by Ryan Frieda
Captain Steele flew around another object when a large ship on fire suddenly appeared before him and broke up into several hundred foot long pieces. He flew under one piece, over another, then around one more. He so close to them that his suit went through the fire. Just on the other side of the last piece was another piece that was about 400 feet long and 40 feet wide and was rotating side over side. He flew right up next to it rotating his body so that his stomach was only inches away from it and he stayed that way, dodging the catwalks and metal pieces still stuck to this piece. He came near the end of that piece when another piece collided with that piece causing both pieces to explode. He flew right through the explosion dodging any large pieces of burning shrapnel.
Captain Steele looked around him looking for his ship and didn't see it. He looked up when another ship suddenly appeared before him exploding into several hundred large pieces. He continued dodging the pieces as things exploded all around him sending major chunks of ship in every direction. An explosion went off right in front of him and he braced himself with his hands and shoved debris aside as he went through.
Captain Steele had metal beams falling in front of him. He went under one, rotated to pass another then flew around in a corkscrew manner to bypass the other. As he went over a piece a very large chunk of a ship's outer wall stood between him and his route. He looked up and saw that another large ship had just entered the dimensional rift and was on a collision course for the outer wall. He calculated a point of impact that might break through the outer wall of the ship in front of him. He watched this large piece fall and timed his approach. The two pieces struck each other as he was 45 feet out causing a cloud of smoke from the fires to engulf him as he approached the point of impact.
Captain Steele was outside the ship's outer wall when he activated night vision and saw a small gap that led to the hole in the ship's outer wall, about three feet tall and two feet wide that he could enter into. He lined up his approach and entered the object. He traveled this narrow gap for about 15 feet before coming out the other side, smoking pouring out after him through the small hole.
Captain Steele corrected his course, accelerated his DSSM's thrusters to 250% output and continued to fly. Another large ship laid ahead of him. It twisted up around in a large loop before dropping straight down. The ship was too wide to go around. He rotated his body so that his stomach was inches from the surface of the ship and followed the twist up and around before dropping 90 degrees downward. He followed it for about one mile dodging what remained of the exterior of the ship before seeing a hole. He quickly flew away from the exterior of the ship and rotated around and turned into the hole. He flew around the inside of the ship when the ship shook and started to move.
Captain Steele was flying at speeds that were over the speed of sound though a destroyed ship that was moving downward at a 15 degree angle while also moving to his right 5 degrees. He flew through the hallways that were only about 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide dodging the debris that littered the hallways. He saw an end to the hall and rotated his body so that it was skimming on the side of the wall. He timed his approach as he was flying down the side of the wall and then turned upward so he could turn smoothly into the next hallway. He continued to maneuver this way for several hallways when the hallway broke in half, causing him to dodge another ship that had just collided into the ship he was in.
The hallway Captain Steele was in broke into several pieces. He directed himself into the remains of the hallway that had just broke off that was now moving upward at 65 degree angle and 20 degrees to his left while also rotating end over end. He followed this piece before coming out of it and entering into the ship that collided with the hallway he was in. He was in a large room engulfed in flames. He could see way at the end of the room there was a small hallway. He flew towards the small hallway spinning around debris and catwalks that littered the whole ship. The ship was becoming increasingly engulfed in flames, rushing up the sides of the ship. He looked back and saw an explosion grow from inside the ship about to engulf him. He flew faster and entered the hallway. The hallway was cluttered with debris causing him to spin around so that he could dodge them.
Captain Steele dodged objects as the hallway became engulfed in flames with the large explosion being inches behind his feet. The hallway shook and started to rotated side over side and slowly upward causing all the debris to ricochet off of the walls and causing cross beams that were fixed to the walls of the hallway to rotate as well. He flew around all these object before finding a gap at the end of the hallway. The explosion was growing, now engulfing his chest with the flames just ahead of him. He could barely see out of his visor. He came closer and closer to the hole as the explosion enveloped his head. He was close to the hole and the explosion was all he could see.
