Another chapter and another disclaimer. I don't own anything. Not
even the original idea of the Halo crossover. All plaudits for that idea
go to Bombsquad. This story, however, is my idea, but please note that
this may or may not have any correlation with Bombsquad's series. It's up
to him to decide that.
Warning: It's going to get slightly messy...
&&&&&&
Captain Idaho ran up to the secondary command, stumbling slightly with every sudden shudder of the ship. There was a loud crash, followed by another, than another. Always getting louder, getting louder, getting closer!
There was a brief flash of blue and a wall ahead of him erupted into flame. His hand flew to his shield-belt, activating it. He felt the slight tingling sensation over his body and his surroundings grew slightly muted and blurred, a disadvantage, but one he would need to accept for now.
Blue fire erupted around him, but his shield repelled it easily. 'The shield turns the fast blow', he thought thankfully, 'admits the slow kindjal.' Another flurry of fire went past him harmlessly. He drew his sabre and leapt through the breach.
A large creature stood over him, bellowing in an unknown tongue. It flung its weapon down at his head, but far too quickly. It pressed against the shield, then was flung away by the Holtzman generator. The creature looked faintly bemused, and paused. Idaho dodged behind the creature, and stabbed slowly at its exposed back. A blue-green shell erupted around it, and it yelled in presumable anger. It turned again, but Idaho moved with it.
A sudden flash, the blue shielding was gone from the creature. It bellowed angrily, until Idaho's sabre neatly decapitated it. Blood spurted from the stump with the pressure, and the body collapsed. Idaho looked at the corridor. The shield he was wearing made the outside world hazy and indistinct... his hand flew to the shield-belt again, deactivating it.
Around him was chaos. Gunfire, erratic and spontaneous came from all around him, screams, both human and alien sounded throughout the ship. He held his weapon at the ready, and ran down the corridor, one hand at his shield, looking for a means to communicate with the remainder of the troops.
&&&&&&
Byrnes yelled in sudden fear as a wave of heat passed over his head. Pardee shoved him down to the ground, firing his weapon simultaneously. Shell casings fell to the deck like a smoking, copper rain. A creature ahead cried, and fell over, quite dead.
"Look sharp, mate." Pardee said, pulling Byrnes to his feet. "I can't look out for you all the time." Byrnes nodded, terror robbing him of speech.
"Men!" The sergeant yelled over the sound of battle. "We are going to move to the main mess hall! There we shall be able to erect a suitable defence and keep these creatures off of us!" Another explosion caused the entire ship to lurch, and all the conscripts stumbled.
"Yeah, we'll be able to keep these creatures off of us..." Pardee muttered, reloading his rifle. "...Right up until the point they destroy the entire ship..."
"What do you mean?" Byrnes asked. "They can't destroy a Heighliner, that's just not possible."
Pardee shrugged. "Less than an hour ago I thought monsters didn't exist. Now..." he trailed off, and started to follow the sergeant. Byrnes stared at the corridor apprehensively, and winced when another explosion wracked the vessel.
As the conscripts passed the alien's dead body, Pardee picked up the device it was using. He held it up to his face, wrapping his fingers around the trigger-guard.
"Pardee, get your damnfool hands off of that device before you kill us all." The sergeant yelled at him. Pardee shrugged and made as if to throw the device away. Byrnes saw, just as the device was at his Pardee's fingertips, it slide beneath his shirt's wrist guard. Pardee caught his eye, then winked. There was another explosion, and the ship shook violently.
&&&&&&
Idaho leapt up the stairway. There was a brief spate of gunfire, and bullets embedded into the wall above his head. He ducked and rolled, shouting out who he was. He peered back at the place where the gunfire came from. A conscript looked back at him, then shrugged apologetically.
"Soldier!" Idaho yelled, walking briskly towards him, "what is going on here? I find myself trying to get to the command centre, which is normal, but I have to fight off reptilian monsters, which is not."
