Authors: Max Feinstein
Rebeka had never seen anything like it before and even before the initial shock could fade she saw another of her ships blossom into a large explosion at the very edge of the forward display screen.
The frigate
Hinkley
ceased to be at that moment as its central control and support structure vanished into another singularity. Gravity fields around the vortex pulled both of the severed double hulls into its center, disintegrated large sections of these structures before fading itself. In the end less than half of the vessel’s former mass remained floating dead in space.
“I want all of our spare supplies and
ordinance loaded into every available shuttle and transport,” Rebeka ordered at the instant almost reflexively, “I want our forces on the planet to have as much support as possible.”
Commodore Jonstan barely finished the order when the whole ship rocked violently and groaned beneath her feet. If it hadn’t been for her chair’s gravitic restraints her body would have been tossed to the deck by the force.
Damage alarms instantly filled the bridge and DIA began to automatically update everyone on the status of the ship from multiple internal detonations. On the monitor before her Rebeka witnessed the entire bow of the ship disappear into a micro singularity. Another such event had occurred along the starboard side, beside the carrier’s hanger. A third such strike went off at the rear of the ship, but seemed to thankfully affect only the upper levels the hull, sparing the engine bays and engineering sections.
“Foreign object detected Deck F Zero Nine. Emergency barriers erected. Unknown energy signature detected. Recommend extreme causing from all personnel,” warned DIA in her ever soft tone, as if nothing serious was
happening at the moment.
She paused for a moment
over the sound of damage control teams reporting their locations and looked at the ever changing tactical map. Beside this map appeared a new projection of the
Federation
herself showing all of the damaged areas in bright red. It was quickly apparent that multiple internal areas had been damaged secondarily due to massive stresses applied to the old vessel’s support structure. Cracks from the initially effected sections had spread further into the ship and weakened some of its bulkheads.
“
Weapons, target the interior of NS Stanton, I want a ComRec sat launched into it with our next barrage.” Rebeka finally ordered with a deep breath and began to input the wanted coordinates, knowing deep inside that the battle here was all but lost.
As she finished that command
flashes of death and defeat began play through her mind. Others on the bridge started to appear unease as well. Every man and woman crew member seemed to be eyeing on another with either suspicion in their eyes or fear on their faces.
We are all going to die here…the captain is going to get us all killed…what are we doing here?
Rebeka heard them whispering to one another between issuing orders to the rest of the ship. She wanted to tell them something, but couldn’t find the right words as a headache began to grow deep within her forehead.
Trying to concentrate harder in order to command her task group properly Rebeka willed herself to look up at the display. She began to watch her three remaining escorts
falter from their steady place in the defensive line. Each one quavered and drifted in different directions against her direct orders. They were wounded, but not out of the fight just yet and Rebeka knew the captains of those ships would never run from a fight if they could help it. Something must have happened onboard those vessels causing them to break formation. She began to call out a new command when her head exploded with pain. It was as if a laser scalpel had burned into her skull.
The sensation was unlike any that she had ever experienced or felt before. Not only was there intense pain, but along with it came terrible
visions of death and suffering. They were not just of her and her crew, but of the entire Federation. Innocent people were crying out for help only to be devoured by something evil. Something inside her was telling her to quick and stop the fighting. The more she tried to fight it the more intense the pain got.
Yelling and the sound of a gun being fired made Rebeka force her eyes open. All around her the entire bridge crew was out of their stations and fighting
with each other. One of them was already dead, their body bent over the control station they were sitting at with a plasma burn wound in the middle of his back. Others were rolling around the deck beating each other and the helmswoman was actually sitting at her console almost catatonic.
“Increase in violent acts ha
s been observed on all decks Commodore Jonstan. I am unable to determine the source of the instigation. The continued operational capability of this ship is at great risk,” informed the onboard artificial intelligence to a barely coherent Rebeka.
Her half opened eyes managed to catch a glitter of movement within the surrounding bridge display as new warning alarms sounded. Fighting through the pain to concentrate harder
the commodore’s visions proved closer to reality then she had allowed herself to believe. There, not a kilometer from her mighty carrier, stood a large enemy ship that not been there previously. Rebeka was not able to fully take in the alien vessel before two beams of orange light coalesced along its side and slammed into the
Federation’s
port shields. The carrier rocked from the impact, its already weakened shields flaring bright from the assault. Instead of multiple beams like Federation systems, these alien weapons were single concentrations of solid energy. They sustained contact with the shields for over three seconds straight before finally cutting out to give the carrier a moments rest.
Her own ship was not defenseless, though, and
unleashed a broadside of its own from the ASDS under DIA’s guidance. Empty space surrounding the carrier lit up in a multicolor display of force as waves of particle beams and plasma bolts fired out at the hostile alien vessel. These were quickly joined by a number of disruption pulse beams and anti-ship missiles. Under the punishment a crimson force field ignited around the other ship and flickered as the different weapons assaulted it. It wasn’t clear whether anything penetrated its defensives, but most of the missiles seemed to miss completely as they were pushed off course by some invisible force. It was then that the alien ship fired again, only this time with four separate beams instead of two.
