AN: Damn, it's been a loooooong time since I've updated. I blame college… and World of Warcraft… and Call of Duty 4… and Defense of the Ancients…
Chapter 15: Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
Governor's Office
It didn't take long before John's onboard motion sensors picked up the oncoming enemy movement. As he looked down the hall, he could see six armored guards running down the hall towards the office. John held his fire for several seconds, waiting for the guards to get a little closer so he could be a better shot at them. Unfortunately, Laron wasn't quite thinking on the same page he was. Laron fired his rail rifle prematurely, causing the guards to stop and take cover. John quickly tried to salvage the situation by immediately firing as well and managed to shoot down three guards. To Laron's credit, he was at least accurate enough to hit one of the guards.
Immediately, John's battle instincts kicked in and he pulled back and took cover just as a storm of rail rounds responded to his initial burst. Laron made a high pitched squeal that sounded something like a cross between a prepubescent girl and a donkey. John ignored the sound and began reloading his rail rifle. Taking another glance at his motion sensor, John then reached into his pack and pulled out a 40mm grenade launcher barrel. With one easy motion, he slid it onto the attachment rack mounted underneath the barrel of his rifle and he felt the mag-locks snap into place. He then loaded a high explosive grenade and aimed down the hall again, waiting for any potential movement. John had some experience with grenade launchers before, and knew that their largest limiting factor was their relatively short range compared to rifles. Fortunately, time and technology provided the answer in the form of MDOs, or Magnetically Delivered Ordnance. It worked on the same principles as MAC weaponry, except instead of solid slugs, MDOs fired explosive projectiles. The twist was that the power settings could be tweaked so that the range of the projectile could be set at whatever the shooter wished. Using his optical enhancer built in his helmet, John could see three more security personnel making their way down the hall, more cautiously this time. John quickly calculated the range, set the fuse and power setting on his grenade launcher, and fired. The 40mm grenade, set on a timer, hurtled down the hall. However, John had underestimated the power necessary to the carry the projectile and it struck the floor prematurely. Fortunately, the grenade still had enough energy to skip off of the floor and strike the lead guard directly in the chest, cracking his armor and knocking him backwards. If the sheer impact didn't kill him, then the explosion would have, incinerating the man and his two comrades.
"Nice shot!" Laron said.
"Don't get cocky." John said grimly. "That was only the tip of the spear."
It would only be a matter of time before Jiles' guards regrouped and attacked in again with greater force. However, the only thing John was worried about was whether he had enough ammo to hold them back, since he really didn't feel like having to scavenge dropped weaponry and ammo.
Docking Bay
"There it is!" Ackerson yelled, pointing frantically at the docked Nietzsche. He could recognize that ship anywhere.
However, before he could his Marines could even get near the ship, Ackerson could hear a deep hum and could feel the deck plates underneath his feet vibrating. That meant the ship's engines were powering up. Even sprinting at full speed, Ackerson knew that there would be no way to get into the ship before it could take off and leave.
"Damnit!" Ackerson seethed. This mission was proving more troublesome than he had anticipated.
Central Data Hub
Kyle and Lynn kept a close eye on their surroundings as Sanah prodded Jiles along with the end of her rail rifle. The interior of the station was surprisingly old and deteriorated for a section that was supposedly closed off to the general public. Broken and damaged pipes leaked water, steam, and various other kinds of liquids that they were carrying. Rust and decay were evident as the steel decking and catwalks they traversed over creaked and moaned in protest. Even the automatic doors had trouble opening, and more than once they would jam which would prompt Sanah to just pry them open through sheer brute force.
"Ugh." Kyle frowned, "This place is just as ugly on the inside."
"This rapid state of decay doesn't bode well." Sanah said, scanning the deteriorating surroundings. "Give the state of conditions around us, and factoring likely maintenance routines, this station could very well be uninhabitable in a few decades."
"Aren't you even worried about the state of the station?" Lynn asked.
"Routine maintenance is expensive and time consuming." Jiles said haughtily. "Besides, the station is still running fine, so it's not a priority."
Kyle, Lynn, and Sanah could only look at each other and shake their heads in disappointment. Jiles was the epitome of the greedy, corrupt governor. He couldn't even be bothered to take care of the very station he was living on.
"How much farther?" Kyle asked, prodding Jiles with his rifle.
"Not far." Jiles growled, still uncomfortable being held hostage.