"Unclear, Captain!" The man yelled, holding his rifle in the upright position. "We appear to have unauthorized personnel on the Heighliner, attempting to capture or destroy it!"
"What is the Navigator doing?" Idaho barked, looking at the few working terminals in the secondary command.
"Unclear, Captain! One of the first places the alien weapons hit was the Navigator's helm. It is suspected that he has been killed."
Idaho chewed his lower lip as he looked through the ship's inventory using one of the terminals. He looked at a cross section of the ship, marking down where the aliens were and where the rest of his men were.
"Give me operation of the tannoy!" He yelled at one of the remaining guildsmen. "I have an announcement to make to the remainder of the people onboard."
&&&&&&
The tannoy crackled over Byrnes head, causing him to nearly die of fright, again. "This is Captain Idaho!" It barked. "To all remaining personnel on board this Heighliner, make your way to the lower launching bays, and board the crushers for which will be set for planetary landing. I repeat, abandon the ship using the crushers found in the lower launching bays!"
Pardee laughed inanely, firing at the creatures with his rifle. "What, leave before the party's even begun? Where's the fun in that?"
"Stow that shit, Pardee!" The sergeant yelled. He then turned to the rest of the troops. "Alright, ladies, you heard the man! Change of plans! We're to head to the lower launching bays! If we are separated, that is where we are to head. Do you get me?"
"Sir, yes sir!" The soldiers yelled, though not in chorus. A burst of plasma cut down one conscript, burning the top of his head off. No blood emitted from the wound as it was immediately cauterised. Pardee yelled in anger, and drew out the alien device, firing it back at the vile creatures. Byrnes accompanied him with his rifle.
The rifle pushed into his shoulder with each bullet fired off. He felt casings bounce off of his foot and hit the floor with merry jingling sounds. Waves of heat passed his face as Pardee fired his new weapon at the enemy, his face grinning as one in a bloodlust.
The firing pin clicked against an empty space. Byrnes reached for an extra clip, but his fingers brushed through only air. "I'm out!" He yelled, dropping his gun to the floor, and drawing his side-arm. "We need to retreat!"
"Oh, come on..." Pardee muttered, licking his lips. "Let's stay a little longer..."
Byrnes pulled him away from the door, narrowly avoiding a flurry of plasma. "Forget them! We need to leave, right now!" Pardee shrugged apologetically, then pulled a grenade from his chest armour. "We'll need to give them a little going-away present, though..." he pulled the pin, then threw the awkward cylinder down the hall. A sudden crack announced its detonation, and Byrnes heard the cries of the wounded aliens down the corridor. 'The gift is the blessing of the giver', he quoted in his mind, then realised the irony.
&&&&&&
At the lower launching bay, complete pandemonium was breaking out. People were running for their lives, cowering in static crushers, while the Covenant fired upon the drop-ships. Some managed to launch themselves from the ship, flying to the Halo nearby. Most of them exploded at the plasma fire burned through their hulls.
A squad of grunts were at the south entrance, their guns firing off in an unholy chorus, their fiery payloads burning flesh and conflagrating armour. The leader threw a plasma grenade at the infidels and watched with unsurpassed glee as it stuck to one of the heretic's legs. He ran around, screaming for a few seconds, then it exploded, blasting him apart, his entrails vaporising before they reached a wall.
The grunts began firing at the exposed humans again, their fire reaping them easily. Tulkanussan yelled in victory as another human soldier toppled from a gantry onto the hard metal floor many stories below. The Gods would be grateful today!
A brief thud distracted him, and he peered down at the deck to his right. A large cylinder, hissing faintly, was rolling about. He stared at it, then realised what it was. He screamed a warning, leaping over the hastily constructed barricade. An explosion pressed him mercilessly into the ground, then the deck flung away from, him, then flew back, hitting his face violently.
He rolled over, faintly stunned and watched as more humans rushed in from behind his position. Their boots rattled past him. They thought him to be dead! Well, he wasn't yet, God willing. He reached for another grenade, then felt a shadow fall over him.
