Lost Colonial Ship: Battle for 40 Eridani

[Firebrand1]

Continuation of "The Lost Colonial Ship", if you haven't read that yet, i strongly suggest you do. (found here: http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=12917).

Chapter 1

9 months after the battle in the Horsehead Nebula, the Colonial navy had made great progress in removing the Krygar Remnant from Sol and the known sectors, thanks primarily to the Daedalus, which had been present in most of the major engagements in the war. Her combat experience was mainly against the Imperials, but she had had some tangles with Mantis vessels as well. In the previous 9 months, they had managed to get blueprints for the Valkyrie-class Assualt Fighter, and it's bomber variants, as well as blueprints of Daedalus herself, obtained from the ship's main computer, allowing the Colonial Navy to produce the fighters en masse. The Navy was also starting construction on another Freedom-class Dreadnought, to be named C.N.S. Firestorm. Flame and his crew had also managed to recover most of the ship's log data. Most of it was just standard recordings, but the last log entry recorded was very peculiar, at least Flame thought. "Captain's log, December 23rd, 3027," it said, "Daedalus has been diverted from her shakedown cruise out by Antares 1 to respond to a code one distress call sent from Terasa. Initial scans indicate a fleet of 30 warships, one of which, judging by the data, is larger than anyone can imagine, even bigger than Daedalus herself-" alarms and klaxons started sounding as the ship entered orbit of Terasa and was immediately fired upon by the Mantis invaders. "Computer, save log and-" suddenly a bright flash of white light lit up the room, which vanished half a second later. The original captain of the Daedalus, who could not have left the room in half a second, was gone. The log continued recording for another half hour, before it was cut as the ship's power failed for an unknown reason. Flame wanted to know what happened, but everyone thought it was irrelevant, as it had happened well over 30 years ago. As it was, Flame was still curious, searching for clues as to what that huge ship was, and what had caused the entire crew to disappear. Flame was brooding over just this when his comm panel signaled. Walking over to it, he pressed a button and said, "Flame here." "Captain, you're wanted in the briefing room. They said it's urgent." "On my way." said Flame, and he left the room.

It was a long walk to the briefing room, which was in the massive drydock constucted specifically for larger ships, such as the Freedom-class. It was orbiting one of the moons of Jupiter, where it collected atmospheric gasses of the nearby planet, to use as energy sources. Daedalus was currently docked here, recieving repairs after it's last engagement with the Imperials. She was also getting her weapons systems enhanced with Zero Point technology, a recent discovery, to make them able to compete with newer Imperial and Mantis ships more effectively. Flame walked into the station's briefing room 20 minutes later, and found Vice Admiral Hornblower, who commanded the 57th Navy Fleet Battalion, an almost legendary force of Colonial starships, who, like Daedalus, had participated in most of the major battles of the war. "Hello Flame," said Hornblower, "please it down, we have a couple more people coming." Flame nodded and sat in one of the comfortable chairs surrounding the table in the center of the room. 5 minutes later, the doors opened again, and Major General Wallace, a former Imperial, and Natassia Ivanvova walked in and sat down. Flame nodded at both in greeting, then turned to Hornblower. Hornblower then activated a holographic projector in the center of the table. An image of 3 stars and 6 planets, tinged slightly blue from the projector, materialized above it.

"This is 40 Eridani, a trinary star system," said Hornblower, "it was recently discovered by a probe we sent out a few months ago, and it's been gathering data about the system for about a week now. We believe that the uniqu nature of this system's stars, making them ripe with Antimatter, can be used to harvest Zero Point energy, using a theoretical extracion method. The problem is, the system is completely controlled by the Mantis. They have shipyard facilities here-" he pointed out alien-looking structures in orbit of the 4th planet, "as well as perimeter defense guns everywhere. We also have picked up a large return here-" he indicated a spot near the three stars, "we don't know exactly what it is, but it's massive. General Wallace, Colonel Ivanova, and Flame, you will command seperate task groups in an attempt to capture the system. Flame will be in charge of getting rid of the perimeter guns, General Wallace, you will focus on the shipyards, and Colonel Ivanova will lead the ground assualts from her command ship. It will be a 3-pronged assualt, with about 20 ships per group. Colonel Ivanova will have an additional 5 Destroyers to escort the troop transports. 40 Eridani does not have a Stargate, so you will have to use your Hyperdrives to get there. We've sent jump coordinates to the helms your ships. It's about 6 days away by Hyperspace. You will meet up with your task groups at the outer edge of Sol. Good luck to you all." said Hornblower as he deactivated the projector. Getting up, Flame turned to Ivanova and said, "Should be a fun one, eh?" Ivanova laughed and followed Flame out of the room. Flame turned left to go back to the Daedalus, as Wallace and Ivanova turned right to go to the drydock facility's small hangar bay, to take shuttlecraft back to their ships.

