I also wonder if you're ever going to tell us (or give us more of an idea of) what the Persephone was messing with.
Darkside
Moderator: Moderators
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Archangel of Death
- Posts: 854
- Joined: 28 Jan 2005, 18:15
Year 2: Part 1
The last year began with the launch of the fleet. This year began with disaster. Donahue was drifting around the bridge, idly thumbing her way through her daily report. Apparently fifty nine fights had broken out, thirty three of them producing injury's. One of those fights had left her Xo with a hole through her gut, and a huge problem on her table. For now Weinstein was locked in his chambers, and Donahue knew she had to let him out, demote him or shoot him.
Rape had continued to be a problem, sometimes major, through out human history. After WWIII it had become almost normal. But now, in the 2110's. Donahue shook her head. Rape was rare and the perpetrators were easy to find, with DNA being so incredibly easy to trace. Medical memory alteration, also known as psychotherapy, was almost perfected, making the trauma...well if not easy to deal with...manageable. Donahue thought that was a good choice of words. But Donahue had not raped Amber. Just stabbed her and left her for dead.
Kilgore was working quietly. Donahue knew that he probably had something to do with the incident, but unless Amber fingered him then she would not be able to do anything. And even if she proved that it was Kilgore and Weinstein what would she do. Space them, and you lose your gunnery officers and can't operate the ship in war time. Keep them and have to incompetent murderers on your bridge.
Then the ship rocked. Donahue was smashed into the side of the bridge, her left arm making a nasty cracking noise as it hit. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat happened!├óÔé¼┬Ø. She grabbed her left arm, trying to keep it straight in zero gravity. Kilgore, who had been strapped in at the time, was scanning his console ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've been hit by something. Something BIG├óÔé¼┬Ø. The holographic representation of the ship had blinked out of existence, and the lights had dimmed. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue kicked off the floor, wincing at her arm. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know!├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore snapped ├óÔé¼┼ôIt could have been anything from dark matter, to a land mine...or a piece of super string damn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue kicked the holographic projector and it flickered back into life. The ship had a long, perfectly straight gouge out of the port side.
├óÔé¼┼ôShit!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue repeated ├óÔé¼┼ôSeal off decks├óÔé¼┬Ø She looked over the area's effected ├óÔé¼┼ô9-22├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore typed on the keyboard and Donahue picked up the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôTo all crew. Bulkheads will be coming down. If your injured, wait till we can send some medics├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore brought up the damage report ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've lost├óÔé¼┬Ø he thumbed the data slate down ├óÔé¼┼ôFive hundred people, and we probably will lose another two hundred in a few hours if we don't get medics to them├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFuck├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôSend medics to the damaged area's, and open all hospitals├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe've lost one hospital├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd another has been clipped by whatever hit us├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich hospitals?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôOne was empty, aside from two nurses and a doctor, and the one that was clipped...it had five people in it...including Amber├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore looked up, trying to suppress a grin. Donahue frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôSend some engineers over to the area, see if we can get them out├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôSending crew├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue ripped part of her uniform off and used it to bind her left arm ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd find out what the hell hit us├óÔé¼┬Ø she grunted as she bound the arm tight.
Amber woke up when the floor dropped from under her. She went flying, the bed jerking away as the ship rocked to the side. Amber hit the floor, rolling and swore loudly as a bed fell onto her. She couldn't move below her stomach. ├óÔé¼┼ôwhat the hell just happened!├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. The lights were out, and so Amber could only feel the bed that had her stomach crushed beneath it. She could breath, but it was hard and hurt quite a bit. ├óÔé¼┼ôI'm not rightly sure├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber moaned, feeling the edge of the table that met her flesh.
She stopped when her hands got wet and slick. The lights were still out, but Amber could hear Tapp moving around and shoving the jumbled beds around. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnyone else alive out here!├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôI am├óÔé¼┬Ø a strange voice said. ├óÔé¼┼ôMe too!├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's by me├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said ├óÔé¼┼ôUnconscious...i hope├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp stopped moving ├óÔé¼┼ôRight, don't worry├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get some lights here├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber closed her eyes and opened them again, trying to blink spots out of them.
Then a light shone into the room. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you all right!├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor shouted, walking into the room with a flashlight. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got some wounded├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. The doctor moved forward, but then a massive flame shot down the hall behind him. The doctor screamed, falling forward as the blue flames ate around him. His clothes vaporised off his body, and he landed blackened and red. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said. The only light in the room came from the doctors burning corpse. The flashlight had melted.
In the flash of light Amber could see the massive gash in her stomach, caused by the falling bed. ├óÔé¼┼ôI need some help over here├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts a big cut├óÔé¼┬Ø. The flame shot into the room again, crisping the doctors corpse again. Everyone coughed, the smoke coming from the flames making the air acrid and possibly deadly to inhale. ├óÔé¼┼ôCan someone close that door, between flame bursts?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked, wishing it didn't hurt so much to cough.
├óÔé¼┼ôI think so├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. He was right next to the door, but the architecture of the doorway funneled the flames away from him. The flames busted through again. ├óÔé¼┼ôOne...two...three...fou-├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber counted, but the flames rushed through, cutting her off. ├óÔé¼┼ôCan you do it in three and a half seconds?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked, feeling faint. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. The flames busted and he leaped in front of the door and slapped the door close button. The flames started to rush down the corridor, and Michal moved out of the way. The last bit of the flames shot through the crack in the door before it closed, and crisped his left hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôFUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø he shouted, holding the blackened claw with his other hand.
Tapp ran over to him ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know how to treat burns├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDo you know how to lift a bed?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked. Tapp ran over to her and felt the bed. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered, feeling the gash in Amber's stomach. Michal moaned. ├óÔé¼┼ôCheck to him├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll live for the next few minutes├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, lying her head back. Tapp hesitated and then turned to Michal, grabbing a medical pack.
After wrapping the hand in bandages spraying anti burn foam over it, and finally injecting a painkiller into Michal, Tapp moved back to Amber. She grabbed the bed and pulled. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn things heavy├óÔé¼┬Ø she grunted, managing to get it half way off of Amber. Then it slipped. For one horrifying second Tapp thought it would fall back, but she somehow kept her hands on it. She got it back onto its legs and Amber pushed away with her bloody hands.
Tapp sprayed a bandage over the wound, and then started to rummage through the medication cabinets ├óÔé¼┼ôNow cuts I can handle├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber was stitched up in a few minutes by Tapp, and they all lay about the room. Tapp sat next to Michal, looking over him. Tapp lay, a nasty bruise on his forehead, in the middle of two desks. Michal lay were he fell. The door seemed fine, but when Tapp tapped it with her finger, it was hot. Amber couldn't move her legs.
├óÔé¼┼ôOnce that door melts├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe're going to die├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWhats causing the fire bursts?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôBroken fuel line├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber hazarded ├óÔé¼┼ôThats my guess├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue looked over the damage ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it├óÔé¼┬Ø She muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could have caused this├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore bashed his head onto the desk ├óÔé¼┼ôHow could we have missed this?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe com laser├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôDarkside, the colony sends a signal every year or so. We are following the trajectory of the laser pulse, and as such it hit us!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue swore again ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy did we do that!├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe flight plan was worked out in advance. I guess they were just using the same pattern to get their as the colonists did originally.├óÔé¼┬Ø
├óÔé¼┼ôWhy would they do something as monumentally stupid as that!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue snapped. The Alexander couldn't help, as any ship that went out of the ramfeild would be pummeled to nothing by the radiation. So all they could do was try to save as many as they could. ├óÔé¼┼ôHow long till we get to the hospital?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe rescue crews will be there in an hour├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said, still trying to suppress a grin.
Liz looked at the two ships following them, not able to actually spot the blackened hulls but knowing that they were drifting out there. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo which ship was hit by the com laser?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Jason checked his computer ├óÔé¼┼ôBased off of the last known positions of the ships I'd say it was the Rodger Young├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. Liz looked back out the window, the only one in the entire ship and was immideatly worried sick. ├óÔé¼┼ôI hope she's Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat about your grudge?├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason asked, shaking his head.
├óÔé¼┼ôScrew that├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI still hope she's Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø. The both of them were silent for a moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell now that we can control part of the engines, lets get to work on the rest├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis time I think we can make it a little field trip├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz looked over her shoulder and forced a grin ├óÔé¼┼ôSay we meet up at every juncture├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy not do it together?├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôSimple├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI get crabby when i work, and i want your opinion of me to stay at its best for a long as possible├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôI wont have any trouble with that├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, grabbing his bag of the floor. They both walked to the storage bay and loaded up their bags with supplies.
├óÔé¼┼ôSee you in a few days├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, walking down to her entry point into the ships systems. Jason nodded, waving as he walked backwards to his entry point. Liz crawled into the crawlspace, her eyes peering into the darkness ahead of her. She wished they could have found some way to incorporate night vision without yanking out her eyes, so she settled on a flashlight clipped to her shoulder. She crawled into the darkness, and felt the same prickly, crawly fear that always set on her as she entered the crawlspaces.
Liz reached the first juncture and started to climb up a small ladder, hearing the sigh of air moving through the massive networks. Then her heart stopped when something flex past her face, a darkness without shape or form zipping from one crawlspace to the next. Liz swore loudly, falling down three steps before her foot caught on a rung of the ladder. She stared up in the dark juncture, her breathing rapid and shallow. Her heart pounded in her ears as she slid her hand slowly into her bag and found the comforting heft of the pistol.
The darkness whooshed by again. Liz fired and her laser, dimly visible in the air, shot straight through it. The thing fell past her, a blot of pure blackness. ├óÔé¼┼ôJason├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said into her walky talky, her voice shaky ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we aren't alone anymore├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Jason looked up and down the crawlspace. He had never had claustrophobia before but now it was hammering on his system, causing the crawlspace to fill with sounds of chattering fears and black horrors. Jason pulled out his pistol, shinning his light behind him. A shadow stayed on the wall, despite his light. Then it detached and fled down the crawl space, frittering away with a bizarre liquidly motion. Jason fired after it, his bullet clanging off the wall of the crawlspace. The creature was gone.
His heart stopped for a moment when his walky talky crackled to life ├óÔé¼┼ôJason├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz's voice said ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we aren't alone anymore├óÔé¼┬Ø. He grabbed his walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I might have noticed├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get out of here and meet in the hall we came in├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking down the juncture at the corpse. She slid down and shone her light at it. The corpse dissolved into nothing, like a shadow exposed to light.
Liz crawled through the tunnel, wishing they had some motion detector. Then she heard a clang over her head. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø she moaned, looking up. The grate above her was deforming slightly. She crawled under it, on her back, and kept her gun trained on it. There was a clang again and the grate deformed more. Liz felt something...evil on the other side of the grate. She knew that little in life was truly evil, but whatever was trying to get in aroused every instinct of self preservation in Liz's body. Then a clatter, and then clink clink clink. The creature was moving away and Liz kept her pistol trained on it. It had left. [/i]
The last year began with the launch of the fleet. This year began with disaster. Donahue was drifting around the bridge, idly thumbing her way through her daily report. Apparently fifty nine fights had broken out, thirty three of them producing injury's. One of those fights had left her Xo with a hole through her gut, and a huge problem on her table. For now Weinstein was locked in his chambers, and Donahue knew she had to let him out, demote him or shoot him.
Rape had continued to be a problem, sometimes major, through out human history. After WWIII it had become almost normal. But now, in the 2110's. Donahue shook her head. Rape was rare and the perpetrators were easy to find, with DNA being so incredibly easy to trace. Medical memory alteration, also known as psychotherapy, was almost perfected, making the trauma...well if not easy to deal with...manageable. Donahue thought that was a good choice of words. But Donahue had not raped Amber. Just stabbed her and left her for dead.
Kilgore was working quietly. Donahue knew that he probably had something to do with the incident, but unless Amber fingered him then she would not be able to do anything. And even if she proved that it was Kilgore and Weinstein what would she do. Space them, and you lose your gunnery officers and can't operate the ship in war time. Keep them and have to incompetent murderers on your bridge.
Then the ship rocked. Donahue was smashed into the side of the bridge, her left arm making a nasty cracking noise as it hit. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat happened!├óÔé¼┬Ø. She grabbed her left arm, trying to keep it straight in zero gravity. Kilgore, who had been strapped in at the time, was scanning his console ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've been hit by something. Something BIG├óÔé¼┬Ø. The holographic representation of the ship had blinked out of existence, and the lights had dimmed. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue kicked off the floor, wincing at her arm. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know!├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore snapped ├óÔé¼┼ôIt could have been anything from dark matter, to a land mine...or a piece of super string damn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue kicked the holographic projector and it flickered back into life. The ship had a long, perfectly straight gouge out of the port side.
├óÔé¼┼ôShit!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue repeated ├óÔé¼┼ôSeal off decks├óÔé¼┬Ø She looked over the area's effected ├óÔé¼┼ô9-22├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore typed on the keyboard and Donahue picked up the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôTo all crew. Bulkheads will be coming down. If your injured, wait till we can send some medics├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore brought up the damage report ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've lost├óÔé¼┬Ø he thumbed the data slate down ├óÔé¼┼ôFive hundred people, and we probably will lose another two hundred in a few hours if we don't get medics to them├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFuck├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôSend medics to the damaged area's, and open all hospitals├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe've lost one hospital├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd another has been clipped by whatever hit us├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich hospitals?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôOne was empty, aside from two nurses and a doctor, and the one that was clipped...it had five people in it...including Amber├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore looked up, trying to suppress a grin. Donahue frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôSend some engineers over to the area, see if we can get them out├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôSending crew├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue ripped part of her uniform off and used it to bind her left arm ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd find out what the hell hit us├óÔé¼┬Ø she grunted as she bound the arm tight.
Amber woke up when the floor dropped from under her. She went flying, the bed jerking away as the ship rocked to the side. Amber hit the floor, rolling and swore loudly as a bed fell onto her. She couldn't move below her stomach. ├óÔé¼┼ôwhat the hell just happened!├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. The lights were out, and so Amber could only feel the bed that had her stomach crushed beneath it. She could breath, but it was hard and hurt quite a bit. ├óÔé¼┼ôI'm not rightly sure├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber moaned, feeling the edge of the table that met her flesh.
She stopped when her hands got wet and slick. The lights were still out, but Amber could hear Tapp moving around and shoving the jumbled beds around. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnyone else alive out here!├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôI am├óÔé¼┬Ø a strange voice said. ├óÔé¼┼ôMe too!├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's by me├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said ├óÔé¼┼ôUnconscious...i hope├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp stopped moving ├óÔé¼┼ôRight, don't worry├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get some lights here├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber closed her eyes and opened them again, trying to blink spots out of them.
Then a light shone into the room. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you all right!├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor shouted, walking into the room with a flashlight. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got some wounded├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp shouted. The doctor moved forward, but then a massive flame shot down the hall behind him. The doctor screamed, falling forward as the blue flames ate around him. His clothes vaporised off his body, and he landed blackened and red. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said. The only light in the room came from the doctors burning corpse. The flashlight had melted.
In the flash of light Amber could see the massive gash in her stomach, caused by the falling bed. ├óÔé¼┼ôI need some help over here├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts a big cut├óÔé¼┬Ø. The flame shot into the room again, crisping the doctors corpse again. Everyone coughed, the smoke coming from the flames making the air acrid and possibly deadly to inhale. ├óÔé¼┼ôCan someone close that door, between flame bursts?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked, wishing it didn't hurt so much to cough.
├óÔé¼┼ôI think so├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. He was right next to the door, but the architecture of the doorway funneled the flames away from him. The flames busted through again. ├óÔé¼┼ôOne...two...three...fou-├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber counted, but the flames rushed through, cutting her off. ├óÔé¼┼ôCan you do it in three and a half seconds?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked, feeling faint. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Michal said. The flames busted and he leaped in front of the door and slapped the door close button. The flames started to rush down the corridor, and Michal moved out of the way. The last bit of the flames shot through the crack in the door before it closed, and crisped his left hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôFUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø he shouted, holding the blackened claw with his other hand.
Tapp ran over to him ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know how to treat burns├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDo you know how to lift a bed?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked. Tapp ran over to her and felt the bed. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered, feeling the gash in Amber's stomach. Michal moaned. ├óÔé¼┼ôCheck to him├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll live for the next few minutes├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, lying her head back. Tapp hesitated and then turned to Michal, grabbing a medical pack.
After wrapping the hand in bandages spraying anti burn foam over it, and finally injecting a painkiller into Michal, Tapp moved back to Amber. She grabbed the bed and pulled. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn things heavy├óÔé¼┬Ø she grunted, managing to get it half way off of Amber. Then it slipped. For one horrifying second Tapp thought it would fall back, but she somehow kept her hands on it. She got it back onto its legs and Amber pushed away with her bloody hands.
Tapp sprayed a bandage over the wound, and then started to rummage through the medication cabinets ├óÔé¼┼ôNow cuts I can handle├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber was stitched up in a few minutes by Tapp, and they all lay about the room. Tapp sat next to Michal, looking over him. Tapp lay, a nasty bruise on his forehead, in the middle of two desks. Michal lay were he fell. The door seemed fine, but when Tapp tapped it with her finger, it was hot. Amber couldn't move her legs.
├óÔé¼┼ôOnce that door melts├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe're going to die├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWhats causing the fire bursts?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôBroken fuel line├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber hazarded ├óÔé¼┼ôThats my guess├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue looked over the damage ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it├óÔé¼┬Ø She muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could have caused this├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore bashed his head onto the desk ├óÔé¼┼ôHow could we have missed this?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe com laser├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said ├óÔé¼┼ôDarkside, the colony sends a signal every year or so. We are following the trajectory of the laser pulse, and as such it hit us!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue swore again ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy did we do that!├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe flight plan was worked out in advance. I guess they were just using the same pattern to get their as the colonists did originally.├óÔé¼┬Ø
├óÔé¼┼ôWhy would they do something as monumentally stupid as that!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue snapped. The Alexander couldn't help, as any ship that went out of the ramfeild would be pummeled to nothing by the radiation. So all they could do was try to save as many as they could. ├óÔé¼┼ôHow long till we get to the hospital?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe rescue crews will be there in an hour├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore said, still trying to suppress a grin.
Liz looked at the two ships following them, not able to actually spot the blackened hulls but knowing that they were drifting out there. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo which ship was hit by the com laser?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Jason checked his computer ├óÔé¼┼ôBased off of the last known positions of the ships I'd say it was the Rodger Young├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. Liz looked back out the window, the only one in the entire ship and was immideatly worried sick. ├óÔé¼┼ôI hope she's Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat about your grudge?├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason asked, shaking his head.
├óÔé¼┼ôScrew that├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI still hope she's Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø. The both of them were silent for a moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell now that we can control part of the engines, lets get to work on the rest├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis time I think we can make it a little field trip├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz looked over her shoulder and forced a grin ├óÔé¼┼ôSay we meet up at every juncture├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy not do it together?├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôSimple├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI get crabby when i work, and i want your opinion of me to stay at its best for a long as possible├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôI wont have any trouble with that├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, grabbing his bag of the floor. They both walked to the storage bay and loaded up their bags with supplies.