Another human was there, but unlike the other humans, he had no armour and no gun, only a sword. A faint shimmer surrounded his body, making him seem as if he was almost a mirage. Tulkanussan saw him point the sword at his head.
Idaho stabbed the creature in the head, ending its life suddenly. He looked up at the bay ahead of him, and sighed. "Men!" He screamed over the gunfire. "Position yourselves around alien blockades! Provide covering fire! Allow the ship personnel to board first, then we move out!" Some soldiers heard him, but most missed his words, and were still panicking. Idaho sighed, then ran over to the nearest skirmish, holding his sabre out behind him. It was going to be a long and hard-fought fight...
&&&&&&
Pardee flung a grenade down the corridor, and waited for it to explode. When the noise died down, he strolled in, pointing his pistol almost casually in front of him. Movement in the dust caught his eye, and his gun tracked it. A few gunshots, and the movement ceased.
"Pardee!" Byrnes yelled. "We should check the corridors before we move in, okay!"
"It's more fun this way!" Pardee retorted, picking up one of the creature's weapons. He flicked the top of it open, inspecting the mechanism, then shut it again. A dull roar echoed through the ship.
"The crushers are launching!" Byrnes yelled. "We have to leave now!" He rushed to the door which opened to the launching bay.
And came face-to-face with one of the big aliens.
It yelled something incomprehensible, then flung its rifle down on his head. He felt the blow crack the helmet, and felt blood vessels in his nose burst with the impact. His foot lashed out instinctively, catching the creature on the knee. It bellowed in more of anger then pain, a blue halo engulfing its body. It pointed the weapon down at Byrnes' moaning body. He heard a slight whine through his groans, but his streaming nose had caused his eyes to shut instinctively. He rolled over, trying to avoid the shot.
Pardee shoulder barged the creature, knocking it off balance. It hit the deck, then rolled, bringing its gun to bear. Blue fire spat from its barrel, causing Pardee to dive behind some cover. The plasma gave off the smell of burning ozone when it erupted against the metal walls of the corridor, but both soldiers avoided being hit.
The creature bellowed in annoyance at the hiding humans. They had no idea how to fight honourably! No wonder their Gods decreed them to die. He walked over to where the orange-haired one, the devious one, was hiding.
A blow from behind forced the Elite to his knees. The sanctified shielding repelled the blow, but he was still forced to move with it. It was from the creature it had hit before, when it had tried to ambush him...
This train of thought, however, was ended when the orange-haired soldier pulled a pin from a grenade, stuffed it into the Elite's gaping jaws, then slid past it through its legs. The resulting explosion coated the walls with dripping matter best left to be undescribed. Pardee picked Byrnes up from his prone position.
"C'mon!" He yelled. "The last crushers are leaving!" He ran through the door, closely pursued by Byrnes. Plasma fire erupted around him as he ran for the closest landing ship. A bolt hit his leg, burning it severely. He dropped to the floor with a yell, twisting so his weapon was pointing towards the alien soldiers. Byrnes grabbed him by his lapels, dragging him across the ground as he fired and screamed incoherently at the aliens. Another man ran past them, holding a sword. He paused by the crusher's door, waiting for the two conscripts to enter.
Byrnes fell in, Pardee collapsing on top of him. Captain Idaho picked them up, practically throwing them towards the seats. He hit the switch for the door, and the portal grinded shut. Plasma fire still battered the crusher relentlessly. Idaho screamed at the pilot to leave.
The crusher's engines activated, causing it to fly out of the ship and head towards the Halo. Explosions from the Heighliner rocked the dropship, but thankfully it was not damaged.
"Captain Idaho!" The pilot yelled, his blue-on-blue eyes frantic. "Where are we going to land?"
"Just land as close as you can to the nearest frigate!" Idaho yelled back. "We'll get there on foot if necessary!" Another explosion rattled the crusher, but it's course was still true.
