Chapter 32: The Battle for Hel’s Throne

Part 1:

“All hands, brace for impact!! Shields, report!”

“Taking heavy fire! We’re still holding!”

“Missiles locked! Awaiting orders to fire!”

“Hold! Let the escorts lead the attack!”

Shouts tear through the confined cabin, red light flashing ominously. High pitched whines sound every few seconds as the entire area seems to shake with impact. Men and women in light blue uniforms type frantically on screens in front of them, communicating with Artificial intellects calculating the optimal paths through the storm outside based on the outlines given by the much slower living crew.

A single girl with cyan hair and similarly colored eyes stands behind them, about eighteen or nineteen years old. Her body is slender, yet she possesses the maturity of an adult rather than the thinness of a child. Nervously holding the chair in front of her, her eyes scan through the translucent hull towards the dark space outside.

At least, what should be dark space. A thousand lights tear through the heavens, a thousand fires bloom with each passing second. Ebony transport ships shaped like bulky cylinders of smooth metal are torn apart by silvery battlecruisers, elongated conic profiles bristling with protrusions for weapons. As they fall they spill hundreds of fighters with myriad forms into the void while great capital warships spray their surroundings with orbs of plasma and relativistic projectiles that annihilate ally and enemy alike. Millions of ships shoot past each other in a thousand different orbits about the planet far above and below them, exchanging fire and changing course constantly while pulling energy from the vacuum of space itself.

Above her, Arcane sees the great orange surface of Finale, storms of fire and destruction raging around it as streams of black and silver dive deeper into the gravity well to gain more speed. A sudden flash; a stream of black is torn in two. A wave of energy and destruction radiates from the impact, shaking everything from the myriad ships darting about the void to space itself. Arcane stumbles before tightening her grip on the chair in front of her, blinking as a wave of light washes over them again.

“Calculate probability of success, please.” She says softly towards a display in the wall beside her. It flashes several times in thought before displaying an array of numbers. Arcane looks at it and frowns, blinking several times. She reaches out and taps several times, inputting new parameters into the computer’s calculations. None of the results satisfy her.

“Fleet HQ says this is our only opening!” One of the uniformed women shouts, not moving from her seat or stopping her hands. “We have to dive now!”

“Are they insane?!” A man shouts, flipping through his screen and tapping several times per second. “We can barely hold out here, and they want us to go deeper into that mess?”

“We have our orders, Lieutenant.” A woman seated at the center of the chaos says firmly, her hand dancing over her armrests while she fixed her gaze on the planet above. “Prepare for acceleration!”

“Captain.” Arcane says, pushing herself forward to enter the woman’s line of sight. “I’m overriding those orders. Have the squadron withdraw to Hel’s Throne.”

The Captain whirls on her, her hands stopping for half a second. Bright blue hair and pointed ears are her major features, and her clear blue eyes meet with Arcane’s abnormal cyan ones. While she doesn’t look much older than Arcane, she has a maturity and experience that the other girl can’t emulate, indicating her appearance is far more false than Arcane’s. They stare at each other for a while before the Elvish Captain slowly nods, whirling on her crew.

“You heard her, belay that dive! Full reverse!” She shouts, her fingers sending the same order to the squadron escorting the shuttle. “It seems you won’t get home quite so easily after all, milady.”

Arcane nods and shrugs. “Better late than never, as they say. And I won’t have this many deaths on my hands. Hel’s Throne will be safe for a while longer.”

“I certainly hope so. Dominion reinforcements are three days out.” The Captain replies, not taking her eyes away from the outside space as their view seems to rotate, the ship allowing them to see their new forward direction. Streams of energy surge from their old forward direction, pushing off the space around them to accelerate.

Their new direction of motion will cut across the outer orbits and bring them to a massive structure of silver metal surrounded by a horde of darting fish and larger whales, and enough flashes of light and energy to surpass the number of stars in a galaxy.

“Escorts five through ten moving to create an opening!” The woman who announced the message from the Fleet calls towards the Captain, who nods.

“Join with them. Order Escorts three and seventeen to act as decoys.” She demands, flicking several red switches that appear on her armrest. “Weapons free, lieutenant. Fire at will.”

“Of course, Ma’am.” he says, smiling as he slams his entire hand down on the screen, authorizing the computers to fire for maximum effect. The ship accelerates harder for a second as gleaming shapes of metal erupt from their rear, flying backwards before curving around and closing in on the black ships ahead of them from every side.

