Zero Gravity

by Jocson

As far as research groups go, the Research Flotilla named Indomitable was supposed to be as generic as they come. Everyone posted in such a group were usually placed in essentially dead end jobs. A sudden attack changes all of their lives, as the task of rebuilding humanity is left to them. And it wouldn't be easy, as war looms in the background. And war... war never changes.

1. Point Zero

ZERO GRAVITY

CHAPTER 1:

POINT ZERO

October 22, 2549 0621

CFV-102 UNSC Transcendent
Heimdall System
UNSC STRATRESREG
Research Flotilla Indomitable

"We found the substance around 40 kilometers deep in the moon's crust, roughly three hours ago. I only just received word from the ground team; Solar Flares are disrupting local communications, with the immense gravity well causing miniature earth quakes every half an hour or so. Scans show that in roughly two hours, volcanic activity on Thalus might make it impossible for a pickup of the research team on the ground."

"What's so important about this that you had to come find me yourself, Doctor? You could've just called, looks like a simple extraction op anyway."

Lisa's face adopted a look of concentration, adjusting the glasses on her face as she tapped away on the datapad in her hands. Illuminated by the glow of Thalus, the moon of the gas giant Xandaria, the bridge of the Transcendent was lit up with activity. Crewmen walked (with some lightly jogging) to one station or another, as the massive gravitational pulls from Xandaria put stress on the Transcendent's structure. The crew's efforts of maintaining the ship in constant orbit over Thalus was an affair that required the participation of everyone, AI included, every second of the tim

e that they spent there.

Captain Garland took a sip from his morning coffee, sitting down on the Captain's chair as the doctor followed him.

"Good morning Samuel." Garland said, logging into the Captain's Station terminal as the AI terminal beside him lit up with an orange light, the ship's onboard AI appearing. Dressed in a 17th Century British Naval Uniform, Samuel bowed lightly to Garland, his sailor cap pressed firmly on his chest as he greeted the Captain a good morning, doing the same to the doctor as the woman smiled lightly at her while handing Garland her data pad.

"Read." Lisa said, motioning to the data pad in Garland's hands.

The Captain flexed his fingers, placing the datapad on his desk.

"Samuel, load this to my terminal will you." He lightly commanded, handing the datapad back to the doctor as Samuel uttered a soft "Done, Captain" in his British drawl.

A beep emanated from Garland's terminal, prompting the man to open the file the doctor had just prepared.

"Okay, standard research procedures…well within safety protocols." He began, his eyes dancing down at the report. "Huh, non-stop 24-hour dig huh?" Garland inquired, spinning around to look at Lisa with a speculative gaze. "I'm going to assume your people took shifts, Doctor Morrow."

"Read on." She said, uncrossing her arms. "Had this been a simple extraction, I'd have deferred for the help of the other ships in the fleet. Unfortunately, we're running out of time and the Transcendent was the nearest ship."

Garland read on, his eyes widening with every second as he took in the report.

"What do you mean 'has no mass?' That's not possible? Is it? Are you sure the ground team didn't get their scans wrong?" Garland asked, standing up as he continued reading the report.

"Positive. Preliminary, secondary and then tertiary scans showed the substance we've found has a mass equal to zero." Lisa said, shaking her head to Samuel. "Bring up the charts."

A 3D hologram of the ground team's scans illuminated the bridge, momentarily catching every crewman's attention, before the urgency of their tasks took their time once more.

Garland looked up from the datapad, handing it back to the Doctor as he analyzed the charts. In his 10 years in the Navy, he had never seen anything like this new 'substance' the eggheads had found. The reports, while astounding and scientifically intriguing, were marred with very real concerns. It was not the substance's lack of mass that bothered him; it was its effect on technology. Its abnormal feature of having no mass seemed to be able to cover other objects as well, usually with explosive tendencies.

It was obvious that the research team wanted to bring back samples with them, but to do so meant risking an exposure of a dropship, and consequently, lives to the unknown substance.

The doctor moved forward unperturbed, unaware of Captain Garland's thoughts and worries.

