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00000

ACT 2 – TRUTH

Chapter 30 – Fall Protocol

Seeal took another step back as the torn, on fire, front section of the Wraith Cruiser tumbled, growing larger in shockingly fast speed. She watched in horror as she realised she could make out individual floors of the Cruiser, sections spitting venting and flaming atmosphere out of breached holes in its side; all of it shockingly too close.

"COLLISION ALERT," a loud automated female voice shouted out through Saoka's office, a line of red lights flashing to life above her view of the approaching Cruiser piece. "COLLISION ALERT. BRACE FOR IMPACT AND EMERGENCY STATION MANOEURVES."

Station manoeuvres, brace…yes, she should do that right now.

Seeal looked around her immediate area and, just to her left, was the luxuriously cushioned seating area looking out at what had formally been a lovely view out the window. She reached for the frame of the closest chair, praying that Saoka was smart enough to bolt down his furniture on a space station. She grabbed the back of the large sofa chair and, she was elated to find, it felt very firmly fixed, which was good because abruptly the decking under her was far less so.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE FOR IMPACT AND EMERGENCY STATION MANOEURVES," the female computer repeated as Seeal gripped the back of the large chair frame as everything around her started shaking.

"…four through nine thrusters firing," she heard a snippet of loud conversation from the far end of the office behind her, but she didn't look round as the shaking started growing in intensity, the increasing vibrations juddering up through her boots and through her tight grip on the chair. But the shaking wasn't levelling out in force, it was just getting stronger and stronger, and she could feel the pushing sensation intensify behind her right shoulder, forcing her forward into the back of the chair's frame.

She swore she could feel her bones shuddering inside her body, the pressures on her almost too much. She dropped to her left knee on the thick office carpet, but kept her grip tight on the top of the chair above her head despite the horrible vibrations holding on was sending through her hands and down through her body.

And then everything suddenly became far worse, the pressures seemingly doubling in an instant, pressing her right up into the back of the chair, her right cheek and jaw pressed hard against the metal bars she could feel through the thin fabric back of the seat.

She felt like her body was being crushed and just drawing in a breath felt like a full-on fight for her life. A rush of light-headedness made her head swim for a moment and then the pressures released, as if a giant hand that had been pressing her into the chair suddenly vanished, and she gasped in a desperate full breath.

She opened her eyes as she pushed herself away from her crushed hug of the chair only for what lighting there had been to abruptly snap off, plunging the office around her into darkness, well, not complete darkness; flaming oranges and reds glowed in from the right, presumably through the window.

Against her better judgement, she turned her head to look back towards the window. Small running lights had appeared above the window and two red bulbs were flashing repeatedly over the view outside.

The Cruiser was still there, too close, bigger in fact, but she could see that the angle of its approach was different; or rather, the station had moved in relation to the Wraith ship's rolling onslaught. But it was still far too dangerously close.

She looked up to the low-lit running lights; emergency lighting then. If this station was anything like Dream, full power would be being diverted to the engines, gravity and-

The station shuddered under her again and suddenly her ears cleared enough of their former rushing panic to capture snippets of a loud conversation going on between Saoka, Nanuet, and at least two other voices from the far end of the office. Able to move freely now, she pushed herself up from the floor and looked round over her shoulder towards the voices. With the room in only dull light, the brightness of the two display screens above Saoka's desk were almost uncomfortable to look at, but not as much as the looks on Saoka and Nanuet's faces as they stared at the displays.

Seeal realised the loud noise in her ears was actually the loud shouty alarm still, preventing her from hearing all of Saoka and Nanuet's conversation.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

"….overloaded Section Three thrusters, we're diverting power, but it won't be-" a female voice reported from a tinny-sounding speaker.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

"…shutting down…"

"It's not enough," Nanuet interrupted the other voice, pointing to something on one screen.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

"We need more distance," Nanuet continued after the alarm, fear clear in his voice and across his usually stoic features. "It's going to hit Section Three."

Still tightly clutching the back of the chair, Seeal swung her attention back to the window and the horror outside.

In the short time she'd been looking away, the Cruiser was even closer, but she could see the angle of its uneven roll was now directed off to the right, which was where the station's Section Three was positioned…where ships were docked and the engineering repair areas of the station were located. Docks and ships full of fuel and engines of their own to be damaged and breached!

"…are pulling away, but we have three ships still docked, trying to…"

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

The far left of the window suddenly revealed stars - moving stars - as the Cruiser started progressing through the view.

Seeal watched in shocked terror as the Cruiser kept rolling, revealing more stars behind it and massive amounts of flying dots of what were presumably debris and even dead Wraith themselves scattering out into the vacuum from the Cruiser. More of the stars pursued the Cruiser and, with another tumbling roll, it was almost entirely out of the window's view.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE," the automated voice repeated what was clearly now inevitable.

"…blew out several circuits, thrusters there are overloaded and physical fuel spent…."

"Can we use the other sections' thrusters?" Saoka shouted.

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

"…there's no time-"

Seeal turned, getting both her hands firmly on the chair frame again and she dropped back down into a protective brace against its back, the flaming lighting from outside cutting away as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

She should have damn well stayed in the Facility!

"COLLISION ALERT. BRACE IN PLACE."

