Chapter 3: Rapture
Part 2: Rapture's Defense
Edward had four new men under his control but nothing could replace the original. He felt guilty for sending in his men first. Edward was patrolling the area near a docking bay when the alarm sounded.
Marines rushed to the source of the alarm. Dozens of squads, including one with Tychus, made it to docking bay six to find that it was just a rebel dropship. For a moment, everyone relaxed but then the drop doors on the dropship opened up and three ghosts came out.
Everyone tensed up and raised their weapons, because the unit of ghosts was wearing blue, which signaled UED. The marines opened fire but the ghosts disappeared into thin air and the bullets hit the giant metal ramp the ghosts were standing on.
"Fan out," Edward ordered, "Get a detector up here."
Soon, the detector had arrived but it showed no signs of the ghosts. Instead, it sensed something in the dropship. The marines moved slowly forward towards the dropship. Edward's unit was sent in first.
As the ten marines entered the empty dropship, the other hundred was still watching out for ripples in the air. On board Edward found a horrifying item. A long-range tracker device was planted on board and it was turned on, full-blast.
Rapture was in an uproar within minutes. People fled their homes to get to a dropship that would take them away from the doomed city. Jim rallied up all his forces to get ready for a. imminent attack while some forces remained in Rapture to search for the three missing ghosts.
Two more behemoth class mark II battlecruisers were finished in time to add to the defensive line. Dozens of small platforms carried large guns and encircled Rapture, much like the defense matrix protecting Earth, except smaller. From here, the rebels waited.
Several hours after the panic had died down; the first signs of the enemy were seen in the distance. Tattered, beat up dropships that bore the color red came from Earth. The defenses allowed the dropships to pass since they bore the color of the rebels. It wasn't until the dropships did not slow down when they neared Rapture did Jim give the order to destroy the dropships.
Missiles and lasers shot out at the dropships, but it was too late. While some were destroyed, most rammed right into the platform carrying Rapture and exploded; the dropships must have carried high explosives on board. Not an hour after that, mark II battlecruisers that bore the color of blue arrived.
"So it begins," Jim said, "Once in range, fire our main cannon at the lead battlecruiser. Let's see what this baby can do."
Almost immediately after Jim ordered the fire at will command, the front of the Hyperion glowed bright red. A giant laser beam shot outward and hit the lead UED battlecruiser right on the hammerhead. The hammerhead of the hit battlecruiser instantly exploded. Soon after that, secondary explosions went up the neck of the doomed battlecruiser and quickly destroyed the entire ship.
"How long is the cool down?" Jim asked.
"Longer than expected sir," an officer on board the bridge said, "the estimated five minutes isn't enough, it'll take at least fifteen minutes to fire again."
"Incoming wraiths," someone said.
Hundreds of wraiths unloaded their Gemini missiles into the Hyperion and flew right by it. But the Hyperion stood, unscathed by the several hundred missiles that just hit its hammerhead.
"Should we deploy our own fighters, sir?"
"No," Jim said, "deploy the ones that are sitting in Rapture, save the Hyperion's wraiths for later."
Just as Jim ordered, hundreds of rebel wraiths were sent into the battle from Rapture. But then something unexpected happened. As the last wraith left Rapture, an evil grin landed on the face of a girl, a girl with red hair. Suddenly, every single rebel wraith in space detonated and exploded with deadly force.
"What the hell just happened?" Jim demanded.
"Someone must've planted explosives on our wraiths,"
"Launch the wraiths from the battlecruisers," Jim ordered.
Wraiths ejected from the Hyperion and its fellow battlecruisers to engage in dog fights with the UED wraiths. The UED battlecruisers were now uncomfortably close and the rebel battlecruisers started firing their cannons. The UED battlecruisers ignored the deadly barrage of red light as they focused on getting right next to the rebel battlecruisers.
"What the hell," Jim said as two battlecruisers got on each side of the Hyperion.
There were no turrets mounted onto these battlecruisers, instead, hundreds of battery ports opened up on the sides of the UED battlecruisers. It was clear now what the UED was trying to do. Each battlecruiser was custom designed to engage in close range combat against other capital ships. The batteries took up the power needed to fire the main cannon so the UED could not use them.
"Arm all port and starboard batteries," Jim ordered, "fire at will!"
The two battlecruisers bombarded the sides of the Hyperion, but the Hyperion was tougher than that. Soon, both UED battlecruisers were torn to shreds by the massive port and starboard batteries on board the Hyperion.
"Double back to assist the other battlecruisers," Jim ordered.
"Sir," a panicked young officer called, "Science Federation warships are on sensor."
"What," Jim shouted, "how?"
"They have a dozen behemoth class mark II battlecruisers and three behemoth class mark III battlecruisers."
"Shit," Jim shouted, "aim our cannon at the lead mark III battlecruiser and fire the prototype weapon."
"The prototype isn't ready, sir," an officer said, "It could fry our systems or backfire."
"It's a risk we'll have to take," Jim said.
"Preparing to fire the prototype weapon," an older officer said.
The Hyperion had now turned to see a group of mark II and mark III battlecruisers that had white armor. This armor belonged to the Science Federation. Mutants couldn't survive long distance space travel so the Science Federation could not send its pets.
"Firing prototype weapon," the same older officer said.
The hole at the front of the Hyperion grew wider and a huge ball of red light gathered there.
"Firing Yamato Cannon," a computerized woman's voice rang through the Hyperion, "warning, weapons' systems overheating, possible overload of all systems, cooling units malfunctioning."
After about a minute of collecting more power, the sphere of red light exploded, shooting a huge beam of light towards the Science Federation fleet. The blast met its mark and incinerated the lead mark III battlecruiser instantly. The explosion set out an incredibly powerful recoil that tore apart several mark II battlecruisers. The two remaining mark III battlecruisers had secondary explosions running along their hull as debris and bodies floated through space.
"How long before our weapons' systems are back online?" Jim asked as the lights on the bridge flickered.
"At least half an hour if not more," someone said, "we're getting high casualty counts of engineers from internal explosions in the generator rooms and engine rooms."
"Tell the surviving engineers that they got fifteen minutes to fix the ship up."
"More UED ships entering Rapture space," someone said.
"How long before we can evacuate Rapture?" Jim sighed, accepting defeat.
"Most of the population of Rapture is in civilian transports ready to launch in five minutes."
"What about the remaining people on Rapture," Jim asked.
"The only ones not in transports are the search groups that are searching for the missing ghost squad."
"Get them on board some dropships and get ready to enter hyper space."
"Where will we go?" someone asked.
"Somewhere far away," Jim answered.
Suddenly, the UED fleet was swarmed with tiny, bright yellow flyers that shot constantly at them. Panicking, the UED fleet launched all its wraiths and valkyries, only to be disappointed with destruction. Soon, the UED and Science Federation fleets were decimated and Rapture stood relatively unharmed except for the huge holes where the kamikaze dropships had hit.
"Alien warships on sensor, sir," an officer said, "should we open fire?"
"No," Jim said immediately, "hold your fire, they're allies."
A huge wormhole was open and several large warships came out. They were bright yellow and oval in shape. They had a huge opening in the front where the smaller fighters retreated. The ships had some yellow stripes that went over them that could barely be seen against the luminescent gold.