├óÔé¼┼ôSee you in a few days├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, walking down to her entry point into the ships systems. Jason nodded, waving as he walked backwards to his entry point. Liz crawled into the crawlspace, her eyes peering into the darkness ahead of her. She wished they could have found some way to incorporate night vision without yanking out her eyes, so she settled on a flashlight clipped to her shoulder. She crawled into the darkness, and felt the same prickly, crawly fear that always set on her as she entered the crawlspaces.
Liz reached the first juncture and started to climb up a small ladder, hearing the sigh of air moving through the massive networks. Then her heart stopped when something flex past her face, a darkness without shape or form zipping from one crawlspace to the next. Liz swore loudly, falling down three steps before her foot caught on a rung of the ladder. She stared up in the dark juncture, her breathing rapid and shallow. Her heart pounded in her ears as she slid her hand slowly into her bag and found the comforting heft of the pistol.
The darkness whooshed by again. Liz fired and her laser, dimly visible in the air, shot straight through it. The thing fell past her, a blot of pure blackness. ├óÔé¼┼ôJason├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said into her walky talky, her voice shaky ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we aren't alone anymore├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Jason looked up and down the crawlspace. He had never had claustrophobia before but now it was hammering on his system, causing the crawlspace to fill with sounds of chattering fears and black horrors. Jason pulled out his pistol, shinning his light behind him. A shadow stayed on the wall, despite his light. Then it detached and fled down the crawl space, frittering away with a bizarre liquidly motion. Jason fired after it, his bullet clanging off the wall of the crawlspace. The creature was gone.
His heart stopped for a moment when his walky talky crackled to life ├óÔé¼┼ôJason├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz's voice said ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we aren't alone anymore├óÔé¼┬Ø. He grabbed his walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I might have noticed├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get out of here and meet in the hall we came in├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking down the juncture at the corpse. She slid down and shone her light at it. The corpse dissolved into nothing, like a shadow exposed to light.
Liz crawled through the tunnel, wishing they had some motion detector. Then she heard a clang over her head. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø she moaned, looking up. The grate above her was deforming slightly. She crawled under it, on her back, and kept her gun trained on it. There was a clang again and the grate deformed more. Liz felt something...evil on the other side of the grate. She knew that little in life was truly evil, but whatever was trying to get in aroused every instinct of self preservation in Liz's body. Then a clatter, and then clink clink clink. The creature was moving away and Liz kept her pistol trained on it. It had left. [/i]
And now, without preamble...doh!
Year 2: Part 2
Interstellar space. Its hard to find a more inhospitable location. Some that come to mind are planetoids situated next to binary star systems that put out staggering amounts of gamma radiation. Or in the depths of a quantum singularity. But life prevails, no matter were it is. Pockets of bacteria, perhaps set adrift in the cosmic sea by any number of disasters, evolved to meet the harsh clime. They thrived. Then advanced.
It was surprising how slow evolution went by in space. It took one and a half galactic turn for the bacteria to evolve into the life form they had become by the year 2111. They lived on rocks, burrowing into asteroids and other bits of drift wood in interstellar space. They numbered more then the stars in the Milky Way. It was almost a miracle that They had never found Homeworld. They had no real sentience, not in the ways humanity thought of it.
Rather They simply drifted and drifted till They found something worth ingesting. And now they had found the three small hunks of rock and metal drifting through a stellar minefield of Them. A rock, covered by Them, had been batted away by the ramfeild. That enough was to wake Them up. They swarmed off of their rock, using methods that evolved in space, and moved through the ramfeild, unaffected by the magnetics, and latched onto the hull of the ship that had woken them.
They had found the Enterprise and now they were not going to leave.
Liz emerged from the crawlspace, the sweat pouring off her mostly from the adrenalin that pushed her into the open air. She clamped the grate back down on the crawlspace and backed away, gun at the ready. Jason, who was backed into a corner with his gun aimed into the darkness, called out ├óÔé¼┼ôLiz! Is that you?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get the fuck out of here!├óÔé¼┬Ø.
They both ran down the corridor, Liz glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. Jason suddenly stopped, and Liz looked back in front of them. The walls of the hall way in front of him bulged, like infected puss sores. Liz brought her gun to bear as the walls gave way and thousands of specks of blackness swarmed out of them.
Liz had seen brutality. She had seen humans rip other humans apart, keeping them alive for days as they recorded the pain coming out of them for traffic on the interweb. She had seen people drugged, beaten, shot. Worse. She had seen the perversions of humanity. But, now that she saw true inhumanity, she knew that each of those acts had a spark of recognizable humanity to them. Evil or good, it was human.
But this was different. The crawling horrors spewing from the walls were so completely inhuman. Completely nonterrestrial. The body geometry hurt to look at, jarring and just plain wrong. The creatures swarmed at them, streaming down the corridors, tendrils slithering over the floor, shells gleaming in the light. Liz brought her laser pistol around in a sweeping arc, running it on full power. The creatures vaporised like ice under the sunlight.
Jason backed up, firing his pistol ineffectively into the pack. Some were blown in half but kept slithering. Some were clipped in the side and simply vaporised. The two humans turned around and ran at full tilt away. Only their implants saved them from being overrun. And then, only just. Liz and Jason got to the bulkhead at the end of the hall and closed it. Three Them managed to squeeze through the crack in the door, but Liz finished them off with her laser.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the FUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôWHAT THE FUCK!!!├óÔé¼┬Ø she screamed ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are they├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason wasn't talking, but rather staring at the door, his face white. ├óÔé¼┼ôAliens├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôReal fucking to life aliens├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason nodded. The door caved part way in, a loud smashing sounding. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the fuck!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôNone of them are big enough to do that!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNever assume anything with these things├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, finally getting his voice back ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They both set off at a run down another corridor, closing each bulkhead behind them.
Now, rather then going to the bridge, Liz and Jason went to the armory. They were not attacked by any of Them, but rather jumped at every shadow. ├óÔé¼┼ôNow this will work├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, pulling a assault rifle off the rack. It fired depleted uranium rounds, could shoot through the hull amour, and had secondary incendiary shotgun capability's. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grabbing a flame thrower ├óÔé¼┼ôThis will do├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The flame throwers could shoot flames for thirty mints straight, weighed half as much as the assault rifle, and could also fire jelly that ignited at the drop of a hat. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't want to poke holes in the hull├óÔé¼┬Ø. They both set out, in the end, with ammo kits for the flamers, plasma grenades, laser torches for cutting through sealed bulk heads (or sealing them for that matter) side arms and some other tools. Liz also grabbed a night vision goggle set.
She went first, peering thought he goggles for any movement. Jason kept his eyes open and wished they could have found more then one. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gesturing down the corridor. They both started to walk, their foot steps painfully loud in the silence. They opened a bulkhead, getting to a three way junction ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get to the bridge, we find out whats on the ship├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason had said, double checking his flamers charge.
They opened the next bulkhead a crack, peering through with a flash light. Nothing. They opened the door the rest of the way and jumped in, guns ready. The hallway was empty. Liz and Jason moved forward to the next closed bulkhead, closing the one behind them as they did so. The entire ship seemed to be in lock down mode, the computer detecting something amiss and therefore separating the ship into millions of tiny sections.
The pattern of opening and closing continued for about an hour, and Liz's nerves were shot through and through. Every noise, even the comforting clunk of the bulkhead closing, made her jump and shiver. Then they opened a bulkhead a crack and blackness peered back at them. The flashlight beam stopped in the middle of the corridor. Then the swarm broke up and started to scuttle down the corridor at the half open bulkhead. Jason stepped in front of the swarm and triggered his flamer.
A gout of white hot flames shot down the corridor, making Jason stand out against it like a silhouette. The swarm broke up, vapor sizzling away from the flames as They dissolved. The swarm broke up and scattered into the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll clear├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said and they opened the door all the way. They stepped into the hall way. The walls had huge rents in the sides, were the swarm had come through. Liz took out some sealant bandages and slapped them on the walls, then finished them off with her laser. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôIf that was all of them I will be incredibly relieved├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôSome how├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said. Then the walls ripped open again and a massive creature of blackness rammed into the other side of the wall, its massive claws ripping apart the wall. Liz and Jason jumped backwards, both bringing their flamers to bear as the creature looked at them. Then it opened its eye. Both humans felt something pound on their skulls, trying to rip and pry into them. Liz was not about to let that happen, and her trigger finger jerked down convulsively. Both of the flame throwers spat out a gout of flame and the creature was consumed by it.
The eye remained open, a infinite reflection over and over of the world around it. The creature stepped through the flames and opened its mouth wide, wide impossibly wide. Wider then a snake's jaw, wider then the maw of some impossible creature drawn by a deranged imagination. Then a tentacle shot out of the mouth and wrapped around Jason's hand. He screamed, backing away. His hand went through the blackness and came out missing. Just black grit over the stump, which started to bleed sluggishly. Jason's face went white.
The flamers stopped firing as Liz pulled out her las pistol and swept it through the middle of the creature, a desperate move. The thing fell in half with s sick plop. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets move!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, grabbing Jason and shoveling him through the next bulk head. It closed behind them. ├óÔé¼┼ôCauterize it!├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, holding his stump over the flamer nozzle. Liz closed her eyes and fired a short burst of flame. The air smelt like burnt flesh, and Jason gritted his teeth as his stump stopped bleeding.
├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø He said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get to the bridge├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The door fell inward. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnyone alive in here?├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said, his voice muffled by a gas mask. Four forms moved in the silence, moaning and groaning. Tapp walked over to the rescuer ├óÔé¼┼ôDo you have some fresh air?├óÔé¼┬Ø She asked, her hand reaching out. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get you out of here in ten minutes├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said ├óÔé¼┼ôThe fuel can only be rerouted from the leak for ten minutes before the system over loads├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp nodded, kicking Michal awake. They both dragged their respective partners out. Amber was Unconscious, blood loss. Tipp was also comatose, but he was slightly more lively, moaning as his feet dragged over the floor. ├óÔé¼┼ôCome on├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy do you have a gun?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing├óÔé¼┬Ø The Rescuer said , looking left and right through his gas mask. They got past the fuel rip, where a falling bulk head ripped open the wall and left a jagged hole in the fuel line. The fuel rushed into a broken electrical wire, igniting it.
It was a nice show, watching it from the other end of the flames. Tapp let Amber's head down, and leaned against the wall, gasping in deep breaths of fresh air. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø Their rescuer said ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got motion├óÔé¼┬Ø. He was looking down at a small motion detector he held in his left hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit shit shit shit├óÔé¼┬Ø He muttered, dropping the scanner and holding up his assault rifle. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôListen lady├óÔé¼┬Ø the man said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis gun fires depleted uranium rounds. It'll punch through the hull if I don't hit the fucking thing├óÔé¼┬Ø.
He aimed into the darkness, looking down the infrared scope. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit it doesn't register├óÔé¼┬Ø the man said. Then the darkness detached from the wall and leaped at him. The man fired two rounds, and they ripped into the monster. Two of its many many limbs fell to the ground and vaporized. The rest of the monster was on the rescue worker. The entirety of the monster enveloped him, but he writhed, breaking out of the monster a split second after it covered him.
Tapp breathed a sigh of relive as he walked out, fine aside from being covered in black grit. Then he screamed, his hands reaching for his face. The grit welled and sloughed off like goo as it mixed with a red liquid bubbling from the man's skin. It was blood. His face, coming into view now, was an abomination of skinless flesh, muscles and sinews. His teeth shone in the darkness, lip less and screaming.
The man took one step, the grit almost gone now. His entire body was red, blood welling from every part of him. He took another step then the monster was on him and his scream stopped. Tapp grabbed for something, anything to defend her. She grabbed the rifle. The monster moved away, leaving nothing but black grit were the rescue worker had stood. Tapp brought the gun to bear on the monster, and fired. The gun barked, quieter then she expected. The depleted uranium ripped into the thing, tearing blackness away from blackness. Then, for a split second, she saw something gold in the blackness. She aimed for it and fired.
The creature evaporated in its entirety. Tapp lowered the rifle and breathed deep, the fresh air once again fouled by blood and the fuel exhaust. ├óÔé¼┼ôTapp├óÔé¼┬Ø someone moaned. It was Tipp. ├óÔé¼┼ôMichal├óÔé¼┬Ø Tipp said. Michal, who was still staring at where the rescue worker had been moments before, jumped. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get out of here├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp can you walk?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tipp struggled to his feet, his head splitting ├óÔé¼┼ôI think so├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôright├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou two take turns carrying Amber├óÔé¼┬Ø She grabbed the motion detector ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They all set off, Tapp's eye on her motion detector most of the time. They got about half way to the nerest elevator before being attacked again. Tapp saw the thing appear on the motion detector and kept pulling the trigger as the darkness shot down the corridor at them. She blasted the thing almost in half before hitting the vital spot needed to kill. it.
├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp checked the clip ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got two shots left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked back down the hall. All that was left of the rescue worker was black grit, including the five other clips he had. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said to Tipp and Michal ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They were silent again, not wanting to talk lest they bring any more of Them down to their position.
Donahue's arm was now in a balloon sleeve, witch tightened around her broken bone to keep it from moving all that much. Not that it made her feel any better. The ship had switched, automatically, to pathogen mode. It closed every bulkhead, locked down the ship and sealed the shuttle bays. The only place's that were still open were the bridge, the hospitals and the massive gouge down the side of the ship, as each of these were either inoperable or specially not hooked to the pathogen programming.
The hologram of the ship had a blotch of red shot through it. That was were the pathogen had been detected, and this was were people were dieing. Screaming. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is going on out their?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. Weinstein was manning his post, along with the other members of the bridge. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe only reliable source of information we have are our laser turrets around the hospitals, armory and bridge areas├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are being attacked by something, and its definitely not human├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it, then? Bugs? Reptiles?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue slammed her fist into the hologram, breaking the pattern of reds and greens into a light distortion for a moment ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are our people getting killed by!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe think its a space born life form├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein said ├óÔé¼┼ôShapeshifter, hard to kill and otherwise unknown├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôCut to the end. How do we kill them?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore looked up ├óÔé¼┼ôI think its an it, not a them├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôThey are moving with a coordination impossible without sentience. Even then it would be impossible without some form of communication├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore shook his head ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd they aren't broadcasting├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Lasers fired outside of the door of the bridge, a hissing cutting noise. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat was that?├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think our laser turrets are proving their value├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, looking to the door. Then two shots rang out, and one of the bullets blasted through the wall, smashed into the other side of the bridge and kept going until it stopped in the next corridor. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, walking into the room ├óÔé¼┼ôI think your laser turrets are a little jumpy├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue looked as the other crewmen dragged Amber into the bridge ├óÔé¼┼ôYou've got Cmd. Wishbourn├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWeinstein, Kilgore, get the medical kit├óÔé¼┬Ø. They hesitated for a moment ├óÔé¼┼ôNOW!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue shouted. The two of them kicked open the latch holding the medical kit and pulled it out into the open. ├óÔé¼┼ôCommander├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, looking at her ├óÔé¼┼ôCan you hear me?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, pushing off the floor ├óÔé¼┼ôCan't move my legs though├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry about that├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get you to your post├óÔé¼┬Ø. With the help of Tapp and Tipp, Donahue got Amber into the console.
├óÔé¼┼ôOpen your eye's├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need you at the helm├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded and opened her eyes. The needles jammed in quick enough for her to not have to worry about her eye's closing again. Amber started to work, feeling renewed energy at the operation of her console. First she closed off the area's with Them inside it and then flooded it with chlorine gas from the recycling bay. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure that will work├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked ├óÔé¼┼ôThey can survive in a vacuum├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôSomething is better then nothing├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber grunted.
├óÔé¼┼ôThere were people there├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said softly, looking at the pathogen area. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvacuate everyone into the hospitals and the armory├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said to Weinstein ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get patrols out with flamers and laser guns. Those seem to work├óÔé¼┬Ø She said to Kilgore ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get those D.U guns out of service! I don't need holes in my wall!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat should we do, Sir?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, saluted ├óÔé¼┼ôTake this laser pistol├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, grabbing Weinstein's side arm and chucking it to Tapp ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get your people too the armory. We need people who have fought these things...even if its only for a while├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp saluted and gestured to her brother and Michal. They walked out of the bridge, but Tapp looked back for a second at Amber sitting in what looked like an old age tortcher device. Then they moved out. Their trip was uneventful, as They had been contained for the moment, and soon the group arrived at the armory. ├óÔé¼┼ôNew patrol members?├óÔé¼┬Ø the man at the gate asked ├óÔé¼┼ôYour to be split up into groups of two, sent out with a motion tracker, laser rifle and flamer, then clear out decks├óÔé¼┬Ø he checked a data slate ├óÔé¼┼ô44-46├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp saluted, reading the chevrons on his uniform ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø
Tipp, Tapp and Michal were all teamed up with different men and women, respectively, and sent off. Their patrols were relatively simple, as They had been mostly contained in a single large area of the ship. A few of Them popped up now and again, but Tapp found that a laser through the midsection of the thing did well enough to destroy it. Her partner was a chatty woman who seemed to talk as a way to relive tension. So she talked quite a bit. Tapp didn't mind, as They seemed to find them if they were close enough, despite how much or how little noise Tapp made.
They attacked only ten times, each a single clump of entity's, rather then swarms or massive quadrupeds. Liz and her partner diced them, fried them and killed them. After three days of patrols the battle's against Them were almost normal and bearable. Then pathogen control was lifted, the lights came on and the bulkheads opened. The patrol teams moved into the previously infested area's and found nothing but a few corpses, dead by the chlorine gas, and lodes of black grit.
On the Enterprise the three days passed in a somewhat less sanguine manner. Or, with the other meaning of the word, a more sanguine manner. Liz and Jason got to the bridge, finally, and managed to turn on the pathogen mode and the laser turrets. Then what followed was a nightmare of almost sleep, with constant attacks on the nerves by Them, and their presence. Laser turrets fired for hours, melting the barrels and turning into slag.
But in the end, working round the clock, Liz and Jason survived. The aliens died off after the three days, without any help at all. Liz looked up as Jason walked into the room, his body covered by weapons, grenades, ammo and bullet prof amour, for all the good it would do. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, her voice throaty from a lack of water. ├óÔé¼┼ôTheir dead├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôAll of Them...all dead├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked again, her head lolling back ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not possible├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing but black grit├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, sitting down ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing at all├óÔé¼┬Ø his eyes dropped and he fell asleep. Liz stayed awake for another hour after he did. Then also fell asleep.
Year 2: Part 2
Interstellar space. Its hard to find a more inhospitable location. Some that come to mind are planetoids situated next to binary star systems that put out staggering amounts of gamma radiation. Or in the depths of a quantum singularity. But life prevails, no matter were it is. Pockets of bacteria, perhaps set adrift in the cosmic sea by any number of disasters, evolved to meet the harsh clime. They thrived. Then advanced.
It was surprising how slow evolution went by in space. It took one and a half galactic turn for the bacteria to evolve into the life form they had become by the year 2111. They lived on rocks, burrowing into asteroids and other bits of drift wood in interstellar space. They numbered more then the stars in the Milky Way. It was almost a miracle that They had never found Homeworld. They had no real sentience, not in the ways humanity thought of it.
Rather They simply drifted and drifted till They found something worth ingesting. And now they had found the three small hunks of rock and metal drifting through a stellar minefield of Them. A rock, covered by Them, had been batted away by the ramfeild. That enough was to wake Them up. They swarmed off of their rock, using methods that evolved in space, and moved through the ramfeild, unaffected by the magnetics, and latched onto the hull of the ship that had woken them.
