The ship thrashed about with a violent thrust sideways, nearly throwing Alex to the floor; had his reflexes not been as fast then his head might have collided with the computer console.He felt something deep within him claw its way to the surface, it felt like it was angry and burning hot with an intensity matching that of even the most powerful of magnetar stars. His jaw clenched tightly together and he shot up to look at the monitors as the alien ship was charging up for another shot.
“Alright,” he muttered to himself. “You wanna do this? Then let's do this!”
Alex tapped on his wrist pad before bringing it to his face.
“All hands, all hands. This is Captain Rowan speaking; I am declaring Condition Black! Get to your combat stations.”
Almost as if his announcement had commanded it, the lighting in the CIC shifted to a dark blue hue while the alarms continued to sound off. He saw the alien ship power up for another shot
Just gotta keep it a distance he thought to himself. His memory of his developed strategy of combating the alien threat suddenly came to the forefront of his consciousness.
Alex threw his head to the left and saw the row of gunnery officers fervently tapping away at their keyboards and firmly gripping the manual controls for their weapons. He wanted these aliens to know he meant business and that meant showing that the Phoenix has teeth.
“Prepare Hellstorm missile pods one through seven and target their hull. Set detonation proximity at one kilometre from impact and charge Gauss Cannons one, two and three and be ready to fire on my mark.”
When the alien ship turned its starboard side to the Phoenix it released a fully charged shot of yellow energy that crossed the distance between the two vessels in under a couple of seconds. The power of each shot made Alex’s hair stand on end over his entire body each time it nearly grazed the hull. He wrinkled his nose when he finally shouted the order to fire the missiles. Alarms rang out and notifications peppered the screens with alerts that the missile pods were empty. The monitor zoomed in on the alien ship as the opening barrage closed in. The Hellstorm missile volley left smoky, wispy trails that lingered in space while they frantically reached out towards the alien ship. Smaller discharges of energy were fired in an attempt to take down the missiles. Behind him, Alex heard one of the officers tell him their Gauss cannons were primed. Alex switched the camera to the point of view from one of the missiles. The camera shook erratically as it screeched through the void and constantly adjusted its heading to stay on course.
Suddenly, yet not unexpectedly, the Hellstorm barrage exploded shortly off the bow of the vessel, killing all camera feeds to the Phoenix, the missiles blew their casings off and the real attack commenced. What started as an opening attack with over fifty erratically guided missiles was replaced with high-speed thermobaric charges aimed directly to the alien ship. A few more seconds till impact, Alex calculated in his head. He threw his head back towards the Gauss operators and shouted at them to fire.
The lights in the CIC flickered and a jolt thrusted the ship forcefully enough to knock over some of the gunners out of their seats. Alex maintained his grip on the console in front of him before looking down on the radar screen to see the Gauss rounds zip through the nebula in only a second. The alien ship was suddenly consumed in the fireballs that erupted off its hull and small white lights flashed off its hull in the midst of the inferno as the Gauss rounds penetrated the hull.
For a moment, the alien ship was gone, consumed by the erupting detonations. Alex had half a smile on his face which was quickly gone when the hull of the alien ship started showing as the balls of fire thinned. The ship remained intact.
That’s okay, it took out a fleet. I didn’t expect that to hurt it.
“Prepare remaining Hellstorm pods for a second volley and charge Gauss cannons. Begin reloading depleted Hellstorms and prep torpedo tubes one through four!” He barked. Officers yelled to one another over the top of others to communicate. The second salvo was fired and the alien ship sent out small pulses of energy in an attempt to shoot down the missiles that streaked through the nebula.
Alex looked at their armaments, completely restocked.
“We cannot keep throwing our missiles at them, people. You see an opportunity, you take it!”
His wrist pad chimed, when Alex looked down it said Clemens was contacting him. Alex tapped on it but he did not say anything.
“Sir, I got an idea, it's crazy but we might be able to get the jump on that ship and perform close range strafing runs.” Clemens said. His voice was heavy with manic energy.
Another strike from the vessel shook the Phoenix and an alarm rang out, this time it was a decompression alarm.
One officer shouted above the rest. “Hull breach on deck four and five, delta compartment. Multiple fires reported in the area!”
“Seal off the nearest doors, dispatch the fire crews!” Alex barked.