"Hurry it up." Kyle said, prodding Jiles with the rifle again, just because he could. He then keyed his radio. "How are the rest of you holding up?"
"Holding." John said simply. The simplicity and tone of the statement pretty much explained the entirety of John's predicament to Kyle.
"It's a big mess over here!" Kay shouted over the whine of multiple rail rifles. "A bunch of bandits are trying to push their way in. I don't think there's going to be any easy way out this way!"
"Damn." Kyle cursed quietly. "Well, keep holding them off. We're almost there."
"Is this it?" Sanah pointed at an incredibly old, large, and secure looking door.
"That's it." Jiles nodded reluctantly.
"You know what," Sanah glanced at the ancient input console, which was covered in rust and decay, "I'm not even going to bother trying to hack this."
Sanah stepped back and took a breath. In actuality, she was just powering up her servos and motors. She didn't actually breathe, but was still programmed to perform the action in order to make her seem more humanlike. After she was sure that she had the power, she slammed both of her hands into the door, rending the titanium A and creating a massive dent in the center of the door. The unnatural sound of metal striking metal automatically gave away the fact that Sanah wasn't human, as if her monstrous strength wasn't evident enough. The sound reverberated throughout the entire metal structure of the station, causing loose housings and components to be shaken free from their resting places and dropping to the ground. Two more similarly jarring strikes managed to open a hole large enough for a person to fit through.
"After you." Sanah said with a cheerful smile that was completely at odds with the fact that she was actually a lethal killing machine.
"Remind me not to piss her off." Kyle said and glanced at Jiles. "Same goes for you."
Speechless, Jiles could only stare at the android and the hole she literally punched open and just nod.
"Quit showing off." Lynn sighed and made her way through the door.
Kyle waved for Jiles to follow, casually shoving the governor through the hole. He then waited for Sanah to enter before going through the door himself. Inside, the data core at least looked to be in much better condition, but not by much. Sanah frowned as she glanced at the data consoles and terminals that filled the room.
"This isn't good. From the looks of this place, a lot of the equipment is barely functioning."
"Can you get anything off of it?" Kyle asked.
"Time to find out." Sanah pulled a connection cable from the back of her neck and inserted it into the nearest terminal. "This could take a while."
Governor's Office
John was now becoming slightly concerned. He checked his remaining ammo and found that he only had four rifle clips and one grenade left. Laron was pretty much useless because he had already used up all of his ammunition spraying the hallway at full auto. John had already ordered Laron back the way they originally came. If it came to close quarters combat, John wanted to make sure he didn't have a liability nearby. Now, he was left with a dilemma. He could either keep up the volume of fire to buy some more time and pretty much use up what was left of his ammo, leaving himself at a disadvantage, or he could start rationing his fire. Either way, John though, Jiles' guards would catch on to the fact that he was running low on ammo and charge anyways. John decided to just save his ammunition. He'd make better use of it repelling the inevitable charge, and at least the guards would come close enough for him to take their ammunition once he neutralized them.
John held his fire and kept a careful eye on the end of the hall. Sure enough, John caught movement at the other end of the darkened hall as fuzzy silhouettes of guards crept forwards. His motion sensors beeped in confirmation as over two dozen red dots appeared on the screen.
Meanwhile, Captain Warren was wary as he led his men down the corridor, unable to deny the grim irony that this entire hallway was designed to deter large numbers of aggressors with only a minimal force. The fact that it was his men put on the offensive meant that they were guaranteed to take a lot of pain. From the amount of fire, Warren surmised that there were only one or two individuals at most guarding the door, and the lack of fire either meant that they had pulled back or were running low on ammunition. Warren knew that eventually, the sheer numbers on his side
would overwhelm the few defenders.
Poor Captain Warren couldn't have been more wrong. The moment he and his men approached the door, they caught a glimpse of a monster of a man wearing green power armor. Before they could react, the green armored figure unloaded rail rounds into the tightly packed squad, incapacitating five of his men before they knew what hit them. Colored by years of experience, Warren didn't even flinch and instantly returned fire. However, his stomach turned and his mouth tasted sour when he saw his rail rounds bouncing off in a shower of golden sparks. The man had energy shielding, which was a rarity but a very dangerous one. He saw a pair of his men charge the green figure, only to be taken down brutally by man's superhuman strength and fighting ability. Warren had to sidestep as a single strike from the man sent one of his men flying down the hall. For the first time, Warren had no idea just what the hell he was up against.
