Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 5 Far Beyond

The Drej. The mysterious energy beings whose origins were rumored to lie beyond the boundaries of the universe itself. Simply calling them by name sparked fear in many. With the Drej there was no diplomacy. Their intentions should always be regarded as hostile. Systems had suffered under the destructive power of their fleets. Even worse, entire worlds had been split apart by their motherships.

The theory was that the Drej acted to preserve the balance of power in the galaxy. Preventing entities from becoming too powerful on their own. Powerful enough to resist them. But if the Drej were indeed the all-powerful beings they appeared to be, capable of transcending the boundaries between this reality and countless others, why did they choose to return time and time again to this universe and this galaxy? It was but one of the many questions regarding the Drej that had been left unanswered.

"If that's a Drej ship, they've hired new designers," Houn commented, flattening an ear.

His long tail, sticking out from under the backrest of his seat, had been making excited sweeps the entire time. It had now retreated below it. As he watched that happen, Raeth realized he had been squeezing the armrests of his own seat. Too many things were happening too fast. The number of ships that had exited the portal had multiplied.

"Well Baika?"

The Orkeht girl squinted as her eyes glided over the readings on the different panels of her console. Muttering under her breath she shook her head with some hesitation.

"That blue aura looks suspiciously similar, but the energy signature is entirely different. Like nothing we've ever seen before from the Drej. Drej ships also use much more angular shapes instead of these smooth rounded curves. I'm counting eighteen ships in total, of three different types."

With the primary and secondary viewers focused on the unknown fleet, Raeth had no trouble distinguishing them from each other. Two ships stood out by being much larger than the others, about as big as the 800 steps long Laeisia class. The other sixteen were either slightly smaller or marginally bigger than the Myr'shala. After exiting the portal, the ships had assumed formation and held position.

The portal itself was still active, the blue glow in the center still present, but the lens-like aperture had been reduced to a fraction of the size it was after stabilization, not large enough for any vessel to move through aside from shuttle-sized craft.

"Docking hatch is sealed," Le'tan said. "Standing by for separation."

"Do it," Raeth ordered. "And back us off."

Raeth felt the mild tremble under his feet as the docking clamps retracted. Le'tan began to maneuver away from the station on thrusters as Houn plotted a course to fly the Myr'shala through the busy traffic to a safer distance.

"Detecting another power buildup coming from those ships. They are-"

Baika's sentence was cut off as a powerful scanning beam hit the ship. Emanating from all of the unknown vessels, the beams swept across space like searchlights, targeting every artificial object. Lights and consoles flickered as the beam appeared to disrupt power.

"I'm losing helm control," Le'tan said with a calm voice, despite the circumstances. "Console is not responding to my inputs."

The bridge filled itself with all kinds of major and minor alerts that the crew tried to silence, while attempting to regain control.

"Collision alert!" Houn warned. "We're gonna hit that freighter if we don't change course soon."

"Engineering to bridge! What's going on out there? Main power is fluctuating, and systems are unresponsive."

Majih's aggravated face showed up on the secondary viewer, the hovering camera drone following him through main engineering as he tried to keep things running to the best of his abilities. Their consoles exhibited the same symptoms and even the drone itself seemed to have trouble staying aloft, judging by the shakiness of the video feed.

"We're being scanned by a possibly hostile alien force," Raeth replied. "Can we shield ourselves?"

"Maybe, if this console would work, I could figure out a way," Majih grunted, tapping the panels to no avail.

"Prepare for battle. I get the feeling they're not here for a friendly first contact."

With the hull of the freighter getting dangerously close through the panoramic window, and neither ship capable of controlling their movement, Raeth sucked the air through his teeth as he watched his helmsman's repeated attempts to get the engines going.

"Le'tàààn."

"Still trying… Got it!"

At the same time, the invasive scanning stopped. With power and controls restored, the Myr'shala skimmed the freighter's hull, missing it by mere steps. Raeth's ears picked up the thumps of heavy footsteps behind him, mere ticks later accompanied by the surprisingly calm voice of the one person he least expected.

