The Adventures of the H.M.S. Cosmos
"You ever feel like your on the wrong side? That sometimes your fighting, when there's no reason to be? I've just been feeling off lately, especially after we glassed that Engi planet. I dunno, I guess I'm just a rebel without a cause." Says Arron, one of the many crew members of the HMS Cosmos. It is a rebel ship, on it's first tour in Engi space.
"Yeah, I know the feel, but really we signed up, maybe not for this, but we signed up. Ever since the Feds started their campaign t-" Matt is interrupted by an explosion from the port-bow.
Arron and Matt quickly run to the armory and grab M52-Headhunter grade laser-rifles, and listen for an announcement over the alarm. 'Fires in deck 1, 4, and 7. All personnel please report to battle stations. Commander Catt, please report to the bridge.' states the robotic female voice the whole crew is oh so used to. Arron and Matt nod to each other before they sprint in opposite directions to their stations.
Seconds later, Arron is at his weapons position. Over his short-wave radio the commanders voice comes on. 'Arron, I need Artemis missiles online now! Enable full thrust, we need them to pass through the shields, warm up the laser cannons as well, have everything target their weapons! Transferring power to you now.' he tells Arron frantically. Arron abides and begins typing furiously on his terminal.
Nearby, Andy is trying desperately to maintain the shields as the Mantis ship prepares another volley of lasers. He knows if they get hit as hard as before, they're dead. 'Andy, get those god-damn shields up, put them on public frequency 22-187-349, they won't even look there if they try to hack us.' Again, commander Catt gives out orders to the crew, but something is wrong on the bridge, Andy can tell. He tries not to think about it and works.
Below decks, Matt finally gets to his station, he listens for orders. 'Matt, get the engines on full, I'm transmitting power to you from drones, these guys aren't using missiles. Be ready to jump if this get's to hairy, and tell your maintenance team to get to Miriam, she's at Oxygen.' Matt signals for his team to leave, he then points over at Mae to get the FTL drives ready. She nods and sprints to the gargantuan drive in the center of the large room, Mae flips switches and levers as fast as she can, and is rewarded by a large orange light emitting from the FTL drive.
Meanwhile, in Oxgen, Miriam attempts to extinguish a massive fire, but it won't give up. Even after the maintenance team arrives, it's a struggle, and just as it's about to go out, a large explosion happens under the floor, throwing her against a wall. 'Miriam? Miriam! Miriam pick up the freaking radio!' She does, disoriented still. 'Are you okay? Is the maintenance team there?' She is about to answer when another explosion destroys the Oxygen systems.
The blast doors suddenly lock and she, along with the rest of the maintenance team is trapped inside the room.
"Sir, it's Arron, missiles are on their way out now, lasers ready in 20 seconds, I had Andy run over to the sensors and run a scan, they're powering down weapons, and focusing on teleporter, just thought I'd let you reconsider." Arron spurts out extremely fast
"Copy that. Stand by!" The commander says.
On the bridge, there are multiple fires from the first attack. The Commander is directing the crew as well as he can, but he thinks he just doesn't have it in him!
"Sir, fires on all decks, maintenance crews are all focusing on oxygen. Requesting permission to open blast doors in Oxygen?" Lauren asks.
"Permission granted. Mae! Is that FTL drive ready?" The commander asks.
"It's dodgy sir, but yeah, I think I can do it." Mae replies, quickly grabbing her radio off the wall.
"Good. Now, Miriam, you ready to talk? Are you guys okay? Is the maintenance team there?" He asks, switching radio channels again.
"Not exactly sir, we have three dead." she says.
"Where are you?"
"On my way to medical, get a repair team down here, we're losing oxygen quick, especially with the hull breaches!" she says, limping as fast as she can to medical. "But sir... there's a lot of blood." she says, before her radio signal is lost.
"Get a med team down there, asap! Make sure she gets to the Med bay!." The commander continues.
"Sir, enemy lasers incoming!" Andy says.
Suddenly, a large explosion comes from the lower decks, and the commander checks his HUD. The FTL drive is destroyed! He is about to give out more orders when a crew of three Mantis beam onto the ship, quickly murdering many of the crew.
The commanders eyes widen, and a Mantis draws near. It is at least three feet taller than him. One of it's large legs come up, and it intends to come down and stab the commander. He quickly jumps out of the way, and looks around in the split second he has to observe. There is a large fire to the left side of the mostly bright white room. Nearby the fire, a computer flashes large red letters: "Intruders detected." He looks to the left of the fire, at the Mantis cruiser charging it's weapons once more out of the reinforced glass on the bridge. And then, to the left of the glass, there is the Mantis, searching for him. And just to the left of that, his friend, Kirk is trying to reach for a plasma pistol when a Mantis comes down, smashing his spine.
The commander looks up after his brief observation, and is picked up by a Mantis. It holds him by his neck, and brings up it's leg, and is about to stab him when something blows open the doors to the bridge. Arron and Matt! They take out their Headhunters, and immediately shoot one of the Mantis, killing it instantly. The other one, which is just to the right of the entrance to the bridge stops what it is doing and looks over at the two. It picks up Matt, by the neck, but Matt is quick enough to grab a knife from his pocket and stab it in the neck.
Blue goo gushes from the Mantis' neck, and it releases Matt. He quickly draws his laser pistol, and point it at it's head.
"Ugly mother-" He is interrupted by his weapon firing.
The Mantis holding up Commander Catt quickly drops him and stabs him, but it's aim is thrown off by Arron and Matt shooting at it's hardened shell. It missed the commander's heart, but hit's right in the shin of the commander. He screams out in pain. Matt drops his rifle, and takes out his knife once again. He walks slowly to the final Mantis, and looks at it right in the eye as he does it. Arron holds his rifle stable, incase it attacks.
Matt walks get's less than a foot away from the Mantis's face and says "I killed your friend. I killed him brutally. He died, and you watched it. Now I'm giving you a chance to live. Go back to your crew and tell them, that if they ever want to make a trap, there is one thing you never put in it, if you value your life, your continued existence, if you ever want to live to see another day, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap..." The mantis looks at him curiously. "Me."
Matt embeds his knife in the Mantis' neck.
The Mantis falls to the floor, not dead. Matt takes the Mantis' arms and puts them in a certain position over the wound. The Mantis let's out a sound of releif.
"You see? You hold it like that, and the pain goes away, and you live! Now, if you want to keep it that way, don't mess with the Rebels, because we're coming..."
The Mantis nods, and is teleported back to it's ship. Arron rushes over to the commander, and wraps up his leg in his jacket. A Medical team rushes in, and he wakes up the next day in the Med Bay...