The two ships became intertwined, arranged in a sickly 'L' shape, spiraling in a graceless waltz high above the atmosphere. Their dull gray hulls and the spouts of orange flame were thrown into sharp relief by the vivid blue of the Earth behind them.
"Cut the engines! Cut the engines!" shouted Kepp, hoping that the intercom was still working.
"Cutting engines," came Jenson's reply, in a rather shaky voice. "Is everyone okay over there?"
Suddenly, Kepp, along with everyone and everything else not attached to something, began to float as the artificial gravity generator failed.
"Everything's fine. We've just lost gravity, Curtis is unconscious from the impact. Don't worry."
"Hill? You alive?"
The burly Lieutenant groaned, massaging his back, as he floated a few feet off the ground. "Doing fine, sir. That was one helluva hit."
"Good, get the squad to do a sweep of the ship, there are probably casualties to deal with."
Hill nodded an affirmative and began to talk to his squad.
Kepp kicked off the main viewscreen, sending himself towards Prem, who was tapping at his console in frustration.
"Can you get those last five missiles fired?" asked Kepp.
"I'm trying, but this damn thing is about to die," Prem slammed the console with his fist. It gave a beep of protest, however, the missiles launched successfully, bursting out of their pods. The exhaust nozzles flared a brilliant white as they turned and headed to intercept their targets.
Prem shrugged, "There we go."
Kepp pushed off towards the ceiling of the bridge, grabbing his helmet as he floated by it. Then he pushed off towards the exit.
The bridge door hissed open as Kepp floated towards it.
"Where the hell are you going?" demanded Haur, through his personal comm-link.
Kepp stopped at the door, grabbing hold of the frame. He stared at his Paragon compatriot, who was floating near an unconscious Curtis. "Where the hell do you think I'm going?"
"No, wait, fuck," Haur had floated out of reach of any nearby walls or floors, leaving him stranded in mid-air without anything to push off. He waved his appendages furiously, to no effect, "Kepp. It's over! We've done it, you idiot. Let's get everyone to the escape pods!"
"You do that then." Kepp gave Haur one final look.
"It's not over for me, not yet," he said, before disappearing down the corridor towards the armory.
Morian shoved a helmet onto his head, hearing a slight hiss as the seal was made with the rest of his suit. His face was livid with rage. From his view on the bridge, he could see the collision zone of the two ships; a mountain range of jagged metal and blackened hull.
One of the old men coughed. He then mumbled something, rendered incoherent by the gag.
Morian grabbed his combat knife, and sliced off the length of rope binding the old man's mouth.
"You got something to say, ya old fuck?"
"It's...over..." he whispered, a bemused smile on his face. "You've...lost..."
Morian smacked him in the face, leaving him unconscious and with a bloodied nose. He breathed hard; the anger within seemed bubble endlessly, looking for an escape.
He glanced around the bridge; his men were beginning to gather around him, waiting for orders.
A seed of doubt grew in his mind as he examined his options. What could he do now?
Suddenly, he was distracted by a flash of white, as the missiles were launched from the other ship.
Morian felt a calm seeping through him, like healing gel being placed on a wound, as he realized that there was still a way to achieve his goals.
"They still have a working launch system," he said, a grin crossing his face again, "I think we should make use of it."
He signaled to the captain of his troops. "Get your forces together; we're going to board their ship. The rest of you, get down to the armory and equip yourselves. I want everybody in on this."
They moved to comply instantly. My loyal followers, he thought, as he watched hurry away, you shall be well rewarded.
He cast one more glance out of the bridge window. The sunlight fell across stricken ships, casting the damage into sharp relief.
Turning, he marched out of the door.
It's not over yet.
Chapter 16 – Scores
Kepp stood on the outside of the Knight, his magnetized boots keeping him attached to the hull. Fifty meters or so above him, as he was standing, was the superstructure of the other battleship, stretching across his field of vision.
You're fucking nuts, a voice told him in his head. But it was too late to back down now.
He squatted then switched the magnets off, and then pushed off with a powerful kick at the hull, which sent him drifting across the void between the two ships. Underneath him, he saw the Earth in all its glory; a blue and green jewel, accented by the white swirls of clouds.
He twisted in midair, looking all around his surroundings. As his gazed passed over the front section of ship, he noticed movement. The tiny human figures that were moving across the ships were cast into sharp contrast by the glaring sunlight.
"Hill, this is Kepp, do you copy?" he said.
There was quite a long delay before Hill replied.
"This is Hill, go ahead. Over."
"You've got hostiles incoming. I think they're trying to storm the ship. Get the civvies into the escape pods ASAP. I'll send you a number count on the hostiles. Over."
"Roger that; we'll be done in a minute."
