Fading Stars Ch. 01

"Weapons?"

"Still working."

"Sir, enemy fighters incoming!"

"Give me a broad point defense screen. Take down as many as you can."

"Sir, ATLAS is down," Deeva cut in. "Isn't he the one to man the turrets?"

Orix cursed. "Can you manage?"

Deeva nodded. "Yes. On it." Without the AI constantly looking over her shoulder, she circumvented the security systems and logged directly into the ship's fire control system. The Novitar had sixty turrets spread evenly around her hull, capable of throwing a screen of high-energy plasma bursts around the ship to intercept incoming projectiles or space debris. Without the starboard plasma circuit, that number dropped by a third.

"Gaia, can you turn us around? I need to bring the port turrets into play."

"On it."

On the main screen, the view turned upside-down as Gaia rolled the Novitar onto its back. Like dust struck by sunlight, tiny explosions bloomed as the Novitar's fighters and the alien craft engaged.

"Sir!" Zamos yelled.

"What?"

"Wing 2 just reported the alien ships aren't firing back. They're ignoring our fighters!"

"Because they're not ships," Tabby muttered. "They're boarding spikes!"

"How are we on the point defense, Deeva?"

"Enemies will be in range... now." The Silician activated the turrets, immolating the first wave of incoming missiles. The second wave didn't fare much better. Despite her best efforts, a few spikes slipped past the barrage of plasma fire. By the third wave, it was obvious that she wouldn't be able to destroy every single incoming projectile.

"I hope every one of you is aware that we need to stop this thing here and now," Orix said, barely audible over the wail of alarms and impacts rocking the ship. "We're less than two days away from our capitol system. This thing must not be allowed to get any closer, understood?"

"Yes sir!" Zamos snapped. "Mass cannons firing!"

"Damage report!"

"I have no further hull breaches yet," Vecora said, plugging override cables into her console and rerouting the damaged systems onto her wrist comms.

"Security reports we have intruders on board. Dispatching marines."

"They must have crept in through the hull breaches," Orix guessed. "Did we do any damage on that thing?"

"I hit one of the tentacles. It's dangling now," Zamos reported. "No idea what this thing's armored with but our shots aren't even scratching the shell. Only the squishy bits in front seem to be susceptible to our attacks at all."

"Helm, you heard him. Get us head-to-tentacle with that thing. Tactical, once you can shoot, shoot. Rail that thing."

"Aye sir," both Gaia and Zamos barked. The Novitar shuddered as Gaia put it under more thrust.

Deeva's head hurt. Coordinating thirty-six point defense turrets was taxing the limits of her multi-threading capabilities. Four of her guns had died already, shattered and pierced by the hail of semi-guided missiles the alien ship was still spewing at them. More crystal spikes rained onto the cratered and pitted hull of the Novitar, silencing another two. The hull rang as if steel hail was pounding it.

"Marines reporting heavy casualties. The aliens boarding our ship seem to be much stronger than anything our guys have seen before."

Orix gnashed his teeth. "All right," he growled, more to himself than anyone else. "Deeva, have you located that mining base yet?"

Deeva shook her head. "No sir. Too busy."

"Can't be helped then. Prepare a beacon and load every byte of sensor data we have on that thing onto it. Emergency signal on all frequencies."

"Understood."

He activated ship-wide comms. "This is the captain. All non-essential personnel, prepare to leave the ship. Board shuttles and escape craft in an orderly fashion. Marines, cover the civvies' retreat. I want a skeleton crew to remain here, volunteers only. We may have to go suicidal on this alien bastard. Squad leaders, sound off on my channel. I repeat-"

Another broadside from the alien ship rocked the Novitar. Gaia wailed as one of her control panels exploded, showering her with sparks and sharp-edged glass shards. The mass cannons throbbed, launching another volley into the nest of tentacles seemingly reaching for the beleaguered Nor ship.

There were sounds of battle just outside the bridge. The bulkhead hissed open and Olchos, the Mentalist, stumbled inside. His once white-and-black uniform was soaked through in places with what looked like purple goo.

"Sir, we should evacuate," the bald Nor gasped. He leaned back outside, his plasma pistol roaring twice. Shrill shrieks answered him. The stench of burning biomatter was horrible.

"Not before that thing is dead," Orix snarled. "It's too close to Norwan."

"Beacon away," Deeva said. "Crew is evacuating. Marine casualties at about sixty percent."

"Damn. Time to get creative then. Helm, set a collision course for that thing. Tactical, prepare to overload the mass cannons."

