Armageddon's Pall

by S. F. Edwards

  Lights on the Fershing’s helmet illuminated his suit number and link frequency. Understanding, Blazer flashed the technician a thumbs-up and dialed in the numbers. “What’s our status?”

  “Ship is fueled, rearmed, and ready to fly,” the Fershing replied with a tilt of its massive head. “Rest of squadron ready soon too,” he continued, his words trailing off as a new flight group entered the area. The Fershing almost shook with joy at the sight, the species loving to tinker on any ship they could land their claws upon. That was how they’d first entered space, salvaging a crashed alien starship, and adapting it to their usage. Ever since they’d become sought-after as technicians. “Umbilicals unhooked, we go now,” the technician concluded and leapt from the fighter towards the refueling tug. A line of other Fershing followed in his wake towards the latest group of fighters.

  Bridge, Planet Slicer

  Gondral’s mouth watered as fae felt the phantoms of fas two lower hands clench and unclench. On the main screen, the dwarf planet hung ahead of them, the Planet Slicer mere moments from contact with the surface. The tiny planet had already begun to shatter under the gravitational strain as it fell towards the Planet Slicer. It didn’t matter how many anti-matter projectors the Dondicks managed to disable. The dwarf stood no chance against the Planet Slicer. With its destruction, so too would die the Dondick’s staging post and then the world it protected.

  Then Gondral felt something amiss. Minds from the bow of the Planet Slicer, and even several technicians on the bridge, sprang to a level of alert unusual for a planetary attack. The feeling spread throughout the bridge as the technicians monitoring critical systems began to panic. Even the Ship Lord began to show some concern as moe listened to the reports coming in.

  Before Gondral could ask what the matter was the light show outside the bridge dome ceased. Almost since the Planet Slicer had arrived the shields above the bridge had been under a constant barrage. The purple glow of the ionized screens was almost opaque due to the volume of fire. They’d held despite the punishment, and now, nothing. Gondral looked out at the naked stars beyond as impacts began to rattle the bridge. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  The Ship Lord ran to a nearby console. Moe turned back, face bereft of color, the lights of the bridge blinking as consoles died around them. “We are reading massive systems failures from all sectors of the ship Lord of All. There’s massive blowback in the anti-matter projectors, the forward hull is disintegrating. All dark energy manipulators have discharged, we no longer have spin control and thrusters are firing at random. The Planet Slicer is starting to rip itself apart.”

  The sensor officer almost jumped out of its seat at the data onscreen before its high-pitched screeching voice called out. “Sensors are showing an anomaly within the planetoid. It’s hollow, and there is…”

  It was all Gondral could do to contain fas composure as the news just seemed to worsen. “What? What is it?”

  “It’s a jump point Lord of All, and it’s expanding.”

  There was nothing more they could do: Gondral saw that. Despite all fas boasting of the Planet Slicer’s strength and invulnerability, it had existed in a precarious balance of forces. This attack had disrupted those forces beyond restoration. Unshielded as they were, there was no way to avoid the hyperspace jump point growing from a miniscule puckered point to almost an eighth the width of the Planet Slice itself. Momentum would see to the Planet Slicer’s destruction. Unable to stop or slow, the jump point would eat a line straight through the ship, cleaving it in two.

  Gondral would not go quietly however and reached out into the fleet. Vaughnt had to be out there, had to be near, fae knew it. All about the Planet Slicer, ships fled from the destruction, but Gondral would have revenge. There, fae spotted them, above the surface of the Planet Slicer, dark blue and silver Splicer 5000s. The fighters flew in scattered formations, attacking targets at random. No Gorvian fighters were in the area, but gunners remained at their stations. Gondral shifted through the fighters. The rest were unimportant. Tail numbers flashed past. Six, Nine, Ten, One, Three. That was him, Monstero Nach Three, Vaughnt. Gondral would see to his end.

