Legacy of a Galactic Empire - Episode 2 - First Contact
Please note, this is the second part of an ongoing story. I would strongly recommend reading Chapter 1 first.
“So there I was, gathering my fleet for my first ever battle deployment as a Rear Admiral. I rushed into that battle expecting to be met with traitors, or perhaps some small civilization that had gotten to rowdy. The thought never crossed my mind that when I passed through that Gate I would find something far beyond my imagining. Let this recount of the First Contact be the first lesson I teach you.”
The Leviathans were the most massive ships I had ever seen. Their marvelous stainless steel hulls seemed to stretch forever. In reality it stretched for about 14.5 miles, which for a warship was beyond massive. The Empire had a total of about a thousand of these massive gods of war, which was a very, very short supply for any other ship that wasn’t a Levi. These ships packed a total of 576 “Medusa” anti-fighter laser cannons, 341 “Apollo” Orbit to Ground artillery cannons mounted on it’s sides and underbelly, 120 “Serrated Blade” Ship to Ship auto cannons, 4 “Goddess” photon turrets, two facing forward two facing backward, and finally their main gun, a single “Havoc” Photon Super Cannon. That last one used to make me purr when I heard the name; it was the single dead sexiest weapon a ship captain could own. That main gun could shear through the biggest Titan you could find like a hot knife through butter. I once saw a Leviathan test fire its main gun at a non-colonized planet, the Photon beam hit at its north pole and put a crater in it so big that you could see it from space. Half the planet ended up flooding after wards from the amount of ice that had melted from the blast.
In the whole time I had served in the 112th I had never seen the four Levi’s we owned in the same place until then. It was frightening even to me and I was on their side. I’ve heard that a Levi that’s fully loaded with fighters could block out the sun of a planet, and that each one carried enough ground forces to commence a ground war on every planet in a sector that contained 70 systems. Those captains were lucky sons of bitches, especially Admiral Polav who was in command of the “SSV Colossus” a Leviathan that was furnished inside with a War Room that had the capability to give a SITREP of every known universal conflict at anytime. It was full of other similar rooms and technologies that an Admiral would need to wage a successful war effort. He was also in command of the whole Invasion fleet as well as each of it’s Leviathans and their respective Frigate transports. I had the great honor of being the wing that would accompany the Admiral and his Levies to the North East “corner” of sector 12 of Falcon crest whilst the rest of the fleet jumped to the South West “corner”.
The plan was that both halves of the fleet would slowly converge on the center of the sector where Paradise Rock, the Capital planet of Falcon Crest, resided. Falcon Crest was on of the two Galaxies that were completely ruled by the empire so it was a major source for the Empire’s resources. So if this was a rebellion, like the Admiral suggested, the capital would most likely already be under rebel control and therefore was our fleet’s top offensive priority.
“Rear Admiral, I just received a transmission from the Admiral he is asking us to prepare our engines for Gate jump and that we will be following him and his Levies in as soon as we are ready.” Lieutenant Franz announced
Finally, it had taken them long enough “Very good. Ensign Makwits prepare the engines and activate the gate beacon I want to be ready for jump in three minutes.”
“Ay Rear Admiral, I’ll have us ready in two.”
“Lieutenant Franz, give the green light to the rest of the wing I want them ready in the same time.” I yelled and got an Ay Admiral in return.
The engines once again made a thunderous creak as they activated, shaking the ship just slightly. I always hated that shaking; it made my head feel like someone had slammed a nail into the back of my head. As I waited for the confirmation that my wing was ready, I took one last look at Ankou. The planet was covered in a thick green mist that obscured everything below cloud level. I knew, however, that past it’s planetary ring and below it’s mucus green shroud there was a bounty of photon and disrupter turrets were prepared to blow anything unfriendly into dust.
“Sir!” Lieutenant Franz called “All Heavy Cruisers report that fighters are locked down, power cells are charged and engines online.”
“Great, send a transmission to the Admiral and let him know that our wing is go for jump.”