Zamos cast a gaze to the side. "I think Gaia isn't up to it."

"Olchos, with me." Orix unclipped his seat belts and swayed across the heaving deck of the bridge, the Mentalist in tow. Gaia hung limp in her seat. Olchos cursed softly as he checked up on her.

"She still alive?" the captain asked. Olchos grunted and placed his hands onto her charred and sliced face. A low, stomach-churning hum suddenly filled the bridge. Then bursts of radiant energy emanated from the Mentalist's palm. Gaia gasped then fell unconscious again.

"She will survive." Olchos, without much apparent effort, pulled Gaia onto his shoulders and carried her to the command center, carefully placing the limp form of the pilot next to Deeva in an empty seat. Orix strapped himself into Gaia's station.

"I didn't remember this tub to be so sluggish," he grumbled, fiddling with the controls.

"That's because we barely have any maneuvering power left," Vecora said. "Internal damage at fifty-five percent. Even if they haven't killed our power core yet, most of the plasma circuits have blown out."

"Deeva, stop shooting. Vecora, all power to engines and weapons."

"Even life support?"

"I need engines and I need guns. How is the evacuation going?"

"Most crew have escaped," Olchos said, eyeing a flickering status readout.

"Rerouting energy. Hold your breath, everyone," Vecora gasped.

"Great. Hold on tight, people." Orix pushed the thrust lever forward.

"Oh shit," Zamos cursed. The giant ammonite, now visible with the naked eye, lurched closer.

"Hold your fire," Orix ordered.

"No kidding," the Zuthrian said. "The firing coils are at three hundred percent charge and rising. If I shoot, it will probably tear the whole ship apart."

"I'm counting on it," Orix growled. "If you haven't yet, buckle up."

Olchos slid into one of the vacant seats.

"Impact in sixty seconds," Orix said. "I may not be able to say it later, so... It was an honor to serve with you."

"I didn't think I'd die like this," Tabby meowed. "I wanted to be the mother of a clan of cute kitties and die happily with my three husbands."

"Sometimes you can't choose," Olchos said, eerily calm.

"Thirty seconds. Why is it not evading?"

A sharp, metallic sound screeched through the bridge. The bulkhead suddenly had a slanted dent, from top-right to bottom-left.

"Maybe because its offspring will kill us before we can even ram it?" Zamos yelled.

"Fifteen seconds. Let's hope the bulkhead will hold until then," Orix snarled.

Another slash against the bulkhead. Deeva imagined an inhuman wail accompanying the attack. Or did she hear it? She was still connected to the ship's sensor systems. Turning her attention inward, she tried to find a working camera. Her search was in vain. Vecora's rerouting efforts left her woefully blinded. Sighing, she disconnected.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

Like a gigantic fork, the front of the Novitar speared into the point where the tentacles emanated from the alien ship, armorgrade plating and plasteel structure slicing through tough organic matter. This close, Deeva could see the hull of the alien ship, honeycombs with pulsing sphincters and gill-like hatches vomiting forth crystal-encased spikes.

"Fire!"

The mass cannons coughed one last time, driving twin projectiles into the belly of the alien vessel with unimaginable force. The overcharged firing coils erupted, the stored energy inside seeking every avenue of escape, exploiting micro-fissures and material faults too insignificant to worry about under normal load, tearing to shreds the four-hundred feet long metal prongs buried in the alien ship like exploding rifle barrels. Far from being expended, the wave of destructive force ripped through the Novitar, tearing apart the main hull and slicing off the swan neck, which rolled upwards and ricocheted off the alien ship's hull, tossing anything which wasn't nailed down around like pebbles in a tin.

* * * *

Slowly, the world came back into focus. Debris drifted past, bits of floor, glass and metal. Gravity had gone out once the bridge had been torn from the rest of the ship. Automated failsafes had engaged, limiting the loss of atmosphere to the decks around the catastrophic fissures. Dim emergency lights bathed the bridge in a dull, red glow. Deeva called up her status readouts. Several bruises and shallow lacerations from flying shrapnel. Her body plating was cracked in places but she had sustained no major injuries. She got off lightly. Gaia next to her looked horrible, the right side of her face scorched from her exploded console but her chest rose and fell.

"Is it dead?" It took Deeva a moment to realize it was Orix who had spoken. The captain's voice lacked the authoritative snarl it had before.

"Couldn't tell you even if I wanted," Zamos croaked. The Zuthrian massaged his neck. "Power's out. No sensors, nothing."

