by Joe Crouch
Sean was lost in his own mind as he rushed towards the hangar deck, bouncing off walls to skim round corners as he ran down the long, winding hallways towards what would be his glory, his defining moment, but one thing blocked his way – Fez. “I’m not letting you go in,” Fez said, his voice coming over the ships intercom system.
“Open this God damned door, Fez,” Sean shouted, his way was blocked by the Ioution Captain locking the entrance into the hangar bay, he knew he was doing it for his own protection, but this was a challenge he was adamant he must take on. Kicking the door drew no response, yelling and screaming for the crew on the other side to open up was also futile, there was no way in other than to sweet talk the Captain. “Fez,” he said, “You know you’re my favourite sarcastic, stubborn, silly little alien friend, don’t you?” A long pause followed before Fez finally replied.
“I do know that, but you forgot to compliment my appearance.”
“Erm,” he muttered, “… I think your… Big eyes are wonderful and deep?” He tried his best to find something to compliment the Ioution on, he didn’t have the best of time with females back on Earth, let alone with a male alien.
“They are my best feature,” Fez replied, he could almost hear the sniggering in his voice, “But you must…” he was cut off as a massive bolt hit the side of the ship, sending him crashing into the wall, protected only by his swift reflexes.
“Just let me in, now,” he demanded, after a brief pause the doors hissed open allowing him access, “Thank you,” he said relieved. Spinning around the corner and onto the gangway, he rushed towards the locker room which housed all the pilot’s gear, he wasn’t sure if he needed any in the Arrakis-two but it was better to be safe than sorry. Leaning over the cold railing, he shouted for the deckhands to prepare his ship as he slipped a leg into the protective clothing, getting himself dressed in the dark, silky grey uniform that would protect his body from the elements if he was ejected into space… again. His eyes darted about the room searching for a helmet, they must have something they put on their heads he thought, “Fez, what do your pilots wear as a helmet?”
“It looks like a collar, put that around your neck and you will be fine,” he replied, his voice crackling over the intercom as the Mar’Ell took light weapons fire from the enemy swarm. The collar snapped tightly around his neck, tendrils snaked out from its surface and attached themselves to his new uniform, fiddling around with the many buttons dotted about the collar a protective bubble formed around his face showing a HUD displayed on the inside of its surface. Connecting to ship the HUD read as he ran out from the room and down the stairs towards his fighter, connected to the Arrakis-two, bringing up tactical information, within seconds his vision was filled with translucent data about his ship, everything from speed to weapons to shielding, it was all he needed.
Climbing aboard his still shining ship he slipped into the self-adjusting pilot's seat, something he was grateful for, as an incoming transmission flashed across his vision, thinking hard, he opened a video channel with Fez. “I cannot say I’m happy about this, Sean, but maybe it is the right idea, your craft has more firepower than any of the standard Ioution fighter craft, so get out there,” Fez bellowed.
“So, what’s the plan?” he questioned.
“As soon as you leave the ship, I’ll hide your movements by firing our first missile salvo, the signatures from the projectiles should cover your movements,” Fez paused, motioning to his weapons officer, “After that you’re on your own, take down as many enemy fighters as you can and try your best to protect the Kesken fleet, I will see you soon, Human.”
“You will,” he replied sombrely, “Sean out,” he said. Punching in commands on his console, the hatch eased closed as the engines roared into life, energy powered through every vein on the ship towards the grav-plating and drive, his body snapped into place, held there by the artificial gravity. Pushing down on the pedal, the craft lifted off the decking, it’s engines created an oscillating humming sound throughout the ships walls, the sheer power at his disposal was a comfort to him as he edged the vessel out past the shielding and into the heat of battle.
Floating outside the Mar’Ell, he triggered his active scanners, within moments his HUD was populated with a tactical map of everything around him, friend and foe. The Xuron fighters darted and danced through the void, leaving a glimmering purple trail that soon dissipated, joining the invisible background. Alright he thought, let’s do this, his eyes scanned the map that was displayed in front of him, blinking, he locked onto the nearest Xuron fighter and accelerated away from safety and into the lion’s den.
