Plot by
Jason K.S Hauck
Written
by Agelshaxe
PROLOGUE
Fire…death…destruction…
It was perfect…
The remains of what was
once the proud city of
In orbit, the captain
of the Dauntless watched in satisfaction as the video transmission from
one of the fighters played on the viewscreen. He had not had the chance to test
the weapons of his new ship until now and was rather pleased with the result.
"Open a hailing
frequency to the secondary command center of the
planet." He ordered, stabbing a finger at the lieutenant in charge of communications.
"Yes." The
lieutenant nodded. "Frequency open…"
The face of Hilmann, the sub-chancellor of Gerril
VIII, appeared on the screen. He had beads of sweat rolling down his green
cheeks and he looked as if he had just experienced a shock…
…which
would be understandable…
"Sub-chancellor!"
The captain gave a large grin. "So? Have you come back on your
decision?"
Hilmann
was breathing heavily: "Yes…We accept."
"Perfect!
Wonderful! Expect reinforcement troops to beam down to your city any moment now.
Thank you for your cooperation."
The Gerrilian
sub-chancellor blinked off the screen and the captain smiled: "Well…"
He said. "That makes one more planet to add to the list, right?"
Suddenly, the ensign at
the Ops station said: "Captain! I'm reading a ship leaving orbit…It
registers as a rebel ship!"
"We don't have
time to follow it." The captain said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Send the Wolf and the Imperial after it."
"Aye…" The
officer nodded and sent the messages to the two other ships. "They are
engaging pursuit…They say it should take a few minutes for them to catch up
with the smaller vessel."
"Good." The
captain nodded. "I'll be in my room. Let no one bother me or I shall blow
you out the torpedo bay alive, is that clear?"
The officer stiffened:
"Yes, sir."
The two huge destroyers—the Wolf and
the Imperial—were slowly catching up with the much smaller vessel. On
board the bridge of the Rebel ship, the captain, an attractive woman with a
scar running across her neck, ordered: "Send out a general distress signal
to any allied vessels.
"Engines are at
maximum power!" The conn officer said, brushing a stray lock of hair
behind her ear. "And we won't be able to keep up this pace for long."
"We won't have
to." A man at the back of the bridge said. "I'm reading an ion storm
at 238 mark 215…We can lose them in there, can't we?"
The captain rushed to
the side of the man, she looked over his shoulder at the readings: "There are
strange readings emanating from it." She frowned.
"Yes…I'm reading a
bunch of strange quantum fluctuations, but they don't seem to be
dangerous."
"Quantum?"
Someone exclaimed. "But that's…"
"We don't have a
choice…" The captain interrupted. "Let's go, maximum power."
"Aye…" The
conn officer said after a brief hesitation.
The small ship's
engines flared to full power and the ship turned to redirect itself towards the
ion storm.
"We'll reach the
storm in two mi…" There was the unmistakable sound of weapons fire and a
console exploded on the right of the bridge. The small vessel was shaken but it
continued its race towards the storm.
The two large
destroyers were now coming upon the smaller vessel, their phasers hammering the
shields. Then, the large green mass of pulsing energy that was the ion storm
appeared in the distance.
"It's just a few
more seconds before we get to the storm." The conn officer said, clutching
her console so as not to fall because of the weapons fire.
Indeed, five seconds
later, the ship entered the dangerous storm, followed by its two enemies.
Then…As a phaser beam
was fired, there was a gigantic flash of light and then…
Silence…
They were gone…