"As you can see, the substance, which we've dubbed as Element Zero for now, seems to affect every other object around it. It's had adverse effects on our weaponry especially, causing various reactions within bullets. We were aware of the communications blackout that might occur, considering the solar flares," Lisa said, tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear, "But," she said dejectedly, "We've lost some lives due to unintended small arms fire due to the substance. Needless to say, we want to take some of the substance back for study."

Garland just nodded, crossing his hands behind him. "How many?" He asked.

Lisa looked down, quietly saying "Two from the security detail, and one scientist. Doctor Solus."

"Do you have any idea how to shield what we have against this substance?" Garland inquired, stating the question more to Samuel than Lisa.

Samuel stayed silent for a few moments, adopting a look of deep thinking as he paced back and forth, the sailor's cap he had still pressed on his chest.

"Well, I'd wager that the chemical resistant containers we currently have on board wouldn't work, considering the substance's radiation like features. Magma CR1 coated containers are also out. Interesting. Perhaps an empty Fusion Cell should be able to do the job." Samuel said, a light smile on his lips as he wore his sailor's cap.

Lisa nodded, rubbing her chin as the redheaded woman looked up to the holographic display.

"Yes, yes it might. It's designed to keep radiation from leaking."

Garland nodded happily. Sighing, he sat back down on the Captain's Chair, looking up at Samuel's holographic form.

"Do we have any?" He asked, and nodded with satisfaction at Samuel's curt 'yes.' "Good, then have engineering bring about six to the Docking Bay. Would six batteries be alright Doctor?"

"Yes, very." Lisa replied, typing furiously away at her datapad.

Garland raised an eyebrow at her, nodding as he looked back to Samuel. "Well, you heard the lady. Prep an extraction team. I want them ready within the hour."

Samuel saluted, declaring an 'At once, Captain' before disappearing from his holo projector.

"I should be going as well," said Lisa, walking away before Garland ever had the chance to dismiss her.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Garland turned back to the exterior view of the bridge, admiring Thalus' burning appearance. The many volcanoes erupting on the planet gave Thalus a look of a war ravaged terrestrial body rather than a habitable one.

The science team down there…'what had they found' he thought. A substance without mass, and that could affect everything around it. Damn. It was a dangerous gamble, and he knew he was risking the Transcendent and the lives of its crew. But they were short on time, and the other ships already had their hands full with the science teams they were assigned with.

Garland sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as the last five years caught up with him. He was turning 30 soon, and all in all, his career in the Navy wasn't much of waste. Captain of his own vessel at 25, and then another vessel at 28- a retrofitted Phoenix-Class Colony ship to boot- was already a major accomplishment in his life, and to be in command of a small fleet on top of what he already had just sweetened the deal for him.

Or it would have, had it been a combat fleet.

Instead, after a botched up extraction mission when he was 26, and a sling of publicly humiliating disregard for set tactics had put him in a position of handling a research flotilla- a dead end job.

It had its perks, like relative peace; but the soldier in him wanted to do more. He wanted to participate in the war against the Covenant, and being stuck in what was essentially a guard duty job of protecting scientists wasn't his idea of contributing to the cause.

The fact that they weren't making any groundbreaking, technological breakthroughs in the last year or so left a bad taste in every Marine, crewman, Captain and scientist in the fleet.

Still, they had orders. And in a case like today, Garland had orders to take anything that could help win the war and have the scientists study it extensively- regardless of the lives and safety of the ship or crew.

Something he didn't dare oppose, considering that ONI had invested into the research flotilla expecting success.

Garland massaged his temples, feeling a migraine coming up, loathing the fact that he had to deal with something like this really early in the morning.

He tapped a few commands into his console, allowing Samuel to take over for most of the crew's work. While he would have allowed Samuel to do almost the entirety of the crew's roles, he wanted a prepared and on their toes attitude from his crew.

The holographic display in front of him suddenly flashed the mission status screen into existence, as Samuel flashed back into reality on his holographic tank.

"Sir, extraction team's ready to launch on your command." He intoned, just as the profiles of the three members of the extraction team flashed into existence on the holographic display.

"Good, have them launch." Garland said, tapping his fingers on his armrest as he wished silently, that whatever the science team brought back would help him get a combat posting on one of the many ships engaging the Covenant.

