Chapter III: Broken bird, away it flies
He felt at ease now, doing the thing that had set him apart from the others in his family. Shining Wish handled wonderfully, the sleek little craft as fast as a bomber, but packing the firepower and armour of an assault frigate.
He flinched slightly as the ship tumbled victoriously through the expanding cloud of shrapnel and gas that had been his target.
The alien ships weren't tough, but they where fast, and there was a whole heap of them, they seemed to be emerging from what Aram assumed was their carrier in a steady stream. The carrier resembled a hive, under it's wings hung great bulbous honeycombed sections of hull, and from hexagonal orifices on these sections the enemy strike craft launched.
An enemy fighter craft swooped in behind him, firing super heated fragments of a fleshy matter. Aram had seen what those projectiles did to unshielded hulls. The heat and speed smashed its way into the body of the target vessel, and then the sac would burst apart inside, causing a chemical reaction that, if it didn't destroy the craft instantly, would open great sections of hull to space.
He was sure Shining would have more than a few scorch marks on her hull where the shots had been deflected.
He nudged the yoke to the left, sending Shining into a controlled roll, then veered straight down towards the scarlet wall that was the destroyer Implacable. The alien fighter followed him, and then proceeded to match his every move as Aram weaved around the destroyer's large mass driver turrets.
Damn! This guys good
He streaked around the keel of the Implacable, and then headed outwards, hoping to be able spin 180 degrees vertically and destroy his pursuer as he emerged from the shadow of the destroyer. As he was preparing to spin about, another fighter dove in on him from above. He had to abandon his spin and juke to avoid this new threats fire. He rolled upwards, looking for something to help him out. The nearest vessel with point defence systems was the battle cruiser Shevat, it was currently engaged with a large enemy vessel, and both ships escort fighters fought furiously between the two warships.
Aram gunned the engine, and kicked his ship into a snap roll that ended up with him pointing at Shevat. Beyond the super capital ship, he could see Twilight; the large turret on its underside unleashed its wrath on a nearby destroyer-sized vessel. The blue streaks of energy slammed into the side of the alien capital, geysers of sapphire fire reaching outwards, mingling with venting liquid – cryogenic fluids he supposed – and shattered hull plates. Six identical explosions ran along the length of the ship, as Twilights turret cannon continued to pound the smaller vessel. The second barrage was aimed along the spine of the ship; it must have hit something important, because as the third impact took place, explosions began to flare up all over the enemy ship. The fireballs quickly ran along the length of the ship. Within seconds, it was a hulk drifting silently away from Twilight, small puffs of fire the only sign of movement on it.
Two more alien fighters had joined the chase behind him, making it increasingly difficult to avoid all their shots. Shining shook occasionally as the energised hull plating deflected a bio charge. Shevat grew larger in his view port, until all he could see was the deep red of her hull. Light filters cut in momentarily as she fired her underside Ion cannon turret, which was little more than three hundred meters away. The crystal beam gouged a deep hole in the enemy vessel, and an appendage snapped off and spun away into the void. A smaller purple beam lanced past him, and he saw in his rear view screen one of the tailing fighters explode. The other three scattered, realising the danger they where in being in the shadow of the Hiigaran battle cruiser. Two of Shevats escort interceptors dived in over the edge of the hull, and sprayed the nearest alien fighter with mass driver slugs. It shook under the hail of hypervelocity rounds, then blew apart in a spray of gas and fragments of hull material. The lead interceptor streaked through the plume triumphantly.
"Looked like you could use a hand, Shining" The voice was distorted by the amount of EM that was radiating from the battle cruisers Ion turret, but he could hear the humour in her voice.
"Thanks…ah…" he checked the tactical read out of local space, looking for the designation of the strike craft nearest him. "Err…Delta-four…?"
He levelled in behind the third alien ship, holding for a second as the reticule went bright green. His gloved finger tightened on the trigger, and four emerald beams speared the target, slicing outwards from the convergence point. The craft continued to fly on unabated for a second, before falling apart into four pieces, which each detonated at the same time.
He heard a whistle as Delta-Fours wingman peppered the last fighter with slugs. It twitched under the bombardment, and then accelerated out from under the Hiigaran super capital, trailing frozen globules of liquid. Obviously the pilot thought he was safe, as he stopped doing any serious evasive manoeuvres.
