When you are short on everything but the enemy, you are in combat - Arch Demon Murphy's Laws & Commandments
Any military leader, industrialist, or politician who tells you that the war will be short and victorious should be taken out into the nearest alley and shot in the back of the head. - Terran saying, Age of Paranoia
More than once the entire universe focused down to my trigger finger and my sight picture. Everything else vanished. No fear. No worry. No past. No present. No future. Only that crystallized moment in time. There was only my weapon and the Enemy and the Enemy only existed to be destroyed. - Musing Upon My Time, Vuxten, Age of Agony, 53 Post Terran Extinction Event
Commodore N'Skrek stared at the holotank silent. His foot was in a regen cast and it made his whole leg itch and tickle. Next him stood Captain Rawgnawrk stood next to him, staring at the holotank.
Inside hung a wireframe of the the light battlecruiser Knock It All Out. It was largely dark, only critical systems outlined in amber. The only green was the environmental systems, the door controls, and the waste reclamation system.
"Chief Engineer Mo'obri'yan says the computers and primary systems will be up and interlinked within the next four hours," the Captain said softly. She touched the hologram. "Once that happens, we should be able to at least see."
"The video let us pinpoint several navigation stars," N'Skrek said.
The Captain nodded. "Sending the Marines out to the hull to give us a high definition panaromic was a good idea. Same with using that educational slate," she said.
The Telkan had taken video and the video had been ran through a dataslate with an astrogation training manual's testing software loaded in.
"We're not too bad. Between the bulwark systems and the fringe systems," the XO, a Gulmisvan with the unlikely name of Chat Manstud, stated. He nodded slowly. "We're only eighteen light years out from here," he touched one of the stars.
It floated in the tank.
Single high energy G3V star. Six planets, two supermassive gas giants, four gas giants (two with moons), asteroid belt. Two inhabited planets. Population 134 million.
"As soon as we get results from the bootup, whether the rest of the systems work or not, we'll run for that system," the Captain said.
She turned away, moving toward her seat.
In the holotank DYN-772343 burned brightly.
-----
"You can do this," Lieutenant (Senior Grade) Valandee said, moving through the secondary battle bridge. All the systems were down, all of the panels dark.
Even the lights were out.
A greenie rushed in, static between the antenna on its little green head.
Valandee closed his eyes, recited the mnemonic he had memorized back during his midshipman days, and opened his eyes.
The mnemonic hadn't covered no power.
"here here here" the greenie grated out. It gave a cough. "here"
Valandee moved over as the greenie opened the panel. When he saw what was inside, he surpressed a groan.
"OPERATE HANDLE TO PRE-CHARGE EMERGENCY BACKUP SYSTEM" was stenciled above a handle with a grip lever.
He wrapped his armored hand around it, squeezed to compress the lever, and started pumping.
Red.
His datalink clinked.
He was startled how static filled it was.
"We're depending on you, Valandee," Commodore Freelima said softly. She coughed.
It was a wet, tearing sound.
Amber
"You can do this, Lieutenant," she said. "Remember to cut the linkages, just like training." She coughed again and cut the link.
Valandee pumped harder.
"almost almost almost" the greenie said.
Green!
The lever clacked and Valandee could feel the flywheel spinning through the handle.
The greenie thrust its bladearm into the socket then pointed at the casing. "Button"
"Oh, sorry," Valandee said. He pressed the big amber button.
The consoles flickered to life. They started running self-checks, rapidly booting up.
Valandee moved over to the wall, grabbing the little brass hammer and doing something he never actually imagined doing.
He broke the glass over the pull down handle.
He grabbed the handle and pulled it down. There was a faint thud behind the walls.
He rushed over to the second box, grabbing the little brass handle and breaking the glass. This one had a key on a neckchain inside it. He grabbed the key and rushed over to the main console.
He was breathing hard, almost unable to catch his breath, all four of his shoulder's ached, his gripping hands hurt, and the back of his neck hurt.
His hands were shaking as he pulled the cotter pin holding down the plastic shield. He flipped the shield up and stared for a long moment.
He had been trained on this exactly once.
In VR.
During cadet training.
Every ingrained instinct told him not to insert the key.
Not to turn it.
Not to press the button.
His catching hands were shaking as he reached up to his neck, where the key rested against the black laminate of his armored vac-suit.
Training urged him to NOT do what he was about to do.
Something clicked into place.
Something he'd never known existed.
It didn't come from outside of him. It came from inside. Somewhere deep, somewhere he wasn't even aware existed.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
He yanked the key off the chain, the smaller chain shattering, which broke the superconductor loop that kept the plastic energized around the key. The plastic guard puffed into dust.
