Chapter 211: Spear of God
It was a lie.
The words kept repeating in Jonah’s mind, like a panicked, non-stop scream. The hidden space mines, the deadly drone attack, the huge, terrifying space station... it was all just a game. It was just a big, costly distraction. Sterling had fooled them all. He had fooled him personally.
While he was way up here, millions of miles away, fighting to save the whole world, Julian Sterling was down on the planet, secretly taking control of it.
He thought of Seraph. He thought of Draven. He thought of the Headmaster. He imagined them trapped, hunted, and fighting a war they had no chance in winning. All because he had fallen for the trap. All because he had flown away where the real battle was happening.
A burning anger, stronger than any feeling he had before, suddenly took over his body.
"Jonah?" Vanessa’s voice sounded faint and far away. The hundreds of black, deadly drones were still firing at them. Their bright plasma shots were causing the cockpit to shake hard every time they hit. Loud alarms were sounding all around them. Red emergency lights were flashing across her face. "Jonah, what is it? What’s wrong?"
He turned to face her, and she pulled back instantly from the strange, awful look in his eyes. His face didn’t show fear anymore. All that was left was a burning, terrible rage.
"If this station is the reason we’re trapped up here," he said, and his voice was a low, dangerous growl. "Then it’s coming down."
"What are you talking about?" she shouted while struggling with the controls as another large group of enemy shots hit Nomad’s side hard. "We have to fight the drones first! We can’t even get close to it!"
"We’re not getting close to it," he said while his hands were holding his own controls tightly. He was done fighting tactically. He was done playing their stupid, little game.
He closed his eyes. He reached for the deep, powerful source of Nomad’s power. He did not do it in a gentle, controlled way. He opened the source completely, letting everything rush out.
"Vanessa," he ordered, and his voice was so full of power that it left no room for any argument. "Channel all of Nomad’s absorbed solar energy. Everything. Every last drop. Reroute it all to the primary weapon system. Now."
Her eyes opened wide in surprise and shock. "Jonah, no! That’s insane! The system can’t handle that much power! It will drain us completely! We won’t be able to move or do anything! We’ll be helpless!"
"Do it!" he yelled, and the cockpit itself seemed to shake from the power of his anger.
Outside, Nomad’s two huge sails of liquid light began to glow with a new, incredible power. The gentle starlight glow they usually had became much stronger. It brightened from gentle silver to a blinding, furious gold.
The huge swarm of drones, as if they could sense the sudden surge of dangerous energy, all attacked at once. They stopped firing their weapons from a distance. They started to physically rip and tear at Nomad’s body.
CRUNCH. SCREECH. BOOM!
The cockpit was hit by a series of strong, sudden explosions. Hot, bright sparks fell from the ceiling panels. One of the screens on the console broke, forming many thin lines across the glass.
"They’re tearing us apart!" Vanessa screamed, her hands moving fast across her console. She was desperately trying to hold the unstable energy channel steady. A small bit of blood ran from her nose from force of the violent impacts. "Jonah, the hull is failing! We can’t take much more of this!"
He ignored her. He ignored the screaming alarms. He ignored the violent explosions. He ignored the terrible feeling of his creation being torn apart. His mind was focused on a single, burning point of pure hatred. The fortress that had tricked him up here.
He took aim.
And with a powerful roar in his own mind, he released all the power he had.
"Starfall Lance."
A large, long spear of solid starlight shot out from Nomad’s core. It was a hundred miles long. It moved across the empty, black space in one fast, silent moment.
It struck Project Damocles.
The massive, fortress-like space station did not explode. There was no fire. No pieces of broken material flew off.
There was only light.
There was only a blinding flash of white light. It was so bright that it made the stars seem to vanish from sight.
Then, there was nothing.
Where the fortress had been just a moment ago, there was now only empty, black space. It had been destroyed.
The attack had worked.
And it had cost them everything.
Inside the dark, silent cockpit, the golden glow from Nomad’s sails flashed and then died. The low buzz of its cosmic power stopped. It was replaced by a sudden silence. The Progeny went still and unresponsive. Its cosmic, star-filled body became inactive too. Its inner, spinning galaxy of light faded to a dull grey.
The ship had become nothing more than a piece of garbage, floating with no control in the dark space.
A powerful wave of psychic feedback hit Jonah hard. It felt like his soul was being torn in half.
"Jonah!"
He heard Vanessa’s voice. It was a terrified cry that was full of a new and terrible despair. Then, the pain, the light, and everything all faded away to a deep, final black.
He slumped forward in his seat, completely and totally unconscious.
Vanessa was alone.
She stared at his still, silent form. Then she stared at the dead, dark consoles. Then she stared out the main viewer at the endless, empty, and uncaring sea of stars. She was alone, in a dead, powerless Progeny, millions and millions of miles from a home that had been conquered and lost.
There was no hope of a rescue. There was no way to get back.
There was only the cold, and the silence, and the dark.