SAMPLE CHAPTER: M.I.N.D
"Scanning all frequencies captain, the Avenger is under heavy fire and requesting all to stay away."
Mind looked over at the bringer of bad news, "Admiral Hayes is a die hard fool, ever remember the history of earth and a man called Custer?"
"Not really sir, earth history has never been my fascination."
Deedee stepped onto the bridge as he did he caught echoes of the conversation through his own trained ears, "Custer took a small military force and went against a vastly superior army and lost. It is rumoured only a few escaped."
Mind spun his chair around and nodded at his friend, "Hayes is just like Custer, though don't tell anyone I said so."
"Sir, his armour is collapsing and the enemy is proceeding to hammer the outer hull, penetrations on many decks severe loss of life."
"What do we do?" Deedee asked as his hands rested on the back of his superiors' chair as the man had swung round to address the helmsman.
"We go in and save the old man."
"Sir, may I advise to the severe pounding we will take and against the superior fire of the Krugon fleet we will probably struggle to get away ourselves."
Mind looked at his security officer and smiled, "Deedee."
Deedee nodded, "We thank you for your input and your concern is duly noted."
"Helmsman, plot in a course for the Avenger's path and prepare to drop us out of hyper speed one mark short of his ship."
The helmsman didn't look up as he plotted the course, now it was his turn to advise,"Problem with this manoeuvre Captain, is we could actually strike his ship or one of the enemy."
"I am aware of the situation, please proceed." Mind tapped his console on his chair arm and a three dimensional graph came up with the enemy surrounding the Admiral's vessel and the detailed strike rate from the six Krugon vessels surrounding it.
"Doesn't take a mathematician to work out who's going to win."
"Do you think we will win?" Mind asked his second in command.
Deedee stepped to the side of the chair and whispered, "Us, if you have anything to do with it."
Mind smiled again, "Surprise is our weapon and watch out when they freeze it will give us the advantage." He looked over at his man on weapon control, "On my order fire flash bombs only."
Deedee stepped nearer, "Flash bombs?"
"Confuse them and while doing so, we nick our guy."
"If successful I'd watch he doesn't turn us around, order us to fight on."
The Warlord struck hyper speed and within a few seconds was upon the stricken vessel as pockets of air escaping burned. Everything was played out without a sound as there is no noise in space. The ship ground to a halt just a few meters from the other and six flash bombs shot out from the vessel and blew up sending bright white light into the eyes of the enemy.
"Transport, do you have the admiral and survivors?"
"Yes Captain, we have the ones we can find."
Mind saw the enemy ships tracking his ship through the interference of the white lights which were fading
"Helm, get us out of here and weapon control, target the leading Krugon vessel and send a few torpedoes his way will you."
Deedee saw the ship lurch with speed as the other vessels were starting to lock on and as the leading vessel locked four torpedoes shot away from the warlord to strike its bridge and caused it to turn away making the other vessels in the pursuit try and pass it either side. Trouble is with cumbersome vessels is they react slower and the effect was a small pile up in space.
"Give me the destruct codes for the Admiral's ship."
"Destruct codes ordered, access being rerouted through proper channels. Access accepted by Supreme Admiral Dreg."
At least someone was on Mind's side as he tapped in the code which appeared on his personal screen which flipped up on the chairs arm. Once accepted he waited for the on screen red button which came up along with schematics of the ship and it's invading party of scavengers looking for any tech they could use against the United Space Authority.
"Admiral on bridge!" Came a shout from one of the security guards as he stood to attention. Mind hovered a little before pressing the button and watching as in the distance an orange to yellow glow could be seen.
"Damn shame that."
Mind stood to attention offering to surrender his seat to his superior officer.
"No, no, I'm glad to be a guest on such a fine ship." Making a sweeping gesture as his eyes danced around giving all loyal to Mind the feeling of unease.
"You were saying about it being a damn shame?"
"Ah yes."
"Any scans of hostiles following or any possible intercept?"
The Admiral stood back as he admired the man that was Mind never allowing his attention to be drawn away from the potential battle at hand.
"No hostile activity in our sector, though..."
Mind spun his chair round to look at his scanning station manager, "What?"
"We are in between the Dagoa sector and Shinear. There was for a second a minor blip as if something like a very large battleship was seen."
