The captain jumped out of the shuttle craft and into the void of space and narrowly avoided a large serrated piece of hull that had jagged ridges on its surface. Alex looked around him searching for his rescue team. He found them on his left, they were grouped together and hovered above the cargo shuttle which could have been used as some sort of auxiliary escape craft. The cargo transport’s bulky body was held by its abnormally wide wingspan which had its thrusters situated at the very tip of each wing. Alex placed Alistair, the Lykan officer in charge of this rescue effort in an attempt to give the inexperienced crewmember some leadership skills. So far, to Alex’s own satisfaction, he was proven right and Alistair was performing well so far.
He led the team around the transport’s frame and searched for an opening. He ordered a Naga to search the cockpit in the front while he ordered another party member to prepare the laser cutting equipment. He reached into the magnetic case that held the cutting gear and brought it up against the hull of the transport before seeing an invisible force pull the hard case away from them and towards the hull. The magnets on the case glued themselves and Alex unclipped the lid of the container and reached in to pull out the cutter. He was able to work his gloved fingers through the device's wide grip and adjusted its air fuel mixture before giving the trigger a squeeze to test it, first a bright flare blinded him followed by a small force pushing his hand away. Alex tampered with the mixture valves some more and then proceeded to where Alistair directed him to cut: The side door. It was closed and its smooth-edged rectangular frame stood out in the light of the nebula around them. Alex cut through its locks with ease as he watched the bright blue beam of plasma slice surgically through the metal frame.
Two other members of their party approached the door and planted their feet against the hull as they braced to open it. Alistair nodded toward them and with a synchronised heave that was detected by their helmet radios they were able to pry the door open; Alex was the first to enter to check for survivors. Inside the transport was one of the crew’s chairs folded up against itself on the wall next to the door. Alex felt no gravity when he crossed the threshold into the transport; to his left he saw the steps that led to the cockpit with light coming in from his party’s member observing through it. To his right were towering crates that were firmly held together with taut fabric straps and netting. A quick puff of thrust to his side and he saw the open compartment filled with the remains of suited sailors. He reached out with his hands to inspect one of the nearby bodies and found the helmet visor was shattered, exposing the occupant to the vacuum.
Such a shame, so much life lost. He solemnly said to himself.
The search party stood still in the cramped airlock waiting for it to cycle through its decontamination phase and restore the atmosphere; Alex hated waiting for this part of the scan. The room suddenly went black with the only light appearing from the bottom of the floor and slowly rising to the top. A small track went along the walls on both sides as the source of light, a bar that was covered with deep blue lights rose along the track. Alex had to squint as it came up to his eye level, it nearly blinded him with its intensity as it scanned the entire party for any foreign microbes or extremophilic bacteria that hitched a ride on any of their suits. Even without actually placing any weight on his legs, Alex felt his knee joints ache. He just wanted to rest, busy trying to aid in finding out what happened. Then, the azure blue light that filled the room was suddenly snuffed out and left the airlock chamber in darkness once again. The darkness did not last long as it was replaced with the rotating orange hazard light and puffs of moisture and air entered through the pipes in the corners of the room. Over a short period of time a muffled noise slowly rang through his helmet, it was the dull blare of the alarm going off and it became more loud as the airlock chamber’s pressure filled up. Then Alex felt the pain in his legs intensify and his inside pulled themselves down to which he then disengaged his magnetic boots. His full weight was restored. On his HUD he checked the suits external sensor readings and it read that the airlock was pressurised and the gravity was holding steady at Terra normal levels. Alex ordered his helmet to retract itself and it swiftly obeyed his order as it broke its airtight seal and separated its plates before folding in on itself and retracting into its compartment behind his neck. The rest of the party members did the same before being blinded by the lights of the corridor when the airlock opened itself up; the search party vacated the airlock just in time for the next party to take over their duties.
Hope you have better luck out there. He sighed.
A chime sounded off from his wrist pad and he groaned in annoyance, truthfully he was tired and he didn’t want to hear anything until he was rested. The chime persisted and he caved in and answered it.
“What?” he said tiredly and he was greeted by Milo’s voice.
“Sorry to disturb you sir, but I think I have compiled a recording of what happened here.”
“Fine, meet me in my office.” Before ending the call almost as soon as the words left his mouth.