  Monstero Nach 003, Sector CVK-198, Planet Slicer

  It didn’t matter that they’d expected it, the explosive expansion of the jump point had still caught Blazer by surprise. The shockwave it produced as it blew away the last of the dwarf planet’s crust threw them into a hard roll as he raced away from a destroyed turret tower. Dazed, he glanced over his shoulder at the expanding gateway into hyperspace, and now it dominated the central bow of the Planet Slicer, carving away at the hull. A rustling from behind proved a clear signal that Arion had come out of the shroud to witness the event with his own eyes as well.

  What a sight it was. A ship slipping into a hyperspace bubble was almost serene, like flicking a sphere of water with a speck of dust. The bubble would ripple for just a moment before the waves damped out and disappeared. This was violent, the whole of the jump point writhing and glowing as the energy of the interaction poured through it. The bubble itself seemed to want to push the Planet Slicer back as the interaction could very well collapse the jump point.

  Blazer’s wonder came to an abrupt end however as plaser fire lanced out around him. Drawn back into the moment, he dove for the surface of the Planet Slicer, the skies above suddenly far too dangerous. His threat display lit up like a parade and his HUD filled with turrets all of which seemed intent on him. “Shreg me sideways. Arion. Get us an escape vector!”

  “I’ve got nothing,” Arion replied. “The whole sector, every turret, every sensor tower is focused on us. They’re ignoring everyone else.”

  “Lucky for them. So how do we get out of this? Slipstream?”

  “Negative,” Arion grunted as Blazer pulled hard around one of the sensor towers, the nearby turrets tracing fire along their path. “The gravitational profile of the area is too erratic. We go slipstream and we could bounce right into the jump point. Plus, I’m getting heavy dark energy interference. Looks like our Synthetic friends set off dark energy mines inside the Planet Slicer using its own slipstream drives. We’re on plasma rockets only.”

  Blazer’s jaw clenched so hard he felt surprised he could draw breath. He skimmed the surface of the Planet Slicer, keeping under the turrets’ field of fire as best he could. “Great.” Blazer pulled the fighter back around towards empty space beyond the edge of the Planet Slicer and hammered the throttle open to full. “Give me the shortest course away from here.”

  Arion didn’t even reply, the course appearing on Blazer’s HUD. Nothing else mattered as Blazer raced along the course. He maneuvered only when he had to to avoid the forest of turrets and sensor towers to keep up his momentum. The surface was little more than a blur. In the distance, bright red plumes began to stab the darkness, and they were coming closer. “Arion?”

  “I see them. Local area reactors are going critical and venting, assuming they don’t blow. And more bad news.”

  “What?” Blazer groaned as he pulled up to avoid a hidden turret, dozens more singeing his shields as he popped up.

  “The main reactor core, that’s going critical too,” he replied and Blazer’s screen showed their position in relation to it. “And we’re right along the ridge it’ll vent its plasma into, assuming…”

  “Assuming it doesn’t go boom.” Blazer didn’t need to hear anymore and smashed his thumb into his afterburner button. The fighter lurched forward as he brought it back towards the surface. The acceleration compensators whined to keep the increased G-forces from crushing them. It was all Blazer could do to keep his attention focused on his course. Even from the edge of his vision he could see the explosions, and the turret fire getting closer. He had to get more speed.

  A shot grazed their shields. It knocked them towards the surface and Blazer pulled out of the fall at the last cent, rising rose slowly to avoid any large hull blisters. “We need more speed!” he called as the Planet Slicer’s surface began hea
ving. The gravitational interference of the disintegrating ship, the remains of the planetoid, the jump point, and the disrupted dark matter stirred the thin atmosphere into a series of massive gusts.

  “I’ve cut power to everything I can. We’re already deep in the red on the engine temps, push them much harder and we could face a critical shutdown. There are safeties even I can’t override.”

  “What about…”

  “The ZKEPs are…” an alarm cut off Arion’s response before the fighter jerked downwards. “Scratch that. ZKEP one just vented. Two through four won’t last much longer.” The Zero Kinetic Energy Potential packs were a fighter's last thermal protection in normal operations, storing waste heat to avoid detection or to protect vital systems. Once overheated however they would vent the gasified state change solid into space to protect the craft. They’d just lost one. That didn’t mean they had no other options however.

