The human who had announced the call looked confused.
“Ah, you recognize my face do you? Feel any guilt? I would. Anyway, you listen here my Kelisian friend. I’m here to kill you, plain and simple. I’m going to kill you, and everyone on that little rock of yours, and then I’m going to kill the rest of you filth, and erase your stench from existence,” Karalus paused, seeing the flustered face on the Kelisian Admiral, “Sorry, I just get a little… riled up sometimes, anywho, last words?” Karalus gave a fake smile.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Listen, I need you to…” The Admiral was cut off when the holo-screen deactivated.
“Who… who was that sir?” The recruit asked, a little nervous.
Before the Admiral could answer, the Jupitain mothership came out of I-Hypotonic warp, revealing itself to the United Worlds. It was one hundred times bigger than the base. Four thousand Jupitain warships came in behind it, gathered from all of their occupied worlds and bases. Almost every Jupitain force was there.
Everyone on the bridge was speechless, “Evacuate the asteroid belt… evacuate now!!” The Admiral ordered, panicked. The rest of the crew on the bridge were humans. Everyone was screaming.
Karalus was sitting in the bridge of his mothership, watching the frigates and fighters on the asteroid base flee. He smirked broadly. Imp was standing next to him, “I’ve waited decades for this day, my day. It’s time to avenge my people,” There were dozens of Jupitains under him, piloting the entire ship.
“Have all frontal warships focusing fire on escaping ships, crush their hope of escape. They’ll call for reinforcements soon, and then the real battle will begin.” All of the Jupitain’s visors turned green. They were communicating with the other ships. Fifty Jupitain warships flew to the front of the formation and fired their Ion cannons and laser turrets at every escaping ship. Nobody got away. Bodies, all mostly human, were floating through space. Debris were everywhere.
Karalus just watched, fire in his eyes reflecting from the exploding ships. He had his hand on his chin, in a thinking position. Smiling.
Vheeeew! Lewis’s highjacked Jupitain warship arrived at the fleet. It had just flown in at the speed of light. It almost smashed into another Jupitain warship. It screeched across the side of it before it could stabilize.
“What the hell man, I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing!” Lewis shouted from the Captain’s chair.
“I said might know, might!” The alien, Reverend, butted back. He had light red skin, and dark red eyes that otherwise looked like a human’s. He was wearing a brown cloak, with a dirty white undershirt underneath.
“I don’t think they noticed,” The robot-looking alien said, “They probably think we’re late.”
“Why are we in the back? What’s going on up there?” Lewis asked. All he could see were other Jupitain ships, firing on something, “Wait a second,” Lewis said, “This… this is the middle asteroid belt, which means that they got past the Alpha checkpoint… h-how’d they get past that without the United Worlds sending the whole fleet?”
“Kid, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but these are the Demons… they steamroll anything in their way.”
“There was a heavily armored asteroid base, miles away from here, that could detect, anything, and now they’re attacking the Checkpoint… this-this isn’t good at all,” Lewis said, “We have to get into position before the fleet gets here.”
“I thought that we had to wait for the fleet to get here before we got into position?” An alien asked.
“Not if they're breaking through this fast… if they destroy defenses at this rate, then they’ll reach the sun before we can do enough damage. They’re going too fast.”
“I don’t get it. Why don’t they just go full speed, and reach the star before the fleet even knows about them?” The grey skinned alien asked.
“I… have no idea actually,” Lewis realized, “This guy’s just crazy I guess.”
“If this man really wants to destroy everything, just cause of that, then I sure can’t wait to shoot him into oblivion,” Another alien said. He had yellow skin, with a blue line running down the right side of his face.
“He’s the mastermind behind all of this… and he’s gonna pay,” Lewis said, “See if we can move out of the fleet a little, enough to get in range, but not enough to get them suspicious.”
“Easier said than done, there’s a Demon warship to the right of us that’s barely a few meters away, and to the left, there are two of them, one on top and one on the bottom. There’s also one maybe a half a mile above us, and below us. We’re boxed in,” The grey alien said, still sitting at the control board.
