by Martin HC
“Operations team, please leave us and assist in battle prep.”
There was no arguments, they did so.
“This meeting is at a close, please follow the security team who will lead you to a safe area until this is over.”
The Darkness Within
“Should we leave?” Haydn asked while they followed the security team.
“Staying here is a good idea, this is a battleship and we're about to fight, no safer place than here,” Damon answered.
As he finished talking, the sound of metal on metal rang through the air, the lights then dimmed and the floor vibrated as another sound, louder and angrier followed.
“What was that?” Jill asked.
“We were hit by Ferren rail gun munitions and energy weapons, then we fired back,” Tiralyn told them.
“OK, this just got real.”
“Stop, stop, guards stop, where are you taking these prisoners?” a wiry man shouted out in front, demanding to know as he closed the gap, “get them to the cells now.”
He motioned them aside, looking past at their human cargo, and his eyes met Jill's own. Her face turned to fury, but more frighteningly, her lips grinned as the rodent's own eyes shone with fear.
“What is she doing here?” he shouted, “guards arm yourself, detain this lot, they are to be taken to the cells immediately.”
As he spoke, the guards raised their weapons and aimed them at the group.
“Excuse me sir, where is your authority? We were instructed to get these individuals to a safe zone by the Fleet Admiral.”
The lights dimmed and the ship vibrated again as her primary weapons released their energy, filling the corridors with another angry roar, the rodent flinched.
“I am a government envoy and I am the sole authority here, the Fleet Admiral is trying to deal with this scum, now she intends to release them. I was given jurisdiction in the event of this scenario, they are to be captured and held for interrogation.”
He held up a key to the security officer's computer, which confirmed his words, he had the authority to detain them and was using it.
“You have the necessary permissions,” the officer confirmed. “Detain them.”
The rodent displayed his own grin now as Jill raised her arms to the command of the men with the deadly weapons. Damon stepped back towards Jill, raising his own arms and telling her not to react. He knew she would fight if not stopped, Haydn began to shout his complaints at the rodent.
“Who are you? What's going on?”
“Shut up fringe scum,” he replied, with the guards separating them.
“Please, calm down,” Tiralyn spoke up.
“I said shut up,” he barked back.
“I don't appreciate being spoken to like that,” she answered, her eyes starting to darken.
“Shut up or I'll have you're mouth stapled shut,” he shouted, and stepping passed the single guard between them, grabbed the small, harmless looking girl by the arm and slammed her face first against the wall.
The corridor silenced. Haydn, Damon and Jill stopped moving, the guards positioned between them and the rodent, turned to see what caused the sudden drop in activity, his grip remained hard on Tiralyn's arm.
She turned slowly against the force of his grip, the corridors darkened and noise filled the area as the battleship's energy was released again in a torrent of hatred towards its unfortunate victim. The rodent let her go and stepped back, a hint of blue starlight shone in her eyes. The lighting came back up to a storm of rage in her features, a wound on her face revealed bone and blood, oddly though the blood didn't run out.
She stared at the rodent as blue energy infused itself throughout the split in her skin, and began stitching the wound back together.
“Tira... Tira, take it easy,” Haydn told her gently. “He's a fool, lets just leave, please.”
“No one is going anywhere,” the rodent yelped out, there was much less confidence in his tone now.
The guards witnessing this display of blue energy faint in her eyes and cut face, turned to her one by one. Haydn began slowly stepping back, gently taking Jill's hand and Damon's elbow, motioning them back with him.
“Tira, we can leave, you don't have to hurt anyone.”
The rodent was disturbed by the lack of control, the hesitancy in his guards and Haydn's words of leaving. There seemed to be an irritation about him as a result of being ignored, in response, he drew his side-arm, clumsily activated the power core and pointed it directly at Tira's face.
“You will stop talking or I will ruin her pretty little face,” he shouted, his voice quivering.
“Oh you poor fool, I can't save you now,” Haydn told him sadly, still stepping slowly backwards.
The ship's lights darkened as she vibrated, filling the corridor with a rush of noise once more, the bluish energy alight in Tira's features glowed menacingly now more than before.
“I said shu...” he didn't get to finish his panicked scream, a wave of energy blew out from Tira, directed in full force at the rodent and discharging to the sides of the wide corridor.
The guards were lifted and hurled against the walls to her sides, weapons and armour fell apart into thousands of tiny pieces as they took the brunt of the waves residual energy.