Lasers explode from the ships to intercept, cutting the shapes of metal into hundreds of pieces. Yet they do not detonate, simply reforming behind the lasers and continuing on their path before disappearing harmlessly into the hulls of the dark ships. Seconds later, though, the hit ships stop spewing energy and vibrate erratically before ramming their nearest companions. A swarm of tiny black fighters dives through them, ripping apart the remnants as another wave of energy rushes over the shuttle squadron.

“Destroyer!” another uniformed figure shouts, this one with rabbit ears sticking up from his head. “Shields record massive impact!”

“I’ll reinforce the protections.” Arcane calls, magic surging around her and shrouding all the shuttles in a layer of energy to withstand the firepower of the capital ship bearing down on them.

“Keep it to the level of a mage!” The captain warns while tapping even faster on her armrest. “Fleet HQ, we are withdrawing to Hel’s Throne. Send reinforcements, capital class!”

{Cyan escort, you were ordered to dive} A static voice replies to the entire cabin, reprimanding.

“I overrode that order. There’s no way for us to penetrate the orbital engagements.” Arcane explains, stepping forward to talk into the captain’s communication.

{... Await further instructions. Assets are en route.} The voice responds before falling silent. The Captain seems to wince as her pointed ears tremble with something only she can hear.

Above, the metallic destroyer is suddenly shaken by another impact as a dark cloud coils around it, a nanomechanical cloud tearing through the vessel and reclaiming the surrounding area of space. Expanding itself from the destroyed remnants of the ship, it surrounds and devours a similar swarm that explodes from the dying destroyer before retreating in search of more prey.

All of a sudden, the entire shuttle flashes blood red and alarms ring out in everyone’s ears. ““STARBREAKER!!!”” The weapons lieutenant and the communications officer shout at the same time, causing everyone in the vessel to pale and look towards the distant sun of Finale. Computerized displays illustrate the projected path of the oncoming solar flare that will tear through that battle area and impact Hel’s throne, obliterating any ship caught in its path.

“Brace for Warp jump!” The Captain shouts, Arcane throwing herself into a chair next to the wall and strapping herself in as the rest of the crew does the same. The Captain seizes the sides of her chair as the shuttle hurls itself into translight motion, red warnings flashing ominously to recommend the crew strap themselves down for the attempt to dodge the incoming attack from the system’s star.

Arcane is slammed into her seat by the terrible force of acceleration and feels her mind screaming at the vision of pure nothingness that marks the broken space that allows one to travel faster than light. Fortunately it only lasts a minute, before they reemerge in normal space much further away from Hel’s Throne and the planet below.

A wave of stellar fire sweeps just below them, the side impact throwing the shuttle squadron tumbling in the spatial waves and forces that shook the entire volume. Hel’s throne glows brightly, absorbing some of the energy and using that to deflect the rest. Finale itself emerges unscathed, powerful low orbit shields converting the sum total of the energy into useful form.

Most of the ships escaped in time, though all are scattered by the wave of power that followed and the chaos of the battlefield is taken to a new level. Thousands of the ships dive back towards Hel’s Throne and Finale through normal space, the few fool enough to attempt warp jumps without the excuse of incoming stellar fire exploding on the spot as gravimetric weapons are brought to bear, once again preventing any faster than light movement.

A few capital ships with onboard foldspace drives make the short hop to Hel’s throne instantly, countering the incoming wave or turning on each other with bursts of fire and devastation. Arcane pulls herself out of the seat, wincing at the bruising she underwent during the hop through warp, and comes forward to stand behind the captain again.

“I can get us close instantly.” She offers.

The captain shakes her head. “Only you and your sisters are capable of that in this mess. If the enemy knows where you are, they’ll turn all their assets on you immediately.”

“So we have confirmed that we are the target?” Arcane asks.

“Not yet.” The captain shakes her head. “But it’s a good enough bet not to risk it.”

Arcane nods in agreement as they dive into the hot plasma left behind by the stellar flare. As their view is covered by fire, Arcane waves her hand to observe information about the battle going on at the distant star. “Tch.” She clicks her tongue in displeasure on seeing what it said.

The Captain glances at it out of the corner of her eyes and frowns as well. “The hell were those idiots thinking? Deploying a Starbreaker in an inhabited system… the Association will not take that lying down.”

“We are dealing with terrorists.” Arcane notes idly. “I’m more unhappy about the failure to even consider that possibility. We are only now moving assets to regain control of the star.”

