Chapter 12
Enter the Pantharax
*** Saturn Outer borders - Destroyer SMFD IV ***
“Captain, we have visual” reported one of the Ghamanians from observer crew with its upper mouth.
“I can see it” I affirmed, staring at the strange black bioship that eluded our most advanced scanners.
Our small fleet luckily managed to find it first before the larger Noran fleets arrive, the three billion credit bounty will be ours, it was finally time to retire and live the good life.
The ship floated slowly in Saturn’s direction, constantly scanning the surroundings with its two-dozen yellow eyes, and thankfully, it didn’t see us yet.
Honestly, in my forty years of service, I have never laid eyes on a ship like this, I’ve fought many battles with bioships present, but this particular black balloon-like ship, with its two black wings and gazing eyes scattered across the surface, an opened toothless jaws at its front, this ship was certainly in its infant stage.
Maybe we should capture it alive and sell it to a science center or some giga corporation in the spaceship industry. I greedily thought, but immediately remembered the strict orders of general Ayfold, total elimination.
Shaking my greed away, I confidently started ordering the assault on the patrol boat-sized bioship.
“Break the invisibility field. All corvettes start flanking maneuvers”
“Cruisers, form a firing formation, charge your cannons, and wait for my signal”
I spat a command after another by the book, making sure everything goes smoothly, three billion credits were on the line, no mistakes were allowed.
Everything went smoothly, the corvettes surrounded the now-panicking ship, cutting away all escape routes. It started frantically wiggling its way out of the flanking formation, but it was much slower than my corvettes, poor thing.
“FIRE!” the frontal cannons of the cruisers shot out its concentrated plasma bullets at the ship, which in turn started dodging the bullets nimbly with small speed bursts, but in the end, it was no match for the great number of bullets directed at it.
The black bioship proved to be sturdier than I thought, its hull defied the first wave of bullets, it took us some time to break it, revealing the flesh layer.
Blood covered the ship, its movement was getting slower under our hail of bullets. I let out a sigh of relief that nothing unexpected happened. The ship’s front maw opened as if it was screaming, the remaining few eyes on its body closing one by one, and finally, it floated dead, we finally killed it.
“Charge the main cannon, we need to make sure that it's completely gone, along with whoever boarding it” I could already feel myself swimming in credits as the melody of the main energy cannon humming on top of my destroyer.
“FIRE!” I enthusiastically ordered the main cannon squad to finish the job.
*WOOSHHHH!*
Before the cannon shoot its powerful energy beam, a white semi-transparent ring of energy bursted out from the dead bioship, incapacitating all the surrounding ships, it was an EMP pulse.
But how? Wasn’t it just dea- What was that?
A faint sound like a woman screaming something entered my ears, right before the lights on the bridge go out.
“REPORT!” I shouted at everyone present.
“Captain, the engines are dead, we were hit by an unknown electromagnetic energ- Oh gods” the operator fell back from his chair, staring at his monitor in terror.
The fifty-something screens nearby started to flash in random order, a pair of eyes started forming itself as it appeared on every holoscreen present, even PDAs showed the same pair of wrathful eyes.
D-Did we just get hacked? By whom? Nothing could get passes the Noran firewalls installed
Two angry red feminine eyes stared us down with a look of hatred. it did absolutely nothing to the system, but it gave the crew a fright no one will ever forget.
“What in the hell is that?” I barked at the nearest tech.
“W-We don’t know captain, there is no energy even for the screen to function, I have no idea how they managed to hack the system, whoever doing this, they certainly have extensive knowledge of Noran technology”
“Run the emergency power systems, get the ship online again, NOW!”
As I moved my gaze away from the nervous tech, to a sight that shook my core for the first time in more than sixty years, the bioship was moving again.
I didn’t waste any time and started yelling more orders over the ship manual broadcasting system, my personal PDA was lost to the eyes.
“ALL SEVENTY-FIVE FIGHTERS ARE TO LEAVE HANGER AND ENGAGE THE BIOSHIP ASAP, FINISH IT COMPLETELY THIS TIME”
My heart started racing, I don’t know if it was the furious gaze of red eyes on our screens or the fear of failing to get the bounty credits, but I knew for sure, this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.
