A while ago my comm PIP had blanked out. Either the Miracle had been destroyed or their short-range communication system had been obliterated.
… I couldn't face the fact that all my friends would be dead.
And I wouldn't forgive the Forgotten if they were.
I took a step back, tilted my head higher, and stared at the sky once more. “End this now. Come and get me.”
I saw a flash in the sky. Then another.
My heart sank.
And I waited. I waited for those last few minutes before the Forgotten came upon me.
…
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
20 minutes.
We were now 20 minutes away.
My heart was nothing but a cold lump in my chest.
I'd been too slow. We'd been too slow.
The Star Forces reinforcements and the pirates wouldn’t arrive in time.
It was… it was over.
But I didn't give up. Couldn't. Even if it was suicide taking this tiny ship into the Omega Sector, I would still do it.
I'd throw it at the Death Giver, sacrifice my life, do whatever I could.
We were both silent.
There was nothing more to say.
All we could do was pray.
That we still had time.
Suddenly the tactical computer beeped. I threw myself forward, practically flattening my face against the console screen.
“Contacts detected.”
“What the hell? Are they Forgotten?” My words couldn’t come out fast enough.
“No. Comparisons to on-board scans confirm they are pirate vessels.”
“The pirates?” My voice shot up. “Wait, how many of them are there?”
“A fleet of at least 400 ships of varying classes and sizes.”
I froze. Then in one determined heartbeat, I moved. I flattened a hand on the console as a breath punched through my chest. “Where are they heading? Away from the Omega Sector or towards it?”
“Navigational predictions confirm they are heading towards the Omega Sector.”
A smile burst across my lips as a flicker of relief ignited in my heart.
“But the pirates only promised 200 ships. 400… that's everything they’ve got,” Argoza said, voice shaking.
“Yes it is.”
Before I could give a whoop of joy, the tactical computer beeped again.
Again I pressed myself forward, fearing the worst.
“More contacts detected.”
“Who are they?” I snapped.
“Star Forces ships.”
“What? How many? And where are they headed?”
“There is an armada of approximately 200 vessels.”
“200 vessels!”
“They constitute the remnants of Fleet 15, Fleet 19, the Intelligence Corps—”
“I don’t need to know every detail. But where are they headed? Where are they headed?”
“Towards the Omega Sector.”
I pushed back in my seat, locked my hands tight over the armrest, and stared.
600 ships.
“How long until they arrive in the Omega Sector?”
“The majority of both fleets will arrive within 20 minutes. They appear to be using modifications to their beyond light drives.”
“The modifications Axis sent through. Christ, it’s working.” I locked my hands tighter and tighter around those armrests until my fingers could have dropped off from loss of blood flow.
“Shepherd, this is incredible,” Argoza said softly.
Yes it was.
But would it be enough?
We had to wait to find out.
…
The Miracle
The tactical station exploded in a sea of sparks. Captain H’agovan threw herself forward, trying to reach the tactical officer in time.
It was too late.
He jerked backwards as a cascade of sparks shot up his body.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
The fire suppression systems on the bridge no longer worked, and the Captain lurched towards a suppression kit, grabbed it up, and threw it at the burning console. As soon as the tiny metal orb hit the fire, it exploded, and charged gas covered the flames.
Seconds later, it was extinguished.
“Hull integrity down to 10%. If we receive another blow to our primary port side support…” one of the lieutenants trailed off.
For a second, for just a second, the Captain let her eyes shift out of focus as she stared at her dead tactical officer.
The second did not last. She turned on her foot and faced the view screen. A rush of energy tightened the skin along her brow, raced down her back, and sank into the pit of her stomach. “I want maximum power to thrusters.”
“Captain?” The pilot twisted around in her seat, face white with fear.
H’agovan stood, blood trickling down her brow but never clouding her vision.
Nothing ever clouded her vision.
She knew what she had to do next.
“Prepare to ram the Death Giver,” she said.
No one questioned her.
In fact, she could hear each member of her crew take a breath. They weren't tensed. Just relieved.
They’d done their part.
It was time to face their end.
“Thrusters at maximum,” the pilot said.
Captain H’agovan settled her gaze on the Death Giver.
There was no chance they could destroy it. But they could damage it.
They could give everyone else a chance.
“It has been a true honor serving with you all.” She nodded her head low and stared at her crew in turn.
No one said a word.
The Miracle sliced towards the Death Giver.
And impacted with the side of its hull.
…
Alyssa Nightingale
There was a massive explosion in the sky.
My breath stuck in my throat.
The Forgotten’s song changed. It roared high like an angry crowd shrieking at an invader.
I had to bring a hand up and clap it over my ears. It didn’t help. It couldn’t help. There was nothing I could do to block out the high-pitched shriek in my mind.
….
No. I could. I took a deep breath and did exactly what Axis had showed me.