“Ay transmission away.”
My heart was beating fast, this was it, I was about to jump into my first conflict as a Rear Admiral. I looked to Kiri who looked a little nervous as she looked out the window at the Jump Gate. “Miss Losup, you look nervous are you alright?”
Kiri shook her head like she had just been snapped out of a day dream and looked to me “Oh yes I’m fine, it’s just that I’ve never made a jump between galaxies like this before. I was born on New Hope and never left the galaxy.”
“Then you have been missing out, you haven’t lived until you have seen galaxies outside your own.” It was true, I loved seeing new planets even the ones with the disgusting aliens. Every so often you would meet a species that was not totally repulsive, but that didn’t mean they were any less dangerous. My last XO had been killed by a Nebbark-Taue, a race of aliens that resemble humans with shells in place of their skin.
I was reminiscing about my last XO and our various travels when the Jump Gate suddenly started to glow a brilliant blue. Its metal frame seemed to be catching fire with blue flames as it powered up. A large turbine located in the opening of the Jump Gate began to spin, and as it did it began to conduct sharp rods of electricity that were bright enough to blind me if the window didn’t have it’s auto tint.
“Look alive people! Everybody strap in and prepare to move into the gate!”
I watched as the S.S Colossus sailed smoothly through the emptiness towards the gate. As the Levi got within a few hundred yards of the JG the electricity from the turbine began to strike its hull, the rest of the Levis and their escorts following close behind. It was mere seconds latter that the electricity enwrapped the ship like a blanket, and then in a blink of an eye the ship was gone. Then the next Levi and its transports went through the same process, and then the next each ship being launched into a Gate Jump towards Falcon Crest. It took about two minuets for the Admiral’s Levis to get through the gate, and then it was my turn to send my troops into the fray.
“Ensign Makwits, send the coordinates to the Gate and start jump approach.” I ordered.
He acknowledged my orders, and then started the engines propelling the Destiny forward towards the gate. As we got closer the electricity from the turbines began to strike the hull like we had just entered a lightning storm. Each hit caused a sharp crack to echo throughout the bridge, and caused the strong metal hull to glow a bright burning red where it struck. Every so often a rod of deadly light would strike the window and create an ear bursting boom that shook your skull like a snow globe. When he finally got within Jump range a sheet of electricity swept over the hull, and then just like that we were launched into a worm hold like tube that was made of electricity that in circled the Destiny. For the first few minuets I could feel my body getting pulled backward into my seat, my whole body was tingly and my stomach was turning. However, once the Gravity systems readjusted the feelings of discomfort disappeared almost instantly.
“Rear Admiral, the jump was successful all systems are online and I have confirmation that the rest of the wing will be through the gate in about five minutes. They will increase their jump speed as much as possible so that we will only have about a thirty second delay between our arrival and the rest of the wings arrival.” Ensign Makwits said
“Not bad, how long is the trip and how far are we behind the Admiral?” I asked
“We should arrive in about four hours, about a minute and a half after the admiral.” He answered
I stood from my chair and closed the blast doors of the window before stepping down from the platform on which my chair sat “Very good, I’ll be in my quarters. Hail my room’s com when we are twenty minutes out.” I replied
“Will do sir.” He said
I left the bridge in the hands of Miss Losup and headed back down the pearly white halls to the elevator where I transported myself down to what was known commonly as the “Brass hall” in the mid section of the ship. This hall contained the XO’s quarters, my quarters, and the commander of ground operations quarters, an extra room for high ranking guests and finally a situation room. The hall itself was basically a circular room which contained the entrances to each quarter, which were evenly spaced around the room. When the elevator doors opened I was faced with my quarter’s entrance which was straight across the room. I strode over to the door and placed my hand on the center of the locking mechanism. The scanner implanted within it took a quick scan of my finger prints to verify it was me before unlocking and sliding open to reveal my dark cabin. When I stepped inwards a light hum echoed off the walls as the lights automatically started to brighten to a comfortable level.