His battered craft disappeared in a puff of gas and a whirlwind of razor sharp shrapnel fragments. A flash inside the dark smear indicated the end of the fighter. The flak frigate that had adhered the killing blow appeared over the artificial horizon of the battle cruiser, turrets patrolling for more targets.
"That's some neat firepower your packing there, Shining" The two interceptors swung in to take his wing as they headed to get out from under Shevat. The battle cruiser hadn't even seemed to notice the skirmish that took place beneath it "Which ship you assigned too?"
"Twilight, I'd say, that's the ship I launched from" Aram replied, looking around for the Hiigaran fleets flagship.
"Better get back to her then, she's taking the brunt of the enemy strike craft assaults. I think they know she's manoeuvring to fire her PCA"
"PCA?"
Shevat ceased being the sky for him, and he was afforded a view of the battle taking place at the edge of Seritum III's orbit. Pulses of light indicated the demise of fighters, corvettes and frigates. Beams shone glaringly in the darkness, sweeping across areas of space creating blossoms of fire as ships caught in the path of ion beams ruptured. Off to port, he saw a Hiigaran destroyer take a direct hit amidships from one of their capital ships bio spear weapons. At first nothing seemed to happen, then the spear blasted out the opposite side, tendrils of some black substance linking it further into the ship. Whole decks tore open , and he saw the internal workings of her middle rail cannon flung out into space. Cracks appeared all over the ceramic armour as the tendrils where ripped free of the deeper innards of the destroyer. It drifted away, inertly. The spear reached the end of its tether, it's momentum exhausted. Aram watched in disgusted fascination as more tendrils shot out from the aft of the spear and latched onto the destroyer. It reeled it in like a creg-fesh pulling in its catch.
"Ugh." He heard Delta-Four groan. "Yeah, Twilight's PCA, the big cannon in it's nose. Very powerful."
Aram aimed Shinings nose at the Dreadnaught.
"Oh, I see. Thanks for the help" He said as he accelerated towards the flagship.
"Anytime, SD1"
"SD1?" Aram asked confused as he sped towards Twilight.
"Yeah…" Delta-Fours transmission dissolved into static for a moment, the cause was instantly evident in the blue beam carving away at the nearby enemy capital ship. "Your designation is SD1, for Seritum Defence One"
He smiled. That was fitting, he liked that. The last survivor of Seritum was also its final defender. Squeezing as much out of his ship as he could, he flew towards the spectacle that was the battle around Twilight.

"Situation update, please Captain Sheran"
Kiron Ses-Nabaal watched in amusement as the alien fighters tried to damage Twilight. Their bio charges lasted for three seconds after impact. Twilight had seven meters of armour at most places. The larger ships posed something more a threat, their biocannons firing charges heavy enough to penetrate the Dreadnaughts armour, but so far damage from them was minimal (minimal relative to the size of Twilight, that is)
The biggest single threat to the Hiigaran flagship had come from a lone vessel, which looked like an upsized version of their biospears. A swordship, he'd heard someone on the bridge mutter as it bore down on them. The primary energy cannon had to be diverted to destroy it. Worryingly enough though, the large capital ship which Twilight had targeted for the PCA had a dozen of the vessels berthed at it's stern. Ses-Nabaal seriously hoped they weren't intended as missile ships.
"Minor venting on starboard decks E and F. Bulkheads have collapsed at the point where we were hit by that torpedo weapon. A suicide fighter also interrupted the PCAs stability, we had to shut down the system. It's restarted and recharging now, the weapon will be ready to fire in a little under a minute." Sheran looked at the tactical map " Our escort destroyers Crimson Regret and Vindictive are holding steady, they are reporting minor hull breaches, but nothing serious. Vindictive's port torpedo tube jammed, they are clearing at as we speak."
A Hiigaran frigate flared into a ball of superheated gas off Twilight's portside. The admiral looked down at the sensors operator.
"The frigate Beezling, two smaller biospears lodged in the ship, leaving the majority of it undamaged. Last report said they were still good to fight. Logs show they self destructed"
Ses-Nabaal sighed. Such a pointless waste of life.
"How are Shevat and Second Death handling this?"