The whole bridge shuddered as it collided with something. There were scraping noises from outside.

"What about the emergency power systems? Vecora?"

"Here, sir," the Nor said. Miraculously, she seemed untouched by all the destruction around her. Only her ponytail had loosened through all the chaos, her hair a pink halo in zero-G. "I'd have to go and flip the switches manually. My console's dead too."

"We don't know how many hostiles are out there," Olchos said. The bald Mentalist pushed himself out of his seat and drifted towards the bulkhead. "I suggest no one leaves the bridge alone."

"We should be off sooner rather than later," Zamos suggested. "Without power and life support, we have only the atmosphere trapped in here. With...," he counted quietly, "seven people breathing the air, this won't last."

"There is an escape craft one deck down," Orix said. "Unless we have a whole army outside, we should easily make it."

"Just a moment," Olchos said, placing both hands on the bulkhead. He furrowed his brow and closed his eyes. Three heartbeats later, a high-pitched ringing echoed through the bridge. "No lifeforms outside. We are good to go."

"Great. Who brought weapons?" Orix undid his seat belts and pushed himself off, joining Olchos at the exit.

"Ow, me." Tabby patted her thigh holster. She sported a black eye and a lump on her forehead where she had headbutted her console during the ship's destruction. "But I think I'm not gonna hit anything. Everything's spinning, meow."

Deeva tilted her left hand back and disengaged her wrist from her arm. She swung her hand around on an armature, her fingers grabbing the outside of her left arm. Hissing softly, the stubby barrel of a beam weapon slid from where her wrist had been. "Laser armed and ready," she said.

Orix raised an eyebrow. "That's an illegal modification if I've ever seen one. But I'm not picky. Can you shoot that thing?"

"Of course. Why else would I carry it?"

Zamos drifted past her. "Captain, what about the weapons locker outside the bridge?"

"I just want to make sure we can secure our way there," Orix said. "Okay, that makes me, Olchos, Tabby and Deeva." He slapped his own holster. "The four of us will make sure we all make it to the weapons locker and, from there, to the escape craft. Someone patch up Gaia."

Vecora drifted towards where Deeva and Gaia were still strapped in, a med kit in her hand. "On it," she said, producing a one-shot hypodermic injector. The label had all kinds of warning symbols and exclamation points.

"Combat stims?" Deeva asked softly.

"We need her up and running now, not next week," Vecora said. "I'm sorry." She placed the injector onto Gaia's neck and pulled the trigger. The effect was immediate. The green-haired pilot shot upright in her seat, eyes wide, mouth agape, trying to force air into her lungs. Her veins bulged.

"It's okay, you'll be fine," Vecora said. "Let's go, we have only about half an hour before the drugs burn themselves out-" She froze. "Did anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Shush!"

The bridge fell silent. Amidst the soft creaking of strained and battered starship, Deeva heard it, the sound of something scraping on metal, coming from below. With shaking fingers, she undid her seat belts. "Something's coming."

"All right, stack up everyone," Orix snarled, his old bark back. He drew his plasma pistol. "Tabby, Deeva, you have the left side of the corridor, Olchos and I will take the right. Zamos, you and Vecora cover Gaia. Got it?"

A chorus of "Yes sir!" answered him followed by a drawn-out screech of tortured metal. There were other noises now too, an arrhythmic clanging. Orix pulled a panel off the bulkhead's lock, revealing an emergency release lever. Grunting and fighting for leverage in zero-G, he wrenched it down. Explosive bolts fired, pushing the bulkhead into the corridor. A slow, viscous flow of purple mucus seeped into the bridge. As the crew filtered out, Deeva caught her first gaze of the thing which had tried to cut through the bulkhead. It hadn't survived the Novitar's self-destruction but, even if it were alive, she would have been hard-pressed to categorize the being into any existing lifeform database. It was huge, almost filling out the whole corridor, and possessed traits of crustaceans and insects, armored plating and wicked, chitinous claws. But there were also long feelers and bushels of tentacles seeping from under pitted armor plates.

The weapons locker was only a few feet off the bridge, a last-ditch security checkpoint in case the ship was ever boarded.

"Now, this is more like it," Zamos said over the increasing racket from inside the bridge, brandishing a plasma rifle, its hexagonal barrel a menacing dispenser of immolation.