When I first got command of the ship my cabin was very plain, but luckily the Empire pretty much lets the head of the ships do what they want with their cabins as long as the money they spend is their own. I spent half of my career savings furnishing this room of mine which originally was just a desk, computer and twin sized bed with a bathroom in the back. Now it had a king sized bed, a desk with a top grade military computer system, a wall mounted 15inch television display, and the best part I had a holographic ceiling panels installed. They were not allowed by the ECND because they drew extra power from the ship. But somehow being able to look up at the starry skies of my home world while in my quarters was worth the possible court martial. I was going to put in Holographic floor tiles too but I decided not to push it so I just replaced them with stainless steel. I figure if I was going to spend pretty much all my time on this ship I was going to be damn comfortable during it.
“Day Cycle!” I called aloud, the ceiling panels lit up for a second before displaying a blue sky with an afternoon sun that was on it’s way to sinking below the horizon which lay on the right side wall of my room. In the center of the sky, in big white writing, it said “19:30 GST”. So it was 7:30 Galactic Standard Time which basically meant that you had a sixty, forty chance that whatever world you go too that it will either be broad day or dark as hell. The reason being that the empire’s galactic standard time was based of the time zones in the “Maliken Imperial Zone” galaxy which was where the capital of the whole Empire resided. So if you traveled anywhere outside the MKZ you either needed to drastically change your clock to anything from 24hour days to 168 hour days, or you just deal with staying on the MKZ thirty-six hour clock and guessed your way through days.
I kicked my boots off and removed my belt, which held a pistol in a holster, then did away with the top portion of my Admirals uniform. Those bloody things got so damn uncomfortable a room full of naked strippers couldn’t get your mind off it. He moved to the mini fridge I had put beside my bed and grabbed a nice big bottle of “Dark Space Brandy”. It probably wasn’t the best idea to be drinking right before something like a battle but my nerves were getting to me. The whole back collar of my uniform had been soaked in sweet and I had some nasty butterflies in my stomach. I was in command of 642,000 Heavy cruisers not counting the fighters they held. That meant that between the ground forces on those ships, plus the crews I was responsible for just over half a billion lives. I don’t want to meet a man who can do that for the very first time and not need a drink. I retrieved a glass a poured myself some brandy before taking a seat on the bed and taking sip.
“Oleic Leb stars.” I called as I looked to the ceiling. Right before my eyes the afternoon sky disappeared and the starry night sky of my home lay out before me. They glowed with the same exact magnificence as the day I last saw them. I was lying in the grass with my girlfriend, Sofi, in my arms, just starring at the stars. It was the night before I shipped out to boot camp for the first time, and she said that she wanted me to remember my home world. So she took out a camera and just filmed the night sky with my arms wrapped around her. We didn’t talk we just sat and let it tape all the way until morning, and that’s the exact video that was playing in my cabin through my holographic panels. I smiled as I looked up at the stars, remembering those days not long ago. Remembering how she said she would be waiting for me when I return, how she would still be waiting for me. But…There was a knock on my door and I was thrown back into reality. I quickly shut off the video, it was for my eyes only, and gulped down the last bit of brandy before striding to my door. I hit the open panel on the wall and the doors slide aside to reveal Kiri in her tight, black XO’s uniform.
“Hello Mikhile.” She said in a voice a sweet as sugar
“Kiri, I thought you were commanding the bridge?” I had said
Kiri slipped past me and into my room as she spoke “Oh I figured that with Makwits at the helm we would be in good hands.”
“Makwits, oh damn we are all doomed.” I kidded
“Why do you say that?” she smiled as she studied my room
I closed the door and followed behind her “He is a great pilot, but he couldn’t command a herd of sheep.” Kiri giggled
“You should have more faith in your crew Rear Admiral.” She said as she spun on her heel to face me.
