Chapter 8: Supernovae
8,000 B.C.
Outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy, Distance to Earth: approximately 54,000 light-years
She was standing in the middle of the bridge of her giant flagship, the Shi'ha, one of the vastest and deadliest ships of the imperial forces. Her name was Amun'shek, High-Commander of the Neph'arim Empire, member of the royal family and second in line for the imperial throne.
As most of the Neph'arim, Amun'shek had a tall yet slender stature and a majestic appearance, which was even more underlined by the glowing white, light combat armor she wore. Her clothing was additionally decorated with glowing red ornaments and marks, indicating her social status and rank. Her fiery red hair, which indicated her ability to influence time, was bound into an ornate bun.
Being a wise and combat-experienced race, the Neph'arim had built the bridge of their ships deep inside the vessels, protected by a vastly amount of alloy and shields. Therefor, the bridge lacked any windows so that the vastness of space that surrounded her ship had to be projected onto the walls, the ceiling and the floor in such a high quality that it seemed like you would float through the emptiness of the cosmos. Though it took new members of the crew some time to get used to it, it held a lot of advantages in combat and navigation to have an unimpeded, three-dimensional sight.
Amun'shek typed a sequence of symbols on her holographic console and three ships, approximately 1,500 kilometers ahead of hers, were highlighted, framed and magnified. While the spaceships of the Neph'arim had a smooth and slim appearance, the other ships were bulky and martial.
A blinding white laser lance emerged from her ship and connected with the biggest of those other three for just a second, where it hit a bluish glowing barrier before it faded.
"Enemy target's shield down to fifty-eight percent!" it chimed from the ship's speakers.
Then another barrage of laser lances from other Neph'arim vessels impacted on the enemy's ships. Amun'shek let her gaze wander to the other two fleets that were accompanying her own formation of six ships. The fleet with five ships slight front right belonged to her older sister, High-Commander Ra'shek. The other fleet with six vessels that was quite a bit behind hers was commanded by her bond-mate, Commander Juno'ka.
A blinking symbol on her console, signing an incoming transmission, caught her attention. Right after Amun'shek touched it, the faces of two other female Neph'arim were projected right in front of her.
One of them had a beautiful face and golden-yellow, long hairs which were artfully bound into a bun, plus a blue feather earring. It was the feather of a Matak-Bird, indicating her as the direct heir for the imperial throne.
The other Neph'arim had cobalt-blue, glistening, short-cut hair and stinging blue eyes. Her angular face showed a stern, nearly emotionless demeanor.
"Status-report!" commanded High-Commander Ra'shek with a strict voice and Juno'ka was the first to answer.
"Emergency-repairs on the Shu'ruk are 90 % finished. I estimate that it will take a few more hours until we're able to fall back into formation."
"Subspace-capability?"
"The ship can take another jump, if the enemy tries to evade us once more."
Now Amun'shek joined the conversation. "They will not try another jump, because they know that we will follow right away and be able to jump close enough to unleash our entire firepower on them, which would be their downfall!"
"Yes," Ra'shek stated, "So, we will continue our attacks until they have no other chance than to face their inevitable annihilation!"
"Incoming subspace signal!" it suddenly chimed through the bridge, but didn't raise any alert.
"Ah, the Galactic Alliance finally decided to join the battle," mentioned Ra'shek with amusement, which faltered only a few moments later.
"Enemy signature! I repeat: enemy vessels inbound!"
Only a second later a loud alert sounded through the entire ship, followed by Amun's voice.
"Attention all crew, prepare for close-range combat! Security teams, standby!"
The same command was given by the other two leaders as well, and then Ra'shek spoke, "How is this possible? The Galactic Alliance was supposed to cover our backs."
"Looks like they were not up to the task," Juno threw in, whereas Amun added, "Or ignored them on purpose."
Another alert sound chimed.
"Attention, enemy enters real-space."
A glyph on her holo-display showed Amun'shek where the hostile ships would appear. Immediately she spun around and saw that the marked position was close to her bond-mate's fleet. With a blinding flash, five bulky ships – four medium cruisers plus one giant flagship – jumped out of the subspace and opened their fire at Juno'ka's ships.
Blinding laser-lances, burning plasma-projectiles and ballistic missiles were exchanged between the struggling ships, causing shields to flare up and hulls to melt.
Being the weakest link of her fleet, the Shu'ruk became the first victim of this battle. Floating lifeless and cut into pieces through space. And Amun'shek knew that this battle was not going to her bond-mate's favor.
"Juno, hold back the enemy, I will come to your aid!"