Cargo Hold 1
Kay winced as a rail round ricocheted and imbedded itself into her shoulder plate. The projectile had lost most of its energy already, so it didn't penetrate her armor, but she still felt the impact. The bandits who tried to break in had some pretty low quality stuff. Their rail rifles were so poor and underpowered, that not even a direct hit could penetrate Kay's armor. However, the bigger worry were the Templars, who weren't limited by poor weapon choice and brought in all sorts of exotic weaponry like particle lasers and even flamethrowers. In the face of all this firepower, Kay opted to use her dual Brute spikers rather than her rail rifle, since their faster rate of fire made them more effective in suppressing enemies. While the large nails didn't have the penetrating power of a rail rifle, they were still incredibly lethal and did a good job tearing lightly armored targets to shreds.
"They sure are taking their time." Williams ducked as a burst of rail rounds pass by.
"I'm sure they're going as fast they can." Kay said sarcastically. "Just keep shooting."
Meanwhile, Melissa merely sighed and kept firing. She did throw the occasional fireball or two, but otherwise kept her powers low key for the moment. She still had plenty of ammo to spare and didn't see any point in not taking advantage of it.
"Am I glad to see you." Laron sighed in relief as he took cover beside the trio.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Kay asked.
"Well, John thought that I would do a better job back here." Laron replied.
"Sure, whatever you say." Kay sighed. "What's happening up there?"
"Well, Kyle and his friends haven't returned yet, and last I saw, our green friend was beating the snot out what's left of Jile's bodyguards."
"Oh, so everything's going as planned." Kay smiled, then ducked as a particle laser punched a hole through one of the nearby cargo containers. "Will they ever stop?"
Governor's Office
Warren could not believe what he was seeing. Just one man… or whatever it was… was mowing his troops down as if they were foam training dummies. In this close, Warren's men couldn't match the man's sheer brute strength. The green armored monster swatted his men left and right with ease of swatting flies. It was only a matter of seconds when he saw that out of his two squads, it was only down to him and three of his men.
Warren briefly considered just cutting and running and leaving this scumhole behind. However, his professionalism and sense of duty eventually won out and decided he'd fulfill his obligation to protect the Governor, no matter how unlikeable and vile he could be. He quickly checked his HUD. He'd made it a habit to insert homing tags on his clients, since often times they'd always panic and run off without him. Obviously, this was all done without their knowledge, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt him. As he glanced at the data screens, he realized that Jiles was in the central data core, which was quite a ways from the office. He took a quick glance at John, who was in the process and beating down his last three men, and knew that there was no way he was going to beat this monster. Instead, Warren took a deep breath and sprinted for the central data core, flashing past John while he was still occupied. By the time John cracked open the last guard's helmet, and the skull it was supposed to protect, he knew he was several seconds behind Warren.
"You've got incoming." John said, sprinting after Warren.
Central Data Core
"Roger that." Kyle sighed and turned to Lynn. "John missed one. It looks like we're going to have company soon."
"I'll handle it." Lynn winked and dashed off.
"This is taking awfully long, Sanah." Kyle said, keeping an eye on Jiles. Even though his usefulness was over, he was still a threat.
"It's a bit more complicated than you think." Sanah replied. "Just be patient."
In truth, Sanah's patience was running out as well. Just finding the data she was looking for took long enough, but once she started getting close to uncovering it, she found that it was encrypted and locked behind a very secure barrier. She suspected it was some sort of leftover defense measure from when this station was in its prime, which would explain why Jiles and the other scavengers had never found it. However, when she tried to pry through the barrier, her firewall and intrusion detection programs began raising flags. Sanah realized that she was also being hacked and tried to analyze the intruder. She suspected it was another AI, or at least the fragment of one, left behind in the system, and was most likely the same one that erected the defenses she had come across.
It was a simple, automated program that didn't have enough coding or memory capacity to be considered an AI of any kind. Sanah found it a painfully easy task to pluck the program out of its hiding place in the data core and casually deleted it from the system. With the hidden program gone, Sanah had no trouble finding and extracting the valuable data it was protecting. She examined it briefly and was pleased to discover that it was a set of star charts and coordinates, a good sign.
Unfortunately, Sanah's satisfaction was short lived. Immediately after she had obtained the data, the core automatically locked down, severing her connection with it and leaving her with only a single message.
