Captain Louis had hoped that the broad side would have gone off before the insidious attack on the Emperor's Wraths machines spirits took place, but it hadn't.
No matter, he thought angrily as he stood from his throne. The wires that had fed him information, the lifeblood of the gigantic battleship, were useless now, as was his throne. As he stood, they detached and fell to the floor.
The orderlies and watchstanders throughout the bridge stood, their consoles dead, and headed toward the small lockers that ringed the room, magnetic boots simulating gravity for them all. Captain Louis knew that the weapons stashed there, shotguns and underpowered las-rifles designed to fire faster, but not with enough of a kick to puncture the ship's hull, might be useless against what was coming.
The video and information that had streamed in from Saint Augustine's Revenge about the Xeno's technology and combat capabilities had given him the information he needed. However, if his men concentrated their fire they should be able to overwhelm the enemy shields and perhaps melt some of the machinery underneath.
Turning, Captain Louis reached behind his thrown and retrieved the power maul that was stashed there, along with his favorite plasma pistol which he had named 'margaret' after his late wife. The only close quarters defense the bridge had was him, but he wasn't worried. He had not reached the title of Battleship Captain, and been blessed with the holy power armor that went with the station for no reason.
The bridge doors, and every other bulk head throughout the ship had automatically come down when the power shut off. The crew not on the bridge would have ran for armory lockers that would have appeared from compartments that looked flesh with the hull a moment before, so his crew was armed. Additionally, other much more insidious ship defenses had been activated.
A scream from one of his crew members unlucky enough to be in one of the long corridors and hallways that ran along the ship, followed by other much more horrific noises as the horrors that had been unleashed to protect the ships most vital locations went about their unyielding, and non discriminatory work.
"Are those the, the Arco Flagellants?" asked a young watchstander who clung to his rapid fire las rifle. Many on the bridge made the sign of the aquila, warding off evil. Before Captain Louis could respond an alien sound and sparkling lights appeared to his left.
Five of the more heavily armored combat borg variants appeared, teleporting in from Emperor knew where. Captain Louis's men responded, the shotgun ball bearings breaking the shields, allowing the las rifles to melt the circuitry. As they switched targets, the shields held for longer, allowing the xenos to fire one of its nul-beams, striking commander Slovak, sending her spinning into another crew member.
Roaring a challenge Captain Louis entered the fray, bringing his plasma pistol to bear to deadly effect. The first bolt blue bolt struck a borg's shields and overwhelmed them instantly, turning the creature to slag. Another stepped forward and was met by Captain Louis's power maul. The weapon crackling with electric fire, broke the creatures shields and crushed its skull, splitting it in half and sending circuitry and brain matter flying in all directions.
His crew having taken down the one that had attacked commander Slovak, Captain Louis realized there was only one left. Lifting his plasma pistol he unleashed another terrible bolt, but the creatures shields held, then flickered into nothing. Unleashing a third bolt, the creature was turned to slag instantly.
"Casualty report." Captain Louis demanded as the crew looked at him in awe.
"Commander Slovak is dead Captain." said commander Jacob. "Recommend that we send a contingent down to engineering and the engine rooms, to make contact with the Tech priests."
"No, the halls are now crawling with Acro Flagellants and I would prefer not to have you, and any men you took with you die." Captain Louis said as he examined one of the two xenos his men had destroyed, trying to find a weakness.
"Besides its best we don't bother the Mangus Joseph. I'm confident he has everything in hand." as he finished speaking, the ship's lights turned on, white light replacing the harsh red of the emergency power.
Nodding to his crew, who were all beaming from ear to ear, Captain Louis sat back on his throne. "I need a sit rep on all systems, but most importantly shields, life support, and weapons in that order" The watchstanders each scrambled to their stations.
Jacob ordered three to stand guard duty before returning to his own station. As they all got to work Louis heard each stander call out about his or her own area of control.
"Shields are completely offline Captain."
"Life support and gravity are stable, that makes sense it has its own backup system."
"Weapons are completely offline Captain. The last report I received before everything shut down was critical system damage to three banks of guns. If that's accurate then it's better than I estimated in terms of cannons that should have been damaged."
Nodding Captain Louis walked over to the bulkhead and listened closely. If he strained his genetically enhanced ears he could hear the nearly silent shuffling of the Arco Flagellants outside in the hallway. No doubt simply waiting for anything to come into sight before they pounced. Captain Louis shuttered slightly, in his power armor his crew couldn't tell, but the Arco Flagellants were one of the many many things that were terrible necessities in his line of work.
"Sir, I have power to my station." said the internal communications officer, Monson if Louis remembered correctly. "There's a text only message from the Mangus, he says he'll have the shields up momentarily."
"Send him a quick reply. Tell him to hold off on activating the shields. We want to draw as many of them as we can into a fight to give the Flagellants a chance to do their job. Tell him to focus instead on assisting the rest of the flotilla." The Captain said as he walked over to the jr watchstanders station.
"Uh. Yes sir, but the message says he is can restore shields to the entire flotilla, not just the Wrath sir. What would you like me to do sir?"
Captain Louis thought for a moment before responding. The Emperor's Wrath has the largest amount of Arco Flagellants in the fleet, along with several companies of trained anti-boarders navy guard. If what I just saw was the measure of them in combat, then we should be able to hold them off. He thought as he sorted through all the possible options in his mind. "Tell him to activate the shields of the entire flotilla, except that of the Wrath. I want those bastards to pour in here and we'll take them out as quickly as they come."
Grinning, and sweating at the same time, the jr watchstander sent the message. Almost immediately a reply came back in the affirmative. The tone, told Captain Louis that the trap would not only be a physical one.
Captain Louis walked over and resumed his seat upon his throne. The panel came back alive, though Louis would not connect himself directly with the Wrath until the ship was fully cleansed. It displayed the battles that were raging throughout his ship, and the status of the flotilla. Most of his smaller ships were gone, anything under the size of a heavy cruiser had been destroyed immediately after their shields fell. Some from weapons fire, others from self destruct as their bridges had been compromised.
As he watched his flotilla, what was left of it, came alive and began a brutal close quarters slugfest with the large cube like attack craft. The battle was brutal, the emperiums weapons dramatically effective, what few of them remained.
Captain Louis punched in a text message at the maximum encryption level, he wasn't sure if that would have any real effect against the dark heretical machinations of this particular Tech Heresy, but it was his duty to take every precaution possible. A few seconds later he sent it, to Captain Ernest E. Evans of the Battlecruiser Strife granting him temporary command of the entire flotilla and apprising him of the situation with the space wolves. He knew Evans to be an unassuming man, whose sole purpose in life was to do his duty to the navy, emperium and emperor.
As soon as the message was gone, Captain Louis stood, looked at his crew and with a thought turned on the intercom. "Men of the Emperor's Wrath. The enemy is coming, and some are already here. Hold to your faith, watch each others backs, and remember, the Emperor protects!"
With that Captain Louis turned as that strange sound which preceded the teleporting borg drones reverberated through the bridge. Good, he thought, let's get stuck in!