  “Throw the thermal sails and burn the skin then!”

  “That’ll cook off the guns,” Arion replied, their missiles long since depleted.

  “Ditch ‘em,” Blazer ordered through clenched teeth as he slid them out of the way of an approaching turret, their shields bucking from the proximity. “I’m not planning on shooting anything else this cycle. Then switch us over to suit life support and cook our air.”

  “Already on it,” Arion replied. The sound of explosive bolts echoed through the hull as the fighter’s six guns blew away in sequence. The plaser cannons detached first, drifting along with the fighter for a moment before the bio cannons and even the Narfics blew free. The mass shed, the fighter pulled away from the weapons as they succumbed to the Planet Slicer’s gravity and tumbled towards its surface.

  Blazer had only cooked a fighter’s skin in a lab before and he’d forgotten just how fast it could happen. The fighter’s paint melted away as the excess heat from the engines flowed into the nanotube mesh of their armor’s outermost layer. Within moments the skin began to glow with a dull and then a bright red sheen. The leading and trailing edges, where the mesh was thickest, soon began to glow yellow giving Blazer his most visual cue of how desperate their thermal situation was. The atmosphere outside must have been sweltering to begin with. All that vented plasma and hydrogen had made it an inferno ready to explode.

  “Throw the damn sails Arion.”

  “And make us a bigger target?” he replied as the engine thermal gauges on Blazer’s screen dipped for the first time.

  “If you don’t we’ll lose the wings,” Blazer snapped, structural alarms lighting up his display. With no further argument Arion complied and the emergency Black Body Thermal Radiators deployed. The control surfaces along the trailing edges of the wings, dorsal, and ventral fins snapped free. Falling behind the fighter, they unfurled long back panels from their hidden compartments. Before the radiators could even deploy they began to glow, heat pouring into them.

  “Killing the shroud,” Arion replied, shutting down the last of the noncritical systems. Even Blazer’s SIS winked out, plunging the cockpit into darkness. The sudden surge of power was too much for some systems however and with a snapping hiss the Acceleration Compensators coughed their last breath. Over sixteen Gs of force slammed into them, crushing them into their seats. Blazer kept the engines at maximum, the plasma reaching a fusion point before it could meet the thrust ring.

  For the first time since their Splicer 1000 training their suits’ internal acceleration bladders shuddered to life. Their air supply pumped into the bladders spread throughout the otherwise skin-tight suits, forcing blood into their brains. “I hate this,” Blazer wheezed as the edge of the Planet Slicer heaved into view, the glorious black abyss of space beyond.

  The fighter shuddered and the thermal gauges spiked an instant later. “Shreg me!” Arion gasped. “We’ve just lost the sails on the right wing. Can’t tell what happened, and the ionization alarm is lighting up. We’re going to lose the thrust control rings.”

  “Can’t throttle back,” Blazer gasped, his vision drained of color. “Just hold on a little longer baby.”

  Blazer’s ears began to numb, his systems alarm displaying light across all sectors. He couldn’t see which was the worst off in his new grayscale world. Gasping for breath he caught the hint of a shrill alarm before a reactor ahead of them vented, pouring plasma into their path. Instinct drove Blazer’s reaction and he winged over. It was too much for the dying craft. Arion screamed something he couldn’t make out. Their right wing appeared over the cockpit as he came out of the roll. He couldn’t understand why at first before the fighter began to spin. He recognized the shrill alarm; structural failure.

  His main screen blanked and every surface of the fighter sprang back to life, even his HUD calling out for the crew to EJECT! Blazer blinked to try and clear his vision. It was too late. There was no hope to save the out of control fighter; space, surface, jump point, space, surface, jump point danced across his vision. One final kick in the back; the ejection motors fired. The whole cockpit separated from the doomed fighter, rocketing up and away from the crippled Planet Slicer. The additional G-forces were too much for Blazer. In the instant before he lost consciousness he stared at one last turning turret and the flash of its cannon’s discharge.