Back in his office, he had lied down on the couch next to his desk waiting for the Commander to show up. He was facing the ceiling, fixated on a weld between two of the metal plates suspended above him, Alex didn’t even turn to face the door when he heard it creak as it swung on its fatigued hinges.
“Sir, is this a bad time?” Milo asked with uncertainty.
The captain let his breath go. “No, it's alright Commander. Show me what you got.” He said, swinging his legs off the couch in order to stand. Milo stood tall and straight but his eyelids listlessly drooped over his bright green eyes; most likely he was as tired as Alex was but struggled to hide it under a masque of professionalism while his stature slowly sloped before becoming aware of it and correcting his posture. It was no wonder, Milo and his whole staff were just as overworked as he was, Alex felt bad for them. Milo then took slow steps towards Alex’s desk and connected his tablet to Alex’s computer.
“Computer, dim the lights.” Milo spoke. “And engage holo-emitters.”
The room went dark, save for the bright red and blue light coming in from the windows. A massive screen materialised in the centre of the room and Alex approached it. It had multiple small green forms. Each one made up of triangles and rectangles that looked like they were glued together had littered the display. Then white text appeared to each of them and he realised these were the registered names of the ships in the fleet.
“This must be the Capricorn Fleet.” Alex speculated.
The fleet of shapes maintained an almost equal distance from each other and were organised methodically. The hospital ship was situated almost dead centre of the fleet which was closely surrounded by large gunships in the inner perimeter. Taking up the rear and much to Alex’s surprise was a large contact that obscured anything behind it. One large draconic battleship with its menacing wing blades spread out to make itself look more imposing than it was. The outer perimeter consisted of frigates and destroyers with ships on loan from the Lykan Republics. In front of the Apollo Class hospital ship which appeared to be identified as the U.T.S.S Nightingale, was the sister vessel to the Phoenix, the Bellerophon. Without meaning to, Alex stroked his chin thoughtfully as he studied the layout of the fleet then he turned towards Milo.
“So what happened?”
The Lykan brought his tablet up to his face and tapped on its illuminated surface while speaking. “First, the fleet was waiting for us… Then,” As he spoke, a red pulsating dot suddenly appeared on the starboard wing of the fleet layout and the trio of Lykan ships that were right next to it suddenly blinked out of existence.
“An unidentified ship appeared and broke through the ranks,” Milo continued.
“Fuck me.” Alex said. He looked towards the screen with shock.
Almost instantly after the Lykan group was destroyed, all other ships broke off from their perfectly organised positions and faced the opposing vessel. The Bellerophon depicted had fired off a volley of hell storm missiles which was shown as small red lines streaking across the hologram. Just as the red lines were two inches away from the unknown contact, they suddenly broke into nearly seven smaller missiles each and the ship was still standing after contact with the barrage. The Nightingale broke off and the gunships escorting her were drawn towards the enemy vessel. It took Alex a moment to process what he was seeing when a flash from the enemy ship fired some kind of weapon and it blinked one of the gunships out of existence. The draconic battleship closed in and its velocity towards the enemy ship increased, its opening attack consisted of a sustained volley of cannon fire while it propelled itself for a ram attack, Alex nearly had to restrain himself when he saw the Dragon battleship collide with the enemy vessel as he felt himself cheering the ghosts of conflicts past as though his encouragement would matter anymore. The enemy fired salvos towards the draconic ship with some impacting it and others either missing the mark entirely or getting shot out of the sky. Several of those salvos struck the Bellerophon; In an unexpected twist, the Dragon ship veered off and seemed to have retreated before it too went blinked out of existence. The Bellerophon continued to provide fire support for the evacuating hospital ship. It was approaching the perimeter of the fleet, two destroyers and a lone corvette moved about to provide cover when suddenly the Nightingale blinked out of existence along with the corvette and one of the destroyers. The surviving destroyer was thrusted awkwardly on an odd angle before it regained its bearings.
“Whoa, hold on. What happened to the Nightingale? She wasn’t hit. I didn’t see anything.” Alex demanded.
“This is just a rough guess,” Milo lamentingly said. “But most sensors detected a large explosion in that vicinity which snuffed out their IFF tags. I strongly believe there was a large pocket of nebula gas and the Nightingale used her engines.”