"At once." Samuel replied, saluting again as his hologram disappeared, leaving Garland to the silence of the bridge as crewmen rested for a while, taking a break from the tedious task of maintaining the ship in orbit around Thalus against the gas giant's gravity well.

Pelican Dropship November-299
0700

Flight Captain Dallas Bryce liked down times. It allowed him to rest, lick his wounds if he had any, and contemplate on the things he had done right and wrong in his life. Today, October 22, a normal Tuesday like any other during the last two years, was supposed to be gym day to him. Like most, he was sick of the non-combat tasks they've been doing for the past two years, and he was restless. He wanted to help, to ferry soldiers to and from battlegrounds, not act as some sort of babysitter to these scientists.

Some of his conversations with crewmen from the Bridge indicated that Captain Garland felt the same. Who wouldn't? Covenant slaughter humans in droves and here we were, having a pointless existence in the middle of nowhere with no sign of success anywhere from any of the research teams on the many vessels in the damned flotilla.

So, when his name was called up to do an extraction op groundside on Thalus, he was ecstatic. Any excuse to do something on the ship was a good excuse. ONI preventing any sort of shore leave on any inhabited planet made many angry, including the captains on the ship. Add to the fact that no breakthroughs were happening (at least according to rumor) just added insult to injury.

And so, October 22, Tuesday, found him sitting in the pilot seat of his beloved Pelican. A heavy duty container with empty Fusion Battery Cells was loaded up on the aft overhang at the back of the dropship, with the extraction team, Zodiac-1, sitting quietly in the main compartment (though he favored the name Blood Ramp much better).

He put on his helmet, doing the customary checks for volume adjustments, mic checks and the like.

"UNSC Transcendent Dock Control, this is November-299, how copy?"

"This is Transcendent Dock Control, radio check confirmed. Commence flaps and thruster checks."

Bryce leaned forward, raising his hand above his head to reach out to flick the flap releases on.

"Lieutenant Howard, commence flap and thruster checks." He commanded, looking to his right, observing his co-pilot's actions.

"Checking flaps and thrusters." Howard said, and as if on cue, the mechanical whirrs and sounds of gushing compressed air echoed in the small cockpit, as the check commenced. Howard had leant to his right, observing the flaps under the right wing of the Pelican as Bryce followed suit to his left.

"Flaps and thruster checks complete. No system errors detected." Howard declared, adjusting the volume on his helmet as he pressed and flicked several buttons and switches on his dashboard.

"Confirmed November-299. General Advisory: Solar flares and seismic activity on Phalus might knock out communications with the Transcendent. Be advised that should anything happen down there, you're on your own."

Bryce stared at Howard, who merely shrugged, before he replied in earnest to the Transcendent Operator.

"We read you Dock Control. Coordinates on the research base show it's in the dark side of the moon. Confirm?"

"Confirmed. The gravity well of Xandaria shouldn't bother you down there."

Bryce nodded, bringing out a notepad as he wrote scribbled equations and notes on the little booklet. Howard merely observed, strapping himself into the chair as he watched Bryce nod in satisfaction, pocketing the small notepad in the breast pocket of his flight suit.

"We should have two more hours before the base hits sunrise, and the more ridiculous pull of the gravity well. Easy enough. You ready?" He asked, looking on inquisitively at Howard, who merely nodded back.

Turning on the onboard Comms System, he repeated the question to the extraction team, merely getting the 'okay' hand gestures as the loud whirrs of the engines drowned out their shouts.

Securing himself into the seat one last time, Bryce turned to the dashboard in front of him, gripping the Pilot's stick as he opened the comms channel to the Dock Controller once more.

"Dock Control, this is November-299 requesting for detachment, clearance code Sierra 2-1-4 Foxtrot how copy?"

"Clearance code received. Detachment confirmed, you are green for takeoff. Good hunting."

Bryce leaned forward, flicking the switch to detach the Pelican from the Magnetic Railing, letting the dropship float on the power of its own engines. All four whirred in power, lifting the Pelican and its payload into the air as the 'Blood Ramp' closed.

"Bring her out Lieutenant." Bryce commanded, transferring control of the Pelican to Howard. "Stick is yours."

