Dimension

by Shay Zana

  Suddenly, the vessel vibrates violently, making any liquid currently in their stomachs slosh about.

  "Get us the hell outta here, Pelevin!" pounds Neal.

  Pelevin slams the thrusters and veers the slim vessel upward, slinking through a pale blue arm of hot mist. The gaseous nebula is expanding toward them, launching bursts of energy and radiation, and this time, it looks harmful as anything it comes into contact with is instantly disintegrated.

  The battle between man-made mechanics and god-made nature is abrupt as the Blackray sprints through the hazes of the growing nebula and emerges unscathed from the docks, making a sharp turn on its flank to evade the path of the gas. Behind them, many ships are consumed. The once mysterious and beautiful cosmic dust cloud is now deadly and savage, holding a dimensionally distorted realism.

  Natheus and Boone immediately crack out shard energy from the vessel's cannons, simultaneously yelling, "contacts!"

  Pelevin reacts by lurching the Blackray downward, spinning in pirouetting spirals, the enemy fire of multiple UEU Gladiators only just grazing the shields, most projectiles missing.

  The Blackray’s cannons are able to rotate fully, enabling Natheus and Boone to fire on all angles. Natheus fires lightning rounds in electric pulses, zapping at the shields of the Gladiators in brilliant sparks, and Boone fires plasma, throwing out streams and melting through the shields in intense splashes of heat. The chase takes the Blackray and the Gladiators in many loops around the station, diving over its height, dicing through the many obstacles in their way. Debris from ravaged ships lingers in wasted masses, and the nebula looms over Kronos like a storm of godly clouds, stretching and intensifying.

  The soldiers inside the Blackray can do nothing but sit tight, pray, and listen to the many curse words that spout from the mouths of Neal and Pelevin.

  "Shake them off!" Boone demands.

  "Shoot them off!" Pelevin responds with just as much vexation.

  The two Paragons have taken out one Gladiator each, but six more still follow, and their evasive movements are far too fast for the speed of the Blackray's cannon hydraulics.

  Mazayus is aware of the problem, the Blackray is simply not agile enough to continue evading for much longer. "Need a wingman... move aside," he requests, his voice solid, and Pelevin obliges with no fuss at all, slipping his hands from the controls as Mazayus seats himself and replaces him.

  As Mazayus takes control, immediately, the Blackray jeers sharply and skims along the outer wall of the guardian station, so sharply in fact that one of the tailing Gladiators fails to react in time and collides against the station, evaporating in a blossom of fire as the station's shields repel the force.

  "Deo!" Mazayus barks, and the soldiers seated stiffly in the troop hold all turn curiously to the Paragon standing amongst them, his visor burning more red than ever.

  They watch as he moves eloquently to the back of the hold, somehow understanding exactly what the other Paragon has ordered. He stands rigid before the exterior hatch, knees slightly bent, arms prepped as if ready to wrestle a bear, and his red entity emerging from his body like igneous static, flickers of gold appearing at the core of his energy.

  "Popping the cork in five," comes the next bark of the piloting Paragon, and all the men in the vessel suddenly understand the situation. Launch a Paragon as a projectile at their enemies.

  Everyone scrambles to secure themselves, except for Deo, the human bullet.

  Lining his trajectory up with the nearest Gladiator would be no easy task without the aid of the Blackray's automatic systems, and within seconds, Mazayus has his angle perfectly parallel with the Gladiator, locked on to its movements.

  "Five!"

  The back hatch bursts open. Deo is torn from the Blackray, pulled mercilessly out as the suction of the vacuum drinks away the atmosphere inside the vessel. Everyone strapped down is thrust around brutally, their insides feeling as though they are screaming to escape through every pore of their skin.

  The dash of hyper motion is decelerated to a lag in the Paragon’s acute mind, deranged stars coiling about him. Deo is launched straight at Mazayus' target, and before the Gladiator pilot can react, the Paragon slams through the narrow windshield and uses his magnetic soles to glue himself inside the cockpit. The UEU pilot is half pulled out by the Paragon, half sucked out into space by the vacuum, left to drift and die inside his suit from oxygen depletion.

