Keith ducked for cover as a squad of imperial marines marched by their hallway searching for the Auroran intruders. When the squad had passed, Keith nodded to the rest of blue squadron and they stole down the dark green hallway that led to the bridge. They had already been spotted and marines were scrambling throughout the ship to find them. Keith glanced to Castor who nodded reading Keith's mind and signaled the others to stay put until they were sure the coast was clear. Keith aimed his weapon down every hallway they passed while Castor ran over to the main elevator shaft which ran all the way to the bridge. He found a crate to use as cover while Keith locked down the rest of the hallway.
Finally Keith turned to the other three and gave a nod. The three ran stealthily down the hall to the elevator where Keith and Castor were waiting for them. Castor slammed a fist down on the elevator button and the doors slid open. The five of them dashed in and only relaxed after the doors had closed.
"They know we're here." Blue three murmured.
"Good. We'll get to claim this hunk of junk fair and square." Blue four grumbled.
"Keith, They're bound to have a trap waiting for us when we get up there."Blue five added.
"Well, what are we gonna do about it Keith?" Castor asked already knowing the answer.
"Spring the trap."Keith grinned and reloaded his laser machine gun. The other three gawked at Keith.
"You're Insane!"Blue five objected.
"I know what I'm doing. You three will take defensive positions while Castor and I cover you from the elevator. Once you're ready, the three of you will lay down suppressive fire while Castor and I sweep through the bridge taking out all resistance." Keith said authoritatively.
"Why am I getting thrown into this?" Castor asked already knowing the answer. Keith just grinned.
Suddenly the elevator doors slid open and laser fire erupted from every corner of the bridge. Keith and Castor lifted their guns to their shoulders simultaneously opening fire as they took cover in the doorway laying down heavy covering fire for the rest of the squadron. Meanwhile, the other three ran for cover to provide their own fire from the semi-safe vantage point of the upper bridge deck over looking the rest of the bridge. The Imperial officers were far too sloppy and were easy targets. Keith had filled at least four of them with holes. One of the problems with imperial weaponry was that it specialized strictly in bulk. Accuracy wasn't a concern for non-sniper class troops. The Imperial marines however were formidable and forced Keith and Castor to cease firing every few minutes. The imperial's were trying to make headway up the stairs on either side of the upper bridge. Keith let loose a string of fire into a marine as he tried to make his way up the stairs. The body slid back down discouraging the other marines to go up.
"When are you three going to finish getting comfy up there?" Keith called over the din of laser fire.
"Ready sir!" One of them replied.
"Bout time."Castor grumbled and both of them abandoned the elevator while the three pilots opened fire on the lower deck to divert the attention of the imperials with an ambush. Keith jumped down the flight of stairs catching an imperial officer by surprise and fired a series of rounds into the soldier at point blank. Castor had mirrored his movements down the stairs before rolling and coming up on one knee firing and taking out a number of imperial marines. Keith spun around a row of computers and opened fire on a pair of officers sending them reeling backwards. They took cover side by side and reloaded before ducking out from behind their cover and engaged more imperial resistance on either side opening fire on them without hesitation. Keith barrel rolled to a monitor and used it for cover as he took out an imperial marine sending him sprawling backwards. Castor slammed the butt of his gun into the back of a marine as he passed him and spun around shooting the marine in the back.
When they had reached the last row of computers they caught the remnants and the warship admiral in a crossfire leaving no survivors. Keith turned and headed up to the command chair.
"Everyone activate you're oxygen tanks. Blue five, shut down all life support systems on board." Keith ordered.
"Yes sir!"
"Blue three, shut down all turrets and switch them to bridge command"-blue three nodded and ran over to a monitor-"Blue four? Shut down all communication channels and open up a frequency with the Reigning Maiden. I don't want any friendly fire ending or stay onboard. Castor?" Keith asked. Castor nodded reading Keith's mind and converted all engine power to sheilds.
"Keith! incoming imperial Transmission! I can't seem to cut the frequency!"Blue four announced in a slight panic.
"Let it through blue four. Talking will give us some time to get in position."Keith replied calmly with a smirk as he sat himself down in the commander's chair. Blue four nodded and turned back to the comunications monitor.
