Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (13 page)

December 26
th
, 2013 2:52am

                                                EDF
Kraken

              “Captain, we are reading an energy surge coming from one of the Shenkar command bases. Reading indicated their fold engines are powering up…it looks as if they plan to fold,” Commander Trent said.

              “What of the other base?”

              “No energy surge from Base Two, in fact it seems base two is moving closer towards us.”

              “But that makes no sense, Base Two is more heavily damaged, she can’t possible hope to hold out much longer.” Captain Dunklin thought out loud. Then a horrible thought occurred to him. “Oh hell, bring our fold engines online immediately and get us the hell out of here.”

              “What coordinates sir?”

              Captain Dunklin was about to say anywhere when he thought of something.

              “Do we have any relay probes aboard?”

              Commander Trent looking surprised by the question took a second to answer.

              “Yes Captain, we have ten relay probes, but I don’t see…”

              “Ready a probe.”

              Commander Trent did so without another word and indicated the probe was ready. Captain Dunklin moved towards computer, punched in navigation coordinates, and then pressed the launch button.

              “Slowly move us away from base two but not too fast, I want them to continue following. We will lead them away from our fleet. As soon as we have coordinates on the final location of the probe then take us to within three thousand meters.”

              Minutes ticked by as the
Kraken
slowly move away, leading the second command base away.

              “Captain, first command base has folded away and we have a new energy surge coming from base two.”

              “Fold surge?”

              “No sir, it seems their reactors are overloading, going critical.”

              “Damn, do we have coordinates on the probe yet?”

              “We are receiving coordinates now sir.”

              “Enter those coordinates and take us there now. Have all weapons ready and on standby.”

              Just as the fold engines engaged, Captain Dunklin watched the Shenkar command base explode.

December 26
th
, 2013 2:58am

                                            Shenkar Battlecruiser,
Xxeata

             
All thoughts were interrupted as Shizta felt the familiar tug in his stomach anytime he experienced a fold sequence. As soon as the feeling had started it soon began to fade.

Turning to the main display he watched a massive explosion filled his vision as the other command base self destructed. Shizta couldn’t help but feel his anger rising at the needless sacrifice of so many warriors. They could have driven off the human’s massive warship and saved the second command base if all Shenkar forces had moved to help. Overlord Gyliene had needlessly sacrificed all those warriors. The only positive thing that came out of this whole mess was the human’s massive warship had been destroyed when the command base’s reactors overloaded. Or they believed it had been, when in truth their view had been blocked by their own base when it blew. They had run a scan after and found no traces of the warship.

              Shizta thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Overlord Gyliene barking out new orders.

              “Signal all forces that were not able to join us to initiate their self destruct. They are to take as many of the humans ships with them as possible.”

              Shizta watched Gyliene for several moments as the crew readied the ship for the fold sequence. His hand itched to grab his plasma sword and drive the blade through Gyliene’s throat. As if sensing Shizta’s thoughts, Gyliene turned and looked at Shizta. Smirking, as if to dare Shizta to attempt such thoughts, he then turned away.

              Suddenly he was forced to grab a nearby console as the entire ship shook followed almost immediately by the deafening roar of an explosion.

              “Give me a status report!” commanded Gyliene.

              “Enemy warship off the starboard bow, it appears to be the same warship that attacked us before.”

              Shizta turned to look over at the overlord just as the holographic tactical display in front of him exploded. Gyliene was thrown back through the air onto another nearby console. He lay there unmoving as Shizta attempted to make his way over to him. Pain shot through his leg as he took his first step. Looking down he saw a large chunk of shrapnel protruding from his leg. Figuring that taking it out would likely do more harm than good he decided to leave it there for the time being and continued over to the motionless overlord.

              Shizta had a hard time getting his footing as the
Xxeata
shook underfoot from explosive impacts. After what seemed an eternity Shizta reached the overlord and surveyed the fallen warrior. Reaching over and turning his head so he could see Gyliene’s face revealed the vacant stare of the dead. A large jagged piece of metal protruded from between Overlord Gyliene’s eyes. Shizta felt the overlord didn’t deserve this fate. Not because he felt the overlord deserved a warrior’s death but because Shizta felt the arrogant bastard deserved to die painfully. Deciding there was no point in wasting anymore thought on the fallen overlord, Shizta turned away.

              Turning back to the bridge he surveyed the damage. Fires were burning in about a dozen different places and almost every console was emitting sparks. Of the bridge crew only three were still moving. Whether the others were dead or just unconscious he couldn’t tell from his vantage point. One thing was clear however, there was no way they were going to save the
Xxeata.
Walking forward he grabbed the arm of the least conscious warrior and pulled him to his feet before turning to the other two warriors.

