The Eisenhower was theirs, just four Dracos warriors had taken over control of an entire E.D. F heavy cruiser. The moans of the dying and the screams of agony were a delight to hear, as Taneth and the other Dracos kicked away the weapons of those who still attempted some desperate form of resistance, despite the intense pain of deep eviscerator slashes and the acid now slowly melting its way into their bodies. Oh, to hear their glorious tortured screams that little bit longer, and to revel in the chaos and bloodletting they had caused, they were Dracos, this was their victory.
One by one, the bridge crew slowly expired from their injuries, leaving the room awash with blood, and yet eerily silent, this filled Kallos with a sense of sadness and he very quickly longed to hear those screams once again, such was the life of a Dracos Kallan warrior.
The slaughter had taken a little over three minutes, Kallos approached this third Dracos warrior who had accompanied them all this time, never actually knowing his name, he had fought well, worthy of recognition; as all of them had.
“Kallan! What is your name?”
“I am Aelthris, fourth daughter of Tamrath.”
“A female?” he asked almost quizzically, taken aback. Very few females survived for long in the ranks of the Kallan, the vast majority stayed on Corvandris, where they were highly prized, since the Dracos race depended upon them for propagation.
“You have fought well Aelthris, daughter of Tamrath; worthy of recognition in the annals of the Kallan.”
“I fight only to serve the Dracos, and to hear the screams of my enemy.”
“That you have, and there will be more before we are finished. We must continue the hunt, our prey is still on the surface, and continues to taint our world.”
All Dracos females had a first name beginning with the letter ‘A’, it was customary, to honour the first Dracos woman to ever set foot on Corvandris, Alarieth, the sister of blood. She was one of those behind the original coup attempt against the Solarian empire. When it failed, she fled to Corvandris and was never found by the Solarians. She goes by the name of the all-mother now, her age is so advanced many do not believe she has many years left. It was surprising the all-mother would let one of her children into the Kallan, Kallos thought.
Although commander Fontaine’s warning to the crew of the Eisenhower was cut short, enough of it was heard to start a rush for the escape pods, which began to jettison from the outer hull of the ship in a series of small flurries.
Taneth was sat at the ships pilot’s position, the Eisenhower, being an E.D. F ship lacked the sophisticated piloting chairs of the Liberty, Solarian craft or even Dracos cruisers, and instead relied upon the slow and ungainly method of using a console instead. Several stray eviscerator rounds were lodged into the side of the display, and more than once the Dracos warrior came close to being nicked by his own ammunition; an occupational hazard for a Kallan, and an extremely painful one.
“Full power to the ship’s main engines, head for the atmosphere.” Kallos said, as he took the centre seat once used by the late commander Fontaine.
After staring puzzlingly at the instruments for a few seconds, Taneth finally came across a shiny metallic ‘T’ shaped handle, and pushed it all the way forward.
This ignited the Eisenhower’s twin inter-system boosters with a giant roar, the ship began to gradually lurch forward under the thrust of the two gigantic turbines, gaining speed all the time.
The Liberty, still connected, was being dragged along forcefully by the much larger craft, the small warship started lurching and rocking violently as it was pulled along, crewmen were thrown to the ground everywhere, Kinraid barely managed to hold onto his seat.
“What in the name o’ god is goin’ on!” he shouted over the din of violent shaking, the scream of twisting metal, and the shattering of glass.
“It’s the Eisenhower!” Lieutenant Hicks shouted, the relief sensor officer aboard. “She’s fired up her main boosters! She’s heading straight for the planet!”
“What in the love o’ Mike for!”
“No idea, but we are being pulled along with her like a dog on a leash! The stress on the inter-connecting corridor is exceeding design limits! She’s going to tear off the ship any second, and if she does we’ll have explosive decompression across the whole deck!” Hicks shouted over the constant barrage of the ship’s violent jostling, several other naval officers were thrown forcefully from their chairs.
“Jettison the hatch! Break us free o’ the Eisenhower, and then contact that bloody ship, ask them what the devil do they tink they are doin?”
“Automated docking clamps are unresponsive, attempting to override.” Hicks said as he tied in the sensory station with the engineering sub-systems monitor of the ship.
“Alerts are blaring at me all over my screen! That section is close to buckling, it’ll give way any second!” Logan Jones said as he looked toward Hicks in panic.
“There, I’ve got it!” The lieutenant shouted in triumph as he managed to separate the badly damaged corridor from the Eisenhower, the Liberty floated free as the enormous vessel, five times its size, roared ahead past them.
The heavy cruiser’s hull began to heat up, turning a shade of bright orange as it neared the atmosphere.
“Full alert status; follow them!” Kinraid barked.
“Commander, our hull won’t stand another entry into the planets atmosphere, not with the damage we sustained fighting the Dracos ships.” Hicks said.
“Godamnit!” Kinraid fumed, but ultimately knew that Hicks was right, with the pounding they had taken, they would simply burn up trying. The graviton shields would not last for long.
“I’ve tried contacting them, there’s no response, and I’m showing a wave of escape pods jettisoned just prior to her firing her boosters.”
“What?” Kinraid asked, it was all beginning to make sense now, she’s been taken over, had to be.
“Lieutenant, what lifesigns are you showing over there?”
Hicks checked his instruments, “three Dracos lifesigns, that is all…” He gasped as the stark reality of what had happened hit home.
“Well if we can’t stop ‘em, we’ll make it bloody difficult! Ready fusion cannon, target their engines, fire when ready!” Kinraid said.
Logan zeroed in on the Eisenhower punching its way ever deeper into the planets atmosphere, its hull blazing orange, and slowly turning to white as heat continued to build up on its outer hull. Flames and super heated plasma trailed off it, making it difficult to get an exact fix. He pressed the button and unleashed the full fury of the Liberties largest and most powerful weapon system.
The incandescent electric blue beam of raw power shot from the elongated barrel of the weapon, slamming home with such force it tore apart one of the Eisenhower’s boosters, blasting it clean off the ship, a great black cloud of smoke and debris fragments billowed out from the impact, leaving a thick black contrail in its wake.
The force of the impact was so great that it caused the giant runaway cruiser to veer uncontrollably off- centre. The massive breach on its rear continued to stream out smoke, as the hull of the huge ship heated up irregularly, glowing red-hot as it continued to push deeper.
Kinraid could only watch the stresses of the ship’s hull grow to such an extreme, as it began to list wildly out of control towards the planet. Halfway along its surface it began to buckle, no longer able to resist the immense force subjected to it. It finally gave way; a panel tore open, then another, and another like paper, the ship was slowly tearing itself apart as it hurtled onwards in its suicidal descent.
Support struts, cross-beams, and its internal structural lattice work were all painfully visible as the rear half of the ship slowly tore itself away from the front half in a cloud of flame, billowing smoke, and debris. Small explosions flashed across its broken hull like the very fires of hell, swathes of hull fragments were thrown loose as the latter half of the ship gradually tore itself to pieces in a giant plume of flame and red-hot shrapnel, all streaking downward toward the planet surface.
Amazingly, the front half of the ship was still intact, and glided haphazardly toward the surface. Now through the upper atmosphere, it rushed headlong in its descent, fire blazed out of a myriad of rents and smoke poured from the torn aft section in a thick black trail across the sky. Tiny twisted metal fragments were constantly torn loose from the devastated structure, like a shower of metallic confetti, before the entire ship smashed headlong into the
