Chapter 9

“Roll the ship” Aragon shouted, “Bring the port weapons around, fire as soon as you have a target”

He felt the ship shake violently. “Sir, we have lost control of the engines, the hull is breached in the cargo bay.” Shouted Aragon’s Commander.

“Are sensors still down?” Aragon said, as the noise level dropped.

“Yes sir,” the Commander replied.

“Do we have any idea where we are headed then?” Aragon asked, resting his forehead on his hand.

“No sir” Said the Commander, avoiding Aragon’s gaze.

“Status of the hull” Phantom shouted over the sound of an explosion.

“Seventy six percent Admiral” Shouted Lieutenant Ithiel, as several more explosions shook the ship.

“Hurry up Aragon” She muttered “We need that communications blocker down now”

“Admiral” Came a voice over the communicator “a fighter has just landed and reported that we are heading directly for a Terran Invincible.”

“Can we turn?” Aragon asked.

“No Sir” Came a reply from an ensign who was under a console doing repairs.

Aragon looked around “Fine, abandon ship.” He said, hoping that the escape pods were still working.

“Admiral” called Ithiel to Phantom “There are several small objects just off our starboard bow, they look like escape pods.”

“Can you teleport the passengers aboard?” Phantom asked.

“Yes Admiral” Shouted the Lieutenant over the noise of another explosion.

There was a few seconds of silence and then the communicator activated “Phantom, is that you?” Came Aragon’s voice.

“Aragon? Get up here, we need to find a way to get out of here, we are losing bad.”

Armageddon looked at the tactical screen of his HUD and felt a chill go down his spine. “Get me the Admirals on the communicator” He shouted, despite the fact that the command deck was quiet.

“Sorry Sir,” Said an Ensign from behind him “The communications jammer is still up”.

Aragon walked onto the command deck and stood behind Phantom.

“What’s going on?” He whispered.

“No idea, we need to get out of here, the hull is at thirty nine percent.” Phantom replied. “Turn the ship, get us out of here.” She ordered.  But her voice was drowned out by a large groaning sound.  It took her only a split second to respond “Close off the Command deck doors” She shouted as loud as she could.  All the doors slid shut noiselessly however one jammed with an inch gap separating the wall and the edge of the door.  Aragon flew backwards and disappeared through the gap, leaving only some blood around the edges which itself rapidly disappeared into the gap.  Phantom felt the straps of her seat cut into her chest.  She felt the air rushing from her lungs and then passed out.

Armageddon watched as the two Admirals ships collided and smashed his hand down onto the chair. “Prepare to jump to hyperspace” He ordered, as he slumped back into his seat.

Narses fell to the ground and watched as several dozen Terrans were riddled with bullets.  He discarded his cloak and drew both of his bolt pistols.  Sonar and J0E followed suit.  The trio ran towards a group of pirates and opened fire, J0E fired of two shots and killed a pirate with each, he had always been an expert marksman.  Narses fired a number of shots at a Genus pirate, hitting him in the chest and abdomen repeatedly.  Sonar finished off the other two with a number or shots to the chest.

Narses jumped behind a pile of rubble as the remaining pirates realized that they were fighting back.  J0E and Sonar had dived into a crater in the ground and were firing at the pirates.  Sonar signaled for Narses to try to get behind the group of pirates that were bearing down on their position.  Narses leaned out and fired a few shots off at the pirates, one of the Fed pirates was hit in the arm and fell down moaning.  Narses was about to run out when he heard a number of Terrans screaming.  This was no place to fight these pirates, they were out gunned and too many Terrans would die.

Narses put his back against the rubble and called out to Sonar and J0E “We need to get out of here and bring the pirates with us, these people are dead if we don’t!”

Sonar called back but Narses couldn’t hear what he said as he was drowned out by the sound of several tanks coming into the courtyard.  They were Terran tanks but Narses couldn’t make out who they currently were being controlled by, they glided through the courtyard ramming through pirate and Terran alike.  Several seconds later a second set of identical tanks glided around the corner.  For a second Narses thought that all was los, but then he heard a voice boom out from one of the tanks communications systems.

“This is Admiral Doomlord” It shouted “The path that we have just come down is clear, run…now!”

Narses felt a sigh of relief, until he realized that he was stuck in the middle of the two groups of tanks.  They opened fire on each other and several hundred Terran soldiers appeared from behind the tanks, they opened fire on the pirates.  The Pirate tanks regrouped and opened fire on the Terrans.  The shells rammed into several of the Terran tanks and destroyed them instantly.

“Let’s go!” Shouted Sonar to J0E and Narses.  The Trio ran out from behind their rubble, and headed towards the tanks.  But none of them noticed the arrival of several troop transports behind them, dozens of pirates spilled out and opened fire in the direction of the Terrans.

J0E fired several shots over his shoulder but he didn’t look back to see if they landed.  He wiped the sweat off of his head with the back of his hand and so didn’t notice the dead Terran on the ground in front of him until he had already tripped up.  He pushed himself up but dropped again when he heard the sound of bullets hitting the ground just feet from his position.  He looked up just in time to see both Sonar and Narses fall to the ground.  Neither moved and J0E knew that he would suffer the same fate if he didn’t get to the tanks.

Elvis looked at the tactical screen in his tank just in time to see Narses and Sonar fall, he pushed a few buttons and began to glide foreword, several other tanks followed him.

J0E jumped to his feet and ran towards the tanks, several of them were moving towards him and jumped onto the top of the closest one to him. As soon as he was on top it turned and glided towards one of the exits.  J0E sat down and stared at the bodies of Sonar and Narses until the tank rounded the corner and his old friends left his sight.

Narses woke up feeling very groggy.  He tried to get up but then realised that he was strapped to a surgical bed.

“Where am I?” He called out with far more fear in his voice than he intended.

“You are in a Terran medical bay.” said a deep voice from the gloom. “We found you in the Imperial courtyard, you were shot up badly so we brought you here.”

“Who are you?” Narses said, this time maintaining his composure.

“I am Cold Fire.” Said the voice.

Narses began to struggle against the straps.

“Don’t bother,” said Cold Fire “Even if you could get out of those straps you couldn’t get far.” Cold Fire began to laugh.  Narses looked down to his legs and felt his blood go cold as he realised that both his legs now stopped just above where his knees should be.

“What have you done to me?” He shouted, with none of his usual strength or composure.

“I saved you!” Said Cold Fire, with mock hurt in his voice “The bullets claimed your legs, I stopped them from claiming your life as well.”

“What do you want?” Narses said, as Cold Fire activated the surgical lights.

“I want to know everything you do Narses,” Cold Fire said, as he placed a number of surgical objects on the table next to Narses.