Once again, I uploaded this chapter early. I just couldn't stand making you guys wait when the action is about to start! Enjoy!
"Hold…. Nobody do anything until we can get a clear shot at that Hive Ship." High Councillor Tisias was unreadable behind the Prophetann, which concealed his entire face. It was an opaque, solid block of silver Protodermis that hid his visage, forming a wall between him and the world.
"Is anyone else feeling a little uncomfortable going into battle with a blind Shipmaster?" said Ahra, only to break the silence.
Tarvaa, along with the rest of Shadow Team, watched as the smaller frigate-class ships of the Kh'nid fleet passed by on the other side of the glass ceiling. "Father," Tarvaa asked, "does the cloaking device hide just our visual appearance, or does it conceal our imprint on scanners and radar? Can the Kh'nid possibly detect us?"
"All precautions were taken," answered Tisias. "The ship is under a class six Huna invisibility cloak, all heat is being transferred to weapons power, we are using Gravity propulsion; we are not radiating any heat, and there is a field around us that is hiding our movement and radar imprint. To any method of finding something we know of, we are invisible."
The Titan's Fist crept closer to the capital Hive Ship. The organic alien vessel was massive, but the two kilometer long cylinder was still dwarfed by the UGC Dreadnought.
Silence. No movement, no sound, and the Kh'nid fleet drifted all around them, completely oblivious.
"Subspace portal detected," said Evee.
"Subspace? You mean something else just made that crazy trip? Are we getting reinforcements?" Ahra was glancing around, somewhat confused.
"I wasn't expecting any for this deployment." Tisias sounded genuinely surprised. "All other ships mounted with subspace technology are still under construction. Evee, can you identify where the subspace portal occurred?"
"Details on the anomaly are the following: subspace jump exit point, meaning a ship just arrived. The portal was small, so it's a small ship, likely corvette-class. Anomaly occurred within this fleet. Further details are unavailable."
Tarvaa was feeling a pang of fear in her gut, but she couldn't show it. She was the Commander. "Evee, can you detect where the ship is right now?"
"The unknown vessel is within the fleet. I am unable to tell exactly where, or even what it is exactly. It is possible that it has a cloaking device."
"I'm not good at shooting things that I can't see," said Ahra, trying to lighten the mood. Even he had a touch of worry in his voice.
Kislee called, "Maybe it's not Kh'nid. It could be a new species that we have not encountered. This may be our first contact with them."
"Orders, sir?" Evee asked. The holographic sphere that represented her had shrunk in size somewhat, and had shifted to a slightly darker colour.
Tisias was frozen. Something was clearly troubling him. "The dream…" he whispered, so low that only Kislee heard him. Then, he called "Get us out of this fleet, but don't flee the area. Just keep us out of ramming distance!"
"Sir," replied Evee, "that would be violating our mission objective."
"Don't ask questions, just do it! Get us away from these aliens!"
"Yes, sir. Adjusting coordinates. Accelerating. Shipmaster, we are out of the fleet's ramming distance. Awaiting further coordinates."
"Just keep watching the fleet. Keep your distance, and monitor exactly what's going on in there…."
Evee did as instructed. The holographic display indicated nothing unusual. The Titan's Fist was well out of reach of the boundaries of the Hive Fleet. The Kh'nid just kept on cruising, all moving in the same direction, at the same speed. They seemed to think that nothing was out of the ordinary. The entire crew of the Titan's Fist was getting nervous, but on the bridge, things were tense. Everyone seemed to know that something was wrong. Their suspicions were well justified.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tiny, lightning fast ship of strange design appeared right beside the Titan's bridge. Shadow Team could not see much, but they didn't need to. They had already seen that ship. A black dart roughly the size of a small tower. The thing had six silver wings on its backside, and two rows of silver protrusions along the sides that reminded Tarvaa of a ribcage. The strange ship soared past the Titan's Fist, and shot a white line of light from the tip of the dart, hitting a Kh'nid ship of equal size to the corvette. The organic vessel immediately disintegrated. Before the rest of the fleet could react, hundreds of shining missiles and torpedoes that seemed to be made of pure energy launched from every inch of the dart's surface, carving several more Kh'nid corvettes and frigates to pieces.
