Chapter 18

[If] our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.

`Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Death by Black Hole’

WarpStar

“Sir,” the XO said while saluting the captain after they boarded the ship.

“Report,” replied Henderson, ending the salute while walking towards the bridge.

He gave a slight shrug. “Where do you want me to start?”

“How about what the hell was that?” John replied angrily as they came to a stop in a corridor.

“Sir, we couldn’t come up with any other solution fast enough. A blast from the WarpStar would have not only annihilated the threat, but you as well.”

“How can you justify that? They are living beings. What you put them through, no one should have to experience, not even our worst criminals,” Henderson replied.

“They killed two Marines, and were hell-bent on killing the rest of the team. Sir, I would do it again.”

Henderson ignored the last part of his XO’s statement. He can’t blame him, he isn’t quite sure he could have made a better call.

“I want to be notified the moment the other alien is awake; I need to speak with him.”

“Yes, sir, I will inform the doctor. There are other matters,” O’Connell said, moving on from the verbal lashing he just received.

“Go on.”

“First, the doctor says the Federation pilot will survive. He suffered some internal bleeding, a fractured rib, and a broken leg. He won’t fly for a while, but he will survive.”

“What the hell is a Federation pilot doing here anyways?

“I’m not quite sure, he was piloting a Valkyrie,” O’Connell said, referring to the F-59 Scout Fighter.

“Valkyrie?” Henderson stopped while punching the control panel to enter the Lift system.

“Bridge,” Henderson said to the computer system, “What the hell is a short-range Scout doing out here? They cannot go more than a few thousand klicks without refueling.”

“There must be a Carrier in orbit, which means they found us.”

“Good,” replied Henderson as the lift doors opened, revealing another corridor, this one considerably shorter than the one they were in before. At the end of the hall was another door, which revealed the bridge as they passed through it.

“Now,” Henderson said, “we need to find out how long until the WarpStar is ready to make flight.”

Just as he said that, Lt. Donovan came around the corner. He’d been waiting for the captain to return to the Command Center of the ship.

“Sir,” Donovan saluted.

“Lieutenant,” the captain replied while he and the XO returned the salute.

“Sir, I need to speak with you, privately.”

“Alight, I’ll be in my office in a minute. Wait there.”

“Aye, sir,” the Scottish engineer saluted, and left the bridge.

“Nice flying, ensign,” Henderson threw a compliment to the talented pilot.

“Charles, get the ship back to her landing spot, set her down and finish with the repairs.”

‘CLANG.’ A loud ringing sound appeared over the 2MC.

“Con. Sick-bay, sir, the alien has awakened, and he is asking for the captain,” the doctor called out on the comm system.

“Sick-bay, aye, I will be a few minutes,” replied John.

John handed a datapad to a young bridge officer as he walked towards the back of the bridge. At the very back was a small corridor that had two slightly curved staircases on either side, and a door at the end which clearly was labeled ‘Lift’. The doorway above the staircase to the left was labeled ‘Wardroom’ while the other staircase was labeled ‘Captain’s Office.’ This was Deck 1, the Wardroom and the Captain’s Office.

John walked in to his office, locked the door and sat at his desk, clearly exhausted.

“Sir, we have a problem,” exclaimed Donovan as he placed a piece of the Drive Assembly on the captain’s desk.

John caught the issue right away without needing to think about the broken piece. “Well that’s not right. Main pathways have been altered, this is not supposed to be designed like this.”

“Exactly, it was meant to blow. I don’t think we were meant to survive exiting F.T.L.,” Donovan said.

“We had an extensive systems check before we left Dry-Dock. This would have shown up,” the captain said with a worried look on his face. “Whoever did this must still be on board. Keep this between us for right now. Can you get the ship in orbit?”

“Sir, she’s ready now, I bypassed the Drive Assembly for now, she won’t be smooth but I can get her into orbit for a proper Hyperspace Jump.”

“Good, start making your preparations to leave orbit.”

“Aye, sir,” Donovan said as he stood up and saluted, the both of them made a hasty walk to the bridge.

“Alright, kids,” Henderson said jokingly. “Let’s make our rounds!”

Everyone in the room starts going through their final checklists, but just as the Ex-O makes his order, Lt. Jackson speaks up.

“Sir, if I may.”

“Go ahead, lieutenant,” replied Henderson.

