Faux Realm Ch. 04

Sensor Echo was a strange phenomenon as it rarely happened and when it did it was quite the experience, especially for cadets who flew for the first time, they would just see multitude of star systems that resembled each other. This in fact was the Echo that some people wanted to investigate in detail. The cause of these events was unknown but many captains and science officers attributed it to high amounts of radiation. As in some rare cases when it did occur they were prudent enough to form search and scout parties that examined the sites that they thought it were coming from, a team few decades back discovered correlation between radiation from solar activity and Sensor Echo. As they found a star system with 3 suns that exuded so much of it that it was a certain possibility. But as it rarely did occur they discarded the method soon after as visiting similar star systems produced no known pattern. To this day it remains a mystery. The cause eluded many scientists.

*We are around a star after all.* he thought. But the report that his men compiled discarded the star to be the source of the said radiation.

The amounts that it would take to make the Echo possible was something that some stars just could not create. Team that did the analysis took their time and used intuition and resourcefulness to estimate where it was coming from, and the further they went out of this system the stronger it got. Almost 10 LYS away they found that the massive amounts of radiation was stemming from a dark patch in space.

Now that was something incredibly strange. Al'Jafar was certain that this was the origin. So to investigate he set a course for that Patch. He really wanted to bust this myth. Pressing few buttons on his desk he summoned a 3D map of the galaxy.

Sprouting from his desk it started rendering; every grain of sand just spilled from a hourglass it trickled upwards forming a familiar swirl shape. Pressing buttons for few moments on his console the rendering started to magnify and a new chunk of the picture was shown. Captain leaned against his chair and inspected this new image, not satisfied he started again. The image zoomed further in and it displayed just one sector of space. Apart from the stars and nebulae nothing familiar was shown on the map.

He pressed two final buttons. The first displayed their location as they moved with their Drive through space, and the second showed the area they were going to. No stars were there just an empty Dark Patch that was right now pined with a yellow marker.

Al'Jafar was never a betting man, especially with something as important as his crew and ship. He did not like the questions that were left unanswered, but still the years spent flying in his ship, practically space ferrying into one danger after the other, made him think that this was just one of those days that he thought everything will go wrong. Pushing another button and a green number started to count down as he leaned back, pushed his chair and started to enjoy the soft music that begun to play.

*

"HELP ME! BROTHER!" She screamed in agony but the man just kept enjoying her terror.

He was busy enjoying the screams of the woman that he was buggering, a soft sound gathered his attention elsewhere as he pushed his cock few more times while the crying woman yelped in surprise.

"Captain, sensors picked up a ship. Should we engage?" Metallic voice said.

"Do you know the ship class?" He asked, his hand jerking off his softening cock.

"We still have some damage to our sensors."

*Damn.* He thought, the last skirmish took its toll on the ship's systems.

Few stray lasers hit them even while they had the upper hand by jumping into the system while their engines were disabled.

He needed money bad. With this bitch, he would gain some, but not enough to pay of his debts. Everything was riding on their latest pillage. He screened what they had and it was not enough. He still needed more. And the two Lor'Rans in his crew did not make things easier. They kept hounding him with their fucking needs. Gritting his teeth he issued just one order, "Engage. Start without me I'll be there in few moments."

"You will make it, Sir, there are still several minutes before we Net them." The voice said.

Kicking the whore in her face out of frustration he yelled, "Then tell me this sooner. Divine be damned."

His cock deflated, the woman was sobbing in a pool of her own piss, and licking his lips he picked his clothes up and made the only sensible thing he could think of move out of his office locking it behind. You never know what those despots are capable. Smiling at his own ingenuity he entered the bridge, a dirty and unkempt place that saw more action in the few months than he had fingers. Nearing his captain's chair he saw that someone's whore was sitting on it and he kicked her off, she cried in surprise as her body fell to the ground. Ignoring the pleading woman he buckled himself in the chair, and made sure that his boys were ready for a round of blood and gore.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" He asked a man manning a brightly lit console.