The rodent who took the full force of the directed power, had no armour. His weapon broke apart, becoming a small fragmentation grenade as the energy threw the tiny pieces back at his own body and face. Then the wave itself hit him in turn, shattering every bone in his body while lifting and throwing him the length of the corridor, the rodent died instantly.
The lighting which was not damaged returned. The walls themselves were crushed outwards and away from Tira, she walked towards the dead rodent along the corridor. A swirling bouquet of energies crushed the walls away from her with every step she took, a door on one side tore itself apart and blew into the room it had closed off.
Several more of the ship's personnel rounded a corner and stopped to stare at the damage, she looked at them and raised her open palm.
“Tira, Tira fight this,” Haydn shouted. “Take back control, don't let it draw you into the darkness.”
She looked at him, the internal fight was evident, but the tendrils of blue energy in her skin and eyes began to dissipate as she fought it.
“That's it, take back control and fight it. You're stronger than it is so don't give up.”
It took a few more seconds but eventually the light faded completely, she looked back at him and spoke desperately. “I don't have long, we need to go.”
He nodded as a jump bridge formed and one by one they moved through, no one tried to stop them.
When the Enemy Gets the Jump
“We're leaving,” Tira stated flatly as Haydn emerged on the other side of the jump bridge.
“Wait, hold a few minutes, we have to let Brice and the Admiral know what happened, they'll think this was all set up if we just run.”
“We should never have spoken with them and I can't hold much longer Haydn, we have to leave,” she answered, as another jump bridge formed to Damon's side.
“They can't go through yet, they're still suffering from the last.”
“I'll give you time to talk to the Mergence, but Jill & Damon only have sixty seconds to leave,” her voice was weak and she swayed slightly now as she spoke. “In case you need any motivation, here's what's happening outside.”
Tira collapsed unconscious into Haydn's arms, the entire battle became visible as the surrounding room dissolved away, leaving only the chairs and the still open jump bridge beside Damon.
Haydn took a few seconds to put her unconscious body in a chair to the side before looking at the frightening scene. The true brutality of a fleet battle unfolded in all its glory no matter the direction.
Around him Mergence battleships burned, nuclear detonations lit up the area, energy beams raked armour, setting off explosions and more burning. The blue fire seared with heat, fuelled by the rush of
oxygen leaving the breached hulls.
The Mergence star ships returned their own torrent of devastation against their enemy. Undamaged and burning ships alike fired lances of white power, unleashing a brutal level of energy against the Ferren hulls, while nuclear plasma tipped missile were deployed in support at their enemies ranks.
Two Mergence cruisers began to rotate, bringing their deadly pulse canons into the fight, the target was a separated Ferren battleship. It stood no chance against the power of the close range weapons they unleashed together. Four streams of streaking and repeating energy battered and tore at the Ferren stray, burning through her armour and tearing her apart from the inside. The power died as the hull transformed to a holed and beaten wreck, only seconds later multiple warheads struck home, now unmolested following the loss of point defence. Making their way in through holes in the dying ship's armour, they finished it for good. The dead ship began falling back into the atmosphere of the gas giant.
Damon forced himself to his feet in severe discomfort, Jill beside him, there was only one emotion at the sight around him, fear. Fear of death, fear of hard vacuum, fear of losing his crew and fear of losing the Ophelia.
Witnessing the fighting fleets doing what they were built to do was nothing short of horrifying.
“Jill we have to go, come on... lets get back to the Ophelia,” he shouted, snapping both her and Haydn back into reality.
“OK go, I'm coming,” she answered.
Haydn just turned back to the sights, listening as the jump bridge closed itself. He gestured with his hand and his palm lit up a display in front of it, he gestured again, the devastation to his front disappeared, and was replaced a few seconds later by the startlingly large image of Fleet Admiral Y'Riell.
“Admiral, I don't have much time.”
“You don't have much time, I've lost twenty four warships so far, how did they know to come here?”
“I don't know, really I don't,” he told her, “they must have followed you, or someone on your side told them.”
As he answered her, the voice of a female in the background could be heard.
“Another two of their battleships just fell but they've taken one of our cruisers with them.” she shouted across to Y'Riell. “We've divided their flank, SFs seven, four and eleven are moving to close range on the divided group.”
“You can help us, you have weapons,” she told him.
“I can't, not alone.”
“People are dying man, thousands of them and you're telling me you won't help.”
“We've lost the battleship's Revenant and Severance ma'am.”
“Dammit,” she shouted. “How long until they're in range of our pulse cannons?”
“Another forty seconds,” the unseen specialist answered as she looked back to Haydn.
