached the flatness of the plain.

He waited for a drone to make its pass, and then sprinted for the Naos Rift. He leaped over the rift and landed on the other side at a full sprint.

The smoldering corpses of Diocons and Craaldans littered the plain. Fire shot skyward from the wrecked hulks of burning battle tanks. The debris from shattered attack drones was scattered about in craters and channels carved in high-velocity crashes.

The battle had moved farther south. Spade was able to reach the Bleak Range without being detected. He clambered straight up the mountains, moving as quickly as possible over the rock and ice.

He reached the apex of the mountain range and then scrambled down its backside through sharp ravines and steep canyons. He knew this territory well, and was able to bypass impassable routes while traveling a path pursuers most likely would overlook when navigating with computer mapping systems.

Spade came over a ridge and spotted the Red Wrath below.

“Red, you’re beautiful,” he said.

It appeared the area had long been abandoned by Craaldan forces. He felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of relief. But when he zoomed in on the ship with his optics, he was disappointed to discover that an ambush had been set. Three Craaldan infantry troops were dug into concealed fighting positions around his ship.

The troops had yet to notice Spade moving down the ridgeline. Spade moved stealthily, and attempted to creep up as close as possible to the Craaldan soldiers.

Spade lay perfectly still and observed them and contemplated his next move.

The Craaldan soldiers appeared bored, often turning their heads to look at each other while communicating. The battle was now distant and they were far from the action.

Spade zeroed his gun sight on the Craaldan soldier in the center fighting position and placed the crosshairs onto the soldier’s faceplate.

Spade fired his weapon, scoring a direct hit, taking the soldier’s head clean off.

Spade ducked behind the back of the ridge and sprinted several hundred meters to the south. He then crept back over the ridge and took up a new position.

The two remaining Craaldans were firing rounds and grenades at the position Spade had just vacated. The Craaldans were concealing themselves expertly now. Spade couldn’t get a bead on them.

He fired a grenade over the second Craaldan’s position. The grenade exploded with a wallop directly over where the Craaldan had last fired his weapon.

A moment after the blast, the Craaldan staggered out of his fighting position and sprinted for the safety of his battle buddy’s position. Spade lined up the crosshairs and scored a direct hit, cutting the running soldier in two.

The third soldier bolted out from his concealed position and sprinted up the ridgeline directly for Spade. The Craaldan fired off several grenades that exploded over Spade, stunning him. Rounds from the Craaldan’s weapon chewed up the rock and ice around him.

Spade looked up to see the Craaldan closing in on him. Spade fired off a round at the soldier, who adroitly sidestepped the blast in full sprint. The Craaldan swung his weapon around onto his back and popped bayonets from both his fists as he rushed in for the kill.

Spade stood up and fired his weapon from the hip. The CX-649 rounds struck center mass just as the Craaldan reached striking distance. The rounds left a gaping hole in the Craaldan soldier’s chest. The soldier fell and skidded to a stop at Spade’s feet.

Spade stepped over him and ran down the ridge to his interceptor. He reached the ship and entered the decompression chamber, taking off his helmet as he entered the galley.

“Mingus! Brute!”

Frozen blood was pooled on the galley floor.

“Tanaka!” Spade shouted. “Where are you?”

Spade unclamped himself from his mech armor. He climbed up to the cockpit. Bloody handprints were pressed against the seats, control panels and forward screen.

Spade ran through the passageways, checking the bays, but they were all empty.

He went down into the cargo hold. Three gray bags were stacked atop each other at the back of the hold.

Spade’s heart pounded as he unzipped the top bag.

“Aw, Mingus.”

Her face was white and lifeless. Her throat had a ghastly puncture wound where she had been stabbed with a bayonet.

Spade ran his hand across her cold cheek.

“Mingus...”

He unzipped the second bag. Tanaka’s corpse was inside. Tanaka’s eyepieces were shattered and embedded into his bloodied face. The side of his head had been crushed. “Dammit, Tanaka.”

Spade unzipped the bottom bag. Brute’s face was badly bruised and broken. His body was riddled with puncture wounds and gashes from bayonet slashes.

“I know you went down swinging, Leonard.”

Spade zipped the bags back up and left the hold. He went up to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s chair.

He smashed his fists onto the control panel. “You bastards.”

He powered up the ship. The Red Wrath’s sensors picked up a platoon of mechanized vehicles speeding through the pass toward the ship’s position.

Spade lifted off and rocketed spaceward. Swarms of drones zeroed in on him in hot pursuit.

The Red Wrath shot past the pathetic remnants of the once powerful Craaldan 17th Fleet. Spade gunned his ship to full power, hoping the Craaldans wouldn’t continue to give chase.

But Craaldan interceptors broke away from the fleet and came after him. While he had a fair chance of outrunning drones, the interceptors were much faster than his own ship and better armed. Spade knew his chances were slim of escaping them in open space.

He dove the Red Wrath for Roga with the Craaldans hot on his tail. He plunged the ship into the big planet’s storm clouds.

The Red Wrath was jolted about as lightning crashed against its hull.

The gas giant’s immense gravity field threatened to pull Spade down into its core. He pulled back on the stick and shot upward through the swirling green, yellow and red storm clouds.

Spade let out a whoop as the Red Wrath shot out of the clouds and out into the blackness of space. He scanned the clouds behind him on the ship’s sensors.

Thirty Craaldan interceptors shot out of the clouds after him.

“Great,” Spade said. He gunned the engines to the max. “Let’s go, Red. No time for second best.”