This got the attention of the rest of the fleet, and the Kh'nid responded with a swarm of glowing orange torpedoes composed of liquid metal. The alien projectiles homed in on the impossibly fast craft, and they all missed their mark, cooling back to a solid state in the vacuum of space. The smaller, more maneuverable of the Kh'nid ships changed course and sped up to a dogfighting speed. They continued to launch their torpedoes and fired their main cannons, each projecting a beam of yellow light. The dart's shields simply shrugged off the powerful cannons, and dropped a few floating balls of red light. When the Kh'nid ships closed in on the dart, the red lights exploded into flickering black and red spheres which engulfed the corvette-class Kh'nid vessels. As soon as they came, the devastating fields vanished, and the black and silver dart launched itself right between a group of frigates.
It seemed to be shifting into a broadside battle, but the Kh'nid cylinders were far too big and too clumsy to hit the dart. It shot past them like a bullet, and left a trail of the red lights behind it. The black and red fields returned, merging when they contacted each other. When they touched the frigates, the organic matter that formed them disappeared, and the frigates appeared to be pulled towards the round fields. Tarvaa understood what the giant black and red balls were, however impossible it could be.
"That thing is dropping black holes!" she cried. As soon as the frigates were sucked into the fields of destruction, the black holes vanished, leaving no trace that anything had happened.
The dart arced around the massive Kh'nid starships, and effortlessly dodged most of the bug's countermeasures. Those that hit the devastating corvette were simply blocked by its shields. Kh'nid don't know how to give up, so they simply kept trying to melt the dart with heat rays and liquid metal. But those were dead Christmas lights compared to the blinding stars of the sleek dart's torpedoes and black hole bombs. Several other weapons were used by the new ship as well. Blue beams of energy that cut the organic tubes in half, bolts of electricity that cooked the fleshy vessels, and the dart's devastating main cannon, which disintegrated even a massive Kh'nid Dreadnought with a single shot. And through the entire event, the Titan's Fist simply sat and watched in horror, invisible as this tiny ship did what they were sent there to do.
Finally, only the gargantuan Hive Ship remained. It had already been scarred by the occasional blast from the corvette, and damaged by friendly fire that had missed the dart. Whoever was piloting the bullet-like corvette had guts, or was absolutely crazy, because it turned around on a dime, and lined itself up right in front of the Hive Ship's main cannon. Shadow Team watched, petrified with fear, as the heat ray charged up, and shone with the heat of seventy white-hot stars. Seconds away from firing, the bullet-ship pulled off a tactic that would be considered suicide by anyone in the UGC: it fired a shot from its main cannon, and the Kh'nid heat ray exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the front of the Hive Ship. Within a second, the dart plunged right through the hole and into the Hive Ship. Shadow Team couldn't see what exactly the corvette was doing, but it was clear that the Hive Ship was not going to walk away from this. White-hot explosions erupted from inside, starship-carving beams cut long gashes through the organic hull, and more black holes emerged, pulling the few pieces that were left of the Hive Ship into oblivion.
Finally, the Hive Ship was gone, either sucked out of existence or pulverized to dust, the organic alien fleet of locusts was no more. The Kh'nid were a massive galactic superpower, their ships were feared across the known galaxy for their ability to melt right through almost anything the UGC could come up with. It had taken no more than two minutes for the black and silver corvette to annihilate the massive Hive Fleet.
The crew of the Titan's Fist was in shock. Their job had been done for them by a ship that no one even knew existed. But on board the entire ship, none were more fearful of the devastating craft than Shadow Team. Tarvaa, Kislee, Ahra and Forge were all thinking the same thing: their bad dreams had become a real-life nightmare.
"High Councillor Tisias, there is an incoming transmission," said Evee, her holographic ball image somewhat dim and shaky, "originating from the unknown starship."
It took some time for the Toa to break his state of shock. Eventually, he snapped out of it, and declared: "Play the message, Evee."
"Councillor, the message is in the form of text. There is no video or audio recording whatsoever."
Tarvaa felt pity for her father and the Kanohi that was his burden. He couldn't even read.
"Evee, can you read the message aloud to me?" asked Tisias. His voice still sounded shaky.
"Analyzing the message…" the holographic representation shrunk and brightened. "Unknown alien language. Referencing with other known languages…." Suddenly, Evee's sphere grew exponentially and brightened to a significant degree. "Language appears to be similar to records of that of the Great Beings."
