ShipCore - Book 3: Chapter 155: Fire and Rescue (Finale)

USD: 2 Days Since Comm Failure

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades Interior, Near Alpha Site

The shuttle crashed through the I-field and into the ship’s hanger, rear first. A powerful plume of exhaust filled the compartment with flame for a moment, before it cut out, the thruster having burned itself out. The shuttle slammed hard into the bay’s deck plates with a crack. Sparks flew as the vehicle scrapped its way over half the bay’s length.

For a moment Morrison thought they would slide out the other side and crash to the ground below, but the GAI had accurately estimated their friction. They came to a stop with a quarter of the bay as leeway.

As soon as they came to a stop, he moved to check on Amy. He found the Rexxor had curled up in a ball beside her and was whining as if it was the end of the world. As Morrison looked at her, filling him with understanding.

Lesions covered her skin, and warts were slowly appearing in places. Morrison checked the EMF readout on his suit; the EMF levels were ten times lower than outside the ship, but that wasn’t saying much. EMF levels had been elevated past the point that she’d need radiation meds for sure.

He scanned the shuttle, searching for a medkit, but it was nowhere to be found. The growths suggested worse than radiation burns lurking beneath the surface, especially given the circumstances they were facing.

The boat bay was poorly shielded from EMF. The two sizeable gaps in the hull covered were only covered by the I-fields during flight operations, but he knew that A3123Y’s Avatar had the foresight to layer the medbay and CIC with radiation blockers.

Morrison moved to pick her up. He needed to get her to the medbay. Yapper let out a growl as he came closer, but he flicked on his speaker, “She needs help.”

Yapper relented, spinning again and whining to Morrison’s surprise. It seemed the Big guy was smarter than he thought.

He hit his comms. “We need that med-team ready, ASAP. Girl’s got lesions and doesn’t look great. Doggo is doing okay.”

“Is my sister okay!?” Logan’s voice came over the channel in a panicked rush.

“Med-team is ready.” Lavigne said, “We’ll still need to talk about scorching the bay and shuttle.”

“Sorry, boss. But you said to get the girl here. I’m not sure she’d still be a girl if it had taken any longer.”

Lavigne observed the drones’ retreat on the screen. Finally, they reached their drop pods and started launching back toward the ship. The survival rate wasn’t promising; only one-fifth were likely to make it back. He glanced at another monitor where Morrison and Amy were en route to the medbay with the medical team.

He noticed Logan, who was clearly struggling to remain composed in his power armor.

“Logan, you can go check on her,” Lavigne said.

“But… the attack? I need to help with things here.”

“You aren’t helping anyone if you can’t focus. She might need you. Send Morrison up here once you’re there,” Lavigne instructed.

Logan nodded and left his station to head towards the medbay. Lavigne activated his console and pulled up the sensor feeds to his command seat, monitoring the situation himself until Logan’s replacement arrived.

Most of the drones had been lost in the relentless onslaught of abominations. A quick glance at the main monitor revealed they had already lost 8,000 drones, but inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on their monstrous foes.

With their ammunition running low, Daniel ordered the ships PDC-Ks to halt fire at 20%. The lasers, however, continued targeting anything organic that moved or even remained still, setting it ablaze and ensuring its demise.

“ETA on drone recovery?” Lavigne asked.

“Five minutes. What are we doing when we got them all?”

Lavigne glanced at the scanners, which displayed a sea of red around Alpha site and deeper into Hade’s inner tunnels.

“Going up. No reason to stay here with those… things,” he replied.

“We can’t traverse the magma layer with our hull breached like it is,” Daniel pointed out.

The main screen displayed drones mounting assault pods that had initially brought them to the Alpha site. As each vehicle filled up, they launched into the air and vectored toward the ship, aiming for the boat bay where waiting drones could maneuver them back into their launch pods.

Lavigne nodded. “Hopefully, we can keep anything like that mess from getting close while the maintenance drones take care of it.”

“They won’t be able to refabricate the advanced heat alloy.” Daniel complained.

“We’ll just do our best. The heat system is still operating, and we got through before with ample capacity to spare,” Lavigne reasoned.

The abominations charged once again, surging over the massive mound of corpses. This time, they were armed with ranged weapons that began to open fire on the drones as they completed their escape. Drop pods were hit and plummeted from the sky. Lavigne cursed under his breath as he and the bridge crew helplessly watched another thousand drones be destroyed on the ground by the massed fire.