Looking around, the larger vessels, even at this relatively close range, were still small dots on the horizon, he willed the computer to get a better picture of the nearest Ioution ship. A separate picture appeared overlaid in the top right of his vision, it was the Tar’Ell, her fighters swarmed around the vessel forming a protective barrier. As he increased his acceleration, four signatures streaked out from the Mar’Ell, the missiles propelled forward in a brilliant blue light past his ship, he watched as the projectiles closed in on their target at unimaginable speeds, the first striking the Xuron cruiser’s surface in a gigantic ball of blue flame. It wasn’t long before the others impacted along the enemy’s hull, tearing it in two as secondary explosions took hold, he looked on as the cruiser was split into large chunks that propelled away from each other, leaving only a cloud of green gas lingering in the space it used to occupy.
“Good shot,” Sean radioed over to the Mar’Ell. The Xuron fighter he tracked closed in on him fast, it’s purple haze could be seen refracting light in the distance giving him a clear path to follow. Turning sharply, he pulled into the Xuron’s rear, it’s imposing dagger-like shape and organic looking surface screamed to be destroyed. He focused his attention on its rear engine ports and allowed the ship to gain a lock. The gap closed between the two craft, the Xuron seemed to slow to a relative crawl, what’s going on? he wondered and soon he had his answer. The fighter pulled up, accelerating away from his position in a looping motion, before he could react weapons fire began to graze his shields turning his cabin into a light show. “Fuck,” he yelled out, angrier at himself than he was at the Xuron. Pushing hard on the reverse thrust and swinging his ship into a spin, the computer gained weapons lock on the craft that circled around for another strike, pressing down hard on his trigger two cannons either side of his ship opened fire, shooting streaks of high energy towards their target, vaporising it within mere moments. Punching the air as he flew past the wreckage, he knew there was still a lot more work to be done, but this was an encouraging start.
“Good shot yourself,” Fez beamed over the comms system, “You handled that well.”
“Thanks, I thought he slipped me for a second but I managed to pull it back, onto the next one.” Browsing his HUD, the choice of targets was overwhelming, sensing his discomfort the computer narrowed the range down, only displaying craft that were nearby. With the narrowed scope, he noticed two fighters had broken off from the pack and were closing in on a damaged Kesken ship. Slamming down hard on the accelerator, the heavy fighter pushed itself forwards with its powerful grav-drive on an intercept course for the two wayward Xuron. He clenched down hard on the controls in anticipation for the impending confrontation, he had been successful up to now but there was nothing stopping him taking a stray hit, leaving him to the mercy of the expanse. He felt nothing towards his targets, no anger nor any fear, there was a logical worry about his fate, but it wasn’t something that plagued his already frail and overwhelmed mind.
Bearing down on his foe he noticed a slight variation in their design, instead of the darted front that he had regularly seen so far, these were rounded and almost shaped like an axe, hammerheads he thought, that’s what I’ll call ‘em. These new craft produced no visible trails, they darted through the sea of desolation as a shadowy figure, only the precise Ioution instruments could detect their presence. They were a mere
dark hole in space to the naked eye but to him, the dual engines may as well have had decorated festive trees attached to their aft giving away their positions. As he accelerated towards them the computer took a liking to the closest target and locked weapons, a visual indicator let him know the ship was ready to fire. But in a flash the twin ships broke away in different directions, circling around to flank. Pulling up hard, the Arrakis-two ascended through the Z-axis at an astonishing rate. The two hammerheads closed in behind the slower Ioution craft but showed no signs of a weapons lock, that’s strange he thought watching as they split from one another and attempted to position themselves either side of him.