I blocked them out. And second by second their strident song grew quieter and quieter.
Eyes widening, I realized something had just happened to the Forgotten.
A blow. Not big enough to destroy them, but hard enough to send outrage spinning through their hive mind.
Could the fleet have arrived?
Could… could Shepherd be here?
I stared up, neck straining, eyes drawing wider and wider.
…
The Outer Supply Station
No one said a word.
The Chief stared at the view screen. She knew she had to whip her crew into action, take advantage of the brief window of opportunity the Miracle’s suicide attack had opened.
For a few seconds she did nothing.
She’d served under H’agovan for years.
So, locking one sweaty hand on her mouth and closing her eyes, she said a silent prayer for her friend.
She snapped her eyes open, pushing back the monumental tide of grief. “Report on the Ra’xon. Hull integrity?”
“40% and falling,” an ensign stuttered, the poor guy incapable of keeping the crippling shock from his voice.
They’d all just lost their Captain.
“We need to find a way to contact Nightingale down on the planet.” The Chief tipped her head back and breathed. “And we need to prepare to take out as many Forgotten heavy cruisers as we can.”
Silence met her words.
She didn’t want it to come down to this, but right now, there was no other way.
The Chief opened her mouth, intending to give the order to ram the Death Giver.
; She didn’t get the opportunity.
A warning alarm blared through the bridge.
Tactical sensors.
“What the—” she began.
She stopped.
Her eyes drew wide, rimmed by the sweat and blood slicking her brow.
One after another, ships blinked into existence.
Pirate ships.
It was like watching a fire spark through dry scrub. Blink after blink, another ship arrived, immediately letting loose with volleys against the amassing Forgotten fighters.
“It’s the pirates!” a lieutenant shouted.
The Chief’s mouth slowly opened.
More ships kept arriving, decelerating from beyond light speed in a halo of light, maneuvering between the broken bodies of jumpers and the remains of the Miracle.
A heavy cruiser that had been bearing down on the outer station was suddenly pinned on all sides as thirty pirate vessels snaked towards it like a whip.
“Christ, that’s not all!” the same lieutenant screamed. “More ships are coming in. They’re… they’re Star Forces.”
The Chief took an involuntary sharp breath.
Her cheeks slackened as her brow and hands and arms zinged with nerves.
She watched as Star Forces attack ships, reckon vessels, and heavy cruisers jumped into the battle.
Their tactics were different to the pirates, and they immediately took up a defensive line before the Ra’xon and the Outer Supply Station.
Astonishment spread through the bridge.
Astonishment and hope.
With another involuntary breath that sent energy tingling through her chest, the Chief snapped forward.
Ready to get back into the fight.
“We still need to find a way to contact Nightingale.”
“Aye, sir,” her crew said with renewed vigor.
They’d all been handed a second chance.
They would use it.
“The Star Forces Heavy Cruiser Magellan is contacting us,” an ensign snapped.
“What, how? How are they breaking through the Forgotten’s dampening field?” The Chief snapped towards the communication console.
“Chief Malax,” Captain Volstav of the Magellan didn’t pause, “you need a hand?”
“Volstav,” the Chief breathed with relief. She’d served with him at the Academy. “Am I glad to see you. How are you contacting us?”
“We’ve found a way to interrupt the Forgotten’s dampening field. We’re propagating it to the rest of the fleet. We’ll disable the dampening field in five.”
“Godammit, this is a miracle.”
“You’re not the only engineering genius in the fleet,” Volstav chuckled. “Then again, you always did try to do everything on your own.”
She understood his comment. “I’m here to win this battle and save the galaxy, Volstav. Nothing more. Maybe I was resistance before, now I’m just here to do what needs to be done.”
“Right you are.”
“Now, can you piggyback our communications through yours? I need to contact the surface. It’s time to move to stage two of the battle.”
…
Alyssa Nightingale
I’d seen the flashes in the sky. I’d heard the desperation pitch through the Forgotten’s song.
I knew what it meant.
More ships had arrived.
Finally the cavalry were here.
It gave me immeasurable relief. But the relief would not last.
The end was here.
“Come and get me,” I said through gritted teeth, head still tilted towards the sky. Though I could not see the Death Giver, I could feel it. It now loomed so large in my mind it felt as if I’d swallowed a planet.
At that exact moment, my comm PIP beeped. Not expecting it, I startled, jolting backward.
“Nightingale?” it was the Chief.
“I’m here. What’s happening up there?”
“Long story. The cavalry are here.” She paused, as if deciding whether to share something. “Are you ready for the next stage of the attack?”
I didn’t have to pause. “Yes.”
“We’ve picked off enough jumpers, and now the cavalry are here, we can let the Death Giver through to you, then close in from behind and pick off as many ships as we can.”
“Do it.”
“Good luck, Alyssa.”