WARNING! COLE PROTOCOL COMPROMISED! COMMENCING OPERATION 56464f
Wondering just what operation the program was referring to, Sanah did a quick reference check, and then paled when she realized what was going to happen.
"Uhhh, Kyle?" Sanah said nervously. "We got a problem."
Central Data Hub
As Warren sprinted down the hallway, he felt a strange pit in his stomach. He had only felt this sensation very few times his life, and that was when he felt he was in a situation where he was out of his league. He then caught a flash of white to his side and it took all of his training, reflexes, and ability to dodge the pulsing blue blade that slashed at him. The sword cut through his rail rifle as if it were made of butter, leaving the barrel clattering on the deck.
Warren was briefly caught in a state of shock. He had never seen a blade make such a clean cut so effortlessly. However, he didn't have much time to marvel at its wonder. Immediately, his assailant followed up with more lightning fast slashes and thrusts, causing him to step backwards in alarm. He dropped what was left of his rail rifle and pulled out his pistol, aiming it his
assailant. No matter how advanced the sword, it could never match the reach of a firearm. However, before he even had the chance to switch the safety off, and invisible hand plucked the weapon from his hand. He stood there and gaped when he saw his sidearm float in the air for a split second before it was crushed like paper and tossed to the side. It was at that moment that Warren realized he was dealing with a telepath. In desperation, he reached for his knife as a last ditch defense.
"Honestly, what makes you think that's going the work?" Lynn sighed, exasperated at how stupidly determined military types could be. "Pull that out, and you're going to have to find a new knife… and probably a new hand, too."
Warren could tell that the girl was serious and let go of the knife. What else could he do? Then he heard John arrive from behind, his metal boots clanking on the steel deck.
"Don't worry, John, I've got this." Lynn said.
"Apparently." John nodded.
At that moment, Kyle, Sanah, and Jiles ran up. Though their faces were obscured by their helmets, Lynn could feel the anxiousness and fear rolling off of Kyle and Jiles.
"I'm not going to like this, am I?"
"Well, thanks to Sanah here, the entire station is going to blow up." Kyle said. "Kinda surprising, since I was expecting Kay to do that."
"I didn't know that was going to happen!" Sanah yelled, clearly distressed.
"How much time do we have?" John said, cutting straight to the point as always.
"About the amount of time it will take for the station's reactor to meltdown, which is about… seven minutes." Sanah answered.
"Well, then let's go." Lynn sheathed Laevateinn.
"What about him?" John pointed to Warren.
"He's no threat to us." Lynn said and glanced at Warren. "Right?"
"Uh… yeah." Warren said, completely unsure of what else to say.
"Good."
Warren stood there for a few seconds as he watched the odd group disappear down the tunnel before turning his attention back to Jiles.
"Are you alright, sir?" He asked.
"Of course not!" Jiles said, furious. He had apparently regained his arrogant sputter now that the immediate threat was gone. "I was taken hostage by a bunch of stupid kids and now my station is about to be blow up! How can I be alright?!"
"You're still alive, sir." Warren pointed out.
"True." Jiles sighed, now in one of his rare sober moments. "I suppose you have an escape plan in the event of the station inevitably exploding?"
"Well, there's a fully fueled and supplied corvette stored in a hidden docking station two decks down…"
"See, this is why I hire men like you. Always professional and always have a plan for the worst."
"And because I know how to pilot the ship?" Warren cracked a grin.
"That too."
Cargo Hold 1
By the time Lynn, Kyle, Sanah, and John had reached the cargo hold, they saw that the entire area was a complete mess. Bodies of slain Templars, guards, and bandits alike littered the ground and almost every cargo container was damaged or destroyed. Kay, Melissa, and Williams were taking cover behind what was left of a container while Laron was nowhere to be seen. Doubtless he had run off.
"You think he's okay?" Lynn asked, also noticing Laron's absence.
"Ah, I wouldn't worry." Kyle shrugged. "He'll turn up somewhere, like he always does."
"It's about damn time you guys showed up!" Kazi growled, slapping a fresh clip into her rail rifle. "We're pretty much out of ammo and we're not going anywhere with all these guys out there!"
"Well shit. The fact that we've only got five minutes to get to the docking before the station explodes sort of complicates things."
"Yeah, well-" Kay paused for a moment and looked at Kyle in horror. "What?"
"Yeah, Sanah did something she shouldn't have…"
"Damnit!" Kay cursed. "I wanted to blow this piece of junk up!"