"What?" cried Tisias, clearly surprised. "That's a dead language. No one has spoken it in almost 75,000 years!"
"It's no wonder that ship's technology is so advanced," Tarvaa stated, "Whoever built it must have known the Great Beings."
"Almost all of the UGC's technology is based off of that of the Great Beings," continued Kislee, "they left entire cities behind on some worlds! The last known Great Being died almost 75,000 years ago on Spherus Magna. No one alive today even knows what he looked like!"
"I'll bet he does," Ahra said grimly, indicating the corvette. "I'd hate to meet him."
"Cold, white, hateful eyes," Forge whispered, "eyes in the dark."
"I have translated the message to the best of my ability, High Councillor," Evee stated, apparently not listening to Shadow Team's observations. "Shall I read the message to you, Shipmaster Tisias?"
Tisias still seemed scared out of his wits. Kislee still did not share what she had heard him say earlier. "Go ahead, Evee."
"Message reads as follows: I know you are there, and you know that my ship is just as good as yours. Before I engage you, I would like to know who you are. I would hate to destroy someone that did not deserve destruction."
Tisias took this in a moment. Then he said: "Evee, reply with a message in the galactic standard language reading the following: Unidentified alien race, we are the Dreadnought-class warship Titan's Fist. We represent the United Galactic Council, and we wish no conflict between our two governments or military. We are willing to accept your race into our society. The only condition is that you do not open fire on us when we reveal ourselves. Do you understand, unidentified alien race? End message."
The holographic sphere flickered for a moment. "Message sent, Shipmaster."
The bridge waited anxiously for the reply. Finally, Evee said, "Reply received, Shipmaster. This message is oddly also in the Galactic Standard language."
Tisias looked shaken again. "Read the message, Evee."
"I will not agree to anything until I know what you look like. If you refuse, know that I am aware of your exact position, and will destroy you anyways."
Tisias seemed to take this as a shock. Ahra, as always, tried to lighten the mood. "Strange request. Don't let him see Forge, we might scare him off." This earned him a glare from Kislee, but Forge didn't seem to mind. He was too lost in his head, thinking who knows what.
A thought hit Tarvaa. "Father, you said that all precautions were taken with the cloaking device to ensure that nothing could detect us with known methods. Is it possible that this thing could be using an unknown method?"
Tisias was still petrified, but he gave an answer: "It's possible, yes."
"Hold on," said Evee, already scanning for energy signatures, "Shipmaster, I am detecting a large Psionic field originating from the unknown corvette-class starship."
"Psionics," said Kislee, analyzing the information, "that was definitely more than a dream."
"Shadow Four? Please repeat," said Evee.
"Dismiss that comment, Evee," Tarvaa replied. "Personal matters."
"Understood. Shipmaster, I am awaiting your orders."
Tisias had been deep in thought the entire time. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," he whispered. "Evee, send a reply message reading the following: Both of us oppose the Kh'nid, as you have just demonstrated. An alliance between our nations will be greatly beneficial for both of us. I ask again that you do not fire upon us when we disable our cloak."
Time passed. But time was frozen for the people in the bridge of the Titan's Fist.
"No response, Shipmaster," Evee reported, "I assume that the last response still stands."
Tisias still seemed troubled, but Kislee could see that he was starting to regain his composure. She wished she could say the same for the rest of them. "Evee, tell the cloaking engineers to disable the cloak," the Councillor finally said.
"Yes, Shipmaster." The sphere vanished.
From inside the Titan's Fist, there was no change. But from outside, in space, a massive floating black city materialized bit by bit, like a computer image being drawn pixel by pixel. Tarvaa could only imagine it, but she pictured an awe-inspiring sight for their mysterious and deadly beholder. She hoped that it would knock some sense into him, her, or them.
She was wrong.
A blinding white flash filled the eyes of everyone aboard the Titan's Fist, and a great earthquake seemed to shake the ship. Shadow Team was knocked to the floor, and Tisias was thrown across the bridge. The crew's sight returned before their other senses, and soon a series of rumbling and pounding hit the ship. When it passed, Tisias shakily stood up, bracing himself against anything he could put his hands on.
"What just happened?" Tarvaa shouted, a dull ringing noise filling her audio receptors.