Power came back, bringing light to my destroyer once more, and it looked like the rest of the fleet was the same. Fighters started pouring out from the hangers like insects, aiming to end whatever moved the bioship back.
The cruisers line of fire reformed and the cannons started charging one final wave of bullets. Corvettes also switched from flanking to combat modes to engage the bioship at a closer range.
“RECHARGE THE MAIN CANNON”
by the gods, what is that?
The ship’s frontal eyes opened slowly, revealing a dark, menacing pair of red eyes with glowing white slits. Unlike its animalistic panicking state minutes ago, it was calm, shining with intimidating primal intelligence.
My instincts screamed at me to signal retreat, but my pride stood in the way. I was the captain of the SMFD IV and leader of this fleet for more than forty years, I didn’t lose a single skirmish in my entire career, and I wasn’t going to lose to a damn bioship half the size of my ship’s cannon.
The eyes were now wide open, scanning everything around the creature. Something shiny with a diamond shape was forming on the ship’s forehead, flickering several times with every passing second as if it was pumping life back into the ship.
“Capt-”
“SHUT UP!”
I watched in astonishment as the bioship's structure started changing, I could see the bones forming and moving under its skin and between the gaping wounds on its back and sides.
The ship was evolving, an impossible feat for a bioship to do mid-space, I got myself together and ordered every unit in my fleet to engage.
Fighters were the first to strike, swarming over the morphing ship with superior speed and professional joint tactics, the laser guns started shooting the weak spots on the bioship’s back.
“Sir, you need to see this!” shouted a Ghamanian with all her mouths, transferring her screen’s data to the main one.
The skin between the ship's wings began to tear, dozens of wiry mechanical cannons emerging from every pore on the wing tips.
“ALL FIGHTERS, RETREAT!” I frantically attempted calling my units back, but it was too late, a storm of bullets started coming out of the ship’s wings, and in mere seconds, all the seventy-five fighters were no more.
Automounted cannons? On a bioship? I have to end this fast.
Men and women, I saw, spoke, ate, and saluted every day, gone in an instant. I gritted my teeth and ordered the cruisers to fire.
Eight long beams intersected, forming a large bullet of pure plasma energy that even my destroyer couldn’t withstand.
The bullet covered the morphing ship entirely, eating it away to its very core.
At least that’s what I thought.
As the light covering the ship faded, my jaw dropped. The plasma was entering the creature, absorbed into its body like it was nourishing it.
With a final pulse from the gem-like object on its head, the creature started to grow larger, taking an entirely different form.
A tall, large neck shot out from the front, ending with a head of a monster of nightmares opening its mouth like it was roaring, it wasn’t toothless anymore, but what I saw in its mouth wasn’t teeth, it was more like a countless amount of energy lances, glowing and dancing on its jaws like flames.
On the top of its head, two bright curved horns emerged, made from the same energy of the lances in its mouth, but much more solid, giving it a more threatening look than it already is.
Another smaller pair of wings sprang forth behind the enlarged old pair, the cannons on the tips enclosed like missiles in its silos, covered by sharp claws.
At the ship’s end, a spiky tail even longer than the ship itself wiggled around like it was anticipating something. It ended with bony, pointy tips from the same material as the horns.
The skin of the creature wasn’t smooth anymore. Thick black scales bulged out of its body, covering the dead yellow eyes it once had all over its body along the wounds that is now closing.
The creature turned its head in my destroyer direction, and … Grinned? It was like death itself staring into our souls, it wasn't a grin of happiness, it was angry, very angry.
My heart fell into my feet just from the stare, this wasn’t a bioship, it wasn’t even ship, I didn’t know what we were fighting anymore.
“ALL UNITS, ENGAGE. CRUISERS, FIRE AT WILL” I shouted my final order to the fleet, not knowing what to do anymore with the being in front of my eyes.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The corvette division went out first, flanking the creature double their size now, their laser cannons hitting the motionless creature left and right, but it all was in vain. As soon as a bullet touched the creature, it instantly disappeared into its body, like the creature actually welcomed it in.