"Stick is mine," Howard intoned, before pushing the dropship forward and out of the docking bay and into the milky blackness of space.

Every time they did this, Bryce couldn't help but be left in awe of what humanity had achieved in the entirety of its existence. From their cradle that was Earth, they had blasted forward and into the future, exploring space. The scene before him was astounding, as the small dropship neared Phalus, the moon, the large rings of what he could only assume were small rocks that circled the gas giant Xandaria peaked out from the corners of Phalus' dark silhouette. It extended beyond the horizon, with the large body of Xandaria simply dwarfing the smaller Phalus, its rings prominently displayed.

"Beautiful…" Bryce muttered to himself, rejoicing internally in the fact that he was born in this time period, a time of exploration and discovery.

Too bad the Covenant and the Insurrectionists had to muck the thrilling time period up.

Howard himself was quietly observing the scenery in front of him, drinking in the sight that not everyone had the chance to see.

The door to the cockpit opened up, revealing the tall and large frame of Corporal Vega, the leader of Zodiac-1.

"Progress?" He asked, his voice gargled up by the speakers from his environment suit, which was a must considering the deadly environment they were asked to operate in.

Bryce turned on the holoprojector beside him, tapping at his keyboard. A second later, a 3d map of their target location appeared, an x marking the current position of their dropship flicking into existence a good distance on top of the target.

"We're…three, make that five minutes out Corporal. We're starting to get static on the comms, so if you want to make a phone home to the Transcendent, now would be the time." Bryce reported, flicking another switch to release some pressure that had built up within the left wing of the Pelican.

"No need. Keep the scanners on for any seismic activity that might spring up, will you?" Vega asked, tapping Bryce on the soldier, and if the man had to guess, the Corporal was smiling stupidly inside his helmet.

Bryce and Vega had grown up together, both being Earth-born, and had enlisted together when they became of age, both eager to earn glory against the Covenant. Where the other went to the Marines, and the other to the Naval Air Wing, both couldn't imagine that they'd end up working with each other many years on down the line.

Both of course, were bitter that they were in a research flotilla in what were essentially guard duties.

And both hated it.

"Standard operating procedure Corporal. Don't get your panties up in a bunch." Bryce said, chuckling as fist bumbed with his old friend. "Didn't know you were aboard the Transcendent." He said.

Vega crossed his arms, his mask hiding the facial expressions he was, unknowingly, displaying.

"Didn't know you were aboard either." He said curtly, before tapping Bryce's shoulder once more. "I'll give you a drink later, I need to brief my men."

Bryce nodded, not bothering to reply as he adjusted the comms system of the dropship, hoping to get a clear line to the Transcendent through the interference from the solar flare.

"You knew Corporal Vega?" Howard asked, disbelievingly.

Bryce chuckled, looking at the man with a humored expression.

"Yeah, we grew up together. That man's harmless as a fly."

Howard shook his head, guiding the dropship into the atmosphere of Thalus, easing the stress on the ship's frame as the exterior panels heated up.

"Harmless?" He said exasperatedly. "Tell that to the Covenant he helped wipe out. Short of the Spartans, he's the next in line on the human superhero list." He announced excitedly. "That man's a legend." Howard said, smiling widely at Bryce.

Bryce laughed out loud, shaking his head as he watched the holographic display of their ship coming closer to the target location.

"What, you want an autograph?" He asked, sweat starting to dance down his face as the heat of the Volcanic activities on Thalus started to make its presence known within the small dropship.

Howard's face took on a look of disgust, waving his hand dismissively as he turned on the A/C.

"No, God no. I was just asking. Now I feel a bit safer having him and his team on my back." He said, gently gliding the dropship nearer to their objective.

"Why's that?" Bryce asked.

"Seven hundred confirmed Covenant kills? Yeah, safer."

Bridge of the UNSC Transcendent
0720

"Status?" Garland asked, looking up at the hologram of Samuel as it burst into life.

"The extraction team's dropship just made reentry. We've lost track of them, due to the solar flare. Last contact was roughly two minutes ago. Small bursts of incomplete communications are continuously being fed through the comms, what we've pieced together shows that the evacuation of the research outpost is fully underway. No ETA yet on their return." Samuel reported, his orange light disappearing once more as his holographic display shut down.