“I have faith in some of them.” I said obviously hinting to her as I leaned up against the wall
She gave a smile with those gorgeous white teeth of hers “Oh really now?” she said as she walked up to me and stopped within about arms reach “Anybody in particular?” she whispered
I grinned back as I lowered my voice “Well, I’ll give you a hint. She’s smart, funny, and gorgeous.” I said as I got closer
She smiled and bit her under lip “and?” she asked
“And she looks really good in black.” I whispered, and she replied with a short giggle. Ever so slowly we inched in to each other, our lips just a finger reach away from one another. I could feel her warm breath against my face, and as the tips of her lips touched mine something happened. This all felt so wrong, all I could think about was Sofi and how she would feel about all of this. Kiri was my subordinate for God sakes and look at me, I needed to stop this. I backed out of the kiss just as the whole of our lips touched and turned away from my XO.
“Mikhile what’s wrong? Did I do something?” She asked, worried
I shook my head as I held a hand over my mouth “No, it wasn’t you I…I just.” This was going to sound cliché but it was true “It was me. I just can’t do this right now, I’m sorry.” It was great flirting with her but now…now I just couldn’t deal with getting any deeper, especially when I’m thinking of Sofi.
“Do you not…like me Mikhile?” She asked
“No, it’s not that.” I turned around on a dime and grabbed hold of her shoulders gently “I think you’re very attractive, I just need to work some things out okay? But this isn’t the time for anything to happen between us either. I hope you understand.”
Kiri nodded her head “Yes I understand.” I gave a fake smile to make her feel a little better “Good.” I said as I let go of her shoulders. She looked away from me before saying “I think I should go.”
“You don’t need to.” I said
“No…I need to get some sleep before we go into battle…Goodnight Rear Admiral.” She replied as she opened the door to my cabin and walked out.
The rest of the four hours I spent going in and out of sleep. I was anticipating what was going to happen to much to sleep well, so eventually I resorted to eating a candy bar I had stashed in my fridge and drinking a glass or two of that brandy. Before I knew it the comms device on my wall was wailing with a sharp digitalized sound that signaled a call was coming through.
“Rear Admiral.” The intercom buzzed with Makwits voice
“Yes?” I replied
“We are twenty minuets out from the Falcon Crest Galaxy.”
“Very good, I’ll be up in fifteen.”
“Ay sir.” And with that the intercom deactivated and I began to get redressed in my uniform and restoring my brandy back into its place in my fridge. I hadn’t lied about the time it would take me to get to the bridge for I was there in exactly fifteen minuets. I strode across the catwalk to my seat, giving Kiri a smile that she didn’t return as I did. I ignored your rudeness and continued with what needed to be done.
“Ensign Reld, do weapons checks make sure we are a hundred percent operational for combat.” I called to the weapons operator who gave an “Ay” in return.
“XO Losup, how are our shields and navigation systems looking?” I asked to my would be lover
She fiddled with her computer a second before responding “Shields are at full strength and navigation systems seem to be operating just fine.”
“Good. Engine!” I called out knowing that Makwits would get the message
“Engines are running smooth sir!” He called back
“What’s our ETA?” I asked him
“ETA is a minute sir, the Admirals ships have most likely already come out of the jump.”
“Very good, how are those weapons coming?” I asked as I hit a button on my chair that brought multiple holographic screens appeared in front of me that showed the outside of the ship via the cameras on the hull.
“Medusa cannons report a hundred percent, Anti boarding hull turrets report a hundred percent, Spear Head ship to ship plasma cannons report one hundred percent, and Chaos plasma cannon reports one hundred percent.” Ensign Reld called out
“Perfect, prepare targeting systems for immediate target recognition!” I yelled back as Makwits started one of his famous countdowns
“Arrival in TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN….” My heart was pounding “FOUR< THREE, TWO, ONE!”
All at once the jump ended and the mesh of electricity disappeared, and I was met with the sight of a huge chunk of space debris floating right in front of the ship “Look out Evasive maneuvers now!” I shouted as the bridge was flooded with the sound of collision sirens and red warning lights.