“Let’s hope they only had the one breaker, then.” The Captain mutters while piloting the ship through the minefield of fusing plasma and incandescent gas.

“Captain, hail from Fleet HQ!” the communications officer calls, putting her hand to her ear to listen. “Incoming enemy reinforcements, orders to reach Hel’s Throne as soon as possible by any means necessary.”

“Damn it all to hell!” The Captain snaps, slamming her fist onto the armrest while her other hand continued its typing. “Where are they coming from?”

“HQ won’t say.” The communications officer answers after a second. “They claim analysis is ongoing.”

“Bull. They know, they just don’t want to tell us.” The Captain snarls with a side glance at Arcane, who creases her brows in annoyance. “We’ll find a clear shot for you to do that teleport, girl.”

“I don’t need a clear line, just a confirmation of occupancy. Let me get that calculated and we’ll go.” Arcane replies, typing on the side computer which started showing a rapidly scrolling screen of letters and numbers.

“Give us a warning before you do so.” The captain requests before turning her attention back to the battle. “We’ll get ourselves out of this mess in the meantime.”

The shuttle and its escorts start arcing their path, curving back away from Hel’s Throne while ninety percent of the other ships push hard towards the great space station. Others pursue, black and silver hulls filling the viewports.

A squadron of pitch black fighters fall in line behind the shuttle group as they dive between a silvery pair of massive elongated ellipsoids, computers anticipating and weaving between the endless battery fire that spits tungsten shells and plasma bolts between them to drain the energy powering their mighty shields. Lasers flicker against the shuttles, harmlessly deflected or absorbed by the anti-energy barriers all piloted vessels are equipped with. Adjusting, both capital ships cease targeting the shuttles to conserve energy after two or three harmless volleys. That adjustment saves the unmanned fighters behind them, waiting for an opening like a pack of hungry wolves. The lasers instead tear across the projectile volleys aimed at their own ships, preventing them from delivering an impact to the protective shields themselves.

A rainbow surges through space, a laser drill enhanced by plasma and non-physical energies cutting deeply into one of the silver forms. The shuttles draw closer to the ship that fired that blast, while the fighters peel off and dive through the hole in the shields created by the weapon. Tube like entities are launched from the silver ship near the shuttle, gravity warping as they undergo massive acceleration in a boarding operation against the enemy vessel.

Arcane steps forward and touches the captain's shoulder, nodding as the elven woman looks back at her. She nods in turn, turning back to the others and sending orders to the others around them.

Several of the escort shuttles peel off and dive towards the wounded silver behemoth, following the fighters through the hole in its side and vanishing into black and silver mist. Tiny figures are seen falling out of them, landing easily in the open tunnels with blackened edges. The tubes from the other ship ram without disintegrating, metallic parts snapping into place near the hole to disgorge hordes of massive hominid shapes with smaller figures swarming around them, taking off into the depths of the ship.

“Request to board the battleship.” Arcane tells the Captain. “I can move a capital ship more easily than a number of shuttles. We help them, they help us.”

“Are you sure?” The captain asks, getting a nod in turn. “Alright. Battleship receiving this transmission, this is Cyan escort squadron.”

{This is Dominion Battleship Deus Voltar. Cyan escort squadron, go ahead.} The reply comes swiftly, if robotically.

“Deus Voltar, we are escorting a high value individual with teleportation capability. We wish to use your vessel as cover for our return to Hel’s Throne.” The Captain explains, rolling the shuttle squadron up and over the great silver form to avoid the decaying battle between the two ships while maintaining communications.

{Teleportation is impossible in these conditions. Further explanation needed, Cyan escort.} The robotic voice answers. {Connecting to Captain.}

{Cyan escort, this is Deus Voltar. You have a request?} Another voice, a more human one, comes over the communications next.

“Ma’am, Deus Voltar is not among the ships crewed by authorized Dominion personnel.” The communications officer reports. “We should be cautious.”

“Thank you, officer.” The captain says with a nod. “Captain, we are in possession of classified methods to perform a high energy teleport if given time to calculate. We request to board your ship in order to gain that time and ease the calculations for a transit to Hel’s Throne.”

{... I’m going to need authorization on that classification, Captain.} The human voice comes back.

“Dominion code thirteen-seven-seven-alpha-echo-double-zero-seven-zebra, Magia nine-zeros-nine. Transmitting additional authorization to your computers now.” The captain recites, rolling to avoid an incoming squadron of silver fighters that disintegrate as they get too close to the capital ship below them. The squadron spins to above them as the shuttles dive away from the battleship and the cloud of spreading nanites struggling against the giant ship’s own defenses.

