Greetings to he or she who enters here. I recently re-watched a load of Shadow Raider episodes and they sparked enough nostalgia in me to encourage this here fan fic. It's set a little after the end of the second series. I hope you enjoy if you choose to read.
Blood, Rock and Tears
By Richard Paul
Prologue
Planet Blood: On Doomsday
"Colonel Mitral, your wing is cleared to launch."
The five Bloodclaw fighters shot forth from the Heartfire's launch bay. Without so much as a status report, the ships charged towards the encroaching tide of Beast drones bearing down on their world. Beyond them, the circle of pure darkness that was coming to consume the homeworld was creeping ever closer.
"My wing, assume wide formation." She said, "When we get there kill as many of them as you can and fight until your blood is spent."
"Understood Colonel." Captain Cava replied. The rest of her wing chimed in with their own half hearted acknowledgements. They all knew the mission. Hold the Beast back until the evacuation transports had escaped through the Elder's Gateway. It was difficult to care about any last minute particulars.
"One minute to weapons' range." Her fighter's computer announced.
In her rear-view display, Mitral spared one final glance for the crimson seas and blue islands of her home. Over ten thousand years of history resided in that one proud world. Now it was doomed to be swallowed whole, like planets Repitzar and Grass before it.
The forces of both those worlds had fought valiantly against the Great Devourer, but both had been helpless to save their planets from oblivion, but at least some of their people had been able to make it through the gate, scattered to some area of the galaxy where they might just be able to start again on new worlds.
Now the same was happening to them. Twelve evacuation ships would carry their people through the gate in pairs, where they would be scattered throughout the cosmos,. Their homeworld and heritage would be gone; but they would be alive and one day they would reunite, and then a new, mighty Blood Empire would seek out this Beast World and exact the vengeance they owed it.
"Thirty seconds to weapon's range."
"It was an honour to fly under you Colonel." Lieutenant Diox's voice said over the com system.
"The honour was mine Lieutenant." She replied, "That goes for all of you. Now enough sentimental foolishness. We're almost in range. Break and attack!"
In her HUD, Mitral could see a vast swarm of Blood and Beast fighters tearing each other to pieces. Her targeting computer automatically selected the nearest enemy ship and she swung her fighter around to face it.
"Weapon's range achieved." The computer announced.
That was all she needed to hear, with a click of the fire button, her three wing mounted cannons came to life, and the Beast drone vanished in an implosion of Null energy.
That was the only easy kill she would manage. Now that they had joined the fray, the Beast had begun to take notice of them.
Two beast drones made their way behind the five new Bloodclaws and opened fire on the closest of them. The first shots caught the pilot unaware and tore the wing of his fighter clean off. He had barely enough time to part with a final curse before the follow up shot annihilated him.
One green light on Mitral's wing-status display blinked out, informing her that Flight Lieutenant Amino was gone.
Snarling her anger, she flung herself at the nearest beast drone, unloading one shot after another into its hull. It soon went down, but another two tore through their imploding comrade and fired at Mitral's vessel.
With a heavy pull on her flight control stick she pulled her fighter upwards and away from the incoming fire. The sheer density of battling ships however meant that some vigorous turns and dives were required to avoid colliding with anyone else.
"This is Lieutenant Diox, my engines are hit! I've got three on my six, I need…"
A static hiss replaced his face, and another light blinked out on the wing-status display.
"Keep at it people." She said to her surviving wing mates, "We need to hold them here as long as we can."
As she spoke, she was treated to the sight of a beast corvette exploding. It was a nice reminder that her people were still in the fight.
"This is Aorta control." Another voice said over the com unit, "Evacuation transports one and two have made it through the Elder Gate."
That meant some of her people would survive at least, but there were at least twelve more evacuation transports still en route to the Gate. Then of course there were those left behind, people like her mother who weren't lucky enough to be chosen in the lottery.
She pushed the thought from her mind. This was not the time.
It seemed she hadn't lost her pursuers. The two beast drones on her tail unleashed a fresh salvo, one shot of which grazed her fuselage.
"Warning," The computer stated, "Massive Null energy build up detected from the direction of the Beast planet."
"Not now computer!"
Mitral brought her ship to a complete stop, as much to avoid slamming into another Bloodclaw than to evade her pursuers. The two drones swung gracefully overhead. One veered safely away to starboard, she stayed with the other one. Her first salvo was a fraction too low, the second however quite literally ripped the Beast drone from the face of existence.
"Warning. Incoming Null energy stream, recommend immediate evasive manoeuvres."
"What? Onscreen."
An image of said 'Null energy stream' showed itself in the display by Mitral's right knee. What she saw made her three hearts each skip a beat.
The weapon discharge from the Beast planet had to be as large as Blood's second moon. If that wasn't disturbing enough, it was also heading straight for her.