"…it's going to hit the docking arms and-" She heard Saoka start to shout, but the reality of the announcement arrived, cutting him off.

The impact took a moment longer to arrive than she predicted, but was far more violent than she expected. She was thrust up against the back of the chair and then thrown around it. She somehow kept her grip tight on the frame, but her body was thrown into a spin around the side of the chair, the soft carpet under her backside and legs, and she was suddenly almost hanging horizontally from the chair, her boots hitting the back of the sofa bolted down further along the office. Her hands screamed in pain as she held on, but it was a familiar pain and she knew her hands were strong; toned early from climbing the big Glisi trees and then from years of fighting in the pit fights, not to mention the far too many damn instances of her having had to cling on for her life!

She was vaguely aware of other people shouting in pain and stress around the office, and abruptly something smashed into her face.

Panic screamed up through her, but a split second of rationality registered that the object was soft and was flying away from her again; a random free cushion from the sofa presumably…

And then the decking and the overwhelming forces on her shuddered and relaxed, throwing her momentarily back the other way. Her lower body collapsed and skidded along the thick carpet to a sudden rest, but she didn't let up her death-grip of the chair frame…in fact she wondered if she'd ever be able to let go of it again.

She gasped in relief, aware that she had been pretty lucky that it had just been a cushion that had hit her. Something else harder at that force might have snapped her neck, but she was alive, for now…

Then she looked up towards the window again.

The stars were flying past outside and through them, in the distance, she could see a massive expanding cloud of debris. There were flaming broken pieces in the cloud and flashes of light, and then it circled out of view as the station wheeled on.

Okay, she was still alive, but the station was spinning and if that debris cloud had been their former location then the station was also moving at an alarming rate.

She forced herself to peel one hand from the chair frame and sat up properly on the thick carpet. The fast moving stars outside were quickly making her feel sick though, so she looked away to where Saoka and Nanuet were still huddled in front of their displays screens. Artificial gravity was working, because the floor felt like the floor and the two males were upright and she wasn't floating, though with the amount of adrenaline she could feel coursing through her veins, she wouldn't be surprised if she didn't notice if she were free-floating.

"BRACE FOR EMERGENCY. BRACE FOR EMERGENCY," the automated voice was now announcing, which seemed entirely unnecessary in her opinion.

She dragged herself up from the carpet, staggering for a moment as the shaking under her feet became apparent. Considering the movement outside, that the station was shaking so little was a miracle, the gravity and stabilisers working well for now. She pushed away from the chair, both her hands screaming in pain, but she shook them out, getting blood flowing back into them again as she headed towards Saoka's desk.

"…we've lost primary thrusters and Engine Three has completely failed," Nanuet was shouting.

"BRACE FOR EMERGENCY. BRACE FOR EMERGENCY."

"Fires reported sweeping up through stairwells in docking units and the entire far end of Section Three is missing," a voice shouted out of a speaker.

Saoka and Nanuet were intent on the displays screens, constantly talking and pressing things on the screens as Seeal hurried as fast as she could towards them; the brightly lit screens in front of them showing every crease and frown of panic on their faces.

"BRACE FOR EMERGENCY. BRACE FOR EMERGENCY."

She made it to Saoka's massive desk, grasping onto its rounded edges as she moved round it to the limited space next to Saoka, and finally she could see the big display screens for herself.

It was not comforting viewing.

"…we've lost primary power systems through all sections and there were referred explosions up through…" a voice added out of the left-hand screen.

But Seeal fixed her attention on the main part of the right-hand screen which displayed a full schematic of the station and it was lit up with alerts and emergency readings. She ran her eyes over what she could see as quickly as possible. The entire end section of the station was dark with the remaining parts of Section Three alight with multiple alerts of fire, hull breaches, and venting atmosphere. Section Two was showing structural alerts running along its sides, with some fire alerts in the area closest to Section Three, and she could see various power warnings. Section One was showing power warnings too, but seemed relatively intact from what she could see.

She really wished she was in Section One, but Saoka's office was top middle of the station, right in Section Two.

On the left screen, two faces were showing in live feeds, one of them clearly Portal Security as behind the male displayed Seeal could see the glowing Portal and masses of civilians cramming through it to escape the station.

"…we still have over a hundred people in the Portal room still," the Security male shouted over the din of panic behind him. "They are going through to our Secondary Station now, Commander. Alerts have gone to the Military already. We need to open the hatch to the lobby, get more civilians out through the Portal!"

Hatch? Seeal looked up over the screens towards the far doorway in the left-hand wall of the office, only to see it was now covered by a thick lockdown hatch. Great, she was sealed in this office, not that it made any difference right now, she realised. It wasn't like she was about to have a nice stroll about the marketing halls.

"No, Sunto," Saoka replied loudly back to his Portal Security. "The station is in spin and we've lost primary power throughout the station. Luwian is diverting secondary power now to the BreakAway engine powercells and Computer Pilots."

Sunto's face went through a split second of stunned shock. "Commander, we can't-"

"Get everyone through that Portal now, Sunto!" Saoka ordered loudly. "All your staff and yourself. We're enacting Fall Protocol."

Sunto took a brief breath and nodded. "Yes, Commander." He turned in the view and pointed off to his right. "Get me the Fall Protocol pad and prepare for full evacuation of this room!"

