Chapter 8

Ben braced himself against the corridor wall as he stood up, the floor attempting to shake him back down to his knees. He helped his sister get up, just as another salvo exploded onto the base shielding, nearly throwing them back down.

"I've got to get to the hangar, Emily!" Ben hollered over the sound of explosions towards his sister.

"I know, but I'm coming with you; the regulations and commanders can go straight to Hell if they don't like it!" she gripped onto his arm as they were talking, stumbling towards the lift. When they finally made it there, struggling to see where it was through the dust and debris that was beginning to fall in the corridors, they both cursed, the lift having crashed down to the bottom of the shaft.

Ben leapt out onto one of the electromagnetic propulsion rails built into the wall, holding onto it tightly. He let go for a few moments, falling, guided by the energy he was now streaming out from underneath him, into a horizontal shaft stretching towards the hangar bay five floors below. He dashed through the shaft as quickly as possible, his sister following right behind him, having copied his descent maneuver.

As they entered the hangar, they headed towards the only craft that looked like it might have been able to transport a group of people. It was a personnel shuttle with a ten passenger capacity... and unfortunately, it was about to become scrap as a girder fell from the ceiling towards it, jarred severely by another explosion. Ben focused his energy without thinking, snapping a field over the two ton beam. With an almighty wrench of his power, he flung it like a toothpick to land safely thirty meters away.

A group of ten people neared the shuttle. Ben recognized five of them as members of Dragon squadron. The other five consisted of what looked like a pilot and four high ranking officers, including a general. He ran up to the base of the ramp that descended from the shuttle to meet them, and saw the pilot look in confusion at Emily.

"Listen, this transport has room for Dragon squadron and the Command Staff only. I made that clear to the General here when I said I could evacuate ten people from the base." The pilot looked disgruntled, as if someone had gone back on a deal with him.

"Evacuate?" Ben asked in confusion. "I thought Dragon squadron was being deployed on an offensive?"

Ben noticed that Rebecca's eyes flashed with jealousy as she glanced towards Emily, turning to the General to cover her reaction.

Rebecca's look changed to daggers as she stared menacingly towards the General. "Evidently, it was all just a cover Ben. They knew this base was doomed to fall, and they couldn't call in enough emergency transports to save everyone, so they thought up a cover for us- the only Warriors on the base currently- and the Command Staff, and are getting us out of here while the rest of the people here will be captured." She looked as if she wanted to claw the General's eyes out.

"I'm sorry," the General said in a grumpy tone, "but I had no damned choice! It was ten of us or none of us, and I'd prefer that some of us at least got out of here!"

Ben narrowed his eyes as he surveyed all the people gathered around him. "I see that you're not evacuating any Ghalerans either... heh. And this just happens to be an Exploration Forces shuttle. The Ghalerans help us, but when some of them might be in trouble, we leave them behind... well, you're not leaving my sister behind. Since I see only one pilot, I'll take the co-pilot chair, and my sister can have mine. No arguments. I just found out she was alive when I thought she was dead, and I am not about to lose her again." The look of jealousy faded from Rebecca's face when Ben mentioned that Emily was his sister.

"Now look here son, I decide who goes and who stays," the General began testily. He was quickly cut off however, his face turning a deep shade of purple. Having a Warrior punch you in the gut will do that to a person.

Ben practically hurled the old General up the ramp and into the shuttle, his expression one of pure and unrestrained revulsion. "You don't have a choice in the matter, coward!"

He resisted the temptation to kick the man as he walked up the ramp and into the co-pilot's seat. The others were quickly strapped down, none of them prepared to debate Ben's decision further. He quickly performed a standard pre-flight, retracting the ramp and closing the hatch.

"Looks like we're green." he reported to the pilot.

With a nod, the pilot adjusted a few controls and pushed forward on the thruster control. The last thing Ben saw of the base as they rocketed away was the impact of at least fourteen missiles against its now unshielded barracks. He hoped against hope that the section that was destroyed had been evacuated at the time of the blast.

That didn't hold his attention for long, however. As they rose through the atmosphere, another ship became visible, which was lobbing missile after missile toward the base far below. It was two kilometers long, black, possessing tiny protrusions that Ben now knew were laser turrets projecting from the sides of its hull. It was the same Liodammian vessel which had slammed into Ben's hometown.

Ben's blood turned into dry ice, his breath coming in deep rasps, as he struggled to keep control of himself. The problem was, he found it all too easy to do. His anger subsided, his emotions disappearing under a wave of calm. Without the slightest inflection in his voice, he ordered the pilot to stop and hold at their current position. When the pilot didn't comply, Ben simply reached and shut down the main thrusters; it took three minutes for a cold start. The anti-gravs would hold them there until Ben came back.