Captain Steele pushed on, continuing to dodge all the objects in the hallway. He looked and saw the exit closed off because of several pieces of debris. He pushed his DSSM's thrusters to overload. He was so close to the hole. He dodged beams and objects before coming to the hole. As he approached he threw his arms in front of him. When he came within elbows length of the hole he swept his arms out in front and around to his sides with enough force that the metal covering the hole shattered into pieces and he flew out as the explosion tore apart the ship below him.
Captain Steele continued to dodge debris while looking for his ship.
“Jamie. Where are you?” Captain Steele asked.
Captain Steele waited for a response but failed to hear one. He looked off to his right and saw his ship. He turned towards it flying over, under, and around debris. He was about 500 feet from it when he got a good look at it. He quickly analyzed the situation as he approached his ship at just over the speed of sound. He couldn't see a single thing wrong from the outside and quickly made his way to the airlock. He burst through the sealed airlock, making a two point landing while couched, and raised his rifle up the the high ready and went straight to securing his ship. He moved through the halls at a brisk pace, scanning each room pointing his rifle as he looked. He entered each room, saw it was empty, then moved onto the next. He made his way to the bridge when he saw something trying to get into the AI core that housed the console that contained Jamie's core.
“No one hurts Jamie!” Captain Steele yelled as he shot the thing.
It immediately disappeared but more shots came from the bridge. Captain Steele quickly took cover behind the wall of the room as the bullets hit his DSSM. His suit took the force with little damage to him. The one he had killed was humanoid, gold in color, about 6 feet tall, and scaly with hair on his arms. He wasn't sure where it came from or where the other shots came from. He didn't see anyone else in the room. He turned on his heat vision and failed to see anything else in that room that was warm. What he did see was a significant drop in temperature in the outline of some creatures hiding behind his captain's seat. He knew they must have been cold temperature creatures with temperature well below normal.
Captain Steele's DSSM warned him of incoming contacts from behind. He spun around as two creatures emerged from around the corner. He couldn't see them with anything other than heat vision so he aimed his rifle at them and fired while moving to the rec room for cover. His DSSM took several rounds and the creatures died as he shot them. His DSSM told him of movement from the bridge coming his way and he was hit with several more rounds to his back. He turned around and fired at them then did a tactical reload for his rifle. He didn't know where they were coming from or how many he had passed getting to the bridge. He had to protect Jamie. The bridge is what he needed to take.
Captain Steele's DSSM registered a dozen more heading towards the bridge from the other hallway on the other side of the ship that leads to the bridge. He made a move towards the bridge utilizing what cover he could. He moved to a pillar in the hallway when he encountered 10 more of those things. He fired several rounds taking down four and wounding two more. He ended up getting hit 10 times. He wasn't sure
what they were but he knew that they weren't going to hurt Jamie. He was going to make sure of that.
Captain Steele was getting pinned down by those things and he knew that he couldn't throw a grenade. He couldn't risk damaging the ship anymore than it already was. He knew they probably didn't care about the ship, just Jamie, and he knew he was out numbered and out gunned. He leaned out from cover firing several rounds dropping three more. He quickly decided that making his way through them into the bridge wouldn't necessarily be easy. His DSSM pinged him that enemies were coming from behind. He turned around and shot several of them. His DSSM warned him that the creatures coming from the bridge were making an advance on him. He leaned out from the pillar and fired several rounds. His heat vision showed that they were making an advance but it also showed they were using a heat shield as well that was blocking his bullets and it also had the effect of them being able to hide behind it. He thought about using the invisibility part of his suit, but he wasn't sure what kind of technology they have and they already knew he was there. He decided to save that card for another time.