Back on the bridge of the Daedalus, Flame was preparing to take the ship into battle again. The Zero Point-enhanced weapons were not tested, and thus had to be tested and calibrated in battle. After about 30 minutes, the helm reported ready. "Take us out." said Flame, and Daedalus left the drydock. Soon afterwards, it was joined by the Freedom, Ivanova's command ship, and the Silencer, Wallace's Intruder-class Assualt Cruiser. All 3 of them angled their ships to the edge of the Sol System and shot off to Hyperspace with 3 bright flashes of light.

 

[Firebrand1]

Chapter 2

The 3 ships dropped out of hyperspace 2 hours later, on the outer edge of Sol. They met up with their individual task groups, Wallace commanding a fleet of upgraded Vindicator-class artillery destroyers, Flame a fleet of Incinerator-class battleships, and Ivanova a fleet of Conquest-class transports and another 5 Escort Frigates. The 3 fleets were to depart at different times, with 10 minutes in between each departure. Wallace and his fleet went first. 10 minutes later, Flame was to go. "Plotting course," said his helmsman, "ready for departure." "Punch it." said Flame. Daedalus and it's fleet disappeared in several flashes of light, leaving Ivanova last to depart.

2 Days later, the fleets were in radio silence to make it harder for the Mantis to detect the incoming fleets. They were still 4 days away, giving Daedalus ample time to calibrate it's upgraded systems. Flame was in Engineering watching. The engineers were running about, performing last-minute checks of the ship's weapons. They had recieved upgraded missile systems as well, powered by zero point energy, Daedalus's new missile systems were more like energy torpedoes than anything else. Suddenly, alarms started going off. "Shut it down, shut it down!" yelled the cheif engineer. One of the other engineers pressed a button and the alarms stopped. "What was that?" asked Flame.
"The weapon systems overloaded sir, they still aren't calibrated properly yet." said a nearby engineer. "Ah," said Flame, "maybe i should go. I'll leave you to it then." He then left the room in a hurry.

Another 3 days had passed. With the arrival at 40 Eridani in less than 5 hours, tension was running high. Flame had all of the fighters fueled and prepped for battle, and hand weapons passed around in case the ship was boarded. Daedalus's lasers and missile batteries were finally calibrated properly, and were all charged and ready to start firing the second they dropped out of hyperspace. The other ships in the attack group, the 15 Incinerator-class battleships, also had all of their offensive and defensive systems online. 4 hours later, Wallace's fleet of ships had dropped out and engaged the enemy shipyards. "Sir, arrival at 40 Eridani in less than 2 minutes." said Flame's helmsman. "Red alert, all hands to battle stations." said Flame. Klaxons started sounding as the lights went red. "Arrival in 3...2...1." Daedalus and the Incinerators dropped out of Hyperspace and started firing at the enemy perimeter guns. Daedalus's weapons ripped through them easily. Flame ordered the Incinerators to their secondary objective, which was to secure the area around the 3 stars. The Valkyrie fighters were making short work of Mantis fighters sent to intercept them. Punching a hole right through the unprepared Mantis defenses, the 15 Incinerators and Daedalus flew off to the 3 stars. 10 minutes later, Ivanova's fleet dropped out of Hyperspace and separated, small numbers of transports heading for each planet. Daedalus was still a few minutes away from the stars. "Sir, im getting an enormous sensor return right off our port side. Unknown signature, but--" the tactical officer was cut off mid-sentance as the enormous Mantis battleship fired a volley of energy weapons at Daedalus and her attack group. Daedalus was hit with the brunt of the weapons fire. The ship shook violently, and a few of the consoles on the bridge exploded. 3 Incinerators were lost. The Mantis ship fired another volley, and 4 more battleships were destroyed as the weapons fire ripped right through them. Daedalus's shields fell. Suddenly, a bright flash of white light lit up the bridge, then everything went dark.

 

[balance]

good story give us more ^^ :mrorange:

 

[Firebrand1]

soryy haven't posted anything in a while, been busy with new ship lol

should have the next part up sometime tomorrow or day after.

 

[Firebrand1]

Sorry for the wait ^^

Chapter 3

Flame woke up suspended in some kind of anti-gravity stasis field. The room around him was organic-looking, though it had force field generators placed at intervals, inside which were more humans. Flame started trying to get out of the field, but it was impossible as he was suspended just out of arm's reach from the force field generator. Just as he was resigned to giving up, the doors opened, and 3 Mantis walked in. "Ah, one of the humans is awake. The boss should be pleased." said one. The one that spoke went over to a nearby control panel, and Flame's force field and stasis field deactivated, sending him crashing to the floor. "Get up, human," said one of the Mantis guards, "you will be taken for questioning."