"Rumors of a large Krugon battle ship has existed for years and then proved to be nothing, all except." Hayes added as the admiralty had often talked about this.
Mind drew his eyes back to his superior, "Except it is true and the Admiralty along with the USA have been keeping this from your regular run of the meal soldier."
"That was what I was running from Krugoa with."
Mind frowned, "You are three sectors from Krugoa."
"We sat in hiding off their fifth moon, well if you can call a luminescent asteroid orbiting their twelfth planet a moon."
Deedee had been looking at the scan of the shadow which was recorded and as he heard Hayes mumble about big ships he moved closer.
"We were there under the instructions of the Krugon Renegades, I take it you are familiar with these fighters for order in their own system?"
"Yeah, came across a few in my time."
"Paxter was the man's name and he gave us the details of a ship launched from the space dock on the dark side of Krugoa. This ship has the fire power to destroy a planet."
"Planet killers eh, we have see a few of those about and of course my home world was destroyed by one o them Admiral."
The admiral straightened his tunic as he addressed the alien "All is not well, my sympathies are with you and the rest of your kind Deedee."
Mind saw Deedee look away and remembered the time he found the lad. The battle of Chemosh, where Mind met first hand the evil that is the battle force of the Krugons.
Krugons were in all purposes the same configuration of a human, changed by being pawns of another race through testing. Time saw to it that they were used as an army for the unknown species (Now known as the Clef) that caused their mutation. Their extra dense framework and extra thick skin made them hard to kill and with the strength of six men an enemy to dread. Not only that but with tech stolen from their former captors they used it to unleash a frenzy of wars upon other planets, not to conquer, just to kill like sport. Of course the Krugon Renegades were different, tired of fighting and blood shed and wanted to talk to the universe with the hand of peace by overthrowing their own government.
Mind was involved in breaking the battle lines and the strangle hold the Krugon battle fleet had. He along with six ships targeted the Krugonomion, the lead ship in the strike. They took heavy casualties and yet the ships just kept pounding the vessel until it could take no more and with its hull breached and crumpling it fell away out of the fight causing confusion allowing Mind and his ship through to fight the invading surface forces.
Jake's the USA's answer to the Krugon assault force were use, giant robots (battle droids) that grappled with the enemy or just fired round upon round at them. The fighting was bitter and lives lost, all about Mind was waves upon waves of people dying as the Krugons mercilessly attacked the innocent and hunted down the ones fleeing under changed form.
"Can you walk?" Mind asked as he picked up a young man burned from an exploding death bomb. The lad shook his burnt head as mind lifted the lightweight over his shoulder.
"Sir, the planet is taken, we have to evacuate while we still can."
Mind looked up at the robot and as he shot at a Krugon he succumbed to a volley of hits in all directions and blew into tiny pieces.
"This is Mind, two to transport."
"Drop your weapon Captain and our prisoner."
Mind didn't much need to look about him to see a whole squad of Krugon battle hardened soldiers drenched in blood from the slaughter.
"I thought you guys just shot first then asked all the questions?"
"Your team is lost and your rescue mission is over. We are going to kill you and torture our prize."
Mind smiled as he watched the enemy fan out and as he went to slowly place the lad down he gripped hold of his personal toy in cases of emergency.
"Don't try any moves, we have you covered."
"Don't worry it's not as if I have a Krugon flesh stripping device in my hands." Mind laughed as they went to raise their weapons as Mind's stolen toy ripped out a sound wave which could only affect the enemy that the weapon was stolen off. From standing one minute to lying cold stripped of all flesh on the ground, the six were history and Mind was once again running towards the pick up point.
"Saratoba, open hatch."
With a minor rumble from the ground, his vessel from hiding came on line and opened it's sleek mouth in the form of a ramp and beckoned the two inside.
"Energy levels rising, we will be detected soon by other vessels." Advised a Jake while it assisted the wounded.
"Take care of him and make sure you get his treatment right."
"Understood sir." The robot watched the ramp come up and as soon as it did he asked, "Did the weapon work well?"
"Very well, in fact the Krugon Renegades gave us the edge for now."
"It will not be long before they adapt to it and grow stronger skin."
Mind nodded as he ran up to the small flight deck with security officer and navigator all waiting to go.