They had found the Enterprise and now they were not going to leave.
Liz emerged from the crawlspace, the sweat pouring off her mostly from the adrenalin that pushed her into the open air. She clamped the grate back down on the crawlspace and backed away, gun at the ready. Jason, who was backed into a corner with his gun aimed into the darkness, called out ├óÔé¼┼ôLiz! Is that you?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get the fuck out of here!├óÔé¼┬Ø.
They both ran down the corridor, Liz glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. Jason suddenly stopped, and Liz looked back in front of them. The walls of the hall way in front of him bulged, like infected puss sores. Liz brought her gun to bear as the walls gave way and thousands of specks of blackness swarmed out of them.
Liz had seen brutality. She had seen humans rip other humans apart, keeping them alive for days as they recorded the pain coming out of them for traffic on the interweb. She had seen people drugged, beaten, shot. Worse. She had seen the perversions of humanity. But, now that she saw true inhumanity, she knew that each of those acts had a spark of recognizable humanity to them. Evil or good, it was human.
But this was different. The crawling horrors spewing from the walls were so completely inhuman. Completely nonterrestrial. The body geometry hurt to look at, jarring and just plain wrong. The creatures swarmed at them, streaming down the corridors, tendrils slithering over the floor, shells gleaming in the light. Liz brought her laser pistol around in a sweeping arc, running it on full power. The creatures vaporised like ice under the sunlight.
Jason backed up, firing his pistol ineffectively into the pack. Some were blown in half but kept slithering. Some were clipped in the side and simply vaporised. The two humans turned around and ran at full tilt away. Only their implants saved them from being overrun. And then, only just. Liz and Jason got to the bulkhead at the end of the hall and closed it. Three Them managed to squeeze through the crack in the door, but Liz finished them off with her laser.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the FUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôWHAT THE FUCK!!!├óÔé¼┬Ø she screamed ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are they├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason wasn't talking, but rather staring at the door, his face white. ├óÔé¼┼ôAliens├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôReal fucking to life aliens├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason nodded. The door caved part way in, a loud smashing sounding. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the fuck!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôNone of them are big enough to do that!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNever assume anything with these things├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, finally getting his voice back ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They both set off at a run down another corridor, closing each bulkhead behind them.
Now, rather then going to the bridge, Liz and Jason went to the armory. They were not attacked by any of Them, but rather jumped at every shadow. ├óÔé¼┼ôNow this will work├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, pulling a assault rifle off the rack. It fired depleted uranium rounds, could shoot through the hull amour, and had secondary incendiary shotgun capability's. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grabbing a flame thrower ├óÔé¼┼ôThis will do├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The flame throwers could shoot flames for thirty mints straight, weighed half as much as the assault rifle, and could also fire jelly that ignited at the drop of a hat. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't want to poke holes in the hull├óÔé¼┬Ø. They both set out, in the end, with ammo kits for the flamers, plasma grenades, laser torches for cutting through sealed bulk heads (or sealing them for that matter) side arms and some other tools. Liz also grabbed a night vision goggle set.
She went first, peering thought he goggles for any movement. Jason kept his eyes open and wished they could have found more then one. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gesturing down the corridor. They both started to walk, their foot steps painfully loud in the silence. They opened a bulkhead, getting to a three way junction ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get to the bridge, we find out whats on the ship├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason had said, double checking his flamers charge.
They opened the next bulkhead a crack, peering through with a flash light. Nothing. They opened the door the rest of the way and jumped in, guns ready. The hallway was empty. Liz and Jason moved forward to the next closed bulkhead, closing the one behind them as they did so. The entire ship seemed to be in lock down mode, the computer detecting something amiss and therefore separating the ship into millions of tiny sections.
The pattern of opening and closing continued for about an hour, and Liz's nerves were shot through and through. Every noise, even the comforting clunk of the bulkhead closing, made her jump and shiver. Then they opened a bulkhead a crack and blackness peered back at them. The flashlight beam stopped in the middle of the corridor. Then the swarm broke up and started to scuttle down the corridor at the half open bulkhead. Jason stepped in front of the swarm and triggered his flamer.
A gout of white hot flames shot down the corridor, making Jason stand out against it like a silhouette. The swarm broke up, vapor sizzling away from the flames as They dissolved. The swarm broke up and scattered into the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll clear├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said and they opened the door all the way. They stepped into the hall way. The walls had huge rents in the sides, were the swarm had come through. Liz took out some sealant bandages and slapped them on the walls, then finished them off with her laser. ├óÔé¼┼ôRight├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôIf that was all of them I will be incredibly relieved├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôSome how├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said. Then the walls ripped open again and a massive creature of blackness rammed into the other side of the wall, its massive claws ripping apart the wall. Liz and Jason jumped backwards, both bringing their flamers to bear as the creature looked at them. Then it opened its eye. Both humans felt something pound on their skulls, trying to rip and pry into them. Liz was not about to let that happen, and her trigger finger jerked down convulsively. Both of the flame throwers spat out a gout of flame and the creature was consumed by it.
The eye remained open, a infinite reflection over and over of the world around it. The creature stepped through the flames and opened its mouth wide, wide impossibly wide. Wider then a snake's jaw, wider then the maw of some impossible creature drawn by a deranged imagination. Then a tentacle shot out of the mouth and wrapped around Jason's hand. He screamed, backing away. His hand went through the blackness and came out missing. Just black grit over the stump, which started to bleed sluggishly. Jason's face went white.
The flamers stopped firing as Liz pulled out her las pistol and swept it through the middle of the creature, a desperate move. The thing fell in half with s sick plop. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets move!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, grabbing Jason and shoveling him through the next bulk head. It closed behind them. ├óÔé¼┼ôCauterize it!├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, holding his stump over the flamer nozzle. Liz closed her eyes and fired a short burst of flame. The air smelt like burnt flesh, and Jason gritted his teeth as his stump stopped bleeding.
├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø He said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get to the bridge├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The door fell inward. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnyone alive in here?├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said, his voice muffled by a gas mask. Four forms moved in the silence, moaning and groaning. Tapp walked over to the rescuer ├óÔé¼┼ôDo you have some fresh air?├óÔé¼┬Ø She asked, her hand reaching out. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got to get you out of here in ten minutes├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said ├óÔé¼┼ôThe fuel can only be rerouted from the leak for ten minutes before the system over loads├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp nodded, kicking Michal awake. They both dragged their respective partners out. Amber was Unconscious, blood loss. Tipp was also comatose, but he was slightly more lively, moaning as his feet dragged over the floor. ├óÔé¼┼ôCome on├óÔé¼┬Ø The rescuer said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy do you have a gun?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing├óÔé¼┬Ø The Rescuer said , looking left and right through his gas mask. They got past the fuel rip, where a falling bulk head ripped open the wall and left a jagged hole in the fuel line. The fuel rushed into a broken electrical wire, igniting it.
It was a nice show, watching it from the other end of the flames. Tapp let Amber's head down, and leaned against the wall, gasping in deep breaths of fresh air. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh shit├óÔé¼┬Ø Their rescuer said ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got motion├óÔé¼┬Ø. He was looking down at a small motion detector he held in his left hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit shit shit shit├óÔé¼┬Ø He muttered, dropping the scanner and holding up his assault rifle. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôListen lady├óÔé¼┬Ø the man said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis gun fires depleted uranium rounds. It'll punch through the hull if I don't hit the fucking thing├óÔé¼┬Ø.
He aimed into the darkness, looking down the infrared scope. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit it doesn't register├óÔé¼┬Ø the man said. Then the darkness detached from the wall and leaped at him. The man fired two rounds, and they ripped into the monster. Two of its many many limbs fell to the ground and vaporized. The rest of the monster was on the rescue worker. The entirety of the monster enveloped him, but he writhed, breaking out of the monster a split second after it covered him.
Tapp breathed a sigh of relive as he walked out, fine aside from being covered in black grit. Then he screamed, his hands reaching for his face. The grit welled and sloughed off like goo as it mixed with a red liquid bubbling from the man's skin. It was blood. His face, coming into view now, was an abomination of skinless flesh, muscles and sinews. His teeth shone in the darkness, lip less and screaming.
The man took one step, the grit almost gone now. His entire body was red, blood welling from every part of him. He took another step then the monster was on him and his scream stopped. Tapp grabbed for something, anything to defend her. She grabbed the rifle. The monster moved away, leaving nothing but black grit were the rescue worker had stood. Tapp brought the gun to bear on the monster, and fired. The gun barked, quieter then she expected. The depleted uranium ripped into the thing, tearing blackness away from blackness. Then, for a split second, she saw something gold in the blackness. She aimed for it and fired.
The creature evaporated in its entirety. Tapp lowered the rifle and breathed deep, the fresh air once again fouled by blood and the fuel exhaust. ├óÔé¼┼ôTapp├óÔé¼┬Ø someone moaned. It was Tipp. ├óÔé¼┼ôMichal├óÔé¼┬Ø Tipp said. Michal, who was still staring at where the rescue worker had been moments before, jumped. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get out of here├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said ├óÔé¼┼ôTipp can you walk?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tipp struggled to his feet, his head splitting ├óÔé¼┼ôI think so├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôright├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou two take turns carrying Amber├óÔé¼┬Ø She grabbed the motion detector ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They all set off, Tapp's eye on her motion detector most of the time. They got about half way to the nerest elevator before being attacked again. Tapp saw the thing appear on the motion detector and kept pulling the trigger as the darkness shot down the corridor at them. She blasted the thing almost in half before hitting the vital spot needed to kill. it.
├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp checked the clip ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got two shots left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked back down the hall. All that was left of the rescue worker was black grit, including the five other clips he had. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said to Tipp and Michal ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø. They were silent again, not wanting to talk lest they bring any more of Them down to their position.
Donahue's arm was now in a balloon sleeve, witch tightened around her broken bone to keep it from moving all that much. Not that it made her feel any better. The ship had switched, automatically, to pathogen mode. It closed every bulkhead, locked down the ship and sealed the shuttle bays. The only place's that were still open were the bridge, the hospitals and the massive gouge down the side of the ship, as each of these were either inoperable or specially not hooked to the pathogen programming.
The hologram of the ship had a blotch of red shot through it. That was were the pathogen had been detected, and this was were people were dieing. Screaming. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is going on out their?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked. Weinstein was manning his post, along with the other members of the bridge. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe only reliable source of information we have are our laser turrets around the hospitals, armory and bridge areas├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are being attacked by something, and its definitely not human├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it, then? Bugs? Reptiles?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue slammed her fist into the hologram, breaking the pattern of reds and greens into a light distortion for a moment ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are our people getting killed by!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe think its a space born life form├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein said ├óÔé¼┼ôShapeshifter, hard to kill and otherwise unknown├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôCut to the end. How do we kill them?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore looked up ├óÔé¼┼ôI think its an it, not a them├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôThey are moving with a coordination impossible without sentience. Even then it would be impossible without some form of communication├óÔé¼┬Ø Kilgore shook his head ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd they aren't broadcasting├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Lasers fired outside of the door of the bridge, a hissing cutting noise. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat was that?├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think our laser turrets are proving their value├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, looking to the door. Then two shots rang out, and one of the bullets blasted through the wall, smashed into the other side of the bridge and kept going until it stopped in the next corridor. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, walking into the room ├óÔé¼┼ôI think your laser turrets are a little jumpy├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Donahue looked as the other crewmen dragged Amber into the bridge ├óÔé¼┼ôYou've got Cmd. Wishbourn├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWeinstein, Kilgore, get the medical kit├óÔé¼┬Ø. They hesitated for a moment ├óÔé¼┼ôNOW!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue shouted. The two of them kicked open the latch holding the medical kit and pulled it out into the open. ├óÔé¼┼ôCommander├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, looking at her ├óÔé¼┼ôCan you hear me?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, pushing off the floor ├óÔé¼┼ôCan't move my legs though├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry about that├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets get you to your post├óÔé¼┬Ø. With the help of Tapp and Tipp, Donahue got Amber into the console.
├óÔé¼┼ôOpen your eye's├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need you at the helm├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded and opened her eyes. The needles jammed in quick enough for her to not have to worry about her eye's closing again. Amber started to work, feeling renewed energy at the operation of her console. First she closed off the area's with Them inside it and then flooded it with chlorine gas from the recycling bay. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure that will work├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked ├óÔé¼┼ôThey can survive in a vacuum├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôSomething is better then nothing├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber grunted.
├óÔé¼┼ôThere were people there├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said softly, looking at the pathogen area. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvacuate everyone into the hospitals and the armory├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said to Weinstein ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get patrols out with flamers and laser guns. Those seem to work├óÔé¼┬Ø She said to Kilgore ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get those D.U guns out of service! I don't need holes in my wall!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat should we do, Sir?├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, saluted ├óÔé¼┼ôTake this laser pistol├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said, grabbing Weinstein's side arm and chucking it to Tapp ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd get your people too the armory. We need people who have fought these things...even if its only for a while├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp saluted and gestured to her brother and Michal. They walked out of the bridge, but Tapp looked back for a second at Amber sitting in what looked like an old age tortcher device. Then they moved out. Their trip was uneventful, as They had been contained for the moment, and soon the group arrived at the armory. ├óÔé¼┼ôNew patrol members?├óÔé¼┬Ø the man at the gate asked ├óÔé¼┼ôYour to be split up into groups of two, sent out with a motion tracker, laser rifle and flamer, then clear out decks├óÔé¼┬Ø he checked a data slate ├óÔé¼┼ô44-46├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp saluted, reading the chevrons on his uniform ├óÔé¼┼ôLets go├óÔé¼┬Ø
Tipp, Tapp and Michal were all teamed up with different men and women, respectively, and sent off. Their patrols were relatively simple, as They had been mostly contained in a single large area of the ship. A few of Them popped up now and again, but Tapp found that a laser through the midsection of the thing did well enough to destroy it. Her partner was a chatty woman who seemed to talk as a way to relive tension. So she talked quite a bit. Tapp didn't mind, as They seemed to find them if they were close enough, despite how much or how little noise Tapp made.
They attacked only ten times, each a single clump of entity's, rather then swarms or massive quadrupeds. Liz and her partner diced them, fried them and killed them. After three days of patrols the battle's against Them were almost normal and bearable. Then pathogen control was lifted, the lights came on and the bulkheads opened. The patrol teams moved into the previously infested area's and found nothing but a few corpses, dead by the chlorine gas, and lodes of black grit.
On the Enterprise the three days passed in a somewhat less sanguine manner. Or, with the other meaning of the word, a more sanguine manner. Liz and Jason got to the bridge, finally, and managed to turn on the pathogen mode and the laser turrets. Then what followed was a nightmare of almost sleep, with constant attacks on the nerves by Them, and their presence. Laser turrets fired for hours, melting the barrels and turning into slag.
But in the end, working round the clock, Liz and Jason survived. The aliens died off after the three days, without any help at all. Liz looked up as Jason walked into the room, his body covered by weapons, grenades, ammo and bullet prof amour, for all the good it would do. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, her voice throaty from a lack of water. ├óÔé¼┼ôTheir dead├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôAll of Them...all dead├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked again, her head lolling back ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not possible├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing but black grit├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, sitting down ├óÔé¼┼ôNothing at all├óÔé¼┬Ø his eyes dropped and he fell asleep. Liz stayed awake for another hour after he did. Then also fell asleep.
Who said they evolved in space?
Oh right me...
Well the pressure differences between one atmo and no atmo is not large enough to kill a humain (No explodyniss) but rather will just cause problems for humain biology. And these alines don't have humain biologys...
PS: You'l learn more about Them later.
Oh right me...
Well the pressure differences between one atmo and no atmo is not large enough to kill a humain (No explodyniss) but rather will just cause problems for humain biology. And these alines don't have humain biologys...
PS: You'l learn more about Them later.
Year 2: Part 3
Species-02. S-02, as they were classified by the science and investigation teams sent into the plagued area. The black grit was, in actuality, millions of bacteria. The bacteria itself was little more then a simple carbon based life form, feeding off of some uninteresting elements and processing them into more uninteresting elements.
It was when the S&I teams were experiment on the creatures that something odd happened. Ferguson had had a long day. He was told to investigate a pile of black grit, putting it through various solutions. Each time they had put the material through a different substance it had reacted, even when the substance was poisonous the material thrived for hours, even days but then it turned back into the black grit.
It was then that Ferguson had made his leap. It was not the substance that mattered. It was the environment! He quickly put the black grit through every test he had available that he hadn't done. The black grit multiplied and grew, and he even went so far as to run electrical current through the grit. In the end he managed to produce one of the swarmer, beetle like things that were reported. Ferguson killed it, bombarding the thing with heat until it vaped, and ran to the nearest phone. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø he said to his commanding officer ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I've found something├óÔé¼┬Ø
The hospital was full. Beds stretched form end to end in the huge room, each one full of patients in various states of disrepair. Many lay, their body's half skinless and covered with bandages that covered them like gelatin, waiting for their new skin to be grown in overworked organ vats. Others lay with their limbs crushed by falling machinery, or just plain falling down corridors or smashing into bulkheads by the ship's sudden motion when it was struck by the com laser.
Amber was placed near the back end of the hospital, in a more quiet, well lit area for those with spinal injures. She had a data slate with every novel on the ship loaded into it, and was thumbing her way through Rings when Tapp's paid her a visit. Tapp walked in at about nine o clock, wearing her dress uniform ├óÔé¼┼ôSorry├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, saluting vaguely, causing her new medals to jangle softly ├óÔé¼┼ôBut the ceremonies dragged on for a extra hour├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow many new awards are those?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked ├óÔé¼┼ôFour?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFive, if you count the new chevrons├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, pointing to her right shoulder. The left shoulder was the Navy ranks, given based off of someone's duty in space. Marine ranks were given based off actions taken in boarding and taking an enemy ship as prise, or land maneuvers. And fighting aliens in one's own ship was decidedly on the marine side. Tapp, along with fifty other troopers, had received promotions, many on the order of two pay grades. Tapp was now a Capitan in the marines, and a Ensign in the navy.
├óÔé¼┼ôI think the ranking systems for the Space Corps needs work├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôI mean a Cpt-Ens├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp shrugged ├óÔé¼┼ôI've been thinking of new ranks, were your ranked by adding the pay grades for both of your ranks together├óÔé¼┬Ø she grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôThat would make me...in navy terms, a Lt. Commander, or in marine terms a Major├óÔé¼┬Ø she shrugged again ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich sounds better?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think they should separate the ranks back into Marines and Navy, and get rid of the Space Corps all together├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber groaned ├óÔé¼┼ôThe damn mixed rank's are another disaster in this mission├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôDisasters...those are another thing we need less of├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôToday├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe meet to discuses what to do with S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her entire bridge crew was collected in her office, Amber in her wheelchair, Weinstein and Kilgore standing near the back and Julia Smith, who was sitting next to Amber. She looked away from the other woman, uncomfortable. Amber remembered her being mentioned once or twice by Michal a year or so ago, and sometimes saw her on the bridge, but she seemed to never really do much around the ship.