He brought his wrist pad up to his face and spoke “What is it, helmsman!?”
“I require manual control of the Jump Drive sir. And alert the engineering crew to keep the engines running.” Clemens said.
Alex couldn’t figure out what his pilot was thinking. Was he trying to get us out of here? No, wait, that could not be it, he said he was going to strafe this thing. How do you strafe using the Jump Drive? A small flash in the corner of his eye distracted Alex and he looked up to the main screen. The alien ship wasn’t powering its energy weapons anymore but small flashes erupted all over the hull. For a moment nothing happened, then Alex saw the projectiles silently moving through space. At least five of them were heading towards the Phoenix but when he looked on the Radar there was nothing but the debris and the two remaining vessels. He tapped on the screen to get a better look at one of the fast moving projectiles. Alex didn’t mean to gasp softly when he saw the ridged delta shaped insertion pods fast approaching, his heart thumping loudly in his chest and he ordered for flak fire to destroy as many as they could.
A short second later, the view was obscured by orange eruptions exploding in the soundless void. Alex always thought Flak fields were reminiscent of an impressive fireworks display. The multitude of explosions detonating caught two of the insertion pods. Each pod erupted with an explosion even bigger than the flak charges being fired.
“Flak munitions down to ninety percent, sir.” One of the officers behind him called out. The remaining insertion pods were unharmed by the flak fire, the two pods in front continued unhindered to the Phoenix, however the final pod was caught by the explosion but it was not destroyed, instead, it leaked atmosphere and some ichor liquid which had erratically propelled the pod off course.
“Cease Flak!” Alex barked.
The flak field soon stopped exploding. The two remaining pods closed in and Alex ordered them to be shot down; trails of bullets whizzed close by the alien insertion pods. Closed-in weapon systems unleashed their full might as their barrels spun with a number of revolutions dwarfed by the number of bullets it spat out. The alien ship charged up for another shot, but Alex was ready.
“Fire Torpedoes!”
The clunks and muffled hisses of hydraulics and air escaping sounded off from within the walls. Several torpedoes flew to the alien ship just as the insertion pods were destroyed by the turrets.
Suddenly, the main monitor flared up as the torpedoes struck the alien ship. Its weapons charged but did not fire and the alien ship was once more consumed by the explosions of bright blue-white plasma. The explosions slagged the nearby debris as chunks of ships grew orange or were reduced to a liquid state from the intense heat. The Phoenix shook violently this time, Alex looked back at the monitor and he saw that the enemy vessel was not yet consumed by the plasma, it continued to fire towards them with electrical charges of golden light streaking across the nebula, bathing the grey reflective hull material scattered throughout the nebula in its golden glow.
A large explosion rocked the Phoenix, another fire alarm sounded off and the monitors had faded into fizzling static. Soon they came back one by one. The camera on the outer hull was pointed at an odd angle away, when Alex rotated the lens back towards the alien ship he saw in the corner of the hull, one of their engine’s outer chassis had frayed outwards with support beams spread out in different directions and bright orange plumes of fire erupted from under the hull. A bright golden light behind Alex had filled the room, when he turned around to face the source he saw a close up holographic model in the middle of the hologram table. The model had enlarged around the ship's stern section and displayed the engine module pulsing red. A table of text materialised next to it and it quickly scrolled up as new faults and issues were diagnosed from the engine ranging from temperature regulation sensors not responding to automated inlet flow valves to the engines cooling being stuck in an open position. In the corner of the Captain’s eye he spotted another red pulsing section near the centre of the ship. The damage reports soon came in, they were holed just like the Agamid. Decompression was occurring on every deck and fires were reported near the hole.
“Seal blast doors around the breach and get fire crews to take out those fires!”
“Aye, sir!” an officer shouted.
Shortly, the decompression alarms stopped ringing, the doors sealed themselves and the atmosphere was contained. Looking back towards the ship's burning engine, Alex’s head felt as though his brain was getting hotter as he processed as much information as he could to come up with some answer as to what to do next. He then remembered Clemens’ request; it wasn’t like there were any bad ideas that could make their situation worse. He pushed himself off the hologram table and made his way towards the bridge; all around him he heard motors whir through the walls and the muffled thumps of weapon systems and missiles being deployed. Clemens sat valiantly at his post and struggled navigating through the debris. Clemens had whipped his head around when he heard the doors slide open for Alex.