"Tell me once you are leaving, Sunto," Saoka ordered.

"Yes, Commander," Sunto replied over the renewed screaming panicked civilians behind him, but his attention was focused on his work.

"Fall Protocol?" Seeal asked as she watched Saoka tapping on various controls.

The desk and decking was starting to noticeably increase in its shaking.

"We're getting spin under control, Commander," the female on the other live screen reported. "We have half the thrusters available, but if we can get stabilised enough..."

"Do it!" Saoka nodded to her. "Get us to the best position possible for BreakAways to separate."

Seeal looked off to the view outside again. She could see the movement of the stars was slowing, but they were still moving. She realised there was a rhythm now to the shuddering under her feet, the station's crew trying to control the station's out of control flight. The latest turn of the station took the view back round towards the debris cloud, but it was shockingly further away than before, and it was a mass of lights. It couldn't be explosions still, that small and repeating, so presumably there was fire-fight going on? Maybe between the ships that had once been docked at the station and the Wraith Fighters that had come through the Seed Ship's jump window?

"We have multiple injuries here, Commander," Sunto shouted out of the screen. "It's delaying evac, but majority of the room's civilians are almost off the station."

Seeal switched her attention back to the station's full schematic and one little reading at the top. It reported there were over nine thousand people on the station. It was a shocking number to be stuck in the spinning tin can of a station. She couldn't imagine how many injuries there had been already. Surely there had been hundreds of people in each of the marketing halls when the station's thrusters had initially fired to move out the way of the flaming Wraith ship. Elderly, disabled, and children… She had barely held onto that chair.

"Get people out now, Sunto, even if you have to drag them," Saoka ordered forcefully. "We have less than three minutes until we must detach BreakAways in time before we reach the planet's atmosphere."

Seeal snapped her head round to Saoka's profile inches away from her. "Atmosphere?!"

Saoka nodded. "The thrusters firing and the impact from the Wraith ship threw us too far and fast out of alignment and we're caught in the planet's gravity."

Seeal looked back to the window, watching as the slowing stars moved round and the pale brown orange of the planet started filling the view, far too close.

"We're going to fall into the planet," she gasped as she watched the next horror awaiting her. "In a metal box of a space station!"

She was going to die.

0000

Long Sleep watched in shocked fascination as the decapitated Cruiser kept going, its engine pods still firing, but the front third of the ship was gone and the slice through the ship meant entire sections were open to the vacuum and venting atmosphere. The central spinal corridor would be venting right down through the Cruiser, thousands presumably already dead. He could see bursts of fire out the sides of the Cruiser, powerlines exploding and atmosphere on fire inside the ship, burning and breaking apart the vessel from the inside out.

But the enemy oval ship was at least gone and, presumably, destroyed on the far side of the window through which the oval and front end of the Cruiser had disappeared.

The Hive shook under Long Sleep bringing him instantly back to the fact that the battle was still ongoing. He dropped his attention back down to the displays in front of him, aware of Mind Song's own shocked reaction next to him.

"There is only one enemy ship left," New Breath declared victoriously, but she was only referring to the oval Skerti ships, whereas the view outside, and on sensors, was flooded with Skerti-held Prey ships.

The Hive shuddered under him again as Long Sleep turned his attention to getting the newly generated nutritional fluids through to the irradiated front areas of the Hive. The exposure to the oval ship hadn't been that long, but the intensity of the radiation had been far greater than from the Drive engine he had seen on his former Hive. But then the Drive had been spliced into that Hive, whereas those ovals ships were perhaps pure Skerti tech.

He frowned at his turning mind as he worked on taking care of this Hive. How could the oval ships punch through hyperspace like that? As he worked, he pulled up a secondary display with the former sensor readings of both the oval ship's bizarre jumps and the Drive's window. He glanced repeatedly at the display, taking in and comparing the results as best he could while he worked. Beside him, Mind Song was talking with New Breath, overseeing the battle, but Long Sleep could feel his Batch Brother's failing faith in the battle's course.

The fresh fluids directed to the right areas, conduits healing up with help from the Hive's young Keepers, Long Sleep allowed himself a few moments to study the two Skerti tech readings. The punches through hyperspace were close to the Drive's tech, but they were still very different. He suspected then that the Drive he'd seen was not responsible for the punch jumps, but unless he got his hands on an actual Skerti Drive…

The decking shifted under him as he felt the Hive making a sudden course correction, so he looked up from the sensor comparison, tuning back into what was happening.

"…last oval ship remains under their central ship," Mind Song was saying to New Breath. "The radiation it is emitting will not allow us to get any closer, Great Queen."

"There is one left and we must destroy it," New Breath glared back at Mind Song.

"Yes, but we are unable to," Mind Song replied patiently despite the hectic battle outside and quick course corrections and weapons fire shuddering the Hive around them.

New Breath let out a brief hiss as she turned away, focusing forward at the front hologram. "If we can break through their defensive wall again, get some shots towards that last oval ship-"

"My Queen," the Hive Primary shouted his interruption, "the last Hive that arrived is breaking apart completely, engine pods likely to detonate."