"NO!" blared Ra's voice, the piercing gaze of the golden-haired Neph'arim fixed on her sister. "We need to follow the other fleet and finish this! Juno can take care of herself."
"I will distract them as long as I can. My ships…" Another alert interrupted Juno'ka, letting her yell some more commands to her crew, before she shifted her focus back. "The enemy has boarded our ships and tries to gain control over our weapon-systems." She closes her eyes for a short moment, inhaling deeply. "If our ships fall into enemy hands, they will be able to cause a lot of damage to your fleets, even changing the course of the battle. I…I need to stop them."
"Juno, no! Fight them!" Amun yelled desperately, leaning closer to the bluenette's hologram.
"Amun, it needs to be and you know it." Then she turns to someone off-screen. "Prepare to overload the core by 500 %!"
"Juno…" whispered the red-haired woman with welled up eyes, reaching out for the hologram.
"Farewell, Amun! Make them pay for what they have done to our people!" Juno answered, gazing stoic at the person that means everything to her, before her image suddenly vanished as hers and the enemy's fleet perished in an immense white fireball.
Feeling the bond fading, Amun'shek started to shed red-glowing tears. She knew that death wasn't the absolute end. She knew that she wasn't supposed to show weakness, but the emotional pain she was going through became so intense that she sobbed.
"She gave hers and every member of her crew's life for the greater good. There will be time to mourn, but not now! Focus on our task at hand, Amun!" chimed the empathy-less voice of Ra'shek.
Her hands clenched into fists and her hair began to glow intensively. Her entire body was flooded with Divine Energy. "No!" she spoke with gritted teeth and, on her command, time stopped.
Bringing time to a halt wasn't that difficult, but letting it flow backwards was something way more complicated. Not only that time needed to be reversed, also the physical body had to be moved in space or else it would end up in the emptiness of space or be shredded into pieces when it collided with another body after entering normal space-time again.
Amun'shek focused. She felt how the Divine Energy flowed through her body like a wild stream, ready to violently sweep her away. But she fought it, making every fiber of her being hurt. She witnessed how everything rewound; how every action became undone until she gave in to the merciless pull of real space-time, which let her trip over and hit the ground.
"Your highness!" Commander Pta'rek, Amun'shek's direct subordinate and mentor, called out, immediately helping her up.
Not replying and after shaking off her dizziness, Amun rushed towards her console and typed in new orders. She could see on the tactical hologram how her fleet left formation and headed towards a new position.
"All ships on high-alert! Prepare for close-range combat! Security teams fully armed and on stand-by!" she spoke into the com and instantly the loud alarm blared through the entire ship.
Just now she paid attention to the blinking symbol on her console and pushed it. Ra'shek's face appeared, her glimpses were piercing daggers and her tone threatening.
"Amun, get back in formation!"
Then Juno'ka's face appeared and for a short moment, Amun's breathing stops. She felt the bond again, now stronger than ever before. "Amun, what is going on?"
"It is a trap," the red-haired said eventually. "The Skyth are going to attack us from behind!"
"Impossible," Ra threw in, right before the PA of the ship chimed and interrupted her.
"Incoming subspace signal!"
"We scanned the entire sector. The only current subspace activities are originating from Galactic Alliance occupied space."
"Then they betrayed us," mentions Juno'ka dryly, but at the moment Amun had other things in her mind than thinking about treason.
"Who betrayed us does not matter right now. Juno, follow up with Ra's fleet and pursuit the enemy. I'll take care of the ambush."
"Enemy signature! I repeat: enemy vessels inbound!"
"Amun, we have our orders to…"
Ra wasn't able to finish her rant as the red-haired Neph'arim simply shut off her com channel. Only Juno'ka's connection remained.
"Juno, leave the Shu'ruk behind, I'll protect her."
"Alright. And Amun…" Both gazed at each other for some time.
"Fleet is in position, High-Commander!" mentioned Pta'rek, followed by another PA call.
"Attention, enemy enters real-space."
Juno'ka never was a person, showing much emotion, but this time, Amun'shek saw great worry in her eyes upon the knowledge that their enemy was something the entire galaxy hadn't faced before. "…take care!"
Then, her image vanished and Amun focused on the task at hand.
"Commander, as soon as the Skyth ships enter real-space, fire everything at them! Tell the other ships to concentrate fire on the cruisers. Take them out, one-by-one! Launch Interceptors and Bombers! Close-range artillery and anti-ballistic batteries on full alert! And evacuate every unnecessary personal into the ships center and arm them to their teeth. Emergency plan Re is hereby in action!"
While the orders were given through the ship's com and a strategic alarm chimed, the space in front of Amun's fleet started to shimmer, indicating the arrival of the enemy vessels.