A single tube, with a thin layer of black grit on the bottom, sat on Donahue's desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôA virus like spice's that has evolved in interstellar space. It operates like a biological land mine, drifting until it comes into contact with something that changes the environment├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber thumbed the backwards button on her wheelchair, sliding backwards slightly. She was the only one in the room who noticed the black grit was slowly growing. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen the environment changes├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue continued ├óÔé¼┼ôS-02 reacts by growing in response to that change, as Amber has noticed├óÔé¼┬Ø she gestured to the tube.
The rest of the bridge crew backed up slightly, noticing the grit's motion. Donahue, who had been playing with something behind her back, slapped a vacuum seal over the tube, and with a slight hiss, sucked the air out of the thing. The grit slumped back into stillness, the growth it achieved vanishing. ├óÔé¼┼ôWith the absence of an environment the grit settles down. When we hit the asteroid that carried this thing we woke it up enough for it to swarm over. Then S-02 grew in our new environment├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber gulped, looking at the suddenly still grit.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow do we kill it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said finally. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôKilling is just a sudden change in the environment, whether it's through kinetic energy, heat or cold├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThen what do we do?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe run├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe run and we seal it off as fast as we can├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo what about the grit lining the hall's of over a third of the ship!├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein snapped. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are planning to vacuum it out by simply dumping the air in that place into space├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôUnfortunately that is not one hundred percent, but its still the best we can do. We will also lose a lot of air├óÔé¼┬Ø she looked at Amber ├óÔé¼┼ôcan you increase our air reserves?├óÔé¼┬Ø
├óÔé¼┼ôwe could melt down parts of our ice armor, but then, after a while, it will just condense back on the side of the ship and we'll be back were we started├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôOr we could convert more area's, like say the swimming pool's, into hydroponic areas and simply run on red mode for a few months├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôGood idea's├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we might need more├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at Weinstein ├óÔé¼┼ôAny reserves you have in store?├óÔé¼┬Ø
Weinstein nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôI believe that we can salvage at least three months of O2 from the power amours, space suits and shuttles. We'll have to put it back in once we get our ecosystem back up and running, but it shouldn't be a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore chimed in ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd we could also melt down part of our water supplies├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôOur recycling systems are near a hundred percent efficient, and we can stand to lose some of our surplus├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't cut too much out of our reserves├óÔé¼┬Ø she said.
Donahue stood ├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôI say we have to find a way to detect these life forms form a distance so we can avoid them├óÔé¼┬Ø she picked up the tube containing the Black Grit and put it in her personal messaging systems. A carrier system pushed the tube to the science devisions ├óÔé¼┼ôDismissed├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, standing. The other members of her bridge crew saluted.
Liz watched as the grit drifted into space, almost invisible against the blackness. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can survive on this├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd the likely hood of us running into another clump of those things is so incalculably huge that we can't be bothered worrying about it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNot worry about it├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, turning to the man ├óÔé¼┼ôHow can i not fucking worry about it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI'm trying to find the answer to that one too├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grinning weakly ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd to make matters worse├óÔé¼┬Ø he held up a data slate ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are still only thirty percent done with the necessary repairs├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Liz broke down and sobbed. Jason sat down and was ready to join her. The workload, the loneliness those were the two obstacles that had faced and over come last year. Now they had to cover the fear. Fear of the alien, fear of the unknown. Before the attack the void around them was empty, nonthreatening. Now it was a minefield. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need a fucking vacation├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said. Jason laughed, a sudden shock in the depression they were both feeling.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, giggling to her self ├óÔé¼┼ôWhats so funny?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason kept laughing. Liz joined in his laughter after a few moments, and both of them kept laughing. ├óÔé¼┼ôYour right├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said after a moment, whipping his eyes with his hand, ├óÔé¼┼ôWe do need a fucking vacation├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWere too?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked ├óÔé¼┼ôthe engineering decks? The acceleration tanks?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe bridge├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôWould be a good first place to stop├óÔé¼┬Ø
They arrived at the bridge, Liz holding two bottles of champaign in her hands. Jason drifted in first ├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, typing in a quick command ├óÔé¼┼ôThis will keep us safe for the time being├óÔé¼┬Ø. The two laser turrets outside of the bridge whirred to life. Liz pulled the cork off the champaign bottle and sucked champaign out of it, as one couldn't drink normally in zero gravity. She slammed the cork back into the bottle and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI feel better already├óÔé¼┬Ø She said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow lets get on to business├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Year 3: Part 1
Year three was the year of deceleration. They had accelerated for a few months, going from having their normal mass to having a lot more then normal mass, once again thanks to Einstein, and so it takes longer to decelerate. So the three ships, operating on a hardwired program, slowly spinning the ships around till they faced Darkside. Then their ram scoops flared to life once more, and the ship's began their gradual deceleration, which would become easier the more they slowed down.
Year three was also, for the Alexander and the Rodger Young, the year of a new ranking system. Because the Alexander, of all the ships, was the only one that was unscathed in the S-02 attack, they had time to do somethings that seemed, on the Rodger Young less then important. Things like a rank system.
The captain himself had designed the ranks, basing them off of an old Homeworld air force. After all the Space Corps, if anything, was most like the Air Force then the Navy or the Marines. Simply take the highest of the two ranks, and chose the equivalent one of those to the new ranking system. Amber was now, rather then a Commander, a Lieutenant Colonel . It was a rather befuddling change, to suddenly call people Second Lieutenant rather then Ensign's, but Amber tried to take it in stride.
Amber's largest hurdle of the year 2112 was her spine being crushed in three place's during the S-02 attack. Confined to a wheel chair, Amber found herself still able to do her job. So, unlike the prior Xo of the ship, Amber got to stay out of a cryotank. Not that this was much of an improvement. Amber wheeled down the hall way, eager to get to the bridge. In the bridge she could at least feel semi-normal, in zero gravity. Her new nerves would take at least twenty years to grow, unlike the forty of the old Xo. He needed an entire new column. She just needed some new nerves.
Amber tried to tell her that she was lucky, in that respect at least. She got to the bride, saluting to the Capti-...Colonel. Col. Donahue saluted back as Amber got out of her chair, pushing away with her arms and drifting to her console. Donahue and Amber didn't talk as much any more. Amber sat down for another day at the job.
Amber got back into her chair, going slowly down the corridor, heading to her bed. She was feeling the doldrums that seemed to cover everything. Just like with light speed, nearing the end of the voyage seemed to make time slow down unbearably. Amber got to her bed, laid down and starred at the celling. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø she murmured. Tapp was another thing that seemed to have been ripped away from her.
Tapp had grown...distant as Amber wasted away in bed. Promotions, new ranks and responsibility's. Now Tapp was in command of an entire battalion of what would one day be a group of people who would take the Enterprise back from the hijackers. She seemed to not have time for Amber. Not that Amber had any time for Tapp, seeing as how she had to almost continually work at the bridge. Not that she had anything else to do.
Seemed, now, that the only person that Amber still talked with on any regularity was Donahue. And she only gave orders now. The entire ship was like that, Amber noticed. People seemed to talk less, laugh less, stair at their feet more. The entire voyage seemed gripped in the doldrums. And so the year passed. Nothing much of interest happened, and Amber found that, before she knew it, it was already New Year again.
She guessed that starred at the floor made time go faster after all.
Liz and Jason, however, took the deceleration as a good thing. The ship, the Enterprise was almost completely repaired. ├óÔé¼┼ôCongratulations!├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said over the walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôWith this new piece of tubing we will have completed seventy five percent of the repairs necessary├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz's cheer came out with a lode of static. Jason jerked his walky talky away from his ear, wincing at the crackle. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't talk so loud├óÔé¼┬Ø he snapped.
Liz cheered again, quieter this time. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow why don't you put in that tube damn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sir├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, snapping the tube into position and lasering it shut. The machinery around her whirred to live after a few moments as new power. She ducked out of the area and into her crawlspace. She had to beat back another uprising of claustrophobia, remaining from the S-02 attack.
Jason was also busy, mostly in the computer's arena, and he was just as glad as Liz to finally have seventy five percent of the ship working. They could disable an enemy ship and still have twelve percent of the ship remaining operable, based off his calculations. Now that they had reached the deceleration stage of the trip Jason found that they had a new advantage over the other two ship's. They could see them. The heat, radiation and other fallout from the engine made tracking the other ships almost pathetically easy.
A few hours later and Liz walked into Jason's workshop, a small storage room he had changed into a small machinist shop. He had laser welders, saw blades, tubing, wiring, nails, plastics, foam metal, a verity of metal eating bacteria and finally Jason's prize find, a working gasoline engine, modified to run on vegetable oil's. Liz could understand the fascination with machinery, as she continued to tinker with the Banshee II, still in one of the hangers of the Enterprise.
Right now Jason had an anti-matter bomb on his desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not what I think it is├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking at the vacuum tube's, electromagnets and a single high power battery. ├óÔé¼┼ôIt is├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grinning and gesturing to the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôI used part of our fuel reserve but now we have a ship buster├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôHow are we going to hit them with it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, stepping back from the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd when! Those things are banned for a reason├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Jason grinned wolfishly ├óÔé¼┼ôSoon├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are just going to drop it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWill that work?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôShould├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, gesturing to the back of the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôIts got an engine socket, if we need it├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich ship are we going to hit with it?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe Alexander if we can. Its supposedly the flag ship├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, standing up slowly ├óÔé¼┼ôShall we go?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Liz felt a little cold ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure we should be doing this?├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, remembering the photo's of Rome after the 2020's.
├óÔé¼┼ôListen, Liz├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grunting as he picked up the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is a war, and we can't play nice├óÔé¼┬Ø he started to walk to the door of his workshop ├óÔé¼┼ôRemember that├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Species-02. S-02, as they were classified by the science and investigation teams sent into the plagued area. The black grit was, in actuality, millions of bacteria. The bacteria itself was little more then a simple carbon based life form, feeding off of some uninteresting elements and processing them into more uninteresting elements.
It was when the S&I teams were experiment on the creatures that something odd happened. Ferguson had had a long day. He was told to investigate a pile of black grit, putting it through various solutions. Each time they had put the material through a different substance it had reacted, even when the substance was poisonous the material thrived for hours, even days but then it turned back into the black grit.
It was then that Ferguson had made his leap. It was not the substance that mattered. It was the environment! He quickly put the black grit through every test he had available that he hadn't done. The black grit multiplied and grew, and he even went so far as to run electrical current through the grit. In the end he managed to produce one of the swarmer, beetle like things that were reported. Ferguson killed it, bombarding the thing with heat until it vaped, and ran to the nearest phone. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø he said to his commanding officer ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I've found something├óÔé¼┬Ø
The hospital was full. Beds stretched form end to end in the huge room, each one full of patients in various states of disrepair. Many lay, their body's half skinless and covered with bandages that covered them like gelatin, waiting for their new skin to be grown in overworked organ vats. Others lay with their limbs crushed by falling machinery, or just plain falling down corridors or smashing into bulkheads by the ship's sudden motion when it was struck by the com laser.
Amber was placed near the back end of the hospital, in a more quiet, well lit area for those with spinal injures. She had a data slate with every novel on the ship loaded into it, and was thumbing her way through Rings when Tapp's paid her a visit. Tapp walked in at about nine o clock, wearing her dress uniform ├óÔé¼┼ôSorry├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, saluting vaguely, causing her new medals to jangle softly ├óÔé¼┼ôBut the ceremonies dragged on for a extra hour├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow many new awards are those?├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber asked ├óÔé¼┼ôFour?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFive, if you count the new chevrons├óÔé¼┬Ø Tapp said, pointing to her right shoulder. The left shoulder was the Navy ranks, given based off of someone's duty in space. Marine ranks were given based off actions taken in boarding and taking an enemy ship as prise, or land maneuvers. And fighting aliens in one's own ship was decidedly on the marine side. Tapp, along with fifty other troopers, had received promotions, many on the order of two pay grades. Tapp was now a Capitan in the marines, and a Ensign in the navy.
├óÔé¼┼ôI think the ranking systems for the Space Corps needs work├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôI mean a Cpt-Ens├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp shrugged ├óÔé¼┼ôI've been thinking of new ranks, were your ranked by adding the pay grades for both of your ranks together├óÔé¼┬Ø she grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôThat would make me...in navy terms, a Lt. Commander, or in marine terms a Major├óÔé¼┬Ø she shrugged again ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich sounds better?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think they should separate the ranks back into Marines and Navy, and get rid of the Space Corps all together├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber groaned ├óÔé¼┼ôThe damn mixed rank's are another disaster in this mission├óÔé¼┬Ø. Tapp frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôDisasters...those are another thing we need less of├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôToday├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe meet to discuses what to do with S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her entire bridge crew was collected in her office, Amber in her wheelchair, Weinstein and Kilgore standing near the back and Julia Smith, who was sitting next to Amber. She looked away from the other woman, uncomfortable. Amber remembered her being mentioned once or twice by Michal a year or so ago, and sometimes saw her on the bridge, but she seemed to never really do much around the ship.
A single tube, with a thin layer of black grit on the bottom, sat on Donahue's desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôA virus like spice's that has evolved in interstellar space. It operates like a biological land mine, drifting until it comes into contact with something that changes the environment├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber thumbed the backwards button on her wheelchair, sliding backwards slightly. She was the only one in the room who noticed the black grit was slowly growing. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen the environment changes├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue continued ├óÔé¼┼ôS-02 reacts by growing in response to that change, as Amber has noticed├óÔé¼┬Ø she gestured to the tube.
The rest of the bridge crew backed up slightly, noticing the grit's motion. Donahue, who had been playing with something behind her back, slapped a vacuum seal over the tube, and with a slight hiss, sucked the air out of the thing. The grit slumped back into stillness, the growth it achieved vanishing. ├óÔé¼┼ôWith the absence of an environment the grit settles down. When we hit the asteroid that carried this thing we woke it up enough for it to swarm over. Then S-02 grew in our new environment├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber gulped, looking at the suddenly still grit.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow do we kill it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said finally. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôKilling is just a sudden change in the environment, whether it's through kinetic energy, heat or cold├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThen what do we do?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe run├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe run and we seal it off as fast as we can├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo what about the grit lining the hall's of over a third of the ship!├óÔé¼┬Ø Weinstein snapped. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are planning to vacuum it out by simply dumping the air in that place into space├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôUnfortunately that is not one hundred percent, but its still the best we can do. We will also lose a lot of air├óÔé¼┬Ø she looked at Amber ├óÔé¼┼ôcan you increase our air reserves?├óÔé¼┬Ø
├óÔé¼┼ôwe could melt down parts of our ice armor, but then, after a while, it will just condense back on the side of the ship and we'll be back were we started├óÔé¼┬Ø Amber said ├óÔé¼┼ôOr we could convert more area's, like say the swimming pool's, into hydroponic areas and simply run on red mode for a few months├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôGood idea's├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we might need more├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at Weinstein ├óÔé¼┼ôAny reserves you have in store?├óÔé¼┬Ø
Weinstein nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôI believe that we can salvage at least three months of O2 from the power amours, space suits and shuttles. We'll have to put it back in once we get our ecosystem back up and running, but it shouldn't be a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kilgore chimed in ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd we could also melt down part of our water supplies├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôOur recycling systems are near a hundred percent efficient, and we can stand to lose some of our surplus├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't cut too much out of our reserves├óÔé¼┬Ø she said.
Donahue stood ├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôI say we have to find a way to detect these life forms form a distance so we can avoid them├óÔé¼┬Ø she picked up the tube containing the Black Grit and put it in her personal messaging systems. A carrier system pushed the tube to the science devisions ├óÔé¼┼ôDismissed├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, standing. The other members of her bridge crew saluted.
Liz watched as the grit drifted into space, almost invisible against the blackness. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can survive on this├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd the likely hood of us running into another clump of those things is so incalculably huge that we can't be bothered worrying about it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNot worry about it├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, turning to the man ├óÔé¼┼ôHow can i not fucking worry about it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI'm trying to find the answer to that one too├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grinning weakly ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd to make matters worse├óÔé¼┬Ø he held up a data slate ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are still only thirty percent done with the necessary repairs├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Liz broke down and sobbed. Jason sat down and was ready to join her. The workload, the loneliness those were the two obstacles that had faced and over come last year. Now they had to cover the fear. Fear of the alien, fear of the unknown. Before the attack the void around them was empty, nonthreatening. Now it was a minefield. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need a fucking vacation├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said. Jason laughed, a sudden shock in the depression they were both feeling.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, giggling to her self ├óÔé¼┼ôWhats so funny?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Jason kept laughing. Liz joined in his laughter after a few moments, and both of them kept laughing. ├óÔé¼┼ôYour right├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said after a moment, whipping his eyes with his hand, ├óÔé¼┼ôWe do need a fucking vacation├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWere too?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked ├óÔé¼┼ôthe engineering decks? The acceleration tanks?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe bridge├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôWould be a good first place to stop├óÔé¼┬Ø
They arrived at the bridge, Liz holding two bottles of champaign in her hands. Jason drifted in first ├óÔé¼┼ôNow├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, typing in a quick command ├óÔé¼┼ôThis will keep us safe for the time being├óÔé¼┬Ø. The two laser turrets outside of the bridge whirred to life. Liz pulled the cork off the champaign bottle and sucked champaign out of it, as one couldn't drink normally in zero gravity. She slammed the cork back into the bottle and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI feel better already├óÔé¼┬Ø She said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow lets get on to business├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Year 3: Part 1
Year three was the year of deceleration. They had accelerated for a few months, going from having their normal mass to having a lot more then normal mass, once again thanks to Einstein, and so it takes longer to decelerate. So the three ships, operating on a hardwired program, slowly spinning the ships around till they faced Darkside. Then their ram scoops flared to life once more, and the ship's began their gradual deceleration, which would become easier the more they slowed down.
Year three was also, for the Alexander and the Rodger Young, the year of a new ranking system. Because the Alexander, of all the ships, was the only one that was unscathed in the S-02 attack, they had time to do somethings that seemed, on the Rodger Young less then important. Things like a rank system.
The captain himself had designed the ranks, basing them off of an old Homeworld air force. After all the Space Corps, if anything, was most like the Air Force then the Navy or the Marines. Simply take the highest of the two ranks, and chose the equivalent one of those to the new ranking system. Amber was now, rather then a Commander, a Lieutenant Colonel . It was a rather befuddling change, to suddenly call people Second Lieutenant rather then Ensign's, but Amber tried to take it in stride.
Amber's largest hurdle of the year 2112 was her spine being crushed in three place's during the S-02 attack. Confined to a wheel chair, Amber found herself still able to do her job. So, unlike the prior Xo of the ship, Amber got to stay out of a cryotank. Not that this was much of an improvement. Amber wheeled down the hall way, eager to get to the bridge. In the bridge she could at least feel semi-normal, in zero gravity. Her new nerves would take at least twenty years to grow, unlike the forty of the old Xo. He needed an entire new column. She just needed some new nerves.
Amber tried to tell her that she was lucky, in that respect at least. She got to the bride, saluting to the Capti-...Colonel. Col. Donahue saluted back as Amber got out of her chair, pushing away with her arms and drifting to her console. Donahue and Amber didn't talk as much any more. Amber sat down for another day at the job.
Amber got back into her chair, going slowly down the corridor, heading to her bed. She was feeling the doldrums that seemed to cover everything. Just like with light speed, nearing the end of the voyage seemed to make time slow down unbearably. Amber got to her bed, laid down and starred at the celling. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø she murmured. Tapp was another thing that seemed to have been ripped away from her.