"Alright, have the docking bay prep to receive for any injuries." Garland said, standing up from his Captain's Chair as he walked towards the front of the bridge, where the ship's two pilots, Lieutenant Susan Cortez and Lieutenant Mibah Dumisani, sat quietly on their seats.

"And get me Doctor Morrow." Garland commanded, crossing his hands behind his back. A stern expression fell on his face, as he looked out into the exterior of the ship, watching sunlight slowly creep into the dark side of Phalus.

A holographic display of a life sized Doctor Morrow burst to life beside him, and Garland could not help but wince at the inquisitive (and slightly angry) look on the Doctor's face.

Must have been in the middle of something. Garland thought, greeting the doctor with a smile nonetheless.

"Doctor." He said.

Morrow for her part crossed her hands in front of her, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, Captain? I was in the middle of preparing the housing for Element Zero when Samuel just came bursting in." she said.

"Sorry," Garland said, a pleading look appearing on his face, "but I need you to send me a complete run down of what we have on this thing once it gets on board. I don't want any surprises."

"Of course." The doctor replied, although a tinge of sarcasm dripped in her sentence, and Garland couldn't help but smile at the courage of the doctor.

"Good, then. Garland out." He said, prompting Samuel to shut off the holographic display of the doctor. "God I hate her." He quietly said, sighing as he went back to his seat.

Samuel appeared next to him, an inquisitive look on his face.

"She's just doing her job, and you hate her?" Samuel inquired.

Garland shook his head at the AI, looking at it challengingly.

"She plays with her toys, Samuel. You want to go fondle her breast then that's fine. I just ordered an entire crew around to keep us in orbit without breaking a sweat. That's work Samuel." Garland declared, quietly enough so that none of the crew could hear.

Samuel shook his head, a small chuckle escaping from him. "I'll never understand you're kind's addiction to a mammary gland that secretes nutritional sustenance, an addiction that warrants it to be on the tail end of bad verbal communications that suggest its use in anything other than feeding," he declared. "Simply ridiculous."

Garland had to chuckle at that one, typing into his terminal as he replied to Samuel, "that was a joke, you know."

Samuel merely shook his head, before his display disappeared, leaving Garland to type his data log to his terminal, describing the current predicament they found themselves in.

November-299

"And…we're down. Opening hatch, Zodiac-1 we got ten minutes to get out of here, so get these eggheads packed and ready to go." Bryce said, locking the dropship's landing gear in place. Ash covered the ground in soot, and the heat was too much for even the ships' air-conditioning system to handle.

"Nothing to do now but wait then." Howard declared, lifting his visor to reveal his clear, brown eyes. He pressed several buttons, and the environmental scanner on board the Pelican buzzed to life, beeping quietly as it analyzed the air outside.

"Damn," Howard began, wiping sweat from his face, "I can't get a clear reading out there. Something's messing up with the scanners. It must be over a hundred degrees with this heat."

"November-299, we have the scientists packed and ready for exfil. Moving to grab the container now."

"Alright Zodiac-1, we're bringing the container down in…3…2…1…down!"

Bryce flicked the switch to release the magnetic clamps off, and all they got for confirmation that the container was down was the soft thump it made when it hit the ground.

"Got it, thanks."

Bridge of the UNSC Transcendent

"Captain Garland?"

Garland looked up from terminal, taking sight of the young Lieutenant in front of him. Ditko as his name tag suggested gave a curt nod to him as Garland motioned for him to come forward, a datapad in his hands.

"Lieutenant." Garland said in greeting, taking the offered datapad from the young man.

"Sir," he replied, "something just triggered an alarm from the firewalls Samuel built. I don't know what it is, but it entered our systems two minutes ago." He said, the urgency in his voice evident by the way he looked at Garland with a serious expression on his face.

"What? Why haven't you informed me of this earlier." Garland demanded; worry starting to rise up within him.

Ditko shook his head in response, pointing at the datapad in the Captain's hands. "The alarm just got triggered a moment ago Captain, and I came to you as soon as I took notice of it."