"Sir, a big ship has just entered the system, Krugon in signature and is powering up ready to fire."
Mind looked at his security man, "Must be that planet killer, obviously they don't want you and I to leave with our man."
"The fleet have responded and are evacuating, under heavy fire, a hundred and seventeen ships lost, eight hundred damaged and only fifty two still perfect."
Mind looked over to his helmsman, "Better not make us a casualty of war, get us out of here."
"Already doing so sir."
The small ship shot into the sky avoiding a few stray shots coming from the rapid departing Krugon invasion party.
"I don't get it, why destroy the planet now and not before?"
"Because my dear helmsman, they are a breed bred for war and slaughter. The destruction of the planet is just the icing on their cake."
Mind swapped the saying made by his security officer as the Gallumph on top of the slime heap as a Gallumph was a creature which made gold and was considered by the swamp mining colonies as a rare thing which made a person rich. He preferred the human saying as in fact he was human, though most ignored that part, except his enemies of course.
"Locking on targeting devices, proton torpedoes active."
"Type 'B' on board."
The security man nodded, "Hopefully soon they will bring out the type 'C', we need something more powerful to stop this crew."
"We need allies who are wise and wouldn't think twice about coming in and slapping this lot around." Mind advised as he scanned the ships and watched as his vessel was under fire.
"Shields?"
"Fourteen percent available, armor and inner defense armor all one hundred percent."
"Raise our shields, and see if we can get close to that big planet buster."
Helmsman muttered, "That ain't a wise move."
"I know, but if the rumor is true, the vessel will be down after firing and gives us a good chance of damaging it. One down and it slows their attack force to a crawl."
The security officer tapped his console saying little to the reason given, he knew that he was going to die in this uniform and to do so and save lives was the best thing he could ever think of doing.
"Proton torpedoes armed and the big vessel is tracked, it's preparing to fire."
"Keep us away from that energy stream, don't want us sucked in."
The helmsman adjusted his vector as the small ship was slapped by tracking lasers shaking the vessel as it tried to steer away from all the flack.
"Weapons hot, it's firing now!"
Mind watched as the energy from the vast almost square like vessel fired what seemed to be small energy
Ribbons from multi points on its flat fronted bough, then as he observed, the ribbons joined together, forming one energy stream which found its target and poured towards it like a ship on full thrust. The planet glowed before the almost pink energy absorbed it and it was gone. No debris, no nothing, only space rushing in to fill the void along with the change in gravimetric forces altering the system around it.
"Heavy fire coming from those two battle cruisers, torpedoes, tracking our vector."
Mind watched the front viewer and assessed the timing here, "Adjust attack speed to compensate with those torpedoes and wait on my mark for ours to fire."
The security officer fidgeted in his chair, "Just how close are we going exactly?"
"Just enough to ram our ones down its throat."
"Well sir, we have little time as its a toss up between the torpedoes or the scrambling fighters heading our way as to which will blow our vessel apart."
"Trust me, this is a pincer movement they are going to get wrong."
"Ship dead ahead, getting flak from it's small guns."
Mind looked over at his helmsman, "Just trying to soften up our shields so the torpedoes can kill the armor and the fighters can kill the bird."
He noticed all were on edge just waiting for the order and as the ship spiraled missing on-coming pot shots Mind nodded and allowed their own weaponry to be let lose on the almost defenseless beast.
"Proton torpedoes active and on their way!"
"Helmsman run behind them as fast as you can."
The ship was too slow for the departing torpedoes and was catching the flak even more so as the beasts energy began to return, then as the ship closed on the massive weapon it was time to leave both the beast and the pursuing torpedoes along with the squad of small one man fighters.
"Go vertical now!"
The helmsman pulled on his stick and watched as the torpedoes exploded cutting a path into the front of the beast. The pursuing torpedoes couldn't match the new vector as two slammed into the ship and along with the explosion about half of the fighters were either destroyed or blown out of the fight.
"Map our position with the current system and get us the hell out of here"
The rear shot of the stricken planet killer was all too real as mini explosion ripped it apart from the inside out. Angry bees molested swarmed from the strike vessels, battle ships and assault vessels to intercept the victorious enemy vessel as it scrambled for clear space.
"Tri-power established, tri-space enabled, we are history."
