by Colin Cook
However despite the short distance between himself and the Sardaukar's makeshift exit, the rapid jet of flame was shooting down the corridor faster than he could run!
Every flammable piece of material built into the tunnel ignited the moment the fire touched it, adding to its strength and allowing the uncontrollable blaze to move even
faster.
Already the raw power of the swirling inferno had consumed all but the sturdiest of the hallway's infrastructure, the very wisps of its crackling tendrils nearing to less than a
dozen feet from his heels!
With only precious moments left before he would be forced to leap into the vast emptiness of outer-space or be consumed within the Hellish spectacle already singeing his
backside, the Predator brought up his right arm and smacked the button that would activate his grappling hook once again.
"What the hell…" the Turian's co-pilot stated with squinting eyes once he noticed the blazing orange glow racing down the corridor toward the opening that their gunship
was still hovering in front of.
The Turian however was a lot quicker in recognizing the immediate danger.
"Pull back! All ships pull back now!" shouted the pilot into his headset while his taloned fingers began stabbing into the controls. At his touch the Mantis's repulsors fired out
powerful jets of blue-orange flame, rocketing the gunship backwards on a diagonal trajectory.
The other three ships were following suit almost simultaneously, each veering away from the Citadel in different directions.
And then it happened.
A great wreathing column of fire exploded forth from the opening, reaching far across the immediate space in-between it and the retreating wing of Mantises, while at the
same time ripping apart most of the Presidium's lower hull with its force!
The column roared continuously, never ending in its fury, blowing out from the exit like the flaming breath of an enraged dragon.
Seconds earlier the Predator had still been sprinting toward the oncoming drop-off.
With a quick thrust of his arm he aimed and fired the grappling hook/dart at the retreating Mantis that had been hovering near the opening this entire time. Silently the
serrated dart-head sunk into the gunship's armoured belly before the vessel could pull out of his range.
Then with a great surge of strength he threw himself headfirst out through the Sardaukars' exit, slamming his fist against another button on his gauntlet and sharply autoretracting
himself up to the fleeing ship just before the entire area behind him exploded apart in a violent geyser of flame and shooting debris!
The Hunter was lucky to get out when he did, for even as he practically zip-lined up toward the underside of the gunship the intense blast still managed to strike him briefly
in his upper back.
The Predator was strong, but even he couldn't keep himself from snarling out in pain as the fire seared his flesh and partially ignited a loose piece of cloth built into the
armour strapped around his Plasma Caster.
It was only thanks to the active camouflage still concealing him that none of the pilots from the other Mantises noticed his flaming shoulder before he disappeared under
the lead gunship's belly.
After retracting up to his dart-hook the Hunter manually grabbed onto the hull and repositioned himself so that his body was horizontal, his arms and legs hugging tightly
against the underside of the ship's narrow main structure. After securing his grappling hook, the Predator quickly drew his ceremonial dagger from his leg-sheath and sunk
its blade in-between some of the Mantis's overlapping outer plates in order to give himself better anchorage.
As the Mantis pulled itself further away from the Citadel, more destruction continued to rain. Additional jets of fire were starting to break out through the hull along where
the second corridor ran, the very one that had been connected perpendicular to the original corridor.
And then all of a sudden, while he was furiously patting down the flames still burning away at his shoulder, the Hunter immediately had to brace himself against his ride as
the entire perpendicular corridor erupted open as if it were an active volcano!
A massive tidal-wave of spitting fire and superheated pieces of smoking metal shot out across a large part of the Presidium Ring's inner circumference where the Market
District's entire underbelly was situated, the last of the Incendiary Bomb's incredible power destroying another half dozen connecting corridors and leaving their innards
exposed to the outside world.
Finally, with that last show of force the flames ceased.
With all of its destructive power exhausted the firestorm snuffed out into dissipating swirls, leaving behind only lingering flames burning sporadically within the wreckage of
the once imposing labyrinth.
Thick columns of black smoke now began rising up through the many glowing hot gashes torn across the hull, blanketing most of the area in front of the Mantises in a
heavy cloud of darkness.
"Bravo-9! Bravo-9 are you alright?!" the voice of a female C-Sec operator suddenly began calling with concern to the pilots of the four ships, the Predator's C-Sec
earpiece managing to eavesdrop on her transmissions.
"Yeah…yeah Control we're here, all ships accounted for," a Turian answered shakily after coughing through his words for a few seconds.
"Thank the Goddess. What happened? We just felt a tremor from your area run throughout the entire Presidium."
Despite his body's orientation the Predator still managed to turn his head to look down at the endless Nebula below the Mantis, the rushing wind from the atmosphere
bubble causing his hanging dreadlocks to whip away from his face. Far beneath him he could still see the hundreds of smoking debris fragments freefalling toward Widow,
the residual flames trailing from some of them suddenly becoming extinguished as they dropped out of the bubble and into the oxygen-less vacuum of outer-space.