“I once saw a Jupitain warship fly sideways and smash bow first through a skyscraper on my planet. After the building collapsed, it got upright again, like nothing happened, so I know it’s possible to get out of this,” Lewis said.
“Sure, it’s possible… however, before the Demons invaded my world, I was a Quantum Plasma weapon designer. I’m no pilot,” The alien said. He looked around the bridge, “None of us are,” He pointed at the two ships to the left of them, “There’s a small gap under the top warship, big enough for us to turn sideways and go through, only problem is that we’re also trying to keep up with the accelerating fleet.”
“Why can’t we just go backwards?” Lewis asked.
“Because then, they’ll think there are a bunch of malfunctioning Demons, trying to be deserters, and shoot us out of existence.”
“They’ll think that if we do a frickin’ flip under their ships too,” Lewis argued.
“It’s better than looking like we’re retreating, if we go backwards we’re dead for sure.”
There was a long pause, then, “I can do it,” Lewis said.
“Might as well just have em’ blow us up now! No way this guy’s gonna be able to do that!” A grumpy looking, robot-like alien said. Unlike the other animatronic on the bridge, this one was rusty, and looked beaten.
“Hey!” Lewis shouted back, “If I remember correctly, I rescued your ass from that Jupitain cell, so how about you put a little more faith in your Captain?”
“Captain? You can’t just give yourself that rank,” The rusty robot-looking alien said.
“Oh yes, I can,” Lewis said. He stood up out of his seat, “I’m the Admiral of this ship, and I’m the one who’s gonna get us through those two ships.”
The alien scoffed. Lewis looked at him for a second but didn’t think it was worth it to keep arguing. After all, the whole Galaxy was at stake. Maybe more than that.
A different alien butted in, “Ok then, ‘Captain,’ I don’t mean any offense by this… but how are you qualified to fly this vessel so proficiently. You told us you used to be an asteroid clearer,” The Kalarian woman said.
Lewis smirked, “I’m not qualified, I was a nobody before this, still am… but I know I can do this. I’m the only one here with a fraction of experience probably. Simulators, tests. Video games.”
“What’s a video game? Sphere’s not translating that,” Reverend said.
“Alright then. It doesn’t look like we have any objections, right everybody?” Another alien said. He was sitting on a far side of the bridge, wearing a brown, hooded cloak, that hid his face and entire body. The only parts of his body that were visible were his hands, which were pitch black.
Everyone in the bridge looked worried or mad, but no one objected.
“Let’s do this,” Lewis said. He walked over to the control pad. The grey alien stepped away to let him take control of the console. Lewis looked at the controls, scanning the entire board. Non-translated symbols, and complicated looking holo-images of the ship’s features, and their status, covered the board. Lewis put both hands on the control board and took a deep breath.
“So, we have to turn the ship sideways, while it’s moving, and slide under another warship, but high enough to not hit the warship underneath it… while those two ships are moving
as well?” The cleaner looking robot-like alien asked.
“Yeah,” Lewis breathed.
“We’re so dead,” The rusty robot-like alien muttered.
Lewis slid his hand up on the control pad, “Alright people, increasing engine power, speeding up,” The hijacked Jupitain warship started to slowly advance towards the ship next to it. It’s bow started to reach farther than the other’s.
“There they are,” Lewis sighed. He jerked his hand slowly against the control pad. The ship started to lean to the left slowly. Lewis didn’t even realize that he was holding his breath. Reverend grabbed frantically for his seatbelt.
The warship went completely sideways and started to stabilize itself with small thrusters all around the hull of the ship. Lewis decreased the engine power, and the ship began to glide slowly, the lack of gravity helping ease the vessel into position. The sideways warship was starting to approach the two warships to the left. The gap between them was big, but it would be easy to slam into either of the two ships. The hijacked ship was moving forwards, and slightly to the left at the same time, barely going faster than the two warships.