Mind felt the temporary almost weightless feeling from the ship as the gravity on the ship compensated to ease all back into a state of calm.
"All systems check and see if we have company."
"Sir, systems are all working and...
The ship suddenly spun violently even though the engines were on full power, Mind knew a stray torpedo had somehow been sucked into the tri stream the ship had carved to escape the system.
"Torpedo impact, ship damaged, repair droids attempting to defy the swing and repair."
Mind shouted at helm, "Helmsman, report!"
"Attempting to stabilize, engines refusing to cut off, rerouting to secondary control to see if we can knock out the engines."
"Where are we in the system?" Mind tapped his personal data source and watched as the star map blinked on and off.
"Trouble is sir, we can't map and sooner or later we will probably slam into a planet."
"Thanks for the comfort." Mind decided as this problem wasn't going to be fixed with a sticky patch, "Shut down the power system, do it now."
His helmsman slapped the emergency shutdown and watched as the onboard computer cut the primary power and shut down the power plant for the engines. The whole ship went down and everything failed.
"Strap down boys, we are going weightless for a few seconds."
"Do you think we will have secondary power? We don't know what was hit."
Mind couldn't see the security officer in the dark and just smiled to himself as his onboard screen blinked and the signal was red before going green; the secondary power hit in and the whirring of the air pumps kicked in along with the gravity.
"Secondary power restored, can't find a map reference, may be the computer is down." His helmsman replied as he tapped frantically looking for a break here.
Mind unstrapped and stood up, "Just taking a look, no just the navi comp is finding a point reference and says it cannot do so as the system in too light."
"Too light?" The helmsman patched the onboard main screen and instantly this much talked about light entered filling the room."
"Drifting into a star I'd say." The security officer mumbled feeling an uneasiness wash over him.
Mind checked the ships hull, "No, the hull is registering normal temperatures."
"Then we seem to be caught up in a kind of white space."
"Nice choice of words," Mind replied as he took a look allowing the onboard screen to allow the light to dim, or was he just getting used to it. "Get those droids on repair and ascertain what damage has occurred to shove us out in no man's land."
"The closet point reference I can map is that we must have jumped through three outer systems before ending here. Last one the Laitoch Void, empty for centuries."
"Vast?"
The navigator nodded, "Eighty times bigger than the Milky Way."
Again it wasn't called the Milky Way but Jannoth's Prize founded by the traveler Jannoth who ironically died shortly after from old age and on hindsight a lack of oxygen. Still he had time to record his finding and send them back.
"Some system which we happened to travel through without hitting anything."
"Either that or we found a wormhole or rapid moving vortex or as earthmen say, a black hole."
The security advisor nodded as he did a mental calculation "Could be the case as the whole ship seemed to shudder after we were hit, more like gravimetric forces than an actual torpedo."
"Repair droids have advised us that our ship is intact, yet we have no main power and no engine response to work with."
"In other words we are dead in space, with a man who is going to die unless we get the proper medical attention for him."
The other two looked at each other before the security officer stated the obvious, "Can't we just send a distress signal?"
The helmsman laughed a little before coming up with the reason, "Light years from home and a signal even transmitted ten times the speed of light wouldn't reach a nearby listening post or transmitter booster for another..." He tapped his keyboard and announced his findings, "Ten years"
"Even a proton torpedo wouldn't fare any better, but to send a signal and see if anyone is here is all we can do." Mind added trying to pour a little more optimism here as he had sent it on a slippery sliding slope down in the first place.
"What is that?"
Mind looked up at the viewer and saw what seemed to be thin black lines in which the craft was drifting towards one of nearly about a thousand in the area.
"Looks like some kind of spiders' web." He checked with the computer which confirmed it was a low density energy line. "Lets just hope its low powered enough to not damage our vessel."
"Shields engaged and holding, should stop us from getting hurt."
Mind thought about telling his security officer off but then again to lose power defending the ship was better than not and blowing the damn thing apart on a could be harmless power line.
The ship hit the line and as it did the crew watched as the line much like a spider's web caught hold of the vessel and vibrated the power line as far as the eye could see. Mind's ship was released and allowed to drift on it's way.
"I don't like this captain."
His helmsman nodded, "Gives me the willy's."