"Comunications open. We're online Keith." Blue four shrugged.
The large screen mounted from the ceiling fizzled on and an Imperial commander appeared surrounded by officers at monitors at what appeared to be a bridge. The commander wore the dark green uniform of the empire with medal segments covering every inch of his chest like a breast plate.
"Captain Theorda, report on the intruders and tell me why are your life supports deactivated- who IN CREATION ARE YOU?" The commander ordered as he realized that the bridge he was seeing was really a slaughter pen with four helmeted pilots manning the monitors and another lounging in the commander's chair.
"Keith Roiker, 'commander' of this dark green weapon of war. I must thank you again for the accommodations however I apologize for the inconvenience of disposing of your crew. Messy job really. I'll have to clean up this mess when I get around to it." Keith said looking around himself at the carnage.
"You..."the commander growled as his anger seethed inside of his decorated uniform,"You're Commander Roiker's kid. Commander Backstab Roiker!" Keith's jovial demeanor turned cold as ice.
"Damn straight, scum." Keith replied.
"Imagine what kind of honor I'll receive for killing the son of commander Backstab." He said almost greedily.
"The honor of of being vengefully obliterated by the Empire's scourge."Keith replied. Everyone on the other bridge went pale.
"Over protective father I see?" The commander chuckled.
"Seriously? You'll never get the mercy of such a demise. The Imperial Scourge is sitting right here, you coward." Keith growled. The other commander glared.
"We'll see." The commander replied equally as viciously. The connection cut out and the screen remained blank.
The other pilots looked at Keith nervously. His eyes were fixed on the battle ensuing outside. Only he wasn't seeing the battle. He was planning it.
"Sir?"blue three asked nervously.
"Set all weapons to commander control." Keith ordered, his thoughts uninterrupted by blue three's disposition. Castor complied immediately. A pair of handle's with large hand-guards slid up from either arm of the command chair. Both handles were situated horizontally in the arms of the chair. The one on the left commanded the port side guns and the ones on the right commanded the starboard guns. A visor slid across his eyes with two pairs of cross-hairs signifying each denoted set of weapons. The insides of the hand guards contained a series of buttons that activated all sorts of missiles and specialized weaponry.
"Weapons set."Castor confirmed from his monitor.
"Convert all fore and aft shields to port and starboard. Set all Anti fighter turrets to auto defense. Plot a course for 00954317692." Keith ordered.
"Sir, that will put us directly in the middle of the imperial fleet!"Blue five protested.
"That's the general idea."Keith replied firmly. Blue five just stared.
"Course plotted."Blue three announced.
"Stand by to engage."Keith said fixing his eyes on the point to where they were headed. Imperial forces were too busy combating the Auroran defense fleet to pay attention to Keith's hijacked vessel turning around and facing it's old allies under a new master.
"T minus eight decicarsens and counting."Blue four said nervously staring out of the bridge window. The covert warship glided between a pair of imperial battleships unhindered.
"So far so good." Blue three mumbled.
"Aw, screw that." Keith grinned and slid his hands into the gauntlets and opened fire on the battle ships they were passing. The vessels didn't have a chance to fire back as they were crushed by the repetitive bombardments of laser cannon fire.
"Keith! What are you doing?" Blue five screamed.
"It's called a surprise attack for a reason."Castor smirked and began assessing sensor reports.
"Well you're not supposed to surprise your own crew!"Blue five objected. Keith ignored what was taking place on the bridge and diverted half of the laser batteries on both sides to Castor's control. Castor nodded and took over his half of the cannons entering attack orders for his half of the cannons to fire on a formation of incoming destroyers. Imperial warships were trying to make sense of what just happened. Some were opening fire on blue squadrons behemoth while others ceased firing altogether trying to make a decision of what to do.
"How are our shields holding up?" Keith asked.
"98 percent and holding."Blue four reported.
"Convert power from engines to shields."Keith ordered. Suddenly the warship shuddered as a bombardment of lasers slammed their portside prow. In front of them rested the maximus warship I.N.S Tervian. And Keith had more than a hunch that he had just talked to the commander on board.
