Chapter 2
1536 Words
Chapter 1
It was the outlying colonies that fell first, and it was Earth’s one and only warning that the D’Shraki had arrived.
The mighty warships that made up Earth’s Planetary Defense Forces undocked from the major orbital stations, built once the Human race had discovered that it was definitely not alone in the universe.
Several large frigate class starships orbited gracefully around the planet with their crews on ready standby waiting for whoever might be coming to pay a deadly visit to the third world that orbited the yellow star.
The massive alien warships approached the blue and green world where billions of life forms dwelled. The D’Shraki had arrived to take their war on Humankind to their home world.
Over one hundred EPDF vessels had blockaded their home world in defence as the D’Shraki vessels moved in to their attack formation. The EPDF vessels moved as quickly as their orbital thrusters could manoeuvre until they were in position where they stood seemingly still, facing the enemy, just waiting for the first volley of shots.
On board the Frigate EPDS ANZAC, Crewman Jack De Souza sat strapped into his chair at his post at communications.
“Captain, we are getting orders from Command not to open fire unless fired upon first.” Jack reported.
The captain sat strapped into his own chair in the centre of the bridge, displays around him showing the ship’s readiness. He shook his head.
“Those fuckers have already opened fire on our colonies, so f**k them. Ready Weapons!” He ordered his combat systems officers.
Replies of “Aye sir!” Were heard from the three combat Systems Operators on duty.
“Projectile weaponry green, Captain.” Reported the first
“Showing green on EM weaponry sir!”
“Lasers ready!” The final green light was called. The captain sat back and nodded.
“De Souza, open comms to all our vessels.” He ordered.
Jack moved quickly making the necessary connections.
“Ready sir, open frequency to all EPDS ships.”
“Cosgrove to all vessels, ready weapons and open fire!” He shouted the last.
His own crew activated their weapons arrays, targeting the various enemy ships
Great lances of laser fire and projectile weapons soared soundlessly to slam into the metallic hulls of the vessels. The people on the world below looked up at the beautifully deadly lights that were diffused against the atmosphere within the cerulean blue sky.
Those in the darkness of night were more fortunate to witness the true deadly brilliance of each ship being destroyed.
Bodies and debris floated on random trajectories through the chilled silence of space, the dead bouncing off hulls and being sent off in other directions as the ships ploughed through the debris fields.
Flashes of bright light flared into white brilliance with a ring of blue as first one, then another EPDS frigate erupted in a devastating explosion.
The EPDS ANZAC was hit, the crew being thrown hard against their harnesses.
“Lost gravity on three decks captain, venting atmosphere on section three deck nine, engines are non-responsive.” Jack called out from the comms panel after a particularly hard knock which caused roofing to buckle and fall into the bridge accompanied by sparks and smoke.
“Captain?” He called out, turning to see why the captain hadn’t replied, blood flowed freely down his face, over eyes opened and unseeing, the source a large head wound caused when the panels and their struts had fallen.
Jack unstrapped himself after calling for a med team and a repair crew to the bridge. He noticed the gravity had lightened a little as he stepped onto the steel plate floor of the bridge.
“Gravity seems to be failing guys, be careful! We are at about lunar grav!” He said as he moon-hopped over to the captain, checking for a pulse.
“Shit.” The comms officer muttered.
“Looks like I’m the captain now...” he muttered as he felt the captain go cold beneath his fingers.
“I, Lieutenant Jack De Souza assume command of the EPDS ANZAC as of 21:56 Ship time. Helm, are the engines responsive?” He ordered as he noticed his feet floating and the captain’s blood turning to small floating droplets as the gravity generator failed.
“Thrusters only, Engineering is working on it, Medical reports that they have a lot of casualties and injured and they will get up to us as soon as possible sir, and the repair crew is on the way now.” The female Helm officer reported, not looking up from her display and controls.
The doors to the bridge opened and the engineering crew floated in, grabbing the hand rails that were secured in the roof for just such an emergency.
Jack noticed Zara was in the group, he wanted her to be anywhere but here right now. She caught his eye and nodded, letting him know she was all right. He smiled thinly, now was not the time to be worried about his current lover.
The engineering team got the engines back on just as the repair crew got the gravity back to one third earth norm, it was the best they could do.
The comms system was piped through the speakers in the bridge and it was not sounding good.
“The Falcon reports core going critical, evacuating to pods and emergency ships now.”
“The Napoleon is disengaging and retreating to a safer distance to assist in the recovery of the Falcon’s pods, but are taking heavy fire from the enemy vessels.”
“Holy shit...” one of the Fleet’s comms officers shouted out in terror. Planet killer, they have a damned planet killer! Recommend that we get the f**k out of here sir!”
Jack shook his head. “Comms,” he said with heavy heart, knowing it was over and their only chance to survive was to flee. “Order the fleet to recover what they can and who they can and tell them to get the hell out of here, inform Earth that they have ten to fifteen minutes to evac as many people as they can, any vessel that can is to get to the outer colonies, evac them as quickly as possible, these bastards won’t stop here.” He said as he put a hand on the back of the captain’s chair, still occupied by the corpse of the former captain.
“Helm, get us out of here as soon as possible!” He ordered as the ship shook with another hit
With De Souza’s heartbroken order, several vessels broke and fled sending the evacuation orders to the planet’s surface. Thousands of smaller vessels were launched, adding to the congestion of ships, bodies and debris around the Earth as all fled the destruction of their planet as the D’Shraki Warmonger bore down on the planet.
The vessel opened its planet killer weapon port, the massive laser moving out from the main body of the beastly ship.
The remaining Humans watched from their sensors and portholes of their pitiful vessels as their enemy’s main weapon charged up and opened fire, scarring the earth’s crust to the mantle, bringing the molten rock to the surface, killing the billions of people, animals and plant life who were still down there.
Zara moved up to stand beside Jack as the gravity units returned to one quarter earth norm and her trembling hand slipped into his, she held onto him as if their lives depended on it as they watched their home world die
The survivors wept the loss of their world, and knew they now faced extinction unless they all escaped the clutches of the D’Shraki war host.
One by one the vessels streaked out into the outer Sol system, off to parts of the galaxy, fleeing for the life of their race.
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FROM HIS COMMAND CHAIR, the D’Shraki Warlord nodded, a job well done, he could now return to his father triumphant. His face and body encased in a mech-suit of armour. He had ended the threat of the Humans against his people and their galactic empire.
“Complete the final sequence and order our main fleet to clear out the rest of the Human Colonies in this system. Let the survivors run, we will hunt them soon enough, let them think they are safe for now.” He said to his first who nodded an affirmation of his Warlord’s orders and charged the weapon again, making another pass over the continents, boiling dry the oceans and melting the polar regions away to nothing.
––––––––
ON BOARD THE EPDS ANZAC, Zara watched with the others of the bridge crew, her hand tightly wrapped around Jack’s. They wept for her home alongside the others of her ship.
Defeat and utter despair drowned the morale of the crew. But they knew that they all had to survive, it was a big universe out there, even if they couldn’t get past their own galaxy. The people of Earth were no more, Humans were now a people without a home.
Hours later with the shock still raw Jack finally went off duty. They lost so many people, the final tallies were coming in from the convoy of vessels; there were approximately eighty thousand survivors, mostly from the colonies that they had evacuated and quarters were very close, food was also going to be a problem too and they would have to find a new world in which to settle.
Not an easy task for a new spacefaring race in a hostile galaxy.
The D’Shraki Empire, it seemed, surrounded them.
But one thing the Humans had, was hope. A hope that shone in the cold, bitter darkness of defeat, a hope to survive.
- Writer