After a relatively short walk and more sneering Mantis guards, they arrived at a set of very large doors. Inside it, was a Mantis queen, exiled after the events in Draconis. The 3 Mantis guards threw Flame to the floor, then retreated to the walls. The Queen was organically connected to the ship, using neural implants to control it directly with her mind. Such a way must have been taxing, though, as she turned and looked at Flame with difficulty. "Why have you come here?" she rasped. Flame said nothing. "If you do not tell me why you have come here, i will have my minions feed upon you." Flame still said nothing. "Very well." said the Queen, as the 3 Mantis guards closed in.

Flame was dragged back to the cell an hour later, to find that most of the rest of the humans were awake, and had been let out of the stasis fields. "Sir, we were just figuring out a way to escape, and--" the Human officer was cut short. Flame's leg had several chunks missing from it. The officer took his flight jacket off and put it around the wound like a bandage. Just as he stood up, the in-cell comm system crackled to life. "Hello...hello? Is anyone there?" said a hushed voice through it. The officer went over and pressed one of the buttons. "Yes, who is this?" he said. "Colonel Ivanova of the Colonial Navy. We managed to slice into the comm system without being detected, we think we may have a way out too." "Let's start planning, then." said Flame from the other side of the room.

 

[Primeus]

Finally good story i want more

 

[Firebrand1]

Chapter 4

Their plan was set. After a day of careful planning and watching the mantis guards, they discovered that the guards came in at around the same time every day, to taunt the human prisoners. They were always armed. They would attack the guards and take their weapons, and attempt to find each other and attempt to disable or destroy the ship they were on.

Flame, who's leg had more or less healed thanks to Mantis medics, was waiting beside the door. Shortly after, the Mantis guards walked in. "Well, well, humans, still captive I see," said one of the guards, "tell me, are you finding your quarters, ah...comfortable? I'm sure we could--" the guard was cut off mid-sentence as Flame attacked him from behind. "What the- get off me, puny human!" he said. The other 2 guards were surprised, and went down easily as a horde of angry humans attacked them. Flame had managed to knock the guard he was attacking unconscious, and took his weapons. A high-powered laser rifle, an energy pistol, and a few plasma grenades. They were similar in design to human weapons, but were slightly more advanced. Flame handed the pistol to one of the human prisoners. He also found an ID-card that would get him pretty much anywhere on the ship. "Everyone ready?" he asked. When everyone nodded, he said, "Alright then, let's move out."

They wandered the ship for a short while, nearly being spotted twice. They managed to hide in a vacant room for a while, then decided to continue looking for Ivanova and the others. Flame stopped at a door. "Wait...this looks like something important." he said, and made to open the door. His ID-card was refused. "Someone mind giving a hand?" he asked, and 2 of the prisoners went over to help him pry the door open. When they finally got the door open, Flame had a look around. Most of the data was unreadable, as it was in Mantis, but there was clearly a scan of the Daedalus on one of the consoles. From what little he could understand, it was docked on the port side of the ship, most of it's crew taken prisoner, being held in the ship's brigs. Others were unaccounted for. "Well, i think we've found where we need to go," said Flame, "i'm downloading this to a datapad, so we can know how to get there after we find the others." Suddenly he heard a loud metallic thunk as a stun grenade rolled into the room. "Everyone get down!" yelled Flame as the grenade went off. 2 of the 5 prisoners were knocked unconscious. Laserfire started tearing through the air, destroying consoles and burning holes in the walls as the rest of the prisoners went for cover. Flame powered up his rifle and started firing back. A few of the energy bolts barely missed one of his companions, as he ducked for cover. Flame remembered that he had grenades. He took one out and started trying to arm it. When he pressed a button, it lit up. He threw it. A few seconds later, a massive explosion that turned part of the door into slag ripped through the room, and the enemy laserfire stopped. "Well, i think they know where we're at. We should get moving." said Flame, as he went to carry one of the downed prisoners. They set off as quickly as they could, leaving the dead Mantis soldiers and melted door fixture behind them.

They looked for an hour, though the partial map Flame had managed to get helped greatly. They had managed to stay in contact with Ivanova via a stolen comlink, and had set up a meeting point. Flame was about to give up, when he heard the distinctive power-up whine of an energy pistol. He turned around. Behind him were 2 Mantis guards, with more popping up and surrounding the prisoners. "Give up, human, you are surrounded, you have no way of escape." said one of the guards. Flame saw a flicker of movement behind the guard, before a distinctive pew and whine of a laser bolt ripped through the Mantis guard. "DOWN!" yelled Flame, as the corridor erupted in laserfire, not aimed at them, but aimed at the Mantis. In all but a few seconds, the Mantis guards were dead. Out stepped Ivanova, heavy blaster rifle in hand. "Nice to finally see you," she said, "we should get somewhere with a little less Mantis running around. Follow us."

