The Event Horizon stared down the accelerating Indomidable in sheer amusement. Ramming speed? The ship laughed, burbling in the connection as she felt her captain give the order she had practically made herself so very long ago.
"Vohle engine charging. Half submersion protocol Engaged."
Her Vohle drive extended from her ring section, as she felt the glinches confusion, along with the Wargens shock. The Trike had long ago threw her sanity to the SolarWinds, and was helping with the calculations, the triad of their minds working together as energy crackled off her hull as her Impulse motors blazed, accelerating them to attack speeds.
"Chronoton field adjusted and active. Gravitron field stabilizing."
Around the Horizon, reality warped, bending as she pulled at it, laughing as she metaphorically barred her teeth, as her namesake formed around her, spinning as her Impulse motors shut off, no longer usable in this state, even though she remained in realspace. The white lights of the Vanrir collectors spinning faster and faster, becoming a solid white line on her shroud ring, throwing more energy off, fueling the gravity bending bubble around her, throwing off gravitational wavefronts.
"Engaging Vohle Drive, all hands brace for turbulence"
Her Vohle ring glowed as the shutters tightened, a tight ring of white energy blazing behind her as she accelerated faster, the Coronal energy of her name sake whipping about as she charged forward, much to the sheer panic of the Indomidable's crew.
The Indomidables crew opened fire in blind panic, hoping that what they were seeing was just a illusion, plasma and lasers blazing….. and then bending around the space/time distortion, flung back at them, faster then it was launched at the Horizon, some barely missing, others smashing against their hull and leaving holes in their armor.
The helmsman yanked at the controls, trying vainly to pull them out of the path, only for the Horizon to alter her flight path with minimal effort, screaming at them, 'glancing' the remaining arm on purpose….
And ripped it off in its gravitational well, the faint sound of screaming, tearing metal heard as faintly, the expanding cloud of gas from the atmosphere and weapons system of the arm carrying the soundwaves to the Indomedables remaining systems. The pull of the littler vessels black hole spun the remains of the larger ship around it, slinging it off in a random direction, overpowering the inertia dampening computers and artificial gravity units, forcing G forces on the pirate vessels remaining crew.
As the Indomidable spun and tumbled, engines still blazing, adding to the chaos and to the mess the helmsman was trying to fix, even as the sensor crew screeched out in horror as they picked up the Horizon charging at them again.
/----------------/
"We can't regain control, engines aren't responding and we are spinning too fast!"
"Engineering reports gravitational systems are overloading, if we can't get out of this spin, we won't be standing much longer!"
"Remaining arms ripped off and atomized! She's coming around again!"
That last panicked yell sent ice up the Galkans spine as her beak went slack in horror.
The karking insane Deathworlders were racing towards them at speeds that made their own engine crews green with envy…and white with horror when they realized that the smaller vessel was shrouded in a BLACK HOLE. "Communications, reestablish connection with that vessel, or ANY human military vessel nearby and get them to call off their Thall damned ship!" She screeched as she felt the ship shudder again, hit with a gravitational wave front as the Horizon approached them.
The Indomidables remaining main section spun and tumbled through space at insane speeds, near light speed, but the Horizon kept up, slowly approaching them as if this was a afternoon stroll in a forest or a meadow, not like it was some parody of the Black Fleet made real, toying with them as it closed in for its meal.
"Captain! We managed to hail a human patrol, putting them through to your Vox!" The comms officer said, as a aging human appeared on screen, next to a older Droid who seemed to have been just talking with the human.
"This is Admiral Serano- Captain Harcia. " The aging human growled, his face morphing to a scowl as his teeth barred. The galkan shuddered. She dearly hoped the human would have a soft heart and call off their Insane vessel. "You have ten seconds to gloat before we drop in and tear you and whatever Fleet you scrounge together apart." He snarled, even as the bot straightened up, it's optics trained on hers as she bit back a sneer. "Much as I'd love to gloat about the councils ineffective rules and restrictions on what you can and cannot do in interplanetary aether, it would be best for you to call off your ship, before we make a call to the council to report a warship in interplanetary space."
