Immediately after opening the door, Kliest ran through his dreadnought’s exquisitely designed and well-built hallways. He was greeted by the deafening sirens of the ship’s emergency communications, the intoxicating smell of smoke, and the trembling hallways that forced Kliest to proceed with caution.
“Micron, restricted breathing, as much as possible, conserve stamina and oxygen.”
[Roger.]
Upon hearing Kliest’s orders, the nanomachines immediately took action. To limit one’s breathing, the person must be conscious of how he exactly breathes, most humans would instinctively breathe in air as long as they need it.
The Nanomachines would first enter the human lungs and reinforce it. Whilst that was happening, other nanomachines would then form automated walls of their own bodies on the bronchi, only opening and closing when needed— sometimes the nanomachines would partially control the owner’s breathing— fully restricting the oxygen intake of a human. If the owner was to stop this order, the nanomachines would carefully collapse their structure and slowly exit the lungs so as to not cause temporary injuries.
This was only used in situations when oxygen was lacking or when the person needed to conserve as much oxygen as possible. But this was rarely used by many soldiers, as it sometimes causes strains and difficulty breathing a few minutes after disabling it, though it was only temporary and not permanent.
Mircon, patch me in with Lisa, Kliest ordered his nanomachine in his mind, conserving his oxygen from not talking using his mouth.
[Roger.] Immediately, the voice of Micron suddenly changed to a now young female-like voice, [Commodore, it’s still a few meters away, but considering the amount of time you’ve used, it’s possible to reach it.]
That’s good to hear, Lisa, are you sure there aren’t any survivors of my portion of the fleet and the overall fleet?
[Yes, commodore, I’ve been informed by an allied ship’s AI ‘Alice’, that commodore Uler has been pronounced dead and recently, I was also able to determine that about 28 of the fleet’s warships had been destroyed in the middle of hyperspace navigation.]
She added, [At the moment, the remaining warships are no longer in hyperspace navigation, yet some were unable to exit their navigation in time, causing their ships to flew of our designated rally point.]
Hyperspace navigation was a complex method of navigating the vast expanse of space. It’s theory wasn’t delved into much, but the way it worked was that it needed an engine/reactor called a ‘Hyperdrive reactor’. Upon preparing the ‘Hyperdrive reactor’ into the necessary condition, many naval personnel stated that their ship’s started going into Faster-than-light speeds.
But that wasn’t all, by the many accounts that many naval personnel stated, it wasn’t any normal Faster-than-light propulsion capabilities. Adding to it Hyperdrive’s theory, it is said that it would open up a rift in the current real space dimension and enter another space identified as the Hyperspace Dimension— It wasn’t exactly calculated but it was said that time and measurement was severely distorted within the Hyperspace dimension. Thus, it was the perfect way of speedy navigation within the vast expanse of space under short amounts of time.
As Kliest ran through his ship’s hallways, the emergency light’s bright red radiance blinked excessively across the entire hallways thus lighting it with its seemingly blood red color.
I may go blind with this, Kliest thought as he ran the desolate hallways of his once-populous ship, he dared not look onto the source of the emergency lights due to how blinding they were, if only my ship weren’t a 3.7-kilometer-long warship.
KABOOOM—!
Suddenly another explosion occurred somewhere near Kliest's current location, the sudden explosion and its subsequent shockwave flew Kliest of his foot and then onto the ground, where his nanomachines automatically stopped it’s ‘limited breathing’ condition.
“Kuah!” Kliest gasped, “Haah— Fuck— That was too sudden you goddamn idiot! My lungs hurt!”
The nanomachines basic function— If their owner was to order them to temporarily enhance or edit their body. The several billions of units of nanomachine would enter the selected tissue and organs, an example was the lungs or the muscles.
But due to the sudden collapse of Kleist onto his back, the nanomachines automatically and forcefully left his lungs as a form of ‘orders completed’. Nanomachines worked in unison with each other to ensure their owner’s safety, and even if they were billions to trillions of units— depending on the situation, it wouldn’t be enough to actually encompass the entire human body, organs and tissue and repair them in just a few minutes.
“Ahh— Damn…” Kliest laid down on the hallway’s smooth floor, slightly injured, not due to the impact of his fall, but due to the forceful escape of the nanomachines. The abrupt exit of the nanomachines within his lungs made Kliest's breathing become suddenly unstable and his lungs discomfortingly aching, “You Fuckers, next time if you’re going to leave my organs— leave after I give you permission.”
[Roger, Forgive us for our mistake, Commodore Kliest.] Kleist's personal Nanomachine replied, [We’ve felt a sudden disruption on your body’s stability, thus as part of our primary responsibilities, our mission is to ensure your safety.]
“Yeah, you did save me, but I have a feeling I’m going to die of another, very different reason.”
After closing his eyes to try and recompose himself, he noticed that he was slowly slipping away from his initial position. Sensing this, Kliest raised his head and looked at his feet, only to see that the doorway at the end of his feet was slowly moving to the left.
