Kale ran toward the hangar's rock wall where the pods came through. He had a Barudii blade in hand. A pod veered in his direction. Laser blasts strafed the pavement on either side of him as he seized the attacker with his mind, pulling the pod down. Kale leaped up to it as it descended. He used the pod as a springboard, leaping away higher as it continued downward and slammed into the hangar floor.
Kale flipped over in a tight ball higher and higher and then unfolded to land on another pod. He used the centrifugal force of his somersault to slam his ignited blade straight down through the top of the pod cockpit. He hit the pilot square on and leaped away again as the pod dropped out from under him.
An alarm sounded all over the huge bay. The main hangar door started to retract. Open sky peered inside from beyond-freedom for the Gunirans if they could get the transports away in time. The pods blasted away at the large ships as they groaned to bring their hulking masses up from the tarmac. Other than scorch marks, the small pods did very little damage to these behemoths-flies biting at giants. But for those caught outside the fleeing vessels the pods brought the sting of death.
The Equinox waited to move out. Kale landed back on the pavement and released a few spicors at some incoming pods and then he sprinted for the boarding ramp. All but one spicor slammed into their targets and brought the pods down in flashes of debris and fire.
Kale sensed his father's urgency-they had to escape before the warships figured out where they had run to. He ran up the ramp and triggered the mechanism to raise it. When Kale got to the bridge, Grod had already activated the thrusters to raise them off of the platform. As the ship swung around, three Guniran transports made their way up and out of the underground hangar bay ahead of them.
Huge bolts of blaster fire pummeled the shields of the first transport. It had to be a big warship out there beyond the open bay door-nothing else could bring down that kind of firepower. Grod used the advantage of their smaller size to move the Equinox ahead of the third transport in line to get out. The Equinox glided under the belly of the second ship as more laser fire slammed into the first ship.
As the Equinox slipped between the ground and the second transport two Vorn battle cruisers hovered overhead. The warships blasted both of the transports that had emerged from the hangar bay. One of the Vorn ships launched a barrage of missiles that spiraled individually on track for the first Guniran transport which lost shield power. The missiles scattered along its forward bridge section and along the top and sides of the vessel, pitting it badly with multiple explosions and penetrating the hull.
The first Guniran transport began to drop out of the sky much faster than it had ascended. With a short fall it plowed into the ground creating a thunderous roar felt throughout the hull of the Equinox. Grod kept the ship low to the ground while the other transport climbed for more altitude under continuous fire from the Vorn warships.
Wynn sat at the weapons control console, using their limited fire power as best as he could, but it just wasn't enough to fight a heavy cruiser. Evasion was their only recourse. The warships concentrated their efforts on the big transports. Grod veered hard to port to keep away from a near strafe line that scorched the ground behind them. A crashing sounded from back in the crew cabin area.
"What was that?" Tiet asked.
"I'll check on it, Father."
"I'll go with him," Jael said as he unfastened his flight harness.
The pair made their way to the rear hall behind the bridge compartment, bracing themselves against the walls at regular intervals to counter Grod's evasive maneuvering.
Kale sensed a stowaway in his own compartment. The auto-door slid away to reveal a surprising guest.
"Aija, sir. What are you doing here?" Kale asked.
"Planning to leave, the same as you," he said trying to steady himself against the gravitational forces in play throughout the ship.
"We expected that you had evacuated aboard one of the Guniran transports," Jael said.
"And well I would have, but the Lord bid me to enter your ship before takeoff."
"I don't understand."
"Young master Kale, there is much work to be done, but we must get to the right place to do it. Are we ready to make a transgate jump?"
"No, we're trying to evade the warships."
The prophet pushed past him, heading for the bridge-his cane tapping the metal flooring in time with his stride.
"Aija?!" Tiet exclaimed. "How did you-"
"My King, we must jump to Draconis immediately."
"But-"
"Please, there isn't time to explain."
Tiet locked eyes with the prophet. "Grod, we've got to jump to Draconis."
"I'd be happy to be anywhere besides here, but I can't program the sequence right now," he said as he fought the ship's controls.
Wynn's flight chair tracked sideways to the transgate controls at the science station. He began setting coordinates for the jump by reinitiating the same coordinates they had used for the recall gate to rescue Kale and the others before.
"We're running out of room fast," Grod said as the Equinox approached a huge mountain range. The ship skimmed just above the tree line trying to remain elusive with the warships after them. Grod spun the ship around and headed back toward the cruisers pursuing them. A total of six now had them in pursuit.
"If you're going to do it, you had better make it fast," Grod said.
Wynn finalized the command sequence and tapped the initiate button. The ship began to stream through a self made tunnel of light as they came upon the Vorn cruisers fast. Just before they would have collided with the warships, the trailing photons enveloped the Equinox completely. They disappeared.