by Christi Smit
Locke entered the armoury with Xander, speaking to the squad member about his use of explosives during training exercises. “Are we in agreement Xander?” Locke asked his explosives expert.
“Yes sir, no more booms when we train. You might need to remind me again though,” he replied, trying to bait the captain.
Locke did not bother taking the bait, focusing on the new member of his squad instead. “Awake are we? Faster than I expected, you did well in the pit, FNG. First time any new recruit marked so many of us before being downed, even if you cheated a little.”
“Cheated?” Christian asked his captain. “When did I cheat?”
Locke held up his hands in defence. “I did not suggest it, your brother did.”
Nathan was not listening to the exchange between Locke and his brother. He was speaking to Rivers about the weapons on the racks on the armoury’s walls.
The main armoury was much larger than the first one Christian had been in. There were many more different weapon types locked to the walls and in cages around the armoury. Some of the cages contained sets of weapons belonging to the members of squad, each cage designated with a name plate riveted to it. Christian looked at the locker with his name on it; it stood with its door open, gaping at the young Titan. He could see a name plate scratched away above his new name plate.
“That one is yours,” Locke said to him. “The previous owner won’t mind, seeing as he died a long time ago.”
“Who did it belong to?”
“To someone that belonged here,” Nathan said without looking at Christian. The comment was meant to hurt and imply that Nathan was not happy about his brother being in the squad.
Before Christian could retaliate with a comment of his own the armoury’s lighting suddenly changed. The bright white light from the ceiling was replaced by red illumination from wall-mounted lights around the chamber.
A speaker mounted above the door of the armoury crackled into life. A calm voice spoke after a few moments, every soul aboard the Hyperion listening to the announcement.
“All crew prepare for emergency jump exit. BEAM drive shut down in t-minus ten minutes. All crew to your stations.”
Locke was on his radio almost instantly, no doubt speaking to Captain Gray on the bridge. After only a few seconds Locke cut the link with Gray and relayed the details back to his squad. “Hold on to your undergarments ladies, we are ear deep in doodoo.”
“Captain, the Titans are almost ready. Captain Locke is resupplying and leading the Grim Wolves to the docking bays.” Remy relayed to Gray, preferring to stand instead of strapped to a metal chair when the time came to die. Remy was never the optimist, always the realist.
This time the odds were in favour of the Hyperion breaking apart as soon as they exited the jump prematurely, Remy had called it suicide. Gray was well aware that they might die performing this emergency manoeuvre, but there was no other option.
If they pushed forward with the path the BEAM drive had calculated they would be drawn into a growing gravity anomaly. Nobody knew what would happen if they entered the anomaly while jumping, the Hyperion could be annihilated against the tide, or the Hyperion could end up on the far side of the universe, both were unacceptable to Gray.
Gray would rather risk saving his vessel and his crew, instead of throwing the dice on uncharted theories. When he spoke, he spoke with authority, his booming voice echoing on the bridge. He nodded to Remy, who had been waiting for the captain to respond, unsure why he was so quiet. “Very well, is Sabian ready?”
“He reports that they are ready for anything. His troops are securing all bulkhead doors and rounding up wandering crew.” Remy’s eyes scanned the display in her hands, lingering on the timer counting down. “In three minutes we will either be sitting pretty in the void, or playing harps on puffy clouds.”
“You might, I will probably be roasted on the pitchforks before the day is done.” Gray’s giant hand moved to the keypad on his command throne, keying in a sequence of codes. “Helm, I am taking over control.” He keyed the final sequence, sitting back in his chair as the helm officer relinquished control over the Hyperion.
“Aye sir, control to the command chair confirmed.”
The command chair shifted back, exposing a gap beneath it. From the dark recess underneath the command chair eight displays appeared, arranged around Gray like windows looking out at the galaxy. Three by three in front with two displays on either side of the captain’s legs. All of them except the middle display were tilted inwards, giving the command chair a rounded view of what was happening on the other side of the vessel’s thick hull.
Gray was looking out from the nose of his ship, watching the never-ending white light rush past, it was impossible to make out any details outside of the BEAM drive’s path due to the vessel’s immense speed. The void and everything it contained was invisible to human eyes as the Hyperion hurtled through it.
Locking mechanisms on either side of the command chair hissed and shifted into place above the chair’s arm rests. Gray undid the buttons at his uniform’s cuffs and placed his tattoo-covered arms underneath the mechanisms. The arm-shaped moulds lowered into place over his arms, securing him to the chair. His hands were now part of the command chair, able to control the vessel and its systems with the slightest move of his fingers.
The arm rests detached from the rest of the command chair, extending slightly on jointed arms to allow free movement of Gray’s arms. This free movement allowed direct manual control of the Hyperion, enabling precision manoeuvring of the giant vessel. Gray could feel the control pins insert themselves into his arms, connecting himself to the Hyperion’s OS, it was a primitive version of the technology Titan’s used to control their suits with, but this one was still very effective. It was an uncomfortable sensation, but the feeling vanished as soon as the human captain’s mind melded with the ship’s mechanical brain.