Long Sleep switched his attention instantly to the displays on Mind Song's end of their shared console, seeing the chaotic spread of the battle. With so many ships having been torn or blown apart, there was so much debris now that he could see all ships were struggling to avoid physical impacts. A large spread of destroyed Cruiser had created an island of debris that the enemy were now using as part of their defensive wall, dodging around the pieces and holding a still highly effective defence around the central enemy ship.

But the enemy's attack was also still ongoing. The large central ship was firing its powerful energy weapon again and Long Sleep watched as the blast smashed into the breaking up latest arrival Hive. The destruction was imminent.

"How close are we to that Hive?" New Breath demanded, arriving on the far side of the console.

"We are well beyond safe distance," Mind Song replied. "That Hive's last two remaining Cruisers are moving away at high speed to get distance."

"Tell them to keep pressure on the enemy," New Breath ordered towards her Primary.

Long Sleep looked back to Mind Song's displays, seeing an expanding view of the other remaining Hive that had also been gutted by an oval Skerti ship, but was holding together, so far untargeted by the central ship. Long Sleep frowned at the view and leaned in against Mind Song's arm and shoulder to see more clearly.

"What are those?" he asked.

"They are on the surface of the Hive, tearing apart its outer hull. Some of them have squeezed inside it," Mind Song reported.

Long Sleep frowned at one image. They looked like long-limbed metal creatures, and were indeed slicing and ripping off pieces of the Hive's outer hull.

"Could there be Skerti inside the metal cases?" Mind Song asked as the Hive shook around them.

Long Sleep shook his head as he watched one of the multi-limbed metal things moving, comparing its size to the hull structures. "They're too small to hold one I think. The Skerti Queen was partly concealed when I was in her presence, but she was like us: bipedal, tall, pale-"

The decking abruptly shuddered violently to one side; something had hit them. Long Sleep switched his attention back to his structural integrity readings. There was a new small section of damage on one area of the right flank hull, but it was well away from the irradiated areas so regeneration was swiftly responding.

"The last Hive that arrived has broken apart, My Queen," the Primary reported.

"The enemy's central ship is turning, Great Queen," Mind Song announced and Long Sleep quickly glanced at the sensor charts. A second later, a lance of energy weapons fire sliced out from the central ship towards the gutted Hive with the metal creatures on its hull. "It is now targeting the other Hive."

Long Sleep winced as he saw Fighters taken out in another firing of the weapon, even some of the enemy's own smaller ships were also caught in the path of the weapons blast as it slammed into the other Hive's already damaged underside. Fire blazed briefly in the view.

"Why fire on a ship that has its own eating into it?" Long Sleep asked. Why place those metal things on the Hive to rip into the hull only to then fire on it? Unless the metal creatures were highly impervious?

"Glorious Queen, we are taking sustained fire," the Primary reported as everything shook.

Mind Song's display shifted back to the local area around them, where the two remaining Cruisers that Lost Lineage had assigned to New Breath were exchanging rapid fire with a small swarm of the enemy's smaller ships led by two medium-sized ships.

The battle was raging still, weapons blazing, small ships and Fighters tearing dogfights around each other, debris and destruction filling everything.

And Long Sleep could feel Mind Song's thoughts rapidly turning next to him; assessing, predicting…not that the outcome seemed all that unclear really.

They had lost masses of Fighters and Cruisers, two Hives, and the other remaining Hive was again taking more destructive fire from the enemy's central ship…

"This Hive?" Mind Song asked as his shoulder pressed against Long Sleep's, his question full of further questions and plenty of unspoken meaning.

Long Sleep called up the main displays for him to see, but summarised out loud for his Brother. "We have multiple small breaches still healing, regeneration is strained in our upper hull, and the forward hull is still highly compromised from the radiation dose we sustained. We are taking direct hull hits from the smallest Skerti-controlled ships and weapons fire…" He needed to add nothing more.

He had always assumed his long life would end in a space battle, but had thought it would be while he was working as a Keeper, struggling hands-on to keep a Hive going as he was best skilled at doing. And he had always feared that he would be with Mind Song when the moment came, for though he would choose to be at his Brother's side always, he would have preferred to know that Mind Song would go on as the last surviving of not only their mutated batch, but likely the last of their original Hive. That had always felt appropriate to Long Sleep, his Brother always having been the most impressive Wraith kin he had ever met.

But it appeared that they might now both end at the same time and place. Though there was poetry of sorts in that, it depressed Long Sleep greatly. And it was clear that Mind Song's thoughts were running similar.

More of the central ship's weapons sliced through the battle and slammed forcefully into the side of the other Hive, eating into it with noticeable visible damage. Long Sleep watched in solemn horror at the fires he could see inside the other Hive, watched the living hull burning, dying.

"The other Hive is losing power, Great Queen," the Primary announced what Long Sleep could see.

"Once that Hive is destroyed, that weapon will turn on us next," Mind Song predicted quietly and Long Sleep had to nod.

"This Hive is doing well in speed and manoeuvrability," Long Sleep pointed out. "It may be able to avoid the long lancing weapons fire?" Though he suspected that even a couple of blasts from that weapon could end this Hive's young short life…

He felt Mind Song's decision before his Batch Brother spoke.

"Great Queen," Mind Song stated loudly in his deep voice across the Command Chamber towards New Breath. "The battle is lost; we must retreat with what Cruisers will follow us."

