After wiping the Lykan blood off his face, Alex raised his large tubular shotgun up to his waist and gave it a swift solid pump of the foregrip to load a shell into the chamber. Between him and the warrior caste insect, the split in twain warrant officer who just a moment ago helped them through a sealed door, who just a moment ago allowed Alex to take his shotgun in exchange for protection while he worked on overriding the door mechanism. He trusted Alex, his captain, to protect him and he failed him. Not just failed, but almost instantly he failed.
The Lykan lay flat on his face, his body split down from the base of his neck which struggled to hold on to each side with thin strings of sinewy flesh pulled taut like organic bridges holding the two halves with all their might. The gaping chasm split from the neck of the fallen officer and down to just above his waist, staining the torn spacesuit in crimson gore which also spilled on the deck plating. Several blood vessels squirted out the remains of blood contained within letting out a wet squelch.
The insect stood aggressively at the head of the dead crewman with its blood soaked scythes poised menacingly at Alex and his two remaining subordinates.
“Get ready to run!” Alex shouted, still facing down the alien intruder. It took one step towards them which made Alex squeeze his grip on the shotgun's trigger and let out a deafening, thunderous shot that kicked Alex hard enough to nearly knock the wind out of him. The blast struck the creature dead in its chest. Flecks of its chitinous armour chipped off from the impact; the shot left a smoke trail wisping on its chest as it stumbled backwards. Alex then pumped the shotgun once more to eject the smoking cartridge only for it to clunk on the floor. Then the insect got back up and screeched at them loud enough for Alex to almost not hear the alarms blaring throughout the empty corridors of his own ship.
Then he fired another cartridge at it and the insect was thrusted back again before hunching over. Then Alex looked back to Silas and Christopher again before shouting “RUN!”
All three officers bolted as fast as they could past their downed comrade, respectfully as they could and the killer responsible slowly rose back up to its full height from the last blast. With the exception of Silas who slithered, the officers leapt bounds down the corridor avoiding fallen ceiling plates and damaged infrastructure that had collapsed in the middle of the corridor. The insect fell into hot pursuit of the officers, first it leapt after them before it had dropped to the floor using the tips of its raptorial limbs to support crawling on all fours. Then as it approached the first obstacle in chasing them, it threw itself to the wall and then traversed onto the ceiling. Screeching at them as they fled from it.
Alex knew they couldn’t fight this thing off in time with just the three of them and one shotgun. Hell, Alex hadn’t even performed an ammo check on it yet. For all he was aware it only had those two shells in it and the gun was deadweight at this point, but no matter what he was determined to get this thing off their trail. Time was a pressing factor as the ever-present alarms reminded him and the nearest armoury was at least two decks above him. He couldn’t lead the duo to an armoury safely and even if they grabbed the heavy weapons, it didn’t guarantee their survival fighting it, let alone trying to get off the ship in the time left. In the middle of his thoughts, his boot caught on a jagged edge of a deck plate that had been damaged and it nearly tripped Alex. Instead he lost his footing which he regained in time to only stumble slightly. Just when he hunched over to come face to face with the deck plates beneath him an idea hit Alex.
Of course, why didn’t I think of it before! he thought to himself triumphantly. Then Alex slung the shotgun over his neck, bouncing against his rump each time it collided against him and was forced back from his legs, throwing him forward. Then he raised his wrist pad and accessed the environmental controls for the deck they were on. Now all he needed was some specific indicator. Yes, he did know the layout of his ship, just not an in-depth technical breakdown of every bolt and rivet like Milo would have.
There! Above the door frame in the corridor ahead of them. Five-E-Seventeen. Deck Five, section E, corridor seventeen. Just as they rushed through, Alex caught a glimpse of the numbering on the deck plate below them just as it zipped past them and out of his sight. Then he looked at his Wrist-pad again before looking ahead of them. Another door threshold ten metres ahead.
Behind them, the creature hissed angrily amidst its own chorus of chirps and screeching. Its limbs clicked against the hull each time it touched it. Alex didn’t look behind him, but the repetitive tapping of its movements slowly grew louder. At first, he hoped it had just meant it was getting louder, but now he was hoping that’s what it was because it could have only meant it was getting closer to them.
On his Wrist-pad, the diagram of the environmental control’s layout had shown the corridor they were in, each deck plating was individually separated and coloured in a sky blue colour until Alex tapped on several of them near the rapidly approaching door frame, turning them bright gold. At the corner of his wrist-pads screen, Alex tapped on the icon with four squares in it and the screen changed to show the selected deck plates’ information, after swiping up to the bottom of the screen rested a rectangle button that had the words CHANGE FIGURES written on it and Alex pressed firmly on it. And just like before, the screen changed again. They were so close to getting out of here. So close to escaping, but the thing behind him was just as close to getting them. Alex hoped this would work; otherwise, they might not actually make it out of here.