He inserted the key.
"Lieutenant - Senior Grade Valandee, activating secondary emergency battle bridge," he said to the only occupant of the room, one green mantid engineer. His voice was firm, steady.
His friends, comrades, even his leaders, would not have recognized his voice.
He turned the key and the lights went from a steady pale soft white to a harsh red.
He reached out and put his fingers on the button.
"Lieutenant - Senior Grade Valandee," he paused for a split second. "Taking command."
He pressed the button.
The system went live.
"yes yes yes" the greenie chirped. It rushed over to another console. "power up"
He moved over to the command console, sitting in the chair. The back was armored, the seat was armored, and it was built for emergency armored vac-suits. He powered it up and looked.
Multiple hull breaches. The ship was still connected to the space station. The engines were coming online, the pre-charging systems laboring to bring the massive engines online. The hyperdrive was charging.
Primary power plant was at 90% with power stable.
He routed everything through his single panel.
He was trained in it all. The things he and his classmates had scoffed at ever using were all right there, in his brain, as he authorized the armories to unlock, as he powered up the suits.
He activated the intercom.
He could hear an atonal warbling, a screech, in the static that suddenly filled the channel.
"All hands all hands," he said. He paused. "This is the Captain speaking."
He paused again.
"Fight the ship."
-----
The thing screeched as it ran at him. It wasn't just sound, sound didn't carry in vacuum. It came across the radio channels, flooded into his datalink, and slashed at his very brain.
"Hit the phasic shielding, cover our teeth in glitter!" he heard Gunny Zolpad call out.
He could suddenly taste tengleberries and kiwi-lime Liquid Hate on his teeth and down the back of his throat.
He parried the swiping wide arm with the eyeball set into the point of it with the force shield projected from the heavily armored left arm and chopped with the chainsword he held in his right. Blood and tissue spewed out, splattering his gray armor. The spikes crackled and growled, electricity wreathing them, as the energy coursing through them fried the blood and tissue that touched them.
The creature shrieked as he sawed off the right hand arms. It fell to the floor and he pointed his fist at it, bathing it in hellfire.
More rushed down the hallway and Hetrik lurched forward, the barrels already spun up on the heavy M681C9E 7.62mm minigun AKA The Vindicator. The Telkan heavy weapons gunner clamped down on the grip trigger and the barrels started flashing as it cut loose with 3,500 rounds per minute. Tracers, one out of every four, formed a solid bar of bright green as the Telkan Marine hosed the entire corridor with soft ball rounds.
The rounds punched through the white cilia covered forward side of the creatures, sparked off of and shattered the heavy calcite teeth, and flattened against the thick pebbly hide slash armor on the back side of the creature.
The rounds dented, more like dinged, the walls of the space station but didn't penetrate.
"QRF Bravo Element," came over the headset.
"Sir," Corporal Presjak said.
"Hull breach, sending you the sector. As soon as the civvies are evac'd, you blow the explosive bolts," came the Captain's voice. It was calm, even toned, like the officer wasn't engaged in combat with the Mar-gite.
Hetrik stepped back to let the gun cool, the cooling fins working overtime in vacuum, and Jaskel stepped forward again, hefting the gauzy looking force shield being emitted from his left arm and setting himself. On his right Private Teleri'ik hefted his own shield and revved the Mark 2 cutting bar.
--suit temp lowering-- 8814 said.
"Getting the hang of the systems yet?" Jaskel asked.
--slowly complicated more complicated than thought for thousands years old-- 8814 said.
"Rather have this suit, built to fight these fucks, than my old one since they rip right through warsteel if its too thin," Jaskel said. He grunted as he blocked an onrushing Mar-gite that used the sphincters on its back to jet forward as it shot thin clouds of acid behind it.
The chainsword vibrated in his grip as it ripped through thick rubbery flesh, hard calcite internal structures, and the weird rubbery back armor that could shrug even medium caliber magac rounds.
But it wasn't any match for the teeth of the cutting bar.
It dropped and he hosed it with the built in ejector on his right forearm, bathing it in fire even in vacuum. He didn't know what it was, but it burnt fiercely, consuming the Mar-gite and even carbonizing some of the endosteel floor plating before it went out.
Whatever it was, Jaskel liked it.
He threw one against the wall, raked down its back, the Mark 2 cutting bar shredding the thick rubbery 'armor' as he ripped through the back. There was a slight jerk, that he'd quickly gotten used to, as he hit the calcite brain shell, then blackish goo shot out.
It fell to the floor and he bathed it too.
Around the corner. Slam one against the wall with the shield, rip down the legs of two coming at him. Fire. Fire. Rip down the other one, hose it down with fire too.
