Ralenei was slow to react but eventually took action keeping the ranger busy with telekinetic pushes against his rifle, throwing his aim off. That was about it from what Chloe could see, Ralenei clearly wasn’t very powerful. No psionic shields, plasma balls or other fancy sorcery, he was probably just worried about the whole outcome of events. Psionic powers did require one to use their mind as a weapon, and if your thoughts weren’t clear and focused, your powers suffered as a result.
Ralenei needed help, help that wasn’t coming as each and every person that could have provided it fell over dead within ten seconds. Chloe took a breath, then leaped into the fray with no battle plan, something she was growing tired of having to do. As she got up from her cover, she realized something, gravity was still holding her body down. Ralenei was still using his mind to keep gravity active and it was no doubt adding to the many things that were limiting his performance during this dire struggle.
“Kill the gravity!” Chloe shouted at him.
Ralenei followed Chloe’s suggestion. Both the living, wounded and dead started to hover rather than be bound by the artificial psionic gravity. Blood rose and became oval and spherical objects, body parts that were shot off, revolved around the deceased person it was once attached to minutes earlier. The two gunmen began to fall backward as they unexpectedly lost their orientation during the transition from having weight to not having any.
Chloe kicked off from the floor and allowed the forward momentum to take her toward the rifle wielding ranger, Ralenei realised what she was about to do, and a psionic push against Chloe’s body launched her faster toward the ranger, their bodies collided and the impact knocked his rifle out of his hands. The free weapon spiraled and bounced off a computer while the two engaged in a midair zero-g fist fight. Their bodies spun around as they held onto each other, punching. One moment Chloe’s back was facing Ralenei, then the gunman was. Chloe needed their struggle to remain still, just long enough for him to be in range of whatever Ralenei could muster. A plasma ball, heavy thrust anything, just kill this fucker. Wyuei was still at large, Chloe had no idea what became of him during her bout with the ranger.
A way out arrived at a last, the ranger’s tumbling rifle ended up behind the two. Chloe saw it stop spinning instantly as Ralenei’s mind grabbed a hold of it and aimed it toward the ranger. Chloe ducked quickly, it wasn’t to avoid another punch the face, but to avoid getting shot by the exiting bullet that tore a gaping hole through the ranger’s face.
Chloe tossed his lifeless body aside as there was still another threat to deal with. Wyuei, they needed to strike him before he struck them. And had they defeated the ranger faster they might have done just that. Chloe saw the reason for Wyuei’s delay, his pistol had come out of his hands and spiraled away. He’d been struggling to reacquire it the whole time. The sudden loss of gravity, floating bodies, and parts, it all was getting in his way. Wyuei’s hands finally wrapped around it and he spun his body around to take aim, Chloe’s mouth was in the process of yelling to Ralenei to ‘get down’ but it was too late. Wyuei was a quick shooter, his bullet tore through Ralenei’s body, and the force of the shot sent him flying into Chloe’s arms. Arms that were now full of fury.
A second bullet was coming. It missed, flying above their heads as gravity was restored and they all came crashing to the floor while the blood of the fallen rained down. Gravity’s back, Ralenei must be alive, Chloe thought. She was surprised after all he went through he was still strong enough to force gravity to return to the bridge. Chloe had doubts it would last for long however, there was no way in hell Ralenei was going to be doing much else as he lay on the floor with his warm blood oozing all over Chloe’s hands.
Chloe leaped back and raced toward where the rifle had fallen. There was no time to worry about Ralenei; more lives were at risk unless Wyuei was put down. She quickly snatched it up, swung the barrel of the weapon toward Wyuei and fired from the hip, there was no time to aim. He was running away toward the elevators, too bad he had a head start after the fall when gravity was restored. The last bullet she fired gazed his back as he slipped into the elevators and made his escape.
The threat to the bridge was over and the surviving and uninjured bridge crew stood—all four of them. Ueyei wiped away the blood that covered his face which had fallen on him after gravity was restored. “Contact all rangers aboard,” he said. “Inform them the order has boarded us!”
“Correction,” Chloe said. “They’ve been here this whole time.”
Two crew members began attending to the wounds of everyone including Ralenei, whose blood-soaked hand held on to his exit wound hard. “Rangers might be working with them as well,” a surviving bridge officer said as he took control of the helm.
“What’s our status?” Ueyei asked from his captain’s chair.
The newly promoted helmsman checked his computer multiple and small holographic reports appeared projecting security camera footage from random sections of the ship. It looked like a warzone. “Incoming reports of gun battles throughout the ship—” A beeping noise cut him off, he looked down and read the new data that was populating his screen. “Captain! The Abyssal Pelican, it’s coming about.” He continued reading and his voice began to stutter, he was shocked. “And its weapons are powering up.”
Ueyei winced. “What other ships are in orbit?”
“It’s just us!”
Chloe stepped forward as she watched everything play out via the forward windshield. Oyuri’s yellow presence was below them, while the mighty Radiance dreadnought came over the horizon ready for a fight. “So they do control the Pelican . . .” she muttered to herself.