“What is your idea, helmsman?” He spat impatiently.
The young pilot turned to face forward as he banked the ship hard to port to avoid a dismembered engine module that was floating freely alone. “I require the ability to manually engage the Jump Drive, sir!”
“We don’t have the ability to jump out of here, Clemens!” He scowled. “Jumping out of here would have been my first option.”
“No sir, not jump out of here. I wanna try a ‘tactical Jump’. If I can Jump us close to the alien ship, then we can unleash all our firepower up close and jump out before they can retaliate.”
“Fine!” Alex said. He looked at his wrist pad, occasionally struggling to tap on the right part of the screen as the ship shook from each hit. He accessed the personal files and gave Clemens the Jump drive capabilities.
“Tell the gunners to get ready and to fire on my command, sir!” Clemens barked. His hands were quick to adjust their heading as another large piece of a Frigate was fast approaching before looping around the wreckage to face the alien ship directly.
“Preparing Jump drive,” Clemens shouted. Alex bolted out of the bridge and ran back into the CIC. The humming of power directed to the Jump drive drowned out the sound of turret motors and servos whirring inside the hull. As per Clemen’s suggestion, Alex ordered all gunners to begin the reloading of their weapons and prepare for the pilot’s adventurous idea. He saw no need to be strapped in for the Jump for it was going to be a short one. Clemens opened a radio channel in the CIC, most gunners waited anxiously for the go-ahead signal. Finally, the helmsman counted down from three and when he hit zero, Alex felt a sudden kick in his stomach strong enough that were it not for his vice-like grip on the holographic table would have flung him across the room.
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Clemens shouted “Now!” And the gunnery officers snapped back to their stations and pressed on their control sticks. Alex ran back to the Bridge and sat down at the ageing leather chair. In front of him, the Alien ship close up. Its surface seemed dull and didn’t reflect much light around it, running along the lateral side of the ship closest to the Phoenix had grooves running along. The dark grey strips along the honey-coloured hull pulsed with a golden aura which then discharged short bursts that punctured the hull.
“Open fire!” Alex barked.
The sides of the ship became pelted with explosive tipped ammunition and weapons from close range. Clemens engaged the Jump Drive and prepared to get away as fast as he could. Small openings were created sequentially along the lateral hull of the alien ship, then Alex saw small objects rising out of the holes and poking out of the ships hull giving the once smooth and curvy exterior a spiny ridge look that ran along the entire mid compartment. Two of them shot out and sped towards the Phoenix. Clemens engaged the Jump drive just as a loud clunk sound could be heard through the hull. The view distorted and the alien ship warped and stretched impossibly and suddenly it was wiped away from sight as the distant bright red clouds of the nebula closed in.
“Rotate to port one-eighty degrees, drop bow pitch one-quarter!”
Swiftly the Phoenix spun around until she faced her attacker from afar once more. Alex stood up from his seat and bolted back to the CIC where he was greeted with a new chorus of alarms mixed in with the old and familiar tunes of decompression warnings and fire detectors with a new one that Alex feared above all else.
Intruder alert…
“Attention: Non-Terran lifeform detected on deck seven. Security personnel please report to deck seven, starboard side mid compartment.” The automated voice spoke throughout the ship.
His fingers flew instinctively to pull up the internal cameras inside the reported section, Alex already knew it but he had to see it for himself. Sure enough, the first camera that was displayed showed an insertion pod jutting out from the bulkhead, warping the metal around it to allow its safe passage within the ship. The pod’s centre slowly bulged upward and outwards as the membrane that made up the pod’s slimy exterior was stretched. Two limbs could be seen moving inside and then poked the membrane in an effort to tear it off.
“Major Fёderov, get the heavy weapons!” Alex shouted into a channel he quickly opened. The raptorial appendages broke through the skin like membrane and it quickly fell to the sides as the creature began to slash it off it. It shaked and ripped the flesh of its seemingly organic method of transportation before stepping over the outer casing and taking its first shaky steps inside. Alex thought back to the one he saw on the Bellerophon, how similar it looked. Much stronger than the one they found on the Krath’let with its extra set of deadly scythe-like appendages and much more alive than its Bellerophon counterpart. Alex had sent a small party of medical technicians shortly after departing from the Bellerophon to collect the remains of the alien left behind. Grayich was eager, thrilled at the thought of being the first doctor to examine the remains. Alex had asked for frequent reports from the doctor on its examination and he was surprised by the wall of text that the doctor had written in such a short time; detailed analyses and hypotheses on its biology and inner working, blood pressure, heart rate, its ability to survive extreme climates including the vacuum of space.