Projectiles started to plink against the SR Hot Rescue’s D-field, but the organic spines were deflected or turned into plasma as they struck it.

“How many drones did we get back?” Lavigne asked Daniel.

Daniel checked the readouts and replied, “883.”

Lavigne ordered the helm to take them back to the entrance. The monstrous horde shrieked in frustration as their target retreated. They were left alone in pitch blackness as the corvette turned its floodlights upward and accelerated away.

“Initiate a damage control inventory,” Lavigne commanded as they escaped Alpha site.

Daniel glanced at Lavigne and commented, “Maybe we’ll regain communication with Abbey once we’re near the edge of the magma layer.”

Lavigne nodded. “I hope so.”

After they’d cleared the fifty kilometer mark and the Alpha Site was behind the curve of the tunnel, Lavigne ordered them to slow. There was a real danger of overtaxing the thrusters and power systems due to the damage, and they’d need their thrust to maintain altitude and position until they finished repairs.

He wasn’t confident that they’d find a suitable landing site, nor that it would be safe.

As they left the Alpha Site further behind, a palpable sense of relief was shared on the bridge. Lavigne saw tense shoulders finally relax, and the tight expressions loosen as Daniel and the other crewmen coordinated with the ship’s GAI and the other crew on damage control duty. Though it was tinged with lingering unease.

Morrison entered the bridge, and Lavigne caught a glimpse of worry in his eyes as he asked about Amy’s condition.

Morrison explained that she was semi-stable but afflicted with numerous cancerous growths throughout her body. “The robodoc has her on anti-cancer and anti-rads,” he said, “but it’s a close thing. She didn’t want to be sedated, and she’s talking with her brother.”

Lavigne nodded, his gut clenching at the thought of losing their only survivor. He mentally marked the mission as a complete failure, and their chances of escaping remained uncertain. He exhaled a tense breath and forced himself to relax. Now was not the time for sentiment; they needed to focus on repairs. Ertan seemed intent on making their situation even worse.

Suddenly, Daniel interrupted the tense silence. “Guys, something is coming up after us.”

Every crew member instantly tensed and rushed to their console seats, snapping into place as their power armor suits’ magnetic pads locked them securely.

“What is it?” Lavigne mumbled as he checked the sensors. A massive red blob was approaching them at an alarming speed.

Morrison, now seated at the sensor console with a better readout, reported, “Looks like… a ship, sir. Pretty big.”

Daniel frowned. “The Heaven’s Fire?”

“It wasn’t in shape to do anything,” Lavigne countered.

“Uh… sir, it looks organic.” Morrison said.

Curses filled the room as Lavigne ordered the ship to flip bow-to-stern, engaging reverse thrusters to continue their ascent. The ship’s single railgun whirred as Daniel dialed in the targeting pattern.

“No visual; just darkness. Should we shoot before we can see it?” Daniel asked.

Lavigne frowned and considered his options amidst the heavy silence permeating the bridge. The railgun could maintain a decent rate of fire, so shooting now would give them more chances to hit something.

“What’s its trajectory?” he asked tersely.

“Right for us, sir,” Morrison confirmed.

“Light it up.” Lavigne ordered.

The railgun flashed, and their lasers flared at the incoming target. An explosion erupted ten kilometers below, even larger than the giant blob had been. The distance prevented most of the effects from reaching them, but Lavigne found himself calculating what would have happened if it had been closer.

“More targets, sir; dozens,” Morrison reported.

Lavigne grunted and nodded to Daniel. “Keep it up.”

The steady thrum of the railgun filled the ship every few seconds as it discharged its projectiles. Each time, a massive fireball engulfed the area below them. “Why aren’t they sympathetically detonating?” Lavigne wondered aloud.

“No idea, sir,” Morrison replied.

With each explosion casting an eerie light into the darkness, the ship’s camera captured a clearer image of the approaching hostiles. Monstrous floating skins with writhing tendrils trailing beneath advanced slowly toward them.

A railgun shell flashed into the smooth keratin top and dug a vicious gouge through the thing and into the massive gas pouch nestled underneath the dorsal shell. The explosion sent chunks of gore and viscera flying in every direction, most of it slamming into its nearby fellows.

Somehow, they weren’t deterred, pushed apart by the shockwave that would have crushed the corvette into submission at that distance. Inexorably, the flash-bags continued their steady pursuit.