Tapp had grown...distant as Amber wasted away in bed. Promotions, new ranks and responsibility's. Now Tapp was in command of an entire battalion of what would one day be a group of people who would take the Enterprise back from the hijackers. She seemed to not have time for Amber. Not that Amber had any time for Tapp, seeing as how she had to almost continually work at the bridge. Not that she had anything else to do.
Seemed, now, that the only person that Amber still talked with on any regularity was Donahue. And she only gave orders now. The entire ship was like that, Amber noticed. People seemed to talk less, laugh less, stair at their feet more. The entire voyage seemed gripped in the doldrums. And so the year passed. Nothing much of interest happened, and Amber found that, before she knew it, it was already New Year again.
She guessed that starred at the floor made time go faster after all.
Liz and Jason, however, took the deceleration as a good thing. The ship, the Enterprise was almost completely repaired. ├óÔé¼┼ôCongratulations!├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said over the walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôWith this new piece of tubing we will have completed seventy five percent of the repairs necessary├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz's cheer came out with a lode of static. Jason jerked his walky talky away from his ear, wincing at the crackle. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't talk so loud├óÔé¼┬Ø he snapped.
Liz cheered again, quieter this time. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow why don't you put in that tube damn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sir├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, snapping the tube into position and lasering it shut. The machinery around her whirred to live after a few moments as new power. She ducked out of the area and into her crawlspace. She had to beat back another uprising of claustrophobia, remaining from the S-02 attack.
Jason was also busy, mostly in the computer's arena, and he was just as glad as Liz to finally have seventy five percent of the ship working. They could disable an enemy ship and still have twelve percent of the ship remaining operable, based off his calculations. Now that they had reached the deceleration stage of the trip Jason found that they had a new advantage over the other two ship's. They could see them. The heat, radiation and other fallout from the engine made tracking the other ships almost pathetically easy.
A few hours later and Liz walked into Jason's workshop, a small storage room he had changed into a small machinist shop. He had laser welders, saw blades, tubing, wiring, nails, plastics, foam metal, a verity of metal eating bacteria and finally Jason's prize find, a working gasoline engine, modified to run on vegetable oil's. Liz could understand the fascination with machinery, as she continued to tinker with the Banshee II, still in one of the hangers of the Enterprise.
Right now Jason had an anti-matter bomb on his desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not what I think it is├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking at the vacuum tube's, electromagnets and a single high power battery. ├óÔé¼┼ôIt is├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grinning and gesturing to the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôI used part of our fuel reserve but now we have a ship buster├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôHow are we going to hit them with it?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, stepping back from the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd when! Those things are banned for a reason├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Jason grinned wolfishly ├óÔé¼┼ôSoon├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are just going to drop it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWill that work?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôShould├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, gesturing to the back of the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôIts got an engine socket, if we need it├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôWhich ship are we going to hit with it?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe Alexander if we can. Its supposedly the flag ship├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, standing up slowly ├óÔé¼┼ôShall we go?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Liz felt a little cold ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure we should be doing this?├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, remembering the photo's of Rome after the 2020's.
├óÔé¼┼ôListen, Liz├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, grunting as he picked up the bomb ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is a war, and we can't play nice├óÔé¼┬Ø he started to walk to the door of his workshop ├óÔé¼┼ôRemember that├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Cool...4000's views... neat...
Year 3: Part 2
Antimatter could be produced industrially since 2008, and from there its storage and use as a bomb was somewhat simple. A net of electro magnets around a vacuum tube, keeping the particles of anti matter from touching anything but themselves. Once the bomb needs to be set off, one just unplugs half the electro magnets. The antimatter is catapulted into the bomb and detonated, vaporising the bomb shell and everything within a six hundred feet. And that was with a small portion of anti-matter.
Rome had been destroyed by a small bomb. The initial blast had gouged a massive crater out of the ground, roughly two city blocks wide and an entire block deep. It had broken into the waterline of Rome, not to mention blasting apart the sewer systems and the subways. It was the vacuum created by the sudden and complete destruction of a sphere of matter that caused the most damage. A shock wave ripped the entire city down to its foundations, spreading radiated rubble over many miles of Italy.
The radiation killed everyone who survived the attack, and now Jason had created a large antimatter bomb. The bomb had enough antimatter to destroy Rome four times over again, and if it hit even the most out most area of the Alexander it would vaporise half the ship. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets not miss├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said as Jason slid the bomb into one of the gun's on the ship's right side. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen will the bomb hit?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Jason grinned, turning around to face Liz.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhen we fire it, and a few days after that├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôI never did calculations to guess that├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy the hell not?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, walking out of the room. ├óÔé¼┼ôLazy, I guess├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, slipping his hands into his pockets and walking with Liz to the bridge. The two of them took a leisurely pace, not wanting to rush. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat's the next up for repairs├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, trying to forget about the bomb they just loaded. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think it's the hydroponic backups. More O2 is never a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Amber chewed her lip. She was detecting a slight magnetic field dropping towards them. It was barely noticeable against the background radiation, but the sensors of the ship were trained on the Enterprise's last know location and the focus allowed Amber to spot the mag field dropping to the Alexander.
She lasered a message to the Alexander inquiring if they had seen the field. She then notified Donahue. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could it be?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked, looking at the readings on Amber's console. Amber shrugged ├óÔé¼┼ôCould be anything, really. But the most likely options are well...the only real one i can think of is an anti-matter bomb├óÔé¼┬Ø. She trailed off and both of the women stood still. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôLaser a new message to the Alexander and tell them├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded and let the needles stick back into her eye's.
It took the Alexander three days to respond. The distance between the ships meant a few hours, possibly a day if they were really busy on their end, but three entire days? It almost seemed like the Alexander was ignoring them. Then they received a message: ├óÔé¼┼ôTarget has been destroyed├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue chewed her lip ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are they doing over there?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked the air.
A year, three months later.
The colony was in disarray. The ice was melting and the entire place was in a black out situation. Simon looked at the door to his rooms, and hear that the monster on the other side had vanished. He tentatively opened the door, surprised to find light streaming into the room. Simon stepped into the rest of the hospital and found chaos.
Half of the room had been ripped in half, ice cutting into the place from the celling to the floor. The monster's came in from a tunnel in the ice, and from their they had cut thought he door. A body, woman, lay on the floor. Mutilated. Simon put his hand over his mouth, bile rising. Then he heard the sound of gunfire in from the hall. A monster, rearing back on its hind legs, came into view. Its stomach exploded, bullets ramming into it. ├óÔé¼┼ôDIE FUCKER!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted someone, and the bullets started to hail again, until the monster fell in half.
The head of the monster twitched, its mouth opening and closing. A boot slammed onto it, and Simon looked up from that boot to the leg. A woman. She placed her assault rifle on the head of the monster and fired three shots. The monsters brain splattered onto the floor. ├óÔé¼┼ôHigh sight better then S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz muttered. Then she looked into the hospital ├óÔé¼┼ôSurviver!├óÔé¼┬Ø She shouted back behind her. Two medics ran into the room and checked Simon, who was still staring at the dead creature. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's fine├óÔé¼┬Ø One said, handing Simon a gun.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat should I do?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôShoot anything thats not human├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted at him, stalking down the corridor with her assault rifle at the ready. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd someone close that hole!├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôCome on├óÔé¼┬Ø One of the medics said ├óÔé¼┼ôShe's not all that great at introducing new members of our little militia├óÔé¼┬Ø. He helped Simon to his feet, and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôNow get out of here and follow my friend. His friend was standing at the door, twitching impatiently. Simon followed the second medic, as the first medic chucked a grenade into the ice.
Liz walked down the corridor. The alien's followed a simple worm like pattern, made cutting them in half easy. For all the good it did. Liz found hitting them in the skulls was the best way to go. She said so to her followers, a collection of shell shocked survivors of the attack, and the colony's motley militia members.
They were only slightly useful in clearing out the colony, but once she was done, they actually knew who was in charge. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, you├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, trying to use their outdated syntax ├óÔé¼┼ôWho's in charge around here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôUhh├óÔé¼┬Ø The man said, looking surprised at the sudden question ├óÔé¼┼ôKalvin and Reeds├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôDown by the control tower├óÔé¼┬Ø he pointed at the tower, visible through a hole in the celling. Liz nodded and started off at a run, slinging her assault rifle over her shoulder. The rifle was one of the colony's, unbearably primitive, but it did the job none the less.
├óÔé¼┼ôWho?├óÔé¼┬Ø Reeds asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôA woman, wearing boots, a skin suit with tattoo's all over her body, and black skin├óÔé¼┬Ø The surviver said, rubbing his temples. He had been through the alien attack, saved by the stranger, and now was being grilled by Reeds. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure├óÔé¼┬Ø Reeds said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have no record of anyone matching that description in the colony├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôShe's not from the colony, I can tell you that much├óÔé¼┬Ø he said.
Reeds sighed, sitting down in his chair. The command center they had created was situated in a three way hall way, with computer's dragged into it. Cables ran over the floor, and their were only three chairs for the ten people working in it. Four guards, wielding the biggest weapons in the colony, covered each door. ├óÔé¼┼ôExcuse me├óÔé¼┬Ø One of the guards said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou can't just barge in here!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Reeds looked up to the door way. A woman, wearing boots and a skin suit, with pink tattoo's over her entire body, and black skin, walked into the room, shoving past the guard. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you in charge here?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked Reeds.
He looked at her, then remembered with a jolt about the extraterrestrials that had arrived via star ship a while ago. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth, right?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. She nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need to talk├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Over the next three day's Liz, Reeds and Kalvin got the colony running again. Killigan organized the security force's into a somewhat presentable shape. Marcus spent much of his time healing up in the hospital as people worked to get the ice out of it and clean up the body's. Thirty three people had died, the biggest amount of deaths at any one time in the colony, aside from the early years.
The ice was also melting, creating a lake around the base. People started wearing short sleeves out side, some even started swimming in the still cold water. Liz made Reeds put a stop to that. The climate change forced the technicians in the colony to work round the clock to prevent the air warmers from heating the base to unbearable proportions. The insulation was stripped off the wall's and used to make new houses. People were cremated, rather then buried. Corpses from the cometary floated up into the water, their coffin's rotting away. Those were cremated.
The crematorium used to be a smelter, and Jason's corpse was fed into that. His implants were fished out of the vat and melted down to make new parts. Liz sat in her appointed room and cried her self to sleep.
Then she came to Reeds room. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes?├óÔé¼┬Ø the aged leader asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI need to level with you├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôJason and I came here├óÔé¼┬Ø she frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôNot just to warn you about the enemy coming, but to also prepare you├óÔé¼┬Ø. Reeds frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat do you want us to do?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôBuild a space ship! We can barely keep ourselves from sinking├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou don't need to do anything. I just need five thousand volunteers├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Reed had been drinking his coffee. He sprayed it onto his desk, coughing. ├óÔé¼┼ôFive thousand!├óÔé¼┬Ø he demanded ├óÔé¼┼ôFive thousand!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz slammed her fist down on the desk ├óÔé¼┼ôListen buddy, I don't want to fuck around! In four or so years two star ships, each with over twenty thousand people on board who think that there is an alien race hell bent on humankind's destruction. The government back home is more interested in 'creating' a new interstellar empire by destroying your home├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôI have a feeling that they will see the Shroud around your planet and decide that YOUR the enemy!├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Reeds frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll put up flyer's├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWill that make you happy?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll handle getting the people├óÔé¼┬Ø she grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I know how to motivate people├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôI know many of you suffered in the latest attack├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. The crowd gathered was a respectable five hundred or so, but most people in the colony were still busy with repairs. The crowd were mostly young men, who wanted to do something other then live in the colony for days on end. ├óÔé¼┼ôBut there is a threat that is coming from out side the solar system├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz read her speech, trying to put enough passion to sway people's opinion to her side.
In the initial month of recruitment it didn't work. A hundred or so volunteers showed up, in a colony of about thirty three thousand. Another month went by and the trickle of volunteers widened a bit, and she had her first thousand. Nothing to be done but take them to space and start training. The ice had melted and, as it turned out, the colony was situated in the middle of a lake. The worm creatures stopped attacking, rather hunting their prey in what seemed to be their natural environment, the water.
The Banshee II had been moved closer to the colony, and Liz ushered people up and down into the Enterprise by the hundred. She switched to a troop transport after three trips, realizing that cramming a hundred people into the Banshee II was prohibitive. The troop transport broke down after one rip, leaving the last three hundred volunteers on the ground. Liz ushered them up with the Banshee II.
The entire process took two days, and for that time, the volunteers milled about on the Enterprise speculation and rumor running rampant. Liz gathered them into the sleeping chamber. Many sat on the bed, and others were crammed in between the beds. All of them were miserable. Simon stubbed his cigarette on the wall as Liz walked into the room, standing at the head of the crowd.
├óÔé¼┼ôWelcome to the Enterprise[/i]├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, checking her clip board ├óÔé¼┼ôNow could any one with computer experience please raise their hand?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Several people in the crowd raised their hand, and after a quick count, Liz found there to be fifty three. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow that we got that out of the way, I would like to introduce you to the ship[/i]├óÔé¼┬Ø.
She pressed a button on her clip board and every wall monitor in the place flickered on, showing the Enterprise's schematic. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis ship is four point three miles long, two miles wide at the base and has over sixteen square miles of tubing. It has fifteen thousand guns for each 'side' of the cone, a antimatter engine and is capable of interstellar travel├óÔé¼┬Ø. The crowd looked at the monitors, at least those that could, and many were beginning to think they were over their heads. ├óÔé¼┼ôNow most of this ship has been repaired by me and...my partner while we were in transit├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz's smile cracked slightly at my partner ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd has been kept in vacuum storage to prevent breakdown├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to have a smaller then normal crew├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause this ship was the smallest of the three in the fleet we only need a ten thousand man crew. But I have found a few ways to cut that crew down to five thousand. This is an advantage in mass, allowing us to move faster├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd in amour, because all of the unused decks will add to our defense├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the crowd of face's that were beginning to look terrified at what they had signed up for ├óÔé¼┼ôNow, raise your hand If you've had experiences fixing cars├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Year 3: Part 2
Antimatter could be produced industrially since 2008, and from there its storage and use as a bomb was somewhat simple. A net of electro magnets around a vacuum tube, keeping the particles of anti matter from touching anything but themselves. Once the bomb needs to be set off, one just unplugs half the electro magnets. The antimatter is catapulted into the bomb and detonated, vaporising the bomb shell and everything within a six hundred feet. And that was with a small portion of anti-matter.
Rome had been destroyed by a small bomb. The initial blast had gouged a massive crater out of the ground, roughly two city blocks wide and an entire block deep. It had broken into the waterline of Rome, not to mention blasting apart the sewer systems and the subways. It was the vacuum created by the sudden and complete destruction of a sphere of matter that caused the most damage. A shock wave ripped the entire city down to its foundations, spreading radiated rubble over many miles of Italy.
The radiation killed everyone who survived the attack, and now Jason had created a large antimatter bomb. The bomb had enough antimatter to destroy Rome four times over again, and if it hit even the most out most area of the Alexander it would vaporise half the ship. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets not miss├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said as Jason slid the bomb into one of the gun's on the ship's right side. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen will the bomb hit?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Jason grinned, turning around to face Liz.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhen we fire it, and a few days after that├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said ├óÔé¼┼ôI never did calculations to guess that├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy the hell not?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, walking out of the room. ├óÔé¼┼ôLazy, I guess├óÔé¼┬Ø Jason said, slipping his hands into his pockets and walking with Liz to the bridge. The two of them took a leisurely pace, not wanting to rush. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat's the next up for repairs├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, trying to forget about the bomb they just loaded. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think it's the hydroponic backups. More O2 is never a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Amber chewed her lip. She was detecting a slight magnetic field dropping towards them. It was barely noticeable against the background radiation, but the sensors of the ship were trained on the Enterprise's last know location and the focus allowed Amber to spot the mag field dropping to the Alexander.
She lasered a message to the Alexander inquiring if they had seen the field. She then notified Donahue. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could it be?├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue asked, looking at the readings on Amber's console. Amber shrugged ├óÔé¼┼ôCould be anything, really. But the most likely options are well...the only real one i can think of is an anti-matter bomb├óÔé¼┬Ø. She trailed off and both of the women stood still. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said ├óÔé¼┼ôLaser a new message to the Alexander and tell them├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber nodded and let the needles stick back into her eye's.
It took the Alexander three days to respond. The distance between the ships meant a few hours, possibly a day if they were really busy on their end, but three entire days? It almost seemed like the Alexander was ignoring them. Then they received a message: ├óÔé¼┼ôTarget has been destroyed├óÔé¼┬Ø. Donahue chewed her lip ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are they doing over there?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked the air.
A year, three months later.
The colony was in disarray. The ice was melting and the entire place was in a black out situation. Simon looked at the door to his rooms, and hear that the monster on the other side had vanished. He tentatively opened the door, surprised to find light streaming into the room. Simon stepped into the rest of the hospital and found chaos.
Half of the room had been ripped in half, ice cutting into the place from the celling to the floor. The monster's came in from a tunnel in the ice, and from their they had cut thought he door. A body, woman, lay on the floor. Mutilated. Simon put his hand over his mouth, bile rising. Then he heard the sound of gunfire in from the hall. A monster, rearing back on its hind legs, came into view. Its stomach exploded, bullets ramming into it. ├óÔé¼┼ôDIE FUCKER!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted someone, and the bullets started to hail again, until the monster fell in half.
The head of the monster twitched, its mouth opening and closing. A boot slammed onto it, and Simon looked up from that boot to the leg. A woman. She placed her assault rifle on the head of the monster and fired three shots. The monsters brain splattered onto the floor. ├óÔé¼┼ôHigh sight better then S-02├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz muttered. Then she looked into the hospital ├óÔé¼┼ôSurviver!├óÔé¼┬Ø She shouted back behind her. Two medics ran into the room and checked Simon, who was still staring at the dead creature. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's fine├óÔé¼┬Ø One said, handing Simon a gun.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat should I do?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôShoot anything thats not human├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted at him, stalking down the corridor with her assault rifle at the ready. ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd someone close that hole!├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôCome on├óÔé¼┬Ø One of the medics said ├óÔé¼┼ôShe's not all that great at introducing new members of our little militia├óÔé¼┬Ø. He helped Simon to his feet, and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôNow get out of here and follow my friend. His friend was standing at the door, twitching impatiently. Simon followed the second medic, as the first medic chucked a grenade into the ice.
Liz walked down the corridor. The alien's followed a simple worm like pattern, made cutting them in half easy. For all the good it did. Liz found hitting them in the skulls was the best way to go. She said so to her followers, a collection of shell shocked survivors of the attack, and the colony's motley militia members.
They were only slightly useful in clearing out the colony, but once she was done, they actually knew who was in charge. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, you├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, trying to use their outdated syntax ├óÔé¼┼ôWho's in charge around here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôUhh├óÔé¼┬Ø The man said, looking surprised at the sudden question ├óÔé¼┼ôKalvin and Reeds├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôDown by the control tower├óÔé¼┬Ø he pointed at the tower, visible through a hole in the celling. Liz nodded and started off at a run, slinging her assault rifle over her shoulder. The rifle was one of the colony's, unbearably primitive, but it did the job none the less.