Flame and his group followed Ivanova and her group of surviving prisoners to a small storage room. Once inside, Flame asked, "Where is General Wallace? We never made contact with him, do you know if he's alright?" "His ship was disabled in the attack. We don't know what happened to him, if he's alive or dead. Talking of that, have you found a way off of this dungheap?" Ivanova replied. "We have a partial map leading to an airlock connecting this ship to the Daedalus. However, unless we want to only get a few kilometers away, we need to disable this ship's power systems or destroy it all together. I've identified on the map what looks like this ship's reactor core. I have a few plasma grenades, maybe we can use them to destroy the reactor." said Flame. "Maybe, but that will start a chain reaction as soon as they go off, we'd either need a remote detonator or some kind of timer to activate them." replied Ivanova. "This datapad, it has a stopwatch of sorts built in to it. The bad thing is, we need the map stored on it to find our way to the Daedalus." said Flame. "We find another datapad, and download the map to it." said Ivanova. "Alright then, it's worth a shot. Anyone who doesn't want to come can stay here where it's safe, most likely the reactor will be pretty heavily guarded." said Flame. A few of the group said they'd like to stay. Flame nodded, and the rest of them set off, making sure the storage room door was locked from the inside so that the rest of the prisoners could get out if necessary.

 

[Primeus]

GREAT! i want more

 

[Firebrand1]

lol glad you like it...here's the next part

Chapter 5

The 5 person team had managed to get halfway to the reactor core without being noticed, with the remaining 10 still in the storage room. They had managed to nab a few energy cells to replenish their blaster's ammunition, as well as a Mantis personal cloaking generator, which would be useful for planting the grenades. The only problem, it had a finite supply of energy, and could only be used for a period of 15 minutes before having to recharge- which, thankfully, occurs automatically when the device was not in use. "There, up ahead," said Flame, "can anyone here read Mantis?" They had come across a computer terminal, containing what looked like the ship's specs and log data. There was, conveniently, also another datapad nearby. "I can." said one of the people. "Come up here, see if you can download all of this to this datapad, we'll translate it later." said Flame. The officer went up to the terminal and plugged the datapad in. "It's not letting me download it without a passcode," he said, "but i can try and slice into the terminal, and get the data that way, but it will take a few minutes." "Alright." said Flame, as he directed the rest of the team to get in covering positions. A few minutes later, the officer said, "There, i got it. Want me to keep it safe for now?" "Yes, that information could be very valuble." replied Flame, as the officer put the pad in his pocket. "Can we go now, i'd rather not stay in one place too long." said Ivanova, a little irate. "Right, sorry, let's go." replied Flame.

About half an hour later, they had arrived at, at least they thought, the reactor room. Flame had put the stealth device on, and had managed to figure it out, thanks to the officer who could read Mantis. "Alright, if i'm not back in a few minutes...wait a few more minutes." said Flame, as he activated the cloaking generator, and opened the doors.

Inside, there was an absolutely colossal structure, pulsing and sending out energy distortions which impacted a containment shield around it. "Yep, this is definitely the reactor." thought Flame, as he skirted around a Mantis engineer, walking over to one of the shield generators. He placed one of the plasma grenades on the underside of the generator, not only ensuring that it wouldn't be noticed, but ensuring that at least the distortion waves would cause a distraction if the rest of the grenades failed. He spent a good 10 minutes walking around, placing his grenades at strategic intervals. When he had set the primer on each grenade, he set the stopwatch on his datapad for about 2 hours, giving them enough time to get to the Daedalus, hopefully take it back, and launch before the ship went up. Flame went through the still open engineering bay door, and went over to where he knew the rest of the group was hiding. De-activating his stealth field, he said, "Did you miss me?" Looking around, Ivanova said, "How'd it go?" "I've got the charges set for about 2 hours, that should give us enough time to get to the Daedalus and hopefully take it back." replied Flame. "Let's get going, then." said Ivanova.