Evee's holographic sphere returned. "Unknown starship has engaged us. All able crew are initializing countermeasures."
"Evee," Tisias called, looking around the ship that he could supposedly see, "damage report!"
"Gravity Propulsion engines are operating and 30%. Shields commencing recharge cycle. Hull damage is extensive. Evacuating all personnel from sectors B2, D1 and F6. Several weapons systems are critically damaged. Total weapon capacity is at 70%. Several crew members have been critically injured and 142 staff are declared KIA."
"That thing hit us hard," Ahra said, "fighting always did come to having a bigger stick than the other guy."
Something in what Ahra said gave Tarvaa an idea. "He may have a bigger stick than us," Tarvaa declared, "but we have a heck of a lot more sticks than him. Forge, can you hack the computers here to give us control of some of the ship's guns?"
Forge barely needed to think. "Yes, Commander."
"Do it," Tarvaa ordered, "Shadow Team, we're going to take command of the Titan's defensive and offensive batteries. Father, get all your non-military personnel to safety. Anyone able to man a gun or fly a fighter, send them there. We need all our weapons if we're getting out of here in one piece!"
The High Councillor was too stunned by the attack to argue with his daughter. He shakily gave the command, and soon, every gun and almost every fighter aboard the Titan's Fist was ready to engage the enemy, while the wounded or non-combat crew members were rushed to safe areas within the ship.
Shadow Team followed the Commander's orders. 30% of the Titan's guns might have been destroyed, but there were a heck of a lot of guns left in working order. Combined, they had enough firepower to blow a Kh'nid battle fleet to bits. A single corvette-class starship should have been a piece of cake.
Should have been a piece of cake.
"Alert: enemy is coming for another attack run," Evee warned. "All able personnel are required to operate any offensive and defensive batteries and stations. This is not a drill."
"Ready, Shadow Team," Tarvaa declared, "let's show this alien who they're dealing with!"
The corvette charged closer. Before it came within range of the Titan's guns, it launched hundreds of glowing white missiles at the city-ship. Instantly, it pulled a 180 degree turn within a second, and flew at cruising speed away from the Titan's Fist, teasingly out of range of its weapons.
"Incoming missiles, brace for impact," Evee declared.
"How did that thing turn that quickly?" shouted Ahra, "A stunt like that would tear any UGC ships in half!"
"Commander, there's something strange about these missiles." Kislee was always analyzing the fine details that even Tarvaa missed. "They're not showing up on any of the scanners."
"Are they too small to pick up?" Tarvaa questioned.
"The Titan's scanners are designed to be able to pick up a .22 caliber bullet moving at the speed of sound," Tisias shouted, "There's no form of matter that our sensors can't pick up!"
The face of Kislee's Rahkshi-like neurosuit contorted into a confused expression. Truly a rare sight for Kislee. "These missiles aren't made of matter. But then – oh, no."
"What's the problem, Sarashii?" Ahra shouted, "Are we all dead?"
"Not all of us, but the missiles are headed straight for the personnel evac zones!"
That was bad news. Tarvaa had always kept civilian casualties to a minimum on all her previous missions. "Can we stop the missiles, Kislee?"
"I don't know…"
"I've got an idea," Ahra smiled, "blow up the missiles before they hit their target. FIRE!"
Ahra was always trigger-happy, but this plan was the only thing that might have a chance at saving some lives. Thousands of bolts, pulses and beams of low-powered weapons fired from the Titan's thousands of guns to intercept the alien torpedoes. In the blinding fire coming from the guns, it was hard to see whether their plan was succeeding.
They didn't need to see. They could feel it.
Without expectation, several deep rumbles and sounds of explosions erupted from deep below the bridge. The sounds were muffled, but Shadow Team felt the effects nonetheless.
"Damn." Tarvaa didn't want to know, but she had to find out what the situation was. "How many people did we lose, Evee?"
The holographic orb didn't move for what seemed an eternity. When the word came, even Evee sounded horrified: "We have lost one-thousand six hundred and eighty-two more personnel. Artificial atmosphere is leaking. Sectors D42, H52, J66, A41, L38 and B70 have been destroyed. Sealing off all critically damaged sectors."
That was a hard fact for Tarvaa to take in. "That thing hasn't even targeted our main weapons systems yet. Those missiles homed right into where the most people were. Whatever this thing is, it knows how to demoralize its enemy."