“I won’t need it,” I said in a low but determined whisper.
I still faced the sky.
I was ready for this.
Chapter 7
Alyssa Nightingale
As the Death Giver loomed in the atmosphere above me, so too did their song.
It screeched in my mind, as loud as a battleship tearing apart.
I didn’t give in to the chaos it spread. I clenched my hands and gave into the power of my implant instead.
With a breath, I let my power build. And build. And build. Until it was all around me, that growing yellow-gold light a halo of burning energy.
I lifted off my feet.
My whole body burnt with energy. My arms, face, eyes – all of it was outlined with that ordered marching pattern of blazing illumination.
As I lifted higher and higher into the sky, I connected to the endgame weapon behind me. I activated it with a single thought.
It hummed into life behind me, sending a pulsing energy soaring into the sky.
Soon I could see the assembled forces below me. They’d been out of sight in my small valley. Now as I rose above them on the wings of my own power, I saw them spread out below.
I felt fear. Knew I did. Could sense it as it wound its way tighter and tighter around my heart. It felt as if it would squeeze the life from me.
Yet I pushed it back.
Too many had sacrificed their lives to reach this point.
The Forgotten’s song swelled like a great choir. I opened up to it, but did not open a door to my mind.
I closed my eyes.
I felt their greed to acquire me. It was like a fire burning at the center of their hive mind.
I used that greed as an avenue in. A root directly into the center of their thoughts. And plans.
I opened my eyes just as the Death Giver burst through the upper layers of the atmosphere.
It shot towards the planet, atmosphere burning all around it in a halo of fire.
My hair whipped over my head and around my face, caught in the eddies of my power.
I narrowed my eyes, tipped my head back, and brought my arms around, crossing them together.
The ship stopped a few kilometers up, the sonic blast produced from its rapid descent slamming over the surface of the planet.
With my arms crossed as if against a physical attack, I protected myself and my troops from the blast.
Then I stared.
At the giver of death.
The ship was megalithic. There were few words that could describe just how large and imposing it was. It was as if a militarized moon had fallen through the sky.
The song in my mind changed. For a single second it grew quiet.
Quiet didn’t last.
I felt them reach out towards me. As I gritted my teeth, I reached out towards them.
I saw flashes of them in my mind's eye. Dark grey bodies, distended faces – just like the body drones I’d fought.
Hundreds of them, thousands, millions.
All yearning for the day the galaxy would be theirs once more.
“It’ll never happen,” I said, lips paring back slowly over my teeth.
With one final push, I gained full access to the mind.
I connected.
And I knew, with full certainty, what they would do next.
I saw the battle unfolding in my mind’s eye.
I swept a hand to the left, connecting to my troops just as the Death Giver sent a massive transport beam lancing out onto the barren rock-covered ground.
It deposited an army of body drones. Thousands of them.
T
hey all blinked out of existence, reappearing near my troops.
I whirled on the spot, conducting my arms out, grabbing hold of my troops.
It was… impossible to describe the experience, impossible to comprehend what my mind was doing. I could see the resistance troops, and the Star Forces troops who’d joined them.
And with nothing more than a thought, I could grasp hold of them as if I were clutching up chess pieces.
I hated what I was doing, but I had no choice. It was the only way to defeat the body drones.
Sure enough, as the body drones leapt upon the troops, I predicted the drones’ movements, and fought back.
One electro blade at a time, one bullet at a time. Blow after blow after blow.
My eyes were wide, lids driven back into my skull as I watched the battle from above. My power had burnt off my clothes, and now all that surrounded me was my whipping beating hair.
The Death Giver sent wave after wave of drones down to the planet.
I pushed them back.
And time ticked on.
A minute passed, and another.
Only 18 to go.
…
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
Finally. Finally I arrived.
We arrived to chaos. Nothing but goddamn chaos. As our ship jumped right into the battle, I was met with a sight I couldn’t describe.
The bodies of ships lay everywhere, panels, plating, seats, and frames drifting around me in a sea of destruction.
Bodies too.
I only saw them when they came close enough to the front of our ship to be discernible.
The feeling that sank through my heart was indescribable. Pain and grief on a level no human could process.
Argoza was silent beside me, eyes locked unblinkingly on the wall of death before us.
We hadn’t jumped close enough to the primary battle to be caught up in the frenzy of fire.
I could see it though. Explosions flashing in the dark of space, their light reflecting over every tumbling scrap of debris.
I was silent as I programmed our path into the navigational console, charting a course right through the heart of the destruction and down to the planet below.
I would be by her side.
“Are transporters on line?” I asked the computer.
“This ship does not have transport capabilities.”
“Christ, of course it doesn’t.” Momentarily, I’d forgotten that.
“Requesting transport from nearby Star Forces ships,” the computer said, automatically reverting to procedure. It was, after all, a Star Forces ship.
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