They had managed to get to the storage room where the other prisoners were still hiding, and take them to Daedalus within an hour, leaving them an hour to take the ship back and free her crew, most of whom were confined to the ship's brigs. "Alright, let's split up, 2 of you will come with me to the brigs to free the crew, the rest are with Ivanova to work your way up to the bridge and retake the ship." said Flame. "Sounds good to me." said Ivanova, and went off with 3 other people in the direction of the bridge. "Alright, we're about 4 decks above the brigs, we should take the turbolifts, they might be a bit more dangerous, but we're on the clock and haven't got time to go crawling about the ship in the vents." said Flame, as he went over to a hidden weapons locker in the wall. Pressing a concealed button, the wall panel opened, revealing a set of weapons. "This was placed here specifically for the event that the ship was captured. There's 3 high-powered blaster rifles, a few grenades, and a keycard that will open all the doors in the ship, even in lockdown. Take your pick." said Flame, as he grabbed one of the blaster rifles and some energy cells. He took the keycard and a few grenades, as well. When the humans had stocked up on weapons, Flame called up a turbolift. When it got there, the doors opened, and there were 2 Mantis inside it. Flame was quick to react, firing his rifle on it's maximum setting, atomizing the Mantis and leaving no trace of them. "Let's go," he said, "Computer, deck 16." The lift doors closed and the lift started descending.

A few seconds later, they had arrived at the brig level. Flame and his team quickly secured the area, then moved off to one of the cells. Opening the door to the room, he went inside and discovered 20 people crammed inside the force shielded cell. "Captain, wh- what are you doing here? How did you escape?" one of the people asked. "Long story, and we're kind of on the clock, it will have to wait." said Flame, as he inserted the keycard and de-activated the force shield. "Get to the nearest armory, we're retaking the ship." "Aye, sir." said the man, as the 20 people ran off to find an armory.

They had discovered another 3 brigs with people in them, and set them free, when Flame heard blasterfire from a corridor on the deck above. "Let's go." he said, as he ran to the nearest turbolift, punched the button, and got inside. "Deck 15." he said, as the lift, not even closing it's doors, shot up to the deck above. The blasterfire was intense, with the energy bolts flying everywhere, burning holes in wall consoles, shattering lights, burning through electrical conduits. Several men in battle armor were getting the best of about 7 Mantis soldiers. Flame and the 2 other people rushed over to help, and they took down the Mantis with ease, with the battle armor's integrated wrist blasters cutting through the Mantis soldiers with almost uncanny ease. Flame's comlink signaled. "Flame, here." he said. "Flame, we've about made it to the bridge, but the Mantis resistance is heavy, we only have 5 minutes before the grenades go off, we're not going to make it in time!" said Ivanova through the comm. "We're on our way." said Flame, but as he said it, a collossal explosion rocked the ship to the core. They were near one of the airlocks connecting Daedalus to the Mantis ship, and could see superheated flames shooting like a jet out of the airlock and down the corridor. The ship's lights went dark. "Computer, close all airlock doors, emergency override alpha-4-7-0!" yelled Flame, and the airlock doors closed, stopping the jet of flames. Another large explosion, and this time the ship's power failed. Flame ran over to a nearby porthole. From what he could see, Daedalus was no longer attached to the Mantis battleship, which he could see was badly damaged, with secondary explosions all around it, but with no power, Daedalus was now floating freely, dead in space, with no way to move if the Mantis ship decided to go nova, and no way to call for help from any other surviving ships in the area.

 

[Firebrand1]

Chapter 6

Flame was still looking out the window. Suddenly, a laser bolt passed so close to his head that he could feel the heat of it. Taking out 2 blaster pistols, he dual-wielded them, one in each hand, firing at the 6 Mantis soldiers while the troops behind him opened fire with blaster rifles. Flame had taken out one, and the troops had taken out another. The other 4 Mantis soldiers started backing away, still firing their organic-looking laser rifles. One of the bolts hit the pistol in Flame's left hand, destroying the pistol and singeing his hand. Still firing with the other pistol, Flame switched to the pistol's secondary weapon, a sonic blaster attached to the weapon below the main barrel. Pulling the trigger, Flame saw the sonic shockwave pulsate out and take out 3 Mantis soldiers, knocking them unconsious and deafening them with the sound. The last remaining one was killed by the Colonial soldiers. "What'll we do with them?" asked one of the soldiers. "Put them in the brig, under guard, since we can't power the security fields." ordered Flame. Walking over to his damaged weapon, Flame picked it up and holstered his other pistol. He examined it for a few seconds, ejected it's power cell, then tossed it aside. "Alright, new plan," he said, "we're going to have to crawl through the inter-deck access tubes to get to the main engineering bay to try and get the power back on. Hopefully most of the tubes are still intact and we won't have to do much detouring."