“Sir, I believe we should stick around longer, study this place. This is the biggest discovery the human race has made since the discovery of the Hyper drive.”

“As much as I agree with you, Jackson, the ship is in no condition to mount a research expedition. Plus the Federation has no idea our status. We will be back,” replied Henderson.

“Aye, sir,” Lt. Jackson replied as he continued his duties. With a major interest in archeology and history, Robert always found discoveries extremely fascinating, and sometimes fell victim to their distractions.

~Swoosh~ the light sound of the bridge doors opened up, and Doctor Lamar entered.

“Sir,” replied the middle-aged African female doctor. “Our guest wished to be present on the bridge, I didn’t think it was much of an issue.”

“Excuse me? Nonauthorized personnel are not allowed in system critical areas; the bridge is one of them,” Chief of Security Lt. Commander Watney replied.

“It’s okay, commander, I invited him,” Henderson said in response.

“Sir, this violates regulation.”

“Watney, this is my bridge, he will be fine.”

“Aye, sir.”

The alien walked slowly up to the captain’s chair to observe his new friends and their command of such an awe-inspiring vessel. Although he comes from a world that has had thousands of years to develop stunning technology, their race has never truly mastered military organization, tactics, and structure. Their technology may be superior, but they lack the command required to make the technology superior, he was amazed at the discipline the crew of the WarpStar was showing.

“Captain,” spoke the alien.

“You never told me your name,” Henderson said as he stood up, motioned for him to sit in his chair.

As the alien sat down, he softly replied, “My name is Enki.”

Jackson looked up for a second, recognizing that name again, but quickly put it aside to finish his string of commands and coding he was in the process of doing.

“Commander,” loudly exclaimed the captain. “Report ship liftoff status.”

“Aye, sir.” The Ex-O stood up from his station and walked towards the center of the bridge.

“Tactical, report,” O’Connell said, looking towards Lt. Commander Heidi Watney’s station.

“Weapons online, shields operating at eighty-two percent. Tactical is go.”

“Operations,” O’Connell shouted out the next victim.

“Sensors calibrated, operating at 100 percent, Life support is green, primary and secondary power subsystems are operating at eight-two percent, ops is green!” Jackson replied.

Moving down the line O’Connell selects the next station. “Engineering.”

“Aye, Antimatter reactor is still attempting a cold start.”

Enki looked intrigued at this. Antimatter? Such an idea was always theorized but never created. “Fusion reactors are operating at sixty-five percent. It will be enough to get us in orbit and initiate a Hyperspace Jump.”

O’Connell looked at the last station on his checklist. “Helm.”

“Inertia Dampeners online, Stabilizers online, thrusters are responding and firing, Repulse lifts online, Sub-light Engines primed and ready, FTL offline, Hyper drive awaiting commands. Helm is a go.”

FTL? Enki was trying to speculate what this female pilot was referring too. Was she talking about Faster-Than-Light travel? None of the known races have ever developed a technology outside of Hyperspace, and even then the race that built Hyper drive, which every sentient species in the galaxy takes clear advantage of, has been extinct for hundreds of thousands of years. If they had truly built a real Faster-Than-Light mode of space travel, Enki could not fathom what this could mean. He had to find out and get back to his people, however he feared that if others found out, even of the humans’ existence, another Galactic war would wreak havoc among the stars.

“Sir, all stations report green, we are good to go!” O’Connell gave his final report to the captain.

“Thank you, Charles. Ensign, take us up nice and easy.”

“Aye, sir,” Carr said as she set the helm console into manual mode. Her seat moved from the control pad into the small indented area in front, where she could operate the ship using full manual control. She grabbed the control yoke, pushed a few more buttons as the ship began to “roar” and shake lightly. Just outside the viewport, dust and debris could be seen starting to fly haphazardly about. Carr started to lightly push a lever just to her left, forward, making a slow adjustment as the roar got louder.

Carr had pushed the Repulserlift Lever just about halfway when the ship began to lift off, going slowly straight up. More power was being diverted into the Repulserlift system, making the ship climb higher.

“Sitting at Oh-Six-Zero-Zero feet, switching to thrusters,” Carr reported.

Another lever that was sitting right next to the Repulserlift lever was at station zero setting, all the way down. Carr had grabbed it with her left hand and slowly adjusted this one forward. As she did so, the ship began to move forward.

Once WarpStar had a steady speed, Carr powered down the Repulserlifts, then put full throttle into the thrusters.