The Tervian opened fire first slamming Keith's vessel on the starboard side with volley after volley of laser fire. The entire warship shuddered under the sudden impact and Some of the wall monitors burst with sparks flying everywhere. Blue squadron had to brace themselves from the impact in order to maintain their footing. Keith Recovered from the impact first and returned fire with everything at his disposal. Imperial fighters swarmed over the warship trying to leave a dent in the massive ship. The anti fighter turrets were being taken out one by one simply by sheer masses of imperial fighters.
"Shields at fifty percent and holding!"Blue four called out over the din of explosions.
"Transfer all hyperspace power to shields blue four, this will be this maximus warships last day in commission. Blue three, see what you can do about those anti fighter turrets. We're losing them by the bucket load." Keith ordered plainly as if there wasn't a battle going on outside. The Tervian came along the broadside of Keith's warship and the two battle ships traded volleys of cannon fire. Keith then did a very underhanded course of action and focused all of his guns on the Tervian's bridge. The stout tower at the rear of the other maximus warship Erupted into flames causing a chain reaction followed by an explosion at the rear which made it's way to the front consuming everything in it's path. The explosion sent pieces of metal and ship parts hurtling against the side of Keith's ship as it pulled away from the smoldering wreckage. It was a massive blow to the imperial navy to have one of their own destroy one of their own. Keith began firing at every nearby vessel sending it up in flames while severing battleships and destroyers in two.
Imperials were rushing now to compensate for the traitorous warship by destroying it only to be blasted apart or vaporized in the effort. Keith's vessel wasn't doing well either. They were steadily running out of power and their rockets were running out quickly.
"Sir, Shields at fifteen percent and falling."Blue four announced with panic in his voice.
"Damn." Keith swore. Their shields were what was keeping the cannon fire from hitting the bridge. Without their sheilds up they'd be fair game for pot shots.
"Keith, heavy damage on our port side."Castor called. The warship shook violently under the damage and sirens began to wail overhead. All of the monitors were flashing red caution symbols in the bottom right corners. A small plume of flame erupted on the forward port side.
"Shields are down."Castor announced. Every laser that was being fired at the warship began to directly hammer the hull with repetitive abuse. Chunks of ship cracked and fell from the ceiling sending sparks everywhere. There were only a handful of cannons left still operating. Castor switched all of the cannons back to commander resumed command of all cannons and returned fire with everything he had left. He had taken out another pair of maximus warships and was taking down a fourth. The armor would hold the damage for quite a while.
"Keith we have to get out of here!"Blue five yelled as debris exploded from one of the walls.
"Get to your fighters or an escape pod, this commander's chair is an escape pod in and of itself. I don't have a fighter anymore and my escape pod is this chair. You're the ones that need to hurry." Keith replied activating the command chair's escape pod function. Castor nodded and led blue squadron out of the bridge hunched low dodging the debris falling from the ceiling. As the rest of the squadron entered the elevator, Keith was being surrounded by a capsule of metal with a series of computers and monitors. The capsule had a glass alloy windshield for basic navigation and the escape pod walls were at least two feet thick. It would hold together during jettison well enough to protect him from the warship exploding. Keith still had control of the ship until until it finally blasted apart so he decided to make the best of what he had left. He just hoped Castor and the team would make it out in time.
Keith angled the mammoth weapon of war directly head on at the bulk concentration of the imperial fleet. All but a handful of cannons still had ammo and were firing everything left on board that wasn't already destroyed. With a jolt his shields gave out as well as the the auxiliary thrusters so that all that was keeping Keith traveling towards was momentum and secondary boosters. Every monitor was flashing emergency symbols on the bridge as Keith's warship inched it's way towards the imperial bulk of ships. Imperial battleships blazed away at the traitorous vessel trying to destroy it in it's weakened state. Explosions erupted everywhere on the surface of the Maximus Warship, Causing systems malfunctions and errors to pop up all over the bridge. A loud explosion erupted as one of the pursuing battleships fired a fatal hit on the port side causing massive hull damage. The warship was breaking apart, only Keith had gotten a little practice flying crumbling crafts earlier. It was a now or never situation. More and more enemy battleships were joining the retaliation. The Federation had caught on to what was happening and took advantage of the distraction wiping out dozens of imperial vessels in an effort to help the defecting ship. But Keith had an even bigger plan and it was about to work. He was now directly within the highest concentration of imperials now as the explosions began to blur into one blinding eruption. Keith strained to see his target through the haze of smoke, debris, and eruptions of fire.