{Authenticated. Boarding is open at the sixth tau. We just launched a boarding party from there, so there’s plenty of space.} The human voice answers after a moment, the capital ship shifting its main batteries to inundate the space around the shuttles with fire. {We’ll guide you in.}

A display of colors appears in front of the shuttle, lines in space showing where to accelerate in order to reach the designated port. “Received and thank you, Captain.” The captain says, tapping to instruct the computer to follow those directions unless manually overridden. The shuttle lurches into motion as the nanite swarm is burned out of existence, clearing a path for them to circle the giant ship.

The other capital ship moves in a straight line away from the battleship, its controls evidently damaged by the boarding parties or other means. It was in no shape to pursue or oppose the shuttles that flew past it to reach the opening in the battleship's shields. Diving in, the shuttles kill their velocity relative to the great hanger in which they find themselves and hover in midair.

“I have a target.” Arcane announces once they’re stopped. “Captain, awaiting your go ahead.”

“Captain, are we all clear for teleport?” The captain calls to the battleship.

{Brace for teleport! Exec?} The human voice says so they can hear, the voice booming through the hanger as well. {All clear!}

“Go!” The Captain says, and the space around the battleship seems to fluctuate wildly before the massive silver shape vanishes completely. The collapse of the space around it shakes the other capital ship, as well as disorienting several of the fighters nearby.

{Fire! Fire! Fire!} The battleship’s captain calls repeatedly as the silver shape reappears in the middle of a great melee between countless massive forms and tiny streaks dancing about between the spinning wheels of a massive grey structure that dwarfed any of them but was enveloped by their sheer number. {Cyan escort, you are cleared for takeoff! All fighters, launch!}

The great ship’s batteries explode the space around them, a concentrated barrage bringing down a pair of black and silver striped destroyers due to the element of surprise and the disorientation the teleport had brought to the region around them. Arcane grabs the back of her seat as the shuttles launch from the ship with acceleration surpassing gravity control for a second. The tiny forms shoot from the back of the giant silver whale of a battleship breathing fire in every direction to clear their path, streams of fighters right behind them.

The black and silver fighters engage others that alter course to engage the new arrival, dozens of capital ships accelerating hard to follow. The Deus Volt punches its own engines, the warping of space tearing to pieces any fighters ignorant of its power. Launching torpedoes that made the sky erupt in fire, it hurls itself toward the center of Hel’s Throne and the great melee there.

“Well, we can conclude I am not the only target.” Arcane observes as she sees the response to the battleship’s teleport not exceeding the expected response to any ship that used translight or foldspace capabilities in a battle such as this. There is also an increase in anti-teleportation and space-shifting measures applied by the enemy ships in the area around the Deus Voltar, which implies a belief that is was the ship using a new, possibly enhanced, version of the standard faster than light methods.

The Captain nods, her eyes fixed on the massive form of Hel’s Throne mere thousands of kilometers away, although it is covered by ships of every kind and color. “As long as you are aware that you could still be a target, yes.” She frowns at the chaos they would have to penetrate to reach the central shaft of Hel’s Throne and shakes her head. “We can’t reach the core shaft. Let’s rendezvous with the nearest tertiary ring. I think it’s the seventeenth?”

“I can’t tell any better than you.” Arcane replies. “Do what you think is best.”

“Of course, milady.” The captain agrees, directing the shuttle outwards from the main shaft and towards a silvery ring rotating above them. The Deus Voltar dives in the opposite direction, pulling with it most of the fighters and capital ships in the area on its surge for the inner shaft. “Fortunately, it seems we have a decoy.”

“We probably shouldn’t tell them we think of them that way.” Arcane notes without a trace of concern. “Though I think a Battleship can handle itself, even in this mess.”

“You’re probably right.” the Captain replies while pushing the shuttles through a cloud of plasma reignited by a nearby battle between capital ships, one in hot pursuit of the other. Fighters peel away from the ignition, like tiny flies fleeing a smoky fire.

The stars shift as they catch a ride in the drive trail of a passing destroyer, the spatial waves from its paradise drive carrying them towards their target and through a stream of fighters aiming to clash with a similar set.