"Sir a Net is ready to be deployed in a minute, after we deploy it we have prepared men to start the boarding procedures." The man told him.

He nodded, a woman was busy unbuckling his belt, he noticed that she was still high on pills and pushing her away he just said, "Very well. Proceed when ready."

*

Black hull of a ship went through space with ominous purpose, while it edged closer and closer to its target it unleashed four cones that went ahead of it with even faster speeds. Soon the conic shapes were shrouded by a translucent sheen as they zeroed in on their target.

For a few moments they approached then started deploying their payload. An electromagnetic net that was used to deactivate the drive of any ships that made a contact with it, and it only took one strand of its deadly weave to eject the ship out into Normal space.

*

The collision hurled Lucian across the bed and into the adjacent wall while he managed to cushion the blow for the two women, both of them looked in shock as they jumped to their feet and started to dress.

"A Net from someone." Ericha said.

"Probably Spacers." Liza answered,

"Let's go. Lucian you stay here. DO NOT open these doors." Ericha warned him.

Her steely gaze was determined on something that he just could not understand in his excited state. Both women ran towards the door and out the hallway, they were met by running personnel in combat gear. A moment ago he was a sleep. Standing up he felt the floor shake in regular intervals. Remembering his earthy days, and his various shows that depicted a similar feelings to various protagonists, he deduced that they were under attack. His heart raced, not out of fear but out of giddy excitement, he was flung into his first SPACE battle.

He smiled, "Scotty, beam me up." He started laughing while his favorite shows were playing in reality just outside that door. It would be sacrilegious NOT to participate.

Bouncing on his feet he neared the doors and noticed the hallways was deserted, but he could clearly hear the noises of battles being fought across the ship. He started walking down the hall, noticing many rooms in various state of disorder. Obviously most of the crew was sleeping but they still managed to run to their posts in record time.

*

"A KNARR CLASS. FUUUUCK." He screamed at the screen when they dropped to Normal space noticing the disabled ship as they approached it from port side.

"Move us away, we'll get annihilated." A crew member yelled.

"We can't escape so soon, we need to move away from it so we do not destabilize our core. We could induce a meltdown." A man warned from his side.

"Don't you move. If we go anywhere they could blast us from space." He said.

"Prepare to board." He instructed.

"But Captain, they are trained men. We can't possibly cope with that." Another voice said.

"I know that. But when they remove the Net we are going to be in the way of their guns and we will be dead." The Pirate captain was distraught.

"The only thing we can do is hope we can surprise them. Send for the Brothers. We need them here." He started shaking.

The ship was lined side to side with the bigger military vessel as they started the boarding process. Everyone was on their toes as they kept approaching their prey.

*

He was on the ground gasping for air, trying to figure out why his back was aching. Lucian tried to catch his breath, but he could not feel anything. A sharp pitched sound was in his head, not knowing what happened he opened his eyes noticing a giant plume of smoke.

He could feel the beating of his heart, he had to calm down or it would explode from his chest and dance toward the elevators. He smiled. The insistent thumping reminded him that he was still alive. *Escape.*

Something inside of him kept screaming *Escape!*

As the hallway that he had been in was now filled with white smoke, nothing that he could see from his new position made sense. Tens of feet in front of him moved in tandem left and right, without rhyme or reason, without any pattern, then he remembered all those movies. Space was dangerous. The ship was probably getting boarded.

Lucian noticed that he was lying on his sides against a wall, mountain of debris on him. Moving his feet he breathed a giant sigh of relief that started a coughing fit. Someone must know what happened. They were probably coming.

He noticed that the feet stopped and turned toward him, he tried to disguise the coughing attack but to no avail. He wished he took some defense course back home, but any and all physical activity made his body ache and break in hives. Well not exactly, he was just lazy as fuck. That was all. So back to reality.

Feet were moving towards him. One of them having a metallic implant, grimacing he imagined what they would look like. Retched beings bent on inflicting as much pain as they can.

