by M. J Kreyzer
The city had been transformed into a full blown warzone. With the Ditrinity and Rush on board their Mysto battlecruiser, they had made it further than any of the Legionnaires could have anticipated, prompting them to unleash the full power of their virtually bottomless arsenal. People ran screaming through the streets as soldiers wheeled in massive mobile anti-air cannons while others formed up on the rooftops to fire upon the escaping cruiser. Helios had organized blockades around the entire city, having been called from every area they occupied in order to put the hammer down on the Ditrinity’s head. And they were still coming.
Ballistic cannon blasts echoed across the city as the anti-air cannons opened fire, sending glowing streaks of hot lead blazing across the darkened night sky. The smell of gunpowder draped over the city like wicked smoke in what was once fresh, clean night air. And the ground troops, having failed to apprehend or kill both the Ditrinity and Rush, were loading onto Battlecrafts and chasing after the escaping cruiser. But more importantly, every enemy of Luke Semprys knew that he was on that ship, and any chance they had to destroy him without having to fight him hand to hand was a chance that they’d never pass up.
Legionnaire Strikers sent volley after volley of missiles into the ship’s sides, sending reverberations throughout its entire structure while Machbikes pounded away at the docking bay’s blast doors to make way for enemy boarding parties. And, on the ship’s roof, soldiers with explosive and heavy duty arc welders cut through the hull to allow passage inside.
Merino was powerless. No matter how loud he yelled or how hard he ordered them, nobody listened to him. They panicked, yelled, and frenetically went about their tasks with only half a collected mind. The Ditrinity, not experienced with the operation of ships this size, tried to maintain order.
The ship had gone through every maneuver the ship was capable of and the Legionnaires, their ships larger, more powerful, but ultimately slower in consequence, somehow met them every step of the way. Merino, who was upset in the first place, had now lost his cool completely.
In the corner near the entrance to the bridge, Seraphine sat huddled in a corner, hugging her knees to her chest with her eyes large, petrified, and vacant. Sable, looking somehow paler, laid unconsciously at her feet. Hendrick knelt over Sable and had a hand on Seraphine’s shoulder.
“Seraphine, listen,” He said, his voice quavering as it became harder and harder to stay calm. “She’s dying. Her body usually heals itself but it isn’t this time which is why I’m asking you.”
Seraphine didn’t react in the slightest. She continued to rock herself, her lips pressed to her knees.
“She’s paralyzed. She took a Berserker’s axe to the back and she’s bleeding out. I need you to do what you can, like what you did for my leg that one night, just heal it up. It doesn’t even have to be all the way, just enough to stop the bleeding. Can you do that?”
Still no response. There was no indication that his words were even reaching her ears.
“Seraphine, please!” Hendrick said, his voice switching from calm to an angry plea. “You can heal her! I know it takes a lot of your strength but she needs you and she can’t do it for herself!” Hendrick leveled his eyes with Seraphine’s, straining himself as he forced himself to relax. “Seraphine, listen to me. You are the last chance she has at survival. If you don’t help her now then she will die. This isn’t some ‘might’ shit scenario I’m talking about, this is what will happen. If you do not help her then she will die.”
Not even a blink.
Hendrick lost it. Grabbing both her shoulders, Hendrick raised her off the ground and slammed her against the wall.
“SHE SAVED YOUR LIFE, GODDAMMIT, NOW SAVE HERS!”
“Nate!” Came a deep, commanding voice.
The bridge doors had opened. Striding powerfully through, showered in dark, drying blood, was Luke. Beneath his hefty shoulder pads and thick armor he looked intimidating, authoritative, and irrefutably dominant. His thick, toned arms bulged beneath layers of dirt, sweat, and blood as he stood tense and ready to do what had to be done.
“Bring her here.” Luke said to Hendrick. Hendrick let Seraphine down slowly and carefully picked up Sable, then taking her over to Luke.
“Whatever you do do it fast.”
Hendrick set her down and Luke knelt down at her side. “What happened?”