Tumultuous explosions rock the area before them, lighting it all up in explosions of fire and radiation before great streams of lightning arc between them, a great maze of ever shifting energy appearing for a few seconds before dissipating. The shuttles curve around it, though a group of fighters tries to dive through and barely makes it before the lightning storm reignites itself. Several of them seem to flicker and die, their electronics trashed by the EMP of the burst, though they resurrect in short order and speed off after their fellows.

Arcane reaches out a hand and diverts the trap slightly, catching a few fighters who were pursuing the shuttles off guard and leaving them stranded in space. A wave of fire and plasma washes over them, knocking them away from the pursuit and distracting them with the bigger issue of escaping a hunting battlecruiser seeking to wipe out as many enemy fighters as possible.

The shuttle shifts course from directly towards the rotating ring, moving into a parallel dive that would allow them to actually dock with the massive structure. Aiming for several of the holes in the steel frame, the Captain taps out command codes and watches shields flicker off of a few of them.

“They’ve penetrated the Throne.” She notes at seeing many of them without any shields in the first place. Arcane nods, her face stiff. “We’re going to be fighting our way through.” The captain sighs, closing her eyes briefly.

“I trust you will continue to fulfill your duty.” Arcane tells her. “Help with the defense of the Throne; I will handle myself.”

The Captain shakes her head. “I’ve got to get you an escort at the very least. After that we’ll see.”

Arcane shrugs but doesn’t seem happy at that answer. The shuttles manage to match pace with the ring and seem to fall into the temporarily unshielded rings, black tunnels enveloping them as the lights of battle are cut from view. Replacing them are endless sounds, explosions and tremors in the ground and walls that show them they are not out of the woods yet.

The Captain messages the other shuttles to lead the way, taking one of the tunnels after another has already dived down it. One by one they split away, landing and disgorging a few personnel before rising into the tunnel again and disappearing down alternate shafts. After a few minutes, Arcane stops her at a particularly large opening.

“Stop here. Below should be one of the main garrisons; I’ll rendezvous there and request escort to the core.” Arcane explains, pointing at a door in the ground and explaining her plan.

The captain nods. “Alright, but I’m going with you. Lieutenant, you have the com.”

“Yes ma’am.” The man at the weapons station responds crisply. “Do you want us to wait for you here?”

She shakes her head. “I’ll send you my location once we’re situated. Let’s react to the situation as it happens.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” he salutes, the shuttle lowering to the metallic floor and coming to a stop.

Arcane shrugs as the Captain extracts herself from her chair and pushes past her to the back of the shuttle, following closely behind. They drop out the hatch in the floor rather than try to open the boarding ramp, the captain falling into a combat crouch and holding a weapon in front of her, sheathing another at her belt and handing a third to Arcane.

“I don’t need one.” She declines, snapping her fingers to make energy surge around her hand. Making it dissipate, she steps forward while the shuttle ascends again behind them and sets off down the tunnels, the few remaining others trailing behind. They all vanish into the tunnels surrounding the room, above, below, and at every side.

The Captain shrugs and attaches it to her belt as well, holding the rifle shaped primary weapon with both hands while illuminating the area in front of her with a red light that blended in with the flashing crimson alarms that echoed every few minutes around them. The wails and explosions were louder now, and the shaking ground threw them off balance.

Arcane wrenches open the trapdoor in the floor and hops down the shaft to a narrow tunnel just high enough for a man to stand upright. The Captain drops right behind her, flashing the rifle in both directions while the door shuts behind them.

“Which way?” The captain asks Arcane, who is reading a flashing sign bordered in red on the wall in front of them.

“That way to the central shaft and the shelter areas. This way leads to the outer garrison and an evacuation transport.” Arcane answers, turning down one of the tunnels while pointing over her shoulder in the other. The captain nods and follows after her, rifle falling to rest against her chest.

“Why are you coming with me?” Arcane asks, bending light to see around the corner in front of them and easily continuing forward on seeing nothing. “I am quite capable of handling myself, after all.”

The Captain walks backwards for a bit while watching their back, tilting her head to listen to the constant sounds of explosions and battle echoing through the tunnels. “Normally I’d agree.” She starts, turning around. “But the Arcanist matrixes were the first thing the enemy targeted.”

“I’ve long since grown past the point where I needed those.” Arcane explained, her power blocking a sudden shower that surged along the tunnel with a glowing barrier of energy. “It won’t weaken me even if they are all taken out.”

“HQ was worried about them being inverted or something. They claimed your powers would not be in their perfect state.” The captain shrugs, explaining further. “I didn’t quite understand the explanation.”

