Chapter 2:
Our fleets have been reduced to only sixty now. From three hundred to sixty is a lot of casualties. We had at least also cut down their fleet to half sized (they had only started with eleven). You ask me why we didn't escape, right? Well, you see, they had somehow blocked slipstream entry. You say we could have called for backup? Nope, our communication was blocked, which means the distress beacon was also. So, we are good as dead. At least, I wish not. Our moral was very low now; lower than if you were a lone survivor form an enemy attack. But I was going to change that.
"Marines, pilot and officers. We had a great fight. Now, death is at our door. I can't command you now. The choice is now yours and you have two choices. One is to try to run away using our engines and second is to fight till our last breath. But I will ask you.
Will you live to see your family, friends and race destroyed, or would you die knowing you have fought? This is our last stand. One choice, one life, one death." My voice pierced the speakers of every speaker in my fleets and I also saluted "It was an honour to be your leader." Some of the ships turned around and tried to leave. But most, did something else.
54 of my fleet (my ship included) started boosting their engines, fast forwarding into the enemy ships in one last attempt to let our fellow soldiers live. The enemy/precursor was very surprised, as their shield was already at zero. As the first ships crashed into one and each other, both ships were eliminated. As we had more ships, we have destroyed all of theirs except one. A few fighters came out of the last one but a few of our Longswords crashed into them.
"For humanity!" they had all cried out before the impacts.
"Remember… It's your choice, not mine…" my voice echoed again. "It's your choice… and this is my choice…" and then, my ship crashed into the capital ship and all went black. A deathly black.
Fleet Admiral Hood's POV three weeks later:
"What! No. That impossible!" I said and slammed my hands onto the desk as the soldier came in.
"Sir, it happened. Fleet Admiral's fleets were destroyed by precursors. But he fought well, and he destroyed the enemy fleet too. All that info came from the survivors from one of the ships that escaped."
"Why did some ships under his command run away? And why didn't he run or call for backup?"
"He gave them a choice sir. Now all of them are blaming themselves for running away. If they didn't he could of lived. He couldn't run or call for help because the precursors blocked the signals."
"He was a great friend. A great leader. We must hold a ceremony for all who died…" suddenly, another soldier ran in. Between breaths, he told me some very lucky news.
"Sir! Puff. Puff. Sir! We found Fleet Admiral Donsom! Puff! Emf..! Barely alive!"
"Oh my god! How is that possible?" I said very surprised and happy, "Where is he now?"
"In the med bay! He was brought here two hours ago!"
"Soldiers, you are dismissed!" I told them and walked out of my office and trotted to the med bay in a very fast pace. "Where is Fleet Admiral Donsom?" I asked a nurse.
"Room H-21533, floor ten!" she told me. And I walked to that room. A nurse was at the door.
"Sorry, sir. The patient is undergoing surgery. His status is very bad as he was in a depressurized space for too long. Please come back after a while." She told me. And I did just that.
My POV:
Why is everything black? What's happening? Is I dead? Dead men don't think! I feel nothing! OMG! I am totally dead! I can't survive in vacuum neither can I survive two ships crashing together! But dead men don't think! Then why is I thinking?
My thoughts were everywhere, in a jumble. I couldn't think straight.
What is happening? Oh my god! Why am I seeing my spinal cord! Why is it mutated? My muscles! They don't look right! Wait… why my mind is making pictures of that! My bones! My mind is thinking they are unbreakable! Wait, a sec, my brain! It's… different! What is happening!
Then, I woke up with a start. First, I could only make out a white everything. Then, my vision focused. I seemed to be in a hospital bed. Bandages were everywhere on me. Some places even had plaster. Nutrient stickers were at a few places. IVs were hanging everywhere. A monitor was hanging on the wall.
"What…" I could only mutter as I heard a doctor say something to a man and the man walked over.
"Welcome to the land of the living, Fleet Admiral Donsom."
"I'm… alive...?"
"If you are dead, you won't see or think!" said the man. Now, my senses were all focused.
"Fleet Admiral Hood!" I suddenly said as I recognized the man and he chuckled.
"So, how is it going?"
"Nowhere hurting, that's sure. When will I be back in service?" I asked him.
"You are making a surprising fast recovery, friend. You can take off all of that like this afternoon."
"What about my fleet? What happened to them? Did they survive? Did we win the battle?" asked him as I moved a bit in the bed.
"Well, it looks like you did win the battle but with 95% casualties." I closed my eyes.
"I should of done something to destroy the enemy faster or maybe a way to escape… I have the blood of millions on my hands…"
"You couldn't do anything, admiral. The weapons your fleet had would only scratch their shields. It was an amazing feat to have destroyed a Precursor fleet. It's two technology levels higher than us."
"But still… millions have died… what happens if they attack us again?" that was when my friend laughed hard. I raised an eyebrow. What's so funny? It's a second covenant-human sort of war again!
"You destroyed their biggest fleet. What do you think? They are all taken back! It's the covenant-human war that ended in the blink of an eye with us victorious! With you as a Fleet Admiral, this war will be soon over!" I fell back into my pillow and turned unconscious by the revelation. How did I command a fleet and do THAT!
No one's POV at some place that I don't know where:
"Master, our fleet had been destroyed."
"What? I thought you had sent our best!"
"Yes, master, but it was not enough."
"Then we shall have a full scale attack, with the Fash-Kalies."
"Yes…"