Inside his chest his heart thumped with strength in a desperate bid to escape, but his mind compelled Alex to turn around and look behind him despite how much he truly didn’t want to know just how close the creature was. Then he did, and the creature was only a few metres behind him. Chasing him with the intent of cutting him down. Alex turned back to face his wrist pad and adjusted the numbers on his wrist-pad. The device then asked him if he intended to save and enact the changes he made. He was just about to press YES before stopping himself, he didn’t really want to catch himself in his own trap.
With such speed all three officers flew past the bulkheads threshold in but the blink of an eye and Alex turned around and tapped YES on his wrist pad. The creature dropped to the ground and spun midair to allow itself to land on its limbs before standing upright once again with its raptorial appendages reared and raised in its attack stance. Then Alex knew his trap started. What once was a gentle humming around him slowly increased in pitch and power. The insect walked over the panels that Alex selected on his device and it slowed its pace, slowly taking one step at a time. It lurched forward as though chasing after them had tired it out, followed by a sudden whoosh, the alien was thrusted by an invisible force and pressed firmly against the deck as it screeched in alarm.
Alex smiled as he looked at the once imposing and dangerous threat with impunity at its helplessness. From a mixture of exhaustion from running and nearly being killed and amazement at his own genius that made Alex laugh uncontrollably at the creature.
“Fuck you!” he spouted with both fingers extended.
Silas and Christopher had run for a few more metres before skidding to a halt when they realised their captain stopped just a moment ago. They were surprised when they saw the alien that chased them pressed firmly against the floor.
“Holy shit, sir. How did you take it down?” Silas exclaimed happily.
Both approached Alex from behind until he threw his arm out to prevent them from getting close.
“Careful, don’t get too close. I ramped up the artificial gravity. This thing is experiencing three times its own weight.” He said before letting out a light chuckle.
But to Alex’s own perverse delight, he looked to the shotgun that rested against his thigh sling wrapped around his shoulder. He wondered for a moment about the dynamics of firing his weapon at the insect in a high gravity zone. His fingers slipped around the grip of the weapon just as the creature’s body trembled. It made great effort with every movement to stretch out its upper appendages and struggled to raise itself off the metal plate that pulled it down. Christopher’s voice wavered as he saw the creature’s determination to kill them help raise it off the metal plate; Alex raised his eyebrows in shock and then he looked back down at his wrist-pad to see if the artificial gravity was reducing its power. It was not. On his display screen, all the selected gravity plating in front of them maintained their power of three point seven G’s. Damn, these things are tough.
Almost as if it had been biding its time, the creature slowly rose to its full height. Silas shouted some obscenity in shock, even Alex did a double take to make sure his wrist-pad was displaying the right numbers and sure enough it was.
“C-Captain, do something, ramp the gravity up!” Christopher shouted. And Alex complied. He adjusted the figures again and selected the scroll bar and dragged his gloved finger across to the far right of the spectrum. A small portion near the end of the bar was coloured red. He might not have been an engineer but Alex knew it was the furthest point of the artificial gravity’s power, if it drew too much power it could overload and explode. A small number appeared above his finger which rose in pace with his scrolling until it read ten-point-three Gee’s. Alex quickly tapped the green button to enact the changes and a rush of energy hummed around them in great volume, the trio of officers turned to face the slowly rising creature only for it to be suddenly and violently thrusted back down onto its front side with such force that a sickening crack sound could be heard over the loud hum of the overworked gravity generators. It impacted the metal deck plate upon contact with such force that its chitinous armour cracked and a translucent golden fluid seeped out from its body and pooled at the lowest point in the metal decking. The metal creaked and groaned under the ever-increasing weight of the creature on top, they weren’t rated to hold something heavy. Hell, they weren’t designed to go over the limit for long periods of time.
Alex turned around and gestured for Christopher and Silas to keep moving. As they ran down the corridor with determination rivalling that of when the creature was following them, he could hear it screeching. Just before they rounded a corner and out of sight of the insect, a loud bang shook the corridor and left a deafening ring in his ears. It blocked out the ship's self-destruct alarm, it blocked out the thumping of his footfalls and it was blocking out even the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. Unless the alien ship just fired lasers across the hull, narrowly missing them, then that bang could have meant that the gravity plates finally gave up after running at full power for too long.