Kepp's implants began to conduct a signature scan, highlighting all of the humans in his vision.
"I'm counting fifty and growing," said Kepp, "You're gonna have a helluva fight on your hands."
"Roger that, civilians are away. It's only Haur and the squad here. Why the hell are they storming our ship anyway?"
Kepp watched as two large escape pods detached from the bottom of the Knight, and ignited their rockets, powering towards the Earth.
"The missiles!" said Haur suddenly, his voice crackling across the comm-link. "Our missile systems are still functional, that's why," he paused, before adding, "Unless they just want us dead."
Kepp turned in mid-air, as he approached the hull of the opposite ship, breathing a sigh of relief - he had judged his trajectory just right. He turned on his boot magnets again, and landed on the hull with a clank. A plan had already begun to form in his mind.
"I don't think you've got enough time to disable the missile launcher. But, I've got some grenades here with a delayed charge option. If I can get to their missile hold and slap one of these babies down, they'll be blown to pieces before they know what's happening. Just take that last pod and get out of here, I'll deal with this."
"No," Haur replied, "You needed backup on Mars, and you're damn well sure going to need backup here."
"Well, if you all want to come be heroes, then get your asses over here without dying," replied Kepp. He knew he sounded apathetic, but in reality, he was relieved. Who knew what was waiting for him on board the enemy ship.
"See you in a few minutes," replied Haur.
He shouldered his rifle, and began to walk along the circumference of the hull, looking for an entry point. It didn't take him long to spot a man-sized hole, made by one of the railgun shells. He pulled himself into the ship with one hand, holding a rifle at the ready with the other, and then suddenly fell onto the floor. It appeared that the artificial gravity was still working in this ship.
Picking himself up, he checked that the corridor was clear. The emergency lights cast everything in a reddish hue. The corridor was completely unfurnished, and the bare metal was displayed in all its glory. Along the inside of the wall, a multitude of pipes and wires ran in a recessed section down the length of the hallway, the ends of which was hidden by a curve. Knowing that the missile stores were towards the front of the ship, located near the launchers, Kepp started off to his left, rifle leveled and at the ready.
The corridors he traversed were al
l deserted, the only company he had was the glow of the red emergency lighting and the occasional sparking consoles. It didn't take him long to stumble across a marker sign, showing that he was on Deck E1. He brought up the map using his implants, and finally oriented himself; he was located around mid-section of the ship, on the lowest deck.
The missile storage bay was a cavernous area, taking up Decks B1 to B4. He had to work his way forward.
Every fiber of his body stood on end as he rounded corner after corner, darting from cover to cover. But it seemed that this part of the ship was deserted. He didn't like it one bit. His measured breaths were loud in the enclosed interior of his helmet. He had exited the maintenance corridor, and was now into the proper interior of the ship. The floor was carpeted and all the wiring and subsystems were hidden behind smooth white panels. Bits of debris floated about in the corridor; pens and paper, shards of metal. Less savory were the crew members who had been caught without a suit, their bodies were frozen in rigor mortis, their faces displaying the pain of hypoxia.
He had just made his way to Deck C3, according to his map, when Haur commlinked in.
"We've just landed on the hull. We left some of those delayed grenades on the Knight, they should be greeting Morian's men any time now," he reported, with some satisfaction.
"Ok," said Kepp, "Linking us in." A few seconds later, Haur and the squad appeared as a gaggle of green dots on Kepp's map overlay. It appeared they had also landed on Deck E.
"Those decks were deserted when I made my way through," he advised over the commlink.
Haur expressed his affirmative, and they moved out.
Kepp now stood in front of an auto-sealing bulkhead door, used to limit the affected areas in case of depressurization. To his right, he saw the entry/exit chamber, a small man-sized compartment that could be used to bypass the bulkhead door. He stepped in, and heard the dull hiss of air as it flooded into the compartment. Finally, the exit light opened, and he stepped out onto the green carpeted hallway. The emergency lights highlighted a figure dressed in civilian clothes struggled out from a junction in front of him, a few meters away.
Kepp tore off his helmet, leveling his rifle at the target as he did so.
"Don't move!" he shouted, as he approached what appeared to be an old man whose hands and feet appeared to be gagged and bound. He stared at Kepp with a terrified expression, shaking his head and straining against the gag to say something, whilst stumbling away from Kepp.
Kepp heard a rattle, and looked down at the man's belt. A grenade.
He only had milliseconds to react, throwing himself backwards, before the grenade detonated. Blood was splattered everywhere, coating Kepp and everything around the unfortunate victim in a sickly red. It dripped from the ceilings and rolled slowly down the walls, appearing almost black and alien in the dim light.