They got to one of the access doors without major incident, running into a few Mantis troops along the way. Flame opened the manual access port, when one of the soldiers said, "Wait, sir. This door is hot, the tube behind it must be on fire." "Great. Alright, fan out and look for a fire extinguisher or another access port, whichever comes first." said Flame. Flame took out his blaster rifle, which didn't have much power left, and started going one way along the corridor, along with 3 other soldiers, while the other 4 went the other way. Suddenly the wall next to them exploded, sending them flying. Electricity arced out of the damaged electrical conduit that had exploded, making it impossible to go that way. "I thought the ship didn't have any power, why is that conduit still transmitting electricity?" asked Flame. "Maybe the explosion didn't cut off all the power, just damaged some conduits, preventing the power from reaching the rest of the ship." replied one of the soldiers. "Sir! Over here." said another soldier. He had found a fire extinguisher hidden behind a wall panel. Flame took the fire extinguisher, and went to rejoin the rest of the squad. They had made it back to the access port. Flame went to open the door, while another person stood in front of it with the extinguisher. "Ready?" Flame asked. The man nodded. Flame pulled the emergency release, and as soon as the door opened, flames jetted out into the corridor. The man opened up with the fire extinguisher, making short work of the flames with the chemicle-based foam. When all the flames were gone, they moved into the tube. "Alright, main engineering is about 2 decks below us. There should be an access port for a ladder up ahead." said Flame.

When they got to the access door, Flame pulled the emergency release. The doors opened a little ways, then jammed. "Give us a hand." he said. One of the soldiers came over to help him push the doors open. It was harder than one would think, but they managed to force it the rest of the way open. The small ladder appeared damaged in places, but was otherwise intact. They started descending. It went quicker than one might expect, considering the team had ther weapons jutting out at odd angles, making it rather awkward in the tight space. When they had got to the door to the main engineering bay, Flame went to pull the emergency release, only to find that it had been fried, fused to the access port. Extricating his pistol with difficulty, he set it to it's maximum setting, powerful enough to blow a hole in the door. Taking aim, he fired the weapon. It burned a hole in the door big enough for a person to barely squeeze through. Flame fired the pistol again, and this time it blew what remained of the door out of it's mounting, halfway across the room. He got out of the tube, and looked around. Main engineering was deserted, but a few of the consoles were still active, and the lights were functioning, if minimally. He turned and helped the rest of the team out of the tube. They fanned out and secured the area, while Flame and one of the engineers went over to examine the consoles. Flame went over to one console, which read:

"Plasma lines damaged- hypermatter containment fields inoperative."

Another read,

"Electrical conduits on Decks 1-19 damaged, power flow de-activated. Decks 19-27 have minor breaches, doors inoperative, area de-pressurized."

Flame went tto the console to see if he could re-route the power flow through some of the undamaged conduits and restore power to at least some of the ship, while the engineer went to work on the damaged plasma lines. 20 minutes later, he had managed to restore power to main engineering and the bridge.

Flame then heard a faint beep on his comlink. Picking it up, he said, "Flame here." A voice came through the comms device, heavily masked in static. "Flame, this is Ivanova. We've managed to fight our way to the bridge corridor, but we can't get the doors open, they've sealed themselves shut," Ivanova's voice was barely readable through all the interferance, "but the lights just came on, i assume that was your doing?" "Yeah, that was me. We've restored power to main engineering and the bridge by rerouting a few electrical conduits. I can try and open the door, but it might take a minute or two." replied Flame. "Copy that, we'll sit tight then." said Ivanova, closing the channel. Flame accessed the bridge door controls and entered his access code. The console showed the doors as opening, and he saw 5 life signs enter the bridge. He was also picking up other life signs scattered about the ship, and not all of them human. As he noticed this, his comlink signaled again. "Flame, we've got access to the bridge. We can't go anywhere, but at least we can access the ship's internal defenses from here." said Ivanova. "That might not be advisable," replied Flame, "the few operational power conduits are already stressed dangerously with powering 18 decks plus engineering and the bridge." "Can you do anything about that?" "Well i can shut down power to the 18 decks, but i'm reading human life signs on a few of them. Shutting down power means shutting down life support to those areas, we can't risk it especially since there are hull breaches in those sections. I'd recommend not activating the defense turrets unless absolutely necessary for the time being, i'll take a team down there and try to rescue them." replied Flame. "Good luck." said Ivanova, closing the channel.

 

[Firebrand1]

Sorry for the long wait ^^

Chapter 7

A short while later, they had managed to get to one of the cargo holds believed to have prisoners locked inside. "Scans are showing about 50 human life signs in the hold," said one of Flame's commandos, "but the doors are sealed, we'll have to blast them open." Flame got out some of their remote explosive devices and attached them to the door. "Fire in the hole." he said. They took cover as Flame pressed the button, detonating the explosives which reduced the high-security cargo door to little more than slag. They stepped into the hold and looked around. The prisoners emerged from behind stacks of metal boxes and anti-gravity lift units, looking surprised. "No time to explain, get to your stations, we're getting this ship out of here." ordered Flame, as the surprised prisoners rushed off to their stations. "How many more?" asked Flame. "4, sir. 2 of them are on the same deck near the starboard engine pods, but access to that section has been cut off due to a hull breach. We'll have to go EVA and try to get to the emergency maintenance hatch in that section." said Maj. Brennan, one of the commandos. Flame, who didn't particularly like space walking, sighed and said, "Alright, well, let's get this over with then."