"Just send out a signal and keep your eyes peeled for hostiles." No sooner were the words out of his mouth when through almost like a white fog three large vessels appeared looking like gigantic fish of the plaice kind.
"Chameleon devices, they have been out here for sometime it appears."
"Undetected by their cloak and waiting for us to show signs of life."
Mind ignored the chat as he focused on the vessels dark stature and the nature of the way the front was lighting up colours of the rainbow, "They have opened their gun ports ready to fire."
The security officer checked his console, "We can have ours up and ready, we can engage the enemy at least for a few rounds."
Mind raised his hand to slow things down, "Any communications sent our way?"
The helmsman nodded, "Getting one now, language unknown, though the computer is recognizing parts of it as an ancient dialect, could be Gamora."
Mind's eyes suddenly came alive, "Of course! These vessels could be the Gammoreans."
"Is that good?"
Mind nodded, "Last known vessel to enter here came back out in pieces, so the legend goes."
"What legend?"
"Just about every space faring system has a story about sending an ambassador of peace to a strange part of space and how they never come back."
"Myth right, I mean a kind of white space would give the game away."
"If no one knew what they were looking for and if they had discovered this, then no one would know as no one man has come back to report on it."
Security man looked at them both before nodding, "Then what do we do?"
"Hope they are willing to take prisoners and help with our sick friend. Oh and drop our shields."
"Computer has analyzed dialect and has given us a translation tool to speak back. I advise we do this soon as I think they are running out of patience."
Mind saw more vessels arriving including a super big vessel which looked more like a Japanese fighting fish than a vessel of war, very resplendent in bright reds which changed depths as it stood not far from their little ship.
Mind took a look at the response deciding a surrender wasn't applicable and chose an audio translation reply, "My sincere apologies for slipping into your vast kingdom unannounced. We were fleeing a hostile enemy and our ship struck a moving vortex and after knocking out our main power we have drifted here as our engines seem to be useless in your part of space."
"Who are you?" A strong almost evil voice came back as the computer turned the garbled dialect into words to understand, "Why are you really here?"
After explaining the truth like an honest school boy to his teacher, Mind had little else to say as he cast a look over at his team and back to the pictures of the ships and the faceless potential enemy.
"As I have said, we are carrying injured and you are more than welcome to have an inspection party aboard, or just openly scan our vessel as you most probably have already done so." He paused, "We are no threat, out gunned, out manned and out of engine power."
Mind stared at the screen wondering if they were going to open fire or do something, not just sit here and stare each other to death.
"Your fight was with whom?" The voice finally asked out of a silence of about a minute.
"With the Krugon Empire, they were attempting mass genocide of a fairly quiet planet." Then he added, "Let's just say the young chap in our medical room is the sole survivor of his planet. A planet killer did it's job."
"Your losses?"
All men looked at each other and felt the sorrow of a defeated troop and the fruitless defense of a dead planet and a damaged system.
"We had heavy losses, many ships destroyed; we were better fighters in the tactical sense but out gunned by technology."
The silence hung in the air once more as the vessels changed course a little to allow the big red fish through.
"We will take your injured creature aboard the 'Red Fighter' and you will stay here. Your ships engines are useless in white space, though our vessels are well adapted to sail into black space." Then another voice came over, "Do not try to escape or scan our system, your ship will be destroyed."
'Sir, transport beam indicated."
"Tell our Jake to stand down and allow our man to go."
"How do we know they aren't going to probe him and blow us to pieces after they have him?"
Mind looked at his helmsman, "We don't, we just do as we are told and hold fast here."
"And do what?"
Mind stood to his left side and patted the guy on the shoulder, "Well, I'm going to catch some sleep, anyone else? We can get Jake to keep his eyes peeled."
The battle weary did little protesting after a twelve hour fight and still being alive was the bonus here in which Mind was willing to grasp with both hands.
In his dreams he remembered the battles fought, the lives lost and every man he had killed he saw their faces. Somehow even the ships he had blown away, their faces came to him in his dreams, just staring at him. The Krugons he had taken earlier and the big vessel all came to him.
"I'm sorry, it was in self defense. I didn't want this life and I didn't want your deaths."
Mind was awake fast and alert as he grabbed his gun and pointed it to the shadow opposite.
