Mike January 20th, 2009
The ship rocked violently from side to side as its pilot desperately evaded the incoming fire, slamming Nathan from side to side in his grav-harness, the inertial dampeners struggling to compensate.
Through the tiny portholes, the enemy fire bathed the cramped interior with flash after flash of intense light. Nathan stared out, unable to turn away from the scene played out before him. Two massive fleets engaged in a pitched and desperate battle.
He could make out the nearby cruiser, Sargasso, which was escorting them during the drop. She was taking heavy fire, the impacts of enemy fire impacting on her shields with an angry brilliant blue flare as the energy dissipated around the entire ship in a startling, beautiful and terrifying display.
Nathan couldn’t see where the enemy fire was coming from, with a mere thought Sarah responded by displaying a tactical overlay using his neural interface. To Nathan, a holographic display appeared floating several feet above the cabin’s floor. It showed the positions of the fleet as green dots in a gently revolving three-dimensional display of the battle-space. Red dots were added to indicate the known positions of enemy ships. The overall picture showed the main body of the fleet directly engaged with the enemy, with another body of ships supporting the troop drop. It was unusual, Nathan would have expected to be dropped in after a major fleet engagement, not during. Which worried him, it had the distinct feel of desperation.
Sarah highlighted the Sargasso and zoomed in, Nathan could see that the thousands of tiny troop ships were separated into smaller groups each with an escort cruiser. He could also see enemy ships moving in on his position, 2 of them heading rapdidly towards the Sargasso.
The Sargasso broke from the drop ship formation and sped towards the oncoming attackers, angrily returning fire at the nearest. She rapidly faded from Nathan’s view as she disappeared into the darkness of space, illuminated sporadically by shield strikes of the enemy fire. The immense distances and colossal speeds of these warships meant that she rapidly disappeared from Nathan’s view, and as she faded away he grew increasingly uneasy.
The flotilla of drop ships sped onwards towards the planet below, unguarded but undeterred.
“3 Minutes to Atmo” screamed the pilot’s nervous voice over his suites intercom.
Nathan knew the Sargasso stood little chance against the oncoming attackers, but her desperate move may have bought them enough time to hit atmosphere, so much sacrifice for this worthless planet. He never understood why such a large fleet had been mobilized to protect this planet. So many had been lost, but why draw the line here?
“2 Minutes” shouted the pilot, this time sounding a little less nervous.
Nathan summoned the holographic display once more, he searched for the Sargossa but she was gone. The 2 attackers were now limping towards them. The display showed tactical readings detailing the damage they had sustained, enough to slow them but they were still coming.
“1 Minute”
They were close, Nathan unconsciously held his breath as he watched the 2 dots on the display heading towards them.
“30 Seconds”
So close, almost in weapons range.
“15 Seconds”
Almost.
“10″
They opened up, firing volley after volley. Nathan watched as the munitions and high-energy plasma sped towards them. The trailing drop ships were instantly annihilated, taking the brunt of the fire.
“5. 4. 3. ”
Another volley leapt from the attackers. Another wave of drop ships were annihilated, but they were on the very edge of the atmosphere and the shock wave blasted against the hull of the drop ship sending the small craft spinning out of control into the atmosphere. There was a tremendous, deafening thud as they were struck by debris.
“We’re hit! Shit, we’re hit! ” screamed the pilot.
The cabin shook violently as they took another hit. The small craft started to spin faster and faster rapidly descending towards the planets surface. The grav-harness desperately tried to compensate for the immense g forces, but failed to compensate completely.
Nathan struggle to remain conscious….
