Chapter 130: (Nightmare) (2/2)
Two heavy frigates moved to intercept, their marines in armor and ready to board the ship.
Lavu'u was the Most High of the two frigate force and he stared at what his scanning technician had put up on the screen.
It was the Demand Answers, but not as Lavu'u had seen it six months prior.
The entire hull was blackened, rent, twisted, and torn. Both engines were steadily leaking energy in an ever-expanding haze around the ship. No power readings from reactors, just backup batteries, although not even lights were blinking. In some places it looked as if explosions had happened inside the ship, twisting the metal outward from the hull. In other places it looked as if the explosion had been outside the hull, caving in sharp twisted spikes of duralloy.
Lavu'u ordered his subordinate, Ukalka'a, to dock with the ship and send in his Marines.
Long moments passed as they matched velocity with the ship and Ukalka'a found an undamaged airlock. Ukalka'a ordered twenty of his marines to board a shuttle, get close, and go EVA to the ship. They entered the airlock, reporting it cycled perfectly on the backup batteries, and entered.
”No sign of survivors,” O'ontara, the Marine Most High reported. ”Airlock is damaged. Cycling it now.”
More silence, interspersed with crackling.
”Airlock bay shows signs of damage. Atmosphere is weak at eight psi, only 24% oxygen. Looks like plasma small arms in the 40 watt range,” O'ontara reported. ”Heading toward the bridge now. Will be leaving behind repeaters, there's some serious interference in here.”
”Do you see what might have caused it?” Lavu'u asked.
”Negative, Most High,” O'ontara reported back. ”Got some blood here. Both dried globes and smearing on the floor. Looks like some while they still had artificial gravity and some without.”
There was a moment of silence, the cameras completely shot with static.
”Bridge door is operable but the batteries are dead. Using the manual system,” O'ontara said. After a moment his voice came back. ”The bridge is in bad condition. Looks like only two systems are up. Navigation, oddly enough for this system. The other looks cobbled together and repaired. Moving to examine.”
There was silence.
”It looks like some kind of log. Text only right now. There's audio files but...” there was silence for a moment. ”It's a log from the Security Most High, he stated they found a Terran research station orbiting a neutron star and...”
It cut out.
The ship vanished, leaving behind the shuttle and the other frigate.
There was silence on the bridge for a moment.
”Get me a jump-trace,” Lavu'u snapped.
”It didn't go into jumpspace. It's just gone!” the navigator replied.
”There was no jumpcore power up, Most High,” the scan tech said.
”Give me a full scan. We'll search in a pattern. Ships that size don't just vanish,” Lavu'u snapped.
Six days of searching turned up no hint of the marines or the Demand Answers.
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”Where are we?” O'ontara said, coughing as he struggled to his feet.
One moment he had been looking at the bridge logs then it felt like he was being turned inside out. He'd blacked out, waking up on his side.
”Still on the bridge,” Ukvo'ok stated, coughing as he got up.
”Sound off,” O'ontara coughed. He put his lower hands on the console, leaning on it.
”Ukvo'ok.”
”Telmvo'o.”
”Shu'ulak.”
”Telmvo'o, check on Konta'a,” Ukvo'ok said, triggering a stimjet. The amphetamine rushed into his system, clearing away the cobwebs.
Telmvo'o clopped over to the other side of the console and stopped. ”Most High,” he said, gagging.
”What?” O'ontara asked.
”Most High, you must come see this,” Telmvo'o said. He clopped the side and retched.
O'ontara moved around the console, looking down.
Konta'a was lying on the floor, his armor torn apart. His flesh had been savaged, torn and ripped, his guts spilled out on the cold floor the bridge. His head was fleshless, a bare raw bloody skull.
”What could have done that, Most High?” Telmvo'o asked, managing not to throw up.
”I do not know,” O'ontara said. He looked out the windows of the bridge.
The ship was connected to a station. A damaged station made of durachrome that was lit up. He could see three tentacles out from the hub, two damaged, one with a damaged ship in the docking ring.
It was Terran make.
”But I'm afraid we may be in Terran space.”
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The ship appeared two million miles inside the resonance boundary, moving into the system. No lights shown, just the engines spewing energy in an ever expanding globe around the damaged ship.
It broadcast two messages.
WE ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE. DO NOT COME TO OUR ASSISTANCE. I AM NEED OF ASSISTANCE. DO NOT COME TO MY ASSISTANCE. DO NOT ASSIST THIS SHIP! MAINTAIN STANDOFF DISTANCE. FLEE THIS SHIP IT IS NEED OF ASSISTANCE. THIS SHIP IS IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE TO BE DESTROYED AT STANDOFF DISTANCE. WE ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE.
DO NO APPROACH IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE. LOCATION UNKNOWN. STATUS IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE. DO NOT APPROACH.
The System Most High ordered two ships to rendezvous with the ship. To find out what happened to the crew and to the Marines who had boarded it.
A shuttle was sent. Security beings boarded. They found the ship empty, in pristine condition. Engines in working condition, jumpcore functional, atmosphere nominal. The ships computers were empty, wiped, dead. Not even navigation software.
Another boarding crew was sent to pilot the ship back. They reported that the ship was heavily damaged.
It vanished.
Not into jumpspace.
Just vanished.
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The ship appeared again. On the eve of the Fourth Wave being sent. It appeared halfway between the resonance zone and the star. It broadcast only one message.
DO NO COME TO OUR ASSISTANCE. WE ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE.
The System Most High couldn't risk the ship escaping again, warning the humans of the massive armada poised to destroy them once and for all, that would destroy the final systems and take 20% of their empire away, forcing them to surrender.
He sent 4 ships to intercept the ship. Two frigates, a light cruiser, and a battleship. When they got close enough, they opened fire.
The ship vanished.
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A month later it arrived again. Broadcasting a single message.
DO NOT COME TO OUR ASSISTANCE. WE ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE.
This time the Executor Most High ordered it boarded again.
The Security crew entered, carrying heavy crates and boxes.
It vanished.
Just as the Most High knew it would.
Which is why he had sent them with an atomic demolition charge.
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The ship appeared. This time dead. Broadcasting no message.
It cruised through the dead and empty system that had once been the center of the Executor Council's power.
There was no noise but the hissing of the solar winds.
It landed on the second planet from the sun, despite not being built to land in a gravity well. The atmosphere, what little remained, hissed against the hull. When it set down in the blasted radioactive desert that had once been rolling fields where Executor Troops had marched and trained, part of the hull collapsed and was crushed.
It settled into the sand.
And began to broadcast.
WE ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE. DO NOT COME TO OUR ASSISTANCE.