"I am no harm to you sir."
"Then take form and reveal yourself."
The lad it was that came from the dark into the light and looked well, better then well, he was almost perfect.
"Thank you for saving my life."
"They sent you back!" Mind exclaimed as he placed his weapon back onto the hip holster.
"The Gammoreans are allowing me to come with you and feel regret for the loss of my people and the loss of yours. They also feel um, warm at heart for your sacrifice and will follow your progress closely."
Mind sat up and looked at this lad, "Didn't want to lend us any tech to even the odds I suppose?"
"Nothing was mentioned, except you should be grateful for my state of repair so stated the spokesperson in charge of me."
Mind grinned, "They must have known I would ask." He looked at his friend, "Your name, may I inquire?"
"Deedee."
"Well then Deedee, I am Mind the captain of this small vessel. I hope it is agreeable with you that we head back the best we can to my system."
"The Gammoreans have arranged a vortex to take us back to your system."
"If it was up to me being paranoid and all, I would say they planned our visit here."
Deedee grinned, "I think sir, they have arranged your return to your system as they wish to make known that you are needed in helping out with the key."
"As in unlocking something."
"Something like that I'd guess."
Mind took a look at the mirror and raised his chin and as he did the laser cutter gave him a ten second shave, perfect as always. With his blonde hair always kept well he took a quick stride up to see a Gammorean vessel leading their ship from white space over the marker into the familiar black.
"Crew to leaving stations, we have a vortex to catch"
Like the well trained men he was used to keeping with, his team settled in and as the ship was led by the other vessel it was suddenly catapulted by a tractor beam into the vortex, except this one was more stable. Once out the other side it was clear to see the ship was in its proper system and being hailed by the outer marker space station
"Tell them we request permission to land on Centor Prime as we require to speak to Admiral Durant about our little adventure and saving of a precious life."
Deedee looked over, "Precious?"
"Yeah, the unique one, the success amongst the failure."
Mind drew his thoughts back to the present and looked up at the Admiral, "So, what's different in their new weapon?"
The guy stiffened, "It doesn't need to destroy the planet. It sends a high beam of pure energy, so pure that it knocks the planet out of alignment."
Deedee mused, "This would allow the planet to become ice on one side and burned to a crisp on the other. Life would be killed off instantly and would take many centuries for the planet to be colonised once again."
"I don't get it, they were always fond of watching things blow up, so why decide to kill life and not the planet?"
"There are two trains of thought." The Admiral shifted a little, "One, is that they are enjoying the slaughter and not the decimation of the planet."
"And two sir?"
"Every time they blow up a planet it alters the space around it causing massive shifts of gravity and solar winds. Planets are now being altered in their own solar systems. The suns are being put under unusual pressure to stabilize their own systems and the more volatile ones are threatening to go supernova."
"Where the sun collapses and sucks in the whole system around it in order to restabilised the other systems affected."
"A freak of nature a cosmic cleansing of the outrageous kind."
Mind allowed Deedee the air time here before adding another suggestion, "Maybe they are looking at decolonizing the sector and we have miscalculated the planets desire to produce life again."
"All data points to the Krugon system and its rather unstable sun. I think this new weapon if true could stave off serious repercussions to their empire."
"We only had the rumors of the Krugon Renegades and no actual proof."
"We had schematics aboard our vessel, sadly lost. Better lost than in the hands of the enemy."
"They must have been tipped off of your presence and instructed to stop you at all costs."
"Either way I have to report home as the ship was reported to already have left space dock this morning."
Mind suddenly felt a cold tingle down his back, "Admiral, if they attacked you after finding out you had their weapon, they would know we aided you and where would we head off to?"
Deedee stiffened as he too followed the stars to make the connection, "Centor Prime."
"Battle stations!" Mind cried as the ship went to full alert with the manned posts already tapping frantically to assure battle status was on.
"They surely wouldn't attack our centre."
Deedee tapped up and a console raised itself up from the floor just behind his captain's chair, "Why not, they have the fire power and the vessels to out number us."
"Contact Centor Prime and alert them of this coming nightmare. Get their battle fleet ready, just hoping they can listen." Mind turned to his navigator, "Time till we reach home world?"
"One hour twelve minutes."
"Scan for hostiles on vector to home world?"