"We've got a war zone down here. Some kind of massive explosion just tore through the maintenance tunnels under the Market District," the Turian reported as he and
the other Mantises began maneuvering back over toward the smoking ruin in front of them.
"How bad is the damage?" inquired the woman on the other end.
"Most of the District's underbelly was completely blown out. We need reinforcements, fire control, medical personnel, anyone you can spare. Just get their asses down
here now."
"Wait, those tunnels haven't been used in years. You don't think anyone was in there do you?" the operator responded with a start.
There was a long pause, a pause in which the Predator looked up so as to peer through the cascades of smoke still rising out of the glowing orange chasm of twisted
metal where the Sardaukar's escape exit had once been, his mind thinking back to the mysterious beings who had caused all of this destruction.
"Spirits, I hope not…" the Turian finally answered in a grave voice.
That was it. With Axel and the Xenomorph now gone there was nothing left keeping the Hunter here. He needed to get off this station and begin tracking them before their
trail became too cold.
To do that he was going to need a starship, preferably something fast and easy to steal.
As he thought on that the Predator cocked an eyebrow and lifted his head to look up toward the cockpit of the ship he was currently attached to, the Yautja equivalent of
a small smile spreading across his face.
"It is done then," the First Prime stated coldly upon hearing the massive wave of garbled radio-chatter beginning to flood C-Sec Academy's emergency lines.
Despite Torrvk's betrayal, Lord Viraden still had many spies within Citadel Security and even a few within the Council Chambers. Right now se
veral of these nameless men
and women were eavesdropping on the sudden array of reports concerning the Incendiary Bomb's detonation and relaying them back to the cloaked Tel'Tak's
communication system, allowing the group of assassins to hear everything as it transpired.
"We had best hurry. C-Sec may soon be regarding this as a terrorist attack. To ensure security they will send a portion of the Defense Fleet into a guarding position around
the Mass Relay to keep any ships from leaving the system," Torrvk explained with a gesture toward the Relay, which was now lying completely in sight dead ahead of
them.
As the Goa'uld cargo ship continued speeding toward the enormous alien super-structure, the two Jaffa pilots began inputting a new set of coordinates into their consoles.
This was followed by the pilot controlling the Tel'Tak's glowing red steering system making an abrupt course alteration, putting the ship into a starboard turn and veering
her away from the Mass Relay.
Torrvk frowned at this odd action before turning toward the First Prime for clarification. To his surprise the Jaffa commander was already staring at him, the golden-eyed
man's cold expression still remaining across his face.
"That tactic was in-efficient in stopping Axel during his escape, and it shall be just as such during ours," the First Prime retorted before turning his gaze back toward the
windshield. Confused, Torrvk also turned back to see just exactly where it was they were heading off to now.
Suddenly the front hull of an enormous star-ship materialized through the Nebula's mists, surging forward until it was damn near on top of the smaller vessel!
Torrvk's head reared back in surprise as the pilots maneuvered the Tel'Tak into a low swoop through the clouds under this new ship's nosing, rising up along its port side
until they were flying smoothly down the length of its bow.
From what was partially visible of the larger ship, it appeared to be an old commercial Turian ore carrier.
The ship was massive in scale, with port and starboard wings three times bigger and longer than those of a Hierarchy Battle Cruiser.
While lacking in any weapons ore carriers made do with thick armour plating that tightly overlapped across their entire structure, built specifically to protect several storage
hangars within their bodies that contained the necessary space to house whatever valuable materials they may be chartered to carry.
The size of the hangars was so large that they accounted for nearly two thirds of a carrier's super-structure, while the remaining portion near the stern was built to house
the bridge section and the four colossal aft engines a carrier required to plunge through space.
Though slow when fully burdened, these transportation vessels contained some of the most powerful engine systems in the known galaxy, allowing them to ferry loads of
over five hundred thousand tons from planet to planet with ease.
Like a great Blue Whale gliding through the ocean, the incredible vessel slowly lumbered past the invisible Tel'Tak.
The stealth ship might as well have been an insect compared to it in size.
The only thing that took away from this majestic moment was how beat up it looked. Large dents and scratches were visible across most of its hull, along with odd dark
splotches coated over random areas, looking as if someone had hastily tried to paint the ship a different colour but had stopped halfway through.
"I take it this is the carrier you spoke of earlier?" Torrvk inquired over to the First Prime without taking his eyes off the passing ship.
"Indeed," the Jaffa commander answered with a curt nod.
While the Tel'Tak continued down the carrier's side, it began gliding past a set of large letters painted in the same black colour as the splotch marks.
After a minute of flying by each letter in sequence, Torrvk was able to spell out the name: VISIGOTH.
"I don't feel that I can condone naming a Turian ship after a type of Human barbarian," he remarked in a distasteful tone, clearly disappointed in the choice of name. The
First Prime gave a barely noticeable smirk.
"This is no longer a Turian ship."