“Hang on!” Makwits shouted as he banked the ship as hard as he could to the right, damn near throwing me out of my chair. The ship just missed the chunk of metal, the hull scrapping against the debris which caused a sound that was like a giant scrapping his finger nails down an equally large chalk board. The sound was long and excruciating, and as the Destiny cleared the debris the rest of the wing came charging out of the jump and into the all of debris. I watched as one Heavy Cruiser came out of the jump right in front of a large hull and collided at full speed with it. The resulting fire ball consumed everything within a hundred yards of the ship for a split second before the vacuum of space put it out. Just like that thousands of lives were lost and all I could do is hope that whatever ship that was hadn’t been loaded down with ground forces and put the death toll at catastrophic level. Luckily the rest of the ships were able to pass by the debris without more then a few scrapes.
“Damn it! Franz that wasn’t the Colossus was it?” I yelled
“Negative sir I’m still picking up a signal from the Admirals ship, trying to pinpoint it now!”
“Rear Admiral, look up ahead!” Kiri yelled as she pointed to the holographic screen in front of her.
I observed my own screen and directly in front of our own bow I could saw hundreds of Imperial Maliken ships firing back and forth at one another. Plasma rounds flew through space like shooting stars, striking their targets causing their shields to flicker into visibility. Other ships weren’t as lucky as frigates fired volleys of red hot missiles into their unshielded hull, ripping them apart and sending shrapnel falling to the planet below. Who was friendly and who was the enemy? There had to be someway to tell them apart or else they would be taking each other out.
“Lieutenant Franz, are you picking up any signals that would help distinguish enemies from friendlies?”
“Negative all signals appear to be of imperial code.” Damn there goes that plan; maybe there was a way to distinguish from visual recognition. I hit the magnify button on my chair and closed in on a cruiser, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I kept searching, observing a few ships until I can across a frequent abnormality on some of the ships hulls. The hulls had been covered in red war paint and the emblems of the ECND had been covered over by a picture of a white fist gripping a planet in front of what appeared to be a blacked out imperial star behind the fist. So this was a rebellion after all.
“Lieutenant Franz, let the rest of the wing know that the enemy ships are coated with red war paint and a non-imperial symbol on their hulls. I want all of our available fighters out of the hangers and into the fight ASAP. The whole wing is to advance into the battle and concentrate fire to increase damage. And have you found the Admiral yet?”
“Ay sir sending the message now. And that is a negative sir there are too many signals being sent out through the immediate area it may take a while to pinpoint his position.”
“Copy that, Ensign Makwits advance on the fight, I want targeting systems to acquire the closest enemy ship and open fire!”
I watched on my screen as our ship advanced closer to the chaos. War is no where near as clean and easy as movies make it seem. Out here in a space based battle its madness. Allied and enemy ships fly are meshed together so close that picking out a target from among them is no easy task. A frigate took a direct hit close to our starboard side and the Destiny was pelted with debris of metal chunks and crewmen who had been tossed from the wreckage. The debris hit the shields and broke into a thousand tiny pieces while the crewmen’s bodies simply disintegrated into nothing when they collided with the mass of energy. As we continued forth multiple ships in my wing had locked onto enemy ships and started their barrage of plasma rounds that struck the rebel shields like meteors. The streaks of blue soared passed my monitors like speeding bullets, and when they collided with enemy shields they exploded into a magnificent display of blue fire.
“Sir I have word that all of our wings fighters are prepared to launch!”
“Do it!” I yelled. Franz sent the message to all my ships and seconds later a mass of fighters, manned and unmanned, blotted out the stars over the ship like a curtain of steel. The small ships started taking anti-fighter fire almost immediately, plasma shells and laser beams flying into their ranks and causing a chain of violent explosions.
“Sir we have been locked onto!” screamed the weapons operator
“Do you have eyes on the source?!”
“Affirmative, eyes on a Nova class frigate, weapons are locking on now!” he shuffled through keys on his computer “Weapons are locked but they have already sent a volley towards us!”