  As the aggressive suction ceases, Deo pulls himself to the pilot's chair, quickly discovering that no crucial systems have been damaged, well, apart from the shields, his entity utterly destroying them. Wasting no time, he pulls the Gladiator upward, executing a back-flip over the others as they pass him to pursue the Blackray. He falls into place behind them, cranking out rapid plasma fire into their shields. He manages to take out his first target within seconds, emerging through its dying gasp of exploding shard energy, the burst of light and flames blinding him momentarily.

  "Damn," mutters Pelevin as he watches the last glimpse of Deo before the ramp seals shut again with the hiss of returning atmosphere.

  Mazayus continues evasive maneuvers while Deo takes out their tailing Gladiators, the interior of the vessel rumbling with impacts of shard elements. “Neal, I need you to boost propulsion.”

  “On it!” breathes the man in response, fingering the controls and doing his best to give the thrusters more kick. “Shard core is at maximum efficiency. That’s all she can manage!”

  “It will have to do,” the Paragon says with finality, making the Major’s intestines clench tightly. Without warning, the Blackray pulls downward toward sector D3 at full speed, weaving between Gladiator fire and just missing a sideways collision with a Spartan. The near miss has Neal nearly shitting himself, but the only reaction from the Paragon seated beside him is the hand twitching movements of controlling the vessel.

  Another explosion shoots light out from behind them as Deo takes out another Gladiator, leaving only two remaining.

  “There’s still two of ‘em left!” Neal shouts to Mazayus, not daunted by the Paragon’s authority.

  “No time.”

  Aware that sector D1 has been infiltrated by the UEU and is probably swarming with soldiers, Mazayus scans for another solution. Vessels lurking nearby are riveting through the distorted nebula, some unscathed, others disintegrated, the clouds fuming in shivers of light. He stabs the Blackray through the nebula, engulfed in the compact fever, followed by the two UEU Gladiators and Deo. A moment later, they are graced with a clear view, darting past sector D’s dock. The sector’s defensive cannons are not bothering to fire upon the smaller vessels due to the proximity of larger vessels, enabling a clean approach.

  “You missed the docks!” Neal shouts, desperate venom in his voice.

  “We’re not docking.”

  Neal does not have time to respond as Mazayus smashes the Blackray vertically through the hull breach in sector D3, right into the control department. What was left of the vessel’s shields have now been depleted by the forceful contact with the jagged rims of the hull breach, and Major Neal now understands why Mazayus did not want to wait any longer to enter the station. If they had taken any more fire, the shields would not have been able to withstand the entry through the hull breach.

  Mazayus tugs the nose of the Blackray upward and reverses the thrusters, but still the vessel slams and bounces over the many glowing pathways, coming to a rough halt and teetering over an edge as it lies across several catwalks.

  Behind them, the two Gladiators scream through, chased by Deo as he chafes their shields tenaciously. They circle above, threading between the many towering pillars and engaging in a dog-fight that sends stray rounds flaying the hull.

  Two against one, Deo decides it is an even fight. He is on the tail of the Gladiator ahead, but the Gladiator behind him is also on his tail, so whenever he gets a lock on and opens fire, a barrage of distraction fire kicks him from behind. The shields have long since recovered from when he
smashed into the vessel, but that does not mean that his Gladiator is invincible. He needs to think tactically and put brute force aside for now. For now.

  Slamming the thrusters to reverse, Deo’s Gladiator suddenly slows, causing his opponent to whiz past him in the blink of an eye. Now, with them both ahead of him again, he opens fire and evenly coats their shields with electrical bolts of shard energy. They retaliate immediately and somersault themselves backward, like the perfect symmetrical routine of a long practised maneuver. Now heading straight toward each other in a game of chicken, all three pilots open fire. Many shard elements collide and neutralize each other, but just as many magnify each other. Explosions pummel outward and create a cocktail of chaos.

  As soon as the Blackray shudders and slides to a halt with the ceasing of its propulsion systems, it begins to float upward again in the zero gravity, pieces of its broken armour plating drifting in all directions.

  Mazayus leaps from the cockpit chair, drawing his Phoenix fluidly over the shoulder. Natheus and Boone follow, directing the marines to stay strapped into their seats.