Then without warning, he slammed and crunched through the side of another imperial Maximus Warship right in front of the engines triggering an enormous explosion by piercing the highly volatile fuel concentrator. Keith's escape pod automatically jettisoned and he maneuvered away from the destruction towards an Auroran Battleship. A massive blast wave spread and cut it's way through the bulk of the imperial fleet destroying one major vessel after another leaving no surviving imperial vessels in it's path. The blast was answered by other smaller explosions of other ships as it swept through the imperial masses. As Keith steered clear he set a course for the Reigning maiden. At least 200,000 imperial vessels were wiped out in the blast and half of the attack fleet was already destroyed by the Imperials were outnumbered and exhausted. There was nothing for them to do but retreat. The imperial remnants of the attack turned around and began to hyperspace out of the Kythos system. Federation forces picked off a good number of the escaping craft before they could escape to the designated system. The battle for Kythos was over. The Federation Imperial war however would begin to demand action from the rest of the galaxy.
Keith flew his pod into one of the side hangar bays and touched down in the middle of dozens of marines, mechanics, pilots, and even officers cheering and hollering to one another with toasts and congratulations. The spirit of victory was in the air. Keith was tempted to join in but there were more important things to attend to. He ran down the hallways to the elevator accidentally pushing a marine into a wall who was too drunk thankfully to notice he'd been pushed. Keith didn't stop running and sprinted through a group of officers discussing what might happen now that they had won the battle for Kythos. He skidded into an elevator which carried him up to the top deck and sprinted over to the bridge. The metal doors slid out of his way just in time as he tore into the bridge. He looked around and found Commander Rigid back standing in front of the bridge window, gazing out at the federation fleet firing victory rounds into space.
"Commander, have you seen-"Keith began but Rigid Back held up a hand. Then, the commander turned and Keith could actually see the man's eyes. They had a hollow, defeated look to them. Sad.
"Keith," the commander began and sighed before continuing."We have confirmed reports that you captured an enemy Borialis maximus warship and successfully repelled the Borialis invasion. Your efforts did the Federation a great service and allowed our navy to strike back with enough force to send the imperials in full retreat. It is with great honor, that I promote you to Freelance Officer of by the authority bestowed to me by the Auroran Federation."
"Commander, thank you, but what's wrong?" Keith asked confused. The commander cringed slightly.
"Commander-" Keith tried to repeat but the commander replied.
"Keith, understand that I am not authorized to display my emotions to you by Federation regulation and that I truly am sincerely sorry."The commander began."But I must maintain federation regulation regardless."
"Keith Roiker, It is with great regret that I inform you that during the battle for Kythos, your fellow pilots of blue squadron were killed trying to escape the Maximus Warship. From this point onward, Blue Squadron is hereby classified as Terminated in the line of duty."
Keith stared at his hands. Terminated. He had sent his closest friends to their deaths. He ordered them to abandon ship and they died complying with his orders. If he had thought of letting them pile inside the commander escape pod they might still be hear. But now they were dead. His eyes locked on the floor as his mind began to race. There were so many opportunities that he could have done something, anything. He Should have done something, anything then what he did!
"Regardless of the current situation, the Federation scheduled you to speak with the bureaucrats on Sen'Tral. Your grief recess will have to be canceled. I am truly sorry-"The commander added but Keith turned away.
"I understand. I'll be ready for transport in 10. Duty calls. Nothing I can do to help it."Keith said walking over to the bridge door with only half of his attention present.
"Keith,"The commander said and Keith stopped in the doorway."I wish there were something I could do."
"What should have been done didn't happen. Anything that could be done is too late now. Dead is dead. Nothing can change that now. nothing."Keith sighed and left the bridge, silencing the commotion of victory with the silence of sorrow. Keith lost four people under his command that day. However they would be far from the last.
