KALE flipped backward over the Agonotti warrior as he struck at him. Emil hurled a handful of spicors at the creature, landing a couple of hits that did damage. Kale was quick with a blade from behind, ramming it through a joint in the warrior's armor plating. The Mithrial being fell over and began to dissipate after a moment.
Both boys surveyed the damage. The hangar was a disaster area, and most of the ships were too damaged to be safe for flying. The two rebels that had stayed on this side of the transgate portal were dead.
"That portal is totally ruined," said Emil.
"Yeah, I don't think we could fix that mess, even if we knew how."
"Did you notice that one of those things shot up that ventilation shaft?"
"He'll probably lead others back in here like my father was warning. Got any suggestions?" asked Kale.
"That smaller transport over there; it looks to be in good shape. Maybe we can use its computer to activate the gate they came in by."
"It's worth a shot," said Kale.
They ran across the deck and slid the side door open on the troop compartment of the ship. Making their way into the cockpit, Emil went to work searching the database for a gate command function. Kale was performing systems checks on the engine and bringing the turbines online.
"I've got the command sequence for the gate-I'm activating it," said Emil.
"Great, now if I can-"
Emil looked over at his friend. Kale was staring out of the cockpit window toward the far end of the hangar. Emil followed his friend's gaze to where he could see humanoids materializing from a dark fog growing in size in the far end of the huge chamber.
"Any weapons systems on board?" whispered Kale without taking his eyes from the window.
"Yes, pulse lasers and rockets."
"Unload the rockets on them when I hit the thrusters," instructed Kale.
Emil nodded and gently slid into his flight chair's harness. The panel indicated that turbines were operating at ninety six percent efficiency.
"Time to go," whispered Kale as he grabbed the flight controls.
"Rockets are locked and the gate is active."
He tensed his grip on the controls and activated the thrusters, just as Emil sent the deadly ordinance hurtling down the chamber toward the Agonotti. The ship reared up into the air, barely clearing the pavement before Kale pulled it into a one hundred and eighty degree turn heading for the portal. A huge flash of light erupted behind them as the rockets hit home. The rock wall came at them fast as Kale sought their escape through the active transgate portal.
"I hope that bought us some time. Open the gate!" shouted Kale.
"Got it!"
The portal flashed into being just before the nose of the ship would have smashed into the rock. They were suddenly emerging into open air outside the mountain; rising off of its face. Gravity fought to pull them back as the thrusters pushed hard away from the ground-the boys were locked into their flight chairs barely able to move. The panel readout was registering thruster power at maximum and a warning light was flashing to inform the pilot of potential turbine failure if speed was not reduced quickly.
Kale complied with the computer and eased off of the throttle as he pulled the ship around and leveled out their flight path.
"Do you see anything?!" shouted Kale over the roaring engine.
Emil looked out of the side window from the cockpit as the ship came around.
"We've got company!" said Emil. "Agonotti cloud, rising off of the mountain and headed our way."
"Is there anything near our position where we could hide or anything?"
Emil tapped into the ships database again. He pulled up maps and triangulated their position. "It says the closest civilization is Sector City-one hundred miles. Probably take about ten minutes at this speed."
"Are they gaining on us?" asked Kale.
Emil looked back at the cloud spiraling up and after them. "Hard to tell-they don't even show up on these scanners at all. What do we do when we reach the city?"
Kale looked at his friend with a shrug and said, "At this point, I haven't got a clue. I'm just hoping something will present itself."