Marcus

#

Marcus realised something was wrong too late.

The hopper was almost aboard, moving ever nearer the open hanger doors of the ISC ship when Marcus' console began bleeping an alarm. His heart stopped when he saw what the alarm was for.

"Proximity alert!" He shrieked.

"What?" Bronikowski snapped round.

"The Ezekiel is on a collision course, I--I--don't know how, but they haven't slowed as they left the lanes Marcus said.

"How long?"

"20 seconds, tops." He slumped back in his chair.

"Hamasa--get that hopper away from here!" Bronikowski shouted. "Open fire at that ship!"

Jenkins reacted well to get a beam off, but it was too late. The Ezekiel smashed into the opposite side of the ship to Hamasa, throwing all those not strapped in on the bridge into the bulkhead.

Intense pain shot through Marcus. The room went pitch black, and the incredible sound of wrenching metal filled the bridge as the ship bent and buckled from the impact. The metallic screeching and snapping was replaced by the roaring of air escaping the bridge as the viewport shattered. This didn't last long before the emergency shutters kicked in and plugged the hole.

He was broken. The chair he had been strapped into had kept him from becoming one of the broken bodies lying in pools of blood on the far side of the room that he could see through the flickering light, but the restraints had broken at least his ribs. Other than the brief bursts of the lights, or sparks from the damaged consoles, he had no way of knowing what was happening or who else was still breathing. He smelt smoke filling the room and though his body screamed in protest, he knew he had to move to find some way of finding out what was going on.

He heard a cough. "Is anyone else alive?" Bronikowski's weak voice came from beside him where she had been sitting.

"I'm here he coughed. "Little worse for wear, but I'm here."

"What's your status?"

"Broken ribs, maybe my collar bone. At least I'm alive, though. You?"

"I'm fine. Bruised, but my chair was facing the impact at the time."

Marcus heard the unbuckling of restraints and moments later someone prodded his chest. He screamed in pain.

"Feels broken, but I'm no field medic. We'll have to wait for that."

"Is there anyone else alive?" Marcus gasped.

There were a few groans and muffled shouts of 'me'. That's something, at least.

A terrible thought struck Marcus. "What happened to the bomb? Did Hamasa get it away?"

The emergency lighting flickered on and revealed a terrified look on Bronikowski's face. He had never seen her scared before. She ran over to her chair. "The link is connecting, but she's not answering. Hamasa!" She yelled.

"I'm here," her voice sounded faint.

Bronikowski collapsed into her chair. "We did it."

"Not so fast, Napia."

Marcus' heart stopped. "What's happened?"

"The bomb's gone. It was armed when we were hit. That impact... well, it won't be long now."

"And we've got no way of tracking it, or stopping it from detonating." Bronikowski didn't shout or scream, she just paced up and down. "The Edinburgh. What's its status?"

"From here in the hanger it looks intact. Harpoon's snapped though. We left most of the crew over there."

"Then that's what we'll do. We'll escape in the Edinburgh. We get our bombs."

"But you'll abandon Caxis?" Marcus tried to get to his feet, but he collapsed in a heap.

"We don't have a choice." She turned to one of the other survivors. "Get everyone still alive into hoppers and over to the Edinburgh. We're abandoning ship."

"No!" Marcus screamed.

"I'm sorry." Bronikowski stopped to help someone up and then left Marcus behind.

The remaining survivors followed.

Marcus was alone.

"Hello? Is anyone still there?"

"Just me. They're abandoning ship."

"Yes, I heard. Question is, what are you going to do?"

"There's nothing left to do." Why was she still talking to him? She should just leave like the others.

"I've got a hopper here. We could take the lanes, go to Caxis."

A glimmer of hope flickered up but was doused almost as fast. "The fight, the bomb. That won't do any good. I--"

"We'll probably die, but wouldn't you rather die with Sophia--or at least trying to get to her?"

"You're right. I mean--I'm coming down now."

It wasn't much, but he was going home.

#

Chi-Young

#

Chi-Young watched the viewport in horror as the Ezekiel and the Vengeance spiralled out of control. The Edinburgh was following them at a slower pace after the tether had torn off from the impact of the Alliance ship.

Garrick has killed us all. It's come down to this.

"Is there any sign of a detonation?" Allison demanded, It was difficult to hear him over the alarms on the bridge--the Mandrake had taken a huge amount of damage and risked being pulled down towards the planet itself.

"Our scanners are damaged. I can't get a clear reading." Kassem sounded on the edge of panic.