"Negative scan."
Mind thought it through, "Cloaked vessel?"
"Not on the schematics there wasn't, the Krugons never perfected them."
"Hold on sir, various shadows on and off in random pattern." The guy looked up, "Its a whole attack force."
"How far ahead do you estimate?"
"Half hour at least, lost them again phasing in and out must be cloaked."
"Have you raised Centor Prime?" He asked communications.
"Negative sir, it seems the out stations have been taken down, our message will only reach home world just before the strike."
"How many lives do you guess admiral?"
"Mostly military and diplomatic core, about six million."
"Engine room." Mind barked.
"Yes captain."
"Divert all power to engines and weapons, go to one hundred and twenty percent on the reactor."
"Sir, I have to advise you that at those tolerances the engines may well break away from the ship or the core could overheat and explode."
"Rather have us explode as a warning flare than lose six million lives plus a whole fleet."
"Understood captain, switching power and diverting to engines first then to weapons systems."
The power being drained dimmed the lights and several non essentials flicked off to conserve energy for the run home.
"Security, run through battle simulations and run us a strike pattern on that weapon."
The security officer hesitated, "But I don't have any data on the planet killing device."
Mind sighed, "Just plan it on the last one and if you still have a problem you are relieved and I will do it."
"No captain, I'm on it."
Mind watched as the admiral nodded with admiration for a captain who was fast becoming a known hero amongst the core.
"Distorted patterns coming in via scanners."
Maverick leaned over his man, "What do you make of them?"
"To feint to be sure, not one of ours."
"Better alert USA headquarters."
Over at headquarters Ambassador Serate was sitting behind a long desk that arched a little so all delegates here could look at each other, much like a crescent shape in hindsight. In front of the desk stood Novac the president of the USA the United Space Authority.
"Then we have an agreement gentlemen?" Novac asked the delegation from each allied planet. He knew one would always object.
"I can see little this new pact benefits us. We are in the limelight and this latest defeat has taken toll on the USA's resources and ours."
"Ambassador Chimosh, we have been over this and if we surrender we will die, if we fight we may well hold back the enemy from taking out other races." Novac stared hard at the fur ball and wondered how such a spineless species in more ways than one could still be around.
"They have allies themselves"
Cumbria smiled allowing her skin to go from soft and womanlike to hard almost like brick, "We know the clef will kill their allies as soon as they get bored with them. You go ahead and get squashed under their feet. My race will fight to the last person."
There was a few murmurs of approval before Zanthia spoke her mind, a strong race which could match the Krugons in a hand to hand battle, "We would rather die than surrender to those butchers."
Novac smiled at the support, "Then the pact is secure and we shall report this back to our planets and carry on supporting each other through this difficult time."
Chimosh rippled with his bright day glow blue fur and laughed before adding, "You'd better hurry as this will be the last pact you all form." Speaking in his native dialect a transporter beam appeared and he was gone.
President Novac heard his personal alarm trigger go off in his mind and as he tapped the communication screen he got from behind the guy trying to talk to him with the full picture.
"President, best evacuate, our forces are caught napping, thousands of ships on fire or destroyed. We can't hold them off, it's an entire strike force with what can be deemed as a planet killer."
Just as those words came from his mouth another transmission came in, "Its from Captain Mind, he says the attack force is just ahead of him. Beacons are down hence the delay in receiving message."
Novac looked over as the big conference centers own screen fired up and a battle hardened general from Rachosh looked at him and with solemn eyes told all here, "No use, they have us by the lopedo (balls)."
Mind scanned the battle and saw his own side fading fast. He sighed before looking at Hayes, "Admiral?"
"Better sound the retreat, give all captains my personal order to flee before we are totally wiped out."
Mind saw his communications lady and guy signaling the other ships and soon they started to disperse.
"What are they doing?" The Krugon commander asked as he saw the fleet breaking off.
His number one watched, "They know the planet is lost and are running like scared Verats."
"Deploy the weapon and make sure our fleet stops the rest from escaping, fan out and form a net."
"The Krugons are attempting a blocker, stopping our boys from leaving."
"Maximum carnage, end the rebellion here." Deedee muttered as he saw the end of another planet.