As foreseen, the Neph'arim fleet had positioned right above the appearing ships, putting them in an already very weak spot, and then let a surprising firestorm rain upon them.
The first two cruisers – cut by the plasma-lances into multiple pieces –fell before the Skyth could even react and start to reposition their fleet. Desperately and sporadic they returned fire and began to launch their fighters, which as well were taken under heavy fire.
Another ship was disabled, the momentum and loss of maneuverability letting it collide with another one before it exploded a minute later in a vast fireball, ripping the other vessel into a gruesome death, too.
"Focus fire on their flagship!" ordered Amun'shek, seeing that the battle was coming to a quick end.
The giant enemy ship withstood the first barrage, its shield flickering and their close-range flak shooting down most of the approaching ballistic projectiles. But it was a desperate struggle. Even the biggest and strongest flagship couldn't withstand the bundled fire of several Neph'arim ships. Defeat was just inevitable and only a question of minutes.
Then, however, something unforeseen happened. Most of the ship's external hull got blasted into space by multiple tiny explosions.
"Debris of the enemy ship, inbound," reported Commander Pta'rek, "We are going to shoot down the bigger pieces and…"
"No!" contradicted Amun, zooming in on some of that junk, which also contained small capsules. "They are trying to board our ship! The debris is just a diversion. Shoot everything down!"
A real inferno enflamed in front of the Shi'ha as every battery and each interceptor targeted that treacherous debris. But despite all efforts, some eventually reached the ship and let a new alarm sound.
"Attention, multiple hull-breaches and enemy signatures in Sector 1-8 detected! All fighting personal get to your designated stations!"
It didn't take long before first, panicky and desperate screams chimed from the com, signing that the internal battles weren't as successful as the external.
"Enemy forces are closing in on the bridge. Defense is ineffective. Reactor and Weaponry, however, are still separated from the main corridor by strategic vented compartments and not compromised."
"Commander, you are in charge!" spoke Amun and pushed some virtual symbols on her console. A hatch in the floor glided open and a rack, on which a shining white armor with red ornaments and a belt with two sheathed short-swords and a holstered pistol hung.
With trained efficiency, the red-haired woman swiftly put on the additional body-armor and the weapons-belt.
"Whatever happens, the enemy must not take over that ship! Order all other ships to move out of the blast-zone and arm the self-destruct!"
"Yes, High-Commander!" confirmed Pta'rek with a short bow of his head, and watched how Amun'shek left the bridge to join the fight.
The vast main corridor of the Shi'ha was like the aorta of the ship, running through the entire vessel from front to rear. Of course, such a construction had its advantages and also disadvantages. Logistics and evacuations were easy to handle, but, once boarded, an enemy had easy access to all parts of the ship without detailed knowledge of its interior. However, it also was much simpler to defend one bottleneck than to fight on several fronts and fear ambushes at any time.
Right now, this bright enlightened corridor was filled with yelled orders and screams of pain as the remaining Neph'arim defense-forces were retreating towards the ship's bridge, the last stand before the enemy would take over control.
Shots blared and blinding plasma-projectiles were flying around, hungrily searching for some flesh they could burn through.
"Get back in formation! We need to hold this line!" yelled an older-looking male Neph'arim with green hair and beard.
"But how?" countered a brown-haired woman with a bandaged arm, shooting a barrage of shots at a black wall that was coming closer and closer with a loud screeching sound as metal was scratching over metal. "How can we stop this? Our weapons can not penetrate these shields!"
"Have faith!" it suddenly chimed beside her. Knowing this voice too well, every Neph'arim close-by turned to its origin, seeing their High-Commander in her full armored glory. "Form a defense line! Shields to the front, weapons ready!"
Like their fear had been washed away by Amun'shek's aura, every combatant took position and not a minute later, they had formed an ordered defense.
In front were those, who could form a shield with their powers. In the back, sharpshooters who had the abilities to foresee the enemy's movements a second before it happened as well as to influence the trajectory of their projectiles to guide them towards their target with deadly precision. The rest were mixed troops with more or less powers, yet armed to the teeth.
Behind the line, Neph'arim with the ability to influence life-energy, were treating the wounded, their touches killing the pain and accelerating the healing.
The black, armored wall came closer and closer. From time to time, sharpshooters used tiny gaps to deliver their deadly load to the enemy. But it couldn't stop them. Now an eerily growling and howling were mixing into the screeching of the metal. The sound of the Skyth, feared throughout the entire galaxy.
Stoically, Amun watched how they were approaching their position. She could literally feel, how her brothers and sisters were trembling with fear. But not her! As a High-Commander and member of the royal family she was supposed to be an inspiration. A leader, who would give everything for her people.