He was surprised at how quickly it gave up, but not by much as it wasn’t unexpected. Still, he ran down towards the engineering deck as though the creature was right behind him. Though whether or not it survived that explosion would be a question he could debate later about the safety of his yacht.
The air reeked of the stench of burnt ozone and synthetic machine oil, on the floor the words “Engine Room” were painted on and slightly faded with the engineering division logo above the words. The three cog symbol contained a depiction of Terra inside the central larger cog while a cruder silver grey and dark grey representation of Luna was fitted inside a smaller cog on the upper right of Terra’s cog. The doors slid open upon the trio’s approach and Alex was hit with a wave of hot air and the reeking scent of something burning.
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The Phoenix’s internal infrastructure had suffered the beating she had been given, despite her falling bulkheads. But the engine room showed just how much she suffered. The alarms were drowned out by the loud roar of the ships engines struggling to keep its production of power in their damaged state. The fusion pylons were sealed in their blast proof casing. Several pipes that ran along the walls were spewing bright orange flames into the large cavernous room. Down by the pylons, a lone figure rushed along the gantries from console to console, struggling to keep pace between where he needed to be before devolving from their bipedal stance to a quadruped one utilising all their limbs power to move them faster.
“Commander!” Alex shouted. And the figure suddenly perked up and looked around before seeing Alex and his duo of officers staring and waved them over.
The warm orange glow of the flames from burning machines overwhelmed the clean white light of the fixtures to give it the sense of fire being the only source of light. Milo rushed up to them with a blue glow to his eyes that Alex had rarely seen before. Lykans naturally had an advanced aptitude in harnessing magicks and when in stressful situations they were able to utilise their abilities in a manner similar to how humans were able to use their fear to achieve otherwise unobtainable feats of athleticism and strength. Milo’s spacesuit was covered in tears and specks of blood stained the bright orange suit where used machine oil hadn’t stained him.
“I thought I ordered everyone off this ship. The Hell are you still doing here!?” Alex angrily demanded.
Milo’s eyes slowly lost their sky-blue glow to them and his pupils became more apparent, zipping from side to side as he scanned Silas and Christopher. “Alex, we have a problem.” His voice carried with it a grim tone. Almost like he was passing on a threat to Alex. Nevertheless, he knew his friend and he knew that when he said his name in uniform something bad was coming.
Alex took a deep breath in, preparing for himself for what could possibly be the bad news in what was inherently an already bad situation. Would the remote charges that have been placed all over the ship as part of its self-destruct program not work? Were the aliens boarding us en masse? Perhaps it was nothing at all, perhaps even up until he had been relieved of his duty, Milo was just being an engineer and telling me our engines weren’t functioning a hundred percent. I hope.
“The Jump Drive… The fusion pylons have taken too much damage. They’re already on the verge of breaching and wiping out everything within a one-hundred-kilometre radius! I can’t vent the excess heat fast enough! They are in meltdown.” Milo said, panicking.
At first, Milo’s report seemed insignificant, another engineering problem. And even trivial given the circumstances. But then a memory shortly after the Phoenix entered this damnable nebula was immediately summoned then it hit him. Alex’s eyes widened with realisation at what that meant.
“So what, sir?” Silas shouted. “The ship is about to blow up, leave it to be a problem for the bugs!”
“The nebula.” Alex said softly. Everyone turned to face him. He didn’t even intend to say it out loud, yet it was heard above the ear piercing shrieks of machines and the looping wails of alarms going off.
“What about it?” Christopher said, annoyed.
Alex looked up and faced them down as he began to speak. “If the Jump drives overload, it's going to create a superheated explosion that will turn everything caught in its blast into slag.”
“Good, that’ll just mean those bugs will be killed!” Christopher exclaimed.
“Guys, don’t you get it!?” Alex said alarmingly. “The nebula is made up of highly combustible gases, our rocket thrusters ignited a small pocket when we arrived here. We couldn’t use our nuclear bombs because it would ignite more than just a small pocket… But our Jump Drives… the whole nebula would be ignited. It’ll create an explosion that would be seen on Terra, sun side. And our lifeboats won’t make it out of here in time.”
“I won’t be joining you sir.” Milo said defeatedly.
Alex stared at his friend and commander with disbelief. He was about to slap him across the muzzle for thinking it.
“The Hell you are! Take these two officers to my yacht and prepare to launch. I’ll stay behind and regulate the pressure. I might be able to keep it stable long enough for the self-destruct to engage and with luck we might be able to avoid a catastrophic nova blast giving everyone a chance to escape this nebula.”