Mind signaled the attention of his helmsman, "We are going to sub light but keep us as close to the planet as possible and as fast as possible." Some looked over but Mind knew his team well, "Transporter room, mass beams on as many as you can get, fill the hanger bay with them."
"No problem." Came the reply as the engines cut to sub light and a battle scene was for real.
"Admiral signal the fleet to concentrate on an escape pattern opposite the planet killer, give them more chance to escape."
Hayes for an admiral did as he was told as the idea was a good one and only one they had here.
The ship again shot past and narrowly missing the Krugon battle fleet as shots were fired to little avail.
"Ready transport." Mind advised as his security advisor came in with, "Weapon firing, we are heading towards it."
"I know."
"Transport has the President and ambassadors plus as many others as he could."
"Time to impact on planet?"
"Twelve seconds."
"Transport?"
"We need another power boost and ten seconds."
Deedee looked at his boss, "This is going to be close."
"Sir, ship on attack course just closing in on the planet."
The Krugon commander scanned the visual of this vessel, "Captain Mind's ship, he is trying to save those poor helpless allies of the USA."
"Shame the energy wave will kill him, I often wanted a ship to ship battle."
The commander laughed, "I'd prefer a hand to hand fight myself, make sure he really is dead."
"Transport, do you still have them?" Mind asked as the ship bucked from a few stray shots and the energy wave parting the system was closing awfully fast.
"Fighters coming in, trying to head us off."
"Security, fire up the sentry guns and transport go for it!"
The ships power dimmed as it tried to compensate for the sudden power drain as the ships guns poured out small bolts of energy which streamed towards the fighters as a defence against their heavy weaponry which would open up soon as they closed the space gap.
"This is transport, we have as many as we can."
"Helmsman, take us on a tight loop back round the planet and head for the gap the fleet as made."
"Fighters in range and altering course captain."
Mind looked back at Deedee, "Drop the mine."
Deedee nodded as he brought up his own security panel and found the rear port holding with the mine active and in place. Tapping the active red key, the mine slipped out all black and stealth like.
The fighter streamed towards the vessel slapping the engine bays super thick armour but failed to notice the black object. One second the fifty fighters were there, the next they were a fireball, then the next they were absorbed in the energy as it rippled over the planet from the planet killer and carried on destroying all flying machines in it's path.
"Looks much like a ocean wave washing over a pebble than a planets life being killed off." Deedee said whilst feeling a hollow pit in his stomach.
"No life left there, no nothing. It didn't quite do what I thought." Hayes added.
"Still it is evaporating everything." Mind added as he took a look at the readings on the planet and noticed something not quite right. "Science team, get a reading on the core will you?"
"Professor Anderson here, the core is going critical, it's heating up like the sun."
"Suggestions?"
"Get out of here as it could well go supernova, must be the energy ripple intermixing with the planets own chemical equation."
"Helm, shut down weapons and get us full power, jump as soon as you can."
Admiral Hayes watched as the planet seemed to glow orange before it went as bright as a white star before it enveloped itself and created a lethal black hole. No vortex this just a mass of collapsing particles sucking all in its path to destruction.
"Enemy ships breaking away from the system." Helm replied as they watched the system collapse, "Tri space in ten seconds."
Suddenly as Mind and Deedee watched, a ship came out of the blackness, shaped like a spider with wings like it's legs, they glowed red on each tip and as the planet killer tried to out maneuver, it was caught by the ships legs. The red rays penetrated it's hull and life was sucked from it. Then as Mind's own ship jumped the other sinister looking craft jumped too, leaving the dead killer to be enveloped by the chaos it caused.
"I take it you saw that?" Deedee asked.
"Yeah," Mind replied as he tapped his chair to open communications, "Did we get that on record?"
"Negative sir, nothing picked up by scanners to record. Only the eyewitnesses of the bridge crew sir."
Mind looked about him and only knew it was him and Deedee and of course the admiral.
"I saw the ship captain, I will obviously place it on my report. Could be an ally we desperately need."
Mind tapped his consol, "Or an enemy we desperately don't need." He shook away the image to focus on the now, "Best make our survivors welcome and ask where we need to go from here."
"I will go down and appraise them; you request the fleet to meet us in the Trueboa sector." The admiral pulled out a brave smile, "Out of the way of the Krugon war path I think."     
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