"Get ready! As soon as the shields have fallen, attack without any mercy!" she spoke to the green-haired man, unsheathing her swords. Then, she sprinted towards the enemy, dodging projectiles that were flying her way. Amun'shek's hair was starting to glow red while she was almost about to collide with the shield as, suddenly, she disappeared.
Influencing and manipulating time was one thing. But using it in combat was an entire different skill only few could master.
Being now between time and space she watched how the enemy was passing her as time was flowing forward. She could see the hideousness of them.
The Skyth consisted of a mixture of different species, both domestic and non-domestic in the galaxy. There were humanoid beings as well as lizard-like ones. Strange-appearing creatures with multiple limbs. Insectoid beasts, which remembered her of the insects living in the royal gardens of her home world.
The variety of combat armor differed widely, as well. Some wore a full battle-armor that could withstand even the heaviest fire and some wore only some pieces that were picked up as loot from the battlefield.
But one thing they all shared was the madness and mutations, originating from excessive exposure to subspace radiation.
Amun'shek knew everything that was known about the Skyth. They weren't a race per se, but a wild bunch of insane creatures, who were claiming to serve a godlike entity that was housing the subspace and had ordered them to subjugate the entire galaxy and kill those who refused to follow them.
A gap in their mass – one fallen enemy – was more than enough for the mesmerizing woman to reenter real space-time and materialize in the middle of them, wreaking havoc among everyone around her.
The two high-energized, red-glowing Nano-Blades cut through armor, flesh and bones like a hot knife through butter. Enemies were falling, limbs were flying and blood in different colors was splattering the entire corridor. Within the first ten seconds and before the Skyth could even react, the shield wall had fallen as well and all the other Neph'arim were now joining the fight.
A projectile was flying towards Amun, but she had foreseen it, disappeared and appeared again to slice down the shooter.
One of the lizard-like creatures tried to attack with its claws, but lost its arm by the first blade and was cut in half by the second one.
Another Skyth, sadly out of range for her blades, was aiming at one of her brethren. So, she threw one of her swords and impaled his skull. Having one hand free now, she drew her sidearm, countered a hostile bayonet strike and shot the attacker in the head. Then she avoided another blow and sent some more enemies to the ground.
For some time it seemed like she fought against an infinite number of enemies, until the last one had finally been slain.
Heavy breathing, Amun'shek let her gaze wander over the countless corpses that were filling the entire corridor, Skyth and Neph'arim, side-by-side. Her entire body was sprinkled with blood that was also decorating the entire battlefield.
"Your highness!" spoke the panicky brunette woman from before, reaching Amun'shek her thrown sword.
"Thank you, guardsman!" she answered, took the blade and put it back into the sheath as well as the rest of her weapons. Realizing that only few had survived the battle and the green-haired guard wasn't one of them, the High-Commander quickly decided to put her in charge. "Take care of our dead and wounded, and then get this filth off our ship…High-Guardsman!"
Being taken aback by the sudden promotion, the young woman stared at the red-haired princess with wide open eyes, stammering "Yes…uh…th-thank you, your highness! I-I'm honored!"
"As I said, have faith! You fought well and I have faith that you won't disappoint me!" was the simple reply, and without another word, Amun walked back to the bridge.
The space outside was a debris field, the remainder of the Skyth-ships floating dead in the merciless vacuum.
"Safety-distance reached. No threatening activities detected. Front-Lances fully powered and ready!" it chimed through the bridge's PA.
"Target the main reactor!" ordered Pta'rek with folded arms and a grim gaze. Right before he gave the fire-command, the vast blast-door glided open and Amun'shek walked in.
"Finish it!" she simply stated with her authoritarian voice and right away the bridge got filled with an intense light as the giant laser beams connected with the hostile flagship, which perished in a giant explosion not a second later, ripping most of the other ship-remains with it.
As the brightness had abated and only a fine cloud of ionized dust was everything left of the hostile fleet, Amun'shek said "Commander, status-report!"
"Damage to our ships minimal. All vessels full operational. Casualties estimated by about 1,400 crew-members."
At hearing this last number, the High-Commanders shoulders dropped a bit. "1,400…" she whispered with a heavy voice while her eyes got a bit watery. Only with a deep, shaky inhale she regained her composure. "I want each and every name of our fallen brethren written onto the Wall of eternal Remembrance!"
"Of course, High-Commander! They will be remembered until time's demise." replied Pta'rek with a bow, making a note in his handheld device.
"Incoming transmission!"