"What's our status?" Chi-Young said.

"They disabled our weapons. We're losing power and engines aren't responding. We're dead in the water." There was a tone of finality in her voice.

Chi-Young was left ruing how it could have been so different if Garrick hadn't worked out how they were targeting the Edinburgh. If only Allison hadn't trusted him.

"Why has the Phoenix Rises stopped firing?" Allison said.

Chi-Young walked over to the viewport. Looking past the long crack left by one of the hits they had taken, and the drifting husk of the Alliance warship they had destroyed, he saw the Phoenix Rises moving away from the continuing fight between the smaller ships in each fleet. "They're moving off."

"Can we get a comms link with Admiral Jansen?" Allison said.

"I'll try, sir Kassem said.

After a few moments the speakers on the bridge hissed with static and the sound of alarms similar to their own. "Allison--situation with--bomb." It was Jansen's voice, but the connection kept dropping.

"Keiko I can't hear you Allison called out. "What is it about a bomb?"

"Bomb damaged--must--safety." The connection cut out.

Allison swore and slammed his hand against the bulkhead. "Are there any ships still near the Edinburgh?"

"Looks like a group of hoppers, sir. Difficult to make out who."

"Is she worried a bomb might go off?" Chi-Young said, dreading the response.

"Why else would she fly off?"

Chi-Young didn't know, but if she had given them a stay of execution only to be pulled into the maw of a black hole instead, he didn't consider that a kindness.

"Admiral we're being pulled nearer the planet. We haven't got enough power to escape--we're crashing." Kassem worked frantically at her console to no avail.

"All right." The Admiral sighed. "Use what power we have to steady our descent. Try to get us down in one piece." He activated the ship's intercom. "All hands. This is the Admiral. Prepare for a crash landing--repeat, crash landing. The Mandrake is coming down on Caxis. You can use the escape pods but be advised there are still hostile forces operating in the area. Allison out."

"What now?" Chi-Young said.

"If that bomb goes off, even if we survive the landing on Caxis we'll be on borrowed time."

Chi-Young didn't respond. He walked over to take one last look at planet from orbit. It sat there, unaware of what horrors were about to be unleashed in the stars.

"Sir, the Edinburgh--I don't believe it, it's moving away through the lanes," Kaseem cried.

"Do you think Napia made it?" Chi-Young asked more in hope than anything.

"I know she did." Allison smiled. "We won."

But at what cost?

#

With their vantage point in the bridge of the Mandrake it was impossible to get a sense of how near the ground they were. Many of the external cameras were disabled or destroyed, the main viewport itself badly cracked, so all Chi-Young had to rely on was an altitude figure being shown on his console.

The number was dropping far to quick for his liking, but there was nothing they could do to slow down any further. He activated the ship's intercom. "All hands, this it the captain. Brace for impact. Repeat, brace for impact. We're coming in hard."

He looked to his left to see Admiral Allison strapping himself in. "It's been a pleasure serving with you, Chi."

"Likewise, sir. Though I hope this isn't the end." Their altitude continued to shoot downards on his screen.

"We'll find out soon enough."

The landing, if Chi-Young could call it that, was brutal. The Mandrake was flying with as shallow an angle of descent as they could manage so it didn't smash straight into the ground, but that meant the shaking, wrenching and screeching seemed to go on for an eternity. He kept his eyes firmly closed and gripped tightly to the armrests of his chair as hard as he could. The force of the deceleration kept him pressed against his restraints. With one final heave, the Mandrake came to rest.

For a moment there was stillness as everyone--and seemingly the Mandrake too--caught their breath. Allison was the first to speak. "Captain, organise officers to go floor to floor and check for injuries. Have the wounded taken to the infirmary, if it's in a fit state to take patients. I'll make sure our defences are secure--we'll need to map every hull breach to make sure we have an idea of where we'll come under pressure." Allison unclipped his restraints and went to check on the other officers on the bridge. "Come on people, we don't have long."

"Sir, forgive me--I don't understand," Chi-Young said.

"We've landed in a war zone. Caxis versus the Alliance. If the Alliance forces on the planet want to take the ship, this is the best chance they'll ever have."

"But the bomb?" Chi-Young scrambled to get himself out of the buckles to hurry after Allison.

"The bomb's detonated. That's problem number two, but for now the main thing is to survive today."

"Understood, sir." The Admiral was right. His urgency was infectious, rousing both him and the others on the bridge from their stunned stupors. Chi-Young turned to two officers at the rear of the bridge. "You two--with me. Let's go save our crew."