"Permission to take over tactical, Ginjha."

Looking over his shoulder, he looked straight into the emerald eyes of his rebellious Kaedar. Of course, with the ship on full alert, the situation hadn't gone unnoticed. With a large and important part of the crew still aboard the station, he was more than glad to see Jirro.

"Granted. Jirro, if you're still interested in showing what it takes, now's your chance."

The enormous Ryrjhii-Goureg grunted in affirmation, taking over tactical in the absence of Trezka, Norgu and Nami. Without gunners and only assisted by the ship's targeting systems, his role could become the most important in whatever came next.

"Trezka to Myr'shala! If you can hear me, we've met with more resistance, but are close to our goal. They're now well aware of our presence. We're givin' 'em what they deserve."

Masai's ears did pick up Trezka's attempted communique, but she was much too busy covering her friend as he pushed forward. She and Azdar made a good team. They always did. And so the group had split up in three pairs, pushing forward in the direction of the holding cells as pointed out by their hostage. Battling it out with the few guards still present, the corridor was filled with energy beams- and bolts as both parties continued to exchange shots at a high rate, using the recesses as cover.

The most recent stun grenade, thrown by Thylun, had weakened their opponents' resolve to hold their position, aside from a stubborn rabbit-like Lepori and his or her companion of a reptilian race she couldn't remember the name of. Glancing around the corner after a short break in shots being fired, she could still see some movement in the shadows ahead.

Only to pull back when a shot zinged past the tip of her beak. Smelling ozone she heard Azdar's swearing and the scraping of the metal claws of his prosthetic foot. It seemed he was trying to trick their adversaries in targeting that which could not be damaged by their weapons with mixed results, as it was next to impossible to control the deflection angle.

"Is everyone still in one piece?" Trezka yelled, as Azdar returned fire together with Weyan.

"I'm hit, but I'm okay," Thylun answered, while covering Weyan. "Just a scratch."

"We gotta clear the way," Weyan growled. "This is taking too long."

Meanwhile, Norgu was still keeping an eye on their hostage. Unarmed, and with the shots fired by his colleagues missing him by a finger's length, the Togrothian whimpered while trying to make himself as small as possible, until he had finally scraped together the courage to speak up.

"C'mon let me go. I've shown you the way, haven't I?"

"Yeah, but we can't trust you," Trezka sneered. "What if this is a trap, which it is beginning to feel like?"

"It's not, I swear! Cells are always guarded."

"Be quiet," Norgu grunted. "We'll decide what to do with you when we're in there."

"It's time to do just that," Masai thought, slipping around the leg of the next arch to join up behind Azdar in the adjacent space. Signaling Weyan on the opposite side, she retrieved another stun grenade from the utility belt around her waist. Priming it with her thumb, she tossed it around the corner, waiting for the bang as she covered her ears and looked away like the rest.

Only something didn't feel right. The effect of the flash was diminished to safe levels by her closed eyelids, though impossible to miss. She felt the rush of air due to the sudden pressure change that rolled through the corridor like a heavy downdraft. But a fraction of a tick before that there were two smaller flashes. Even before opening her eyes she was certain it was not her imagination at work. Those were not shots being fired, or detonations of some other kind.

The first thing she noticed was the sudden and almost complete silence, apart from the hum of the station's worn-down support systems on these lower levels. The lights flickered for a bit before turning back to their previous brightness levels. Azdar again used his metal foot to bait anyone still alive into firing, but without receiving a hit.

As she peaked around the corner she saw nothing but an empty corridor up till the next bulkhead door which was the supposed entrance to the Syndicate's private prison. The security station looked empty as well. But where the two remaining guards had been there was nothing. The carcasses of broken security drones and robots littered the deck and there were a couple of motionless bodies further down the corridor, but the remaining two had vanished without a trace.