Gray’s voice changed when the connection was completed, taking on a metal-like tone. “BEAM drive shut down in ten seconds.” His eyes left the displays, looking at Remy for a moment, he hoped it would not be the last time he saw her. “Hold on my dear,” he said to her with his robotic voice. His eyes flicked back to the displays around him. “All crew! Hold on!” he shouted over the ship’s radio.
The Hyperion started shuddering, the sudden shut down of its jump drive exerting unimaginable forces on the vessel’s hull. Everyone on-board grabbed onto anything within reach, hoping they would survive the next few moments.
Even the Titans had to steel themselves against the vessel protesting beneath their armoured boots.
Whatever the plan was, Captain Gray had to execute it perfectly, if he did not they would not live for much longer.
“Remy! On my mark, disengage the fail safes on the reactors, I need as much power as they can provide,” Gray yelled over the almost unbearable shaking. The Hyperion was slowly tearing itself apart, its structural integrity stretched to its very limits.
Remy frantically worked on her display, trying to maintain her footing as she did what her captain had asked.
“Now Remy, do it!”
The reactors at the heart of the cruiser broke free of their virtual restraints, flaring like new born gods, lending Gray the power he needed to execute his emergency plan.
It was a simple plan, but it required perfect timing, something only the most experienced captain in the galaxy could ever hope to pull off.
Once the BEAM drive was shut down, the Hyperion would ride the light wave, using the speed to drift outside of the path the drive had carved through the void. The vessel’s void engines needed to be burned at exactly the right moment, if they did not the forces outside of the wave would be impossible for the vessel to take, breaking it into atoms against an invisible wall of zero velocity.
The Hyperion’s engines blazed with maximum power, replacing the propulsion the BEAM drive had provided. To the crew it felt like the ship was going to disintegrate any second, but on the brid
ge the captain knew what he was doing. The moment between the decreased speed from the jump drive’s shutdown and the void engines taking over almost caused the Hyperion’s demise. It was that single moment that had the highest risk, if the timing was off by mere seconds nothing would be left of the crew except memories. And in the silent, cold reality of space the memories on-board the Hyperion would vanish without a trace.
But that would not happen today, Captain Gray had timed everything perfectly, proving once and for all that he was one of the best captains in the entire galaxy. The Hyperion would be the first and only vessel to ever break free of a BEAM drive’s light wave, recorded in the history annuals of our race as a true legend. It slid out of the light wave with diminishing shudders, slipping into the darkness of the void mostly intact.
“We’re free!” Gray said through gritted teeth, the strain evident on his face.
Remy next to the command chair almost cheered, stopping herself from showing emotion in front of the crew just in time. “Impossible...you did it!
“Watch it my dear, you might just compliment me before you know it.” Gray was still straining in the command chair, the vessel’s speed still dangerously high. “I need to bleed off some of this speed before the reactors burst. Remy, re-assert the fail safes if you please.”
She was too shocked to reply to her commanding officer, she just stood watching the displays around the command chair.
“Snap out of it girl!”
Remy was ashamed of losing her concentration at such a time, she blushed slightly, brushing her hair behind her hair again as she worked on re-asserting the fail safes on the reactors.
“Captain, we have a problem!” A deck officer seated at the scanners yelled at Captain Gray.
“What is it now?” he demanded from the man.
“It’s an asteroid field sir, we are surrounded, and there is a growing gravity well further in. Scanners can’t see past it.”
Remy spoke out of turn before Gray could reply. “What the hell, that can’t be. An asteroid field can’t just appear in our path. The BEAM drive would have seen it in its calculations. We were supposed to pass the planet Nox at this point in the jump. Where is it?”
“I think it is everywhere around us my dear. But we can worry about it later; at this speed we will taste our own asses up against one of these rocks.”
Gray pulled back on the controls, manoeuvring the giant vessel in an upward loop dodging a colossal, spinning asteroid. The gravity wells created by the spinning and drifting asteroids helped the Hyperion decrease its phenomenal speed.
“Remy, find us a path through this mess. We need to get clear of this so we can get our bearings. I am flying blind here.”
Remy nodded and went to work with the scanner officer, calculating the variables of the asteroid field and the safest route out of it.
Asteroid fields of this size were hazardous, not only because of the giant rocks drifting constantly and unpredictably, but also because of its ever shifting nature. There could be an opening one moment, and the next moment two asteroids would collide closing that alley of escape forever.
“Path calculated, but we will have to amend it as we move through the field.” Remy said as she transferred the data to Gray’s central display.
The centre display highlighted a virtual path through the asteroid field, a three-dimensional overlay would help guide the Hyperion to safety. The captain needed to follow the display, his bridge crew would stay a few steps ahead of him, scanning and calculating as the asteroid field altered itself.
Gray had bled enough speed and was running the engines within tolerable levels; the vessel was safe from self-destruction for now.
The Hyperion needed to circumvent its ceaseless, rock prison before it could get back on track with the mission, but that was easier said than done.
Another bus-sized rock bounced of the Hyperion’s hull, followed by blaring sirens as another breach to the vessel’s thick skin was reported. “Calculate faster Remy. We are taking a beating. I wish to keep my beautiful ship in one piece.” Gray was sweating from the concentration of piloting his ship through the asteroid field.