“A Berserker.” Hendrick replied. He looked fondly at Sable, proudly, his smile reflecting both those feelings and one of sorrow. “She took down an entire squad by herself after taking a Chainlance to the side. I almost made it in time but…” Hendrick stopped as a wave of guilt swept over him. “He had already put an axe in her back.
Luke lifted up her side and took a look at her back. Seeing what he did scared him.
“She’s not bleeding to death. Not from that wound.”
“THEN WHAT THE HELL IS SHE-“
“If she’s paralyzed then the axe damaged or severed her spinal cord. She’s not bleeding out, her body’s just shutting down.”
This time there were no words. Hendrick was speechless. Looking down at Sable, he replied quietly. “Then what can you do?”
“Close the wound.” Luke said without a trace of optimism. “But healing only speeds up the healing process, it doesn’t work miracles. Somebody like Seraphine could fix this with a couple more years practice and recall her actual cellular memory but…” Luke saw the expression on Hendrick’s face. It caught Luke off guard. “Listen, she’s going to make it, but we just have to pray that her body will do what it usually does and heals itself because it can work those kinds of miracles.”
Not meeting Luke’s eyes, Hendrick nodded sullenly and slowly picked Sable back up in his arms. Luke put a hand on his shoulder before he went anywhere.
“Head to the med lab. They’ve got things that’ll at least slow the process.”
“How can I use any of that if I have no idea what I’m doing?”
“Just use basic tools, simple meds, IV’s, antiseptics, anesthetics, you know how to set an IV, right?”
Hendrick looked down at Sable knowing he had no choice but to try. “Yeah…”
“Her best chance is in the lab, Nate. Get her there.”
Hendrick wanted to protest but he knew there was nothing else to do. With Sable hanging limp in his arms, he went through the doors and disappeared as they closed.
“Everybody listen!” Luke said, moving towards the edge of the platform that was elevated above the rest of the bridge.
Nobody heard him or cared to hear him. With the constant bombardment of Strikers, cannon rounds, and the approaching Helios, they were all but crazed with fear.
“LISTEN!” Luke yelled.
Everybody stopped and looked at him. The other members of the Ditrinity, who weren’t aware he was on board, turned and looked with relieved excitement.
“Calm down.” Luke said, putting his hands on the railing and leaning against it. “We’ll die in minutes if we keep things up like this. Now I don’t know who if anybody was commanding you but I’m your new captain.”
“What!” Merino cried, stomping to Luke’s side and shoving him in the arm. “You can’t just take over like that! No, I’m not letting you!”
Unbothered, Luke glanced over to him. “Then let’s see what you’ve got.”
Merino scowled. He clenched his fists and ground his teeth but did nothing.
“I accept your resignation.” Luke grumbled as he looked back towards the crew. “Now, first things first. Tess?”
Tess moved towards the central platform to the space between the control consoles. Luke nodded in approval. “And where is Shank?”
There was a series of squeaky ‘excuse me’s as Shank appeared from beneath the platform on which Luke stood and moved to Tess’s side. With both of them standing next to each other, Luke reached satisfaction.
“Perfect.” Luke stated, standing up straight and putting his hands behind his back. “Tess, kill Shank.”
Shank’s eyes went wide
as Tess immediately drew her sword.
“Wha- PLEASE WAI-“
Her sword sliced effortlessly through Shank’s neck. His head spun off and rolled across the floor, off the platform and landing on the transparent steel dome below. Merino’s hand’s hung in front of him as the unbelievable had just happened.
“Wha…” He stammered. His speechless shock persisted a moment longer. “Are you… are you mad! Why in the-“
“Next time you bring a friend along, bring one who doesn’t accept bribes from the Commune.” Luke growled. He shoved Merino to the side and continued his address. “Alright, here’s the situation. You probably think that there’s a good three or four Helio armadas out there coming after us. I saw it all for myself. There’s a lot more with plenty on the way. There’s more than half a dozen Striker squadrons coming and coming fast and with that much firepower there’ll be more than enough to bust through our shields and take us down.”