"Looks like it's clear!" Weyan yelled, crouching further while keeping his gun trained down the corridor just in case.

"If we got them, then where are their bodies?" Azdar asked no one in particular.

The group moved into the wider part of the corridor, scanning the area for any strays that might try to ambush them but found no one alive or conscious. The security station, shielded by a metal and Duraglass barrier, was unmanned. The Togrothian, being ushered by Norgu, walked ahead of him and Trezka with his bushy tail between his legs.

"You! Dog breath!" Trezka barked. "What happened to your friends? How did they disappear?"

The alien recoiled in fear and whimpered as she made a move as if she were about to smack him with her rifle.

"B-Blink packs," he stuttered.

Trezka flattened an ear. Masai noticed how his answer provoked the same type of reaction in everyone, including herself.

"What?"

"Personal teleporters. The Hytharians have been looking after the station just as much as after their experiment. Their drones are all over the place. And they leave stuff behind. Even they have their flaws. Even their drones can cease to function."

"So what you're telling me is that there are those among you smart enough to reverse engineer their tech for your own use? Is that what you're saying?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Well, you might wanna have mentioned that!" she growled, her copper-colored eyes glittering.

The dog-like alien, shielding his face with his arms, whimpered under the thundering sound of her voice and the threatening step in his direction.

"So that's how they do it," Masai interrupted, catching everyone's attention. "That's how they kidnap people. They knock them out and then teleport themselves and their victims away. Remember how Le'tan and Houn couldn't figure out how they managed to get away while barely leaving a trace?"

Trezka flicked an ear, her eyes narrowed to slits as she kept them focused on her victim.

"So how does that even work? They can just drop in on us at any moment?"

The Togrothian shook his head.

"No, they never got the system to work both ways. It always beams the user back to the base station."

"Which is perfect for quick getaways and kidnappings," Norgu concluded.

"Right, so at least we don't have to deal with them dropping onto our necks," Trezka said. "Now you're gonna use your security clearance to get us in there. Move." She pointed her rifle in the direction of the only door between them and the holding cells. The alien obeyed, trudging toward the access panel with its tail still tucked between his legs. "What's y'r name anyway?"

"It's Rhagi."

After he placed a pawlike hand on the access panel, the bulkhead door split open toward both sides, revealing the darkness behind it, only for the overhead lights to turn on to a low level block by block. And judging by a quick look inside there were quite a few blocks. Masai shivered as the feeling moved up her spine. The horrific smell washing over her induced a gag reflex. The look of those cells with their barred entrances brought back memories of when she was locked up in one herself, if only for about two days. The slavers that raided the village in the outer colonies in which she grew up showed no mercy, not even for children.

"All right. Let's do a quick search before more of Rhagi's friends show up," Trezka ordered, taking the lead.

Moving in with large thumping steps she walked down the middle of three corridors, with Norgu holding position near the block's entrance to keep an eye on their hostage. Thylun and Weyan took the right corridor while Masai followed Azdar into the left one. Next to the overhead lights, the lights in each individual cell had turned up to high brightness as well. Some of these showed empty while others did not.

Looking back at her, as she followed in her friend's steps, were the eyes of prisoners. Most of them innocent, she believed, for these had to be the victims of the kidnappings that Nami and Jetreycka fell prey to. The noises of the gunfight had raised hopes of escape, the way they clung to the horizontal bars of their cells. She recognized various different species and did not recognize some others, but none of them were her own. Still, there were three rows so there was a good chance the others had more luck.

"Hey, can you get us out?" hissed a small reptilian-looking creature, its long tongue slithering out of its mouth between the bars of its cell.

"They're not here," Azdar grunted, having reached the end of the block.

Masai, having reached that conclusion as well, turned around on the spot, noticing every prisoner standing at the bars. In the wake of the one creature who dared to speak up, more cries for help reached her ears. It was all too familiar. Innocent people, plucked from their daily lives to be used as merchandise or entertainment. It had to end.