The tactical map split into two windows, one centred on Shevat off Twilights port side, and the other battle cruiser to the right.
"Shevat reports she is achieving local space superiority. Capital kills are at four destroyer sized vessels, and a single heavy destroyer sized vessel." The tactical officer smiled. "Captain Krosen asks if you'll leave him any of their command vessel to shoot up"
Ses-Nabaal smiled.
"Second Death is encountering heavier resistance. She's lost the destroyer Hakar-ut, and her other escort destroyer is venting heavily"
The admiral looked up at the tactical map. Sure enough, the huge Hiigaran ship was being swarmed by waves of smaller alien craft, her ion cannons tracking rate to slow to be used properly, her captain had resorted to sweeping the deathly beam across congested areas. He had no worries about hitting friendly escorts, as they where all either heavily damaged and docked inside Second Death, or all destroyed.
Strangely enough, the battle cruisers point defence pulsars where firing on her remaining escort, Iridium.
"Contact Second Death, please"
Static filled the main screen for a moment, before clearing into the image of a pained looking man. Ses-Nabaal and the man looked at each other, both had startling grey eyes.
"Kiithid Maweer. Do you require assistance?"
Pride shone bright in the mans eyes, his face looking gaunt and hollow in the blood red emergency lights on the battle cruisers bridge. An explosion sent sparks flying on the bridge behind him, and two crewmembers passed the screen momentarily, carrying a wounded friend between them. The explosion seemed to destroy the pride. The man sighed in defeat.
"Some anti fighter weaponry would be appreciated. I am wielding a barak-sur blade and trying to peel a mershe fruit with it…it is…cumbersome, to say the least"
The admiral nodded at the captain of Twilight, who designated a group of flak frigates and gunships to assist the outnumbered battle cruiser.
Ses-Nabaal cleared his throat.
"Maweer, why are you firing on Iridium?"
The captain of Second Death looked at something off screen momentarily.
"Something is attached to their hull. The captain says it has segregated a number of decks, and he has lost contact with multiple crews. He is slowly losing control of his ship. He can no longer fire number three mass driver, and number Four is becoming erratic"
Again, Ses-Nabaal said something quietly to the Dreadnaughts captain.
"I am dispatching marine frigates to assist. Do what you can to halt the spread of the…thing. They will be with you momentarily. Your anti fighter cover is inbound, as well"
Second Death's captain bowed his head.
"Thank you, Admiral" He said the last word with a slight sneer, and closed the communication channel.
Captain Sheran glanced sideways at the admiral, but Ses-Nabaal merely shook his head and closed his eyes momentarily.
"Another time" He said quietly.
Kiron Ses-Nabaal sighed inwardly to himself. Such anger in his cousin, such jealousy. He should be glad to have been given command of something as prestigious and powerful as Second Death, not spiteful because he was not in charge of the fleet. It always was a competition between he and I, Ses-Nabaal thought, but he could never take losing.
Captain Sheran interrupted the admiral's thoughts by clearing his throat.
"We are clear to fire the Phased Cannon Array"
Ses-Nabaal looked out the main view port, at the alien monster ahead of him. It's shoals of attendant vessels floated beside it, firing at the Hiigaran ships.
The Nabaal admiral walked closer to the viewer.
"Fire at will captain"

"Sir, we have another incursion"
Captain Maweer of the battle cruiser Second Death sighed. Things where not going well for him. The reinforcements his cousin sent had alleviated the enemy strike craft problem, but now he was facing a bigger problem.
Losing his ship all together.
"How are the marines holding?"
"They're not responding, I believe we've lost the first twenty-six sections to sequestration...twenty seven now"
He tapped his temple. Things certainly where not going well.
"Marine squad 3 reports…" The tactical officer threw the earpiece down with a grimace as deafening static filled the airways. Scratching sounds drifted up through the steel decked floor.
Communications signals dropped off the tactical board, the array disappearing from the ships list of monitored systems.
Sighing, Maweer stood.
"Abandon ship…" He said slowly, sadly. The crew filed past, heads down, none of them making eye contact with him.
When they where all gone he sat down in his command chair.