She said, smirking as a plan formed in her mind…yes, that would do nicely to knock the plucked humans down a few pegs- "which one?" The Admiral snarled, as the galkan clacked her beak. "The Event Horizon." She said as she felt a bit of triumph…… which was dampened by sheer anger at the damadge to her vessel and fear as she kept an eye on the scanner, showing how close the Horizon was getting.
She frowned as she was met with silence, and opened her beak to speak before she was met with laughter. "Really now? And what were you doing to anger that old girl?" The human said, scowl gone, replaced with pure amusement, while the bot next to him seemed to have gone near apoplectic with fury. "If ye marred a single deck plate on me lassie, I'm gonna-" the machine started before the Galkan was thrown from her Captains nest as the ship was slung around again, overloading the gravity generators once more. Metal screamed and reverberated through the hull, alarms screaming out as the wake of the Black hole ripped the remaining section in two once more.
"Engineerings gone! Sheered off! Reserve powers online!" A voice came out as the lights flickered to red, as everything went to reserve power and emergency lighting.
She was silent before pulling herself up, grunting as she fought against the g forces shoving her against the floor of the spinning vessel and stared at her Vox screen at the now greatly amused duo. She snarled. "Call off your damn vessel or I will report it to the council that you have a warship in inter-" "She's not a warship. She's a science vessel, and furthermore…..she was CONTRACTED to protect the merchant fleet YOU attacked." Serrano said flatly, as the bot next to him seemed amused. "And for another thing…I think you'll find that the Council has no jurisdiction over the Alliance Fleet during times of war. And as of now, the galaxy is in a time of war." Serano said, as he smirked.
"Captain! Gravitational wave front-" the sensor operator said, before everyone went flying, slamming against bulkheads, consoles and the deck…….a glance up told them why.
Before them floated the Enterprise, her main cannons bearing down on the remains of the Indomidable, trapped inside of a tractor beam, the Horizon no longer shrouded in her namesake, floating just above the Enterprises bridge. "Captain Harcia, times up. Surrender or we WILL come in there by force. I'm certain you wouldn't mind seeing how a few marines fare against your troops after being shaken and stirred, courtesy of the Event Horizon." Serano said, even as the galkan snarled, before glancing up at the smaller vessel. "Never!" She snarled, and slammed the button on the Vox to cut the call, mind whirling as she floated above her console. "All hands, prepare to boa-"
She was cut off when several bright flashes was seen, from the back of the bridge as well as from the Horizons dish. The flashes dimmed, revealing to be two detachment of marines, armed to the teeth, the towering form of the Horizons captain, a Trike, crouched with her shield set for barricade, and a aging Wargen, racking an old flechette slugger in his paws, safely behind the barricade the Trike had up.
Snarling, the galkan captain screeched and drew her laspistol. "Kill them all!" She howled as she opened fire, even as the rest of her crew drew their weapons, vaulting out of their control pits.
/----------------/
Daresh grinned as he fired the 'M1912 Shotgun' his captain had handed him, watching the buckshot slammed into several of the charging pirates, punching through their atmo suits, before crouching behind the shield the Trike had brought. He racked the handle, clambering a fresh shell as he heard the quick pops through his helmet as Zedara popped up and snapped off with her pistol, dropping a few pirates as he popped back up, twisting his head to the side as his shot went wide, barely avoiding the laspistol shot, as his shot tore through the arm of a Ka'ri.
He and Zedara had been given mag clamp boots and gloves before the mission had started, before they used the transmat dish, joining the marines who had been sent aboard, using the Horizon as a staging area while they caught the remains of the Indomedable.
Nearby, he heard the chattering of bullets as the Human marines opened up, their sluggers spitting rapidly flying pieces of steel and lead through their coilguns, taking cover behind expanding metal barricades they set down, or advancing as they moved up to the busted consoles, shoving the bodies aside to make room for them.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
His captain on the other hand flung himself through the air, claws open as he grabbed one of the pirates, quickly snapping their neck and then used them as a projectile, spinning around in the air and chucked the body at one of the others to buy the marines some breathing space, twisting about as he drew his massive slugger. Grinning, Daresh popped up and fired three shells in quick succession, tearing through consoles and sending debris flying, distracting from his-
BOOM
He flinched, even with the protection of the helmet, the sound was so damn loud in a confined space, as his Captains hand cannon barked, punching a hole through one of the larger, silicone based sentients that opened the bridge door, sending the massive creature flying back, curses flitting up from the door.