With a swipe of its tail, two corvettes instantly turned into scrap metal, their shields were penetrated like it didn’t exist in the first place.
The monster started moving to the fleeing third corvette, it was way too fast compared to anything I have seen maneuvering in space, and in a moment, the ship was crushed in half between its massive jaws.
“CRUISERS, STOP THE ATTACK, ALL UNITS, RETREAT. I REPEAT, RETREAT!”
And, I was late again, the creature turned its head at the retreating cruisers and opened its mouth wide. A shiver went down my spine, I knew something bad was going to happen.
“CAPTAIN TO ENGINEERING, GET THE FTL ENGINE ONLINE NOW! WE’RE WARPING THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” I screamed in the PDA, but what I got is a stuttering young engineer informing me that the FTL drive was fried in the previous pulse.
I took a deep breath, clearing my head to think clearly, but the creature didn’t allow it, and once more, started breaking every ounce of logic I had.
Its neck swelled a bit, and the next thing I saw washed out the small amount of sanity I had left.
White fire spewed out of its mouth, Fire, fucking fire, in fucking space. The flame scudded over to the line of cruisers, engulfing them one by one.
The scene was surreal, it wasn’t real anymore, everything I learned at school, college, flight academy, my forty years leading this fleet, every bit of experience I had in space was all but shattered. I never even imagined, even in my wildest dreams, that someday, I would witness a space creature spraying cruisers with fire like some insects.
As the flame touched a ship, it started disintegrating in an instant, not even scrap remained, the white flame ate everything.
When the creature was done with the cruisers, it turned to the main dish, the SMFD IV, the destroyer that survived countless battles for over a hundred years, my home, my ship.
I looked around the bridge, not a single whisper could be heard, everyone just stood there, watching the last cruiser burn into nothingness with dead eyes. Everyone knew it was over.
The creatures started moving in our direction, smoke venting out of its mouth, its red eyes staring into our souls, shaking our very cores. I knew why it didn’t spew fire at us, or immediately charged us with its insane speed, it wanted to take its time, tearing us slowly bit by bit, giving us what we did to it, a thousand-fold.
Some of the crew fainted, some got on their knees crying, some hugging each other goodbye, it was really over, but not for me.
I steeled myself and made my last order as the captain of this ship, my last bet to save us from this monster.
“Everyone, grab a gun and head to the boarding station” I calmly ordered, and after a few seconds, everyone grabbed the thread of hope I made and darted to the armory, not even looking anymore at our incoming black doom.
In the boarding station, stood more than a thousand soul, armed with anything they could find, engineers with multi-wrenches and repair bots, chefs with laser knives, even the navigators were holding pipes and metal sticks.
The physically superior races shared their weapons with the weaker ones, everyone had renewed hope in my words, following me like hatchlings seeking their mother. I wasn’t sure if my plan would even work, logic wasn’t a factor anymore today, I had to follow my gut, and my gut told me that this creature was not a bioship.
“Captain, what coordinates should I insert in the console?”
“Point it at the creature outside, anywhere is fine”
“Sir?” questioned the operator again with a raised brow, murmurs erupted throughout the crowd, most of it pointing at me being a madman.
I scratched my head, thinking about what to say to calm them down, but there was none, my plan was fifty fifty, either the beast is a bioship without boarding interceptors, and in that case, we would be pieces of meat floating in space after teleportation, or it’s a normal ship disguised as a beast, which shouldn’t be too hard to subdue from inside with our sheer numbers.
Well, it was a ninety-nine to one plan to be honest.
I raised my hand signaling everyone to stop speaking, not caring if they shut up or not, and I threw my two credits at them
“Stay here and die, or try boarding with me and have a chance to see your families again”
The crowd erupted again in chatter, but they immediately stopped as the ship shook, the monster was already doing its work.
“DO IT” I ordered, and with a small countdown, light blue light engulfed the massive boarding station.
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The light dissipated, and with it gone came back my vision, we were teleported to a large empty white room, no one else other than people with the SMFD IV uniform were present.
“Oh! Thank the gods” I dropped on my knees, cheers came out from everywhere, the crew hugging and kissing each other in joy.