"We gotta find a way to free these people," she decided. Taking a look at one of the control panels, it was evident that these could be accessed only by those with the right level of clearance. As she looked over her shoulder at Azdar, he nodded back at her. Walking back to the front of the block, she raised her voice. "Don't worry, we're gonna find a way to get you out."

Her statement was met by some careful cries of hope and sighs of relief. Maybe they could abuse Rhagi's privileges to some degree, although she somehow doubted his security clearance was at a high enough level to do any good. If they had found Nami and Jetreycka in one of the other rows, they had to figure something out anyway. There's gotta be a solution.

"And?" she asked, meeting up with the others at the cellblock entrance.

"No luck," Weyan said, shaking his head.

"They're not here," Trezka concluded. "Anymore. One of the prisoners told me they have taken a number of prisoners, including two Mantrins wearing Imperial Guard red. Mentioned something about fighting. Doesn't sound good."

"We gotta free these people," Masai said, feeling determined. "They've done nothing wrong."

Grinding her teeth, Trezka seemed to agree with her, though did not have a clear idea on how to do that. Her eyes quickly caught Rhagi though, who was still under Norgu's watch. The alien's triangular ears drooped again, and he recoiled as she smiled.

"Well Rhagi, it seems you'll still be able to do something good. As your last act of today, you're gonna help us free these prisoners."

"I-I don't have clearance."

Nodding in the direction of the security station, Trezka didn't seem bothered.

"No, but one of your friends lying around here, might. So we're gonna try it anyway. Walk."

With Trezka and Norgu ushering Rhagi to the security console, the rest of the team moved into position to cover the corridor, in case of another attack.

"Shall I take a look at that?" Masai asked, noticing the burn mark on Thylun's shin.

"It's not that bad, but if you wanna do a quick patch up, now might be the best time," he answered.

Retrieving the tissue regenerator from her backpack, she dropped on one knee to treat the small superficial injury.

"Anyone else got something worth treating?" she asked.

As she continued to heal some minor burns and scratches, Trezka wrestled with the prisoner problem in the meantime. As expected, Rhagi's security clearance wasn't enough to open the doors, but he could access the systems.

"Let's see if one of your friends does," Norgu grunted. "Which one do you recommend?"

"Lepori," Rhagi said, pointing at another one of the rabbit-like aliens who had been caught in the crossfire. "She was the one on guard."

Placing his gun on his back, Norgu took a couple of large steps toward the motionless body. But before he could lower himself to pick her up, the lights began to flicker before turning off, shrouding the whole place in darkness.

"What the heck?" Masai heard Trezka growl.

It even took a while for the dim red emergency lighting to kick in, which was enough to see something.

"The experiment?" Thylun asked no one in particular.

"Thought it was still too early," Azdar answered.

"Console's back up. Norgu?"

The big Logri grunted in response, lowering himself on his enormous legs to grab the Lepori woman under her arms and drag her backwards around the corner of the security station.

"She still feels warm. Might just be unconscious."

"Good, now let's see if this does the trick."

Masai watched as Norgu hoisted her up and Trezka grabbed the alien's wrist to put her clawed hand on the biometric scanner. Rhagi watched from a slight distance, pressing himself against the bulkhead behind the station with Azdar's rifle still pointed at him. What looked like a vain attempt at first was rewarded by a series of metallic clangs coming from the cell block. At the same time the emergency lighting was exchanged by the regular variant as power kicked back in.

"Not sure what's going on out there, but at least we've tackled this problem," Trezka muttered.

From the cell block came audible sounds of cheer and relief. As they spilled out of the block, the prisoners thanked them and began scavenging weapons from the fallen gang members. They robbed them of their blasters, rifles, grenades and even knives. Not long thereafter they began to organize into a mob, knowing that staying together increased their chances of making it back to the upper levels.

A huge bear-like alien covered in black fur had gotten one of the rifles and readied herself to lead the pack, raising the weapon above her head with a loud roar, baring large razor-sharp teeth.