Then Alex took a short breath in and then huffed out. He was so close to escaping. So close to getting out of here. The hidden part within him was celebrating at the thought of living to fight another day but it was stamped out by the crushing boot of his duty and obligations. Alex dreaded dying, as natural as it was, but he had a duty to perform and a captain always goes down with his ship. No matter what.
“With all due respect, sir; but you don’t know anything about these engines like I do.” Milo spoke rudely as he pointed to the machinery behind him.
Am I the only one that thinks ‘With all due respect’ is the polite way of saying ‘Kiss my ass’?
“I know every bolt and rivet in these machines,” Milo continued. “You wouldn’t be able to regulate the pressure in time. Let alone know how and which pipes need to be vented.”
“Commander, this isn’t a request, it's an order. And I am ordering you to abandon ship. This is my obligation, not yours!” Angrily, Alex yelled.
Milo’s head jerked upwards at an angle but still kept eye contact. He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, then he opened his mouth again looking at Alex with suspicion. “W-wait! … Is- Is this some kind of ‘captain always goes down with the ship’ mentality. Are you so eager to die!?”
“I’m not eager for shit!” Alex angrily blurted out. It caught him by surprise how quick he was to anger. The floodgates of emotion were released and Alex couldn’t keep it in. “This isn’t some going-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory mentality, Commander. This is my job, my duty and I intend to hold it. Now I will tell you one last time. Take these two officers… Get to my yacht… and ABANDON. SHIP!” Alex spat.
Milo’s lips quivered away from each other, revealing his rows of teeth in a snarl that he soon worked to suppress. Then he let out a sigh of defeat and hung his head low. “Aye… sir.” Milo softly said.
Good, Alex thought. Then he left the remaining trio of crew and ran down the aisle, feeling the intense, blistering heat radiate between each row of pylons as he passed them. His body started perspiring inside his suit and Alex found himself rubbing his suit sleeve against his forehead almost twice a minute to stop the sweat from beading into his eyes. There, the main terminal linked with the subsystem of the pylons and the flow of heat transfer. Alex quickly glanced at his wrist-pad to check the timer. Nearly two minutes left.
If Clemens has the ship already fired up and ready to go, then it would take thirty seconds to launch and it can be out of here with less than a minute left on the clock and they can get far away from the Phoenix and its debris when it detonates. Behind Alex, two sets of boots thumping against the metal grates beneath them. He turned around to see his friend one last time and Milo gazed over his shoulder as he jogged past him, then stopped and turned to face Alex. Even beneath his thick black fur Alex could see the sadness in his friend’s eyes; sorrow and regret were painted plainly that Alex couldn’t ignore.
Silas and Christopher both gripped the railings and slid down the stairs that led to the launch bay underneath, the former having called out to Milo asking him if he was still coming before he shouted back that he was. Strangely enough, Alex felt a knot in his stomach not from sacrificing himself as his duty demanded but from abandoning his lifelong friend.
“I’m sorry.” Milo said.
His comment made it harder to look his friend in the eye any longer, he didn’t want his friend’s last memory of him to be crying as everyone he knew left him to die. Then he turned around and faced the computer terminal as he started to tap on the screen to pull up the right screen. With another wipe of his sweating forehead, Alex looked towards the sealed fusion pylons. Their dull grey casing with yellow hazard stripes faded and scratched, covered the pylons to protect them. They started to glow with a warm orange that slowly glowed brighter the longer Alex didn’t attempt to vent the heat. He started thinking of alternatives to vent the heat. Perhaps if he extracted the air out of the ship except the engine room then perhaps, he could redirect it to absorb the heat from the primary heat exchangers and then vent it out into space. A short-term solution if there ever was one, but it's not as though he planned on making it the permanent or long-term option. Just long enough for Alex to bring the pylon’s temperature down enough to avoid a critical meltdown.
Firstly, he switched the command screen to that of the environmental control display. Then Alex let out a sharp pained howl that echoed throughout the cavernous engine room as multiple penetration points along his shoulder shot up through his neck and sent overwhelming signals of pain through his brainstem. His eyes squeezed shut, letting a tear fall from his left eye as the world around him suddenly shifted upwards with a great force pulling him up and over. Alex felt a grip grabbing him by the waist, firm and strong as it hoisted him up and prepared to throw him. Alex’s heart pounded fiercely in his chest, rattling his rib cage like an animal threatening to break out of its cage, yearning to be free. Adrenaline kicked in, but it was too late as Alex suddenly felt his lungs deflate beyond what he thought was humanly possible and he struggled to draw his breath. Almost as if his lungs had deflated and created a vacuum within that sealed itself from drawing in any more air. He couldn’t breathe, his mind panicked at the loss and it made him dizzy, then the pain from the impact finally registered and Alex realised he had been thrown to the floor hard, the pain in his shoulder had dominated his nerves and now something else was taking the time to flood his senses. His right shoulder looked mauled, the suit’s integrity ruined and chewed through while dark red painted around the shredded fabric. Alex struggled to bring his left arm over to inspect it and he saw even with the thick insulated gloves on, his hands shook intensely.