The one thing he struggled to remember from reading the few reports that have been submitted was if they had any weaknesses aside from extreme fire power. His mind drew nothing.
“Charge up Gauss cannons and prepare all missile pods to fire on my order, suppress them with sustained cannon volleys.” Alex commanded. “Damage report!”
The Chief of the Boat, a lithe Naga that looked younger than he claimed to be slithered up to him before speaking. “Multiple breaches along the hull, we have been holed from Lateral to dorsal and engine four is out of commission. Maximum thrust is reduced by twenty five percent.”
“Have non-essential personnel move to damage control and assist.”
His fingers jabbed the touchscreen console and he prepared to authorise the launch of an atomic warhead, hoping it could do the trick then he looked up and saw the dense pocket of nebula gas that the alien ship was passing through. He remembered the explosion from their own thrusters that damaged them. Doubt crept along his rational thinking centre to the point that he closed the screen that prepared the atomic weapons and stared at the black screen thinking if it was such a good idea to use them in close proximity. Alex contacted the Astronomics lab and spoke again to the scientists who had bunkered down and strapped themselves to their chairs as they waited out the fighting and prayed that a stray laser wouldn’t hit them or their lab.
Doctor Vawilk was quick to answer, almost instantly after Alex opened the channel to contact him.
“Y-yes sir? What is it?” He said, breathing shakily, his voice sounded worried.
“Doctor I need to know if detonating an atomic warhead at those fuckers is a good idea. With the whole combustible-nebula-gas situation we are in, is it going to ignite the whole nebula?” Alex asked.
“YES! It is a very bad idea, worse than anything. If a large enough explosion occurs here it could ignite even the sparser regions in the nebula and incinerate everything within one cubic AU. The ionised particles from the warheads would be almost recreating the explosion from the birth of a star and we don’t want to be anywhere near it.”
“Fuck!” Alex shouted, closing the channel in his frustration.
All around him, the motors of turrets whirring was muffled, repetitive thumping sounds came from the ceiling above him as the cannons fired and unleashed their loads on the alien ship.
The Phoenix had her Port side facing the alien ship and, on the camera, pointing at the enemy, Alex waited until the debris was no longer obstructing them. He waited for one of the frigates to drift out of the way or until the Phoenix moved to a better vantage point. He once more shouted the order to fire and the room echoed with the muffled thumps of missiles being fired and cannons firing in conjecture with their counterparts. On the monitors, the alien ship was pelted by the orange glow of the cannon shells penetrating its hull followed briefly by an array of Hellstorm missiles and Artemis type missiles.
“Fire Gauss rounds!” the captain shouted.
The lights in the room flickered and a sudden force of inertia thrusted the ship to the side as the cannons fired their tungsten alloyed slugs towards the alien ship at a fraction the speed of light.
Pinching the screen to get a close up of the carnage, the alien ship was pelted by the Artemis class missiles which left an underwhelming explosion compared to its other types. But they were not conventional missiles but instead, armour piercing missiles that pierce through the hull and make conventional weapons hurt more. Shimmering materials sparkled away from the impact sites of the artemis missile strike leaving puncture wounds in the alien vessel like bruises, then the Hellstorm missile volley came and detonated into its smaller constituents which the aliens struggled to shoot down in time before being covered completely. For a moment, the ship didn’t emerge from its explosion. The flames ignited the ethanol in the nebula, creating a bubble of fire that had smooth contours and curves that looked more like water droplets. The liquid fire display burned intensely for a short time and then it died down leaving the alien ship intact.
The gunnery officers let out small breaths of disappointment, their hope at defeating this monster of a threat was diminished as quickly as the burning alcohol was. But Alex caught something on the monitor, he zoomed in again and his eyes widened when he saw the visible damage done to the exterior.