“Everyone, stand ready, we don’t know what’s out there” I brought back the crew to its senses, “Split into five groups, you, you and you, you’re in charge of the groups, you’re allowed to create your own chain of command to help with the organization of the crew”
After less than an hour of preparation and splitting up teams, we started exploring the place.
Is this really the inside of the monster? I wondered in amazement as we explored the vast empty white halls of the ship, the place was even bigger than the monster itself.
All groups reached a long wide hall, after finding out that all other ways had dead ends, I thought that we were being led here intentionally for a trap or an ambush, but with our numbers, at least we have a chance to fight back rather than stay and die in our ship.
In organized files, we marched cautiously, scanning the walls for any mounted weapons or holocams, but there was none.
Before I could let out a sigh of relief, the hall's entrance behind us closed down with another white door, forcing us to move only forward. Tension rose between the crew, everybody started looking in all directions in anticipation for an incoming attack.
The ground started shaking, it was faint, but it gradually became stronger and stronger, the stress flared up among us, until it finally appeared, the reason the ground was shaking harder by the second.
A charging golden armed Grokati coming out from the end of the hall, his eyes flaring with a golden color and tattoos moving rapidly on his body, a mad grin covered his face, like he was ready to take us all by himself.
“Everyone carrying a melee weapon, stand forward and engage the Grokati, he only has two arms, so it’s not even an overlord yet. Don’t be fooled by the shaking ground, it’s probably an effect made by the ship to intimidate us” I assured the men that the incoming giant possessed no danger, the shielding team went on first to block him, followed by everyone equipped with a melee energy weapon, all under the cover of our ranged squads.
I went back to the middle of the files to observe the battle and give orders, well, that’s what I told them, but in fact I was afraid from the incoming giant, I’ve seen Grokati fight before, savage creatures with monstrous strength, they love to fight as much as they love their mothers.
Even if he only had two arms, I had to make sure I was in the safest possible position. I also stayed as far as I can from the dead end behind us, God knows what could come out of it and backstab us. I was a coward, but I didn’t care, I wanted to live.
The Grokati collided with the frontlines
Everyone around me watched in complete silence as the people flew at an unrealistic height like ragdolls from the collision, it was like they were hit by a transportation train. Some limbs and pieces traveled so far back it nearly reached us. Followed by a rain of blood.
Did the Grokati blow himself out in the front? I was thinking he suicided to take as many with him as we can, I was wrong again.
A shining golden ball of death rolled over the head of our small army, and in seconds, half of the melee units was gone.
“SNIPER UNIT, ATTACK, DON’T LET HIM ADVANCE ANY FURTHER” on my command, the sniper teams moved out, charged their rifles, and aimed at the Grokati killing dozens with every passing second.
As the unit was about to fire, I saw yet another reason-defying scene before my eyes, more than fifty men were headshotted at the same time, drawing a line of corpses right under our eyes.
They were playing with us from the beginning, it’s no use, we’re all doomed
“EVERYONE CHARGE! GET TO THE OTHER END OF THE HALL, NOW!” I lost my reason, I lost my mind, all I was thinking about is how could I use the remaining few hundreds as a meat shield to get out of this ship.
Like a herd of wild animals, everyone rushed forward, staying as far as they can from the rampaging Grokati, wishing that the next incoming wave of red bullets won’t find their heads appealing. However, whoever controlling this ship, decided that playtime... Was over.
The white walls opened like gates of hell, unleashing what some of the crew instantly died from heart attacks from just seeing it.
Thousands of maws, twice the size of a human, sprung forward, snatching people left and right into the wall before eating them alive in front of their comrades, its countless teeth were as large as my arm, with a tongue made from a mixture of electronic tubes and living tissues, instantly frying anyone who comes in contact with it with quick zap.
I took the most trusty of my men and ran back to the closed door behind us, we needed a maw-less wall behind us for our last stand.
In less than a minute, only crunching sounds of bones can be heard, everyone was either being eaten by the maws on the walls, lying down with large holes in their heads, or torn to pieces by the Grokati, and in the end, only Me remained with ten of my most loyal men with our backs to the closed door.
