MERAB was blasting away at the aerogores, but they were difficult targets to hit. Buildings were being blown to pieces around them by the big Vorn cruiser in the plains beyond Sector City and over a hundred pods were on their way to intercept their convoy of ships.
"I've got the Maelstrom!" shouted Emil over the noise of explosions. "Captain Viche is online!"
"Captain Viche, this is Kale Soone, the son of the king. We have to get everyone away from that cruiser firing on us from the eastern outskirts of the city."
"I understand. We had better head west, away from them. There is a place we can regroup some distance from here; the valley of Sayir," said Viche. "The other rebel forces were rendezvousing there already before coming on to Sector City. I will let them know our situation and have them wait for us there."
"That sounds good. Please transmit the coordinates to the others while we try to provide some cover for you."
"I'll notify all of our ships," said Viche. "Lord willing, we'll see you there, young master. Maelstrom out."
"The coordinates are coming through now," said Emil.
"Good. Keep trying to raise my father. We've got to let him know where we are headed."
"Those pods are closing in fast," said Jael.
"Merab, send the scans of the pods into the auto-targeting system and set it to fire at will!"
"Kale, I've got your father online," said Emil.
"Great!" he said, relieved that his father was safe. "Send him the coordinates for the valley and tell him we'll be meeting the rest of our forces there."
One of the larger vessels exploded a few miles away over the rooftops. The Vorn cruiser had found a nice sized target and obliterated it. The rest of the ships were filing steadily out of the city to the west, leaving behind the aerogores that had driven them out of the base. But the pods were almost to the others still trying to get above ground.
"I'm taking us right at them," said Kale as he brought the Equinox to bear on their position.
He charged the ship toward the pod squadrons. The auto-tracking for the weapons systems came alive as the first pod was picked up by its sensors. Gun turrets all across the hull of the ship blazed into action, tracking and terminating the one man attack fighters.
The offensive attack was wreaking havoc on the orderly pod formations. They resembled swarming insects as they engaged the larger vessel plowing through their ranks.
"Hopefully, we can buy some time for the others to escape," said Kale.
A blast hit the Equinox sending a booming shudder through the ship.
"What happened?!" shouted Jael.
"We've been hit by one of the cruisers," replied Emil as he quickly sifted through the various alarms and information pouring onto his displays. "We're losing the engine control systems!"
Kale was battling the controls to keep the ship stable. "I'm losing the helm!"
"How did they get through the shields so quickly?"
"Shield Frequency Capture… it's a system that was developed for the cruisers back during the Baruk war," said Emil as he tried to bring the engine control backups online. He tried to reroute power to auxiliary systems but everything was failing under the power load. "It's no good, Kale-I can't get helm control back up yet. I should have taken you up on letting me drive the next time."
The ship was beginning to tumble out of control and lose altitude.
"Load the coordinates for Sayir and activate the transgate!" shouted Kale.
The Equinox's shields bounced them off of the side of a burnt out sky scraper as they continued out of control in their descent.
"Man, I'm getting tired of landing upside down," said Emil, frustrated.
"What's going on up there?!" shouted Mirah through the intercom.
"Hold on Mother-it's going to get rough!"
The ship began to tumble over again in its descent. The pods that had been engaged with the vessel were trying desperately to remove their selves from its path. The pavement was approaching fast. Emil hammered away at the computer controls from his upside down position strapped inside his flight chair.
"Talk to me, Emil!" shouted Kale desperately.
"It's tricky! We don't want to land on our backs somewhere else, you know?!"
Their flight chair harnesses strained against their bodies to hold them firmly in place. Kale hoped they were strapped in well enough in the med-lab.
"I've got it!" shouted Emil triumphantly.
The Equinox was enveloped in a pocket of bright light and vanished.