Kepp picked himself up as fast as he could, rifle leveled. He wiped the blood off his face roughly, and then he heard a chuckle coming from around the corridor junction.
"Imagine my surprise when my men reported that the enemy ship appeared to be deserted, the escape pods jettisoned," began a male voice, one unmistakable to Kepp. "Then, imagine my horror when explosions ripped several of them apart."
There was a pause, Kepp edged towards the corner; he was careful to make absolutely no noise, placing one foot carefully in front of the other in a painstakingly slow walk. He flipped open the receiver on his commlink, so that the others could hear the situation.
"Who could do such a thing? I wondered...and the answer came as clear as day." Kepp inched closer to the corner. "Only a Paragon. Only you. My dear Kepp."
Kepp was now at the corner of the junction. A text message flashed across his implanted eye: "We'll take care of the missiles, you take care of Morian."
Kepp darted out around the corner, finger holding the trigger just below the firing threshold. Morian stood at the center of the corridor, his face a vicious grin, he held a transparent shield in front of him which was now covered in blood. Kepp fired, five pulse rounds aimed perfectly for Morian's chest. However, they stopped short, hitting and dissipating the shield. Kepp used his momentum to keep going, and took cover behind the opposite corner.
"An eye for an eye, Kepp," said Morian, he sighed. "I guess it had to come down to this."
Kepp heard the clunk of something heavy being thrown down - he guessed it was the shield. His heart quickened in his chest; this was it.
"You know, those delayed grenades weren't my idea," he said, his mind whirring. He fingered the EMP canister that Saro had given him, whilst continue to talk keeping his voice light, "You're right though. I came to this ship especially to look for you."
"Well, then you must be overjoyed at what you found," came the reply.
Were those footsteps that Kepp could hear? Was Morian coming nearer?
Now!
Kepp used his implants to pick up all the fragments of the old man that he could see, and flung them around the corner in Morian's direction. Then, he leapt out of cover.
Time seemed to slow. He saw Morian's surprised expression at the fragments of a human remains flying at him, and then Kepp squeezed the trigger on his pulse rifle. However, Morian reacted by slamming Kepp upwards with his own force wave. The rifle shots went amiss and it was ripped out of his hands by Morian, clattering down the corridor. Kepp saw Morian taking aim with his own pistol, and exerted his implants again, pushing the pistol wide. The shot was deflected, ricocheting off the wall behind him.
Suddenly, time returned to normal speed, as Kepp fell hard onto the ground. He didn't even think, his mind was a blur of rage. Springing up on all fours, he clicked the end of the EMP canister in, activating it, and ran headlong at Morian.
A searing pain swept through his senses, as the implants malfunctioned and stopped working. He willed his legs to keep moving. Morian appeared to be in similar pain; he was barely able to aim the pistol straight. Morian fired again, and the bullet nicked Kepp's left arm. Kepp barely noticed the pain as he barreled towards Morian, taking them both onto the floor in a tackle that sent the two men rolling across the carpet, into the control room for the munitions storage area. Morian's pistol bounced and slid away on the carpet.
It was an open room, located two floors directly below the bridge. It contained a large observation window, through which the entire storage facility could be seen and a few banks of computer terminals, used for manipulating the robots and cranes that moved the munitions around.
Kepp pulled himself up, still reeling from the effects of the EMP canister, and grabbed Morian by the front of his suit. He landed a devastating right hook on Morian's cheek, sending the other man stumbling backwards.
Kepp's mind was overtaken with fire and anger; years of locked up pain and emotions driving all rational thought out of his being. He set upon Morian, screaming incoherently, like a man possessed, a flurry of punches and kicks. Morian kept staggering backwards, fingers grasping for the combat knife stored in a sheath in the small of his back. As Kepp rushed at him again, he sliced the knife around, catching Kepp with a shallow cut across the chest.
Kepp jumped back, the sudden pain seeming to bring him back from his frenzied state.
Morian licked his bleeding lip as he edged towards Kepp, knife held in a combat pose. He cackled, "This is how it's got to be, Kepp. To the end!" he shouted.
Kepp grinned, ignoring the blood seeping out of his chest wound, his eyes looking devilish.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," he said, snarling.
The two combatants stepped around each other, each measuring the other up like two gladiators in the coliseum.
It was all over in a flash.
Morian took the initiative, stepping forward and lunging with the knife. Kepp sidestepped and grabbed Morian’s wrist, twisting and throwing him onto the floor. He grabbed hold of Morian's hand with both of his, and plunged the knife into Morian's chest.
Kepp watched Morian blink a few times as recogni
tion of what happened sank into his consciousness. He held the knife in place as Morian struggled, his panicked eyes flicking from the knife handle, which his hands tried to pull out, to Kepp's eyes, which stared at him like a statue.
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