“Shields and overshields now!” Ueyei said.
“Ueyei,” Chloe said, pointing to Ralenei who rested on the blood-soaked floor. “You have no psionic.”
“I’ll be . . . fine,” Ralenei said in a weakened voice .
The Abyssal Explorer was a sitting duck with its engine room down and engineering crew blown out into space. There was very little power left in the ship for escape, let alone evasive or defense action. The first wave of massive plasma balls hit the Explorer dead on. The psionic overshield protecting it gave way instantly from the first volley, the follow up attacks that came afterward delivered blows the Explorer’s weak shields struggled to absorb.
The bridge crew staggered as each hit brought the ship closer to its doom. Gravity once again faded away, Ralenei was either dead or passed out from the stress having to do so much in his condition.
“Return fire!” Ueyei said as he adjusted his seat belt.
“No power to the weapons,” an officer manning a tactical station said. “We barely have enough for shields.”
Chloe saw the two officers that were attending to the wounded all took up the main unmanned stations. They pushed off the walls or sides of the terminals and moved their bodies from one active computer to another and performed the daunting task of doing the work of many with only the two. The wounded would have to attend to themselves—
Another hit impacted against the ship, this time without its shields. Raging fires broke out in the aftermath as multiple explosions sent people flying backward. Sparks and debris fell from the ceilings, black choking smoke quickly reduced visibility and left behind the toxic smell of melted wires, plastic, and metal. The Explorer was adrift. Sixty percent of the ship was engulfed in flames, and newly created hull breaches flung more of the crew out into space, their final resting place. Force fields that would normally cover breaches failed to activate, there just wasn’t enough power. Flashlights became the only source of light inside the areas that still had air to breath.
Chloe shook her head after being knocked back by the last blast that sent her tumbling toward the wall. She felt blood seep from a small gash on the back of her head. As her eyes opened she saw what remained of the bridge as the fires continued to spread and spew out more black smoke that clouded her vision. The lights had long gone out as well as the lights from all comp
uters the wild fires were the only means of lighting at this point. Ueyei unhooked himself from his seat, kicked off the chair and made his way to the dead helmsman, a stray piece of shrapnel had impaled his chest from the explosion.
Ueyei activated an emergency broadcast that was powered by a single backup battery pack. He moved his head closer to transmit an important message to the crew. “Abandon ship.” A new alarm replaced the annoying battle stations one, one sounded like the galaxy was coming to an end. “Remember, whatever is going on Oyuri will kill unprotected psionics, no teleportation. Everyone to your escape pods now! Do not walk on the surface without an environment suit!”
Everyone began to move the wounded toward an escape pod hatch, at least the ones that weren’t damaged. There was plenty of space considering there were few survivors. Ueyei however remained at his new post, the helm of the bridge and utilized manual control to steer the drifting and burning ship away from harm. Chloe moved past the smoke and chaos and frantically began looking for the rifle she had lost her grip on. She had no plans to step aboard an escape pod.
“I thought I gave you all an order, get out of here now!” Ueyei yelled toward her and the last remaining officer.
“Captain,” the officer said.
“We’re still far off from Oyuri, I’ll push us closer,” Ueyei said. “Don’t worry about me; get to your escape pods!”
“You heard the captain,” Chloe yelled. “Get out of here!”
The officer nodded then made his way toward the escape pod hatch. With the stray rifle back in her hands, Chloe pulled her body toward the inoperative elevator shaft and forced it open with her hands. She turned back to Ueyei who was now the lone person aboard the burning bridge. “I’m coming back for you, keep this ship steady!”
Chloe entered the darkened shaft as the flashlight on her rifle shined its white light downward. She saw nothing but bits of floating smoldering debris while she moved her way back down toward the infirmary and hoped it wasn’t one of the sections of the ship that was exposed to the vacuum of space, or burning out of control.
She forced the elevator doors open, and breathed a sigh of relief. There were fires burning but nothing she couldn’t handle, and most importantly she could still breathe, not very well because of the smoke, but it was possible. She moved through the halls, weightless sweat floated away from her face as she slid past small fires. Her rifle had remained pointed forward as its flashlight lit the way, and its targeting scanner searched for hostile targets, namely Wyuei, though she had her doubts he’d be here. The whole fiasco was clearly a set job by the order, the engine room was probably sabotaged while the crew was gunned down to hamper its ability to recover. It was the JFK all over again, only this time the order members that planned and participated in this were probably long gone.
She arrived at the infirmary, the light from her flashlight and glowing flames showed no signs of life. Karklosea and Stolanei bodies weren’t there either, it was a good sign, a sign they made it out. She ducked and moved past roaring flames on the walls, and burning equipment floating before her, as she made her way toward the computer that unveiled who she really was. There was no power coming into it, no matter, what she really needed was its data crystal backup, it was slotted into the underside of it. Her hands carefully stored the data crystal away in her pocket as she began to undertake her next hurdle. Escape.