“Gear retracted, Repulserlifts at zero power,” Carr reported as the ship gained speed and began to tilt upward.

Independence

The entire bridge crew held their breaths while staring at the view screen. The screen showed various readouts of random data, but the crew of the Independence was waiting on a com report from the two lost fighters they sent into this unknown world. From the outside, all they saw was a huge, yellow, dead rock, with an obvious barrier that engulfed their unknowing pilots. That was, however, not what came across the screen.

“Sir,” the operations officer called out. “Got two new contacts, bearing tw-eight-nine, forty degree negative. Speed, fifty-six thousand k.p.h. Unknown classification. Sir, they appear to be roughly the size of our Destroyers.”

The two ships began to slow down as they approached the ship, megalithic in comparison.

“Sir, the ships are approaching, and slowing.”

“Are they doing anything else?” Admiral Briggs asked.

“Nothing else is coming up on sensors, sir.”

“Sir, shall we raise shields? The Independence’s tactical officer suggested.

“Not yet, we don’t know who these people are,” Briggs said.

Captain Smith looks over to the admiral. “Marcus, you think they are Russian?”

“I’m not sure, it sure is nothing I have ever seen before,” Admiral Marcus Briggs replied.

“Open Hailing Frequencies.”

“Channel open, sir.”

“This is Admiral Marcus Briggs of the Federation WarShip Independence, Please sta…….”

The admiral never got to finish his request. Mid-sentence, a flurry of energy blasts emitted from both ships, one hitting a cluster of antennas on the top of the ship, the other hitting a small round dome on the side. After the initial attack, both ships split off and began firing on other various sections of the Independence, a behemoth of a ship.

“Report!” Briggs shouted as sparks and minor explosions rocked the ship’s bridge.

“Give me shields NOW,” Captain Smith commanded.

A frantic ops officer attempted to punch in the commands to raise the shields, but realized she coul not and, with a sudden realization of why she could not, a look of horror molded onto her face. “Sir…. I…. I can’t,” she tried to get the words out of her mouth, unable to look away from her control panel

“Why not, ensign?” Briggs asked.

“Sir, our Shield Generator has been destroyed,” She looked up from her console with an even bigger look of worry on her face, “along with our Comms Array.”

“Lieutenant, fire at will, all weapons batteries,” Captain Smith ordered the weapons officer.

“Sir, weapons are responsive but our sensor array has taken damage, I am having difficulties locking on to them, attempting to switch to manual control,” the young Canadian weapons officer reported.

With a concerned look on his face, Admiral Briggs looked over to his second in command. “How the hell did they know where to hit us? And why didn’t we detect energy build up for their weapons?”

“Look at those ships,” Smith replied, as more sparks and small explosions wreaked havoc around her and the bridge crew. “Those are unlike anything I have ever seen. Those weapons blasts, they are not of Earth design, nor Legion. I have spent time with the Russians, those out there are not them at all. I guarantee it.”

WarpStar

The WarpStar had finally made orbit. The ride was indeed ‘bumpy,’ as Captain Henderson said it would be, since the Inertia Dampeners did not get the power they needed, but otherwise uneventful. The Federation Frigate now rests in a relatively void pocket between the planet, and the gigantic cloud of debris left from the ancient battle that took place there.

“Sir,” Ensign Carr reported. “We have left the gravity hold of the planet, and have established a subspace lock on the Earth Hyper-buoy. All systems are green, ready for Hyperspace jump.”

“Secure all stations,” Commander O’Connell jumped in. “Start countdown for jump.”

“Belay that,” the captain interrupted.

“Sir?” O’Connell looked over at Henderson with a confused look on his face.

“Those Valkyries,” John replied. “They didn’t come out of nowhere. We have a Federation pilot in sick-bay, there has to be a carrier group out there.”

O’Connell walked to the Viewports in the front of the bridge, looking out and pointing to the cloud of debris. “Sir, we can’t go out there, we just barely survived coming in.”

“Sir,” Carr chimed in. “We have shields, and I’m in full control of the ship this time. I believe we can make it out without damaging the ship. Besides, Commander Watney seemed to be a good shot coming in. She can clear any debris in the path if needed.”

O’Connell didn’t have anything to say, his recommendation was yet again set aside by the captain’s best friend.

“Shield status, commander?” Henderson looked over to Lt. Commander Watney for her response.

