Hellfire 'Darkness Falls' chapter 3

 Chapter 3

If this was what looking at hell looked like, I wouldn’t wish it to be seen by anyone. Needing to grab the attention back from my crew I said,

‘Miller, Miller, how far away is that thing?’

 It was clear that Miller was struggling to keep his mind fix on his job as he replied,

‘Sir…’

While he franticly started pushing buttons on the navigation console. I could see the panic starting to set in and with a quick nod to my First Officer Andrew quickly moved over to the navigation console to help. The sheer size of this thing was unbelievable. It looked almost never ending and the clearer it became in front of us the more terrifying it looked. Andrew turned back to face me from the navigation control. His face could have said a thousand words and more as he replied,

‘Captain, it’s hard to make out as it’s starting to interfere with our scanners. My best guess is that it’s moving in our direction and that gives us about five minutes before it’s on top of us.’

This was more than an ambush we wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving an attack form this. I just hoped that we had time to jump out of this, but before I could give the order Julie said out load.

‘Sir, I’m getting movement from both the shadow and the mass in front of us.’

Just as I thought we had enough to deal with I could see things were going to get a whole lot worse.

‘Go, to red alert.’

 I moved as fast as I could over to the tactical console to see what was going on before I asked,

‘Where is it?’

Just as Julie pointed to the starboard monitors. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I said,

‘What the hell is that?’

Looking up from her work station I could see it wasn’t going to be good as she replied. ‘Sir, it’s thousands of smaller ships and they have just cut off our chance of pulling away from that thing.’

Looking back at the monitors I still couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like a thousand angry bees were swarming strait in our direction. Each spec on the monitor gave the reading of a small fighter. But the speed and manoeuvrability of these ships were like nothing I had ever seen before. But looking up from the tactical console gave me little comfort. As the gigantic mass that was now totally blocking our way ahead seemed to be pumping out millions of these bug like ships from various large holes in the blackened metallic wall that now stood in front of us.

With every passing moment the swarm was intensifying and covering the view ahead from the bridge windows. I didn’t want to wait around to find out what was going to happen next so I gave the only order that might help us.

‘Miller, activate the jump engines.’

With no hesitation he gave his reply,

‘Yes sir.’

Pushing just one button on the navigation console in front of him suddenly lightning bolts started to appear out of the windows in front of us. The raw energy bolts quickly intensified and while each bolt grasped hold of an area of the warp ahead of us tearing a hole in front of the ship in the twisted space that surrounded us. The hole through to normal space slowly grew larger as my First Officer pulled my attention away from the opening gateway saying,

‘Sir the swarm is almost on top of us, I don’t think we will make it out of here in time.’

Turning to Julie my order was simple.

‘Give me a full spray of mines now.’

‘Sir’ she replied while activating the secondary weapon systems.

‘Firing now.’ Julie added as she hit the release button on the weapons control. I was hoping a full spray of mines would slow down the onslaught long enough to get through the jump gate to make our escape.

Our gateway was almost fully open and I could see the comfort of the stars in front of us. Again Julie grabbed my attention back saying,

‘Sir the mines are no good. The swarm is just flying around them.’

I knew how powerful each mine was and if just one of them were to be trigged it would take out hundreds of those things. But I had no time to think so said the first thing I could think of that might help.

‘Julie, can you detonate all the mines at once by remote?’

My tactical officer gave half smile before saying,

‘Of course sir, but the shock wave from that many mines being detonated at once may also do the ship some serious damage.’

It was a chance we would have to take or we may not make it out of this hell hole at all.

I couldn’t see any other options open to me so replied,

‘Do it, detonate them all now.’

My Tactical Officer just closed her eyes as she pushed the detonation button for the mines while she said,

‘Why the hell not, it might work.’

Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light from the exploding mines and I knew it would be just a moment before the shock wave hit the ship. I quickly stated,

‘All hand brace for impact.’

But in the back of my mind I was hoping I had made the right choice and we would get off lightly form this crazy act. Still it was too late to worry about this now. The ship suddenly jolted violently and I found myself grabbing hold of the first thing I could lay my hands on to steady myself while the shuddering continued. There were sparks and bangs coming from all around the bridge while the main lighting flickered on and off erratically. Groans from the ships bulkheads could be clearly heard as they were being put under strain from the shockwave that was now hitting us.