  “How did you know that flying straight through that nebula wouldn’t kill us?” Pelevin shouts to Mazayus as the Paragons race past him.

  “I didn’t,” Mazayus responds flatly, making Pelevin’s skin crawl with chills beneath his thickly insulated combat suit.

  There is no time to equalise the atmosphere inside the Blackray. When that hatch opens again, the atmosphere will be sucked out violently. It would have been ideal to have left the interior in vacuum, but the Blackray had already restored atmosphere before anyone could protest.

  The back hatch opens swiftly, pulling the Paragons out with the atmosphere. But in those few seconds of immense pressure and speed, each Paragon’s augmented senses are able to determine the environment’s structure. Many of the kinetic pathways have lost functionality, but the Paragons are able to push themselves forward with their thruster-nodes and glue their boots to pillars, creating a triangular formation to provide the soldiers some support.

  Boone wards off the Gladiators that circle above with his Genesis, and whenever their attention leaves Deo’s ferocious attacks to swoop in on the Serenity troops and fire off a few shots, Boone’s counter-attacks push them off and hand them back to Deo to deal with again.

  Mazayus takes the chance. “Clear, move it!”

  The marines erupt from their stationary positions and sprint for the open ramp, readying to throw themselves out into the zero gravity.

  Above, the Gladiators are too busy focusing on each other to notice the men about to leap from the Blackray. They charge each other in another game of chicken, adopting Spartan warship tactics to compensate for the confined space of the station. Speeds increase, and as the two UEU pilots attempt to sandwich Deo between them, he pulls his vessel into a barrel roll, sliding between them. Shields graze, creating a thunderous crack of energy. The contact sends the shields into an overload, discharging violently and igniting the entire sector with a tree of light and electricity.

  The Blackray is shoved downward from the force, sending the marines on their backs as they slide toward the back ramp. They fall out of the dropship’s artificial gravity field helplessly, caught in the zero gravity of the control department. Their bodies scatter, and as the Blackray is sent on a spinning whirl, its right wing smacks into several of the men, causing their visors to crack and leaving them to writhe of exposure. Many switch off the comms link with these unfortunate soldiers, dreading to hear their gagging deaths in their eardrums before their bodies freeze to icy crystal.

  As the survivors reorient themselves, they are witnesses to three fiery explosions. One down at the bottom of the chasm, the flames gliding up the bowl-like floor, one piercing through the hull and sent spiralling out of view, and the other against a pillar, shattering the reading displays with a crackling fizzle and a riveting whirr, sending every single pillar in the sector into a momentary frenzy of activity.

  Mazayus shields his visor with his arm as the explosions sear at his eyes.

  Deo.

  His bio readings have either been fried or disconnected.

  “Deo, do you copy?”

  ...

  “Come in. Do you read?”

  ...

  “Deo, respond!”

  ...

  The sour realisation etches at Mazayus’ mind and clenches his stomach into a tight clump, but he must move on. If Deo is dead, then his death will not be in vain as long as he is still breathing. “Move it! We need to get to the controls!”

  “What about Deo?” Boone asks, a rough vibe to his voice.

  Mazayus does not offer an answer, he just pulls ahead with the speed of his boot-thrusters, diving downward toward the tunnel entrance to the control centre. The others follow far behind, drifting downward with the help of their tiny thrusters throughout their suits, not at all as powerful as Mazayus’ boot-thrusters, but good enough to do the job without the extra shard energy consumption.

  Ahead, Mazayus can see that the door is gaping open, but is sparking and fragments of morphing nikita are feuding in silent screeches. Someone is trying to seal the door from the other side.

  "Hurry!"

  VENTILATION

  Taking a lunge for the ground, Mazayus bends to his knees and uses his boot-thrusters to slide, propelled at a quickening pace. He tilts back, pushing his knees forward, plates rasping against the ground in sparks of friction. Just as the doors seal shut with a morphing swoop of movement, the Paragon narrowly speeds through, submachine guns drawn to feed his foes.

  His rounds rip at the soldier leaping away from the door panel, but too slowly as Mazayus' shards sting into her shields and dismantle her suit.

