Chapter Three
Year 82 of the Wraith War
Galeb walked onto the bridge and looked at Hans Keldon who was standing over the console of the communications officer. They both pressed buttons and tried to restore contact with the Aurora Class warship.
"Whats their status?"
"They'd just taken a few hits from the Wraith ships. They're hyperdrive and sublight engines were knocked out in the first few vollys," reported Hans to his superior.
Galeb reached up and tapped the communicator on his neck, "Brant whats the status on those repairs?" Galeb waited in silence for the engineer to reply.
"Well we just managed to restore power to the generator, it should be operational momentarily," replied the officer in the engine room.
Galeb walked over to the sensor control station, a young woman sat at it running continous scans of the area around the Nona. "Are we within sensor range of Galinishi?" The woman looked up and shook her head in reply.
"We have no choice," said Galeb as he walked and sat in the command chair. "Helm set course for Galinishi, maximum speed."
The ship shook as the Helmsman activated the hyperdrive and opened the hyperspace portal. The spiraling light seemed to reach out to the Nona, drawing it into the bright light. It was like a tear in the very fabric of space, the bright light swirled in the darkness. The Nona was pulled into the portal and began its flight to the planet of Galinishi.
Galeb stood watching the light swirl around his ship, he knew what might come next. He was taking this ship back into battle against the enemy they had just barely escaped. He knew there was atleast four Wraith hive ships there. Only the ascended knew how many ships had arrived since they had been forced to retreat.
"Sir, we'll be arriving at Galinishi in a few seconds," reported Hans from his weapons station.
"As soon as we drop out of hyperspace raise shields and ready all weapons. Target the first Wraith ship you detect, don't wait for my order." Hans nodded and watched the clock count down. It slowly seemed to count down as they moved towards the planet.
"Were exiting hyperspace," reported Hans.
Galeb sat back down in his chair and waited for the bright light to disappear and be replaced by the familiar blackness of space. The ship shook slightly and exited hyperspace. Galeb stood as he saw the grey specks orbiting the planet ahead. There were dozens of them, more then there was before.
"Sir we have nine Wraith Hive ships bareing down on us, with four more moving to our position," reported Hans.
"Target an enemy Hive ship and fire," ordered Galeb.
The ship shook as a large beam of light fired out of one of the forward cannons on the front half the ship. The beam cut through one of the large forward compartments on one of the Hive ships and it slowly began to spiral downward trailing flames and sparks. In the exact moment it burst into flaming pieces the Hive ships opened fire.
Blue lasers cut through the dark of space and impacted the shields of the Nona. The energy dispersed itself over the bubble like shield. Hundreds of lasers now zoomed at the Nona, and hit the shields slowly disabling them. The Nona fired again and a laser cut its way through the dorsal section of a Wraith cruiser, fire licked its way out of the large gaping hole. Sparks spread themselves out behind the cruiser as it began to dutch roll towards the planet below.
Galeb grabbed onto an arm rest as the Nona shook from laser blasts. Sparks errupted from a console and it burst into flames, a woman at the station was engulfed in the flames. She fell to the ground and rolled rapidly as the flesh was burned from her body.
"Bring us about, take us into lightspeed!"
"I'm sorry sir, but our hyperdrive is...," Hans was interupted as his console exploded throwing debris and sparks into his face. He grabbed his face and fell out of his chair, blood was leaking out and down through his hands.
Galeb turned away from the bleeding man and watched as the eight other Hive ships approached the Nona. "Someone man that station! Helm full sublight speed ahead!"
A woman moved to the weapons station and began to rapidly punch buttons. "Sir, we've got inbound fighters!"
"Launch all drones, and target another Hive ship with our aft cannons."
The ship shook again as it took more laser blasts from the Wraith ships fast approaching. Several men fell from their stations at the force of the blast. Galeb held onto the chair as the ship continued to rock violently, he gazed out the viewscreen at the fighters fast approaching. Hundreds of bright lights appeared and began to slam into the fighters causing several large explosions with secondary blasts. The fighters began to move erratically and began dodging the drones as they tracked their targets.
The woman continued to punch away at the computer terminal. "Sir, shields are depleted to seven percent!"
"Target at will! Destroy as many as you can!"
The ship shook violently again as the ship took several hits. The shields buckled and the lasers broke through and began to impact the hull of the Nona. Explosions ripped through the armored hull and violently decompressed entire sections of the ship. Several crewmen were sucked into the cold vaccum of space and they died almost instantly. Across the ship consoles exploded and conduits blew apart, throwing debris and fire into the crewmen near them.
The ship lurched heavily forward when one of the bottom sublight engines exploded apart. Shredded debris was thrown into other sections of the ship, causing several more compartments to decompress. The Nona now began to roll forward as it plumited towards the planet below.
"Helm! All engines full reverse!"
The powerful sublight engines were easily overwhelmed by the inertia and the planets gravity. It began to fall rapidly towards the planet as the Wraith ships continued to fire on the badly wounded craft. Sections of the ship were being blown open to space as the large lasers continued to tear into the hull. Debris was blown out into space and chunks of the ship blasted off of the hull.
The woman yelled from the station to his left. "Sir, were going in!"