“Reversal of the energy flow and enhancement of the osmotic effect on arcane energy towards the outer universe, right?” Arcane asks, getting a nod in reply. “I guess that is a reasonable fear. If it succeeds they could wipe out almost ninety nine percent of my power.”

“So…” The Captain cries, reaching for the pistol again.

Yet Arcane smiles and shakes her head, looking disappointed. “They are severely underestimating me if they think one percent of my power is not enough to deal with them.”

The Captain looks oddly at Arcane and shakes her head. “Arrogance has been the downfall of many, milady.”

“It is not arrogance. Just truth.” Arcane replies, taking off down the darkened hallway flashing with red lights with the Captain close behind. Both pause as the entire structure seems to scream, immense tremors throwing them against the wall to stabilize themselves. “The battle goes poorly, I see.” Arcane observes.

“If Hel’s Throne falls, Finale is open to attack.” The Captain replies. “Is it any wonder the enemy is throwing this much at it?”

Arcane shakes her head. “I guess not, but that’s also an argument for our own defenses to prevent any such attacks from gaining any ground. As far as I have seen, that has not been the case.” The two stumble as another tremor rocks the hallway to accentuate her words.

“The Throne’s security force is still fighting, I’m sure.” The captain says. “It won’t be falling for a while yet.” Arcane clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes, but does not contradict the Captain’s claim.

The two continue down the hallway, Arcane making visible the corridors they would be walking down and any that might connect to them while the Captain watched both ways with her rifle shifting between ready and at ease positions with irregular frequency. They both notice movement down a side tunnel at the same time; the captain rolls forward and peeks the barrel of the rifle down the passage while Arcane merely sends a wave of power at it. A robot cleaner rises from the passage, struggling futilely to escape the supernatural power holding it aloft.

Arcane shrugs and throws it back where she found it, while the Captain takes a breath and relaxes visibly. “Impressive.”

“Not really.” Arcane shrugs, continuing in the same direction while the Captain follows behind her. The halls still shake at irregular intervals, red lights flashing above and below while the sounds of distant battle ring through the area.

The two girls take a break along a stretch of smooth metallic hallway, several dozen meters from the nearest turn offs on either side. Arcane produces a pouch which she filled by compressing the water in the air, offering a drink to the captain after taking one herself. The elven woman accepts, draining the pouch in a single practiced motion before returning it to Arcane.

“Lieutenant, report.” The captain says into the collar of her coat, tilting her head and listening to a reply Arcane cannot hear. “They haven’t encountered any hostiles in this area. The invaders must have pushed deeper.” She explains in response to Arcane’s questioning look.

“That’s good news for us, then.” Arcane replies, leaning on the wall. A holographic display appears in front of her as she waves her arm, which she scrolls through. “I can’t get information on the garrison, but there is a tram docked half a kilometer from here.”

“... The garrison is a kilometer away, correct?” The captain confirms, looking pensive. “We should check in there first, but the tram is certainly something we need to secure. Lieutenant, do you read? Have a team secure the tram at nexus seventeen fifty seven dash twelve.”

“I’ll be fine from here. There are no enemies on the route.” Arcane adds as the Captain readies herself to continue towards the garrison.

“I’ll rendezvous with my crew at the tram.” The captain shakes her head. “It will be simpler to just stick together for both our sakes.”

Arcane shrugs and sets off at a rapid pace. The captain keeps up effortlessly, both breaking into a light jog while scanning the corridors and trying to outpace the rate of tremors shaking the hallways dangerously.

The hallway suddenly flashes bright red, warning sirens screaming as the sprinklers activate again and inundate the area with fire suppressants before suddenly going dry. The Captain and Arcane throw themselves down a side passage as the tunnel seems to spark for a few seconds before crimson flames devour it in a rush of heat. The two flee, Arcane gesturing wildly at a hologram visible only to her. She leads the way down a maze of turns and twists while the roar of fire grows ever softer behind them.

Arcane glares at the captain when they both stop to catch their breaths. She shakes her head with an expression of guilt. “I was told there were none in this area. It is possible more entered, but if not my crew made a mistake.”

“A fighter was destroyed right next to us, captain. That’s a pretty major mistake.” Arcane growls, wiping sweat from her head and pulling up the map hologram again. This time it flickers dangerously, several parts not completely visible though they are restoring themselves at a visible rate. “We can still reach the garrison, fortunately.”

“Lead the way. I’ll be on the lookout for survivors.” the captain agrees, and both set off down the darkened tunnels flashing with discordant red lights.