Forge had completely frozen. "It's like Haven, all over again."
Kislee kept on analyzing what was happening. The little details, the events that no one had even noticed. But she didn't say a word.
Ahra was shaken. But it's hard to frighten a Bohrok for long. "What are we just sitting around for? That alien just broke a major war crime, and it has to pay!"
Ahra began madly typing commands into the computer nearest to him. He had taken control of half the remaining guns on the Titan, and fired wildly at the slowly retreating corvette. Elemental beams, acid bolts, antimatter pulses, and explosive metal slugs were launched out of the guns of many races and technologies, dancing their way towards the alien dart. Most of Ahra's wild shots fell short, being too short-ranged to hit the tiny corvette. Most, but not all.
One shot, a human-designed high-explosive round, landed a direct hit on the corvette. The tiny ship was rocked by the explosion, but seemed otherwise unharmed. The dart's shields had taken the damage.
But it got the corvette's attention.
The black and chrome arrow righted itself, and charged headlong back at the Titan's Fist.
"Yeah, come back for more!" Ahra was screaming now. "I'll burn you to cinders!"
The corvette continued to shoot at the Titan, firing its own weapons in return fire. But it was getting hard for the thing to aim under the hailstorm of plasma and acid bolts, even if they only hit the shields.
Tarvaa would have to thank Ahra later. He always could ignite the battle-spirit that inspired even the disheartened to fight on. "Follow good Ahra's example, Titan's Fist!" She was commanding the whole ship now. "Let's kill this thing!"
Finally, Shadow Team could see the full force of the Titan's firepower. Every gun that could still shoot began firing incessantly at the dart-ship. The alien's own weapons fired back, but most were fired blindly and hit non-essential locations.
"Keep firing!" Tarvaa was doing everything she could to keep her voice calm, her rage boiled down. "Don't give this merciless alien any forgiveness!"
The rain of firepower coming from the Titan was biblical. Thousands upon thousands of turrets, cannons, and batteries were firing a never-ending volley of white-hot destruction in many forms at this one target. And the main cannon had not even fired yet.
Finally, one by one, some of the guns stopped firing.
"What's happening?" Tarvaa demanded.
Tisias was rubbing his hands over three-dimensional statistics of the ship. "Some of the guns are overheating and need to cool down," he explained, "others are running out of ammo, and a few were destroyed by lucky shots from the corvette."
Kislee paused for a moment. "Were they lucky?" she said.
The last thing that anyone wanted came without expectation. Another horror was unleashed from the impossible ship. Thousands of missiles and bolts were launched simultaneously in a shining wave of death. For a moment, it seemed as if the corvette had created a star in the middle of the ship. Then, after a few seconds, the massive Dreadnought was shaken by ten thousand explosions all hitting their marks at the same time. One hundred earthquakes violently jerked the ship around, and threatened to tear it apart. Shadow Team was thrown to the ground again, but Tisias held himself upright with impossible strength. The floor cracked and some of the bridge's computers were unceremoniously thrown around the room.
"Evee," Tisias shouted amid the roaring chaos, "damage report!"
"96% of our weapons have been destroyed. Engines are completely shut down. Hull integrity at 42%. Shields disabled. Fires are spreading through several sectors. Sealing off critically damaged areas. 84 personnel are declared KIA, and climbing."
Ahra struggled to push himself up to his feet. "And the alien?"
"Alien corvette has sustained significant damage to its shields and minimal damage to it's hull thanks to armour-piercing rounds. It is otherwise fully operational."
Ahra coughed and stood up. "How the heck do you stop that thing?"
Before Tarvaa could think anymore, the corvette began pulverizing what was left of the giant skyscrapers of the city-ship with black hole bombs, shining torpedoes and beams of energy that cut the towers from their foundations.
"This thing broke us," High Councillor Tisias murmured, "and we can't even fight back."
Tarvaa couldn't think of any way to stop the alien vessel. It was pounding all that was left of an already dead ship. The situation was hopeless.
"Commander," came a voice that no one expected to hear at this time, "I have an idea."
Tarvaa didn't know what to think besides: Forge, you are one steely soldier.
"Alright, John,", Tarvaa smiled, "let's hear it."