Long Sleep glanced towards New Breath as she turned towards them, her dark lips parting around her bared teeth.

"I will not run away," New Breath stated angrily and all too instinctively.

"Great Queen," Mind Song replied to her, "we stay and we will all die. We are outnumbered and facing an enemy with technology that is unknown and unpredictable. That last remaining oval ship need only vanish and appear under our hull, or that central ship's weapon turn on us, and we will lose your Hive."

New Breath hissed. "Then we will fall fighting."

"We are currently the only Wraith who will survive a battle with the Skerti," Mind Song stated. "We have seen technology that likely no other Wraith have ever lived long enough to speak of it. We were four Hives and twenty-two Cruisers and we are soon to be the last Hive and there are only five surviving Cruisers out there. The battle is lost and we must call on those left to follow us, to gather up as many Fighters as possible, and save Wraith lives."

New Breath hissed again, but she glanced away to the front hologram which was filled with the latest deadly enemy fire cutting almost entirely through the other Hive.

Long Sleep felt the air in the Command Chamber charged with all ears listening, all waiting on the decision of the Young Queen.

"Queen," Mind Song added, "Wisdom comes from knowing one's limits. Lost Lineage sent us all here to die in her place, you will not win a Feeding Ground this day, but you can look to gather Cruisers and kin around you from this battle and become the most experienced Queen in fighting Skerti."

Long Sleep saw the enticement in that last statement, but it still clearly pained the Young Queen as she turned to her Primary.

"Order all Fighters to dock in the closest Cruiser they can, pack our own Bays if necessary," she ordered through the quiet Command Chamber.

"Yes, Glorious Queen," the Primary replied as he started working on his command console.

Long Sleep dropped his attention back to his work. The Hive was coping with its damage, but an upcoming hyperspace jump required redirecting further regeneration power to the outer hull away from nutritional fluid production.

"Fighters are pulling out of battle, though many have sustained too much damage," a voice reported.

"I have identified hyperspace flight coordinates that will take us in the opposite direction from Lost Lineage and away from the former course of the Skerti-held Fleet," Mind Song stated.

"Send the coordinates to all surviving ships," New Breath ordered. "Tell them to follow me to seek revenge another day."

"Yes, My Glorious Queen," the Primary replied.

Several warnings glowed up on Long Sleep's displays. "We are getting increased weapons fire and impacts. They may know we are intending to leave," he warned.

"The other Hive's engine pods are close to critical, Great Queen," the Primary reported.

"This battle is over," Mind Song stated firmly.

New Breath didn't reply for a beat and Long Sleep looked up from the warning lights and predictions of the other Hive's destruction.

"Open hyperspace window," New Breath finally ordered.

"Yes, Great Queen," the Pilot replied and the view head straightened and then filled with the burst of the hyperspace window and the Hive lurched into the bright lights of hyperspace flight.

Long Sleep swore he felt every Warrior in the Command Chamber let out a breath of relief in that moment.

He dropped his gaze to the console, checking on the Hive's hull. It was holding, though under more strain than normal in hyperspace thanks to its existing damage, but it was an impressive and thick-hulled Hive. It was coping.

"How many Cruisers followed us?" New Breath asked without looking away from the front hologram.

"We received confirmation from three before we jumped away, My Queen," the Primary replied.

"But we do not know if they actually made it into hyperspace," Mind Song added.

New Breath's mind had withdrawn from within the chamber, moving inwards to something like a dark cloud swirling closer to her.

Long Sleep glanced towards her turned back, seeing the tension through her shoulders as she watched hyperspace flowing outside. Then she turned and strode silently, but clearly very angrily, out of the Command Chamber.

Long Sleep watched as she left, two Drones who had been stood at the entrance to the Chamber turning and following her off down the corridor outside.

A renewed sense of relief seemed to fill the Chamber, the Warriors around the space relaxing a little without their Queen watching them.

Long Sleep turned to Mind Song. "That was very close."

"Mmm," Mind Song nodded in agreement. "But," he added with a tilt of his head, "fortuitous as well. We have seen the Skerti strategies."

"Have readings of their technology," Long Sleep nodded.

Movement across the chamber drew Long Sleep's gaze and he exchanged a nod with Michael as the Warrior arrived on the other side of the console from Mind Song.

"That could have gone better," Michael summarised with a surprisingly amused sigh.

"We are alive and the Hive is intact," Mind Song replied, "And New Breath is now in a potentially stronger position than she was before."

"She does not see it that way," Michael pointed out.

Though she had left contained and quiet, New Breath's anger was starting to now permeate through the Hive.

"No," Mind Song nodded, the sensation of his mind shifting and turning. "But that could serve us well."

Long Sleep met Mind Song's gaze, seeing the little expressions across his Brother's face and felt the resolute turn of his mind. He sighed at his Batch Brother. "You really believe that plan will work?" He asked.

"It is the last one to try," Mind Song replied with a half smile.

"I'm not sure that is true," Long Sleep pointed out.

"We need information on the Skerti, and clearly our plan to find an Elder Queen with such knowledge has failed. Lost Lineage's historical records were extensive and copied from a mass of other Hives, yet none spoke of the Skerti. The knowledge has clearly been lost, so we must find where it may still linger."