The alien ship left several trails of fire billowing out from different spots along the hull; the first located on the tip of what was presumably the front section of the ship while another two plumes were coming from the top of the mid section and a final trail left near its engines. Its hull radiated with a golden glow and fired another shot at the Phoenix. The impact it made had caught Alex off guard and was strong enough to throw some of the officers out of their chairs and over their consoles. Sparks erupted from the light fixtures while others flickered badly. Another clean hole through the ship caused a huge leak of atmosphere. Some of the blast doors were badly damaged to the point they were no longer useful, the nearest ones closed. Alex turned to face the hologram to better assess the damage, it was worse than he imagined. Far worse than he imagined.
The last shot was near the previous one, it destroyed and breached the corridors throughout the ship on all decks, between the two gaping holes in the vessel only a handful of corridors were left untouched and could allow foot traffic to proceed throughout the ship unhindered. The choke point would prove bad if the crew needed to evacuate. Alex pulled up the body cameras of the Marines fighting the alien intruder, he tracked its progress from its insertion pod to near the engine room.
The camera shook as the marine Alex was observing through sprayed the creature with automatic fire with no aim. It had crawled onto the ceiling and was already missing one of its mandibles on its head and it was missing the scythe-like appendage at the end of one of its arms. It looked like they had already roughed it up more than he expected but less than he had hoped. Another marine wandered into the camera’s peripherals and the creature, in one swift, fluidic move, dropped from the ceiling and spun around and landed so its raptorial claws pierced through the Marine’s armour. Their screams of agony reached into his soul, telling him to run as far away as he could. It would have been something that would have been too much for Alex to listen to if it were not for the insect standing tall and hoisting its prey up in the air and pulling its arms apart; even from the distance the body camera was, the sound of wet pops and cracks from inside the victim could still be heard. Its bladed appendages slowly repelled each other. The suit underneath the armour tore string by string and the victims pained cry for help was replaced with one of intense pain; finally with a wet tearing sound as bones were ripped violently from their places and the yells were replaced with wet gurgles and coughs as blood filled their lungs along with the snapping of metal armour being ripped being heard through the camera. Alex winced, and the insects arms suddenly thrust outward and its prey, the marine who once stood tall and covered in ballistic vacuum sealed armour was violently ripped in half, ending their agonised calls for help.
Strings of flesh still connected the two halves together, the rear armour plate remained whole while dangling from one side and swung from side to side. The insides of the soldier spilled to the floor as torrents of blood suddenly fell and their intestines dropped to the floor with a wet slap sound which nearly made Alex’s stomach jump into his throat; never before did he witness something so disturbing before. The insect threw its arms down to remove the chunks of meat and metal that clung to its appendages to the floor before charging again at the camera.
Marines barked orders to each other over the radio trying to kill this thing. Major Fёderov was wielding a shotgun that was larger than his arm was. He carried it casually as he strolled into the camera’s field of vision and fired the weapon towards the creature. It thundered each time, and each time the Major pointed the weapon towards the ceiling to pump it to eject the spent cartridge which landed on the floor with a hollowed-out clink sound before he then lowered the weapon back down and aimed toward the creature before it belched out another cloud of fire and hot lead which threw the creature onto its backside.
Alex called for Grayich in the med bay, the first call request timed out and he pressed it again. This time the channel was established after a few tones, Grayich sounded impatient when he answered the line. “What is it?” Alex could have sworn he heard a whispering voice say “he’s dead” in the background of Grayich’s voice. The sound of tools clattering and voices overlapping each other were present as well.
“Doctor,” Alex said. “Tell me you got any idea how to beat those insect things. Are they weak to anything?”
“Sir, I got bodies piling up here and at least ten sailors in need of my attention. I cannot-“
“You’re gonna have more corpses in there if you don’t tell me if it has weaknesses!” Alex interrupted. “That thing, that intruder is butchering my crew, if this thing has a weak spot I need to know it now!”
The dragon sighed, behind him, the sound of alarms rang from the medical equipment. Nurses shouted to each other in a discordant mess that didn’t have any meaning to him. “They are an extremophilic organism but they are incredibly susceptible to direct contact with fire.” He responded.
“Fire,” Alex parroted. “You sure?”
“Yes, their chitinous hide is covered in a layer of some kind of lubricant that is very flammable.”