“Come on, come on,” Lewis mumbled. He was biting his lip. He turned off the main engine booster, and the stabilizers were the only thing propelling the ship, but it was enough. The ship reached the gap and started to go through slowly. They were under another warship’s hull, while over another one’s. The bridge went dark from the shadow made by the top ship, and in a few, heart pounding seconds, the bridge saw light again, as it left the gap, unscathed.
Lewis made it turn upright again, next to the two ships so that it looked like it was still in formation, then collapsed into his chair, sweating. The bridge was silent for a few seconds and then burst into celebration. Aliens whooped and hollered, patting Lewis on the shoulder, and hugging each other.
“If we get out of this, that United Worlds of yours is giving you every medal it has!” The grey alien said.
Lewis gazed into space, dumbfounded, and… happy. Those feelings quickly faded, “We’re not done,” Lewis said. Everyone stopped cheering and looked at him, “We’re not done,” he said again, quieter, “Get us into position.”
The grey alien nodded and took control in a seat next to Lewis.
“Did that ship just slide between those two other ones?” Karalus asked, looking at a high tech version of a sonar, next to his control board. It showed everything on the battlefield, in 3D detail.
“Yes, Alpha,” Imp confirmed.
“Well, that’s odd,” Karalus said to himself sarcastically.
“Should we destroy it, sir?” Imp asked.
“Don’t destroy it, but uh… send a boarding party to investigate. Go with them. I don’t want any ships destroyed for this fight. I need everything If the ground invasion of Mars and that other little rock next to it are going to do any damage, I want them to suffer, worse than I did. Worse than I am.”
“Yes Alpha,” Imp replied. He walked away for the main hangar, leaving Karalus to watch his forces obliterate the rest of the asteroid belt’s space stations. Imp reached the hangar and communicated with the Jupitains through his visor. He took forty, and boarded a transport ship, along with the Jupitains he ordered to come with him. After a few seconds, the ship’s engines roared, and the ship lifted from the hangar floor, and into space, escorted by two Jupitain fighters.
The three Jupitain ships started to approach the highjacked Jupitain warship.
“What the…” Lewis cursed, “Those aren’t ours, they’re coming from the mothership.”
“Aw crap, they did notice us,” The yellow alien said, frantic.
“Don’t panic,” Lewis said, “They haven’t shot us into pieces yet, so that means they probably don’t suspect much…”
“Don’t suspect much?! How many times does a Jupitain warship on protocol turn sideways…? They probably have a hundred Demons on those ships, ready to slaughter us!” The rusty, robot-like alien said, frantic.
“Shut up… There’s only three ships,” The cleaner robot-like alien said, “And two of them are fighters, so whatever’s on that thing… we can probably handle it.”
“They’re gonna dock with us…” Lewis realized.
“Dock us?!” The frantic alien cried, “That’s it guys, it’s been a great run, but we’re dead, we’re just dead.”
“I haven’t even started the damn run,” Lewis remarked, grunting, “Get the fighter pilots in the main hangar notified, they’ll be coming for them first.”
“Yes sir,” Reverend said. He pressed a button on a control board, and held it down, “Attention fellow crew-mates, we have a Demon boarding ship docking with our airlock, they will be approaching the main hangar in minutes. Brace yourselves.”
An alien cursed. He walked out of his Jupitain fighter cursing the whole time and banging the walls above his landing gear ramp, “They’re gonna kill us before we have time to fight back!” He cried. He had dark orange skin, and an orange gem on the right side of his forehead.
“We’ll fight back from here and in space,” Abigail said, “It’s not time to give up. This is, just a little setback.”
“A little setback?!” The alien repeated, hysterical, “They’ll flood through here and kill us! Just like they have every other force in the Galaxy! We’re…”
Pzzoouch! Another alien stunned him with a laser rifle, making him fall to the ground like he was tazed.