“I don't mean I won't help,” Haydn's delayed answer strained with sincerity. “I mean I can't. One of your men tried to take us all prisoner, with force, he threatened to kill Tira and she lost it.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“He means that rodent, the one who interrogated us before,” Jill shouted from behind him.
Haydn snapped around surprised and unable to fathom why she was still there, instead of questioning her though he turned back to the Admiral.
“The interrogator, you mean Tinnin?”
“Yes, he claimed to be a government envoy, he was to take authority and imprison us if you tried to treat with or release us, he had an authorisation key.”
“The fools,” she spoke to herself. “Where is he now? How did you get off my flagship?”
“Like I said, Tira lost it, she killed him and now she's unconscious, she has all the authority on this ship, I can't do anything.”
He looked to the side where the view outside was still visible and witnessed a Mergence battleship exploding into two separate pieces, each piece detonating in their own blinding explosions forcing him to shield his eyes.
“That was the Cutlass ma'am,” she was informed. “We're entering close battle range now.”
“About damn time,” she shouted to the messenger, before turning back to him. “Tira, the teenage girl, killed Tinnin, does she have complete authority of your ship?”
“Not normally, normally she'll do anything I ask but she's unconscious now, she's automated everything, we're leaving and I can't stop it.”
“Is there anything you can do?”
“I'm sorry but no, Tira has set us up to leave anytime now, I really don't know when the timer will run out,” he told her sadly, then brightened as a moment of inspiration gripped him. “If you contact the Ophelia, speak with Damon, get him on side and ask Serena to give ECM support. Her programming was altered by Tira, she's powerful.”
“Get the Ophelia on comms,” she commanded another unseen specialist.
“And Admiral, in case there's any ideas, all technology built on that ship by us will disintegrate if you try to access it, on top of that Serena will defend herself, consider that a friendly warning.”
“Three enemy cruisers just fell to our pulse cannons.”
She thought over his words for a few long seconds before answering, her face stern.
“Your warning will be considered carefully.”
“Incoming volleys.”
Haydn's feet vibrated around him as the area to his left lit up with blinding light. It was an unusual feeling, he'd only ever experience it once before, when they were fired on by the Darkspace ships.
“They hit us,” Haydn said. “We're covering the Ophelia just now, they must have aimed at her and struck our shielding.”
“Admiral they're moving, the fugitive craft is breaking off,” a tactical specialist told her.
“Where are you going?” she demanded to know.
“This is automatic, it's an answer to us getting hit.”
Haydn noticed they were moving, turning, Y'Riell's image shrunk itself into a corner and a tactical overlay fired to life. As it set itself up, every ship was marked. Green were Mergence, and targets marked in red were Ferren.
A single brilliant blue sustained and powerful beam fired, he knew someone died when two overlapping red target markers blinked out of existence. The image zoomed to the first ship which blew, forcing him to shield his eyes once more.
“Ma'am, two enemy battleships just died, it wasn't us, they were hit both together by one powerful beam weapon, it burned clean through the first and then sliced the second into two pieces, nose to tail,” after a small pause the specialist looked back up. “Every enemy missile in the area of the stealth ship just died. No detonations or explosions, they've just shut down and gone dead.”
“What wi...” the connection cut.
“Why didn't you leave,” he turned, asking Jill now that they were alone.
“Tira is hurt, I needed to make sure you were all right, I can go back shortly.”
The tactical display shut down, the ship's internal walls reappeared around them and the room became visible once more.
“I'm sorry but you can't go back, only Tira can open the doorways.”
“Then we can wait.”
“Jill, we're not with the fleet anymore,” he told her, sitting on his seat he made a new hand gesture, a display lit up like before and a second hand gesture brought up a star map all around them, centred on his chair.
It was holographic, but it was a display like nothing she'd ever seen, the room darkened until the walls faded to nothingness. Trillions of stars lit up the area surrounding them with such realism she felt like a giant swimming through the ocean of a galaxy.
“This is incredible, it's beautiful, I've never seen anything like it,” she paused for a second, the idea that they'd left the battle now coming to mind. “What about Damon, the Ophelia?”
“They're still back there, they'll be fine, the fleet were actually winning.”
“We need to go back.”
“We can't, Tira's the one that does all that.”
�
��Is she alright?” she asked with concern in her voice.
“I don't know, she's never allowed herself to lose control like that and I've never even seen her sleep, it might be a while before we see her awake again.”
A line of green light lit the route they were currently taking, revealing their end destination.
“Is that...?”
“Yip, that's Darkspace and guess what, we're heading right smack bang into the middle of it.”