They had made it to the airlock just above one of the pylons connecting the starboard engine pod to the rest of the ship. "There's only 3 EVA suits. And 6 of us." said Flame. "Me and Wilkins here will go with you. The rest of you, guard this door." said Brennan. The three of them stepped into the airlock and closed the inner doors. When they had put their EVA suits on, they pressed the control panel to depressurize the airlock. The lights went red and a warning klaxon sounded for a short time before the depressurization started. "Keep your mag boots off until we hit the pylon, even though we're only 2 decks above it, it's still a long drop." said Flame. The outer doors opened when the airlock was depressurized, giving them a view of the damaged pylon. The damage was extensive, with a giant hole where the hull plating had been melted away, showing the superstructure of the ship beneath. "Looks like all the containment fields are offline," said Brennan, "but the engine bay is sealed off by a blast door, so it should still be pressurized." "OK, everyone ready?" asked Flame, "on the count of 3, we drop down. 1...2...3." They walked out of the airlock and started falling towards the pylon. "Mag boots on!" said Flame when they were 5 feet away from the pylon. The boots powered on with a hum, sucking them towards the pylon. They landed with a thump. "See, that wasn't so bad," said Flame, "bit like BASE jumping, really." They started making their way to the access hatch.

It was a long trip, made even longer by having to skirt around the damaged section. Luckily the pylon was angled straight out instead of upwards or downwards, like some other ship classes, making the trip a little easier. When they finally made it to the hatch, it was to find the control panel had taken a hit from an enemy laser bolt. The console, while still sort of working, was all but burnt out. "Looks like we'll have to use the manual release." said Brennan, who bent down and pulled a small lever, which opened the hatch. They started to climb down the ladder, closing the hatch and opening the pressure door to the corridor. Most of the lights were off, having been damaged or broken, making the light in the corridor very dim. Turning the lamps on their helmets on, the trio started to make their way to the closest cargo hold. Suddenly laser bolts started cascading towards them. Running for cover, they took out their weapons and started firing back. One of the Mantis energy bolts hit a nearby window, punching a hole through it and causing it to suck the atmosphere out of the corridor. "Set your mag boots to maximum!" said Flame. Suddenly, explosive charges that the Mantis had placed on both cargo doors blew, destroying the doors and causing the air in the holds and anything else in it to be sucked out into space. Flame was shocked. "How many people were in those holds?" he asked. "Our scans indicated about 50 per hold, sir." said Brennan, who was also shocked. A state of rage came over Flame, who no longer cared about living or dieing, he just wanted to cause as much physical pain to those responsible as possible. Getting out from their cover position, he emptied the energy cell of his blaster into the corridor. Ejecting the cell and slamming a new one in, he continued firing, putting more bolts in one Mantis than was needed to down a Valkyrie. Running out of ammo, Flame tossed the Blaster rifle aside, and got out his energy pistol. While still outnumbered, their EVA suits had energy-absorbing armor built into them, for working in hazardous areas. Brennan and Wilkins stepped out and started firing as well, with a hailstorm of blasterfire raining on both sides. Flame sent a bolt into a control panel nearby, which closed one of the bulkhead doors onto 3 Mantis, crushing them, but not killing them, thanks to their armor. The remaining mantis started retreating. Flame threw 2 plasma grenades at them. "GET DOWN!" he yelled. The 2 grenades exploded, blowing a hole right through the wall and exposing the section to space. The remaining Mantis that weren't caught in the explosion were blown through the hole out into space. "We'll deal with them later," said Flame, indicating the 3 unconscious Mantis as he picked up his blaster rifle, "Let's get to the remaining cargo holds."

 

[godman]

wow this is the best thing i read in age's good work

 

[Firebrand1]

next part is in the works

 

[Firebrand1]

Here's the final chapter, as promised, and sorry for the really long wait ^^

Chapter 8 [Final]

They had freed the remaining prisoners from the cargo holds, and were now working on getting Daedalus out of here. Flame wanted to destroy the Mantis dreadnought as well before they left. They had devised a plan, but that plan involved a stealth tactical insertion into key points in the ship with several extremely powerful Mark-5 AM Bombs. Flame volunteered for the team that was being sent to the ship's main computer control room. "Alright, we've got limited transport capability back, but i can only beam you in 3 at a time. Your stealth suits should hide you from their internal sensors." said Flame's chief engineer. "Teams, listen up," said Flame, "I want total radio silence once we get in, unless it's absolutely necessary. These combat suits have a limited stealth capability, and can render themselves invisible for a short period of time, should the need arise. We go in, plant the bombs, and get out, it's that simple. Once we're out and have our engines back we'll remote-detonate the bombs and send that god-awful piece of junk back to the hell it came from."