"Sir!" A soldier yelled from his seat. "What about the Heighliner? Are we going to leave it there for those things?"
Idaho smirked. "Don't worry, soldier. There's a little welcoming surprise for them..."
A large blast threw Idaho to the deck, causing him to burst his lip upon the metal grille. He turned back towards the pilot. "Is there anyway we can see what's going on at the Heighliner's position?"
The pilot moved his hand over a few controls, and a solido tri-D projection appeared in the middle of the vessel. The display showed the Heighliner in its damaged form. Explosions wracked its exterior, and more alien vessels impacted against its surface. There was a bright flash which illuminated the entire vessel, and the Heigliner appeared on the screen again.
This time, the vessel was breaking apart. Large explosions started to stitch the surface, going up the vessel in an unstoppable manner. Another bright flash etched their eyes, then another, then another...
The Heighliner was slowly being destroyed.
The pilot stared at the projection wordlessly. "What happened?" He gasped in horror.
Idaho shrugged. "I left a timed lasgun and a hot shield running as close to the main reactor as possible. When the lasgun shot at the shield..."
"Subatomic fusion." A soldier called out from his seat.
"The resulting blast breached the core, which in turn, started to travel through the entire ship, demolishing it in a few minutes." Idaho looked at the burning hulk on display. "I'd like to see those monsters salvage anything from that now..."
"Do you have any idea how much that is going to cost?" The pilot whispered, his voice strangled in complete despair.
Idaho shrugged again. "The Spacing Guild can, quite frankly, bill me. I'm not concerned with the cost right now. I'm more concerned about our lives, if you don't mind."
The crusher began to shake, and the pilot looked back at the monitors around him. "We've entered the ring's atmosphere!" He yelled. "We'll be landing roughly five clicks from the nearest frigate! Landing in T-Minus fifteen seconds!"
"Alright men!" Idaho yelled, sitting down at a chair and pulling the motion dampener down. "We're going to be landing soon. Be sure to check you are prepared for the landing, remember, breath with your mouth open, not through your nose!" The ship trembled some more. "Get ready!"
&&&&&&
Please review.
Warning: It's going to get slightly messy...
&&&&&&
Captain Idaho ran up to the secondary command, stumbling slightly with every sudden shudder of the ship. There was a loud crash, followed by another, than another. Always getting louder, getting louder, getting closer!
There was a brief flash of blue and a wall ahead of him erupted into flame. His hand flew to his shield-belt, activating it. He felt the slight tingling sensation over his body and his surroundings grew slightly muted and blurred, a disadvantage, but one he would need to accept for now.
Blue fire erupted around him, but his shield repelled it easily. 'The shield turns the fast blow', he thought thankfully, 'admits the slow kindjal.' Another flurry of fire went past him harmlessly. He drew his sabre and leapt through the breach.
A large creature stood over him, bellowing in an unknown tongue. It flung its weapon down at his head, but far too quickly. It pressed against the shield, then was flung away by the Holtzman generator. The creature looked faintly bemused, and paused. Idaho dodged behind the creature, and stabbed slowly at its exposed back. A blue-green shell erupted around it, and it yelled in presumable anger. It turned again, but Idaho moved with it.
A sudden flash, the blue shielding was gone from the creature. It bellowed angrily, until Idaho's sabre neatly decapitated it. Blood spurted from the stump with the pressure, and the body collapsed. Idaho looked at the corridor. The shield he was wearing made the outside world hazy and indistinct... his hand flew to the shield-belt again, deactivating it.
Around him was chaos. Gunfire, erratic and spontaneous came from all around him, screams, both human and alien sounded throughout the ship. He held his weapon at the ready, and ran down the corridor, one hand at his shield, looking for a means to communicate with the remainder of the troops.
&&&&&&
Byrnes yelled in sudden fear as a wave of heat passed over his head. Pardee shoved him down to the ground, firing his weapon simultaneously. Shell casings fell to the deck like a smoking, copper rain. A creature ahead cried, and fell over, quite dead.