Everyone around me started throwing up, their stomachs couldn’t handle the gruesome sight as we watched as the mouths scraped the floor clean, only the smell of blood, urine, and feces remained. The mountain of corpses that was there a few minutes ago, was being gulped down into wherever the maws sent them to.
I spotted three figures approaching from the end of the hall, A tall, bald creature with a large head and long arms, wearing a set of human prehistoric cloths, followed by the Grokati from before, his eyes and arms weren't shining gold like before, the tattoos disappeared, but the grin didn’t. The third was a woman in a colorful beach robe walking beside the Grokati, holding a menacing oversized black rifle with purple stripes.
As they approached, my men made a defensive circle around me, but it didn’t matter anymore, all we could do now is to get on our knees and beg the tall creature for our lives, he seemed like the one in charge of this place.
When the trio was a few meters away, they stopped. The tall creature stared us with its weird eyes before pointing one of its many fingers at me to come up to him.
When I tried to move, my men stood in my way, not allowing me to take a single step in the creature’s direction.
Before I even try to talk them out, something sticky wrapped itself around my neck and flung me towards the creature, it was his tongue that snatched me out, pulling me out of the group and lifting me up before the creature's strange face.
“Oguguga Quagbaha Buguou-” the creature spoke in a weird language, but it immediately stopped and threw me down, I landed on my behind with a thud.
“Oh! Sorry about that, I nearly cut my own tongue, very stupid of me indeed” Said the creature with a chuckle, his voice sounded too human.
Is he imitating our language?
“W-Who. W-What are you?” the words came out of my mouth without any thought.
“Adam, Human. Welcome to my ship, no no, you’re not welcomed, you’ll die” The crazy creature started arguing, stating that he was human, but what was before me was definitely not human, except for a few features like its nose, torso, and voice.
“PLEASE, SPARE US!” the sound of one of my men behind pleaded in desperation, grabbing the creature’s attention away from me.
“Mmm, Okay! Cordi, spare them!”
As soon as words left his mouth, the red pair of eyes from before, drew iself on the door behind the men, and the door shot open, but instead of the white long hall, it was an open mouth with jagged teeth and a bottomless dark hole in the end.
The mouth started sucking the men in with a strong wind like a vacuum, they flew inside with echoing screams, I found myself being pulled into the mouth too, but the creature casually stepped on my leg, preventing me joining my men and breaking my shin in the process.
I let out a muffled scream of pain, my right leg was smashed, but the creature kept pressing nonchalantly until the mouth closed and the door turned back to its original form.
it removed its foot, revealing some mushed meat that used to be my leg. I held my thigh and cried in pain.
“Why? why are you doing this?” I cried to it, asking how it could massacre hundreds of people just like that.
“Why? are you dumb or something? You almost killed my cute little dragon” spat the creature in annoyance, but as the last word left his mouth, a long tongue shot forth from one of the nearby maws on the wall and stuck to his face.
The tongue kept licking the creatures face like it was playing with it, smearing it entirely with blood.
“Ahahaha, stop, hahaha, it tickles, ahahahh come on, yes, you’re my little cute, overpowered dragon spaceship” the creature started laughing and playing with the tongue for a few seconds before it went back to its maw.
The bloody face of the man turned back to me, and with a serious look he crouched down and asked me a question I couldn’t answer, it was the hardest question I have ever been asked in my life.
“Hey cap, were the lives of one thousand, one hundred and eighty-four men, women and children, worth a three billion credits?”
I just stared down at the white bloody floor, I couldn’t answer this simple “yes” or “no” question. My head completely stopped working after flashing me an image of myself taking a photo with most of these men and women. At this exact moment, I finally gave up, I wanted to die. I hated myself, and there was no way out of this one.
“Thought so, goodbye cap” The creatures last words to me was fast and brief, it sat up and started walking away, followed by his two companions.
All of the nearby maws raced at my limp body, and the last thing I saw before my vision fade away are pieces of my body being torn by some nearby maws, looks like my head was prized to the fastest maw. The casual words of the tall creature entered my ears as he was speaking to himself.
“Now, what should we name it? What? Pantharax? I love it. Yes, it’s a friggin’ cool name”