Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

06_GRIND

"How are the weapons, Fel?" Orion asked.

"Lasers at thirty seven; five torpedoes left, two laser mines and two stealth mines. Don't worry," Fel preempted Orion's habitual admonition, "I'll use them sparingly until the last run."

"Shields?"

"Thirty-three percent," Celli reported, "that stealth mine took out a whole twenty-one." She calculated their trajectory, "We're going to have to out-maneuver them. We don't have enough shields or weapons to fight our way to the front."

Orion breathed deeply and cleared his mind. "Celli," he said calmly, "give me the coordinates for the 'GX Twister.'"

Celli turned her head and looked at him wondering if she had heard correctly.

Fel smiled and nodded.

"Are you sure?" Celli asked, hoping Orion was joking.

"Either we die in the twister, or we make it tenth place. There's only one more quantrex after this one, and it's not our strongest."

Celli knew he was right, but she was not one to take needless risks. "Okay," she agreed, "it's just that we've never flown this one in a game session."

"Orion's ready for it," Fel said confidently, "and if we do make it – which I think we will – then I'll burn whatever weapons we have left in the final stretch. It's our only chance; if not I'm gonna have to borrow credit from you guys for the next game, and I already owe you both over fifty Gs."

Celli leaned back, tightened her safety belt, and moved her display panel closer. "twenty mecs," she said establishing full concentration, "to the left at... QM-115, no... make that 117."

Fel nodded. This was going to be fun either way.

The six ships ahead of them flew into the FR-12 course through the asteroid belt. This was the only safe route; the only one reasonable teams ever took. Calabar made a sharp turn left at the entrance to the belt and headed into "The Twister".

The spectators in the arena stood and cheered. Calabar had made two historic moves already. If they did make it out of the twister alive, even if they didn't win a position, they would be mrith club legends.

"Twister in... five, four, three, two, one... here we go!"

Orion established peak concentration. He turned sharply to avoid a small asteroid then slammed into a thin debris cloud. Their craft shuddered.

"Shields down to thirty-two, but we're still okay."

Another debris field. The craft shuddered again as thousands of gravel-sized stones pelted them. "Shields holding!"

Orion quickly wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Get ready Fel," Celli called, we're going to have to blast our way through this next cluster, their too big to hit."

"Ready." Fel set his sights and swiveled into place. He set the cannon to level five and put his finger on the trigger.

"Do or die!" Orion called out, "I'm keepin' the throttle at full!"

Fel nodded, not taking his eyes off the fast-approaching asteroid cluster. Fel controlled his breathing and began firing. "one... two... three, four, five..." he counted as he blasted the boulder-sized rocks into gravel. The ship shuddered again as they passed through the debris.

"Shields at thirty-three."

"nine, ten... eleven, twelve," Fel continued counting.

They hit a free space and Fel had a break. "We've only got seventeen percent laser fire left," he reported, "I hope it'll be enough to get us through this, but we won't have any for the final stretch."