"Look sharp, mate." Pardee said, pulling Byrnes to his feet. "I can't look out for you all the time." Byrnes nodded, terror robbing him of speech.
"Men!" The sergeant yelled over the sound of battle. "We are going to move to the main mess hall! There we shall be able to erect a suitable defence and keep these creatures off of us!" Another explosion caused the entire ship to lurch, and all the conscripts stumbled.
"Yeah, we'll be able to keep these creatures off of us..." Pardee muttered, reloading his rifle. "...Right up until the point they destroy the entire ship..."
"What do you mean?" Byrnes asked. "They can't destroy a Heighliner, that's just not possible."
Pardee shrugged. "Less than an hour ago I thought monsters didn't exist. Now..." he trailed off, and started to follow the sergeant. Byrnes stared at the corridor apprehensively, and winced when another explosion wracked the vessel.
As the conscripts passed the alien's dead body, Pardee picked up the device it was using. He held it up to his face, wrapping his fingers around the trigger-guard.
"Pardee, get your damnfool hands off of that device before you kill us all." The sergeant yelled at him. Pardee shrugged and made as if to throw the device away. Byrnes saw, just as the device was at his Pardee's fingertips, it slide beneath his shirt's wrist guard. Pardee caught his eye, then winked. There was another explosion, and the ship shook violently.
&&&&&&
Idaho leapt up the stairway. There was a brief spate of gunfire, and bullets embedded into the wall above his head. He ducked and rolled, shouting out who he was. He peered back at the place where the gunfire came from. A conscript looked back at him, then shrugged apologetically.
"Soldier!" Idaho yelled, walking briskly towards him, "what is going on here? I find myself trying to get to the command centre, which is normal, but I have to fight off reptilian monsters, which is not."
"Unclear, Captain!" The man yelled, holding his rifle in the upright position. "We appear to have unauthorized personnel on the Heighliner, attempting to capture or destroy it!"
"What is the Navigator doing?" Idaho barked, looking at the few working terminals in the secondary command.
"Unclear, Captain! One of the first places the alien weapons hit was the Navigator's helm. It is suspected that he has been killed."
Idaho chewed his lower lip as he looked through the ship's inventory using one of the terminals. He looked at a cross section of the ship, marking down where the aliens were and where the rest of his men were.
"Give me operation of the tannoy!" He yelled at one of the remaining guildsmen. "I have an announcement to make to the remainder of the people onboard."
&&&&&&
The tannoy crackled over Byrnes head, causing him to nearly die of fright, again. "This is Captain Idaho!" It barked. "To all remaining personnel on board this Heighliner, make your way to the lower launching bays, and board the crushers for which will be set for planetary landing. I repeat, abandon the ship using the crushers found in the lower launching bays!"
Pardee laughed inanely, firing at the creatures with his rifle. "What, leave before the party's even begun? Where's the fun in that?"
"Stow that shit, Pardee!" The sergeant yelled. He then turned to the rest of the troops. "Alright, ladies, you heard the man! Change of plans! We're to head to the lower launching bays! If we are separated, that is where we are to head. Do you get me?"
"Sir, yes sir!" The soldiers yelled, though not in chorus. A burst of plasma cut down one conscript, burning the top of his head off. No blood emitted from the wound as it was immediately cauterised. Pardee yelled in anger, and drew out the alien device, firing it back at the vile creatures. Byrnes accompanied him with his rifle.
The rifle pushed into his shoulder with each bullet fired off. He felt casings bounce off of his foot and hit the floor with merry jingling sounds. Waves of heat passed his face as Pardee fired his new weapon at the enemy, his face grinning as one in a bloodlust.
The firing pin clicked against an empty space. Byrnes reached for an extra clip, but his fingers brushed through only air. "I'm out!" He yelled, dropping his gun to the floor, and drawing his side-arm. "We need to retreat!"
