******
Dagiri had waited for this moment. Once the A.I. was in his arsenal, the corporations would be next—no longer would he be a slave to their whim.
The sides of the two cargo ships opened up and their cargo jettisoned as sealed containers into space. Eight containers floated away, and a single fighter began to attach to each of them. Like a well-rehearsed play, the fighters all grabbed their designated cargo container and began to tow them away, all in perfect unison. The remaining fighters began firing on the cargo ships, intent on knocking out their communications and thereby delaying the alert of authorities.
It was at this moment that Dagiri blinked at what he witnessed. A group of destroyers suddenly appeared from the stealth shroud, slowly creeping forward. Their markings were a mix of UEP and Martian Confederacy—a joint task force. Dagiri had a sudden sinking feeling as he stood up slowly to peer at the hologram.
The destroyers opened fire at all the fighters with their flak guns, decimating half of them within seconds. Six of the cargo containers were destroyed in the ensuing blasts that followed. The remaining fighters quickly began trying to evade the flak, darting away from them. Two of the fighters dropped their cargo and tried to make a run for it. The precise fire from the destroyers easily cut down another fighter—this left the cargo it carried unharmed.
The last fighter and its cargo was decimated by the same cannons. This left a single cargo container floating adrift in the midst of the chaos.
Dagiri’s eyes went wide as he realized what it was: “Hargo! Get that container; it must be the one we want! Get it out of there!” Dagiri yelled into the intercom.
No response came from Hargo. The scene now erupted into a melee of cannon fire and explosions in all directions. Hargo and the remaining fighters tried to get to the container and evade enemy fire at the same time, but it was no use. Two more fighters were taken out by flak fire, leaving only Hargo and four of his men left.
“I can’t, sir,” Hargo’s voice came back. “Too much—”
Dagiri slammed his fists down on his desk. “Do it, damn you! I don’t care who dies!”
At that moment, the scene changed again. This time he saw a streak of new unidentified fighters fly through the chaos. As they zoomed out of view, he could see flashes from explosions erupting all around them, the flashes so bright that the hologram went completely white and he could not see what happened next.
“Hargo?” Dagiri shouted. “What happened? What happened?”
After a few painful seconds, the hologram feed became clear again. Only this time, the mysterious fighters, along with the one cargo container, were no longer there. In its place was just the wreckage of the fight that just took place.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Hargo said. “It’s gone. I don’t know what happened, but we had to jump away into the shroud.”
Dagiri kept staring at the screen—he knew once the Elation wore off that the realization of this loss would hit him… and then his temper would soon be hitting Hargo for this failure.