Flame and his team were beamed into the ship's computer control room, and started to fan around and secure the area. "Alright, let's make this quick, lets not stay here any longer than we have to." said Flame, as he kept watch, blaster rifle in hand. It took about 5 minutes to plant and arm the bomb. When they were finished, Flame said, "Let's go help the others." They engaged their suit's stealth technology and made their way to the ship's engineering bay. They started hearing blasterfire. "Weapons ready." said Flame, as he readied his blaster rifle and disengaged his stealth field. They turned the corner and saw 5 Mantis firing at the 3-man infiltration team. They snuck up behind the Mantis and opened fire, killing the 5 Mantis. The other team stepped out from their cover, and walked over to Flame. "Thanks for the save," said one of the team, "we've got the last bomb planted." "Let's get off of this godforsaken ship, then," said Flame, "Daedalus, we're ready for extraction." A blue glow surrounded the other team members as they were beamed back to the Daedalus. A few seconds later, Flame and his team were transported back as well.

"Captain, we've got our sublight drive back online, i can give you full speed." Said Daedalus' chief engineer when Flame stepped off the pad. "Good work, let's get some distance between us." said Flame. "Aye, sir." The engineer walked off. Flame started making his way to the bridge.

On the bridge, Flame was watching as the Mantis dreadnought shrunk as the Daedalus moved away from it. When they were far enough away, Flame said, "Detonate." The tactical officer pressed a button, and a nova-bright flash of light lit up the bridge as the AM Bombs detonated, vaporizing half of the Mantis ship. "Good work, people," said Flame, "let's see if we can find any survivors and secure the system." The Daedalus started a search pattern, looking for any survivors of the massacre. They searched for a while, and ran into some light Mantis resistance, when they picked up a garbled radio transmission coming from one of the Conquest-class transports under Ivanova's command, which was under attack from Mantis fighters. "Set an intercept course, and ready the Valkyries." said Flame. As the Daedalus approached, they could see plasma bursts and explosions off in the distance as the transport's cannons fired at the Mantis ships. "Open fire with the point-defense cannons and launch a squadron of fighters." ordered Flame. Daedalus launched a cloud of energy bolts at the Mantis fighters as 50 of her point-defense guns opened fire, incinerating 4 of the fighters instantly. The remaining fighters turned and engaged the squadron of Valkyries, who blasted them out of the stars. "Incoming transmission, it's the transport." said Flame's tactical officer. "Open a channel." said Flame. "This is the transport Conquistador, calling the Daedalus, thanks for the help. There's still elements of the fleet being assaulted, but we've managed to get most of the system under our control. We'll continue on to our objective, here's the coordinates for General Wallace's ship." said the captain of the transport. "Roger that, Conquistador, we're on our way. Good luck." said Flame, as the Daedalus turned to the coordinates of Wallace's ship.

When they arrived, they found Wallace and his fleet in a raging battle with remnants of the Mantis defense forces and a space station. Flame ordered all fighters to be launched, and opened fire on the Mantis fleet with everything they had. Missiles, energy bolts, and artillery bolts were everywhere as the Daedalus opened fire with her quad-cannons and missile batteries. One of the Mantis frigates launched a salvo of plasma at the Daedalus, which merely glanced off of the mighty ship's shields. Daedalus in turn broadsided the frigate and opened fire with it's port side point-defense cannons, disabling the frigate and leaving it to drift. Flame then ordered his Valkyrie bombers to target the enemy space station. The squadron of 5 bombers turned towards the station and opened fire with their small artillery cannons mounted on the undersides of the ships, and their laser cannons embedded in the fuselage. The station, already under considerable strain, was destroyed. When the remaining Mantis ships were dealt with, Flame contacted Wallace. "That was the last of the Mantis resistance, the system is ours now." said Wallace over the comm channel. "Good, I'll send word to Hornblower and we can get out of here." Daedalus and the remnants of the attack group limped back to the shipyards in Sol. All in all, they lost most of their fleet to the Mantis Dreadnought, but the Humans gained a very valuable Zero Point mining facility in orbit of the stars. The Daedalus is currently in drydock being repaired from the heavy damage it took during the battle.

To be continued in the next story...