The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Seventy

Malachi and Ellie were running out of space. Pirate ships, cabal fighters and the endless debris of the dead fleet littered the sky. Energy weapons flashed in the darkness, bright colourful pulses of light which glowed through the dust and smoke of the battlefield and cast ghostly shadows on the monuments of a war long since won and long since lost.

'We need another way out,' Malachi shouted as his Valkyrie was rocked by another nearby blast. 'The fighting is too heavy this way.'

Ellie's eyes flicked over the scanner. 'There are two more coming up behind us.'

Malachi twisted his head around, scanning the dark skies for a way out. 'Which way?'

Ellie rolled her ship on its side to look underneath them. She was getting used to the weird scanner but she still trusted her eyes more. The motion of the fleet was opening and closing paths all around them. Below her, one was opening. It was tempting but her Valkyrie already knew the way out. Ellie's eyes flicked from cockpit to scanner to navigation console. Her brain sucking in the data, finding solutions, and staying alive. Her fingers hesitated over the navigation console while her other hand confidently rolled and spun the ship through the firefight.

She found the stored waypoint and selected it. A green line appeared on the scanner. It was anchored to her ship and disappeared into the fleet, curving around any obstacles in its way.

'I know the way, Mal. I found it already, but we can't leave without them.'

'We can't. You have to. You have to get that data back safely. It proves what happened. What's still happening. People need to know.'

'I don't care about people. I care about you and Tila.'

Two agent fighters broke cover from their right and headed straight for them. Heavy blasters ripped through the fleet. Malachi pulled up. Ellie dived. The agents split up, each one following their own target.

'Mal!'

Malachi turned and rolled away from the incoming fighters. The belly of his Valkyrie shone brightly as the laser fire flashed past.

'Dive! Go down,' he shouted. He wrenched the control stick back to level flight with aching forearms and fingers.

His scanner bleeped. Two more red arrows appeared underneath him. Between them and his own ship, centred in the spherical display, he could see Ellie turning down.

'Ellie!'

'I see them. We're running out of space, Mal.'

The laser fire stopped. The agent fighters on the right suddenly broke off their attack and turned away.

Malachi watched them turn and reverse direction. The Valkyrie shrieked its warning.

Weapon lock.

The agent fighters underneath broke from their intercept course. The fighters who had already turned away now turned back.

The buzzing increased by two tones. Four warning lights blinked urgently on the control panel.

The wireframe images of the fleet parted behind and below them, and a new blip appeared on the scanner, heading straight for them.

'Missiles, Ellie.'

'So, let's go up!'

The four agent fighters changed direction and opened fire. This time they fired wildly, not seeming to care if they hit the Valkyries or simply filled the sky above them with deadly criss-crossing arrows.

'We can't fly through that!'

'We can't stay here, Mal.'

Mal's eyes flicked to the scanner. Ships all around. Incoming missiles. What was he supposed to do? Even Ellie couldn't outrun a missile. But they couldn't stay here. Better to take the chance.