Captain Steele leaned around the corner to shoot when he took a large blast to his arms, upper chest, mouth, chin, and forehead from a several feet away. He knew that it was some kind of powerful shotgun. His suit took most of the blast but it left his face bleeding. He could feel his blood pour down from his forehead across his right eye and down and around his left eye. He could also feel his upper lip torn from his nose to the bottom of the lip with blood dripping down and around his lips. He knew the blood was going to be falling down his chin and pooling in his face mask. Their weapons have somehow pierced some of his armor.
Captain Steele knew that if they rounded that corner with those shotguns and unloaded on him his DSSM would probably take the damage as he killed them but knew that he still needed this suit to be in good condition to build the Instant Teleportation Device. Plus, they had already pierced his armor once with a shotgun so it could continue to piece his armor. He decided to make a tactical retreat and make his way around to the other hall way that led to the bridge.
Captain Steele leaned his gun past the pillar and shot some rounds to try and get them to duck their heads then made a run back to the rec room. He was turning into the rec room when he saw several more. He open fired on them killing them where they stood. He then checked on the hallway he was just in to see if the creatures were still coming his way. Several of them broke off and went back to the bridge. He looked at where the creatures he killed fell. There were nothing there. He decided to continue with his plan anyway. He left the rec room and headed towards the cargo bay. It was important that he protect that cargo as well as Jamie. As he was headed there his DSSM pinged something in the food storage room where the food was produced. He knew there were much much bigger priorities so he left it be.
Captain Steele went down the hall and found some creatures just standing around and so he shot them. One of them picked up his shotgun and shot at him. Captain Steele got hit with some of the shotgun's projectiles in his lower chest, stomach, and thighs but continued on. He continued on and found some more. He leaned out from a pillar and shot them and they went down. He reloaded and moved down the corridor and leaned up against the wall just outside the cargo room. He peaked into it and found several creatures. He needed to be careful one wrong shot could do a lot of damage to necessary equipment.
Captain Steele activated the invisibility aspect of his DSSM and quickly made his way into the cargo room. He found one creatures, grabbed it, and snapped its neck all while remaining invisible. It then quickly disappeared as it fell to the ground dead. He liked that, it made it easy. He then quickly moved to the second one and snapped its neck, then to a third. While snapping the third one's neck, one creature looked over and acted surprised to see a creatures neck suddenly snap without reason. Captain Steele quickly grabbed his knife and was upon the creature before it could turn its gun in his direction. Captain Steele took his knife and sliced right through the creatures head spilling its freezing cold green blood onto him. His cloak then adapted the blood on him to be hidden as well.
Captain Steele cleared out the cargo bay in seconds and shut the door and made sure it remained sealed. He quickly moved to the engine room and saw they were just looking at the engines. He had bigger priorities. He continued on quickly and came to the lab where there were about two dozen. They were watching his video logs.
“That'll keep you freaks occupied for a while,” Captain Steele said as he moved passed it while still cloaked.
Captain Steele moved toward his bedroom and found one laying down in his bed. He had bigger priorities than some creature sleeping on the job. He decided he will probably just interrogate him later. He then quickly made his way to the bridge. He peaked out from around the corner. There was close to two dozen. That makes almost 50 of these things left on the ship. He leaned around the corner again and saw them messing with the console that houses the core for Jamie.
Captain Steele needed to save his friend. He looked around the corner again and saw the shield sitting there. There were two of them next to it. He knew he had to get to them and kill them so they couldn't use it. He couldn't reach them without really exposing himself on all sides without cover. He wasn't sure what weapons they had either and if they might be able to pick up his invisibility. His heat vision wasn't picking anything up other than their low body temperature and the extremely high temperature of their shield.
Captain Steele leaned around the corner and shot the creatures closest to the shield. He was able to take down 6 before needing to reload. He reloaded then leaned around the corner and saw they had picked up the shields and were looking in his general direction trying to figure out exactly where the shots came from. The creatures from the lab ran towards the bridge to help.