“Shields and weapons are at 100 percent sir; we are good to go!”

“Great, kicks to Donovan and his crew for excellent timely repairs!” Henderson gives a slight mock salute on his forehead to his chief engineer. “Alright, ensign, take us out nice and slow.”

The WarpStar navigated the debris field with ease, twisting and turning to avoid large obstacles while shooting a few blasts here and there to remove medium-sized ones for a path. The ship moved at a moderate pace, fast enough to leave the field with relative ease, but slow enough to enable full maneuverability to safely traverse the area.

Getting out of the field was a lot easier than coming in. With full knowledge of the debris field and full control over the shields, weapons and engines, navigation was a breeze. Lt. Watney did not like the situation. In the back of her mind, she knew there was a threat lurking out there. She could not find it—sensors were clear except for the vast debris field out there. Watney was still ready for anything that may come out of the void.

‘This ship is impressive,’ Enki thought as he observed the crew navigating the immense debris field, something his pilot could not do, which caused his ship to crash and end up on the planet. The crash could have been a good thing, he thought, he did end up onboard the WarpStar, observing an alien race he, and others, had not seen in a long time.

“Sir, coming out of the field now,” Carr reported as the WarpStar exited the field that masked the planet from the rest of the universe.

“Understood.”

“Con, C.I.C. Three new contacts bearing zero-five-four, fifteen degree positive. Unknown distance, unknown configuration. Suggest going active,” John was reaching for the 18 MC, which led to the C.I.C. to ask for the report that instantly came over the system before he had a chance.

“C.I.C., Con. Just three?” John asked.

“Aye, sir.”

How can a carrier battlegroup just have three ships, John thought to himself. The situation was getting more perplexing as time went on.

“Are we reading any IFF?”

IFF Signal (Identify Friend or Foe) is a system setup in all of Earth’s ships, naval or surface-based. Its primary purpose is to easily tell if the targeted ship is a friend or foe. Friendly ships send out encoded signals that can only be matched and decoded on a Federation frequency. If the IFF system does not detect a IFF code, or if the Code does not match, the designation is automatically set to foe.

“Negative on the frequencies. System is automatically tagging all three as foe.”

Autotagging does not necessarily mean they are all enemy ships. No signal could easily mean the ships were not broadcasting any.

“Con,” continued the C.I.C. Officer, “now reading contacts at fifty-eight light minutes out.”

“Con, aye,” John replied into the 18MC.

O’Connell gave his opinion. “There’s no danger to us for going active, sir.”

The ships were fifty-eight light minutes out, meaning the distance between the WarpStar and the cluster of ships was so great, they would not be detecting the WarpStar’s light for fifty-eight minutes. The downside? Everything the WarpStar was seeing on passive sensors was fifty-eight minutes old. Going active would greatly increase the accuracy of the sensors, but still be constrained to the limitations of the speed of light. The WarpStar would be detected as soon as the pulses get to the target—but this posed little danger to the ship itself, as the WarpStar would have fifty-eight minutes warning of an incoming attack and would be able to avoid it. With the new FTL Drive, she had an advantage no one knew about and would be able to avoid almost any attack.

“Agreed,” John reached for the 18MC again. “C.I.C., Con, go active.”

“Con, C.I.C. Aye, all sensors active.”

“Helm, set an intercept course, 5g thrust.”

“Sir, may I suggest, we can use the FTL to get right on top of them,” Char added her thoughts.

“I am aware of that, ensign, let’s wait for sensor data to return.”

“Aye, sir. Helm reads steady 5g thrust on heading two-two-one.”

It took almost two hours for the first set of sensor pulses to return to the ship. The crew was getting ever more anxious with every second, waiting for the 18MC to chirp.

“Con, C.I.C. We have return data. Reading positive IFF codes. We have two hostile ships of unknown configuration currently engaging the F.W.S Independence. Sir, the Independence is taking severe damage.”

“General quarters. All hands, battle stations! Set condition one throughout the ship.” John called out over the 1MC, ignoring the return acknowledgement over the 18MC.

The lights of the bridge dimmed, and a red glow started emanating from a few lights placed in strategic places around the ship. A panel next to each door switched from a green display that read “Alert Condition 5” to a red display that said, in bold characters, “Alert Condition 1.”

Enki walked closer to the view screen, observing the battle that was already taking place.