The cat-and-mouse chase went on for a while, the ships darted in and out from each other, the Xuron Hammerheads never attempted to get a weapon lock or even blindly fire towards the Arrakis-two, he had little idea of what to expect, but he wouldn’t have to wait long. Slamming hard on the brakes he sent his ship into a sharp one-eighty turn, but he wasn’t prepared for what was coming for him. Proximity warnings flashed across his HUD, a camera positioned on the hull flickered into life and overlaid it’s visual into his and bearing down on him was the rounded edge of the Xuron craft. He had no time to escape its impact as it slammed into the now strained shields. Sparks flew from every electronic surface within the ship, igniting the leaking atmosphere on the lower decks creating a massive fireball that streaked throughout the empty compartments, only the computer’s quick reactions to seal off the bridge saved him from a mortal wound.
“What the hell was that?” he shouted out as he picked himself up off the console, “Did he just slam his ship into mine?” A comms request flashed inside his visor but he had other matters to attend to first, a fire was spreading throughout his vessel, gaining purchase from the liquids which spewed from the burst pipes overhead. Fire suppressants he thought, willing the neural interface to pick up on what he wanted. He pushed himself out of his seat and slammed his palm into the door release controls, as they hissed open he was covered in a thick white goo that sprayed out from the ceiling, he remained motionless, succumbing to his fate, “Well… I suppose I deserved that,” he said, wiping the thick film from his face. Wasting no time, he thrust the ship in any direction, conscious that another hammerhead was still lurking out in his proximity, while there was a lull in the combat he answered the comms signal.
“So you’re fine,” Fez said in-between the loud impacts that rumbled throughout the Mar’Ell, “I saw that ship crash into you and feared for the worst.”
“Yeah, what even was that?” Sean asked, “It must have had a death wish, it slammed into my shields and committed suicide, have you seen anything like that before?”
“I’ve only ever heard about them,” Fez admitted, a glum tone to his voice, “They are exactly as you would imagine, if the stories are to be believed, they’re called impa-“
“- Hammerheads,” he interjected, “They’re called Hammerheads.”
“Hammerheads, right. They slam into the ship’s hull trying their best to create a breach, their nose is shaped in such to impact as many decks as possible.” Sean scratched his chin, it all made sense but it was strange to him that these ships were more an urban legend within the Ioution fleet.
“There’s still a second one out here,” he said, bringing his sensors back online, “I’m just trying to get its signature back now. How’s it going over on your end?” Four quick thuds came over the comms channel as the Mar’Ell’s shields took a further beating.
“Fine,” Fez snapped, “Just fine, I love being shot at by an armada of enemy ships, It’s something I’ve waited my whole life for.”
“And there’s the Fez I fell in love with. I’m going to go find this bastard and tear him to pieces, I’ll be back for lunch,” he quipped, closing the comms channel. His sensors closed the net around the stray Hammerhead, eventually detecting it off his starboard bow, He swung the ship around and closed in fast on his prey, his mouth almost salivating at the prospect of revenge. The Xuron must have known it had been detected as without warning it doubled its speed and darted about in an eccentric pattern, trying its best to shake off the weapons lock that he was slowly acquiring.
It wasn’t long before the Arrakis-two had caught up with the slower Hammerhead, but instead of outright annihilating the ship, he wanted to play with his food, hopefully causing the pilot some distress. Changing his weapons lock onto the flat, rugged wing he opened fire, the high-energy impacts sheared off a significant portion of the fins that extruded out from its surface. Debris spewed out in every direction where it would join the large trash heap the planets outer orbit had become. He watched on as the Xuron pilot struggled to keep the Hammerhead craft stable, it pulled and swayed in every direction apart from the one it wanted to travel in. Deciding to put the alien out of its misery, he armed a single low-yield missile and fired, like putting a bullet to an injured deer’s head he thought, watching the bright blue explosion that appeared out his window. “That’s the final Hammerhead,” he radioed back to Fez, “I’m going to take a wide arc around the Kesken fleet and pick off any raiders I find.”
“Good idea,” Fez said, “Our defensive perimeter is formed, we’re taking a beating but the Kesken fleet remains intact and we can hold off the Xuron armada for a while yet, we also just had word from Admiral Hu.”
“-Who?” Sean interrupted, sniggering to himself.