Samuel's holographic display came to life, and Garland took notice of the disturbed expression the AI was displaying. It took a lot to disturb an AI, and for Samuel to display such an expression so freely, meant trouble.

"I'm sorry Captain, I wasn't able to take notice of this alarm sooner. Something seems to be locking me out of system alerts." He said quickly, moving his hands to massage his temples as he stared wide eyed at nothing in particular.

"Damn it. Is it in any essential systems?" Garland growled, standing up from his seat. "Go back to your station Lieutenant, thank you." He said, prompting Ditko to walk away.

Samuel's face scrunched up in concentration, before shaking his head quickly. "Not that I could tell with 100% certainty Captain. It appears to be a virus, but I do not have any idea where it came fro- agh!"

The Smart AI's scream echoed in the bridge, and everyone turned to look at Samuel's holographic form go down to its knees, clutching his head.

"Samuel?" Garland asked, leaning down to the shipboard AI's holographic housing, where Samuel's AI chip was stored.

Samuel grunted in pain, his orange hologram flashing red at times as he went back up to his feet, stumbling like a drunken man as echoes of pain emanated from him.

"It's…trying to…agh! MY PROCESSOR! Take my…chip…out…CAPTAIN!"

Garland immediately took the AI's chip out, regulations be damned, as the klaxons on the bridge suddenly burst to life, alarming the crew.

"Captain!" Lieutenant Ditko once again said, eyes wide open as he stared at the monitors of the weapons station. "We have unauthorized access on weapons systems! Archer Pods A-1 to Z-10 are heating up! Sir," he looked up to the Captain with scared eyes. "Shiva missiles are heating up."

Garland was shocked into silence, as the crewmen surrounding him all panicked as they ran from terminal to terminal. The ship began moving forward, into the gravity well of Xandaria as Samuel's control of the system suddenly dropped. The Captain looked at the AI Chip, it's orange glow pulsating. Whatever was in the system, it appeared to be able to overpower Samuel.

He could not risk losing the AI.

With a fire in his eyes, Garland looked up, walking forward as he stared at the crewmen before him.

"BATTLE STATIONS! GET A FLEET WIDE EMERGENCY BROADCAST GOING! WE'RE UNDER CYBERNETIC ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN ENEMY! MOVE THE FLOTILLA AWAY FROM THE TRANSCENDENT!"

"Captain! Communication Systems are down!" A crewman declared.

"Damn it!" Garland uttered, "What about back channels? Emergency frequencies?"

"Trying to get a message out now sir!"

"Captain! We got a comms line to the extraction team. They're loading the package in now."

Garland growled, pacing as a migraine began making itself well known in his head. "Good. Order them to get back now, package or no package. I want them back to the ship!"

"Aye aye Captain!" the crewman replied back.

"CAPTAIN! MISSILE LAUNCH FROM THE FLEET! WE HAVE MISSILE LAUNCH FROM THE FLEET!"

"AT WHAT TARGET?" Garland demanded, his eyes wide as he awaited Lieutenant Ditko's answer.

Something he regretted asking.

"XANDARIA!"

November-299

Bryce pushed on the accelerator, pushing the dropship into high speeds as they raced back to the Transcendent, thrusters whirring in strain as they pushed past the safety limits of the tiny craft.

"ETA to the Transcendent, two minutes." Howard declared, the beads of sweat now openly falling down his face.

"God damn it I can't get the Transcendent on the line! Comms are knocked out." Bryce said, frustration on his face as he watched on one of the many panels on his dashboard the various systems on the Transcendent going down.

And the weapons systems powering up.

An alarm suddenly came to life, and both Bryce and Howard watched in fear as the entire Research Flotilla fired their weapons, hundreds of thousands of missiles leaving their housings as they lanced towards the Transcendent.

"What the hell?" Bryce reacted, watching the collection of missiles hurtle towards the lone UNSC ship above Phalus. "Are they targeting the Transcendent?" He asked.

"Negative!" Howard exclaimed, the dropship nearing one of the many Docking Bays of the Transcendent. "The missiles are going to overshoot it! They're targeting Xandaria!"