“Enki,” Henderson said as he stood up and walked towards the alien. “Do you know who those are?”

“I do,” Enki replied. “Those are ships of the Minmoran.”

“Minmoran? Like, Minotaurs?” blurted out Jackson. “Those things are real?”

“It appears so,” Enki replied. “They also pilot Leviathans, living creatures grown into space, and warring faring vessels to serve the Minmorans.”

John ordered target designations to the Ops station, which had operation control over sensor data now that the ship had gone to battle stations.“Ops, set the Independence as Sierra Three, set the two hostiles as Sierra One and Two.”

“Alright, let’s see if we can use this new toy to our advantage. Ops, any change in the ships, are they moving to engage us?”

“Negative, sir, they are still focused on the Independence as of fifty-nine minutes ago,” Jackson replied.

“Nav, set an intercept course. I want to get within three light seconds.” John gave a quick glance to Charles, who returned the stare. The crew was about to make history, for the second time. Not only have they tested that FTL was entirely possible, but they will attempt a short in system hop, closing the fifty-eight-minute gap to three seconds in under a few seconds time, creating an advantage to the WarpStar in space combat.

“Helm ready, sir,” Char called out after receiving instructions from the navigation station.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

Thinking of nothing else to say, with adrenaline pumping in full force throughout his body, John gave the order to execute the first phase of the plan. With the order given, Charlene reached to the five levers on her right, reducing the engine thrust to zero, then reaching for a lever just above her head on her right side and slowly pushing it to the first notch, forcing the stars in the view to melt and stretch, going from starry white dots to multicolored streaks of spectral light. A digital readout was set for light distance to target, starting countdown at fifty-five minutes, it quickly reached to five seconds with only four seconds of travel time. At the five-second mark, Charlene pulled the lever back to zero, forcing the ship back into normal space, and the stars to returned to dots of white.

“I got them, three-second delay. Ships still engaging the Independence, and ignoring us.”

John wasted no time in strategizing his attack, already planning several moves ahead. “Nav, target Sierra One. Predict and plot an intercept vector and send it to the helm.”

“Nav, aye,” the frantic junior navigation officer quickly got to work.

“Helm, once you have the course, engage at flank speed.”

“Helm, aye”

Flank speed is a term taken from the old Earth Navy. Back then it simply was the fastest speed a ship could possibly go in an emergency, as fast as the engines could turn the screws, fuel efficiency and stress ignored. On a starship, pushing the engines to maximum possible thrust would rip the ship apart, not before melting the cells of every living being on the ship, even with inertia subsystems at maximum possible power. Flank speed on a starship generally means as fast as the ship can go while the inertia systems negate all g-force. For a WarStar-class Destroyer, 15g’s of thrust was the maximum she could go before the crew started feeling the effects of the increased g-force. It was a tradition passed down from the sailors of the old to the sailors of the modern.

“Helm answering, on course. Pushing 15g’s, will fully intercept in eighty-five minutes.”

Deciding to take advantage of the time before his next tactical move, John ordered communications, “Ops, open a frequency, all channels, all bands. Let’s hope they listen to reason.”

“They will not,” Enki added.

“Channel open, sir,” O’Connell yelled out over the commotion.

Picking up a mic attached to his captain’s chair, Henderson spoke to the enemy ships. “Unknown vessels, stand down your attack or you will be fired upon. You are attacking a Federation ship. This can be classified as an act of war against the United Federation of Nations.”

The Minmoran ships continued their assault on the Independence, completely ignoring the communication from WarpStar. John repeated the hail three more times before setting the mic down in its holster. Calculating his next few moves.

“Sir,” reported Lt. Jackson. “I have gained access to the Independence’s computer. It’s not looking good. Shields are down, their hull integrity is down to forty-four percent, life support is failing across the ship, power fluctuations are being reported everywhere, they can’t maintain flow to their weapons, sir, she is crippled, I’m not sure how much more of this she can take!”

“Distance to target,” O’Connell shouted out

“Contact Sierra Two reading at seven hundred fifty thousand klicks, E.T.A to firing range on the energy weapons, eighty minutes,” Lt. Commander Watney replied.

John directed his next order to tactical. “Start getting me firing solutions to all targets, commander.”

The WarpStar rapidly got ready for her first real battle. The crew responded quickly, without hesitation, a prime testament to their training. Most of the crew serving together on a Dreadnaught had amplified their skill, but even the cadets and new crew members were adapting well to the situation. John stared at the tactical readout, watching the battle, waiting for his moment to strike.