Long Sleep glanced down to his console, taking a moment to consider the readings; everything was working within limits and the compromised hull was still coping with hyperspace.

"Linger?" Michael asked.

Long Sleep sighed and glanced up from the readings. "My Brother has a theory, one based on something our Birth Queen once told him." He looked back to Mind Song. "Stories of myth and legend."

Mind Song smiled faintly. "Where better to find knowledge of the Skerti?"

"You want to go look for a myth?" Michael frowned, clearly confused.

"Yes, he does, but it may not even be true, Brother," Long Sleep reminded Mind Song.

"Then there is no harm in trying," Mind Song replied as if it were that simple.

Long Sleep wasn't entirely convinced that it was worth trying if it resulted in them being killed. "Trying will involve asking and I doubt New Breath will be in any mood to listen to us right now."

"She will calm down," Mind Song dismissed the threat. "Besides who better to ask to break with ancient tradition than a young, determined Queen who now understands how great a threat all Wraith kin are facing."

"You believe New Breath knows this myth you are seeking?" Michael asked.

Mind Song nodded as he looked towards Michael. "Yes."

"If it's true," Long Sleep interjected.

"If it is true," Mind Song conceded, "then it will involve her sharing an ancient secret passed down only from Queen to Queen."

00000

All the information Seeal knew about the planet beneath Saoka's station's formerly high orbit flooded into her memory. Creass had had her investigate putting a secret base on the surface to spy on Saoka's operations, but the planet was barely hospitable. It had thin air that had some dangerous long-term effect on breathing and an atmospheric composition that interfered with pretty much all communications, so they had quickly excluded the idea of even a listening post. But she remembered that the planet did have an atmosphere, and therefore that meant the station was going to heat up to an unbelievable degree as it fell into the planet's said atmosphere at speed.

Falling, of course it would be falling.

She'd always suspected a fall would kill her and it seemed that ancient old fear was turning out to be true. Though, given the physics of entry into an atmosphere, it would probably be the burning up and exploding that would kill her during the fall rather than the smashing alive into the planet's surface.

She broke out of her staring at the planet as it slowed through the view, the station finally stabilising its spin with shuddering shakes up through the decking. The stars were no longer spinning past, but they were moving upwards as the station fell down towards the planet…

"The emergency thrusters are working; can't we escape the pull of the planet?" She asked Saoka next to her, glaring at his profile.

"We're already well within the planet's gravity pull and moving too fast. What limited power we have has to be diverted to break the station apart," he replied hurriedly as he worked.

"Break apart?" She frowned at that alarming phrase.

"The station is designed to break into sections," Saoka stated as he jabbed a control. "Sunto," he shouted at the view. "We're diverting power, but we're seeing emergency power failure in Section One near you."

"Understood, Commander," Sunto shouted. He was picking up a person fallen near him and pushing them towards the glow of the Portal. "We have the Portal's direct powercell in effect, we'll be okay. Divert what power you need for the BreakAways."

"We can't redirect the powercell for redial from here," Nanuet stated worriedly. "We need to jettison as soon as possible."

"We're barely ten left to get through the Portal, do it, Commander!" Sunto shouted as he slung several bag handles over his shoulders and turned into the camera. "We'll be through in seconds; I'll get help here to assist, Commander. I promise."

"I know you will, Sunto," Saoka replied. "But if we don't make it, you are responsible for survivors and enacting my Will, understood?"

Sunto paused in his packing, Security behind him carrying someone on a stretcher and helping several limping and obviously bleeding final civilians through the Portal. "Commander, you'll make it-"

"Go, Sunto!" Saoka insisted.

"Sunto," Nanuet added holding up one hand so he could be seen in the camera to Sunto.

Sunto pursed his lips and nodded. "We'll get through and put up the shield over the Portal on the other side until dial out to the Military Station." He then swiftly turned and Seeal watched the view of the Portal room – littered with dropped bags, clothing, and obvious small pools of blood. There were only three people left in there and she watched as Sunto reached down, grabbed one arm of an unconscious Security member, and the last two standing Security dragged their colleague through the Portal.

"Readings show Portal room is empty," Nanuet announced.

"I'm triggering Fall Protocol," Saoka stated as the decking shuddered under them. Seeal watched him press a large red circle on a screen and abruptly the screens shifted and the automated voice started on a new announcement.

"ALL HANDS BRACE. EMERGENCY ATMOSPHERE FALL PROTOCOL ENACTED."

"Commander? Commander?" A female voice shouted from the other live feed on the screen that had been quiet all this time.

"Luwian, I hear and see you," Saoka replied instantly.

"Thank the Great Goddess," the female replied, "because I've managed to shunt power through secondary systems and have enough power confirmed in all BreakAway engines and Computer Pilots, including in damaged Section Three. But, we've lost even emergency power through most sections now, especially units nine through six are dark."

"Understood, Luwian," Saoka replied. "We're in lockdown across all Sections ready for BreakAway detachment."

Seeal looked back to the window, rather wishing it was covered by a hatch right now as she could see that the planet was filling the view and noticeably getting closer by the second. They were surely almost out of time!

"Commander," Luwian's voice stressed worriedly. "Given how fast we're moving relative to the distance to the planet…"

"I know, I know," Saoka replied quickly.