Bridge of the Transcendent

"MOVE US OUT OF XANDARIA'S GRAVITY WELL!"

"I'm trying sir! Whatever's in the system is locking me out!" Lieutenant Cortez replied, and as if to punctuate her remark, the sound of stressed metal echoed all around them as the Transcendent attempted to do a complete 180 degree turn to try and face the Flotilla, not an easy task with a ship as big as the retrofitted Colony ship that the Transcendent was. "I've got it!" She declared, klaxons blaring as a warning to the crew.

The ship's frame wasn't handling the stress put on it properly.

"Captain! I've got the extraction team on our sensors, but I can't establish contact." A lieutenant to Garland's left said, his face drenched in sweat.

"Open bay doors and keep them open until their inside!" Garland replied. "Cortez! Dumisani! Have you got control of the ship!"

"Aye aye Captain!" Dumisani replied, his jumpsuit drenched in his sweat. "Engineering's completely isolated their system. Engines are ours! Putting them at full go!"

"Get us out of here Dumisani!" Garland said, his knuckles white as he gripped on the railings to keep himself upright as the ship jolted forward, exactly the same time as a Lieutenant informed him that the extraction team had arrived.

The Transcendent, all two and a half kilometers of it, turned far too quickly than it was designed to do, nearly shearing the ship in half as it maneuvered itself to face the flotilla. Fires and immediate depressurization within some of its sections could be seen from the outside of the ship, the lights illuminating the ship's name on its side quickly dying out as system failures continued to rack the ship.

It's 'quadruplets' of D77 Fusion Engines blared into life as it pushed the Transcendent forward, trying to escape Xandaria's gravity well before the thousands of missiles launched by the flotilla reached the gas giant. The movement was slow, as the gravity well dragged the ship down as if it weighed more than it actually did.

But escape the gravity well it did, as the Transcendent, black and gray from the explosions, sped away with all its might from the gas giant, just as the thousands of missiles impacted with Xandaria.

The explosion turned the giant momentarily into a sun, the heat and brightness of which nearly blinding the many crewmen and Captains who watched the gas giant explode. Sun screens had to be drawn down (though it helped very little) as Xandaria exploded outwards, and everyone in the Flotilla figured this to be their death. The unknown cybernetic attack prevented emergency Slipspace Jumps, and for many, they could only watch in defeat as the newly born sun grew outwards, first consuming its own ring, before quickly catching up the planet Phalus.

"Emergency Slipspace jump now!" Garland demanded, the Transcendent rocking and shaking as the panels at the aft portion of the ship started to heat up, Xandaria's newly created- and expanding- molten surface quickly catching up to it.

"Slipspace drive systems are down Captain! We can't jump!" Lieutenant Cortez declared, piloting the ship faster forward in an attempt to escape Xandaria's outward growth.

"Reset the systems damn it!" Garland growled, holding on to the railing for dear life.

"Captain, Xandaria's expansion just passed the second planet in the system. Next one up is Phalus. We need to escape now, sir!" Ditko said, wide eyed as he was as he tried gripped onto his station railings.

"Sir! The entire Flotilla's engines and Slipspace drives are down!"

What? What the fuck's happening? Garland thought to himself, unable to muster up a thought as he watched the flotilla's silhouettes become larger and larger as the Transcendent neared them.

Xandaria's outward growth had now come upon Phalus, and in a single second consumed the volcanic planet.

And then it happened.

Everyone from the Flotilla, to the crewmen on board the Transcendent, watched as Xandaria consumed Phalus in flames, the planet disappearing within the newly born sun. The 'substance' the scientists had found, locked deep within the crust of the planet, interacted with the indomitable heat of Xandaria. Where the planet Phalus had entered the boiling hot surface of the gas giant, an electric blue pulse suddenly came to life. It pulsed three times before Xandaria's outwards growth came to a halt.

The new sun, as rapidly as it expanded, contracted on itself, its light still shining bright as it became a highly condensed blue ball of light…all before exploding outwards once more. The expansion of the electric blue pulse of light was far faster than the earlier explosion, catching the Transcendent, and the Flotilla, within it.

And just like that, where the Heimdall System had once been, now lay an empty space.