After swiftly ending the call, he opened up another to Major Fёderov of the Marines just as another blast from the alien vessel rocked the Phoenix.
“Major, they are weak to fire. Use any incendiaries you got on it.”
“Copy that!” Was all Fёderov said.
On the displayed body and helmet camera of the Major he lowered his shotgun and pulled a cylinder off his belt; a grenade. Using his thumb, Fёderov removed the safety cap on the top of the grenade. A narrow white band that circled the top of the grenade had the word STANDARD written on it in bold, black lettering; when Fёderov clicked the button atop the device three times the name switched through its different settings before settling on INCENDIARY mode. The Major threw his arm back before thrusting it forward, letting his grip on the grenade go, flying toward the insect. No sooner after the grenade touched the ground did the whole corridor suddenly bathe in bright orange light with a blinding glare that prevented Alex from seeing what happened. Two seconds later, the camera lens adjusted for the fire. The creature threw its appendages in the air aimlessly as it struggled to douse the fire that covered its chitinous hide. It screeched in agony, no, hold on, it wasn’t screeching, the sound was air escaping from it as its pressure built up. The creature chittered and clicked helplessly as air violently escaped from it and its eyes slowly bulged further outward from its triangular head. A muffled pop could be heard and fluids from the creature's head spurted outward, covering the walls in its gore all the while it slowly dropped to the ground. Its other eye popped loudly too, spilling its golden blood over the floor.
Fёderov did not hesitate to approach the still burning corpse and raised his left leg only to suddenly throw it back down on the creature’s head to be met with a satisfying crunch sound.
Cannons continued to rain on the alien vessel but no further damage to it could be detected. Alex noticed near the alien ship the remains of a ballast from one of the destroyed vessels. Realising the tank was mostly intact, Alex directed the cannons to fire on it as the aliens drew closer to it.
A massive burst of light erupted from the ballast wreckage sending out a shockwave to make even the nearby drifting U.T.S.S Agamid blown away from its spot.
Clemens wanted permission to perform another strafe run, Alex gave him the go ahead and just like before, the Phoenix suddenly appeared right next to the alien vessel only this time there was more distance between the two vessels. Alex ordered flak cannons to create a wall between the two vessels just as they unleashed the Phoenix’s full firepower from Gauss cannons to torpedoes and unguided munitions. Clemens was just about to engage the Jump Drive once more, Alex felt pride in his crew’s abilities seeing the alien ship on fire and damaged.
Suddenly, the Phoenix was shaken strongly. The alien ship had fired a massive beam to cleave right through the engines of the ship. The holographic depiction showed the engines pulsating red as reports came in saying their engines were down and the Jump drive was out of commission. Alex looked at the exterior camera on the hull aimed at the Stern.
It couldn’t be….
The engines were destroyed and frayed. None of them could propel them any further; just as Alex stood in disbelief, he heard multiple clangs penetrate the hull. He turned to see the alien vessel launching more of the insertion pods towards them. Some had jutted out from the exterior hull like leeches latching on to suck the life of the ship. Tendrils extended outward from the pods and further latched themselves onto the hull. Another automatic announcement was made; multiple hull breaches, fires detected on multiple decks, decompression and unidentified life forms on multiple decks.
No, this cannot be the end. It cannot end like this!
Alex stared blankly at the wall monitor as it displayed multiple camera views of the aliens emerging from their pods and making their way to the nearest crew member who ran away from them. The butchering numbed him to the destruction of the ship around him.
“Orders, sir!” Some of the officers shouted. The chief of the boat nudged Alex’s shoulder to snap him out of his stupor.
Engines ruined beyond repair, warrior insects infesting his halls and leaky atmosphere. Even with their weapons pointed toward their opponent it would seem they bested the Alliance once again. They took out an entire fleet, how much difference would one battleship have made? They were probably not even worried about us, too busy trying to put out the damn fires we left in them.
Alex turned to face his Chief of the Boat in his sapphire blue eyes, struggling to hide the frayed nerves he was experiencing. Cold blooded, they definitely aren’t cold hearted Alex told himself.
“Set Condition: Black.” Alex murmured.
“Huh!?” The young Naga exclaimed. “What was that sir?”
“I said ‘Set condition: Black’” he said much louder. Just below a shout but loud enough for the closest officers to hear him. “We are abandoning ship.”