“Fire countermeasures!” I screamed as I hit a button and one of my screens shifted to a camera that was looking directly at the incoming missiles. The missiles were shinning a bright red, and I felt like I was watching the fires of hell coming right at me. The Destiny’s counter measures included an anti-missile laser and a gas made up of chaff that would, in theory, cause the missiles to go off target. I watched as the laser fired and caused one of the dozen missiles burst into flames, then the chaff gas fired. The gas was a dark grey and it shot up at the missiles like ink from an octopus. All but one missile shot off into a different direction and exploded in the distance. The last survivor impacted the shields, exploding a good thirty feet above the hull of my ship. Now it was our turn.
“Fire all Spear Head cannons and charge the main gun, I want that thing dead two minuets ago!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Ay sir main gun charging and Spear Heads are firing!” Ensign Reld announced.
“You doing okay XO?” I called down to Kiri
“Never better sir.” She said in a shaky voice as I turned by attention first to my hull camera which gave me a live feed as the Spear Head auto cannons, which resemble massive bowling balls with a barrel sticking out of them, firing at the frigate. Each of the fifty cannons was unleashing a plasma round every two seconds. The Rounds impacted the frigates shields and caused them to flare as their energy was drained little by little.
“Chaos main gun is fully charged and on target!”
“Fire!” I screamed. The Chaos main gun was hidden in the bow of the ship so all I could see when it fired was the blinding streak of blue and purple that launched from the bow like a beam of light. The whole destiny shook as the gun fired its payload right into the stern of the frigate. The plasmatic round seared through what was left of the frigates shields and cut through its back half like butter. The engines were blown right off and everything in the mid section of the ship appeared to be vented before they could secure the emergency airlocks. Both the aft and fore sections of the frigate then began to descend rapidly to the planet below it, burning red hot in the atmosphere as it fell.
“Target is broken up and falling to the planets surface Rear Admiral!” Kiri shouted.
“That’s one target destroyed people lets make sure there is another soon!”
“Sir! I just picked up the Admirals signal!” Liutenant Franz announced to me
“Good, lock onto his location and send a message to the wing that I want Alpha and Bravo HC Squads to follow us while Charlie and Delta continue the attack! Ensign Makwits when the cords are locked in get us to the Admiral!” I received the usual “Ay sir” in return from the two men, and seconds later the Destiny was speeding up to pass over the planet, known as Eden, where the frigate had just crashed. As the ship coasted across the empty void of space, over the beautiful planet below our Medusa turrets were hard at work destroying wave after wave of fighters. Each time one was hit it would burst into a ball of fire that would stay lit until it fell out of sight, since we were so close to Eden’s atmosphere. I watched with anticipation as we finally climbed over the peak of the planet, but what I saw on the other side struck fear into my heart.
“Dear God what is that thing!” Kiri thought aloud
“I don’t know. Reld! What are the target recognition systems making of it?” I called
“Targeting systems can’t make heads or tails of it sir! I’ve never seen anything close to that design either.”
What was this thing? It was massive that was for sure, however it was not much bigger then the Destiny. It was a ship like none I’d ever seen before; it had the shape of a skinny pentagon with a huge engine on the “back” flanked on either side by one medium sized and one small engine. The mid section of the top of the ship had a large fin down it and there were no visible weapons or command deck on it. It had the same shine too it as the Planetary rings around New Hope. Whatever this thing was it looked like it could take on one of our navies Death Stars.
“Sir, the Admirals ship has been sheared in half look!” Makwits shouted. My first thought was, what? Sheared in half I thought. Up to that point I’ve heard of Levi’s being damaged to the point they explode or the crew getting vented out of all the holes made in the hull. But, one being sheared in half that was impossible I thought, until I looked at my screen and saw the Colossus. Makwits was right; the Leviathan had been completely sheared right down the middle, creating two separate sections of ship. Escape pods were being launched towards Eden’s surface from the ship as the two sections slowly burned from the inside out in the planets upmost atmosphere. The craziest thing was, that the only ship besides the Colossus present, besides the Destiny and the ships that followed, was that pentagon that now floated perfectly still in space.