├óÔé¼┼ôWho?├óÔé¼┬Ø Reeds asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôA woman, wearing boots, a skin suit with tattoo's all over her body, and black skin├óÔé¼┬Ø The surviver said, rubbing his temples. He had been through the alien attack, saved by the stranger, and now was being grilled by Reeds. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you sure├óÔé¼┬Ø Reeds said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have no record of anyone matching that description in the colony├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôShe's not from the colony, I can tell you that much├óÔé¼┬Ø he said.
Reeds sighed, sitting down in his chair. The command center they had created was situated in a three way hall way, with computer's dragged into it. Cables ran over the floor, and their were only three chairs for the ten people working in it. Four guards, wielding the biggest weapons in the colony, covered each door. ├óÔé¼┼ôExcuse me├óÔé¼┬Ø One of the guards said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou can't just barge in here!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Reeds looked up to the door way. A woman, wearing boots and a skin suit, with pink tattoo's over her entire body, and black skin, walked into the room, shoving past the guard. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you in charge here?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked Reeds.
He looked at her, then remembered with a jolt about the extraterrestrials that had arrived via star ship a while ago. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth, right?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. She nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need to talk├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Over the next three day's Liz, Reeds and Kalvin got the colony running again. Killigan organized the security force's into a somewhat presentable shape. Marcus spent much of his time healing up in the hospital as people worked to get the ice out of it and clean up the body's. Thirty three people had died, the biggest amount of deaths at any one time in the colony, aside from the early years.
The ice was also melting, creating a lake around the base. People started wearing short sleeves out side, some even started swimming in the still cold water. Liz made Reeds put a stop to that. The climate change forced the technicians in the colony to work round the clock to prevent the air warmers from heating the base to unbearable proportions. The insulation was stripped off the wall's and used to make new houses. People were cremated, rather then buried. Corpses from the cometary floated up into the water, their coffin's rotting away. Those were cremated.
The crematorium used to be a smelter, and Jason's corpse was fed into that. His implants were fished out of the vat and melted down to make new parts. Liz sat in her appointed room and cried her self to sleep.
Then she came to Reeds room. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes?├óÔé¼┬Ø the aged leader asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI need to level with you├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôJason and I came here├óÔé¼┬Ø she frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôNot just to warn you about the enemy coming, but to also prepare you├óÔé¼┬Ø. Reeds frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat do you want us to do?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôBuild a space ship! We can barely keep ourselves from sinking├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôYou don't need to do anything. I just need five thousand volunteers├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Reed had been drinking his coffee. He sprayed it onto his desk, coughing. ├óÔé¼┼ôFive thousand!├óÔé¼┬Ø he demanded ├óÔé¼┼ôFive thousand!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz slammed her fist down on the desk ├óÔé¼┼ôListen buddy, I don't want to fuck around! In four or so years two star ships, each with over twenty thousand people on board who think that there is an alien race hell bent on humankind's destruction. The government back home is more interested in 'creating' a new interstellar empire by destroying your home├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôI have a feeling that they will see the Shroud around your planet and decide that YOUR the enemy!├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Reeds frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll put up flyer's├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWill that make you happy?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôI'll handle getting the people├óÔé¼┬Ø she grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI think I know how to motivate people├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôI know many of you suffered in the latest attack├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. The crowd gathered was a respectable five hundred or so, but most people in the colony were still busy with repairs. The crowd were mostly young men, who wanted to do something other then live in the colony for days on end. ├óÔé¼┼ôBut there is a threat that is coming from out side the solar system├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz read her speech, trying to put enough passion to sway people's opinion to her side.
In the initial month of recruitment it didn't work. A hundred or so volunteers showed up, in a colony of about thirty three thousand. Another month went by and the trickle of volunteers widened a bit, and she had her first thousand. Nothing to be done but take them to space and start training. The ice had melted and, as it turned out, the colony was situated in the middle of a lake. The worm creatures stopped attacking, rather hunting their prey in what seemed to be their natural environment, the water.
The Banshee II had been moved closer to the colony, and Liz ushered people up and down into the Enterprise by the hundred. She switched to a troop transport after three trips, realizing that cramming a hundred people into the Banshee II was prohibitive. The troop transport broke down after one rip, leaving the last three hundred volunteers on the ground. Liz ushered them up with the Banshee II.
The entire process took two days, and for that time, the volunteers milled about on the Enterprise speculation and rumor running rampant. Liz gathered them into the sleeping chamber. Many sat on the bed, and others were crammed in between the beds. All of them were miserable. Simon stubbed his cigarette on the wall as Liz walked into the room, standing at the head of the crowd.
├óÔé¼┼ôWelcome to the Enterprise[/i]├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, checking her clip board ├óÔé¼┼ôNow could any one with computer experience please raise their hand?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Several people in the crowd raised their hand, and after a quick count, Liz found there to be fifty three. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow that we got that out of the way, I would like to introduce you to the ship[/i]├óÔé¼┬Ø.
She pressed a button on her clip board and every wall monitor in the place flickered on, showing the Enterprise's schematic. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis ship is four point three miles long, two miles wide at the base and has over sixteen square miles of tubing. It has fifteen thousand guns for each 'side' of the cone, a antimatter engine and is capable of interstellar travel├óÔé¼┬Ø. The crowd looked at the monitors, at least those that could, and many were beginning to think they were over their heads. ├óÔé¼┼ôNow most of this ship has been repaired by me and...my partner while we were in transit├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz's smile cracked slightly at my partner ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd has been kept in vacuum storage to prevent breakdown├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to have a smaller then normal crew├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause this ship was the smallest of the three in the fleet we only need a ten thousand man crew. But I have found a few ways to cut that crew down to five thousand. This is an advantage in mass, allowing us to move faster├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd in amour, because all of the unused decks will add to our defense├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the crowd of face's that were beginning to look terrified at what they had signed up for ├óÔé¼┼ôNow, raise your hand If you've had experiences fixing cars├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Liz sighed. She had gotten the next thousand up into the ship, had briefed them then sent them to their duty's. She appointed three other's to be her bridge crew, then had them appoint two under then to organize sections of the ship. The colonists were used to working in harsh conditions, but the ship's constant breakdowns were hard to bear. Now that parts of the ship were actually IN USE rather then just being repaired by Liz, they broke down.
She was reading the daily report from the work crew's, looking over the fuel consumption, power output, and sewage maintenance. Her 'Xo', a rather plump young man by the name of Gideon, walked into her office. ├óÔé¼┼ôCapitan├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz stood up, frowning. She seemed to frown a lot now a days. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, turning her data slate and sliding into the desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got an asteroid coming├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts heading straight for us and we can't get the Ram field up├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôOf course not├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôTarget and destroy it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôthe targeting systems on the port guns are out├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFuck├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHow fast is the thing?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFast enough to breach the hull├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôand here's something worse├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could possibly be worse?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, stopping and looking at Gideon. ├óÔé¼┼ôIts accelerating├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The asteroid was covered with S-02. No, not just covered, infested. Bacteria veins were shot through and through. If it hit the ship they would most likely die. Not that Liz's crew knew about S-02 yet. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is your Capitan speaking├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said over the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to sound sudden, but...we are going to need to accelerate in the next few hours. Or we are going to die├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôIs that possible?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have to start the a/m engines, fire them long enough to move us out of the way and let the Shroud do its business├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The crew started to work. Liz had Gideon and his two Gunnery officers, Killigan and Kalvin. The two colony leaders had left Reeds to manage, and joined up with the Navy. The crew started by rerouting power to the a/m magnetic chambers, to use massive nozzles of magnets to push antimatter into the core of the engine, where it was collided with hydrogen. The reaction was funneled out of the back and moved the ship.
Now all they had to do was do it. For two hours the entire crew worked nonstop. Men raced down the corridors, running at full tilt were one should have walked. People scrambled around, not knowing why death was visiting. Only knowing that it was. Slackers were practically beaten. The entire crew learned, as Liz had, that impending death is a great motivator. The ship's a/m engine fired and pushed the ship. The asteroid had been accelerating, so now it was screaming through space to smash into them.
The Enterprise jerked out of the way just as the asteroid flew past them. It went through the deadly stream of radiation and heat created by the a/m engine. The heat and radiation killed trillions of bacteria, but billions left grew and multiplied at an accelerated rate. They grew and grew and grew until the asteroid looked like a many tentacled orb of blackness. S-02 tried to turn, trying to get to the ship.
But it's inertia was too great, and S-02 hit the Shroud. The asteroid plummeted through the Shroud. It never came out the other end. Liz breathed a sigh of relive, grabbing at the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôCrew├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôGood work├óÔé¼┬Ø. The crew let up a ragged cheer, many of them with broken bones from accidents and carelessness. Gideon was one of those who didn't cheer. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat was on that asteroid├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Liz sighed, looking at her data slate. The two of them stood in her office, silence between them for a moment or so. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvil├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said at last ├óÔé¼┼ôPure evil├óÔé¼┬Ø.
She released the information the next day. Moral, predictably, plummeted and over a hundred people immideatly asked to resin. Liz turned down their requests, respectfully. The next thousand came on board and were told about S-02. Five hundred of them wanted to resin. Liz turned them down, and again moral plummeted. Liz sighed, reading her data slate. Moral was going to be a problem in the next four years.
Killigan walked in ├óÔé¼┼ôHere's the latest report on our operation status├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, handing her another data slate. Liz snapped the two together and they transferred information from one to the other. She began to read some more. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to need some moral booster├óÔé¼┬Ø. Killigan nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWell finding out one's home is the only safe place in the universe has a way of doing that to moral├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI know├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôShore leave├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôShore leave?├óÔé¼┬Ø Killigan asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've only been up here for a half a year├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we could have a weekend of shore leave for every five hundred people. Thats how much the troop transport can carry, and it'll give some of our pilots practice with atmospheric insertion├óÔé¼┬Ø. Killigan looked at her quizzically ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to be fighting star ships. Why would we need atmospheric insertion practice?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôNever know whats going to happen├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz grinned. The shore leave actually did very little for moral. The colony on Darkside was still struggling to deal with the climate shift. It happened faster then anyone expected. It took thousands of years to get to the time when the planet switch off occurred, and yet now it only took about a year for the climate to shift dramatical, turning a ice land into a wet world.
The colony migrated about ten miles to the north, onto the side of the beach. There they had to deal with worse problems. Jumpers were only one of many predators in the jungles of Darkside. There were the worms, burrowing and swimming. Then their were the Scale Tigers, quadrupedal lizards that ran incredibly fast, and the Flappers, birds that would swoop down on people and grab people. Turns out the aliens could digest humans just fine, if not as effectively as their native prey. Well thats not entirely true. Some animals died violently when they ate a human.
So shore leave was just another kind of duty, were the navy officers were given rifles and sent out to defend the pickets. Reeds, however, found a massive benefits in the loss of ice. Mines were now almost pitifully easy to construct, and he sunk three new shafts in the first few months. They set up new turrets, using the resources put out by the mines. The colony's population exploded too. Warmer climes, better moral, more resources. Even new food sources, as humans found they could digest alien flesh as good as aliens could digest human flesh.
It just didn't taste very good.
The second year passed faster then the first. Moral went back up as the crew began to get used to the ship. It was less training in a classical military sense, but rather learning the ship through and through. Improvements in ship efficiency made the half crew size less then noticeable, and Liz was glad to find that the crew actually liked working in the ship.
The colony was also getting to be a better place. Scientifically minded individuals loved the new environment, getting to study new exotic spices. The mines had now expanded to ten shafts, and were putting out enough resources to build a real city, rather then just a small colony of fifty thousands. The population boom, creating family's with ten children, had slowed. The population of Darkside was now seventy five thousand, and was finally leveling off in its growth. Reeds had finally retired, citing his seventy three age, and his successor was a man named Julian.
The colony's turrets were new expanded, adding a mine field and a laser fence around the colony. The jungle had been pushed back with flamers and cutting, the wood used to create luxuries. Once the colony had been secured, and the aliens around it knew to stay away, life was pretty quiet. The colony even started to send raw material up to the Enterprise. Liz had a lot of idea's with what to do with that raw materials.
The best part was the raw uranium isotopes. Liz practically giggled as she looked over the three tonne's of radioactives. She put a division of fifty or so men, all vet's from the time when they needed to start the a/m engines in a few hours, rather then the normal three days required. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can make hundreds of nukes. The enemy will have fifty per ship. We will have a hundred and fifty├óÔé¼┬Ø. The fifty men grinned to themselves at the prospect.
The nukes started to roll off the production lines. And the colony kept sending up uranium and other heavy metals. And the nukes kept rolling out of the factory's. By the end of the second year they had five hundred nuclear war heads ready to be fired out of the missile banks on the sides of the ship. In fact Liz had to send people over the side of the ship to make new missile launch tubes. They could only manage to get the missiles to fire in a straight line, so the ship would have to be pretty damn close to hit the enemy.
They also started creating rounds. Not just any round. The byproducts of the uranium mines and nuke production was depleted uranium. The amour piercing, D.U rounds would rip through the enemy hull. The normal rounds were explosives, designed to blow apart the enemy amour and rip the enemy to shreds. The D.U rounds would do this, but it would also rip gigantic holes in the amour without really trying. Liz also set up production facility's for what she called ├óÔé¼┼ôSpizzlers├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Spizzlers were complicated shots that fired off sparks, flame, radioactives and other 'flashy' materials to confuse the enemy senors. There were only a hundred of them, but if they were fired into a flack cloud then they would be able to confuse the enemy long enough for the Enterprise to fire hundreds of nukes into them. Liz called it a shotgun in the face.
Julia paddled through the water of the Lake. She loved the night air, the warmth, the worms, everything. Then she felt something, prickling over the back of her spine. She looked over her shoulder at her lover, Keith. He was sleeping, snoring slightly. Julia shrugged, looking over the water. The water was purple, reflecting the Shroud above them. Julia started paddling again, then she felt something bump against her boat. She looked over the side of the boat and saw what she had hit.
It was a rock. Julia looked at the rock and realized that it was not a normal rock. It was a meteor. She dragged it into the ship. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, Keith├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, nudging him with her toe. Keith woke up, untangling his crucifix and coughed. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we found something├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said, lugging the rock on board. It slightly rocked the ship, causing it to tip slightly. Keith and Julia had picked up sea travel like naturals, and now they could counter balance against the rocks weight.
The beached, getting up and out of the boat. Keith lugged the rock onto the sand of the beach. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Julia grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôIts a meteorite├óÔé¼┬Ø She said ├óÔé¼┼ôI didn't know that they could get through the Shroud├óÔé¼┬Ø. The rock trembled slightly. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said. Keith backed up slightly ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got a bad feeling├óÔé¼┬Ø he said.
The feeling of fear and claustrophobia snuck back up on Julia. She shivered. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't like this├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. The rock cracked along the side, and the two humans were pinned to the spot, watching the surreal scene. The rock began to crack more, black veins moving along the side as it opened like an egg. Julia felt horror lock her brain into a state of panic, repeating the same word over and over again in her mind. God God God God!
The rock split open and a blackness was inside. Complete and utter blackness. Keith gibbered, taking a single step backwards. The alien life forms around them seemed to understand that something was horribly wrong, and had already fled the entire area. Keith's foot sank down into the sand, and he tripped slightly. Julia was simply frozen.
The blackness slowly uncurled. It had two arms, two legs and a head. Its head was a smooth shell, with a bottomless pit for a eye, and another pit for a mouth. The creature stood slowly, almost majestically. Sixteen spines shot out of its back, forming a rough octagon around the back of the creature. It crossed its arms, and flapped the spines. It looked straight at Julia and she felt rip into her mind.
It was indescribable, how it felt. The thing's mind was cold and alien. So completely alien. Julia screamed, her hands reaching for her face as the thing ripped into her memory's. Violating every happy moment, every joy of her life. The first time she had made love with Keith, the first time she had walked out side and seen the beautiful Shroud. The first time she had set foot on a boat. Everything.
The creature withdrew its presence and Julia wanted to run. But her legs were locked. Blood trickled down her ears as she stared at the creature. Then it spoke in an impossibly deep voice. Its voice cut into Julia, cut down to the bone. ├óÔé¼┼ôI├óÔé¼┬Ø it said ├óÔé¼┼ôam...Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø.
She was reading the daily report from the work crew's, looking over the fuel consumption, power output, and sewage maintenance. Her 'Xo', a rather plump young man by the name of Gideon, walked into her office. ├óÔé¼┼ôCapitan├óÔé¼┬Ø he said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got a problem├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz stood up, frowning. She seemed to frown a lot now a days. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, turning her data slate and sliding into the desk. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've got an asteroid coming├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts heading straight for us and we can't get the Ram field up├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôOf course not├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôTarget and destroy it├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôthe targeting systems on the port guns are out├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFuck├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHow fast is the thing?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôFast enough to breach the hull├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôand here's something worse├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat could possibly be worse?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked, stopping and looking at Gideon. ├óÔé¼┼ôIts accelerating├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The asteroid was covered with S-02. No, not just covered, infested. Bacteria veins were shot through and through. If it hit the ship they would most likely die. Not that Liz's crew knew about S-02 yet. ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is your Capitan speaking├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said over the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to sound sudden, but...we are going to need to accelerate in the next few hours. Or we are going to die├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôIs that possible?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have to start the a/m engines, fire them long enough to move us out of the way and let the Shroud do its business├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The crew started to work. Liz had Gideon and his two Gunnery officers, Killigan and Kalvin. The two colony leaders had left Reeds to manage, and joined up with the Navy. The crew started by rerouting power to the a/m magnetic chambers, to use massive nozzles of magnets to push antimatter into the core of the engine, where it was collided with hydrogen. The reaction was funneled out of the back and moved the ship.
Now all they had to do was do it. For two hours the entire crew worked nonstop. Men raced down the corridors, running at full tilt were one should have walked. People scrambled around, not knowing why death was visiting. Only knowing that it was. Slackers were practically beaten. The entire crew learned, as Liz had, that impending death is a great motivator. The ship's a/m engine fired and pushed the ship. The asteroid had been accelerating, so now it was screaming through space to smash into them.
The Enterprise jerked out of the way just as the asteroid flew past them. It went through the deadly stream of radiation and heat created by the a/m engine. The heat and radiation killed trillions of bacteria, but billions left grew and multiplied at an accelerated rate. They grew and grew and grew until the asteroid looked like a many tentacled orb of blackness. S-02 tried to turn, trying to get to the ship.
But it's inertia was too great, and S-02 hit the Shroud. The asteroid plummeted through the Shroud. It never came out the other end. Liz breathed a sigh of relive, grabbing at the P.A ├óÔé¼┼ôCrew├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôGood work├óÔé¼┬Ø. The crew let up a ragged cheer, many of them with broken bones from accidents and carelessness. Gideon was one of those who didn't cheer. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat was on that asteroid├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Liz sighed, looking at her data slate. The two of them stood in her office, silence between them for a moment or so. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvil├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said at last ├óÔé¼┼ôPure evil├óÔé¼┬Ø.
She released the information the next day. Moral, predictably, plummeted and over a hundred people immideatly asked to resin. Liz turned down their requests, respectfully. The next thousand came on board and were told about S-02. Five hundred of them wanted to resin. Liz turned them down, and again moral plummeted. Liz sighed, reading her data slate. Moral was going to be a problem in the next four years.
