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New Character Time!
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Relative Earth Time: May the 6th, 2716
Captain Valka Haddock was enjoying her book; Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow. She found it in the archives of Old Earth. She found it quite entertaining, and the story was just starting to build. She always enjoyed her time off, often spending it in the officer's lounge. The officers lounge was often quiet. Being the only place where high ranked officers went during their breaks.
Captain Valka was the captain of the Remnant Earth Republic Ship - Cloudjumper, or for short the R.E.R.S. Cloudjumper, the current Flagship of the Remnant Earth Republic,
The Cloudjumper was shaped like a long rounded triangle, with a rounded front with a large ellipse shaped deflector dish at the bow of the ship. The back rounded into a circle with one long shimmering white engine running the back of the ship. Four large wing like structures spanned out the side. The two upper wings angle towards the back of the ship, and the two lower wings angled towards the front. A real beauty and a one of a kind for the R.E.R.
But of course Valka's break time was rudely interrupted. "Captain Valka to the bridge immediately!" the ship wide intercom rang. Valka promptly placed her book on the couch she was relaxing on and made her way out.
On the bridge Valka had just entered through the elevator. "What is it?" she asked.
"We're receiving an emergency communica from the scout ship sent to keep watch on Drago." The communications officer replied. Valka shuddered at Drago's name, the warlord extremist that the Republic were at war with, also known for his large collection of Dragon Fighters. "Their dropping out of QTL a hundred thousand miles out"
The scout ship could be seen flying out of a bright light in the distance. A communication was established. "Captain Reis, Report." Valka ordered.
Captain Reis was usually a calm, battle tested man, reaching close to fifty years of age. He had seen more than his fair share of war and starship flight. But now he was distraught. "Captain Valka!" Part of his bridge could be seen behind him. It was broken and sparking. There were wires exposed and panels hanging from the ceiling. "We had to boost the QTL drive to get here first. We have taken a lot of damage! You have to prepare for battle. It's right behind us. You have to order Bewilderbeast station to leave the system. Evacuate the planet!..." Reis rambled quickly.
"Reis stop! What's wrong?" Valka asked. "Is it Drago?"
"No no! Drago? No! Drago's dead, his entire fleet now in pieces. His entire home world is now an asteroid field." Reis ranted. His crew scurrying around behind him, trying to put out fires. His ship now in view, the damage was horrific. A huge hole had tore through one of the ship's main wings. Scorch and burn marks littered the ship. A trail of plasmic smoke from a raging plasma fire emanated from the port-side engine. The name, usually a bold text saying RERS Midnight Sky now read Mi-ght Sk. But Valka reacted to what Captain Reis said.
Drago's dead, his fleet destroyed, his planet blown to smithereens. Drago was powerful enough to rival the Republic. Even after Earth's destruction the human fleet was one of the largest and most powerful. If Drago was destroyed then it had to be something immensely powerful to do it. And it was coming to them.
"What happened? What's coming?" Valka asked, standing from her captain's chair. Before Reis could answer the Military officer yelled.
"Large object inbound! Coming fast! It will arrive in thirty seconds."
"Call bewilderbeast Station, call in a full evacuation Captain." Reis said.
"Do it." Valka said directing it towards the communications officer. Who spoke through a earpiece before nodding at Valka, indicating that the evacuation had begun. "Alright Reis get onboard, hanger bay three." Reis nodded his ship moving into the ventral hangar bay. "Alright bring ventral and dorsal cannons online, alert the fleet, this thing is powerful we need to give the planet time to evacuate to Bewilderbeast Station."
Bewilderbeast station was a massive satellite orbiting the same planet they were orbiting. It was thirty times larger than the Cloudjumper.
The Cloudjumper and the rest of the fleet moved to intercept the hostile object. "We're a million miles out now captain" the Pilot said. Reis come onto the bridge.
"We have to be careful and work quickly, because no matter what, the fleet is too weak against it." Reis said.