"They took my mate! It's time to teach them a lesson. Who's with me?"

Her clamoring was met with enthusiasm, despite the state of neglect and malnourishment they were in. The skinny appearance of some and the dirty ragged pieces of clothing many of them wore, made Masai wonder how long they had been locked up. With the mob marching away, leaving the team behind, Trezka chuckled and used her foot to poke Rhagi, who apparently had been cowering under the security station.

"What're you doing under there? You're really not cut out for this, are you?"

"T-They'll kill me," he whimpered.

"Yeah well, that's what you deserve. But you did help us out, which I'm not ungrateful for. Tell me one last thing. What're you doing with the prisoners? Where're you taking them?"

"Some are sold as slaves. Some get sent to the pit to fight each other."

"I need some directions." With a final act against his will, Rhagi called up a map of the station via the security console and pointed out the location. Not long thereafter, Masai received the coordinates on her wristcom, like everyone else as Trezka copied the info. "Okay, that's it for you. Now get outta here! C'mon, shoo!"

Trying to convince himself they wouldn't shoot him in the back until he disappeared around the next corner, Rhagi darted away, hurried along by the team as they went after him to follow the route to their new location.

"If they're being forced to fight against one another, they might not have a lot of time left," Masai said, following Trezka's lashing tail as they picked up the pace.

"All the more reason to hurry up," her superior reasoned. "That mob will be our diversion."

The pain in her upper arm was as sharp as the blade that pierced it. Her soaked sleeve stuck to her skin. A pearl of sweat dripped from the tip of her beak. Panting, gathering every bit of restraint she had left, in order not to lash out as one of the guards pressed the muzzle of his gun into her back, Nami trudged back into the holding room, acknowledging the nods of respect she got from her fellow prisoners. There was little honor to be gained in fights like these, but the least one could do was face them with little sense of dignity.

Grinding her teeth, she knew there was little to nothing she could do to remove the look of shock from Jetreycka's face when they made eye contact. Following it on screen was a whole lot different than watching live or standing in the ring for that matter.

"Okay, who's next?" one of the Togrothian guards bellowed with a sadistic look on his face.

Making her way to Jetreycka, overhearing how the next two combatants were being rounded up, she used her other hand to keep pressure on the wound.

"By Kirliya, are you?-"

"Don't worry 'bout it," she said, succeeding in sounding confident, but unable to convince her friend and fellow crewmate. "I guess they were thinking the same thing I was. That this was a rather unbalanced match. So they decided to even the odds a bit... by throwing him a sword of all things!"

"You managed to disarm him."

Nami nodded in response. She knew how to fight, with and without weapons, though this time there was more luck involved than she wanted to admit. It wouldn't help to make Jetreycka feel more at ease anyway. Removing her hand from the deep cut in her upper arm, she noticed it was still bleeding. To remedy this, Jetreycka began tearing off a piece of the leg of her pants, turning it into a makeshift bandage.

"That look in his eyes, when he realized he was going to die," she muttered, as Jetreycka wrapped the piece of cloth around her arm, tightening it with a knot. "Begged me to make it swift, so I did."

"You had no choice," Jetreycka said, inspecting her work. "None of us have, right now."

"There was something else. Did you notice that power failure during the fight?"

"Could be the experiment."

"Could be. But I did notice some guards in the audience getting away in a hurry when the lights turned back on. I've got a hunch something's about to happen and taking advantage of it might be our chance to escape."

Taking a look around, she didn't notice anything off just yet. Power seemed to have come back on without residual problems. The Enforcers still watched every movement from their positions in the corners. Without weapons, the injured fighters weren't much of a force against the well-armed guards, but they did have strength in numbers. A sufficient diversion might be all we need.

"The shuttle is holding position at the other side of the station. Syrran reports that they too suffered a power outage but no damage. They've lost contact with the team though. They're continuing to monitor all frequencies."

"Good. Keep me informed, Baika."