“Oh… fuck…”
Seeing the worsening condition of his ship, Kleist forcibly lifted his body from the ground, pushing his body towards the wall so as to support himself. After standing up, he immediately took small steps whilst inhaling deep breaths— His lungs still agonizingly throbbing.
“Lisa! You Flat-Chested AI! Get your Board over here!”
There was no response from the ship’s speaker— To where Lisa mostly hijacked to talked with the ship’s crew.
“You’re an AI, stop disobeying me and tell me what’s wrong! Did the stabilizers took damage?”
“… The stabilizers are currently malfunctioning due to the consecutive explosions, it seems the stabilizer’s took strain causing the ship to rotate, but don’t worry, Commodore, I’ve already sent engineer droids and drones to repair it.”
“—Thank you.”
After being informed of the current condition of the ship, Kliest immediately started walking towards the doorway on the other side of the hallway, moving with caution and nimbleness.
“Micron, I want you to fix my lungs, reinforce it, support it, just make sure to revert it back to its previous state.”
[Roger.]
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Upon finishing his order, Kliest immediately felt his lungs tormenting sensation slowly dissipating. Soon, Kliest could finally return to his previous breathing intervals. After finally inhaling a breath of oxygen without being on edge or tormented, Kliest started to run through the hallways.
After a few minutes of jogging in an acceptable condition and speed, Kliest questioned, “Lisa, I need information, how many ships remaining and where can I evacuate?”
“I’m sorry, Commodore, but I’m currently occupied, can you please wait a moment?”
Upon reaching the lower hangar bay’s closed doorway, Kliest ordered Lisa, “Fine, I understand, Lisa, but Open the Lower hanger bay immediately, I’m right at the doorway!”
After his order, Kliest held his breath and pulled away his gas mask, preparing to enter. Lisa then silently complied and opened the doorway for Kleist to enter.
Once the doorway opened, He was then was greeted by the hangar bay's spacious interior and tall height—which Kliest could presume as 3-story tall. Whilst attentively observing and admiring the hangar bay’s dimension and architecture. Without long, his admiration soon disappeared, as he couldn’t believe his eyes on the current condition of the hangar bay— was worse than what he expected— The hangar bay was completely trashed.
While some of his ships, such as a portion of his fighter ships, transport ships and light warships were still being stored in their respective storages. The rest were not, due to the several consecutive explosions that occurred earlier. Some were now currently stacking atop each other, some were on the ground erected on their sides and with most of the ships, even the ones that remained in their storages— now received even the slightest and minimal of damages.
For the single entranceway and exit for the hangar's contents— was a large atmospheric container projector that separated the vast darkness of space and the well-habitable hangar bay. It was transparent like a mirror, the personnel from within the hangar bay could clearly see what was on the other side.
[Commodore Kleist, we’ve repaired your lungs to an able to state, if you wish to run the limit is estimated 10 minutes, other than running, you will no longer be able to feel any problems with your lungs and or breathing.]
“That’s good, you may now leave my lungs, I’ll let my body naturally heal it.”
[Roger.]
Kliest soon felt within his body, several tiny objects leaving his lungs, though it wasn’t anything near a comfortable sensation. Though the nanomachines repaired Kliest’s lungs to an extent, he wanted his body to naturally heal its own problems— so as to not be too dependent on the nanomachine’s capabilities.
But the real reason for this decision was mostly due to the nanomachine’s maintenance. Of course, a machine that heals your body via science and technology was remarkable— but it wasn’t free. The thought of this would immediately be, how do the nanomachine maintain their numbers?
Obviously, it wasn’t easy, for the nanomachine to maintain their capabilities to operate and to maintain their immense numbers. The military handed out Nanopills which were compulsory and mandatory for every single military personnel with a nanomachine in their body.
These Nanopills were the size of normal medical tablets, but they were made entirely of rare metals—These were important and vital ingredients, as the metals were meant to ‘reproduce’/ or maintain the nanomachine’s large numbers. After digesting, the remaining nanomachine’s within the owner’s body would transmit messages to the newly created nanomachines about their owner, current condition, and objectives.
“Lisa, Information, I’m en route to the Escape pod bay.”
Kliest requested Lisa’s appearance as he walked towards an area of the hangar bay completely covered by 2 light transport/attack ships that were stacked over on one another. Upon reaching the light ships that were stacked upon each other, he soon squeezed through a small gap between the hangar bay’s wall and the ships that blocked it— revealing an entranceway and a descending stairway.
“Commodore, have you reached the escape pod bay?”
“Of course,” Kliest replied with confidence, “What did you think of me? I’m a commodore and I don’t even know my ship’s anatomy?”
“… Will you please stop, Commodore.”
Kliest continued to walk down the stairway to where he entered a large room. The room was lighted by the ever-so blinding lights of the emergency lighting systems that kept violently blinking within the room’s boundaries.