  Bridge, UCSBS Nosh’Tak

  All semblance of discipline disappeared on the bridge in the same instant the Planet Slicer’s bridge disappeared. The jump point engulfed the highlighted blister before the dreadnaught’s main reactor vented. Admiral Quin Tosh couldn’t blame them. The crew of her battle cruiser had earned this celebration. Even the orbs joined in, danced about between console stations. She allowed herself to relax and breathed a long sigh of relief as she stared at what remained of the Planet Slicer.

  Explosions rocked the surface of the massive ship and it split in half; the dark energy screen keeping the ship intact gone. The whole ship began breaking apart. Each exploding reactor took huge chunks of hull with it, breaking the remaining ship apart. What remained of the Gorvian fleet looked no better. Many took suicidal runs towards her ships, even more damaged ships continued to fight. To her amazement, several raced towards the Planet Slicer, perhaps to try and rescue some of the crew. A few ships seemed competent enough to try and escape and ran for the jump points. She watched two attempts to escape out of the jump point that destroyed the Planet Slicer. The unstable gateway into hyperspace proved hostile to entry, destroying them.

  The look on her aide’s face as he approached contrasted so much with the mood of the rest of the bridge that it almost sent her into shock. “Ma’am. I, I have bad news.”

  Bad news just didn’t seem possible given the destruction of Gondral and his Planet Slicer. She looked at the macomm in his hand and snatched it away. “What could be wrong?”

  “You asked for any word on the members of the Monstero Nach Squadron. We’ve lost contact with Monstero Nach Zero Three; crew Vaughnt and Scotts. It was engaged over the Planet Slicer itself. Numerous turrets attacked, seemingly focused on them.”

  His words sobered her in an instant. The report on the macomm confirmed every syllable. “Has there been any contact? A recovery beacon?” voice turning urgent.

  “Negative ma’am. The radiation is interfering with communications and sensors.”

  Calming herself down, she tugged on her uniform and handed back the macomm. Deploy SAR teams to the area around the Planet Slicer. Have them scan and pick through all wreckage they come across and recover all survivors.”

  “Gorvian as well Ma’am?”

  “I said recover all survivors!”

  Cockpit Module

  The first sensations to return were weightlessness and pain. Nothing localized, but all over, like he’d been flattened inside a crusher. Then came a taste, vaguely metallic. Ringing, then a buzzing sound. He blinked; saw nothing. He waited a moment, rolled his tongue around in his mouth, against his teeth, pain, and the metallic taste again. He must have bitten his tongue. Grimacing, he tried to move. Every muscle ca
lled out in agony, even his bones hurt. Nothing felt broken. He just felt crushed. The buzzing in his ears again. Static maybe, it was hard to tell through the low ringing. He opened his eyes again, or at least he thought he did. He received nothing from them. A vibration ran through his seat, tapping, familiar; Coretherian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  A dim glow appeared at the edge of his vision and Blazer twisted about to get a better look. The motion sent shooting pains back through his body.

 

 

 

 

  The link crackled in Blazer’s ear again. Moments later he felt a slow acceleration push him back into his seat. A dull shimmer shone through the tiny cracks in the cooked canopy; the hue unfamiliar. Blazer’s hand fell to his leg by instinct; wrapped around the handle of his pistol. With their communications dead, there was no way of knowing who, or what guided the grappler beam.

 

  The light shifted color to a dull orange and Blazer flexed his hand on the grip of his pistol again. A dull thud rang through the pod before the emergency bolts holding the canopy in place fired. Every movement still hurt but Blazer released his harness and raised his pistol as the canopy drifted away. The light assaulted his eyes. He blinked several times to try and clear them as a shape rushed in. He brought his blaster around; something struck him on the back of his head. The universe went dark again.