Up ahead he could see Mar-gite adhered to the walls and floors, pulsing obscenely.
You poor bastards, Jaskel thought.
Hetrik stepped up, knowing that Hetrik couldn't penetrate the rear armor of the Mar-gite. He cut one down the back and it fell cilia up.
The 'inside' of the Mar-gite was pink at the edges, red around a half-dissolved skeleton that looked like it was melting into the cilia. He could see organs, veins, and nerve fibers.
The Mar-gite dissolved the nerve fibers last, the victim able to feel every second of it being eaten.
Digital Omnimessiah take you, he thought to the victim.
He hosed it with fire and stepped up to the next one, this one on the floor.
The passage thickened with the ones on the walls and floor, and it became mechanical.
Chop, hose, step step, chop hose, step step.
"Here!" Gunny called out. He stopped next to the door and banged on it. He grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it open.
Inside were a score of civvies, all in vac-suits.
The ones who weren't in vac-suits were already dead or eaten.
"Telkan Marines," the Gunny called out as soon as his suit found the channel they were using. He overrode their questions and exclamations and motioned. "Come with us if you want to live. We're evacing the station and blowing it."
The civvies hurried after the Gunny and Jaskel followed, bringing up the rear.
8814 cut his vision in half, the upper half a view of behind him, the lower half a wide panoramic view as they hustled down the corridors. A few times the civilians stumbled or tried to stop, but the Gunny urged them on with a shove or a yank.
"Alpha Element, report," came the Captain's voice.
"Coming back to the Hasselhoff's Delight now, sir," the Gunny said.
"Roger. Move with a purpose," the Captain said.
The bulkhead bulged in front of Jaskel and 8814 snapped his vision back to forward. Jaskel found feel the capacitors whine up as he activated the force shield, kicking off and running toward the bulge that the civilians were just starting to pass. His teeth tasted like they coated in electric glitter that tasted of blackberries as he revved the cutting bar.
He knocked down two of the civvies but stopped right in front of the bulge.
It dissolved and Mar-gite started trying to squeeze through. It didn't matter they were two to three meters tall and from a half to a full meter thick, he'd seen the squeeze through a gap less than a quarter meter wide and a fifth of a meter high.
He bathed them in fire, kicking outward.
The grav system in his boot flashed a bright purple as all the kinetic energy that the suit collected with each pounding step was released through the grav system in his boots. The burning Mar-gite blew away from the bulkhead.
For a second he could see space beyond.
The four ships he could see were putting out such a volume of fire they were nothing but a ball of straight lines of bright fire. He could see the Mar-gite boarding clusters, numbering in the thousand, being shed from a construct bigger than all the ships combined. Something hit the construct with a bright green flash that erupted from inside the construct.
More Mar-gite 'hands' with the eyes on the end, slapped at the edge of the hole dissolved in the bulkhead. Jaskel hosed them with fire even as he stabbed with the cutting bar.
"Jaskel, clear!" the Gunny called.
Jaskel turned and went to lunge forward.
One of the 'hands' slapped his shoulder.
The spikes erupted in crackling energy, a grav spike twisting up from the point of the spike even as it was wreathed in high voltage measured in the kiloamps.
The flesh of the Mar-gite exploded into steam and rags.
He was moving, hustling after the group.
--well we know that works wow-- 8814 said.
"Power drop?" Jaskel asked.
--negligible system has its own micro-zero point system-- 8814 said.
Jaskel just grunted.
The airlock and the connecting tube was coming up. Jaskel glanced up, checking his rear, to see that blast doors were lowering.
The Gunny was at the door, slapping each Telkan Marine on the back.
"And five!" the Gunny called. He followed Jaskel. "Clear!"
The airlock slammed shut behind them. There was vibration in the connecting tube that wasn't the heavy armored feet of the Telkan Marines as the civilians and the Telkan moved to the attached ship, the Confederate Space Force Naval Vessel Hasslehoff's Delight.
"Clear!" the Captain called out.
The airlock slammed shut.
Jaskel turned and looked at hullward.
They were in a massive dropship bay. The permeable forcefield was glittering as the ship began to move away from the space station.
There were flashes and streaks around the ship as the point defense, missile defense, and other systems shifted from protecting the space station to protecting the ship.
The big bay doors started to shut.
"What about the planet?" someone asked.
The Gunny turned and looked at the group of Telkan.
"Five whole constructs made landfall," he said, his voice grim. "A Megaconstruct is already dropping more clusters onto the continents by the tens of thousands. It's over for anyone down there."
The Gunny looked at the door.
"Fleet's going to planet crack it."