Ahead the escort line was also being under attack. Two alien vessels pounded away at the
Dao
and the destroyer
Olstaburg
with multiple beam weapons. The Federation Naval vessels were fighting back, but only barely, utilizing a rather small percentage of their firepower. Rebeka was coherent enough at that point to observe a large yellow ray discharge from the side of one of the alien ships and slice into her heavy cruiser. It seemed to bypass its shields entirely and slowly move its way across the centerline. No external damage was noted on the display, but lights throughout the vessel began to flicker out and more defensive systems ceased to function. She forced herself to look over at the destroyer just in time to witness a massive red and violet lance of energy slam into the ship. The
Olstaburg’s
shields became visible only for a mere second before the beam slashed straight through them and carved its way through the vessel’s starboard side. Heavy armor plating vaporized almost instantly as the enemy forced its way deep into the ship’s interior before blasting out of the ventral side of the ship. It sliced clean through the destroyer and proceeded to make an almost surgical like cut towards the rear of the ship. When it was finished and the beam dissipated an entire section of the warship was served cleanly from the hull. In horror she watched as a number of crewmembers were thrown out of the ship’s interior into cold dark space.
The deck plating under Rebeka’s feet rocked once more, even harder this time, as the enemy renewed its assault.
Among the chaos progressing throughout the bridge she watched Captain Stewart slowly make his way closer to towards her. He seemed disoriented just like her, but was still trying hard to keep the peace with a pulse pistol firmly in his hand. Another flash of light caught her attention from the monitor. She turned towards it and saw another powerful beam shoot out from the tip of an alien vessel’s nose. The beam emerged from what seemed like a glowing, swirling ball completely made up of energy floating between three prongs projecting out of the ship’s forward hall. The ray of red and violet light pierced through the
Dao’s
already weakened shields without even slowing out and cut through the rear section of the massive ship in seconds. Even with a sharp unbeatable headache Rebeka realized what was going to happen next. There was nothing she could do, however, but watch the heavy cruiser shatter into pieces as the breached dark matter reactors and tanks detonated. The reactive force of the unstable darmatium fuel was enough to not only completely destroy the cruiser, but also the frigate
Grainger
that had hung beside her. For a moment, just before the blast, she thought she could see the frigate actually firing at the cruiser instead of the enemy vessel.
“Shield failure detected. Rerouting all available power to try and compensate,” DIA said at the moment before two of the lances firing at the
Federation
sliced through the port side shield and cut into the hull armor itself.
New damage and hull breach warnings began to appear on the tactical display. Just as the beams disengaged a new yellow one fired from the side of the alien vessel. Unlike the
previous weapons it only scared the hull, but at the same time lights around the bridge dimmed for a moment before coming back. New alarms called for her attention and the ship’s display began to show multiple systems going offline, both weapons and sensors.
“
Radiation warning! Port side shield projectors offline,” DIA warned.
Rebeka knew something had to done to warn the rest of the Federation because the ship had very little
chance of escaping this battle intact. “Edrone and shuttles…launch,” she forced herself to order.
“All Edrones launch cells have been destroyed.
Supply shuttles and transports launching from port hanger.”
“
Roll to port…Initiate …marker spread…all Sierra’s,” Rebeka struggled in her commands as if something outside of her was trying to stop her, “launch the ComRec.”
“Acknowledged, targets acquired, missiles away.” DIA replied as it carried out the order
and the commodore watched the ship roll in space slowly in order to present a still shielded side to the enemy.
Launch doors over the missile cells spread out all over the ship’s hull retracted and magnetically launched two salvos of twenty missiles each within seconds of each other. The first didn’t take long to reach its target, swarming over the enemy vessel directly opposing the
Federation
. These missiles all detonated before the enemy could activate their repulsion field and scattered their microscopic internal contents towards the ship itself as well as the space surrounding it. At the same time a half dozen shuttles and dropships escaped the carrier at high speeds, heading towards Frontiera. Most of them were autopilot guided as the pilots fought to control their own actions. For the time being they would be able to fly under the
Federation’s
and DIA’s direct supervision.
As if in response another yellow beam of energy
fired from the ship and slashed into the carrier once more. Avoiding the shields entirely the beam moved from the bow to the stern of the large ship. Rebeka watched the overhead glow panels explode before yellow lightening erupted all over the bridge. Some of it slammed into a nearby control station and caused it to blow out. In doing so the electricity actually jumped from the console and hit a crewmember. The man convulsed and instantly dropped to the deck. At the same time power went out from all over the command deck, causing Rebeka to get thrown from her seat as another powerful shot rocked the carrier.
“Unauthorized personnel on the bridge,” DIA cried out at the moment.
Rebeka pulled herself off the floor and held her aching head, while looking towards the rear of the bridge. There, just off the secure gravlift, stood two of the ship’s marines with weapons in their hands. Slowly they moved towards Commodore Jonstan, pointing their rifles towards her. Captain Stewart must have seen them as well because he moved to take up position between them and her.
“I can’t stop it,” one of the marines said slowly, forcing it from his mouth.
“Shoot me,” the other called out to the captain as he squeezed on the trigger.
His shots went wide and hit the forward display screen at the front of the bridge
. The other marine fired as well, but those bolts were spread across the bridge, striking a couple of other bridge members. Captain Stewart finally responded in defense. He missed with his first shots, but struck the marines consecutively after. Their armor deflected each shot, however, and they kept on coming without much pause.
“Commodore Jonstan, I have a suggestion if you will,” DIA said, “unshackle my programming. I can get us out of here, but I have calculated that there is little time. I am unable to do anything without your authorization
. My analysis confirmed that you are incapacitated along with the rest of the crew.”