“-That reinforcements are on their way and will be here shortly, so we just need to hold on awhile longer, be safe out there, I do not want to lose my plaything,” Fez said, his teeth visible in the smirk plastered across his face before the channel was cut-off. Sighing to himself, he was only able to shake his head before grabbing the controls and accelerating out around the well defended Kesken flotilla. He enjoyed the calm before the storm, it was relaxing to him and he found some form of serenity in the fact that it could be his last action, but at least he knew he would be sacrificing his life for a greater cause than himself, something he previously thought himself incapable of.
“Sari, display a live feed from the Mar’Ell, I’d like to see their combat status,” a video feed flashed into existence in his peripheral vision, he watched on as hot plasma slammed against her shields spewing green clouds in every direction as the Mar’Ell flashed a bright blue from the defences trying to absorb the energy. The small point defence batteries lit the sky around the ship up in brilliant flashes of red and yellow, only interjected by the occasional beam that lanced from the ship's main weapons, it was a beautifully destructive sight.
Turning his attention back to his own systems, he willed the computer to ensure no major damage had occurred aboard. After a brief analysis, one shield emitter was down, two missile bays had been destroyed and other small niggling problems that would need to be addressed were discovered. He was memorised by the light show that was happening across vast distances, he could have watched it for hours on end, but was interrupted by an incoming transmission, accepting the call Taris’ face flashed onto the screen.
“Hello there,” she smiled, “How’s everything going?” He couldn’t help but be surprised by her actual, albeit concealed, concern.
“Not too bad, thanks,” he replied, watching the Ioution closely, “Some company would have been nice, It’s a lonely, secluded place out here.”
“Oh I bet,” she laughed, “I see you actually encountered two Impactors,”
“Impactors?” He questioned, before realising, “Oh, you mean Hammerheads, I gave them a new name,” he laughed.
“I like it, Hammerhead, it has a certain, crunch to it, wouldn’t you say.”
“I hope you’re not referring to the minor accident I had, that wasn’t my fault,” Sean protested, only half joking, “I’m just going ar… What the fuck is that,” he shouted, interrupting himself. He watched on as the space in front of him appeared to tear open, starting at a central point and creating a vertical rip that pulsated a bright white before hundreds of arms snaked out from the initi
al ingress point, almost forming a giant circular object in space. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” he questioned, “Quickly get everyone aboard to turn to my viewer,” slowing his ship, he watched on as it slowly started to form what looked like a giant plate in space and within moments a large discoloured object appeared to form, slowly slipping outwards from the tear.
The rounded object gradually came fully into view and what he came to realise was that it was only the tip, it was attached to a monstrosity of city-sized proportions that sluggishly exited through the rip in space. It was taller than most buildings on Earth and had to be over a mile long. As the ship’s rear exited, the tear snapped closed dissipating in a massive white explosion that blinded him, the tidal forces rocking his ship. Rubbing to return his vision he looked on at its dark brown surface, streaks of luminous red and green snaked along its pyramid shaped exterior like rivers. “Wow,” Taris said, her voice shaking, “Get out of there, now,” she ordered. He wasn’t about to argue but his body froze up, he was locked in position staring on at the structure which had just formed ahead of him, massive pylon structures extruded from its rear. He was snapped out of his daydreaming as every communication device in his cockpit flashed into life, and with no prior acceptance a window formed onto his HUD, a video link had been established and what came into view shocked everyone.
“Greetings,” the Xuron spoke in a language his translator could understand, “I am the Great Prophet Zao’Ren and I have come to cleanse this system of the vermin which inhabit it.” The Xuron was smaller than the others he had seen but at the same time the exuberant red gown it wore and its gait screamed gravitas, it was certainly someone in a position of power. The alien stood motionless, its large brown eyes were as dull as the being’s emotion, as if it was above everything that was going on, “Your treachery has gone long unchecked, Var’Un, and now it is time to face your demise, accept your fate with a willingness of a better life in the Xuron collective, prepare for assimilation,” the almost bored Zao’Ren laboured out.