Any hope that remained in the room disappeared. Luke leaned on the railing and went on. “But we can make it. Not like this though. Not with everybody panicking and not thinking on their feet. You wanna survive? You do absolutely everything I say.”
“Yeah?” Merino scoffed, folding his arms indignantly. “I’m sure you have an expansive knowledge of naval command and strategy and I’m sure you know absolutely everything there is to know about a ship this size.”
“I was a Dark Admiral during the Crusades and I’ve captained every cruiser in existence including Helios, Primals, and obsolete Mystos. Have anything else to say?” Luke glared at him, challenging him. Merino said nothing. “Then back the hell off.”
Merino shrunk away. Luke turned back to the crew.
“There’s good news though. Right now we’re flying through unstabilized air and I’ve already set up a barrier beneath the ship so we’re safe until we get close to a stabilizer-equipped Helio. Now everybody get to your stations and stay there!” He said, stepping the stairs on the sides of the platform and moving to the captain’s chair. “No talking unless I ask you something and keep calm. I don’t care what happens, stay calm. Ditrinity.”
They were scattered around the room. Luke looked them all over.
“We’ve got boarding parties that’ve cut through the outer hull and are flooding the upper decks. Take care of them and move to the starboard turrets.”
They nodded and immediately went into a pained but determined trot. As a group they ascended the stairs and moved through the sliding doors into the halls outside.
“Give me a status report. I want hull integrity, shield strength, and power levels.”
There was a flurry of typed keys and clicks.
“Hull integrity is satisfactory.”
“Shield strength is resting at seventy five percent.”
“Generator energy levels are at ninety five percent.”
Luke took it all in. “Navigators! Give me a reading.”
“We have five Helios, two Primals and a Mysto to the west-southwest-south, six Helios, two Primals coming north-northeast-east, another six Helios and a Mysto coming from West-Northwest-North, and eight Helios, five Primals and four Mystos coming from South-Southeast-East.”
That was the direction of Pyre. They were completely surrounded. Every city that had any Navy at all was sending everything they had after them. But it wasn’t as much as Luke had originally thought. “Is that all the cruisers in the region?”
“No sir, just the craft that are within two miles.”
Silently Luke swore to himself.
With that kind of opposition they weren’t getting to Pyre. If Shank had mentioned anything about the mission, which judging by the sheer size of the forces that had been sent after them, he had, then Pyre was locked down entirely. They wouldn’t make it within twenty miles before every anti-air missile battery on the city’s outer defenses were initiated. They’d die before they could even see the city, and they’d much less be able to get into the heart of the city to complete their mission on schedule.
There were only a few more things Luke could try before they aborted. With the consequences of mission failure being what they were, he had to at least attempt those final options. Luke pressed the comm. switch. The first sound he was greeted with was muffled yells and gunfire.
“Ditrinity.” Luke said.”Progress?”
There was a bass grunt before a reply came from Morlo. “Working on the last squad right now, civ welders are up patching the hole and all decks will be secure.”
“Copy that.” Luke replied. “Finish off the Firsts and move to the cannons fast. I’m going to need ya here in a minute.” Luke’s attention broke towards the crew as Morlo ended the transmission. “Navigators, how many ships are coming at us Northeast-North-Northwest?”
More clicks and taps. “Two Helios flying side by side.”
There weren’t any cities to the north of Leramato, at least city’s where the Legionnaires would station large fleets. The Sestik Mountains were too volatile, too dangerous. The Legionnaires didn’t expect them to fly in that direction; they knew as well as he did that nobody in their right mind gets within miles of that place. And even if they did expect them to escape in that direction, they hadn’t had time to adequately close that gap.
And at that consideration Luke had a plan.
The bridge was frozen in place as Luke considered what was quickly becoming his only option. They were in a Mysto, close to half the size of a Helio, and they were about to go head to head with two. They were undersized, outgunned, flying an outdated battlecruiser with long-obsolete technology. He’d never tried something like this before. Nobody had. And the cruiser might not even be able to handle the strain of this maneuver. But it was try or die. This was their only option.