The blinding flash started to fade and with this so did the shuddering and groans. The main lighting returned to normal and to my surprise our gateway was still open and we seemed to still be in one piece. As I looked around the bridge I could see Andrew picking Miller up off of the floor and helping him back to his station. No one seemed to be seriously hurt and our ship was already starting to pass through the jump gate and back into normal space. Julie was already back at her tactical station working as she announced.

‘Sir the swarm is reforming and it looks like you have really pissed them off.’

 We were nearly through and only needed a few more minutes to get clear so we could close our gateway and make our escape. I quickly said to Julie,

‘Lay another mine behind us.’

But before she replied I could see from the look of concern on my Tactical Officers face that said this may be a problem.

‘Sorry sir, that shock wave has knocked out all our main weapon systems and I don’t know how long it’s going to be before I can get them up and running again.’

I knew this old battle curser well and in the event of the ship suffering total power loss it had a backup manual weapon system that wasn’t connected to the ships primary or secondary systems in any way. They were small but could be used to take out small asteroids or fighters.

‘What about the manual pulse turrets?’ I asked. My First Officer quickly moved over to the damage report system to check the damage before he came back to me with an answer saying,

‘Captain, four of the turrets were damaged in the blast but the computer is still registering the other two turrets to be operational.’

This wasn’t much to work with but it was better than nothing as I ordered,

‘Get them manned.’

 I could see Julie had already moved over to the communications relay as she said,

‘I’m already on it sir.’

As I turned back to the navigation console I asked,

‘Miller how long before we can close that gateway?’

He checked his work station before Miller turned back to look at me while wiping a trickle of blood from his forehead with his sleeve as he replied,

‘Sir, about 30 seconds and we should be clear of the gateway.’

I didn’t have to look at tactical as I asked,

‘How long do we have before that swarm is on us?’

Julie’s answer came instantly,

‘It will be on us in about the same captain, as we get clear of the gateway the swarm will be following us through.’

If that swarm managed to make it through the jump gate into normal space there would be far too many ships to fight off and that would be with the main weapons in operation. Still on the up side once we closed the gateway it should cut off the bulk of there forcers. Suddenly the ship jolted again and I knew this meant the swarm was now close enough to attack us. I just hoped that their weapons were not going to be powerful enough to compromise our shields for at least the next few minutes.

Again the ship jolted with another hit for the swarm as I asked,

‘Andrew report?’

My First Officer started to check the shield status form the damage control and then the information at his station before he replied,

‘Shields holding at 76 percent captain and we should be clear of the gateway in about ten seconds.’

There was another jolt as he finished his sentence and I knew this would be the longest ten seconds I had ever known.

‘Are those pulse cannons manned yet?’ I asked as the ship shuddered again. I could see Julie steadying herself while she replied,

‘The guns are running hot sir, but they don’t seem to be making much of a difference to that swarm.’

The ship jolted again but much sharper this time as Andrew followed up his report saying ‘Sir, the shields are down to 43 percent and starting to buckle, I don’t know how much more of this they will take.’

Julie suddenly butted in saying,

‘Wait, captain the swarm isn’t following us through the gateway’

Her voice lifted as she finished her sentence. This was the first piece of good news I had heard all day. Again the ship jolted with another hit as Miller announced,

‘Captain, were clear of the gateway.’

I wasn’t going to waste any more time and quickly gave my next order,

‘Miller, close that gateway, now.’

Miller hit the deactivation key to the Jump engines like his life depended on it as he answered,

‘Jump engines shut down Captain.’

With the power cut to the Jump engines our gateway out of hell closed in on it’s self within moments. There was an air of relief pass across the bridge as Julie sighed and reported back to me saying,

‘The gates closed and nothing has followed us through sir.’

We had made it out but at what cost to my ship and crew. I sat back down in the command chair and rested my chin on my right hand as I gave Miller my next order ‘Come to a full stop.’

‘Yes sir’ he replied and as the ship came to a stop there was again nothing to be seen from the bridges giant windows other than the twinkling of stars and the blackness of space.