Alex was about to speak up but he chose to remain silent as he watched the scattered remains of the fleet get picked off one by one. The fleet continued to engage the enemy ship from close combat to ranged warfare, nothing seemed to work efficiently against the vessel until the only ship left was the Bellerophon. She put up a decent fight keeping a large distance between the two ships as they circled each other exchanging volleys and munitions until finally the Bellerophon was struck down and the depiction flickered out of existence.
Milo looked worried as he turned to look at his friend. “What are your orders, sir?” He asked quietly.
“Assemble the senior officers and report to the meeting room immediately.”
—
It was all hands-on deck for all shifts amongst the crew working to put the pieces of their fleet back together. Alex ordered the crew to be removed from non-essential departments to provide more hands to other more critical areas of the Phoenix; chaos ran amok in the engine room, hangar bays and machine shops. On second thought, crewmen ran chaotically all over the ship as they converted whatever spare space to accommodate more makeshift workshops. Alex green lit the suggestion to convert on of the Phoenix’s storage bays into a temporary morgue.
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Alex sat at the head of the table in the meeting room among his senior officers for a status update in. He sat at the hardwood table looking across its sheened surface to see Major Fёderov’s tired expression. Commander Hammer sat next to him with his arms crossed across his chest with cuts all across his orange suit and his fur. None of them said anything to Alex but he could see it in their relieved expressions that they were glad he called the meeting, any break they could get was a welcome reprieve. Deep down, Alex felt relieved too.
Milo leaned lazily on the table as he read the reports from his tablet on the tabletop, occasionally his voice mumbled and had to be reminded to speak up. “Portside hangar Airboss reports that fuel is down to twenty-three percent while the Starboard Airboss claims they are down to seventeen percent. Another lateral thruster blew up on one of our Wedge-Tails as it left base. Crew got it under control and managed to get back to the ship safely.”
He let out a yawn that opened his jaw wide exposing his needle like teeth. In his head, Alex thought to himself Oh crap! Before he was captivated to yawn as well. The only person to seemingly be unaffected was Major Fёderov.
How the Hell does he do it? I gotta ask him how to resist yawning.
“Alright, tell Port Airboss to share what they can spare with Starboard until they have roughly the same amount. But I want them to cancel further explorations when they both reach three percent fuel capacity.” Alex instructed.
He then sighed and tried to meet the gaze of each officer in the room. “There is one other thing. It may be possible that an alien ship massacred the fleet and may in fact be still present in the nebula.”
Each of them shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, murmuring to one another and looked around for additional confirmation.
“Thanks to the efforts of Commander Hammer’s team,” Alex went on, raising a hand and gesturing to the Lykan sitting opposite him. “They were able to extract the sensor data and extrapolate a simulation of what happened here.”
“So what is the tactical situation? How many of those alien vessels showed up? Ten, thirty?” Fёderov asked. His whole body sat still with his arms crossed over his armoured chest. Alex felt something catch in his throat as he thought about what he was going to say to his Master-At-Arms.
“One.” He said meekly, trying to avoid eye contact.
“I am sorry, I think I had stroke just now. What was that number again?” The burly major said surprised.
They all had surprised looks on their faces. All except Milo who was the first to know of the situation.
“There was only one ship. One enemy vessel engaged the fleet.” He said more loudly than before.
“Was it at least destroyed?” Collins asked.
“No. The final data ended when the U.T.S.S Bellerophon was destroyed. We must assume this vessel is still out there. And very dangerous.”
“With all due respect, sir, why are we still here if there is a fleet killer out there? What chance do we have against it that the others didn’t have?”
“To answer your second question first, Collins.” Alex replied. “The sensor data showed me more than how events played out. The Bellerophon survived for as long as she did by maintaining her distance. Whenever the enemy made a move, they responded by mimicking its moves. On top of that we also can see how the enemy fights, without seeing it in action we assume it uses high velocity weapons with the likes of which are comparable to Gauss cannons so keeping our distance is key. The only slow movers it launched seemed to be those pods found on the Bellerophon which seemed to move slow enough that if we can maintain our distance then we can gun them out before they get close.”
“And my first question, sir?” Collins replied.
Alex shook his head in disbelief. We are here to pick up the dead and take them home, what else would we be here for?
“To find out as much about what happened as we can and collect the dead” He replied calmly. “Afterwards we will leave this graveyard and report back to Terra with our data and warn them about these… these things.”