She entered the halls and began to retrace her trek and return to the bridge. She had every intention of fulfilling her promise to Ueyei. A thunderous explosion interrupted those thoughts, she wasn’t sure where it came from, just that it exposed the deck to space. The cold and unforgiving hands of the vacuum of space pulled her body out toward it. There was nothing she could hang onto; it was too dark to see anyways. The fires were put out instantly as the oxygen that once filled the halls were dragged out, her rifle wasn’t in her hands, and therefore her flashlight was gone. She shielded her face to protect it from the small bits of debris that potentially could have gotten in her eyes.
Her body tumbled and smashed against a psionic barrier, one that was conjured seconds before she was due to leave the confines of the ship. It took a few seconds but breathable air started to flow through the halls once again, causing her to gasp in relief. Heat was a different story, her body went from sweating profusely to, shivering. There was a figure further down the hall. She couldn’t make out who it was, and with her rifle now out in space . . . This person better be a friend.
It was Stolanei.
“Easy on the psionics!” she shouted as the two got close enough to see each other. “Shouldn’t you have been evacuated?”
“I came back for the data.”
“You mean this?” Her hand reached back into her pocket and showed him the data crystal.
He looked surprised that she had it, Chloe was too as she was half expecting it to have been sucked out of her pocket during the hull breach. “Keep that with you,” he said to her. “The nano blockers in your body aren’t working correctly it might be because of what happened on Oyuri. Should they return to normal—”
“How about we talk about this later?”
She looked at the barrier behind her and saw a burning, terrifying sight. There were two objects in the distance, one was the Pelican; the other was half of the Explorer where the bridge was located. The entire ship was split in half during the recent blast. The other half of the Explorer was spinning out of control.
Stolanei led her further into the crumbling fuselage of the ship and into the transport docking bay. A single transport ship was primed and waiting for the two to board. A multitude of explosions roared, the Pelican was unleashing a salvo of plasma missiles to finish them off. Karklosea stood next to the entrance of the transport and waved toward them to hurry up. The explosions behind them didn’t stop, it was a non-stop barrage of missiles that flooded the remaining hallways with flames. Chloe struggled to keep her body still as the transport got closer little by little. The searing heat from the chaos behind came to an end as they boarded and its doors slammed shut. If there was anyone else back there that was lagging behind, may they rest in peace, the transport accelerated out of what remained of one half of the Explorer.
Surrounded by flames and covered in blood, Ueyei, through the cracked windshield of the bridge, watched the last section of the Explorer tumble away then explode, reducing it to nothing. He saw a transport ship leave seconds before it was destroyed, a stray piece of burning hulk from the blast struck them hard and sent the transport into an uncontrolled descent toward the surface of Oyuri.
The Pelican came about and its plasma missile launchers opened up, it was targeting the last remaining half of the Explorer. Ueyei shut his eyes as the volley exited the dreadnought and propelled toward him, it left behind thin white lines from the missile’s exhaust.
“Mother, father . . .” Ueyei said. “Tell grandfather to make some tea. I’m coming to visit.”
The missiles hit their target with the same results that was witnessed seconds earlier. Captain Gab Ueyei went down with his ship.
Transport, Oyuri, Barnard’s Star System
A small hologram replayed footage of the destruction of the two halves of the Abyssal Explorer then switched to an aft view of the rocking transport as it continued to plunge toward the surface. Its rear section was burning and its shields struggled to prevent the craft from completely burning up in the atmosphere. Chloe walked toward the cockpit as the gravity of Oyuri took a hold.
“Did everyone make it off?” she asked the pilot.
“Six escape pods,” he said. “Two transports one of them being us.”
She slammed her first on the back of the vacant chair she stood behind. “Six? That’s it?!”
“Five now . . . my gods,” he said, terrorized. The computer updated him with grim information. “The Pelican, it’s shooting at them!”
“Get us away from the rest of the pods and the transport,” Chloe said. “Spread out, make it harder for them to
target, fire, then find another target.”
With what little flight control the transport had left, it turned away from the remaining five escape pods and transport.
A rocky valley came into view through the windshield, the transport swerved, coming close to crashing into rocky pillars and small mountains. The piloted yelled for everyone to brace themselves for what was about to come next. The transport crash-landed into a sand dune then rolled in the sand and rocks leaving behind its imprints on the surface.
The crash-landing was probably the smoothest one Chloe had been on in recent memory and a reminder that she was starting to become fearful of riding transports. It seemed every other one she boarded ended up crashing. Karklosea and Stolanei slowly started to get their weakened bodies back up after the crash. Chloe didn’t want to know what kind of headache they were going to have, as neither of them had fully recovered from the psionic trauma from earlier.
“Did they make it?” Chloe asked the pilot as he came to.
He looked down and checked his screen. Six blue dots appeared to have landed not far from where they crashed. “Looks like it.”
“Let’s all get out,” she said to everyone aboard. “We’re sitting ducks here.”
“I’ll contact them—”
“No keep radio silence, the Pelican might be trying to listen in.”
“Good point,” Stolanei said “Let’s not give away the fact we survived.”
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2 Page 2