The station was moving too fast into the atmosphere. Seeal could see the thin wispy layers of the planet's clouds below!

"ALL HANDS BRACE. EMERGENCY ATMOSPHERE FALL PROTOCOL ENACTED."

"Saoka!" Nanuet interrupted loudly. "Portal will not jettison."

Seeal pulled her eyes from the planet outside back to the screens.

"No, no," Saoka exclaimed.

The station abruptly shuddered.

"We have Wraith Fighters incoming and engaging," Nanuet reported yet more horrible news. "Our defence Fighters are launching."

Fighters? Saoka's station had Fighters? That was new.

"Luwian," Saoka shouted as he kept jabbing one control on his screen. "We can't jettison the Portal."

"All power, even emergency systems, in Section One are dark except the Portal's direct powercell and BreakAway charged engine," Luwian reported.

"ALL HANDS BRACE. EMERGENCY ATMOSPHERE FALL PROTOCOL ENACTED."

"There's either not enough stored emergency power to initiate Portal jettison or there may be physical damage to the jettison systems from the station's impact," Luwian continued loudly. "The Portal's direct powercell is active and keeping the wormhole open. We can't shut it down remotely or redirect power to jettison."

"We need the Portal out in space," Saoka insisted, almost panicked now, "or the Portal will go down with us and it'll take the Military hours or days by ship to reach any survivors."

"ALL HANDS BRACE. EMERGENCY ATMOSPHERE FALL PROTOCOL ENACTED."

"Commander, if the Portal goes down with Section One," Luwian continued, "then the impact will shutdown the wormhole and the Military can dial in."

"Not if the Portal is completely buried in impacted debris, Luwian," Saoka pointed out.

Seeal looked at his sweaty and fearful profile. He was every kind of afraid, which, given his past and experience in difficult situations, made Seeal's skin chill. They were in serious trouble.

"Commander, if there is physical damage to the jettison systems, the Portal will never jettison now," Luwian replied firmly. "There's no time left to detach the BreakAways!"

"Damn all the ancient hells," Saoka cursed. "Actioning BreakAway detachment," he stated as he jabbed a red circle on his screen above a countdown that had almost reached zero.

"I will keep trying to jettison it, Commander, I promise. May the Great Goddess be with us all," Luwian stated and the little screen of her shut away, leaving even more bright flashing alerts all over the station schematic.

"ALL HANDS BRACE. EMERGENCY ATMOSPHERE FALL PROTOCOL ENACTED," the automated voice repeated just as the station abruptly shook violently around Seeal.

She lost her grip of the corner of Saoka's desk and blindly reached out to grab hold of Saoka himself, but he was falling away too. She stumbled backwards, the backs of her knees hitting Saoka's desk chair, but it wasn't bolted down and it rolled away as she tried to grab hold of it. She gave up trying to find anything to hold onto and simply dropped to the floor, curling herself up and covering her head with her arms as the station tilted and shook, objects crashing loudly around her with the sudden change in angle.

But nothing hit her and the violent shaking suddenly stopped as abruptly as it had started.

She opened her eyes to a close up view of Saoka's thick expensive carpet. She flattened her hands on it, aware that the decking was shaking differently and was tilted at an odd angle. Adjusting to the new slant of the floor as best she could, she got one knee under her just as another couple of small shudders hit, but she was able to get up. And as she stood up, she snapped her gaze towards the window, which now felt like it was slightly upwards with the new incline to the floor. The planet was gone from the view, the station presumably having turned in whatever had shaken it so hard, but the moving stars this time were blocked by fleeting glimpses of dark shapes passing close by outside the window.

Freaking Wraith Fighters?

More shudders followed a blast of light from one Fighter before it tore out of view.

"What in the snowy Wraith shit?!" She exclaimed angrily as she worked her way back towards Saoka's desk, the short walk awkward with the new angle and the constant shaking under the thick soft carpet underfoot. "Don't they want food? Why try to kill us quicker?"

She made it back to Saoka's side, grasping a tight hold of the corner of the desk as she focused back on the screens. Disturbingly, the main display had changed and now included the fast approaching planet on the left, and the station's schematic was now broken into three separate parts. Each former section of the station was now free of each other.

"All three BreakAways are separated," Nanuet reported. "But we're getting nothing from our people in the other BreakAways."

"There's no power for communications," Saoka explained hurriedly.

"So, 'BreakAways' as in the separated three sections of the station for entry into the planet's atmosphere?" She asked Saoka as the angled floor and desk juddered.

"Yes, we're in BreakAway Two," Saoka pointed to the middle of the three displayed BreakAway sections of the former station. The screens were starting to shake so much that it was difficult to focus on the details displayed on them.

"GET TO EMERGENCY STATIONS AND BRACE FOR ATMOSPHERE ENTRY."

"Our BreakAway thrusters are firing," Saoka noted as the shuddering increased up Seeal's arms. "Computer piloting systems are adjusting for our unnatural approach into atmosphere.

"We're in a lumpy piece of station, how is any approach natural?" She asked Saoka loudly.

"Each BreakAway is designed with heat dispelling outer layers and thick hulls," Saoka replied. "Si helped me design them."

That actually gave her a glimmer of hope, but even she could tell that the physics were not right on the numbers running on the shaking display. "We're moving far too fast."