Suddenly the Tel'Tak pulled away from the battered carrier, soaring out over the intermittent swirls of the Nebula until it was a few kilometers away from the slow moving
behemoth. Then with a quick jab of the controls the Jaffa pilots brought the cloaked ship arching back around in a wide U-Turn before B-Lining it for one of the many
hangar doors built into the carrier's side.
As they rocketed towards it the airtight door unlocked and began sliding apart before them, revealing a faint shimmering blue force-field just behind it.
With this field (which is actually known as a Plasma Window in real life. Fun Fact!) in place the doors were capable of opening entirely without risk of exposing the inside of
the ship to the vacuum of space, while at the same time allowing materials or smaller ships to enter or leave seamlessly.
Having full knowledge of this, the two Jaffa were able to slow down the Tel'Tak upon approaching the carrier's moving hull and easily glide their smaller craft through the
field into the vessel itself.
After entering the oxygenated atmosphere of the larger ship, the stealth ship de-activated its cloaking device and gently touched down onto the cold steel deck right
before the hangar doors sealed shut behind it and the force-field vanished.
Immediately after they landed and the hum of the engines began to die down, the First Prime went over and retrieved his staff-weapon. Deciding to leave behind his Cobra
headpiece he pressed a small button built into the starboard airlock beside him, causing it to hiss open and allow him passage off the ship.
While the Predator-Killer and the squad of Stormtroopers moved to bring the Xenomorph's cryo-pod out from the Tel'Tak's cargo hold, Torrvk went after the First Prime.
Following the commander off the ship, both the Jaffa and the Turian heavily stepped out into the gargantuan hangar. Right away Torrvk was caught off guard, freezing in
mid-step once he saw what was around them.
This supposed ore carrier was no carrier at all. It had been gutted and converted into a war ready Dreadnought!
The hangar itself was huge, easily being three kilometers in length and at least two in width, all of it illuminated by lines of evenly spaced lights hanging from the ceiling.
Its metal deck was occupied by rows of various deadly land vehicles and large weapon containers, along with raised platforms placed in front of addition hangar doors.
For every platform there was an advanced aerial fighter-craft parked on its surface, each one held in place by a network of built-in docking clamps.
These vehicles were mostly an assortment of Turian and Salarian designs, but there were plenty of smaller spaceships and fast assault vehicles that looked to be Human
Alliance in origin.
Over a thousand deck workers and soldiers of several races scurried about the area, all of them dressed in various black uniforms similar to Torrvk's body-suit.
Many were shouting orders or stowing away gear, making a majority of the hangar incredibly loud. Everywhere he looked he saw men and women running around either
carrying crates or helping to direct equipment and machinery into different loading zones.
Looking up toward the ceiling of the hangar he saw large pier-like catwalks stretching out far overhead, all of them connected to a series of humongous support pillars
placed about the area, with each catwalk carrying several more aerial assault vehicles held in place by glowing anti-gravity cradles welded to the undersides of their
pathways.
While Torrvk continued to slowly spin around in a circle, gawking at how well this operation had been hidden beneath the carrier's old beat up exterior, the First Pri
me
continued to march ahead toward a nearing group of what appeared to be Human and Turian officers.
Leading from the front of this group was another Jaffa in full armour, this one having brown hair and a cape hanging down from his shoulders.
The black Goa'uld brand in the center of his forehead was a tattoo of two curved horns rising up and facing in toward each other.
For what System Lord that symbol belonged to, Torrvk did not know.
Snapping out of his in-attentiveness, the Turian traitor quickly fell back in step behind the First Prime just before they came to a stop in front of the group. Dutifully this
new Jaffa saluted the First Prime by placing his fist over his heart and bowing his head.
"Lord Teal'c, the Visigoth is prepared to leave upon your command," the man reported loudly so as to be heard over the ruckus caused by all of the activity going on
around them.
The First Prime, now known as Teal'c, lifted his staff-weapon and rested its cobra-hooded end firmly on the deck, holding the weapon erect at his side like a Spartan
warrior holding a spear.
"Very well. Commence exit through the Mass Relay immediately."
The other man bowed again before raising his left arm and activating a bright yellow omni-tool.
While the Jaffa relayed Teal'c's orders to the ship's captain, Torrvk methodically turned around with his hand resting on the butt of his black Carniflex, having heard a large
collection of harsh thudding coming from treaded boots hitting the floor.
The Sardaukar, Stormtroopers, and the other two Serpent Guards had just poured out of the Tel'Tak. All of them were now forming into two lines on either side of the
cargo-ship's airlock, each man drawing their sabers or pointing their weapons at the object beginning to emerge from the darkened cockpit.
After a tense moment the large cryo-pod containing the hibernating Xenomorph started making its way out through the airlock. The pod itself was being levitated several
feet above the ground thanks to many small anti-gravity repulsors built into its bottom.
Next came the Predator-Hunter who was pushing the sarcophagus-like capsule out in front of himself with his massive clawed hands pressed against either side of it.