"Oh, come on..." Pardee muttered, licking his lips. "Let's stay a little longer..."
Byrnes pulled him away from the door, narrowly avoiding a flurry of plasma. "Forget them! We need to leave, right now!" Pardee shrugged apologetically, then pulled a grenade from his chest armour. "We'll need to give them a little going-away present, though..." he pulled the pin, then threw the awkward cylinder down the hall. A sudden crack announced its detonation, and Byrnes heard the cries of the wounded aliens down the corridor. 'The gift is the blessing of the giver', he quoted in his mind, then realised the irony.
&&&&&&
At the lower launching bay, complete pandemonium was breaking out. People were running for their lives, cowering in static crushers, while the Covenant fired upon the drop-ships. Some managed to launch themselves from the ship, flying to the Halo nearby. Most of them exploded at the plasma fire burned through their hulls.
A squad of grunts were at the south entrance, their guns firing off in an unholy chorus, their fiery payloads burning flesh and conflagrating armour. The leader threw a plasma grenade at the infidels and watched with unsurpassed glee as it stuck to one of the heretic's legs. He ran around, screaming for a few seconds, then it exploded, blasting him apart, his entrails vaporising before they reached a wall.
The grunts began firing at the exposed humans again, their fire reaping them easily. Tulkanussan yelled in victory as another human soldier toppled from a gantry onto the hard metal floor many stories below. The Gods would be grateful today!
A brief thud distracted him, and he peered down at the deck to his right. A large cylinder, hissing faintly, was rolling about. He stared at it, then realised what it was. He screamed a warning, leaping over the hastily constructed barricade. An explosion pressed him mercilessly into the ground, then the deck flung away from, him, then flew back, hitting his face violently.
He rolled over, faintly stunned and watched as more humans rushed in from behind his position. Their boots rattled past him. They thought him to be dead! Well, he wasn't yet, God willing. He reached for another grenade, then felt a shadow fall over him.
Another human was there, but unlike the other humans, he had no armour and no gun, only a sword. A faint shimmer surrounded his body, making him seem as if he was almost a mirage. Tulkanussan saw him point the sword at his head.
Idaho stabbed the creature in the head, ending its life suddenly. He looked up at the bay ahead of him, and sighed. "Men!" He screamed over the gunfire. "Position yourselves around alien blockades! Provide covering fire! Allow the ship personnel to board first, then we move out!" Some soldiers heard him, but most missed his words, and were still panicking. Idaho sighed, then ran over to the nearest skirmish, holding his sabre out behind him. It was going to be a long and hard-fought fight...
&&&&&&
Pardee flung a grenade down the corridor, and waited for it to explode. When the noise died down, he strolled in, pointing his pistol almost casually in front of him. Movement in the dust caught his eye, and his gun tracked it. A few gunshots, and the movement ceased.
"Pardee!" Byrnes yelled. "We should check the corridors before we move in, okay!"
"It's more fun this way!" Pardee retorted, picking up one of the creature's weapons. He flicked the top of it open, inspecting the mechanism, then shut it again. A dull roar echoed through the ship.
"The crushers are launching!" Byrnes yelled. "We have to leave now!" He rushed to the door which opened to the launching bay.
And came face-to-face with one of the big aliens.
It yelled something incomprehensible, then flung its rifle down on his head. He felt the blow crack the helmet, and felt blood vessels in his nose burst with the impact. His foot lashed out instinctively, catching the creature on the knee. It bellowed in more of anger then pain, a blue halo engulfing its body. It pointed the weapon down at Byrnes' moaning body. He heard a slight whine through his groans, but his streaming nose had caused his eyes to shut instinctively. He rolled over, trying to avoid the shot.
Pardee shoulder barged the creature, knocking it off balance. It hit the deck, then rolled, bringing its gun to bear. Blue fire spat from its barrel, causing Pardee to dive behind some cover. The plasma gave off the smell of burning ozone when it erupted against the metal walls of the corridor, but both soldiers avoided being hit.