Killigan walked in ├óÔé¼┼ôHere's the latest report on our operation status├óÔé¼┬Ø he said, handing her another data slate. Liz snapped the two together and they transferred information from one to the other. She began to read some more. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to need some moral booster├óÔé¼┬Ø. Killigan nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWell finding out one's home is the only safe place in the universe has a way of doing that to moral├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôI know├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôShore leave├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôShore leave?├óÔé¼┬Ø Killigan asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe've only been up here for a half a year├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we could have a weekend of shore leave for every five hundred people. Thats how much the troop transport can carry, and it'll give some of our pilots practice with atmospheric insertion├óÔé¼┬Ø. Killigan looked at her quizzically ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are going to be fighting star ships. Why would we need atmospheric insertion practice?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôNever know whats going to happen├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz grinned. The shore leave actually did very little for moral. The colony on Darkside was still struggling to deal with the climate shift. It happened faster then anyone expected. It took thousands of years to get to the time when the planet switch off occurred, and yet now it only took about a year for the climate to shift dramatical, turning a ice land into a wet world.
The colony migrated about ten miles to the north, onto the side of the beach. There they had to deal with worse problems. Jumpers were only one of many predators in the jungles of Darkside. There were the worms, burrowing and swimming. Then their were the Scale Tigers, quadrupedal lizards that ran incredibly fast, and the Flappers, birds that would swoop down on people and grab people. Turns out the aliens could digest humans just fine, if not as effectively as their native prey. Well thats not entirely true. Some animals died violently when they ate a human.
So shore leave was just another kind of duty, were the navy officers were given rifles and sent out to defend the pickets. Reeds, however, found a massive benefits in the loss of ice. Mines were now almost pitifully easy to construct, and he sunk three new shafts in the first few months. They set up new turrets, using the resources put out by the mines. The colony's population exploded too. Warmer climes, better moral, more resources. Even new food sources, as humans found they could digest alien flesh as good as aliens could digest human flesh.
It just didn't taste very good.
The second year passed faster then the first. Moral went back up as the crew began to get used to the ship. It was less training in a classical military sense, but rather learning the ship through and through. Improvements in ship efficiency made the half crew size less then noticeable, and Liz was glad to find that the crew actually liked working in the ship.
The colony was also getting to be a better place. Scientifically minded individuals loved the new environment, getting to study new exotic spices. The mines had now expanded to ten shafts, and were putting out enough resources to build a real city, rather then just a small colony of fifty thousands. The population boom, creating family's with ten children, had slowed. The population of Darkside was now seventy five thousand, and was finally leveling off in its growth. Reeds had finally retired, citing his seventy three age, and his successor was a man named Julian.
The colony's turrets were new expanded, adding a mine field and a laser fence around the colony. The jungle had been pushed back with flamers and cutting, the wood used to create luxuries. Once the colony had been secured, and the aliens around it knew to stay away, life was pretty quiet. The colony even started to send raw material up to the Enterprise. Liz had a lot of idea's with what to do with that raw materials.
The best part was the raw uranium isotopes. Liz practically giggled as she looked over the three tonne's of radioactives. She put a division of fifty or so men, all vet's from the time when they needed to start the a/m engines in a few hours, rather then the normal three days required. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can make hundreds of nukes. The enemy will have fifty per ship. We will have a hundred and fifty├óÔé¼┬Ø. The fifty men grinned to themselves at the prospect.
The nukes started to roll off the production lines. And the colony kept sending up uranium and other heavy metals. And the nukes kept rolling out of the factory's. By the end of the second year they had five hundred nuclear war heads ready to be fired out of the missile banks on the sides of the ship. In fact Liz had to send people over the side of the ship to make new missile launch tubes. They could only manage to get the missiles to fire in a straight line, so the ship would have to be pretty damn close to hit the enemy.
They also started creating rounds. Not just any round. The byproducts of the uranium mines and nuke production was depleted uranium. The amour piercing, D.U rounds would rip through the enemy hull. The normal rounds were explosives, designed to blow apart the enemy amour and rip the enemy to shreds. The D.U rounds would do this, but it would also rip gigantic holes in the amour without really trying. Liz also set up production facility's for what she called ├óÔé¼┼ôSpizzlers├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Spizzlers were complicated shots that fired off sparks, flame, radioactives and other 'flashy' materials to confuse the enemy senors. There were only a hundred of them, but if they were fired into a flack cloud then they would be able to confuse the enemy long enough for the Enterprise to fire hundreds of nukes into them. Liz called it a shotgun in the face.
Julia paddled through the water of the Lake. She loved the night air, the warmth, the worms, everything. Then she felt something, prickling over the back of her spine. She looked over her shoulder at her lover, Keith. He was sleeping, snoring slightly. Julia shrugged, looking over the water. The water was purple, reflecting the Shroud above them. Julia started paddling again, then she felt something bump against her boat. She looked over the side of the boat and saw what she had hit.
It was a rock. Julia looked at the rock and realized that it was not a normal rock. It was a meteor. She dragged it into the ship. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, Keith├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, nudging him with her toe. Keith woke up, untangling his crucifix and coughed. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think we found something├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said, lugging the rock on board. It slightly rocked the ship, causing it to tip slightly. Keith and Julia had picked up sea travel like naturals, and now they could counter balance against the rocks weight.
The beached, getting up and out of the boat. Keith lugged the rock onto the sand of the beach. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat is it?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Julia grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôIts a meteorite├óÔé¼┬Ø She said ├óÔé¼┼ôI didn't know that they could get through the Shroud├óÔé¼┬Ø. The rock trembled slightly. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said. Keith backed up slightly ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got a bad feeling├óÔé¼┬Ø he said.
The feeling of fear and claustrophobia snuck back up on Julia. She shivered. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't like this├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. The rock cracked along the side, and the two humans were pinned to the spot, watching the surreal scene. The rock began to crack more, black veins moving along the side as it opened like an egg. Julia felt horror lock her brain into a state of panic, repeating the same word over and over again in her mind. God God God God!
The rock split open and a blackness was inside. Complete and utter blackness. Keith gibbered, taking a single step backwards. The alien life forms around them seemed to understand that something was horribly wrong, and had already fled the entire area. Keith's foot sank down into the sand, and he tripped slightly. Julia was simply frozen.
The blackness slowly uncurled. It had two arms, two legs and a head. Its head was a smooth shell, with a bottomless pit for a eye, and another pit for a mouth. The creature stood slowly, almost majestically. Sixteen spines shot out of its back, forming a rough octagon around the back of the creature. It crossed its arms, and flapped the spines. It looked straight at Julia and she felt rip into her mind.
It was indescribable, how it felt. The thing's mind was cold and alien. So completely alien. Julia screamed, her hands reaching for her face as the thing ripped into her memory's. Violating every happy moment, every joy of her life. The first time she had made love with Keith, the first time she had walked out side and seen the beautiful Shroud. The first time she had set foot on a boat. Everything.
The creature withdrew its presence and Julia wanted to run. But her legs were locked. Blood trickled down her ears as she stared at the creature. Then it spoke in an impossibly deep voice. Its voice cut into Julia, cut down to the bone. ├óÔé¼┼ôI├óÔé¼┬Ø it said ├óÔé¼┼ôam...Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Now for an old fashioned status report!
To start with, yes the Marshall died. In fact he died twenty odd page's ago, while fighting those giant worm things. And for Min3Mat, don't give up! I've actually put ever mystery in place. The stage is set, as some might say, with many answered questions but a few Unanswered one's. A few good one's would be:
Prime? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!! (hint: S-blank blank)
And thats all i can think of at this moment in time...
To start with, yes the Marshall died. In fact he died twenty odd page's ago, while fighting those giant worm things. And for Min3Mat, don't give up! I've actually put ever mystery in place. The stage is set, as some might say, with many answered questions but a few Unanswered one's. A few good one's would be:
Prime? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!! (hint: S-blank blank)
And thats all i can think of at this moment in time...
The enemy had arrived sooner then anyone thought. A few months before the drive flames of the enemy star ships winked out, but no one on Darkside saw it, as the light from the drive flames had never been spotted by the Enterprise. But the drives on the Rodger Young and the Alexander had stopped.
When a star ship is approaching a new solar system it has to decelerate for a year, subjective time. But the Enterprise had a practically nonexistent crew, with only two people on board. So it could decelerate harder, allowing the ship to stay at full speed longer before starting to decelerate. So the Enterprise arrived earlier then the other ships. But now the other ships had stopped decelerating.
They drifted for three months, and got to the edge of system. Then the Enterprise spotted them. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the hell!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz snapped, looking over Gideons shoulder at his screen ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not possible!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Then she realized it ├óÔé¼┼ôUnless they aren't decelerating├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôBut thats insane!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon shrugged. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey are going to shoot right through the system without stopping in time├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôThat's crazy...thats insane. Even if they decelerate as hard as they could they'd still not be able to stop in time, and decelerating as hard as they could would turn the crew into JELLY!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz bit her knuckle, thinking. And for the next two days nothing much new came about, as the ships continued to drift. Then their engines started up again.
Liz watched as the Enterprise's laser scanner bounced light off of the enemy ships, and read their speed. It was dropping. Faster then should be possible. But the engine output they were reading at a normal One Gee. The crew was still alive and the enemy would arrive in a week. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking over her table at her bridge crew ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have witnessed the impossible├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôSuggestions?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Her bridge crew thought for a moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôInertia Suppressor?├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin suggested. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin said ├óÔé¼┼ôIt was in a sci-fi story I read. A device that could suppress inertia, allowing ships to accelerate harder and faster and dropping the travel time between star system's to weeks, rather then years and-├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz cut him off ├óÔé¼┼ôThats sci-fi├óÔé¼┬Ø She said.
Kalvin nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat other explanation could their be?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. The bridge crew was silent for another moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said finally ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not the real issue. The real issue at this time is to get the ship ready and blow the enemy to kingdom come!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grabbed her mic for her P.A system and said to the crew ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right, listen up. We are going into battle in fourteen hours. All crew report to battle stations and bring some coffee...this is not a drill├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Prime took a step forward. Keith ran, turning completely away from the horror and running. Julia was rooted to the spot, her mind ripped to shreds by Prime's mental probe. Prime reached out with his amorphous hand, reshaping it into four fingers and a thumb. It brushed the hair away from Julia's face, and Prime looked at her face quizzically. Julia whimpered as Prime took its hand away, leaving a perfect outline of its hand in black grit.
Prime started to walk past the woman. Suddenly, as if everything came into focus, Julia smashed her hand into the side of her face, trying to get get the grit off her face. The grit fell to the ground and vanished before it hit, vanishing into smoke. Julia started to run, just for the sake of running. The time that followed that was one of darkness and panic, a endless jungle. Then she tripped on something.
Julia looked over her shoulder and saw that her toe, with was now bleeding sluggishly from a broken toenail, had hit he corner of one of the colony's defense turrets. ├óÔé¼┼ôHello?├óÔé¼┬Ø Someone called. Julia looked up and saw a man, wearing the uniform of the defense force of the colony. He walked over to her and knelt beside her. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you all right?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Julia curled into a ball, whimpering. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø the man muttered, pulling out a walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got a problem out here├óÔé¼┬Ø he said into it.
Keith had run in the opposite direction of Julia's flight, and so went deeper and deeper into the jungle. He staggered to a stop, his breathing short as he tried to bring in air to his lungs. But it was hard to breath when terror clawed around your mind. Keith felt around his body for something, anything, with witch to fight. Then he felt the pistol, the holster old and cracked. He pulled out the gun and looked around the jungle. Then he saw, between two trees, a clump of blackness.
Keith pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Prime. ├óÔé¼┼ôKeith?├óÔé¼┬Ø The thing asked, its voice an exact replica of Julia's ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't you recognize me?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kieth fired, the barrel flash illuminating the clearing for a split second. Prime started to walk towards him, ignoring the hole in its vaguely defined stomach. Keith fired two more bullets but then Prime was on him, ramming its forearm into his gut and hoisting him up against a tree. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't you recognize me?├óÔé¼┬Ø it asked again. Keith gurgled and dropped his pistol. Prime's body writhed as it pulled its forearm out of the dead human. Keith's corpse slid to the ground, leaving a slick trail of blood down the side of the tree. Prime, its body convulsing as it tried to cope with the new environment, took a step back. Something was different from all the times before this moment.
The times before had been half flash's of consciousness, rising above the mindlessness of single celled life forms and transmuting into the semi-sentience of a lower animal. Then came the hibernations between stars, then the radio signals that had woken Prime's old self up. It had moved to the radio signals to the not asteroid that orbited this place. Then Prime had missed and fallen into the atmosphere of the planet.
Unlike other atmospheres before, this one was...alive. For every change Prime made instinctively to counter act the Shrouds attack, the Shroud responded in turn. Prime moved from consciousness to sentience, combating the Shroud for one long, endless year. Prime had become something different from the entirety of S-02. It had become alive. And somehow found its way to the ground, through the Shroud.
Now it had the experiences of two humans to cope with. It was data, unfamiliar to the extream, forcing its way into Prime's brain. Its body responded, as S-02 always did, to adapt, to mutate. Now the semi-humanoid blackness reformed again to become more humanoid, more slender. Prime's face shaped again to form eye's, a mouth, a nose. It's brain formed to create something that could hold these memory's and experiences.
Prime had to make a choice, something that had never happened before for any part of S-02. Prime, for once in its incalculably long semi-life, had to make a choice. It chose the first thing it had experienced since falling from the Shroud. It chose...female.
Julia sat in the hospital, staring at the wall. Her back was straight, her shoulders in perfect posture, and her eye's unwavering from the spot she stared at. ├óÔé¼┼ôJulia├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor said ├óÔé¼┼ôCould you tell us what happened out there?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Julia kept staring at the wall, frowning slightly. ├óÔé¼┼ôJulia├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor said again ├óÔé¼┼ôDid you see something? Something bad?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Julia head the word bad and turned to the doctor ├óÔé¼┼ôBad?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôDid you see something...good?├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor was reaching for anything that could get through to the woman. Julia thought about this for a moment, her shredded mind connecting random threads of memory and thought with each other, trying to make since of it all. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said ├óÔé¼┼ôI did see something...evil├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat, Julia?├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor asked, keeping his voice soft. If their was some new spices out there that could do this, he wanted to find out about it ├óÔé¼┼ôHave you seen Keith?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHe ran away. He ran away and left me├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor looked at his data slate. It said that Julia Higgins had been dating a man name Keith Xu, but he had yet to be turned up. ├óÔé¼┼ôKeith ran away├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said again ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd left me with Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime?├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor asked. What did she mean. ├óÔé¼┼ôIs Prime a person?├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime is Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime is the first, and Prime will be the last├óÔé¼┬Ø. She giggled ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd Prime is coming├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The three ships plunged towards battle, and the crew's got read. Liz was heartened to learn that her crew had spent the better part of three years actually learning. They marched up and down the corridors, at ease with the ship and their duty's. The entire ship was ready to fight in two days, even though it would take about a week to arrive at the battle zone.
The day before battle and Liz was sitting in her chair, drinking. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are you doing?├óÔé¼┬ØGideon asked. Liz downed another glass ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôthis is my victory drink!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôVictory?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe haven't even fired the first shot├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôBut see we are going to win├óÔé¼┬Ø she poured another drink ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause we have God on our side├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Gideon looked at one of the empty bottles on Liz's desk ├óÔé¼┼ôI thought you were a heathen?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI am├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut see if there is a god, then he is on our side, as five thousand members of my crew happen to pray weekly├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey pray more often then that├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow stop drinking. I don't think hangovers are good for battle├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grimaced ├óÔé¼┼ôNonsense├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôThey focuses me├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The ships continued to plunge towards each other. Amber sat in her wheelchair and looked over her bridge. Donahue was asleep, but Amber stayed at her post, looking at her console. It had three new buttons, the one's that controlled the inertial influencer. The device, as it was normal called, had been revealed about a year ago, and had made moral shoot straight up. People knew that they had a massive advantage, being able to suppress and enhance inertia. Only problem was it needed enough energy to create a ram field without a ram scoop.
But they had burned up their antimatter, at least most of it. The fleet would have to produce new antimatter on site, a process that would be dangerous and take more then a few months. But it was worth it, just to arrive in a month rather then a year. Now that they were actually there Amber found herself thinking more of Homeworld, and Leviathan. Homeworld had been a gritty, gray orb, often thought of as a dark, smelly and run down version of Mars.
But it had been home, and now Amber was regretting she had never visited it before going to deep space. Now the Homeworld she knew was long gone, probably getting worse with the decades they had been gone for. And tomorrow she would be killing her best friend. The knowledge of this simple fact, witch she had shoved to the back of her mind for the majority of the trip, now was at the fore front of her mind.
Amber thought of the people on the ship, of the bridge crew and the men and women serving under them. She thought of her once friends, who had grown so distant. She barely saw Tapp anymore, even though they were now within two ranks. Amber, every once and a while, wished she kept up her relation with Tapp. Amber frowned and grumbled to herself ├óÔé¼┼ôI hope Liz wins├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp, now working in one of the port ammo depots, also stayed up late that night. She smoked, unlike many people on the ship, and she smoked a lot that night. Unlike Amber, who was thinking of the future, Tapp thought little of the coming battle, but rather of the past. She decided, if they both lived through the day, to try renewing her ties with Amber. Because, she realized, she still loved her.
The ships met at seven forty three, PM EST. The Enterprise drifted slowly to a halt, its engines firing and slowing the ship. The other ships were arrayed forty three thousand miles from her, each with its guns trained on it. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, sitting in her chair and looking at the hologram in the middle of the bridge. She had immideatly commissioned the chair after realizing their was no place to sit on the bridge, and now was strapped into it as the battle was about of begin. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø she said again, trying to beat back her splitting headache. But it did help her focuses.
├óÔé¼┼ôWell, what?├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin asked. He was manning the right gunner stations. ├óÔé¼┼ôGideon├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets start the decelerations of war├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her Xo started to type into his conose, his able fingers practically flying over the keyboard. Liz unlatched her self and stood, letting the holocamera's in the bridge record her. She stepped into the hologram of the ship, standing over the pedestal and looked straight a head. A moment later and the Capitan of the Alexander. To Liz's complete and utter lack of surprise it was Peter.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø He said, with only a slight light lag from the distance between the ships, ├óÔé¼┼ôWe meet out here├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôYour ships are here, under unlawful orders of an unlawful government├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, reciting her speech from memory ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd we kindly ask you to leave this system before we are forced to use deadly force├óÔé¼┬Ø. Peter frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't do that, Liz├óÔé¼┬Ø He said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd you can't protect the aliens in this system├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôAliens├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôThere IS no alien nation...you know that, don't you├óÔé¼┬Ø. Peter's eye's widened ├óÔé¼┼ôYour lies can't save you now├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôcan't they├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gesturing to her Xo. Gideon turned off the switch ├óÔé¼┼ôFull speed a head!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôLets give these bastards HELL!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her voice rang out over the P.A and her crew cheered. The Enterprise leaped forward, its A/M engine roaring to full tilt. The crew had been braced for the sudden smashing gee's, and there were no injuries.
The Alexander also jumped into action, firing its forward guns. The bullets rammed into space, only to be met by the Enterprise's flack cloud. The shell's met and exploded, creating a fire wall between the two ships. The Enterprise moved upwards, using its under engines, and its PD guns switched from the lesser powered ones on the top to the one's on the side. The Alexander and the Rodger Young responded in turn by maneuvering. The Rodger young started to fire in return, its shell's meeting another flack cloud. The Enterprise's new guns payed off, putting up two flack fields that stopped eighty five percent of the bullets.