Right away as the faces of her sister and her bond-mate appeared, Amun reported "Enemy ships destroyed, boarding-troops eliminated. We will now follow up…"
"The enemy has stopped." interrupted her Ra'shek harshly, scowling at her sister. Sensing the tension that was about to build up, Juno'ka threw in a different urgent topic.
"Our sensors are reading a high peak of an unknown subspace radiation originating from the enemy ships."
"They probably try to jump," replied Ra, and then addressed her sister once more. "Amun, get back into formation right now! We need to finish-…"
A loud alert began to blurt on every Neph'arim ship in unison, followed by the automated voice of the ship's computer.
"Warning! Local sun reaches critical condition! Immediate evacuation recommended!"
"Juno, what is going on?" asked Amun'shek the bluenette, who was already checking something off-screen.
"The local sun has been destabilized out of unknown reasons and will reach its critical mass in less than five minutes." she began to summarize and froze for a moment, before she stared back at the two others with dilated eyes. "And it's not only this sun. The subspace sensors are picking up the same phenomenon with at least one million suns in the entire local area of the Beta-Arm. Ra, Amun…we need to jump to a safe distance or else we will be trapped and obliterated!"
"Give the order! I will send the coordinates for the rally point." commanded Ra'shek, ending the call.
"Amun, we see us at the rally point!" said Juno to Amun in a hurry before her image vanished as well.
Amun'shek's witnessed how her sister's and Juno'ka's ships changed course, but then also gazed at the remaining enemy vessels, which were still floating in space, the sensors indicating that they were firing up their subspace engines as well. She didn't want to let them get away. Not after so much had already been sacrificed. So, she came up with a new plan.
"All ships, jump to the rally-point!" she spoke into the com, receiving confirmation from the other ships and then addressed Pta'rek. "Commander, set course towards the Skyth and ready three Rak'tar-Bombs!"
The Commander froze for a moment before he eventually nodded and confirmed the order with a plain "Yes, High-Commander!"
Then, the com-symbols on Amun's console started to blink again. The red-haired woman, however, ignored the call from her sister and just activated the connection to her bond-mate.
"Amun, what are you doing?"
"I am going to finish it!"
"Amun," Juno'ka replied with a sigh and shaking head, "as noble as your plan might seem, you will not make it in time. They will have jumped into subspace before you would be able to destroy them."
"I am going to use your Rak'tar-Bombs."
"Amun, the Rakir-Taro'ur-Bombs are still in development and have never been tested before!"
"Then it is time to put them to practical trials!" was the red-head's answer, followed by a slight smirk. "Do not worry, I will be right behind you!"
"Take care, my love!" were the bluenette's last words before she cut the connection, knowing that she couldn't convince her bond-mate to change her mind.
"Bombs loaded and ready, High-Commander!" reported Pta'rek, awaiting orders.
As all the other Neph'arim ships jumped into subspace, Amun gazed one last over her shoulder at the system's flickering, ever-growing star, realizing that time was running out.
"Target the Skyth ships and fire!"
Three small objects were jettisoned into space, only to disappear into subspace a few seconds later.
The first explosion ripped one ship apart from the inside. A second vast explosion destroyed a second vessel only partially, yet also damaged the third one, though the third bomb exploded far way off.
"Warning! Local sun reaches critical condition! Immediate evacuation recommended!" it chimed from the ship's com again, letting Amun'shek curse under her breath. She would've loved to make sure that the enemy would be totally annihilated, yet only had managed to destroy one ship and disable the other two.
"This will have to do. Abort attack and get our ship into subspace!" said the red-haired princess eventually to crew's relieve.
"Very well, Your Highness! Preparing entrance into subspace." replied Pta'rek and not a second later, a loud alarm was blaring through the entire ship.
Amun glanced over her shoulder once more and witnessed with wide open eyes how the sun got bigger and bigger, about to explode and atomizing them any second now.
"Commander!" she urged, almost about to regret her decision to stay a bit longer in the system, until an easing "Engaging subspace sequence!" sounded and the Shi'ha opened a gap into the fabric of reality and went into subspace.
But with that, the danger was far away from being over. When a sun exploded, it disturbed time-space so much that it even induced heavy ripples and tidal-waves throughout the subspace. In this case, a million suns were exploding simultaneously, which turned the normally quiet long-range travel into a deathly endeavor.
The ship was heavily shaken whenever another wave hit its shields. Alarms were blaring; Neph'arim lost their balance and hit the ground. More than once, Amun feared that her ship would get ripped and twisted into pieces.
"Warning! Subspace unstable. Abort recommended! Abort…"
Then, a giant wave hit the ship hard and Amun had to scream out loud as some force rushed through her mind and let her see things that nobody should've seen.