“Helm,” John started to call out orders without moving his gaze from the tactical readout on his command island. “On my mark, close distance to target Sierra Two to ten thousand klicks. Tactical prime all energy weapons, target beams and disruptors on Sierra two, hold fire until I give the order.”

Enki observed in amazement at the discipline the crew had in receiving orders, carrying them out and delegating command where it is due. He was even more amazed at John’s strategic mind.

“Sir?” O’Connell questioned, slightly, the orders given, however Henderson did not acknowledge him in any way.

“Aanndd…. Mark!,” John yelled out, pointing his finger in Charlene’s direction, still not taking his eyes off the tactical display.

“Helm, aye,” Char responded while executing the FTL jump with ease, quickly getting to the designated range.

“Sierra Two, nine thousand kilometers, we are in firing range, solution peady,” Watney yelled out.

“Hold,” ordered Henderson.

The WarpStar was racing towards the first ship, producing an impressive 15g’s of thrust and closing fast. Within a matter of seconds, she would be close enough to kiss the other ship.

“Five thousand Kilomitors!,” Watney yelled out, her fear and tension was showing.

“Warning!,” the ship’s computer chimed in, “Object detected, collision alert! Pull up! Pull up! Collision alert!” the Terrain Avoidance and Warning system, otherwise known as Asshole Steve by pilots, repeated with the male robotic voice, which the crew donned “Steve the Asshole.” The TWAS is an ancient system that never left regulation to be installed and had become sort of a tradition in flight, both in atmosphere and space.

John leaned slightly forward on his chair, watching, waiting, analyzing.

“Break off now!,” O’Connell shouted.

“Belay that order!” Henderson countermanded his executive officer’s order. O’Connell stood up, surprise and shock in his eyes as he realized his captain was sending them to their deaths.

“Twenty-five-hundred kilometers to sierra-two. Three-thousand kilometers to sierra-one!” Watney shouted, fear evident in her voice. She had served with John only briefly, her first tour as an officer onboard the Avenger for a short two months. Her lack of time with her old executive officer showed—she was terrified of John’s course.

Sierra One, being the Independence, was massive. At this range, the entire ship was taking the entirety of the view ports. The only thing the bridge crew could see was metal stretching left, right, up and down—everywhere a giant starship.

“Eighteen-hundred kilometers to sierra two!!”

“Fire at will, commander!!” John finally gave the order to fire, but he did not stop at that. “Neutral thrust on the mains. Emergency flank on the secondaries!” John ordered the secondary engines mounted on the bow to burn at full force, attempting to slow forward momentum.

The next few seconds seemed like forever to the crew. Without skipping any beats, without any hesitation, Henderson’s orders were carried out. Normally, braking maneuvers would involve the ship rotating 180 degrees, pointing the main engines in the direction of travel, then igniting the main engines at full thrust to help slow down quickly. The WarpStar needed to have her bow pointing at the target in order for the weapons to hit, so instead of performing the brake maneuver properly, John took advantage of the weaker front-facing engines tucked just inside the wings. Unfortunately they could only produce 10g’s of thrust at maximum. As the ship decelerated as best she could, energy discharges emitted from the disrupter cannons. Within a one to two-second time frame, several hundred cannon shots came from both disruptors. All forward weapons were located in the middle section of the ship, just as the main belly of the ship ended and the long nose of the ship began, between her wings and on either side of the fuselage.

Soon after the cannons started firing came the beam weapons. Two bright purple beams of light emitted from port and starboard emitters, tearing through the shields of the ship. It did not take long for the shields of the small Leviathan ship designated as Sierra Two. Under normal circumstances, the WarpStar might have had to engage the ship in a lengthy battle, which would deplete and damage both sides. Energy weapons dissipate over distance. The closer you get to your target, the more damage output the weapons are capable of doing, which is exactly what John was counting on. Since the Leviathans were ignoring the WarpStar, Henderson put the ship as close as possible, utilizing the element of surprise. It worked. Before Watney was even able to launch the torpedoes, the Leviathan’s shields were down, giving complete freedom for the two Mk-II Nuclear Fusion torpedoes to do their job.