├óÔé¼┼ôSir, left flack field is down to sixty percent! Armour in that area is damaged!├óÔé¼┬Ø Kiligan shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôRerouting power to guns├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin said ├óÔé¼┼ôOver heat malfunctions reported in banks three by fourteen!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôBring us down their throats!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôGet us right in the Alexanders face and disengage attack guns! Go use nothing but PD!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sit!├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said.
The Enterprise rammed forward, its PD guns firing at full tilt. The flack clouds went back to eighty five percent, but the enemy was putting out more shells. Peter grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôTransfer all guns to attack├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. His Xo nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sir├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôIdiot!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue snapped ├óÔé¼┼ônever turn off your P.D guns!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber grimaced ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôThe Enterprise is moving the Alexander between us and themselves├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôMove us in response├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said .
Liz grinned, looking over the battle. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir we've lost over ten percent of our shielding on decks forty three, forty four, forty five├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin kept reading off the list. Liz, still grinning, looked to Gideon ├óÔé¼┼ôMove us to put our engine in their face!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôEngine duel?├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter asked ├óÔé¼┼ôTwo can play at that├óÔé¼┬Ø he looked to his Xo ├óÔé¼┼ôManeuver us to do the same thing├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The two ships got into a dance, were one would spin and the other would doge, trying to get their engines to hit the other's. The Enterprise turned faster, but the Alexander had a bigger engine. The two did this for about ten minuets. The Rodger Young kept firing pot shots around the Alexander, trying to strike the Enterprise. In the end nothing was accomplished, and the two ships ended up in almost the exact same position. But the Enterprise's flack clouds were down to fifty percent.
├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have lost over fifty percent of our armor on the left side of the ship. We are going to have a breach in a few minuets├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gritting her teeth ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need some fucking time├óÔé¼┬Ø. She checked her hologram of the battle, and gulped. Time to play their trump card. ├óÔé¼┼ôFire all nukes├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll nukes?├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon asked ├óÔé¼┼ôAll of them?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYES DAMN IT!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôAll the fucking nukes!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon gulped and pressed every button on his nuke control pad, running his finger down the red buttons as they all flickered from red to green.
Peter blanched ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the hell is that?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. His Xo gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôNukes, sir├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôALL GUNS!├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôALL GUNS TO PD!├óÔé¼┬Ø. His Xo started to work, but even with a neural up link one could only work so fast. The Enterprise looked like a flower, streams of smoke billowing from every side as nuclear warheads rammed into space. The missiles arched towards the Alexander.
├óÔé¼┼ôOrders!├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter's Xo asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need some orders!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôAbandon├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter said. Then the first barrage of nuke's slammed into his ship, peeling the armor off the sides in a sires of fierce detonations. The radiation killed everyone, even if they weren't dead yet. The second barrage of nukes slammed into the ship's innards, ripping it to sunders. Peter had time to turn around and see the fireball ripping through his bridge before he was vaporised.
The third barrage of nukes hit what was left of the Alexander and completely vaporised it. The clouds of atmo and fire cleared out slowly, drifting away under their own inertia. Liz sat back in her chair, sagging down in relief. ├óÔé¼┼ôIdiot!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue groaned ├óÔé¼┼ôPut all guns to PD├óÔé¼┬Ø she said to Amber ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd back us off├óÔé¼┬Ø.
When a star ship is approaching a new solar system it has to decelerate for a year, subjective time. But the Enterprise had a practically nonexistent crew, with only two people on board. So it could decelerate harder, allowing the ship to stay at full speed longer before starting to decelerate. So the Enterprise arrived earlier then the other ships. But now the other ships had stopped decelerating.
They drifted for three months, and got to the edge of system. Then the Enterprise spotted them. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the hell!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz snapped, looking over Gideons shoulder at his screen ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not possible!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Then she realized it ├óÔé¼┼ôUnless they aren't decelerating├óÔé¼┬Ø she muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôBut thats insane!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon shrugged. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey are going to shoot right through the system without stopping in time├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôThat's crazy...thats insane. Even if they decelerate as hard as they could they'd still not be able to stop in time, and decelerating as hard as they could would turn the crew into JELLY!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz bit her knuckle, thinking. And for the next two days nothing much new came about, as the ships continued to drift. Then their engines started up again.
Liz watched as the Enterprise's laser scanner bounced light off of the enemy ships, and read their speed. It was dropping. Faster then should be possible. But the engine output they were reading at a normal One Gee. The crew was still alive and the enemy would arrive in a week. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, looking over her table at her bridge crew ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have witnessed the impossible├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôSuggestions?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. Her bridge crew thought for a moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôInertia Suppressor?├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin suggested. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin said ├óÔé¼┼ôIt was in a sci-fi story I read. A device that could suppress inertia, allowing ships to accelerate harder and faster and dropping the travel time between star system's to weeks, rather then years and-├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz cut him off ├óÔé¼┼ôThats sci-fi├óÔé¼┬Ø She said.
Kalvin nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat other explanation could their be?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. The bridge crew was silent for another moment. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said finally ├óÔé¼┼ôThats not the real issue. The real issue at this time is to get the ship ready and blow the enemy to kingdom come!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grabbed her mic for her P.A system and said to the crew ├óÔé¼┼ôAll right, listen up. We are going into battle in fourteen hours. All crew report to battle stations and bring some coffee...this is not a drill├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Prime took a step forward. Keith ran, turning completely away from the horror and running. Julia was rooted to the spot, her mind ripped to shreds by Prime's mental probe. Prime reached out with his amorphous hand, reshaping it into four fingers and a thumb. It brushed the hair away from Julia's face, and Prime looked at her face quizzically. Julia whimpered as Prime took its hand away, leaving a perfect outline of its hand in black grit.
Prime started to walk past the woman. Suddenly, as if everything came into focus, Julia smashed her hand into the side of her face, trying to get get the grit off her face. The grit fell to the ground and vanished before it hit, vanishing into smoke. Julia started to run, just for the sake of running. The time that followed that was one of darkness and panic, a endless jungle. Then she tripped on something.
Julia looked over her shoulder and saw that her toe, with was now bleeding sluggishly from a broken toenail, had hit he corner of one of the colony's defense turrets. ├óÔé¼┼ôHello?├óÔé¼┬Ø Someone called. Julia looked up and saw a man, wearing the uniform of the defense force of the colony. He walked over to her and knelt beside her. ├óÔé¼┼ôAre you all right?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. Julia curled into a ball, whimpering. ├óÔé¼┼ôShit├óÔé¼┬Ø the man muttered, pulling out a walky talky ├óÔé¼┼ôI've got a problem out here├óÔé¼┬Ø he said into it.
Keith had run in the opposite direction of Julia's flight, and so went deeper and deeper into the jungle. He staggered to a stop, his breathing short as he tried to bring in air to his lungs. But it was hard to breath when terror clawed around your mind. Keith felt around his body for something, anything, with witch to fight. Then he felt the pistol, the holster old and cracked. He pulled out the gun and looked around the jungle. Then he saw, between two trees, a clump of blackness.
Keith pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Prime. ├óÔé¼┼ôKeith?├óÔé¼┬Ø The thing asked, its voice an exact replica of Julia's ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't you recognize me?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Kieth fired, the barrel flash illuminating the clearing for a split second. Prime started to walk towards him, ignoring the hole in its vaguely defined stomach. Keith fired two more bullets but then Prime was on him, ramming its forearm into his gut and hoisting him up against a tree. ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't you recognize me?├óÔé¼┬Ø it asked again. Keith gurgled and dropped his pistol. Prime's body writhed as it pulled its forearm out of the dead human. Keith's corpse slid to the ground, leaving a slick trail of blood down the side of the tree. Prime, its body convulsing as it tried to cope with the new environment, took a step back. Something was different from all the times before this moment.
The times before had been half flash's of consciousness, rising above the mindlessness of single celled life forms and transmuting into the semi-sentience of a lower animal. Then came the hibernations between stars, then the radio signals that had woken Prime's old self up. It had moved to the radio signals to the not asteroid that orbited this place. Then Prime had missed and fallen into the atmosphere of the planet.
Unlike other atmospheres before, this one was...alive. For every change Prime made instinctively to counter act the Shrouds attack, the Shroud responded in turn. Prime moved from consciousness to sentience, combating the Shroud for one long, endless year. Prime had become something different from the entirety of S-02. It had become alive. And somehow found its way to the ground, through the Shroud.
Now it had the experiences of two humans to cope with. It was data, unfamiliar to the extream, forcing its way into Prime's brain. Its body responded, as S-02 always did, to adapt, to mutate. Now the semi-humanoid blackness reformed again to become more humanoid, more slender. Prime's face shaped again to form eye's, a mouth, a nose. It's brain formed to create something that could hold these memory's and experiences.
Prime had to make a choice, something that had never happened before for any part of S-02. Prime, for once in its incalculably long semi-life, had to make a choice. It chose the first thing it had experienced since falling from the Shroud. It chose...female.
Julia sat in the hospital, staring at the wall. Her back was straight, her shoulders in perfect posture, and her eye's unwavering from the spot she stared at. ├óÔé¼┼ôJulia├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor said ├óÔé¼┼ôCould you tell us what happened out there?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Julia kept staring at the wall, frowning slightly. ├óÔé¼┼ôJulia├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor said again ├óÔé¼┼ôDid you see something? Something bad?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Julia head the word bad and turned to the doctor ├óÔé¼┼ôBad?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôDid you see something...good?├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor was reaching for anything that could get through to the woman. Julia thought about this for a moment, her shredded mind connecting random threads of memory and thought with each other, trying to make since of it all. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said ├óÔé¼┼ôI did see something...evil├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat, Julia?├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor asked, keeping his voice soft. If their was some new spices out there that could do this, he wanted to find out about it ├óÔé¼┼ôHave you seen Keith?├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHe ran away. He ran away and left me├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôNo├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor looked at his data slate. It said that Julia Higgins had been dating a man name Keith Xu, but he had yet to be turned up. ├óÔé¼┼ôKeith ran away├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said again ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd left me with Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime?├óÔé¼┬Ø The doctor asked. What did she mean. ├óÔé¼┼ôIs Prime a person?├óÔé¼┬Ø the doctor asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime is Prime├óÔé¼┬Ø Julia said ├óÔé¼┼ôPrime is the first, and Prime will be the last├óÔé¼┬Ø. She giggled ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd Prime is coming├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The three ships plunged towards battle, and the crew's got read. Liz was heartened to learn that her crew had spent the better part of three years actually learning. They marched up and down the corridors, at ease with the ship and their duty's. The entire ship was ready to fight in two days, even though it would take about a week to arrive at the battle zone.
The day before battle and Liz was sitting in her chair, drinking. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat are you doing?├óÔé¼┬ØGideon asked. Liz downed another glass ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôthis is my victory drink!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôVictory?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe haven't even fired the first shot├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôBut see we are going to win├óÔé¼┬Ø she poured another drink ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause we have God on our side├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Gideon looked at one of the empty bottles on Liz's desk ├óÔé¼┼ôI thought you were a heathen?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôI am├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut see if there is a god, then he is on our side, as five thousand members of my crew happen to pray weekly├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey pray more often then that├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôNow stop drinking. I don't think hangovers are good for battle├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grimaced ├óÔé¼┼ôNonsense├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôThey focuses me├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The ships continued to plunge towards each other. Amber sat in her wheelchair and looked over her bridge. Donahue was asleep, but Amber stayed at her post, looking at her console. It had three new buttons, the one's that controlled the inertial influencer. The device, as it was normal called, had been revealed about a year ago, and had made moral shoot straight up. People knew that they had a massive advantage, being able to suppress and enhance inertia. Only problem was it needed enough energy to create a ram field without a ram scoop.
But they had burned up their antimatter, at least most of it. The fleet would have to produce new antimatter on site, a process that would be dangerous and take more then a few months. But it was worth it, just to arrive in a month rather then a year. Now that they were actually there Amber found herself thinking more of Homeworld, and Leviathan. Homeworld had been a gritty, gray orb, often thought of as a dark, smelly and run down version of Mars.
But it had been home, and now Amber was regretting she had never visited it before going to deep space. Now the Homeworld she knew was long gone, probably getting worse with the decades they had been gone for. And tomorrow she would be killing her best friend. The knowledge of this simple fact, witch she had shoved to the back of her mind for the majority of the trip, now was at the fore front of her mind.
Amber thought of the people on the ship, of the bridge crew and the men and women serving under them. She thought of her once friends, who had grown so distant. She barely saw Tapp anymore, even though they were now within two ranks. Amber, every once and a while, wished she kept up her relation with Tapp. Amber frowned and grumbled to herself ├óÔé¼┼ôI hope Liz wins├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Tapp, now working in one of the port ammo depots, also stayed up late that night. She smoked, unlike many people on the ship, and she smoked a lot that night. Unlike Amber, who was thinking of the future, Tapp thought little of the coming battle, but rather of the past. She decided, if they both lived through the day, to try renewing her ties with Amber. Because, she realized, she still loved her.
The ships met at seven forty three, PM EST. The Enterprise drifted slowly to a halt, its engines firing and slowing the ship. The other ships were arrayed forty three thousand miles from her, each with its guns trained on it. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, sitting in her chair and looking at the hologram in the middle of the bridge. She had immideatly commissioned the chair after realizing their was no place to sit on the bridge, and now was strapped into it as the battle was about of begin. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell├óÔé¼┬Ø she said again, trying to beat back her splitting headache. But it did help her focuses.
├óÔé¼┼ôWell, what?├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin asked. He was manning the right gunner stations. ├óÔé¼┼ôGideon├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôLets start the decelerations of war├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her Xo started to type into his conose, his able fingers practically flying over the keyboard. Liz unlatched her self and stood, letting the holocamera's in the bridge record her. She stepped into the hologram of the ship, standing over the pedestal and looked straight a head. A moment later and the Capitan of the Alexander. To Liz's complete and utter lack of surprise it was Peter.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø He said, with only a slight light lag from the distance between the ships, ├óÔé¼┼ôWe meet out here├óÔé¼┬Ø. Liz grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôYour ships are here, under unlawful orders of an unlawful government├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, reciting her speech from memory ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd we kindly ask you to leave this system before we are forced to use deadly force├óÔé¼┬Ø. Peter frowned ├óÔé¼┼ôWe can't do that, Liz├óÔé¼┬Ø He said ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd you can't protect the aliens in this system├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôAliens├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said ├óÔé¼┼ôThere IS no alien nation...you know that, don't you├óÔé¼┬Ø. Peter's eye's widened ├óÔé¼┼ôYour lies can't save you now├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôcan't they├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gesturing to her Xo. Gideon turned off the switch ├óÔé¼┼ôFull speed a head!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôLets give these bastards HELL!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Her voice rang out over the P.A and her crew cheered. The Enterprise leaped forward, its A/M engine roaring to full tilt. The crew had been braced for the sudden smashing gee's, and there were no injuries.
The Alexander also jumped into action, firing its forward guns. The bullets rammed into space, only to be met by the Enterprise's flack cloud. The shell's met and exploded, creating a fire wall between the two ships. The Enterprise moved upwards, using its under engines, and its PD guns switched from the lesser powered ones on the top to the one's on the side. The Alexander and the Rodger Young responded in turn by maneuvering. The Rodger young started to fire in return, its shell's meeting another flack cloud. The Enterprise's new guns payed off, putting up two flack fields that stopped eighty five percent of the bullets.
├óÔé¼┼ôSir, left flack field is down to sixty percent! Armour in that area is damaged!├óÔé¼┬Ø Kiligan shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôRerouting power to guns├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin said ├óÔé¼┼ôOver heat malfunctions reported in banks three by fourteen!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôBring us down their throats!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôGet us right in the Alexanders face and disengage attack guns! Go use nothing but PD!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sit!├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said.
The Enterprise rammed forward, its PD guns firing at full tilt. The flack clouds went back to eighty five percent, but the enemy was putting out more shells. Peter grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôTransfer all guns to attack├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. His Xo nodded ├óÔé¼┼ôYes sir├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôIdiot!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue snapped ├óÔé¼┼ônever turn off your P.D guns!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Amber grimaced ├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø she said ├óÔé¼┼ôThe Enterprise is moving the Alexander between us and themselves├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôMove us in response├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue said .
Liz grinned, looking over the battle. ├óÔé¼┼ôSir we've lost over ten percent of our shielding on decks forty three, forty four, forty five├óÔé¼┬Ø Kalvin kept reading off the list. Liz, still grinning, looked to Gideon ├óÔé¼┼ôMove us to put our engine in their face!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôEngine duel?├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter asked ├óÔé¼┼ôTwo can play at that├óÔé¼┬Ø he looked to his Xo ├óÔé¼┼ôManeuver us to do the same thing├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The two ships got into a dance, were one would spin and the other would doge, trying to get their engines to hit the other's. The Enterprise turned faster, but the Alexander had a bigger engine. The two did this for about ten minuets. The Rodger Young kept firing pot shots around the Alexander, trying to strike the Enterprise. In the end nothing was accomplished, and the two ships ended up in almost the exact same position. But the Enterprise's flack clouds were down to fifty percent.
├óÔé¼┼ôSir├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe have lost over fifty percent of our armor on the left side of the ship. We are going to have a breach in a few minuets├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz said, gritting her teeth ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need some fucking time├óÔé¼┬Ø. She checked her hologram of the battle, and gulped. Time to play their trump card. ├óÔé¼┼ôFire all nukes├óÔé¼┬Ø she said. ├óÔé¼┼ôAll nukes?├óÔé¼┬Ø Gideon asked ├óÔé¼┼ôAll of them?├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôYES DAMN IT!├óÔé¼┬Ø Liz shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôAll the fucking nukes!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Gideon gulped and pressed every button on his nuke control pad, running his finger down the red buttons as they all flickered from red to green.
Peter blanched ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat the hell is that?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked. His Xo gulped ├óÔé¼┼ôNukes, sir├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. ├óÔé¼┼ôALL GUNS!├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôALL GUNS TO PD!├óÔé¼┬Ø. His Xo started to work, but even with a neural up link one could only work so fast. The Enterprise looked like a flower, streams of smoke billowing from every side as nuclear warheads rammed into space. The missiles arched towards the Alexander.
├óÔé¼┼ôOrders!├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter's Xo asked ├óÔé¼┼ôWe need some orders!├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôAbandon├óÔé¼┬Ø Peter said. Then the first barrage of nuke's slammed into his ship, peeling the armor off the sides in a sires of fierce detonations. The radiation killed everyone, even if they weren't dead yet. The second barrage of nukes slammed into the ship's innards, ripping it to sunders. Peter had time to turn around and see the fireball ripping through his bridge before he was vaporised.
The third barrage of nukes hit what was left of the Alexander and completely vaporised it. The clouds of atmo and fire cleared out slowly, drifting away under their own inertia. Liz sat back in her chair, sagging down in relief. ├óÔé¼┼ôIdiot!├óÔé¼┬Ø Donahue groaned ├óÔé¼┼ôPut all guns to PD├óÔé¼┬Ø she said to Amber ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd back us off├óÔé¼┬Ø.
