Part 5

The speed we were travelling at was incredible, yet I felt nothing. The power requirements must have been massive, the ship was massive, I only hoped the same could be said for its shields and weapons. We would be putting them to the test. We were now only a few minutes from the ancient fleet. The singular strongest fleet left in the galaxy.

I felt the need to inform my team; Sara and Mark would need to know what was going on. They needed to understand the danger and as a team we would have to choose our path. Personally I hoped that they would stay with Lucas, stay with the Virtue through their perilous journey.

I found them both quickly; they were in our, now fixed, jumper. They seemed relaxed and happy, blissfully unaware of our treacherous journey. I didn't feel like I could leave them in the dark. Not after all we were going to go through in the next few days.

I explained our situation. The looks on their faces clearly showed confusion, or was it fear? I myself was scared of the uncertain journey we were about to make. Into the Wraith controlled space. Although I was sure they were worried and unsure they agreed on one path. We were going to stay with Lucas. Stay through the uncertainty of what was to come.

I had to tell Lucas, I had to deliver the verdict, we had agreed to stay unanimously.

He seemed happy when I told him and he delivered his own good news. We had successfully found the fleet. They were in orbit of a small moon. Unfortunately we had been unable to successfully contact them.

I was worried now, could the fleet have run into trouble? I sure hoped not, without them we had very little chance of making it through the journey.

We dropped out of hyperspace and saw the fleet. They were definitely there but still they didn't respond in any way to our communication attempt.

Lucas was just as worried as I was, he wasn't sure what to do. I had a bad feeling about this but I agreed on something with him, something that meant I had definitely gone insane. I agreed to ring over to one of the cruisers and investigate.

Mark and Sara geared up with the weapons that the Alterans supplied us. They were very powerful and supremely effective. I liked the bonuses that came with serving on an ancient battleship.

We stepped onto the rings and we were beamed in.

The lighting was dark and the corridors were empty, there was certainly no one here; the ship was ghostly. It was like being back on the Virtue the first time. Scarily though this time there was something else.

As I stepped into the corridor I immediately realised that we had made a mistake coming on board. "Get back to the rings!" I screamed to my team and we started running, I activated the rings and we got back to the Virtue.

"Get us the hell out of here!" I shouted to Lucas.

"What is going on?" he demanded.

"The fleet is gone, they were found and all those ships have now are corpses and Wraith."

"We can't leave" Lucas said "They have the other battleship"

"Does the ship have a self-destruct?" asked Sara

"Yes, it has a five minute countdown though, we can't set it off from here"

"Does it have rings?" Mark enquired

"Yes but you can't be suggesting we try to take back a battleship from the Wraith?"

"No" I said "but I have an idea"

We found ourselves kitting up once again; ready for yet another mission. Our plan was perfect. The Virtue cloaked and launched a Jumper. It flew towards the fleet and the cruiser group came to life, it turned and sped up, it was going after the jumper. The jumper turned and also sped up. I watched it from the jumper. The other one, the cloaked one. We flew directly over the ship and activated the rings.

We beamed in leaving the jumper cloaked and set about working our way to the self destruct. The ship was full of Wraith, I could hear them in the corridor and they showed up on our lifesigns detector. We split up and set off through the crawl spaces, we had split up hoping to sabotage the ship, causing enough trouble to allow Sara into the destruct bay.

Mark headed down the main passageway, he was hoping to get into the engine room. The spaces were too small to stand up and had barely enough to crawl. If you got into trouble there was no turning back.

Mark moved down the tunnels for a very long time before dropping out into a small room, the lifesigns detector only showed him. He was reassured and managed to slip quietly into the corridor.

My target wasn't quite as far away. It was only a few hundred metres but would be heavily guarded. I took the C4 from our weapons and I was going to place it in the armory. I felt this was the best chance of causing large scale damage. I dropped from the crawl space and lowered myself into the room next to the armory. The dark light made it difficult but I looked around for a way into the next room, there was none. According to my lifesigns detector there were 3 Wraith in the corridor. They seemed to be patrolling as if they anticipated our attack. I jumped back into the crawl space and prepared to take on the Wraith. I threw a small piece of rubble that fell from the ceiling at the door.

Its loud sound resounded into the corridor and on the detector I could see the first Wraith enter the room. I rolled a grenade in and it blew. It successfully blew the Wraith to hell and the second and third headed my way.

They both entered, the first looked at the roof, checking for any signs of tampering. Clearly they knew I was here, the second looked around the room and it looked confused. I took my aim and fired the ancient weapon. The Wraith hit the floor and it died. I assumed it was near instant and I took my aim and dispatched the second Wraith. I ran into the corridor and into the armory.

Sara was almost at the destruct controls but she could see ten Wraith on the detector, they were defending the position, she couldn't get any closer. Not yet, she waited patiently for the sound of the alarms.

Mark entered the next corridor and looked again. He couldn't believe his luck. He was less than six hundred metres from the engine room and he started his walk to the next corridor.

I placed all the C4 and ran out of the room and back into the crawlspace. I headed back down the tube and half way down I hit the detonator. The explosion was deafening. Alarms began to sound but no Wraith seemed to be heading for the armory. I was worried. If they weren't checking out the explosion they would have had to have gone for the troublesome option. They were fortifying their positions.

Mark was in serious trouble.

Mark headed to the intersection between junctions, he heard the alarm and knew it was plain sailing from his position. He walked casually through into the next corridor without checking the detector.

He lifted it to his face to examine the situation and was met with an unpleasant sight.

6 dots heading towards him from in front of him, 4 from behind and one in the intersection crawlspace.

"Not like this, I am not going to die here" he said to himself. He pulled out his weapon and prepared to fight.

"I'm taking some of you with me!" he shouted.

Sara noticed that none of the Wraith had moved. She decided to pull back and find out what was going on. She dropped out at the closest intersection and prepared to drop back in.

She lowered her legs down and prepared to make her own distraction. She put her arms either side of the hatch and got ready to walk herself down. She slipped.

The noise was loud. Her leg made a snapping sound as it hit the ground and she looked at the detector, three of the Wraith turned from their post and moved towards her. She had intended to make a distraction. Not be it herself.

She tried to stand but collapsed back down. She began pulling herself towards the corner. She stopped there and looked at the detector. The Wraith were drawing near now.

"It can't end here" she said as she prepared to fight "I knew it wasn't going to be a good day!"

TO BE CONTINUED…