“Damn tired of people like that, no room for em’ in the rebellion,” It was the soldier alien, from the warship that had originally abducted James’s crew, “We’re all ready to fight, and I personally, am ready to die, if it leads to a chance of ending the horde.”
“Good, then take positions,” Abigail said, “These fighters can provide support, even while they’re in a landing position. We can fire their cannons from the ground, while others find cover behind them with laser rifles.”
The soldier alien looked around at everybody. They were all whispering to each other, “Well? What’s everybody standing around for?! Move!”
The Jupitains blew through the airlock door, causing it to fly into the wall behind it. Imp walked into the warship first, followed by the Jupitains, who quickly flooded in from behind. He looked around the hallway. It was dimly lit, and quiet. Too quiet.
“Find a heat signature,” Imp ordered, “Search every room, control center, compartment. Everything. This ship needs to be in perfect condition!”
The Jupitains grunted to show compliance and split up to search the ship. They walked through hallways and tore up everything in sight. They ravaged the place, opening every compartment, and scanning through every data server. Then, they found a visor on the ground, surrounded by a puddle of ruined Dark matter. Whenever a Jupitain died, the Dark matter that had been duplicated via the one drop, would be impure, and useless, therefore making duplicating Dark matter impossible.
A Jupitain picked up the visor, and called Imp over with a loud roar. Imp took it and looked at it. It was in perfect condition; the visors were so tough that even hitting the ground abruptly wouldn’t scratch them.
“This visor was untouched,” Imp thought for a second, “An energy surge… must’ve overloaded the visor and reset it, causing the E6’s code to glitch. This ship must have had a power failure of some kind, but how?”
A Jupitain’s visor blinked, to communicate with Imp’s visor, “Keep searching. There’s no way this ship malfunctioned without there being a saboteur on board,” Imp ordered.
The Jupitains obeyed and inspected more of the ship. One stopped abruptly and turned around. It’s visor turned green.
“Heat signatures? Where?” Imp asked.
“Hangar…” It growled eerily.
Imp pressed a button on his own visor. He saw it too. Dozens of them. “They’re in the main hangar,” Imp said, “Kill them.”
The Jupitains roared savagely with excitement, and sprinted towards the main hangar like animals, roaring the whole way.
/> Abigail could hear the faint sound from the hangar, “Shit,” She mumbled, “Already?” She turned towards the rescued aliens, “Get ready everyone. They’re coming!” She yelled.
There was a line of three fighters, in the landing position, laser cannons aimed at the hangar entrance, with aliens inside of them. Other aliens were behind the wall of fighters; laser rifles pointed at the entrance as well. Everyone was sweating or breathing heavily. The roaring got louder, and louder, like death itself was getting closer and closer. A Darsakian man grimaced, and tried to straighten up. Then, all of a sudden, the roaring stopped, and it was quiet for a few seconds. Everyone tightened up.
Then, booom! Jupitains blew through the hangar entrance with a laser launcher, flinging the door pieces into the wall of fighters. They poured in, shooting and roaring at the same time, killing three people in seconds. The pilots inside the fighters used the laser cannons to fire at the crowds of Jupitains, making them have to split their ranks, and blowing some into different directions. None of their visors broke though.
The Jupitains advanced onto the fortification, shooting so much, that all people could do was take cover. Someone grunted stressfully, hands holding his head while laser bolts hit against the part of the fighter he was hiding behind. Some of the Jupitains started to separate from their ranks, and sprint towards the wall of fighters without any weapons except for their claws. The fighters provided lots of firepower, but not enough. Jupitains started to climb over the fighters and reach the people behind them. They started to impale people with their claws, but it was easier to hit their visors now.
The soldier alien shouted something and fired a stream of energy bolts into one Jupitain after another, hitting their visors and leaving them into nothing more than a puddle of goo. A Jupitain with a laser launcher came through the ranks and fired on the center of one of the fighters. The laser hit through the middle of the fighter and blew it up completely. Debris were scattered everywhere, and the people that were taking cover behind it were blown backward, some missing limbs.
United We Stand Page 29