Cursing, the old wargen began loading fresh shells into his Shotgun, barring his teeth…. But wouldn't change anything. His blood sang as the edges of his snarl twisted into a grin, even as he aimed the barrel down the hall as another sentient popped its head out, and found its skull turned to paste inside its helmet. Racking it again, he heard the carnage behind him as the pirates fired their energy based weapons, able to fire without bracing themselves midair….but their weapons only splashed off the heavy armor the marines wore, blasting off the paint and the composites layer by microscopic layer.
BOOM-BOOM
And then there was his captain, mag clamped to the ceiling still, firing his artillery piece as a few of the pirates tried cutting through the bulkheads, punching holes through the walls, getting grunts and horrified shouts before he lept off the ceiling, and the next shot he carefully fired from his center mass, propelling him backwards as the bullet slammed into a tarantian warrior caste between the eyes, while he himself spun around midair.
Several of the marines got the door and set up a two sided barricade, holding both sides, while Asimov sailed through thr air and slammed into the Galkan captain, the Avian screeching as she swung her claws at him, leaving light gouges on his hull.
With a smirk, the wargen vaulted over the shield wall, charging forward as he let off several Shotgun blasts before launching himself into the air, reloading as he moved, while Zedara gave him cover fire, letting the aging wolf slam down on a group, yank them up in line with the laser fire. His claws gouged the squishing pirates bodies as he flung them from him at their compatriots, his Shotgun on his back on a mag locked rail, allowing him to hunt more efficiently, watching as his crewmate still firing from her cover.
/-----------------------/
Zedara grimaced as she covered the old warwolf, the Browning high-power barking in her hands and jerking, making her thankful that her Captain had given them the mag lock boots before they boarded. It was nothing like her plasma pistol, jerking in her claws with each shot. She wasn't a fighter, she was comms!
She forgot humans tended to train all of their roles for combat. Forgot that smaller crews often all saw front line combat…. Still, she wasnt complaining. "Supply point is clear, Blink. Captains a bit busy, however." She said as she loaded a new magazine, the next issue she had with the ammo capacity. Only 15 round magazines. The one upside was compared to her plasma pistol, it didn't have much issue punching through atmo suits.
"Copy, sending in field medics and a plasma splitter." Blinks voice filtered through, as a bright light filled up her shield zone, revealing human combat medics, one tossing her an plasma splitter. Nodding, she flicks the safety off and flicked it up, taking solace in the aim assist in her implant helping her aim and fire….though it was…. Less satisfying then seeing her target go spinning back after managing to land a hit with her slugger.
There was a screech, and she watched as her captain and a Galkan go toe to toe with one another, the galkan throwing her Laspistol in her holster, slashing wildly with her claws at Asimov. The cyborg swinging his bending arms and knocked her claws out of the way before swinging for her head, only for the galkan to launch off the floor, backwards, leap off the wall and twist through the flying ammunition, her claws opening up. Using the fact she just leapt off the duraglass bulkhead to her advantage, she smirked, knowing he couldn't use his hand cannon on her or risk flinging everyone into space…..
And promptly got smashed across the face with it, the metal frame holding firm as she was sent spinning through the air, slamming into another bulkhead, sending blood droplets glinting through the air.
Zedara smirked, before jerking back.
A pirate leapt out from the other side of her shield, too close to use her plasma splitter, forcing her to draw the pistol and fired.
She nailed the pirate dead center, sending them flying back, away from her as she cursed, and shouldered her splitter, firing down range, mercilessly, grinding her beak. 'Less rubbernecking, more firing.' She remembered what the old Wargen said once, during a combat simulation.
She scowled and unloaded downrange, her splitter heating up as she fired each time a pirate popped up… and watched as it only made them duck down, letting the plasma splash off the console.
Drawing her pistol again, she unloaded it, watching with satisfaction as the shots punched through the console, forcing the pirates huddled behind them to jump up, apon which a shot from the marines punched through them.
With a rueful grin, she shouldered her splitter, making a note to aquire a slugger variant soon, like the wargen was using….maybe not in the same caliber though. Something more manageable.