"Let's worry about other things, like getting the hell out of here." Kyle keyed his radio link to Nietzsche. "Hal, do you read me?"
"Oh, Kyle, you're still alive!" Hal said, sounding somewhat surprised. "It appears you survived after all, for the moment at least."
"You're confidence me is absolutely flattering." Kyle sighed. "We've got a change in plan-"
"I suppose you want me to pilot the ship out of the docking bay and fly it to your current position in order to make an expedient extraction."
"Uhhh, yeah, how'd you know?"
"Actually, I'm just following through the only logical plan we can take right now, since I was already forced to pilot the ship out of the station, lest we be discovered and impounded by your friends from the Fleet."
"Ackerson." Lynn sighed.
"Yeah, well do that then." Kyle winced as a rail burst flew by. "With a lot of emphasis on the expedient part."
"It's going to take too long for the ship to dock, and there's no way in hell that Nietzsche will be able to fit in here." Kay pointed out.
"Yeah, that's why we're going to have to go to them." Kyle replied.
"You know, why is that every time we have to get back to the ship, it's by throwing ourselves out of a goddamn airlock?" Kay grumbled.
"So uh, how are we supposed to do that?" Williams asked. "Last I checked, we're pinned here."
"The old fashioned way." John slammed a fresh clip into his rail rifle.
"Let's do this then." Kyle made sure his rifle was armed as well.
"I'll take point, then." Lynn drew Laevateinn and shot forward, disappearing as her optic camouflage engaged.
The rest of the group moved forward in a tight formation, moving and firing as they went. There was no time for fire and advance or leapfrogging maneuvers. It was just running and firing at anything that moved. As they moved forward, they saw hostiles attempting to flank or cut them off shriek as they were thrown around like paper dolls or suddenly cut to pieces. Brief blue flashes of light signaled Laevateinn was at work. Its gentle hum was the whisper of death for many Templars and bandits foolish enough to draw their weapons at Lynn's friends.
Unfortunately, even Lynn had limits to what she could do. More enemies, mostly Templars now, were starting to pile in. Kyle grunted as a rail round punched through his left shoulder while another burst struck Kay in the thigh. John instinctively put himself between the Templars and the rest of the group, using himself as a shield. More rail rounds bounced off of his energy shielding, but even his armor had its limits. Lynn suddenly materialized, cutting down a trio of Templars before rejoining the group.
"There's a hell of a lot of them." Kyle grunted as he sealed the puncture in his shoulder pad with biofoam.
"There she is! The White Devil!" The Templars yelled, their religious furor powering their offensive.
Suddenly, Lynn's danger sense spiked, and she looked to her left to see a Templar heavy weapons team readying a particle cannon. She knew that not even John's shields at full strength could absorb a direct hit from such a weapon. Instinctively, she slapped the barrel of the weapon to the side to knock it out of line, but it was too late. The gunner, surprised by the sudden telekinetic attack, fired the weapon by reflex. Apparently, Williams had noticed the weapon as well and shoved Melissa to the side. The particle beam punched through several cargo containers before slamming into Williams' chest. The energy of the beam was dispersed as it passed through the containers, but still inflicted gruesome damage.
"Will!" Melissa's eyes widened in horror as she saw her companion fall over, a black smoking crater in his chest. She took one furious glance at the Templar who had fired the beam and glared at him with an intensity that rivaled the power of the particle beam that had struck Williams. The Templar stood there for a second before he started scratching at his armor, as if he were trying to rip it off. An instant later, flames shot out of every joint and opening in his armor, revealing that he was being roasted alive in his own armor.
"Come on!" Kyle grabbed Melissa's arm. "We have to go!"
"Not without Williams!" Melissa shook her head, kneeling down to check his wound. To say it was a serious wound was an understatement. The beam had literally fused Williams' chest plate with his flesh. There was no possible way he was getting out under his own power, and the only reason why he was still alive was that the fused mass of flesh and steel kept him from bleeding out.
"Listen to him, just go." Williams said weakly, his eyes fluttering as he fought to stay conscious.
"Not without you." Melissa shoved Kyle away. "You keep going. We'll catch up with you."
Kyle took one look at Melissa's eyes and knew that she didn't intend to do what she said. Further ahead, Lynn sadly shook her head. With no other choice, Kyle turned and ran, leaving Melissa and Williams behind in the cargo hold.