Another scream of tortured metal caused Deeva to whirl around. Something fought its way through the floor of the bridge. She saw two huge, scythe-like appendages flailing where she and Gaia had sat only moments before. Zamos, bracing his back against the open wall panel of the weapons locker, fired a long salvo of superheated plasma into the bridge, hitting one of the scythes. An inhuman screech answered his attack and, like paper shredded by a sharp knife, the bridge's floor erupted, revealing a towering monstrosity. A gaping maw filled with rotating jaws, surrounded by not two but six scythed arms. An armored worm-like body disappeared into the lower decks of the ship and there was the tell-tale howling of escaping air. The worm-thing contracted once and crashed with metal-bending force into the frame of the blown-out bulkhead, scythe-arms only a few inches away from the reeling crew.

"Olchos!" Orix barked. The Mentalist fired two shots at the monster. The plasma dissipated harmlessly against the worm-thing's flailing scythe blades. Orix, with a plasma rifle of his own, unleashed a torrent of more fiery death, with the same results. Deeva and Tabby unloaded as well, with little discernible success.

"This calls for some extreme measures," Olchos muttered.

Orix slapped Deeva's thigh. "Go. Get the rest of the crew to safety. That's an order, FO Deeva."

"Yes... sir." She pulled on Vecora's arm. "Let's go." The others flitted past her, into the stairwell.

Olchos was changing, flowing. While Deeva made her way towards the stairwell, she saw how his torso widened, easily bursting the seams of his uniform as muscles expanded and grew. His skin turned albino-white and long, sharp spurs grew from his wrists and claws burst from his boots. With contemptuous ease, he punched a hole into the wall panel then tore it off its hinges. Armed with his makeshift shield, he locked eyes with Orix.

"It was a pleasure, old friend," the shape-shifter said. "Until we meet again in the next life." He charged the monster inching ever closer into the corridor.

"What are you waiting for?" Orix yelled at Deeva, unloading another burst of fire into the worm-thing. A man-sized chunk of corridor sailed past him, missing him by a hair.

Deeva dove into the stairwell. The sounds of battle abruptly changed. There was a distinct wet note of soft tissue being shredded. Shuddering, she pushed herself down the stairwell.

The others waited next to the short hallway leading to the escape craft. Several smaller aliens, each one unique in its grotesque inhumanity, had been shot. A limp form leaned inside the escape tunnel, a half-molten plasma rifle at its feet. With a start, Deeva recognized Thexus, the huge Gravon was covered in claw marks and bite wounds, his once white uniform soaked with red and purple. Despite all the horrible injuries, he seemed to still be alive.

"Where's the captain?" Zamos asked, peeking past Deeva. "And the Mentalist?"

"I'm afraid they won't be coming," Deeva whispered. Somewhere above them, there were more noises, the screaming of abused metal. "And we should be going fast. Their last stand didn't accomplish much."

"Then let's not... waste any more time." Thexus groaned. "If someone... would be so kind...?"

Vecora grabbed the Gravon by his belt and hauled him into the shuttle. The rest of the Novitar's bridge crew piled in after them. Deeva came last, her laser covering the escape tunnel. The door hissed shut behind her. Tabby floated into the pilot's seat. "Deeva, to me please," the Felinoid called.

Even with only six of them, the small shuttle was filled to capacity. Thexus shifted in his seat, visibly uneasy at being forced into such tight quarters. Deeva snaked her way through her companions and slithered into the co-pilot's seat. Contrary to most other ships, the escape shuttle had transparent windows in front. She saw a slowly spinning star field.

"Let's hope this thing still works," Tabby muttered, flicking a battery of switches to "on." "At least we have a clear launch path."

Deeva checked her side of the dashboard. "All systems green. Ready to launch."

"Hold on back there, we're outta here, meow!" A sharp jerk rocked the escape shuttle as it was expelled from the ruin of the Novitar's bridge deck. Not a moment too soon. The escape tunnel suddenly sported slashing scythe arms and a rotating maw. Tabby fired up the engines and brought some distance between themselves and the wreck of their former ship.

"Emergency beacon on. Transponder signals on. Communication with other escape craft possible," Deeva said.

"What about the big alien tub?" Vecora asked from behind her.

"Should be coming up on screen now," Tabby said, pointing to a display between both pilots.

The giant ammonite was, if not dead, at least critically wounded. Most of the Novitar was gone, a shimmering, slowly expanding debris field surrounding the shredded ruins of its tentacles. The point where the tentacles had emerged from the shell looked like an erupted container, with burst organs leaking untold amounts of indescribable liquids. Deeva connected with the shuttle's computer and fed it some code, turning some sensors into life monitors. They told a clearer picture. The hulking alien vessel was dying, the number of organisms aboard dwindling fast.