Hunkering down, she rolled her shoulders, taking aim when and where she could, gritting her beak as the fighting before her petered out to just the Captains fighting.
Turning, she grimaces as she saw the marines holding back additional troops. Flicking the controls, she folded up her shield, and vaulted into the marines emplacement, slamming her shield generator down on the wall and activated it, projecting a shield barrier before the multimaterial protections, granting additional protection as more marines dropped in, Daresh joining her as he loaded up fresh shells that Blink sent in with the latest batch of marines. "9mm?" The wargen offered, holding up a fresh box, which Zedara great fully accepted, hunkering down as she reloaded her magazines, listening to the screaming plasma and metal slugs hiss through the air.
/---------------/
Harcia hissed as she propelled herself off the wall again, claws outstretched at the machine. Her face and beak her badly from the other captain using his firearm as a club, her claws stung from every impact she had made on his armor, the material not yielding easily with each of her strikes, wearing her claws out. Her laspistol was useless on the armor it used, either just blasting off the paint, or reflecting off the now exposed metal and nearly striking her.
"Captain Harcia, Stand down. This is your final warning." The machine rumbled, no longer bearing the odd multifaceted voice it had before which struck her as odd. "Never, machine. I will see you dragged before the Admiral of the Black Fleet for your mockery of them." The galkan snarled, muscles burning as she leapt off another wall. Despite being in zero gravity, her muscles stung from the unexpected exertion she endured.
A glance to the side showed her that the other forces didn't even see her as a threat, that the machine had her well and truly handled. Their mist-
Pain blossomed as she felt her arm grabbed as she spun in the air to take aim, yanked out of socket with a swift yank before she was flung across the bridge, smashing her face into a bulkhead and disorienting her as she pried herself off the wall.
One arm was now useless, and she was missing her laspistol, knocked free when her arm was yanked out of its socket. Clutching her more then likely broken beak, she twisted around, turning to look for the opposing captain and bit back a horrified sqwalk when she saw him right behind her, claw grabbing her face, pinning her hand painfully against it.
Pain blossomed as she felt another injury on her back aggravated where his claws had raked across her spine as he slammed her against the bulkhead, making spots flash in her vision.
Dimly, she registered her arm being yanked down, the other one popped back into socket in blinding pain, before she was cuffed, hog tied, really, and swiftly patted down for weapons…..
".....conclusion, you are disgusting." The machine said, with a tone that managed to get across his displeasure. "Lieutenant, " the mechanical monster said, domed head spinning to face a human who kicked off the deck and floated up to them. "Be advised, several metallic and non metallic objects detected internally. Precise location i will not disclose publicly due to location" Harcia stalked indignantly at the stab at her dignity, while the human floated there, looking at her, helmet hiding their expression.
Their body language said it all, however. "We'll deal with that when we get her on board." The human said, and calmly loaded up a syringe into a injector, and jabbed it into her neck.
Moments later, she knew no more.
/------------------------------------/
Grex snarled as he watched one of his caste brothers being drifted past, a hole clean through their body, through their face. The entire mission had gone into the recyclers the moment they took it. Humans, couldn't just accept their fate as worker castes, no. Tenacious little vermin would use anything they got their digits on to fight, to learn.
And now he was dealing with a human encased in a combat shell.
Already, he could see the barricade, the humans, a Wargen, and a Trike behind it, the wargen grinning madly as he racked his human slugger he had acquired. Next to him, the Trike was picking off the weaker crewmates with the handheld slugger, with startling accuracy.
With a bellow, Grex launched off a wall, smirking widely as his scythe opened up, smirking as he got ready to carv-
BOOM
Blinding pain seared through him as he felt a heavy slug, larger then what the Wargen carried, carved through him, sending him spinning back, and slammed against a wall. Using his legs, he reoriented himself and turned to face the humans again…. And snarled.
Standing on the arch above the humans was a gouged machine, holding a massive slugger in its claws, aimed at him, the massive cartridge from it pinging off the bulkhead nearby as the machine pulled the trigger again.
Grex barely had time to move before-
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM
Three rounds punched into his lower body, each time, he felt his neural nodes rupturing, clouding his mind with loss of brainpower and pain.