  Shards spin through the room on him, the adjustment of their lines of sight too slow as the Paragon whips by, pulsing a brilliant neon from within as his entity shields him from damage at its most intense output. Motion seems to slow as his mind calculates him through the roaring bloodshed of elemental havoc.

  Aware that he is on his own with the entrance sealed behind him, Mazayus angles himself toward a row of terminals, grabs the corner of a secured bench, and pulls himself into cover in a tight swing, ceasing his boot-thrusters. His entity throbs within his mind, straining to protect him from all the consistent fire, and he lets out a pained groan as it flashes and fails around him, just after he ducks his head down behind the desk and escapes a shard to the head.

  That was reckless, even for a Paragon. Without his entity, he will just have to rely on his kinetic energy shields now, and stick to cover. Fun.

  Endless elements smack into his cover, making his bones rattle as explosive shards become frequent, the rounds tearing through the terminals and sending ripples through the weightless air. Mazayus has to tighten his grip on the terminal to keep from vaulting away, and he realises that these soldiers will not stop firing until his cover is nothing but burning ashes. One of the negatives about energy core based weaponry is that reloading is a thing of the past, and certain shard types will not overheat and will simply keep firing until the shard is depleted, which is after one thousand shard fragments. Great when you have the advantage, not so great when you get yourself pinned.

  “Ranity?” he calls to her through the comms link. “Any help would be appreciated!” An ice shard penetrates through the top of the desk, colliding with the desk behind him and showering him in frosty fragments.

  “I am attempting to override the manual lock on the door to the primary section of sub-sector D3, but my attempts have so far been unsuccessful. Scans indicate that the door has been sabotaged by brute force,” Ranity replies rather calmly, her voice droning in his earchips. He snarls as more fire thrums at his cover. “However, the UEU forces have been interrupted from hacking the entirety of sector D, and I still have access to many systems. The most logical means of clearing sub-sectors D99 to D3 is by restoring atmosphere via the control terminals in the sector that you are currently situated, and then unseali
ng the airlock in sector E1, which will also clear any unsealed sectors in E. Shall I proceed?”

  That was comprehensive enough, but Mazayus is somewhat stunned by the S.I’s suggestion. “You can’t think of anything more subtle?”

  “Pardon me, but to have the ability to think, I must first be alive. I am not alive. That suggestion was merely a calculation of my programming. To answer your question, though... no, I cannot calculate anything more subtle than restoring atmosphere to therefore make it possible to vent atmosphere by opening the airlock from sectors D and E. This will most likely remove all UEU personnel who have no means of preparation. Sector E has not yet been successfully infiltrated by UEU forces, so I am still in control of appropriate systems to initialise this. Shall I proceed?”

  Shards continue to pound at Mazayus’ cover, cracking the nikita surface and forcing him to pull himself along the row of terminals to find more cover, careful to tuck his limbs in the zero g. “Serenity population in sector E and the rest of D?”

  “I detect no survivors in sectors D99 to D4. However I detect nine Serenity life forms in sector D3, one of them being you, Paragon Mazayus. The others are sealed within the primary section of D3, but this area will be safe from the suction of ventilation due to the sealed door. There are currently one hundred and fifty eight thousand, two hundred and seventeen Serenity civilians residing in sector E, and two thousand and forty two Serenity military personnel taking defensive measures through sector E. Shall I proceed?”

  Mazayus’ mind shoots with shock. Is Ranity insane? She is willing to sacrifice that many people just so that he can gain control of the sector? Maybe her core shard has been damaged, or maybe this is a programmed protocol? No, it cannot be. She is not forcing him to do this, and neither is she doing this herself without his approval, she had merely suggested it. Has she been programmed to suggest drastic solutions to protect the life of the King? Or to preserve the life of him, a Paragon? Though she did not suggest anything like this when the Paragons were taking back sector A. It cannot be because of Kitera, she is not even aboard the station. So that leaves the King. She must be programmed to risk the lives of anyone aboard the station for the safety of King Anzac. But that is not the way of Serenity. Serenity does not believe in genocide, and especially not just for one person, no matter how important they may be.