“Pilots change course heading true north. Reset and recalibrate the shields, angling them topside, and divert all energy away from all guns and channel it into the sweeps.”
There was a brief halt in activity as all eyes anxiously towards Luke.
“…But… sir… there’s no infantry.” One of the pilots remarked. “What good will the sweeps d-“
“Just do it!” Luke commanded. “How are our boosters doing?”
“Still at full power but they have to be charged.”
“Start charging them. Pilots start preparing for a ninety degree bank right.”
Another shock. That kind of bank would cause a dangerous drop in altitude. “But sir, we-“
“NEXT PERSON WHO QUESTIONS ME DIES!” Luke yelled. “JUST DO IT!”
They obeyed immediately. “Now Communications, open subnet frequencies and connect me to the Legionnaire High Command and put it on screen.”
They wanted to protest. Nonetheless they obeyed. A screen near the ceiling flickered to life and the face of a middle-aged radio operator sat in complete shock. He was at a communications relay and he was only visible from his chest up. As soon as he appeared with a confused look on his face, he was shoved harshly out of the way by a man dressed in a slick, expensive suit. He bent over the console and glared at the screen. It didn’t take long to recognize the face. It was Frenz.
Every person in the room became uncomfortable. Some averted their eyes while others covered their ears. Luke ran his hand across the broad side of his sword and smiled, looking up at the screen with pleasant hatred.
“Semprys…” Frenz uttered in complete shock. “What in the-“
“Give me a few more weeks, asshole.” Luke said, his hand still petting his sword. “You asked for me. Now you’re going to get me.”
Frenz was still speechless.
“What… do you-“
Luke cut the transmission and looked across the crew. After the recent exchange it was clear: Luke had their unquestioning obedience.
The ship’s proximity alarm rang throughout the ship while warning tones erupted from the pilots’ control consoles. “Helios inbound.” The commanding pilot stated. “incoming Strikers.”
No sooner had he ma
de the statement when explosions erupted from the ship’s starboard cannons. The Strikers fired only a few times before breaking off the attack, banking hard and shooting off into the night.
“The Helios have us locked!” An anxious navigator said of the Helios. “Preparations being made for substantial fire.”
“Keep the shields where they are.” Luke ordered. “All forward. We’re going right between them.”
It was impressive that nobody protested. But Luke knew what they were thinking. Why couldn’t they go around, keep the shields up and jet past them? The Navigators knew it because they had it on the screens in front of them. If they strayed too far to either side of the Helios then they’d come within range of the other cruisers that were forming a spherical blockade around them. Same was the situation with going over the ships. Going under would put them right under their steel melting sweeps and going over would hang them nice and high for every single Striker and Blackshredder squadron that cared to glance at them. At this point, anything they tried was suicide.
“One thousand meters and closing.” The Navigator stated.
“Banking ninety degrees starboard.”
Bright lights emerged from the fronts of the enemy Helios. Then, in what sounded like thousands of chained, earsplitting thunder strikes, countless missiles and six-inch cannon rounds impacted on the barrier Luke had created, filling the entire bridge with a blinding white light. The ship shook violently as it plowed closer and closer towards the Helios. People were shaken from their chairs. The communication light board on Luke’s armrest lit up. Luke connected with all frequencies.
“Talk to me.”
“What the hell’s going on!” Morlo shouted.
“We’re escaping.” Luke said. The warmth he felt from unstabilized Furo diminished as they closed in on the Helios.
“You’re going between them?” Came Pontious’s voice.
“Only choice we got.” Luke said as he silenced several alarms on his control panel. “Strap yourselves in. The maneuver we’re about to pull’s going to be a rough one.”
They said nothing more. Luke waited for a comment from Hendrick and was immediately reminded of the grim, tragic reality. Seeing Sable like that, seeing her dying, it did to Luke what it did to Hendrick; it tore his heart out.