A hand reached out for him, he was too hurt to move. He tried to inject himself with energy from someplace, somehow, the movies did it he should too.

But to his disappointment, the hand picked him up by the neck. Bringing his face to its eye level. Robotic eyes were staring back at him. A metallic face was in front of him. He breathed a sigh of relief, "Ah Jeeves you came. This retched place needs a spot of cleaning. Pip Pip." He tried to imitate an aristocratic Englishman. Clapping his hands he expected the face to laugh but sadly it did not, the eyes just stared at him waiting for his next move.

Cybernetic being looked at his companion as they tried to figure out what this man was talking about. But Lucian just smiled. Best preparations were about to be put in action, he screamed "CHOWA." Swinging his arm he aimed to break the robot's neck.

Nothing. Just dull pain on his forearm. The thing just stood there and absorbed countless punches that Lucian threw, granted he threw them halfheartedly, but the intent to hurt was there. Now with pain in his knuckles and feet he stared at his opponent. "Good bout." He was at least proud of that fact. He smiled at the countless silver linings all over the place.

"You cannot hurt him little man." The alien beside the robot said.

Lifting an eyebrow he smiled. "There is just one other thing my friend. My SUPER SECRET ATTACK." He motioned to come closer with his finger.

Evidently the alien community did not get the memo, as the universal 'come here' sign was lost to them. "Damn!" he exclaimed.

The two men had enough and the robotic hand threw Lucian into one of the rooms that was jammed pack with broken furniture. Apparently they ransacked this room in search for something. He smashed into the wall and smacked down between mountain of debris and a door. He scrambled and went inside. Once inside he used few seconds to breathe and recover from the immense pain. Turning towards the doors he was trying to lock them as he pushed countless buttons on a console. A simple click sounded, as he pressed a series of buttons.

"Finally. One of those should have worked." Lucian managed to relax for a brief moment.

Turning around he inspected the new den that he invaded without checking where he was going. Surprisingly he noticed it was someone's study room and contained some pieces of digital art that he did not know what to do with, alien faces drawn with deft hand made him reel back and drop his head down. Some people have it all.

Rummaging through the new area he found bunch of devices that might or might not be relevant to his new predicament. What he was searching for was a Pad that he could use to at least help his current situation.

Few moments passed and finally he stumbled upon a black and purple Pad. Reminiscent of someone that enjoyed a Goth way of life, he shook his head as he silently said, "You can never escape them."

It managed to make him smile as he remembered his sisters Goth phase, as he spent countless years making fun of her. His dark denizen would often make sure to give him plenty of grief and often would get in trouble for picking on her. But he was doing it out of love, of course.

He could still faintly feel the shaking around his feet, the battle was ongoing and he hoped that he was not knocked out too long, with deft moves he turned the Pad on and started strumming his fingers across its glassy surface.

Huge bang on the other side of the door reminded him of the impending dangers that loomed over his head, or in this case just on the other side of that door. Taking a deep breath he managed calm himself down and proceed further.

He smiled at the screen as it showed the full extent of the damage to the ship and its systems. Drumming his fingers he zeroed in on the deck that he was currently on, pointers on the Pad showed him exact place where he stood and was now linked into the very essence of the ship.

"God damn it, nothing." He wanted to throw the Pad away in disappointment.

Something stopped him though. Maybe it was the nagging feeling that was in the pit of his stomach, or maybe his own nature that never wanted to drop a problem that could be solved with just few minutes of using his own head.

Drumming his fingers again the Pad presented few options. A something called passive securing of prisoners. He thought what could that be, an obvious oxymoron if he ever saw one. And using deadly force. THAT could not be misinterpreted. He managed to see what it would do if he chose the Deadly force option.

It would just uncouple the docking clamps and purge the boarding parties using space itself. Decompression. "Yeowch. That would be bad for everyone." Silently saying.

"Strange. I can see images now." He said as every hallway showed people fighting boarding parties in waves.