Trying to assess the current situation, Raeth tried to weigh the different possibilities. If he didn't have any personnel trapped on the station, he would order Le'tan to back off. Multiple ships seemed to have done just that, increasing their distance from the unknown vessels with shields raised. The Myr'shala had its shields raised as well. Aside from the rather invasive scans, which were like the ship's equivalent of being stripped naked, the unknowns still hadn't shown any signs of hostility.

"Jirro, any thoughts on their offensive capabilities? Can you make any kind of assessment on how our weapons might fare against them?"

His Kaedar did not reply right away, as his eyes glided over the readings on his console. With all attempts at communication failing so far, it was Raeth's hope that they could at least gather some useful info and not start a possible confrontation completely in the dark.

"Their ships do not seem to possess any kind of visible weaponry," Jirro grunted. "They are composed of energy fields, similar to Drej vessels, but there are key differences in their signature. There's no telling how effective our weapons will be."

"They could even have additional defensive capabilities that our sensors cannot detect," Baika added. "But now I'm speculating. Unless they make a move, there's not much else left to discover."

"Okay, we're gonna sit tight and wait until we hear from our people on the station. Majih, can you figure out a way to shield our systems from their scans?"

With an active video link to main engineering on one of the secondary viewers to ease communications, Majih, Jacky and Itan remained in direct contact with the bridge.

"Hold on Raeth. Jacky? Can you give us an update?"

"First simulation results are coming in. You might be able to use them to figure something out."

After a short pause Majih nodded, the pressure adding some visible strain to the expression on his face as he worked his console.

"I'm working on a way to remodulate our shields based on the frequency of their scanning beam. I'm not saying that will fully protect us, but we should at least be able to stay in control of our own ship."

"Do whatever you deem necessary. We'll be relying on it."

"Yes, sir."

"Raeth, the Hytharians have launched a smaller vessel of their own," Baika said. "It's moving toward the unknown ships."

"Show us."

The magnified view she put up on the main viewer showed one of the smaller sphere-shaped vessels that were also present on the other side of the portal, moving toward the enemy ships at a slow but steady speed. It was like a smaller version of its parent ship and about the same size as the Myr'shala. Its smooth silver gray surface carried only a few different colored markings in an irregular pattern.

Slowing down until it came to a standstill at about the same distance from the small flotilla as the ships held between each other, there was still no response. So far, no party had dared to return the favor and fire an active scanning beam on them, though it seemed that was about to change. The spherical construct activated its scanners, firing a beam on the nearest energy-based ship.

"Le'tan, standby for evasive maneuvers," Raeth ordered.

"Aye."

"This could be a mistake on their part."

"Energy buildup!" Baika warned. "Could be a weapon charging. It's-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the unknown vessel's outer hull rippled with energy that concentrated in a single spot. Without warning it hit the Hytharian vessel like a bolt of lightning, destroying it in an instant. The explosion sent pieces of its shiny hull flying in all directions, a couple of pieces bouncing off shimmering fields of energy surrounding the hostile vessels.

The Hytharian response was swift and immediate. Circle-shaped parts in the smooth hull of their hive world dematerialized and more of their smaller vessels exited the launch tubes behind them. The remaining Xhi'tha ships mobilized and began to morph, growing additional extensions from their organic hulls. Their biomass glowed as energy began to build and a number of their ships joined together to form one much larger and more powerful construct.

The energy-based vessels had been triggered as well, the hulls of all ships now pulsating in the same manner as the first vessel that attacked.

"That's not looking good," Houn said with a slight tremble in his voice, his tail once again moving back into that tense curve.

"Divert all available power to shields," Raeth ordered. "Jirro, do not fire until I give the order. Le'tan keep our distance." Watching a battle unfold right in front of them, Raeth prepared for a confrontation that now seemed almost inevitable. The Hytharians made a mistake. One that could prove costly. The remaining question was how far it would drag everyone else present into it. "Let's see how this plays out."