The HR Hot Pursuit spat defiance and hatred as they ascended faster. A flurry of sensor pings showed that they were surrounded. Hostiles were above them as well, more flash-bangs dropping rapidly toward them. Lavigne cursed under his breath, his heart pounding with adrenaline and confusion about their unexpected appearance overhead; there were no junctions between them and their entry point.

“Daniel, focus fire on the ones directly above us!” Lavigne commanded tersely.

“Copy that,” Daniel replied, his voice tense with concentration.

The ship swiveled while the railgun whirred eagerly as it switched targets to those above. The barrel roared to life as it spat vicious lengths of metal. Explosions shook the moon around them as flash-bags detonated into mini-suns.

Heavy debris fell from the damaged tunnel structure like a deadly rainstorm. Lavigne clenched his teeth as they braced for the impacts, the ship continuing to shudder violently with every resonant explosion.

A sizable chunk of debris slammed into the ship’s hull, sending a resounding gong echoing throughout its corridors. Everyone flinched at the sound, and the sudden wobble in the ship’s inertia.

Momentarily, the ship’s fire ceased and calls for damage control rang out. “We’re good sir. Just shook up a bit.” Morrison informed him.

Morrison’s voice was flat as he read out the report from the sensors station. “It’s getting thicker; more enemies closing in from above.”

Lavigne clenched his teeth and demanded a target count. Morrison’s grim news gave him no choice but to order the ship to reverse course back toward the Alpha Site.

“What are these things?” Daniel muttered.

“No time to discuss it now,” Lavigne barked in reply. “Just keep firing!”

The shockwaves from the explosions intensified, becoming increasingly dangerous. The Corvette was violently tossed around by their force like a toy in a raging storm. Lavigne gritted his teeth and barked an order to his crew, “Cease-fire!”

As the railgun fell silent, Daniel looked over at Lavigne with concern. “What’s the plan now?”

Lavigne’s eyes darted across the display screens as he formulated a strategy. “Fly past them.”

Morrison whistled nervously, “That’s going to be cutting it close, sir.”

With a determined nod, Lavigne replied, “I know. No other choice.” His hands tightened on his seat and his suit’s haptic sensors had to restrain the power armor from crushing it as his grip tightened.

Before they reached the flash-bags, Lavigne ordered the ship to accelerate, attempting to flash past the floating creatures that surrounded them. Just as they passed, they cut the drive to avoid igniting the aliens.

The crew braced themselves as the Corvette punched through the space between two of them. They narrowly dodged tendrils and still falling debris while hurtling through the gauntlet of hostiles.

A singular flare of side thrusters tossed them out of the way of slamming right through another one in their path. Lavigne’s heart raced with every near miss, adrenaline coursing through his veins as they all held on for dear life.

There was a momentary sigh of relief as they left the flash-bags behind. A tense flight back to the Alpha Site was spent appraising damage and attempting to patch battered systems that were complaining about the blunt force trauma.

Their main floodlight had miraculously survived the ordeal on the ship’s bow and as it played over the area, the optical sensors picked up the abominations they had left behind, spread out across the massive spaceport. Sensors pinged soft complaints as the flash-bags above pursued relentlessly, while even more emerged from the depths below.

Feeling utterly defeated, Lavigne turned to his crew, desperation lacing his voice. “Any ideas, people?”

“Fuck,” Daniel blurted out, the raw emotion in his words echoing everyone’s sentiment.

Just as hope seemed lost, a massive explosion tore through the far side of Alpha Site. High-velocity projectiles slammed into abominations on the ground with devastating force while lower caliber kinetic shells pounded their positions with high explosives, creating a storm of destruction.

“Ships emerging from a gash in the tunnel structure, sir! Dozens; hundreds of them!” Morrison reported.

Lavigne’s eyes snapped to the sensor display; the swarm of blue dots were tagged with Starlight Revolution IFFs. A glimmer of hope flickered within him.

A high-pitched beep sounded from the main screen, cutting through the tense atmosphere. “We’re being hailed,” Morrison announced.

Lavigne straightened up; his resolve returning. “Put it through,” he commanded firmly.

The small shuttle-like vehicles darted up and down the tunnel, firing their single railguns and sending rippling explosions rolling through Hade’s battered tunnel.

The video comm feed flashed to life, revealing the only Rexxor Lavigne would ever easily recognize.

“The nest will continue to fight,” Heeler intoned, slapping a tentacle on his console.

Lavigne’s lips tightened, and he swallowed. “Took you long enough.”