"Why are you always so stubborn?" Williams coughed, trying to get up.
"Why are you always going out of your way to help me?" Melissa retorted, putting a Templar down with a well aimed rail rifle burst.
"Because you always need it." Williams managed a faint smile.
"Idiot." Melissa muttered, glad that her helmet was hiding the fact that her eyes were beginning to well up.
"Behind you!" Williams pointed.
Melissa turned and fired, nailing a Templar as he came around a corner. With that, Melissa lifted Williams, slung her arm around him, and began to carry him away from the battle.
"You have any plans on how we're getting out of this." Williams asked.
"I'm thinking on that." Melissa shrugged.
"Well…"
Meanwhile, the rest of the group had reached the cargo hold's main airlock under heavy fire. Kyle slapped the control pad, but nothing happened. He glanced at it again to see that the controls for were locked.
"Damnit!" Kyle cursed. "Sanah!"
"On it!" Sanah blinked once and the control pad flashed green. Suddenly, emergency lights and
warning klaxons blared as the cargo hold doors slowly opened, the vacuum sucking out loose objects, empty containers, and even people. Kyle peered outside and could glimpse the outline of Nietzshe holding station outside. He waved for the rest of the group to follow him leapt out of the cargo hold, propelling himself toward Nietzsche. Hal dutifully positioned Nietzsche so that it would catch the wayward band. No sooner had everybody clambered through the airlock when Kyle yelled, "Hal! Get us out of here!"
"Your request is rather vague. Please specify the proper coord-"
"Oh, step aside." Halsey grunted, overriding Hal and powering up the Slipspace drive.
As the seconds passed, Lynn took the chance to glance out of the airlock window back at the station. She tried to search out for Melissa and Williams, but they were already too far and there was too much interference for her to find anything of use. However, she did catch something else. Two crimson warships appeared from the far side of the station and began making a beeline straight for Nietzsche.
"Uhh, Kyle, we've got the problem…"
"I see them." Kyle nodded. "We should be able to outrun them, though."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Halsey's voice cut in. "Forward sensors picked this up.
She then transmitted the forward camera feed directly to everybody. Moving in position in front of them was the Riftseeker, its weapons armed and shields charged.
"Damnit, get us into Slipspace!" Kyle yelled.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." Hal chimed. "There's not enough clearance between us and the Riftseeker to reach the velocity necessary to enter Slipspace."
"The ship has chemical rockets, right?" Lynn asked.
"Yes." Hal confirmed. "But the use of such equipment is strictly reserved for emergencies."
"What the hell do you think this is!?" Kay yelled.
"Right, get ready to fire them off at maximum power straight down." Lynn said. "On my signal."
"With plea-"
"Oh no, I'm taking charge of this one." Halsey cut in. "I can't even trust you with the stupid doors on this ship."
Lynn closed her eyes and concentrated on both Templar warships that were closing in on the Nietzsche's rear. She could feel the ships' weapons charging, and the order to fire ready to leave the captains' throats. She waited for the instant the order left their mouths and yelled, "NOW!"
In a fraction of a second, Halsey immediately fired Nietzsche's chemical rocket thrusters, pouring tons of fiery thrust into the cold void of space. The ship shuddered as the sudden acceleration and change in direction proved too much for the inertial dampers to compensate. Kyle could feel his body defy the ship's artificial gravity and float above the floor for a fraction of a second before the ship managed to stabilize.
Meanwhile, outside, the sudden thrust pushed Nietzche out of the line of fire from the Templar ships. MAC rounds and particle lasers shot over Nietzsche like a deadly rainbow of fire before they slammed into the front shields of Riftseeker. Ackerson's ship was forced to face the Templar warships and return fire. Even though his objective was to intercept Nietzsche, Ackerson knew he couldn't pursue it without exposing his rear to the Templars. As Nietzsche boosted away, its crew caught a glimpse of Jiles Station for one last time. Sparkles from laser blasts and missile explosions lit up the space around it, until the whole station was consumed by a miniature sun, instantly incinerating any ships unfortunate enough to be near it, including the Templar warships. Fortunately (well, depending on your point of view, of course), Riftseeker was far enough away from the station to avoid destruction, but definitely looked as if it didn't get away unscathed.
Meanwhile, Halsey inputted the jump coordinates and softly counted down the seconds until the Slipspace drive engaged. In a flash, Nietzsche was gone, on to the next leg of its long journey.