"By the Heartlord's pulse." She muttered in shock, before her brain snapped out of its trance and she wisely pulled away from the incoming fire.
By now, all the surviving Blood pilots had seen this and were also trying to evade. With so many ships packed so tightly together though, many succeeded only in crashing into one of their fellows or into a Beast drone. Others that didn't crash were being shot down by the now unmolested Beast drones.
"My cockpit's hit! I'm breaking up! I'm…"
Another light vanished from the wing-status display. There was now only Captain Cava and Mitral left from their wing.
The Null stream moved with impossible speed. Soon it was impossible to evade it as the shockwave it produced in its wake simply tossed aside what ships it didn't consume. Blood and Beast fighters were snatched in its maw as it tore through the battle zone. Others were ripped apart by the sheer force of the gravimetric sheer that followed it.
Mitral's ship was tossed clear, the concussion from the shockwave caused consoles to explode all around her. Her body shook and thrashed with her wayward spinning fighter. Once the computer had steadied her, it took her almost a minute to regain her composure.
"Ev…Ev…Ev…Ev…Ev…" The computer had taken damage along with every other ship's system by the look of things. Whatever status report it was trying to convey was blocked by one too many fried circuits.
"Computer." Mitral groaned as the newfound aches in her limbs protested against her trying to access her fighter's controls, "switch to tertiary control circuits."
"Ev…swwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeriiiiiiiii… control circuits switched. Evacuation transports three through to twelve have been destroyed by the Null wave. The Elder Gate has suffered critical damage. Portal is destabilising."
For a few moments, it was all Mitral could do to stare at the stars outside her HUD and try not to think. 10,000 people had just been wiped out by the Beast planet in a single assault. The hope of her world had been all but destroyed, and her world itself…
With what strength she had left she forced herself to focus on the situation at hand.
"Attention all remaining Bloodclaws," she said into her crackling com unit, "this is Colonel Mitral of Deltoid squadron. Anyone who's still alive report in."
As each agonising second passed, silence was her only answer. Her com unit was still operational, barely, so anyone who could respond would be able to get through to her.
She couldn't be the only one left alive could she?
If her radar was still working then she would have looked for survivors. She was about to fly back to the former battle zone and try and pick some out with her eyes, only to hear General Oris of the Flagship Heartfire's voice over the com unit.
"Attention all remaining fighters." He sounded utterly crushed, and he made no attempt to hide it. "We have failed. With any luck the two evac transports we sent off will be able to find somewhere to rebuild, but…" He trailed off with a sigh.
But our world is still doomed. Mitral finished for him.
"Anyway. If any of you can still fly, get through the Elder Gate now before it blows. We're going to try and ram the Beast planet. Maybe that will be enough."
No chance. The people of Repitzar had flung two moon sized asteroids at the Beast planet and neither of them had made a dent, one battleship wasn't going to make any difference.
"General", she said into her com unit, hoping to dissuade him from this mad plan, but that one word was as far as she got before the com system fizzled out utterly.
"Damn it!" She shouted, punching the useless equipment in her frustration, achieving nothing for her efforts save for a stinging hand.
With her radar down, she'd have to find the Elder Gate on her own. To do that, she had to find her soon-to-be-eaten homeworld in her viewscreen and fly towards it. The Gate was not far from there.
Finding her world was easy enough. Though the flight back to her homeworld was not a short one. Mitral tried very hard not to look upon the beautiful reds of her homeworld as they grew ever closer in her HUD and then finally vanished behind her. Never to be seen again.
The Gate she found not long afterwards. It looked in even worse shape than she had feared. One of the three spiked power relays had been cut clean off, electrical discharges were breaking out everywhere and the portal itself was flickering on and off like a defective light bulb.
As she sped towards it, the familiar colours of Beast weapons' fire shot overhead. One tenacious survivor of their own planet's attack had come after her. Her ship was in no shape for a fight, no matter how much she wanted to punish these wretched creatures. Killing one beast drone though wouldn't save her world; what was important now was that as many Bloodkind as possible survived.
Making what evasive manoeuvres she could, Mitral continued to speed towards the flickering gateway. She hoped that the portal wouldn't have shifted itself to another random part of the galaxy already, and that she would emerge in the presence of the other evac ships, but this ancient alien technology was fickle at the best of times. Assuming she even survived the trip, Heartlord only knew where she would end up.
The Beast drone ultimately failed to land any hits, and Mitral's flame-trailing fighter vanished down the mouth of the alien abyss. Her last sight of her home system was of the Beast planet in her rear view display. It had made its way to her world with remarkable speed. The Heartfire, she thought, must have failed.
It looked like it was opening. A red glow emerged from the obsidian world. It was so similar and yet so utterly different from the crimson tides of her home.
It was a glow she would see again before too long.
To be Continued