50 (DSV Nautica) Fight or flight
Aki laid in her private quarters aboard the station, all Elites got their own quarters, though the enlists got put into communal housing. She liked the privacy that was afforded by a room, but missed the social connections she had made during her time in Academy. But privacy was important. She had a scroll in here with her, safely tucked under the soft, synthetic sheets, beside her hip.
Her thoughts turned to the ship that they had encountered. They needed to mention it to somebody, but how? She wasn't willing to divulge her possession of a scroll. Her hand tightened around it at the thought of that ship. They had received no contact from the thing before its fighters attacked. They attached an Ayr'een cruiser, which had to make a retreat. That quite honestly scared her. They always lived under the shadow of the dragons, but their shadow only covered a galaxy, and had been pretty well known since the beginning. How had this new enemy escaped them for so long?
She felt a presence making itself known outside. She knew that presence.
"Zhi...what are you waiting for?" She called out, stone faced.
He let himself in, quietly shutting the door behind him. He moved toward the seat near the bed, but Aki reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him over to the bed and holding him around his waist. Neither of them needed to speak to understand. They just needed the company. He relaxed back into the bed, pulling himself sideways, so she was hugging him from the side, resting her head on his shoulder. The scroll fell between the rest platform and wall with a small thump. She began stroking his stomach while nuzzling into his shoulder feathers, making her nose itch.
"Aki...about us-"
"Shut up and hug me."
"Okay."
He smiled to himself, while she let out a smirk, rubbing against him. They took pleasure in lying together and not talking, their will essence mingling and combining into a larger single entity.
"I love you."
"And I you."
Flare dodged a hurling fighter, then another. If she got hit by one of these things, it would be all over. It would probably rip her apart from raw force. One of them opened fire, but she deflected it with ease, using its shot to destroy another fighter. The reaction was immediate. Five more of the things descended upon her and began firing. She raised a defensive shield. Each shot felt like a crushing blow to her will, making her mind weak. She raced at breakneck speeds toward the Mors, trying to get into the hangar bay. She had commanded her team to get inside while she covered them, but sure enough it was drawing aggression as whatever controlled these things began to perceive her as a threat.
Trying a few tricks, she dodged the fighters. They seemed to be changing tactics. They were throwing themselves in her way trying to knock her off of her board, while their fellows fired on her from a distance. This was getting to be too much. She roared, though silent in space, and let off a shock wave of will centered on her, destroying nearby fighters, and pushing away the ones further away.
Damn, that hadn't destroyed many, and they just kept coming. Like robots. Where they automated? Drones? Her excessive wondering cost a price as she lost concentration for a moment, and a drone slammed into her board, causing a chaotic tumble. She grabbed onto the back of the drone, holding on. She had to test this.
The others didn't even blink. They fired on Flare , and even the drone she was riding didn't seem to dodge. In fact, the drone was headed right at the Mors. Oh...
Flare jumped off at the last second, before the drone hit the side of the ship, shattering and taking out several conduits with it. She threw herself through space, summoning her board to her side, laying on it and rolling slowly, using it to help block the incoming shots. She was beginning to get tired, she had to get inside.
The inside of the Mors shook slightly, and conduits flared unusually bright for a moment. Then a second explosion rocked the whole ship, making a few unprepared crew members fall over, sending the whole ship into a spiral.
"Primary gun conduit exploded, we only have the left cannon." The atmosphere on the bridge abruptly grew grim.
"Fine! Fire!" Loki snapped at Ba'kun. He gave the command.
The left gun charged, blazing brighter than a star, requiring that the displays be shut down or polarized in order to protect the crew, but it still burned into their retinas, leaving purple splashes of color across their field of vision, requiring some to pause and repair the damage done. The sphere of energy fired at the center ship, hitting it dead in the nose. The skin of the ship peeled back, the round fired by the Mors' cannon blazing a path right through it. It split down the middle, with a red flash, raining the remaining two in debris. A large portion of the small fighters attacking just died in place, hurling off in random trajectories, a few clanging against the hull of the Mors. The rest ignored their fallen brethren and continued the attack. The remaining two ships began what Loki could only describe as evasive maneuvers, at least as evasive as ships that size could be.