Captain Steele remained invisible, hoping they wouldn't see him and that they would walk right past him. If they did walk past him they would then most likely run down the other corridor looking for him assuming that's where he was shooting from. He waited as the creatures ran right by him. They talked to each other then started to run down the other hallway. There were three left in the bridge excluding one of them that was at Jamie's console. That one wasn't invisible for whatever reason. It appeared to be using some kind of electrical saw to cut the console open.
Captain Steele sneaked up to the creature furthest away and ripped its head off causing its blood to gush onto him. He walked up to the next creature and slit its throat causing its blood to spill onto his arms and legs. He then shoved the next creature down onto its knees with his left hand and jabbed his knife into the third creature's head pulling out the knife flinging the creature's blood on him. He then walked up to the one at Jamie's console and tapped it on the shoulder. The creature turned around as Captain Steele uncloaked and his helmet came off and folded down into his suit. Fear enveloped the creature's eyes as it saw Captain Steele's bleeding and torn face, with the blood of the creature's friends all over Captain Steele. The creature looked into Captain Steele's eyes and saw the burning determination to protect his friend at all costs.
“Leave her alone!” Captain Steele said enraged as he threw out his left hand grabbing the creature by its throat and lifted it up one foot above the floor as it struggled to get free, his right hand still holding his rifle pointed towards the creature's legs.
“You think you can kill my friend?” Captain Steele demanded to know angrily, “No one kills my friends. I will protect my friends. I will even die for my friends! However, today is not that day. No, today, YOU WILL DIE!”
Captain Steele squeezed the creatures throat so hard his neck bones shattered and the skin broke causing the head and body to separate and fall to the ground separately.
As soon as the body and head of the creature hit the floor a creature walked around the corner into the bridge. It looked at Captain Steele with his hand still in the air, his rifle still pointed towards were the creature's legs had just been
, and then ran down the hall. Captain Steel grabbed his rifle and shot it in the back just as some of the creatures rounded the corner at the far end of the hall. He ended up shooting his entire magazine into them killing 15 of them. He then reloaded and fired down the hall killing another 10 of them while getting hit with more of their bullets. Captain Steele then moved toward the other hallway that led to the bridge, reloaded, then open fired down the hallway. They raised a shield and proceeded to fire at him. He emptied a magazine then reloaded and shot more rounds down the hallway. He was able to kill all but 4 that were hiding behind the shield. They slowly approached firing rounds at him as he hid behind the pillar waiting for them to come around the corner and into the bridge.
Captain Steele saw the shield come around the corner before he ran and jumped towards them. They all ducked and moved away from the shield while the one with the shield pointed it upwards and Captain Steele landed on it. Captain Steele then pointed his rifle at the creature holding the shield and shot the creature in the forehead, just beyond the top of the shield, running the magazine empty. Captain Steele then grabbed his hand gun with his right hand, and extended his right arm all the way out towards the creature on his right and shot it in twice in the head. He then bent his elbow so that his right hand was in front of his chest and fired the gun at the creature on the left. The last creature was just getting up from the ground and raised his rifle toward Captain Steele as Captain Steele moved towards the creature. He grabbed the creature's rifle, tore it from the creature's hands, then shoved the barrel into the creatures head and emptied the magazine.
Captain Steele then turned his attention to his Jamie.
Chapter 22
Absolute Dissolution
The console that held Jamie's Artificial Intelligence had been sealed in a small room at the back of the bridge. If you didn't know where to look you wouldn't have had any idea that it was there. There was a very thick door, and behind it was a small room about a quarter the size of a telephone booth. This room housed the AI core. The room was one giant computer and at the center of the room was the console. This console could be pulled out partially or completely. This console housed all that Jamie was. It housed her personality, her ability to think, her memories of everything, and even what her holographic form would look like. It was everything Jamie was. The room was supposed to be so secure that the only way it could be opened was either by completely vaporizing the ship, loosing the core, or by the key passwords that only Captain Steele and the top three generals in the Earth Military knew.