              “Sound the abandon ship and get to the shuttle bay,” Shizta said to the other two warriors.

              Shizta draped the semi-conscious warriors arm across his shoulders and half dragged the warrior from the bridge. The journey to the nearest shuttle bay seemed to take forever. Several occasions Shizta was forced to back track and find another route due to wreckage or a fire burning that was blocking the way. Dead Shenkar lay everywhere, most had burns but all suffered gruesome wounds, probably due to secondary explosions. In several areas he had to walk cautiously as the floors were slick with blood and gore.

              After what seemed an eternity he finally reached the shuttle bay, stopping just inside the doorway to survey the area. At first glance it looked as if all of the shuttles had been destroyed or were too severely damaged to be of any use. He was about to give up and check out one of the other shuttle bays when he spotted one shuttle that seemed to be okay.

              “We are almost there,” he said, more to himself than his companion. Yet his companion uttered a groan in response.

              Reaching the shuttle he half climbed, half fell through the hatchway. Dragging his now unconscious companion over to a corner, he propped him up. Turning back, he closed the hatch and headed into the cockpit. The intensity of the explosions grew and soon Shizta could see fires throughout the entire shuttle bay and several bulkheads looked to be buckling. The shuttle thrummed to life and Shizta ignited the maneuvering thrusters. No sooner did the shuttle lift off did Shizta begin to move towards the hanger bay doors where open space waited.

         Through the open bay door he could see some of the fleet, all were in various states of burning. Flashes of energy cannon fire could be seen striking out at unseen targets. Just as his shuttle broke into open space the shuttle bay exploded sending shrapnel into the engines of the shuttle. The whole shuttle tipped up and Shizta was thrown forward. His head slamming into the flight panel and a new set of stars filled his vision. Bloody vision almost instantly replaced the new stars as Shizta slid off the pilots chair onto the floor of the shuttle. Struggling to get up, a hissing noise made the groggy Shizta look up. Wiping away the blood from his eyes he immediately spotted the source of the hiss. A crack in one of the shuttles plexi-steel windows was venting the atmosphere quickly. Judging by the rate the air was venting he calculated he would be dead within a few hours. Shizta couldn't help but laugh to himself. To make it so far only to die from asphyxiation was hardly a warrior’s death. The only regret he had was he wouldn't have a chance to be there to see the Shenkar prevail over the humans and their Meshtrell masters. But as he thought this over another thought occurred to him, how much of the Shenkar Federation would the Shelecore burn to defeat these humans?

              Shizta never had a chance to think more on this as another explosion shook the shuttle as the engines exploded. This time when Shizta's head connected with the console, he didn't see stars....all he saw was the blackness of death.

December 26
th
, 2013 11:11am

                                 EDF
Kraken
.Terran system, high Earth orbit

              “Captain, we are receiving requests for permission to land. The pilot says he has level ten passengers…namely President Sheehan, Prime Minster Denshire and Admiral Kelvin,” reported the communications officer.

              “Permission granted,” said Captain Dunklin, feeling slightly apprehensive.

              Now he would see what his rash actions would cost him. True through his actions he had saved the fleet and probably countless casualties on Earth, but you can never tell what a politician would do. Although he didn’t think he would suffer any severe punishment if Admiral Kelvin was with them. He knew the admiral and had the utmost respect for the man. He had no doubt in his mind that Admiral Kelvin would approve of his methods. But it was the two politicians that he was worried about that was what was gnawing at him.

              Captain Dunklin was also worried about the status of the fleet. Many men and woman had died today. Well over two thirds of the fleet had either been destroyed or suffered some sort of damage that would leave them in dry dock for months. Luckily most of the ships that had foolishly accompanied the President of France to the outpost in system 238 weren’t too badly damaged. True enough they had suffered casualties and lost a few warships but thanks to Captain Donaldson’s quick thinking he had saved much of the fleet from some sort of homing mines.

              Captain Dunklin continued to watch the casualty reports updates stream in hourly as the dead were located.
So many dead, what a waste of life
was all he could think to himself. The voice of his second in command made him turn.

              “Attention, admiral on the deck!”

              Coming to attention, he saluted Admiral Kelvin as he entered the bridge, leading the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of England. Admiral Kelvin returned the salute as he came to a stop in front of Captain Dunklin.

              “At ease Captain,” the admiral said with a smile.

              Relaxing Captain Dunklin returned the smile as he extended his hand.

              “Glad to see you fared well through the battle,” Admiral Kelvin said as he shook the pre-offered hand.