Slowly he drew air back into his lungs, a small breath but it was enough to provide relief as he felt the pain in the back of his head slowly announce its existence. Then Alex went limp, he turned his head to the side as his vision blurred, he saw the computer terminal he was just standing at only a moment ago and a tall figure wearing orange stepped into view and stood with their back facing him.
He heard them say something but all he could hear was muffled ringing noises. The orange figure pointed at something behind Alex. Only for something to grab him and drag him away from the figure. The poor human thought the aliens had come into the engine room and taken him away, he didn’t want to be feasted on by these damn praying mantises. And slowly his vision tunnelled completely and he was surrounded in darkness.
I must go down with the ship. Groggily Alex thought. I must save my crew.
Then the darkness consumed his voice. Leaving him alone and with no senses.
Then muffled voices could be heard, an alarm buzzed in the background no louder than the voices were speaking to each other. Alex felt a rumble on the floor beneath. The floor he was on, Alex realised he was lying down on the floor. It felt soft and the fabric comforted him with warmth from his own body. As if it had absorbed it from contact and then reflected it back at him. But the engine room doesn’t have any carpeting, or any creature comforts at all. The Phoenix has limited carpeting only limited to recreational facilities, his private quarters and… Oh no.
The yacht!
Alex, through sheer will, forced himself to open his eyes and restore his senses. And slowly, like a computer booting itself up, he felt his senses return to him one by one. First it was his hearing, the muffled voices became clearer and there was a clear discordance among them. Then his sight slowly cleared up and Alex saw the roof of his yacht. Cream white with LED trims tapering along the architraves. He looked around to see he was lying down on the couch in the yacht. He looked around to see the depression surrounding the couch and coffee table and the carpeted steps that led up to the yacht’s cockpit.
Just as Alex stood up on shaky legs, he heard a voice from the cockpit yell “Launch!” And immediately Alex was thrown backwards onto the couch he gotten off from. In his weakened state the G forces were unrelenting in their brutality, first throwing him against the couch, which to his gratitude was plush enough to absorb his impact without injuring him further. Above him, in the ceiling above, the skylight flashed rapidly with red lights flashing past, creating a flickering red glow inside the lounge room and then the darkness surrounding the red lights flashed past and the bright blue glow of the nebula around them seeped in its cool colours. The G Forces soon eased up and Alex stood on his legs which felt like they were made out of jelly, carrying him towards the nearest window. The glass occupied the entirety of the wall from top to bottom with a glass lip that only occupied one foot of the floor and one foot of the ceiling to increase the field of visibility from within the yacht.
As though it wasn’t apparent to him yet, Alex's stomach dropped suddenly when he saw the exterior hull of the Phoenix, covered in flames and exposed inner hull plates pockmarking what little remained of her once prestigious, battle-ready hull.
The yacht rolled slightly on its axis; a deep rumble muffled through the walls before a sudden thrust nearly threatened to topple Alex one last time. He pressed himself against the glass, staring at the battered starship until his breath began to fog up the glass when he heard his wrist pad beeping rapidly. And Alex brought it up to see the timer on the screen displaying all zeroes and he let out a soft gasp as he quickly looked back at the slowly shrinking ship… Then it was consumed by a series of bright flashes that nearly blinded Alex.
“MILO!” Sadness crept into his voice, his insides twisted and knotted themselves tighter and tighter until it became painful for him. Physical pain racked his abdomen but he was numb to the pain after being fixated on seeing his ship, his home… his friend, disappear from the world forever.
Alex’s knees gave up and he fell to the floor with his mouth agape staring at the still bright flash of explosion from the Phoenix’s destruction. He couldn’t believe it, his friend sacrificed himself long enough for them to escape. He took Alex’s place and the nebula didn’t combust. Milo saved the ship
A deep whirring sound slowly rose to a loud rumble, Alex recognised it and he prepared for it as he watched in an instant, the nebula around him warped itself into thin tendrils reaching for the yacht's stern before disappearing from sight forever.