“Sir, what should I tell the crew when they ask when we are leaving this creepy place?” Milo asked.
“I agree, we should leave and tell STARCOM to send a cleanup fleet.” Fёderov added.
The staff murmured agreements and nodded to each other, occasionally glancing over to Alex until he shushed them. He faced them down with an expression of annoyance and contempt. “Alright, I get it, none of you want to be here any longer while that thing could still be out there. But we are still Alliance officers and we have a duty to the men and women outside on the float to make sure their relatives back home know exactly what happened to them.” It was when he stopped speaking that Alex noticed that he had his arm raised and pointed to the wall, making hand gestures.
The officers looked among themselves again and nodded once more in agreement before settling down and looking over to their captain.
“Alright,” he started, lowering his hands in a calming gesture. “I have heard your requests and here is my response: we will stay in this nebula-“ The words barely left his mouth before his staff were in uproar and disagreeing with him, telling him the decision was unwise.
“FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS!” He shouted on top of them. It seemed to have worked as they stopped bickering and sat back down in their chairs. “After which we will vacate this area and find a clear spot to jump back to Terra. Do I have everyone’s support on that?” He angrily spoke. They all agreed with his decision.
Goddamn, this is a ship not a democracy. Things are run my way not because of the will of the crew.
“In the meantime, I want this ship to be prepared for battle. I want to have this ship vacuumed if we start getting punctured and I want our 02 recharge stations repaired. It's been a while since they have been maintained.” He said glaring over to his Commander.
The lykan engineer rested his shoulders on the table top and he stared deeply towards Alex for a moment. “I can send a work crew to inspect each of the recharge stations and fix them on the go. The whole process of removing the atmosphere from the ship quickly will take time.”
“How much time Commander?”
“Should be an hour from start to finish. But the engine room will still need to be pressurised as some of the functions cannot work without air. And our engines are not rated to operate entirely in vacuum.”
Alex nodded then dismissed the staff from the room. One by one they poured past him and through the hatchway. He was the last to leave the room.
The Phoenix stayed on high alert status as it drifted through the ruins of its comrades drifting listlessly through the blue and red nebula, the occasional sizable piece of starship would collide and clang against the hull and make the entire crew flinch and flighty in response. On the Bridge, Alex had his armour on and ready for his helmet to cascade over his head at a moments notice. It was hard for the crew to gain a sense of time in the nebula as the light never faded aside from the ruins blocking out the light from the stellar nursery towards the galactic core. Last night proved to be difficult for Alex to gain sleep, the evasion of sleep proved to be too much and it forced him to engage the blast shields on his windows to prevent the light from coming in. It was presumably worse for the crew. None of the expeditions to search the ruins proved to be helpful in any capacity except for the ones that returned with intact munitions and supplies that could be salvaged. If they were lucky then a reserve of fuel could be salvaged to top up the Phoenix’s own supply.
Alex scanned the tired faces of his ops officers still performing their duty at their own expense. He felt their pain, their suffering. No sleep and always being vigilant had left them weary with dark bags under their eyes and drooping postures, it left Alex feeling sorry for them.
Only a few more minutes and we are out of here he thought to himself.
After shuffling his way back into the bridge and onto his chair, Alex looked out the front window which had been cleaned of the organic remains from their Threshold crossing into the nebula. It sickened him seeing the work crew clean it off, they couldn’t find anything to identify the victim which Alex had hoped would make him feel better.
“Ensign Clemens, prepare to Jump. Lieutenant Collins, set course for Terra.” Alex said, rubbing his eyes. They itch fiercely when he is tired. Hopefully they will be able to get some rest in transit.
“Coordinates plotted in and shared with helm, sir. We just need to be cleared of the debris before we engage.” Collins said proudly.
Without saying a word, Clemens already had begun moving the Phoenix out of the way and avoiding further collisions with the debris. An entire engine assembly drifted into view and Clemens rotated the ship on its portside pitch until it was no longer a direct obstacle; still Alex felt himself clench his muscles when the debris grew larger before disappearing underneath the prow of the ship. With a sharp turn starboard around the larger remains of a frigate and the shrapnel spewed out in a noticeable cone shape area from when it was blown out from decompression.