Just as quickly as the battle started, it was over. Not even a full second had passed since Henderson gave his ‘Full Reverse’ order when he gave his next command. “Port engines, full reverse. Starboard engines, ahead flank, full power to the forward lateral thrusters, upon entering heading two-two-five engage FTL at factor One, hold for zero-point-two seconds then drop.”

Charlene Carr knew exactly what her commander was ordering, she didn’t have to question it. A near-similar strategy had been running through her head the whole time. She knew John, and she was ready for this. Pre-programmed flight instructions had already been imputed into the helm systems, all she had to do was press three buttons. One to power the port engine, two for the Starboard, and the third for the FTL Prime. The rest she had to guess, which was not a problem. As she pulled her flight yoke up and tilted it to the left, the ship maneuvered with amazing speed.

Just before the torpedo impact, and faster than they could blink, the ship was at the correct heading. With the FTL drive already primed, Carr pushed one lever, the FTL thrust lever. With that press, the stars that had just come into view stretched and warped as the ship entered Faster-Than-Light. It did not last long. Just as quickly as the stars had become giant rainbow streaks across the screen, they all faded back to normal, as the pre-programmed instructions Carr had inputted from her prediction commanded the ship to immediately exit FTL and enter normal space.

Just as the WarpStar exited FTL, the two torpedoes struck their targets. Two substantial explosions rocked the horizon of the ship, with a third following right after.

“Direct hit!,” Jackson shouted. “Sierra-Two has been destroyed.”

Cheering came from everyone on the bridge, except for Henderson. He knew this was not over. The next target would be far harder to kill. The one advantage he had, the element of surprise, was now lost. With the destruction of her sister ship, the other leviathan would now disengage her fight with the megalithic Independence and focus on the WarpStar, who had come in and put to rest their companion.

‘What the hell just happened?’ thought Enki, as he sat down at a vacant chair along the outer wall of the bridge next to some consoles. ‘What was that? How did we just traverse seven hundred thousand kilometers in less than a blink of an eye? ‘Did they just destroy a sasquatch ship with ease? Who the hell are these people!’ Enki was lost, sitting there taking in everything he was seeing, complete with shock and amazement.

O’Connell fell into his seat, overwhelmed with relief and shock, but he couldn’t show it now. Getting back to work, he knew just as well as Henderson did, one more target!

“Helm, take us about, set intercept course to Sierra-Three,” Henderson ordered, and without hesitation, Carr maneuvered the ship to head towards the last hostile. “Distance to Sierra-Three?”

“Fifteen thousand kilometers,” Watney reported. “Sierra Three has changed course, and is closing fast!”

“Plot firing solution and fire when ready, set auxiliary power to forward shields.” More commands kept flying out of the WarpStar’s CO’s lips, and again the crew flawlessly executed them.

Both ships came within firing range and instantly started shooting each other. Disruptor bolts from both ships flew by. Some missed and some hit, causing minor damage. As they came close, WarpStar was striking more and more blows, but sustaining minimal damage. With the Antimatter FTL drive being tied directly into the shields when the ship was not in FTL, her shield strength was incredibly powerful for a ship her size. Shield output capabilities rivaled that of a Battleship.

The battle was over just as quickly as it had begun. This time, however, no side was the victor. Both ships had landed multiple blows to each other as they darted each other, twisting and turning in the vast of space. Each ship took turns chasing the other, both ships equally as maneuverable. Both ships equally were able to act crazy, maneuvering stunts to best the other. One ship got behind the other, fired volleys, then lost the tail as the other took behind. Although WarpStar had sustained very light damage, the Leviathan was starting to suffer some shield degradation as a result. Some shots fired from WarpStar were landing direct hits on the hull. But that was not what won the fight—the Leviathan was continuing to fight to the bitter end. Suddenly about thirty-five ships just appeared out of nowhere, all over the place, surrounding a 500 thousand kilometer perimeter in the area. The Federation Fleet had finally arrived after the Independence activated her emergency Hyper-buoy beacon, signaling the fleet to come to her aid. The Leviathan knew this was a no-win scenario—even if they tried to the death, they could not destroy the WarpStar before they were destroyed themselves from being purely overwhelmed.

As the Leviathan came to a complete stop in space, the WarpStar took it as a prime time to hit it with everything they got. Unfortunately before their Mk-II Torpedoes could come close enough to detonate a nuclear explosion, the Leviathan vanished into the realms of Hyperspace. They had successfully fled.