"What is it?" Valka questioned
"It's a…" Reis couldn't finish before a large tear in space formed in front of the fleet. Valka stood from her chair. All humans alike knew that tell tale sign. Only one alien race had that kind of faster than light travel...the fastest theoretical FTL travel known.
The object decelerated out of the crack. The now known ship was approximately 100 miles tall and about 10 miles wide. It had no visible engines. Its back was completely flat apart from ten massive spine like structures near the bottom that stuck out horizontally from the center. The front was more rounder, and came to a point at the top (Inspiration: Terraformer from Resistance 3 but much...much larger(Actually it looks basically the same but larger.).) It had large, long claw like parts that stuck out the bottom.
It's trajectory was aimed at the planet. All the crew were stunned.
A Vyil Planet Miner. The largest form of miner constructed.
"All batteries, open fire!" Valka screamed over communications. All ships in the fleet fired their weapons. The laser fire being harmlessly absorbed by the Planet Miners advanced energy shielding.
"Captain! There is no one on board the miner!" The science officer said. "It's running on basic automated functions, That means its weapons are too!" Valka froze, Vyil were the oldest race in the known universe. Thier technology was unparalleled. The Vyil defencive and offensive systems were more than advanced, they're ultimate.
Valka knew the power of human weapons and even the power of other races of aliens, but she had only heard stories of the power of Vyil weapons. It could be seen on the Miner. The weapons on it were activating and aiming at several ships.
Then it all went down hill. The Miners automated defensive systems opened fire. The fires bolt of bright white, struck a battleship called The Arizona, passing through its shield like it was pape, heavily damaging its port-side and setting it adrift. A second battleship called; Retrokill came to its assistance. The Miner continue to move towards the planet unfazed, even as the Fleet continued its attack. It continued to fire upon the significantly smaller human fleet, several of the automated turrets now firing at the largest of the human vessels. While the other cannons fired at a smaller ship called Mystery Dude (Sorry…) obliterating it in three shots. Its burning carcass of a ship slamming into the energy barrier that acts as the Miners shield.
The Cloudjumper was taking heavy fire, ITs more advanced shielding taking the brunt of the blow. But several bolts pass through the shield making heavy damage on the ship. On the bridge, Valka had to take the seat of one of the pilots who was killed in an explosion. The bridge was ripe with flames and sparks. Panels falling from the ceiling. The rest of the ship wasn't much better.
"It's lowering itself into the atmosphere!" Someone screamed. The Planet Miner was lowering itself into the atmosphere, and was initializing. "It's going to start mining!" A large hole in the bottom of the Vyil structure was starting to glow a bright white. "It's hovering at eighteen thousand feet!"
"Has the planet been evacuated?" Valka queried.
"No!, the main colony can't active the stardrive! One of its docking clamps are jammed!" The science officer said. Valka stopped and turned.
"Tell them to re-engaged the docking clamps, and initialize the geothermal generator. Focus all power on the colony shield."
The colony on the ground, did as it was ordered. Its semi-transparent dome shield covering them from harm. In the distance you could see the towering Miner. A hurricane like storm swirling around its base. The spikes or claws being the only thing visible from underneath. From this distance you could see above the clouds at the towering structure that was taller than the atmosphere, about two thirds of it still in space. The Miner was about to start phase one; Flaten planet's surface.
With power that humans haven't seen in three hundred years the Planet miner fired with a beam of pure white light. The blast wave could be seen from space, flattening the planet's surface, instantly melting the crust before solidifying it again. The surface perfectly flat to the touch.
The blast wave was moving faster than the speed of sound and was about to hit the colony. In the air you could see an evacuation ship be instantly destroyed, its shield essentially nonexistent. All the material it was made of pulled down and flattened to the crust.
The blast wave hit the colony, its shield was just strong enough to protect it, deflecting most of the superheated wall of energy around it. The blast wave eventually covered the entire planet, making it wither and flatten. The only deformation of the planet was the colony.
Phase two commences.
The beams starts to drill towards the planet's, core all the earth and stone it digs is turned back to its raw elements, sucked up the beam and stored as energy in super massive batteries. Time was running out and Valka knew it.