The creature bellowed in annoyance at the hiding humans. They had no idea how to fight honourably! No wonder their Gods decreed them to die. He walked over to where the orange-haired one, the devious one, was hiding.
A blow from behind forced the Elite to his knees. The sanctified shielding repelled the blow, but he was still forced to move with it. It was from the creature it had hit before, when it had tried to ambush him...
This train of thought, however, was ended when the orange-haired soldier pulled a pin from a grenade, stuffed it into the Elite's gaping jaws, then slid past it through its legs. The resulting explosion coated the walls with dripping matter best left to be undescribed. Pardee picked Byrnes up from his prone position.
"C'mon!" He yelled. "The last crushers are leaving!" He ran through the door, closely pursued by Byrnes. Plasma fire erupted around him as he ran for the closest landing ship. A bolt hit his leg, burning it severely. He dropped to the floor with a yell, twisting so his weapon was pointing towards the alien soldiers. Byrnes grabbed him by his lapels, dragging him across the ground as he fired and screamed incoherently at the aliens. Another man ran past them, holding a sword. He paused by the crusher's door, waiting for the two conscripts to enter.
Byrnes fell in, Pardee collapsing on top of him. Captain Idaho picked them up, practically throwing them towards the seats. He hit the switch for the door, and the portal grinded shut. Plasma fire still battered the crusher relentlessly. Idaho screamed at the pilot to leave.
The crusher's engines activated, causing it to fly out of the ship and head towards the Halo. Explosions from the Heighliner rocked the dropship, but thankfully it was not damaged.
"Captain Idaho!" The pilot yelled, his blue-on-blue eyes frantic. "Where are we going to land?"
"Just land as close as you can to the nearest frigate!" Idaho yelled back. "We'll get there on foot if necessary!" Another explosion rattled the crusher, but it's course was still true.
"Sir!" A soldier yelled from his seat. "What about the Heighliner? Are we going to leave it there for those things?"
Idaho smirked. "Don't worry, soldier. There's a little welcoming surprise for them..."
A large blast threw Idaho to the deck, causing him to burst his lip upon the metal grille. He turned back towards the pilot. "Is there anyway we can see what's going on at the Heighliner's position?"
The pilot moved his hand over a few controls, and a solido tri-D projection appeared in the middle of the vessel. The display showed the Heighliner in its damaged form. Explosions wracked its exterior, and more alien vessels impacted against its surface. There was a bright flash which illuminated the entire vessel, and the Heigliner appeared on the screen again.
This time, the vessel was breaking apart. Large explosions started to stitch the surface, going up the vessel in an unstoppable manner. Another bright flash etched their eyes, then another, then another...
The Heighliner was slowly being destroyed.
The pilot stared at the projection wordlessly. "What happened?" He gasped in horror.
Idaho shrugged. "I left a timed lasgun and a hot shield running as close to the main reactor as possible. When the lasgun shot at the shield..."
"Subatomic fusion." A soldier called out from his seat.
"The resulting blast breached the core, which in turn, started to travel through the entire ship, demolishing it in a few minutes." Idaho looked at the burning hulk on display. "I'd like to see those monsters salvage anything from that now..."
"Do you have any idea how much that is going to cost?" The pilot whispered, his voice strangled in complete despair.
Idaho shrugged again. "The Spacing Guild can, quite frankly, bill me. I'm not concerned with the cost right now. I'm more concerned about our lives, if you don't mind."
The crusher began to shake, and the pilot looked back at the monitors around him. "We've entered the ring's atmosphere!" He yelled. "We'll be landing roughly five clicks from the nearest frigate! Landing in T-Minus fifteen seconds!"
"Alright men!" Idaho yelled, sitting down at a chair and pulling the motion dampener down. "We're going to be landing soon. Be sure to check you are prepared for the landing, remember, breath with your mouth open, not through your nose!" The ship trembled some more. "Get ready!"
&&&&&&
Please review.