“Lisa, the emergency lights in the escape pod bay, Shut it—”
BOOM—!
Another abrupt explosion occurred, this time it was more violent than the ones that happened before. Because of this, Kliest was forced to drop on one of his knees and his anxiety slowly started to peak. While he was an experienced and veteran soldier and a one that saw combat with their mortal enemies—the Myrophix.
He was anxious of his current situation, as he wanted not to die a lousy death, such as dying in his damaged warship due to being unable to move— But he wanted a death that was equivalent of a legend, one that would leave a legacy within the history books.
“Lisa! What was that!”
“W-we’ve… Commodore, we’ve lost rear engines 1,3,4 and 6. The engineering droids were unable to fix the problem in time forcing a complete withdrawal.”
“What about the rest?”
Normal ships that were classified as Royal-Class and below were composed of 3-4 rear engines as its main propulsion systems. While ships that were classified as Imperial-class and above, where given 7-8 engines as its main propulsion system due to their weight and sheer size.
“— Severely damaged, we’re trying to control the extent of the damage by shutting down the rear engine’s power and repairing it, but there is a 70% chance of it following its fellow siblings.”
“Damn it!” Kliest cursed, before regaining his composure and running towards one of the several escape pod’s, whose door was automatically open due to the emergency, “Lisa Information about any possible landing sites and my supplies! Immediately!”
“Understood, Commodore!” Lisa vehemently replied on the communication lines of the ship due to her now-hectic condition, “Due to the situation of the ship, which is now possessing a 51% chance of complete destruction, your supplies would only be the escape pod’s already prepared rations and weaponry, I’ve also prepared one of your uniforms as a form of clothing.”
“And do I even have a place to land?”
“Affirmative, Commodore!” Lisa then informed Kliest as he boarded his escape pod and seated himself inside, “We’ve spotted a system comprised of 6 planets, all of which possesses several moons.”
“Are they habitable?” Kliest immediately replied as he buckled his pod's seat belt, before checking his escape pod’s already prepared provisions and equipment— Identifying that it was good for 5-6 people.
“Yes, Commodore!” After Lisa said that, Kliest’s holographic communication device started to frantically vibrate under his uniform. This forced Kleist to take his HCD (holographic communication device) from his uniform and open it.
Immediately he was greeted not by Lisa’s holographic body, but by a holographic screen, comprised of several factors, elements and information that Lisa gathered in a short amount of time— truly befitting her title and capabilities.
“According to our optical spectrum analysis, it has resulted in identifying that 93% of the atmosphere being breathable to humans, the rest are potentially harmful gasses, unknown viruses and parasites.”
“Aight, that’s good to hear, Lisa, I like to gamble.”
“—Please be careful, Commodore.”
“Don’t worry, Lisa, I can handle more than this.”
Kliest then returned his HCD inside his uniform and prepared his next course of action— to finally escape his flagship.
[Identification procedure… Please state Name, Federation’s Military ID, and currently assigned Military Branch…]
A male-like voice suddenly talked within the pod’s interior— automatically shutting the door of the pod as it started.
“Arthur Kliest, Federation Military ID: 081143057110, Branch: Grand Navy of the Federation”
” Identifying… Ping!" after releasing a ring from it's speaker, it continued, "—Good evening, Commodore Arthur Kliest of the 319th Fleet… preparing detachment.”
After the escape pod’s AI started preparing for detachment, the escape pod suddenly trembled, not because of an explosion inside his flagship, but because of its procedures. Kliest then tightly gripped his seatbelts strapped across his body and observed the escape pod’s interior, of which could carry a 5-man team due to its size.
If only I still had some of my crew alive…
As Kliest anxiously waited in his seat, the pod’s trembling abruptly stopped, causing slight confusion on Kliest’s end. Before it unexpectedly ejected itself from the flagship’s escape bay, albeit in a way Kliest didn’t expect nor prepare for.
Goddamn it!
Kleist cursed before looking out the escape pod’s small window. There he could clearly see the current damages on his flagship and his remaining fleet’s damages— they were horrendous.
Since his flagship was remarkably huge, given it was a galaxy-class dreadnought that had multiple roles and tremendous firepower in its system, he could visible see everything that was happening in and out of his ship.
With only his eyesight, he could see his flagship’s rear sections completely destroyed and was set ablaze. It was dark but Kliest could clearly see smoke and fire raging on his flagship’s rear sections.
Kliest’s pod continued to descend, whilst descending, he undoubtedly saw the several devastated warships from what remained of the 319th fleet. All of them were no longer in their prime conditions, some ships lost some of their sections, some were burning like his flagship, whilst some ships were clearly disabled and were nothing more than stationary targets.
But as Kliest continued to descend, while watching everything unfold through the pod's porthole. He couldn’t notice a single escape pod descending nor ejecting from their respective ships, not a single escape pod descended with him.
It was like—
—I’m the only that survived...