Flare made it to the hangar bay, landing and rolled off from her belly to a standing position, her body still in a rush from the events outside. The moment she stood on the deck, she collapsed as pain shot through her body. Her scream was cut short as she shut her mouth, holding her leg. She looked down, only to find herself thinking 'my leg shouldn't feel like that...'She felt the side of her upper calf before letting out a grunt, hitting a spot that shot pain through her body again. Yep, probably broken. She sighed and shook her head. Way to go Flare. Way to let your guard down and get a broken leg. She focused on it for a moment and repaired the bone structure, dulling the pain while it healed over a few seconds. She stood and flexed her toes, feeling pretty normal again. Easy fix, but it really shouldn't have happened in the first place.
"Charge the cannon, again. And destroy those ships. I want them gone!"
Ba'kun was too busy trying to do just that to respond. Another shot began to charge from the Mors' forward cannon, another sun shining bright before launching itself at the next target. The ship tried to get out of the way, but the blast caught it in the tail, sending it into a chaotic spin while shattering. The pieces fell into the nearby planet's atmosphere, fire burning around the edges. Many on the ship silently grimaced at the thought of the impact it would create.
The final ship turned and began to head away from them, instead of its previous perpendicular course.
"Follow that ship and destroy it!" Loki lashed out, slamming her foot down on the floor, sending a wave through the bridge will conduits.
Tyr was pale, trying to get the ship to obey. "Admiral-"
"WHAT!?"
"Engines are offline..."
Loki stared at the back of his head, then scanned around the bridge to everyone present.
"Fix. Them." She said, with a pseudo-calm tone.
Messages began to flood engineering, demanding that the engines be brought back online. The rear thrusters fired, slowly bringing the Mors to a crawl after the ship. The faint pinging of the space debris and deactivated drones against the hull was audible, barely.
The cannon began to charge its last shot. Drones began suicide runs, smashing into the hull at speeds comparable to projectile bullets from primitive civilizations. The gun began to falter, only brought to three-quarters power.
"Fire the weapon anyway."
The shot soared through space, slightly slow, and smaller than usual, but it landed, shattering a piece off the rear of the ship. The red veins along it flickered, and some died. It struggled to go on, trying to perform evasive maneuvers. It was almost comical to watch.
"Ram them into the atmosphere. And charge another shot."
"Admiral?"
"Do it."
Tyr brought the Mors in line with the ship. The engineers reconnected broken conduits, giving a speed boost to the massive ship. It was now flying at half speed toward the wounded enemy, whom was having the drones focus on their engines now, trying to kill them and buy time, but the point defense was picking them off, and any who got too close was annihilated.
"30 seconds to impact."
The halls began to alternate between red and blue as collision warnings sounded.
"10 seconds."
Engineering secured loose objects, and themselves. Flare braced herself against the walls, hovering off the ground to dissipate the shock as best she could.
"Impact."
The impact was silent in space, but from inside the Mors, it sounded like a hollow booming of sheet metal. The ship jerked to a halt, with the occupants used their will to cushion their bodies if it became necessary.
The other ship began to tumble, falling toward the planet.
"Ba'kun...please make that ship go away." Loki requested.
The cannon fired, blasting a hole right through it, leaving the ship looking somewhat like an oblong disk with a hollow middle. The conduits died immediately. The shot emerged through the ship, skimming the atmosphere, and fizzling out approximately half a million kilometers away.
"Send out collection teams. I want one of those...things...to take back with us. And tag these coordinates. The science teams will want a look at all of this." Loki spoke rapidly, but nonetheless there was a sigh among the bridge crew. They had survived this encounter, but the question remained; what were these new adversaries of theirs? It was almost certain in everyone's mind that these things were what killed the population on the planet below. Why had they done it? And once again, who or what were they?