“It would go a lot faster if you stopped asking me for updates every five minutes, old man,” Remy replied, she was hunched over a larger display table, her hands never stopping while she calculated and updated the path they needed to follow to safety.
Gray could not respond. He was too busy mumbling to himself while trying to stay on course, battling with the ship’s controls. “Come on my big beauty, tighten up that giant behind of yours...squeeze through now...that’s it girl.” He spoke to the Hyperion as if she - Captain Gray always referred to his ship as she or her - was a living, breathing woman.
“Medical just took a hit sir!” a crew member reported from the other side of the bridge.
“Order Sabian’s men to help,” he paused for a moment, dodging an asteroid the size of a city, “seal anything that’s leaking into the void.”
“Sabian himself is on route to secure the medical sector, the rest of his company is busy putting out fires and rescuing trapped crew.”
“Good news. What about Locke? Where are the Titans?” Gray asked, not directing the question at anyone specific.
“Right here, Willis,” Locke replied from the shadow behind the command chair. “We wanted to see this from the front row.”
Everyone on the bridge froze the moment Locke had spoken, one or two letting slip a few drops of bladder fluid in their uniforms. No-one knew how they were able to move so stealthily with all of the armour and weapons they carried, but it was as if they just materialized out of nothing. Like mythical phantoms appearing to prey on unsuspecting victims.
The Titans stood in a loose formation behind Captain Gray, Locke had his arms folded, standing almost next to the command chair, looking at what Gray was seeing on the displays.
Pyoter stood close by, his massive heavy machinegun resting on his right shoulder, belts and boxes of heavy calibre ammunition attached to every possible piece able to hold equipment. The armoured giant almost never bothered carrying his melee weapons, his physical strength more than enough to kill most living creatures in the galaxy.
Xander was absently flicking the pin of an explosive grenade, his hands resting on the belts of bombs festooning his stocky frame. His mind was elsewhere, thinking about what grenade he should use first in the mission. To him, it was like choosing a fine wine, every situation needed to be paired with the perfect device.
Nathan, as always, rested against the bridge’s metal wall directly behind the command chair, mimicking his captain’s folded arms, he preferred to remain quiet, just watching the activity on the bridge.
His brother, Christian, was checking all of his weapons constantly, standing slightly apart from the rest of the squad, symbolically not yet completely a member of the Wolves. The fidgeting was already getting on his older brother’s nerves. Nathan could only shake his head in irritation.
Rivers was down on one knee, working on a knee high automaton of his own design, unscrewing the plating on the back of its metal head, calibrating its systems. He had called the small robot Roger when Christian had asked him about it on the way to the Hyperion’s bridge. Its eye lenses zoomed in and out, beeping and squeaking as Rivers fiddled with the cables inside his metal head, sounding somewhat pleased to be given attention by his creator.
Locke rested his hand on the side of Gray’s command chair, leaning slightly forward to see the path Gray was following a little better. “How long until we are clear of this?” he asked the struggling captain.
“I have no idea Gabriel. This doesn’t seem natural to me. We were meant to either be destroyed during the jump or if we survived a jump exit be obliterated in this asteroid field, like rock mines set up to tear us apart. It has the makings of something very elaborate.” he replied to the Titan.
“I was thinking the same thing. It feels like a trap.”
“You read my mind. A tra
p designed to kill us more than once.”
Their voices were lowered slightly; Locke’s voice could be heard from small speakers located in the extended jaw of his helmet. If you weren’t looking at the Titan while speaking, you would have thought he was wearing no helmet, the speakers broadcasting his voice with perfect clarity.
“Beacon ping in the asteroid field! It’s broadcasting something!” The scanner officer yelled suddenly. His voice sounded panicked. “Straight ahead of us sir!”
Gray felt his stomach tense, something man-made inside the asteroid field meant only one thing - trouble. “I want a deep-void pulse on the beacon. Tell me what it is.”
The seconds ticked by slowly as the scanner officer initiated a pulse strong enough to pass through most of the drifting rocks ahead of them. The pulse would bounce off of the beacon, confirming the identity and exact location of whatever was broadcasting inside the asteroid field.
The scanner officer stood out of surprise as the pulse from the beacon pinged back; he was already as white as a sheet, the shock robbing the blood from his face. “It’s....it’s the Fateful Moment Sir!”
Remy looked up from the display table, clearly confused at what the scanner officer was reporting. “That is not possible. Its last known location is almost half a sector away. Let me take a look.” She walked over to the console in front of the officer, sitting in the chair the officer had jumped up from. They talked in hushed whispers for a few moments.
“Today is a day of many improbabilities it would seem.” Rivers had finished tinkering with Roger, and was also waiting for Remy’s assessment.
“It would seem so, “Captain Gray said, navigating the dangerous field while everyone waited.
Remy pushed herself away from the console; her body language was that of someone in disbelief. “It’s confirmed. It’s the Fateful Moment.”
Locke and Gray looked at each other, a silent confirmation of the same idea passing between them.