"I know," Saoka agreed, his former panic now morphed into resigned reality. "But the computer will do its best to get us to one of several preset landing points to enact survival protocols on the surface."

"Getting to the surface alive is the main problem right now, Saoka, let's focus on that," she told him.

"GET TO EMERGENCY STATIONS AND BRACE FOR ATMOSPHERE ENTRY."

The shaking around them intensified even more and the angle of the floor started getting steeper.

"We're in the hands of the computer and stored power now," Saoka uttered as he jabbed a control, which looked like the earlier Portal jettison button that he clearly was still foolishly hoping would work.

"Saoka," Nanuet stated loudly, "we need to get to the safety seats now!"

"If we can get the order to BreakAway One's computer, it may be able to still jettison the Portal," Saoka argued as he jabbed at the button again.

"We have no time, Saoka," Nanuet shouted and started pulling on Saoka's far arm.

Seeal watched the display screens shift, only this BreakAways's trajectory now showing. They were hitting the outer atmosphere, which explained all the shaking and sharpening angle of the floor.

"GET TO EMERGENCY STATIONS AND BRACE FOR ATMOSPHERE ENTRY."

There was clearly nothing else to do.

Seeal turned and shoved Saoka's closest arm, pushing him towards Nanuet. "Move, Saoka!" She ordered him with her best Security Lead voice. "Move!"

The station's Commander tried jabbing the jettison control one last time, but she got him moving and she watched as Nanuet all but dragged Saoka round the far end of the desk, everything vibrating with increasing frequency.

She followed the two males, the sloping floor helping her follow down and round the bottom end of the desk. The carpet though made it a little difficult to get a purchase on the floor with the angle and the shaking pressures around her, but she reached out and grasped the back of Nanuet's smart jacket, grateful for his size and strength as she followed him and Saoka to…actually she had no idea where. Except as they all staggered down the office, everything rattling around them, she realised the three Security staff members were ahead of them in front of a line of seats they had revealed along the far wall. The seats looked like they had come out of a Military Fighter, cushioned and clearly carefully shaped, and there were grasp bars around each, safety harnesses, and a small oxygen tank and mask mounted on the frames of each seat.

Ahead of Nanuet, she saw two Security reach out and pull Saoka forward and towards a waiting seat. Nanuet moved to the seat next to him, so Seeal headed for the next seat along. Fighting her way up an increasingly uphill shaky path, she realised the safety seats were fixed a good few feet up off the floor, so she had to reach up and grasp the closest bar around her promised seat. Pulling and partly climbing up, she got up herself up to it and her backside into the cushioned seat. The shaking vibrations around her dimmed a little as she settled, presumably there being some sort of shock absorption built into the seats, but there was still plenty of shuddering still vibrating through her body as she pulled the straps of the seat's harness around her shoulders and waist, clicking everything into two separate buckles that were juddering as much as her hands.

"Oxygen is to your right," a Security member shouted at her as he passed by, fighting his way to her left. He was working at a noticeable sharpening angle now, having to use her brace bars to get himself up and into the next seat along.

"Got it," Seeal shouted back as she reached round for the little mask. As she did, a horrible set of flashbacks hit her.

The last time she'd worn one of these things she'd been fighting that Slug Robot alone in the broken hollowed-out side of the Sythus. How could such a similar damn thing be happening to her again?! Another Seed Ship causing this mess…her falling…

And there was no chance Oneakka was going to abruptly turn up and save her.

He wasn't going to appear at the last minute to catch her as she fell this time.

She felt the tears in her eyes as she pulled the mask's strap over her face, her breathing abruptly loud in the confinement of the mask. Cool air rushed in over her nose and mouth, again all too familiar from that Slug Robot fight.

When she'd let go of that doorframe and started falling, hoping to take that Slug Robot with her.

But Oneakka had caught her.

And she'd shouted at him today.

Her last words to him were going to be 'Shut up'.

She scrunched her eyes shut at the rush of despair, cutting off her view of the increasingly violent shaking destruction of the office in front of her.

She crossed her arms over her chest, gripping onto the safety harness, and dropped her chin down in towards her chest.

Everything was shaking, her head, her shoulders, her legs, her jaw…her teeth were rattling together so loudly she imagined they'd probably break. She forced herself to breathe out a long strong breath, to relax her jaw, not to panic as the weightlessness sensation of proper freefall hit her.

It was the worst sensation in her life.

And the moment of that first fall played through her mind, the childhood trauma deciding it was the best time to visit her.

Falling from that Guardian Tree, falling down through the raining snow, her stomach lurching and the horrific loss of control…

But there wasn't going to be a snowdrift to cushion her landing this time.

No Oneakka to catch her.

She wasn't going to see the stupid wonderful oaf again, and the last thing he'd remember of her was her shouting at him.

Telling him she didn't need him.

She really needed him right now, which was a bizarre thought because it wasn't like he would be able to stop what was happening.

And she wouldn't want him here to die alongside her.

She just wished she'd not walked away from him.

Hadn't shouted at him.

Now it was too late and she'd never see him again.

It was her last thought as the shaking grew too much and blackness closed in, stealing her consciousness away and her awareness of her last moments.

00000
TBC