Deft military personnel were hammering away at their positions, but enemy force had countless drones and even more manpower. He could see that most of the men that ran towards their guns were in a weird state, their eyes were staring emptily as they were getting shot back to back with river of bullets. Finally some men fell down and remained lying while their limbs were moving, clawing at air like they were possessed by some unnatural force.

The image that made him shiver was replaced by overhead view where Liza and Ericha were shooting and helping other people with various supplies. He smiled. Trying to help them he saw that he could do very little to their position as they were already doing their best and were close to stopping the flow of enemies.

As for the enemy ship it was close to the God of War's port side. He was surprised that he could select it and the image moved across and zoomed down on the selected ship space. He was confused as he looked at the images on their ship. Mass of men and women in chains that just stood in their cargo bays. Shiver ran through his body again as he managed to check the number of poor souls and the Pad told him it was 2400 men and women. Women were in various stages of undress. Noting that they had plenty of scars and were sobbing while rocking back and forth, his face dropped at this scene and he wanted to do something to help these poor souls.

Cycling through the footage he managed to find their bridge and the man on it used a woman as a cushion for his feet. Resting them on her back while she was silently weeping. Lucian took a moment too look at the man and he seemed unnerved by these turn of events.

Just one final room was left for Lucian to explore and search for something that could help him in his quest for a weapon or a way to get rid of these people. Slowly the image moved and revealed a retched place of discarded limbs of various alien creatures. But something on the floor made Lucian gasp and made his heart sink.

"It couldn't be." He said not believing what he saw on the video feed.

A woman in her early 20's was lying on the floor. She was obviously raped and molested by a man or men, he could not be sure. Her gushing cunt was beet red and her puckered asshole had been used and abused. But what made him shake in his boots with unkempt rage was the similarity of her body build to his sister. Her head was on the floor and her ass was pointing high so he found it hard to tell who she was. She was evidently in pain as she shivered occasionally. As she started to move she yelped in pain and as her face was pointed to the ceiling, his greatest fears were answered.

He screamed in anger. Wanting to tear their throats out. Somehow he managed to calm down, she was alive. Everything else can be resolved. He checked her doors and they were bolted shut. The 2400 men and women were safely locked behind deadbolt doors so he went to work. He started forming a devilish plan.

*

Captain was shaking with fear his crew already knew how bad they fucked up, while they lost more than half of their men and even more of the bots that he used to breach areas that normally would be too dangerous to go through.

Everyone wanted to bolt right out the door and start loading the escape pods, but profit was not something easily discarded, for them or their captain.

The Republic trained their men how to fight and they used every lesson to its extreme. He was desperate. He had few cards up his sleeve, but he still did not know if he should use it. A sudden alarm turned his head around to a console in a remote corner. Their ship's software was being breached. In next few seconds several things happened.

The door to the bridge was open. And every man started to claw at their console as the air was sucked out throughout the ship. Chaos erupted as they held for dear life, but to no avail. Oxygen was slowly depleting and soon they all slumped down on their chairs unconscious.

*

Lucian smiled. Everything worked so well. It was unnecessary to clean God of War as they had the upper hand on most decks where their enemies breached and engaged them so valiantly. A heroic battle that would put to shame most of story characters. Somehow he found that despite literally not even participating in battle at all he still managed to proudly walk out of his hidey hole.

Lucian noticed that the bot was busy carrying the alien that was with him and started to run silently towards them. Rapidly approaching and using his body weight to surprise the robotic silhouette as it carried his unconscious companion. Both figures toppled over, robot was somehow beneath his buddy trying to stand up, but Lucian was quicker and in moments found himself on top of his opponent. Standing on top of the alien body the robot was now pinned down and could not move. Hammering him with his weapon, which he picked up while he was running towards them, a heavy pipe that was coated with strange material. Smashing its head to bits and enjoying, listening, watching the crunch of metal and sizzling of the wires that started to came loose from the metal bucket. Soon a puddle of white liquid was behind its head and Lucian finally saw that the light in its eyes was gone. Finally he could breathe.