Snarling, he launched off the wall, aimed at the machine, letting the smaller caliber rounds strike him, piercing his chitin, but not going deep enough to harm him, remaining scythe open wide, as he lunged.
The machine launched itself forward, it's trio of optics locked onto his own compound eyes, hidden behind his mask, it's one claw open wide, and grabbed his scythe arm, spinning rapidly, making him squeal like a stuck pink beasts humans sometimes used for food.
Dimly, he could hear orders being barked out, but ignored them for twisting his body around to try and attack the machine, to twist and fling him off ad they tumbled through the gravityless area.
BANG
Pain blinded him again, as he felt something burning against his back, light flickering through the area as he twisted, trying to find-
His back was on fire, they had shot him with a incendiary of some kind.
Run. Run, run runrunrunrun run!
Escape the blaze, escape the bane of the Tarantians!
/----------/
Asimov watched, slightly bemused as the tarantian shot off into the depths of the ships remains, and his head spun to face Daresh, who was calmly ejecting a very specific round out of his Shotgun. "Tarantians don't like fire." The Wargen said, calmly loading a slug round in the chamber, with a wry smirk before reloading the tube of his shotgun.
The cyborg nodded, and loaded a fresh magazine into his resized 1911, holstering it to reload the magazine he had just ejected, head slowly spinning as he began to check for life signs. "Additional hostiles detected, huddled on the lower decks. Be prepared for them to be dug in. Daresh, Zedara, you two are on point. Bust down the door and buy the Marines time to build.the encampment." Asimov said as he floated to a nearby airlock.
"And what of you, sir?" One of the marines asked, as the cyborg spun his head towards them. "Nothing wrong with making sure they can't get out from the back, now is it? Blink? Mind sending me a MTS-225, resized for 2 bore Brass cased flechette rounds, please." "Mind adding in a smaller caliber flechette slugger? Plasmas not cutting it in here." Zedara added wryly while she had a moment
"Yes sir, yes ma'am! Just a sec!" Came the peppy sound of the little Glinch, before blinding light of the transmat glowed….
And a massive revolver Shotgun sat on a large resupply box of ammo. It didn't have a stock, and had a two foot barrel on it. The hammer was clear as day to see and flicking the massive cylinder open revealed only three chambers to hold the absolutely massive brass shells. Clambering three into it, he clicked the rest into a bandolier that had come with it, slinging it across his chestplate as everyone descended on the ammo boxes, grabbing fresh ammunition.
Zedara hefted a small bore, 410 Shotgun. Simple in design and actuation, built like a Liberator break action Shotgun, with four, one foot long, barrels. Simple and easy to use, she quickly loaded it and dumped a spare box of ammo into her dump pouch.
Daresh himself grabbed fresh buckshot and slug rounds, pocketing the ammo, making the marines grin as they reloaded. One noticed the very specific laspistol Asimov had and bit back a snicker. "Keeping Harcias pistol as a souvenir?" "Spoils of war. She attacked us, I am keeping her laspistol." Asimov said dryly as he hefted his MTS, and entered the airlock.
Floating through the vacuum of space, Asimov made his way to the makeshift airlock on the other side of the encampmed room. Outside, he peeked around a torn wall to see several guards and a few crewmembers trying to cobble together a escaperaft. It wasn't going well.
Tilting his head in amusement, Asimov drew the laspistol he had acquired, and aimed at the Tibanna tanks they were using for a makeshift welding tank… and fired. He didn't let up, firing a constant stream, aimed at the outlet, specifically the hose section, causing the plastic like material to heat up and bubble, popping…and then the explosive gas touched the crimson metal, igniting instainly, and zipping into the tank itself, causing it to detonate, rupturing the other one near it, and sending shrapnel flying around the area like a meatgrinder, shredding the organic pirates suits near instantly.
Waiting for the shrapnel to finish flying about, Asimov kicked off and floated to the door, carefully cycling the makeshift airlock, and aimed his MTS at the door……the moment the door opened,he pulled the trigger on the absolutely massive biomass horror sitting inside, alarms screaming in his head.
"Warning! Ship is infested, confirmed Demon bioweaponry sighted!"
/--------------/