He had only ever wanted to be like his cousin, to be something great. This ship was his chance at that, and now it was being taken away from him. The tactical readout showed that eighty percent of the ship was lost to him. Red fingers crept towards the sanctuary that was the bridge. He knew he always came across wrong to Ses-Nabaal, always sounded harsh.
He pushed a code into the keypad on his chair.
He didn't mean to sound like that to him…it was just…
A panel slid back revealing a softly pulsing red button.
It was so hard being his cousin…
He pushed the button there. Bright blue lights lit up, numbers flicking slowly through a sixty second countdown.
Every time he could almost consider he and his cousin equals, friend's maybe, Kiron would do something to make him better.
He squeezed his eyes shut, and waited.

Aram looked on wide-eyed at the amount of firepower being thrown about space in the area of the Hiigaran flagship. Since he arrived on the scene, two alien fighters had succumbed to his quad beam weapons, now he was tailing another meters above the trench that ran the length of Twilight.
[Priority One message for all vessels in the vicinity of Twilight]
"This is Twilight, all strike craft pull clear, we are firing the Phased Cannon Array. Repeat, all strike craft, get clear" A timer began to count down on his HUD, twenty seconds till firing.
An orange glow began to build up underneath Arams ship, small particles racing back and forth along the crevice in the Dreadnaughts hull. He began to feel weird; his stomach felt like it was bottoming out.
[Gravitic anomaly detected]
The communications channel burst into life.
"SD1! Which part of get clear didn't you understand? Move!" A females voice barked in his ear. "Now!"
He pulled up as sharply as he could, and watched on the local scanner as all the other strike craft did as well, like water from a fountain reaching it's apex.
Ten seconds.
He nosed his ship back towards the Hiigarans flagship. The orange glow was increasing around the two domes at the aft of the huge ship. The particles became streaks running along indentations in the trench.
Five seconds.
The stream of particles became a solid fill of orange and flowed towards the Dreadnaughts nose.
Two seconds.
Aram thought the orange was going to overflow past the bow of the ship. Things darted away from the enemy vessel, night black streaks jetting outwards.
Zero.
Twilight fired. A lance of blinding yellow light speared out from Dreadnaughts Cannon Array. It began to cut its way upwards through the vessels hull, steam gurgled out and armour plates melted away as the massive stream of energy plunged deeper into the target. Then she opened fire with her primary energy turret and ion arrays, ripping great holes across the unscarred sections of the hull.

Aboard the Hiigaran destroyer Ruyt'clee, the crew stood watching as Twilight spat her fury at the alien's largest vessel. Then the ship shook. Damage report, the captain yelled. Unknown, no response from impact area.
Then the most horrible screeching noise reverberated through the ship. The crew froze. That was the sound of bulkheads straining against unstoppable pressure. It was the death howl of large ships. The alarms started, breaches on multiple decks, multiple breaches in progress. The captain was about to cry abandon ship when a black tendril smashed through the offset bridges forward view port. The words where stolen from his lungs as he yelled soundlessly at his ships killer.

"Plus 14…"
The sound of the Phased Cannon Array was audible on the bridge.
"Plus 15…"
The beam was visibly beginning to waver now, as it reached its operating capacity.
"Plus 16…Phased Cannon Array shutting down" The weapons officer began to route power back to the cannon arrays torsion generators, preparing it for another firing. The alien ship they had fired at drifted ahead of them. Ses-Nabaal found that if he squinted, he could honestly see the ship twitching.
"Target has stopped moving, it's…" the tactical officer was interrupted by fleet logistics, the man sitting up straight and yelling over the bridge.
"Admiral! We've lost Second Death! She's breaking up, multiple ruptures around her midships! No pods have jettisoned…"
Ses-Nabaal quickly spun to face the tactical map.
"What happened?"
The bridge tactical officer looked to her console.
"Unknown cause, sir, we're getting telemetry feeds now…Damnit! We just lost contact with the fleet carrier"
The main screen switched to showing Second Death, the once great ship now listed to starboard. Where her keel Ion cannon turret used to rest, there was a great hole, like someone had punched their way out of the battle cruiser.
Then a great white light grew out of the maimed warship, and it disappeared in a ball bright enough to rival the birth of a star. Over a hundred tiny red blips on the tactical map winked out as the conflgration consumed them, a nearby alien frigate succumbing to the blast aswell, it's black hull peeling away like dead skin. It shook violently as the out reaches of the explosion reached it, then was devoured also.