Finally, Alex spotted a clearing through the debris. It looked like a tunnel made out of the wrecks giving them a way out of the nebula which Clemens had taken as their way out by accelerating the ship towards it. Alex looked around and saw his crew strapped into their seats before he pulled on the microphone and set it to call the Engine bay before pressing down on the button.
“Engineer, this is Captain Rowan. Prepare for Jump. Speed seven.”
The response on the other side was immediate, Alex didn’t recognise the voice but nevertheless it helped ease his mind off of things. That being said he was not looking forward to being court martialed when he got back to Terra. The thought of having the Military Police board his ship with their guns displayed as they marched in lockstep towards the bridge to have him in cuffs and be escorted in full display for his crew was a new level of anxiety he was not looking forward to. But Alex shook his head as though the negative thoughts were holding on to his scalp, he knew it was inevitable. But he felt somewhat relieved that he was no longer afraid of the creatures.
“Initiate Jump preparations!” he shouted to everyone.
The bridge went dark and the alarms released their muffled buzz sounds, the damaged hull panels peeled back and the newly repaired antennae started glowing, creating a gentle hum throughout the walls. Alex felt himself grow sleepy from the noise, the humming of power being transferred to the keel was almost sleep inducing before he remembered the kick in Gee forces he was going to feel soon.
This is gonna suck, isn’t it? He thought to himself with a tone that sounded almost like defeat.
Clemens began his countdown as he stared deeply at the clock. Suddenly, he remembered something. Clemens was already starting from ten as he watched the energy cells in the engine room charge up for the Jump which gave Alex the time to quickly attach his seat belts which he now realised weren’t even in. He felt his panic spike but he felt calm that he suspected nobody saw him make such a mistake.
Alex looked over to Collins and Hazaari who were both fixated on the window ahead seemingly unaware of his error. Clemens was down to three seconds when the power flow for the jump was interrupted and the bridge filled with a piercing shriek that sent primordial fear deep into Alex’s soul.
“No no no, not know!”
Clemens’ monitors glitched and fizzled out and the gentle hum of power was interrupted and disrupting the Jump process. The shrieking stopped and power was restored to the ship. Alex looked around to see everyone who had covered their ears slowly remove their hands as they noticed the noise had stopped. His heart beat and pounded firmly in his chest as he remembered the last time the noise was heard when all of a sudden it dawned on him.
Oh no.
“Ensign, is the Jump drive still good to go?” He asked, his voice almost making it sound like a demand.
“No sir,” Clemens shook his head. “Jump charging sequence was interrupted, we’d have to start again!”
Alex fidgeted with his belt buckle and threw himself out of his chair almost as soon as he cleared the buckles off him. Then he ran to the CIC and shouted at the top of his voice. “Radar and Lidar officers, I want an active scan of the area. Full scan intensity. Shout if you have something.”
The officers stared at him before staring at their screens and adjusted the settings. Alex’s breathing was laboured as his heart pounded in his chest. Then the words that dropped his core temperature arrived.
“Contact!” one of the officers shouted.
“Confirmed sighting of unknown vessel. Distance one hundred and three kilometres aft!” Another spoke up.
“Give me a visual contact on it.”
Almost immediately the largest screen that lined the walls of the CIC switched its feed to visual. It first showed the stern hull dominating the lower third of the screen's field of view. On both sides of the screen the hull grew outwards, sporting an oval shaped mass attached to the hull with a small bracket separating the two pieces from each other; behind two oval shaped engines were bright plumes of engine exhaust glaring from behind them. The camera started rotating towards the starboard of the ship and zoomed itself rapidly, at first it remained unfocused but eventually it cleared itself up. Alex saw nothing but the remains of the Bellerophon. No, something was behind it. Another vessel, even larger than the Bellerophon it hid behind. Everyone suddenly grew quiet in awe of the alien vessel. Its unusual symmetry of smooth curves with awkward wing blades extending from its underside and its rear. Bright pulses of golden light grew brighter from between the curves of the ship and it sent out a bright beam of golden light which shook the Phoenix unexpectedly. Alarms began ringing and damage reports filled the CIC showing a corridor in the stern being breached until the blast doors sealed themselves.
A scowl grew on Alex’s face as he glared menacingly toward the screen, hoping that somehow the aliens could see his face. Then he turned his back to it and looked at the scared faces of his crew and said defiantly.
“All hand, battle stations. Prepare for combat!”