"That colony is unable to move from its location, not with with a graviton flux field surrounding the planet." the Science officer said. The fleet backing away from the obelisk like ship, knowing the battle is lost. "Its engines will not be able to provide enough acceleration thrust to leave the planets strengthened gravitational pull."
"Ma'am, we are suffering magnetic imbalance, due to the planet's magnetic field dissipating, attempting to compensate."
"Shields and engines running at half power."
"Weapon systems off line"
"Bewilderbeast station is requesting that it leave the system, shall I confirm?"
"The surviving crew of the Mystery Dude have been confirmed to be transported to the Retrokill."
"The RERS Bloodshot JW-01 is reporting minimal damage. It's prototype cannon is safe."
Left and right the updates came from, it was driving Valka made. "Lieutenant Specter, can we teleport the people on the surface on board?"
All eyes turned the The now named science officer, Lieutenant Specter. Now suddenly awkward, he turned his gaze to the console in front of him. After tapping the screen several times he looked back up. "No, the atmosphere has become toxic and electromagnetic. A can't even lock on to them, let alone transport them."
Valka slipped into thought. "When is the Miner starting phase three?"
"Now." Specter Said.
On the opposite side of the planet to the Planet Miner, a whirlpool of rock dirt and magma swirled into the beam adding to the already mined chunk of the planet. The hole grew bigger as the planet was essentially vacuumed up.
Valka sat at the pilot's seat, plotting in a course. "Prepare the teleporter, we're getting closer."
"Captain are you crazy? I'm not sure if our shields can handle the stress." Specter said. "Not to mention we could ignite the highly flammable atmosphere."
"Do it Specter!" Valka snapped. Specter jumped, he had never heard that tone from Valka. "I'm going to save them. We're going to save them. We can't leave them to die." Pressing the 'execute course' prompt on the display. The ship's engines working as hard as they could. The ship reaching high speeds as it swooped low in the planets once earth like atmosphere now deathly toxic. The heat from the laser the Miner produced was extreme, heating the hull of the ship.
Over half the planet was gone and the ever expanding hole was only 4 miles from the colony. "We need to get closer!" Specter yelled over the heavily turbulence. Valka reached up and grabbed the manual flight joystick and aimed the ship ever lower. Now dangerously close the ground Valka leveled off.
"Do it now!" Valka screamed. Specter slammed his fist down on the console. The people on the colony teleported onto the ship and Valka pulled up as the colony slipped and fell into the void. Its shield shutting down as it disintegrated and turned to energy being stored on the Planet Miner.
"Captain he have to get away from the planet!" Specter said. "The energy beam will condense into the conversion ball at the core and will explode into a miniature supernova."
The fleet had already meet up with Bewilderbeast base. The Cloudjumper had made it out of the atmosphere. And was flying as fast as it engines could carry it.
The planet was fully mined and a bright light was were it used to be, a light that exploded. The blast wave quickly gaining on the fleeing ship.
"Brace for impact!" Specter yelled. The shipped jolted forward, the power cutting to the entire ship, as it rode the front of the wave for a hundred thousand miles before setting itself adrift.
"Is everyone okay?" Valka questioned a few groans of affirmation was all she got back. "Bring the power back on." The Engineer nodded.
"No wait!" Specter said, before gazing out the viewer. Valka looked, seeing nothing but empty space. But before she could speak the Planet Miner started passing directly by them, it was so much bigger up close it seemed like a solid wall as it flew past them. Antenna narrowly avoiding them. It continued to fly away from them, before leaving their sight by entering another Anti-Space tear and travelling somewhere new in the universe.
The power was reinitialized and they met up with the fleet and Bewilderbeast station. They all entered QTL and left the vacant planet system.
In forty five minutes, A Vyil Planet Miner entered the system, decimated their fleet, and mined their entire planet, leaving nothing but a drifting moon in its place.
In forty five minutes Captain Valka's life had gone for good to horrible.
In the same forty five minutes the Berk was destroyed in a system on the other side of the galaxy.
Forty five minutes.