"Sensors confirmed! Carrier Kharem-Siluk has broken in 2 astern of her corvette facility"
Ses-Nabaal looked at the tactical map in disbelief. All across the board, green dots where disappearing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a streak of black coming round to bear on Shevat.
"Put me through to Shevat! Quickly!" He almost yelled. The worried, yet still determined face of Shevats captain came onscreen. "Nerithol, jump!"
The battle cruisers captain appeared confused.
"And leave you here all by yourself?" He demanded. "No, we won't abandon you too these things"
'Captain…Nerithol, that's an order. Get clear. Please, we'll meet you back at the Homeworld. You must warn them."
The captain looked about ready to argue, then nodded sadly.
"Yes…sir. Thank you. Shevat, out"
Ses-Nabaal turned to Twilight tactical officer. He asked how many functioning capital ships where left. She shook her head slowly.
"Only Crimson Regret, Vindictive and ourselves"
Someone announced across the bridge that Shevat had just jumped away.
"Recall our fighters, make preparations to go home"
He sighed and returned to his seat.

Aram looked about in stunned disbelief at the amount of wreckage floating aimlessly about. Their fleet had been decimated in a matter of minutes. Twilight was sounding a call for emergency landing in her hangars.
Already fairly close the Dreadnaught; Aram was quickly in the queue to dock. This was more than he wanted when he came looking for vengeance. The Taidanii or some Vagyr remnants he could have dealt with…but this. This unknown enemy that destroyed a Hiigaran battle group in no time. Ahead of him, three badly damaged interceptors limped into the hangar. Aram squinted to make out the designations on them.
"Delta-Four? Is that you?" he asked.
"Yeah…oh, SD1" she sounded incredibly tired and disheartened. "We screwed up"
Yeah…
"What happened?"
"I really have no idea" she sighed "I'll talk to you once we're set down"
"Sure…"
He cut the comm. Link.
[Twilight is under attack]

"Penetration damage on port wing!"
"Keel deck N reports loss of atmosphere!"
"Starboard Ion cannon Array offline"
"Power relays dropping, backup power systems offline"
The damage reports where coming in too fast now, the violent alien craft had all turned their attention to Twilight once Shevat had jumped. One was already lodged in the Dreadnaughts port bow.
The mighty vessel could not withstand a sustained attack from these things.
"Enemy target dead ahead! It's increasing speed"
Out through the view port, the starts disappeared for fleeting seconds as the night black construct sped towards the Hiigaran flagship.
"It's going to ram us!"
Ses-Nabaal could only do one thing.
"Helm! Emergency jump procedure! Do it!"
The helmsman smashed open a glass case at the top of his console, and twisted a large screw shaped object inside of it. It hissed, and he pushed it downwards.
Deep within Twilight, the hyperspace core was fed all the power the immense warship could give it. Lights dimmed across all decks as the core greedily lapped up everything it was presented. Four seconds later, it transferred all that energy into creating a gateway, a gateway leading to a very long tunnel.
Twilight slipped through the gateway, but not before the last alien ship straightened out and dug deep into the Dreadnaughts bow.
The impact shook the ship hard, and then the inertia less environment of hyperspace claimed them for the second time that day.
Ses-Nabaal clambered up from his knees, where he was thrown when the alien bio spear burrowed into his ship.
The tactical readout had switched to a damage report. Things didn't look good. The hyper core was damaged. One of the Dreadnaughts wings was clear missing, and at least sixteen decks had unsealed leaks. The PCA was offline, one of it's torsion generators had overloaded in the emergency jump. A red triangle flashed at the main entrance to the forward hangars.
Shipboard combat.
He flicked the comm Button and spoke to the whole of the ships crew.
"All combat personnel to the bow, repeat to the bow"
He looked at the black thing stuck in his ship. He hated it. It was the thing which ruined his fleet, which killed his cousin. He pulled out his service pistol, and flicked the safety off. He looked about his bridge, the officers where all doing likewise, pistols drawn, grim faced. Soot and blood where common features of their faces.
Twilight was broken, but nowhere near defeated.
He spoke into the comm System again.
"Prepare to engage boarders"