“I want all of our ships to lock onto that thing and fire! Hit it with every hull mounted weapon in our arsenal!” I had shouted
“Ay sir!” Franz and Reld had replied. I observed as all of our turrets shifted onto target, and the ship was turned so that the Chaos cannon, within the bow, was facing this new enemy. “Sir we are locked on and ready to fire!”
“Franz, open up comms to all ships that followed us here!” I screamed out
A few seconds later Franz called back “It’s done sir!”
It was time to make more scum dead “All ships open fire on that thing, I want it dead!”
Just like that a cloud of blue’s, reds and purples from the Heavy Cruisers turrets and cannons made its way across space to the pentagon. The Destiny shook as the Chaos cannon fired and sent a round spiraling towards the ship. It took only a few seconds for the cloud of death to collide with the ships shields causing a multi colored light that would have cooked the eyeballs of anybody on the hull. It was such a magnificently bright light that the ship was hidden by it momentarily. I grinned with satisfaction that we had made a huge dent in that things shield and that it would turn and run scared. When the light and plasmatic residue cleared from in front of the ship I was met with the sight of the vessel turning, but not to run away, it was turning towards us!
“Reld! What is that things energy status?”
“I don’t know sir I’m not picking up any energy signatures!”
“It looks like it’s moving into attack position!” Kiri shouted. This wasn’t good, whoever was the captain of that ship must have been crazy, I thought.
“All ships prepare to fire again!” I called out.
“Sir! I’m picking up a massive energy wave building up in the bow of the ship!”
“Is it powering up-
That’s as much as I got out of my mouth before that unknown ship launched a beam of energy that was of the likes I’d never seen. It was a green spiraling wave of energy that looked almost like water in a vortex as it made its way across space in a split second, striking the Heavy cruiser next to the Destiny. Its shields didn’t flicker and there was no chance for the crew to escape, the ship just got sheared vertically in half right before it exploded. The resulting shockwave shook the Destiny like an Earthquake and sent it into a gentle drift to its starboard side.
“Get us stea-
There was no charge up time for that ship; before I could finish my sentence it had already destroyed another ship, and another, then another. It was so fast that even after the Destiny regained its stability I couldn’t keep track of the number of ships we were losing.
“Kill that thing! I want the Spirits Edge to fire one of its Particle Bomb WMDs! And I want all ships firing again!” I yelled as the Destiny was brought back around before firing every one of its guns at this ship from hell. The shells landed with what seemed like no affect. What in the hell was this thing? I thought to myself.
“Sir, Spirits Edge reporting that the WMD is on its way!” Franz called
“Brace for the explosion!” I cried as I watched a streak of sparkling lights streak overhead towards the enemy ship.
“Sir we are too close we need to move!” But there was no time, the particle bomb impacted with the ship. There was a split second were all the sparkling lights collapsed into one another, and time seemed to stop. Then all at once the lights shot back into space followed by a mass of dark energy which began to rapidly expand in every direction, tearing apart any ships that were close enough. I couldn’t tell what had happened to the enemy ship for the energy had blocked it out.
All I could think about was two things, the first was that by ordering the launch of the WMD I had just cost my own ships and the men on them, and two I had also killed myself and my entire crew. The dark energy approached the Destiny and I shouted something at the top of my lungs, I’m not even sure what. When the energy hit I was tossed out of my seat like a rag doll. The last thing I remember was hitting the ground…and Kiri screaming my name…..
END OF EPISODE TWO
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode just as much if not more then the last. I got a little self conscious towards the end, thought maybe I was rushing it a little hopefully not. Please leave feedback and instead of a question here is a little fact about the story.
All the alien speech, names and some of the planet names are all just words in a different language flipped backwards. For example Mikhiles home planet of Oleic Leb was originally the Italian phrase bel cielo which means beautiful sky.
Story sent by Corey W. for the AE Stories event.