Rise of the Kirin 25 & 26
Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 8:02 pm
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Chapter 25 (A chance meeting)
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Mima was standing in one of the plush state rooms of the station when she felt the cold barrel tip of a Mk2 Force Pistol press unyieldingly against the base of her skull. Up until then the improvised escape had been going really really well. She had waited for the guards to be distracted by the station wide report of the Kirin returning to system. One swift kick had toppled the door of the brig she had been eating out for the past couple of days. Admittedly the rib shot she had received from the one guard, she didn't manage to drop the door on was annoying but the recharge speed of his woefully maintained service issue handlaser had given her the vital seconds she needed to subdue him.
Stripping the bodies, loading them in the cell and replacing the door would not only buy her time but also weapons and the uniform she might just be able to use to bluff her way onto the hangar deck. Making her way down the corridor that led from the cells, she kept her left arm high to mask the orange stain that was lazily spreading down the lower top half of her military gray disguise. First door, fine. First lift, so far so good. Then suddenly she appears to become the meaty filling in an intergalactic space war sandwich. Klaxons wrang through out the station warning of a Thargoid invasion force sending troopers running around like headless chickens looking for that jaw breaking, meat biscuit of a commander. Who appears to have completely disappeared. "Well, No surprise there." She thought.
One wrong turn and there she was, standing in the commandeered commanders quarters with the broken shell of a Thargoid robot fighter merrily blinking its homing beacon at her. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. The one person she didn't want to see and here she was practically standing in his living room. Well at least he wasn't there. Shlock-click went primer bolt of the Mk2 Force Pistol. "Your remarkably quiet, it must be all that fat insulating your creaking joints." The pistol barrel came down with a smart rap on the back of her skull. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt her, just give her a splitting headache.
"Less of your lip young lady, now if you would like to keep your head I would suggest putting your hands on it. We have a ship to catch."
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Chapter 26 (Blossom of Destruction)
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The force orb formed around what was left of Hammer of Sorrow, reflecting the green laser beams of the Thargoid fleet around it like a flood lit disco ball. The ship was invisible now, eclipsed by the ever expanding light. It was as if an artist, hatefully eyeing his own failed creation had in a moment of fury, brushed his palm over this still wet galactic canvas.
Robot fighters, warships, battleships and charriers were smeared into oblivion before the unstoppable wave of elemental force. Force fields flashed, held for a moment, then failed as the wall of energy overwhelmed them. Ship by ship, battle group by battle group, they all succumbed to its irresistible power of the relentless energy arc that swept away everything before it. Weapons, ships, crew and even the laser fire itself dissolved back into the raw base elements that formed them. For over twenty nine kilometers in every direction it was the same. Nothing remained alive. It was all turned to a gigantic orb of interstellar dust, that sparkled in the distant sunlight of Tibecia. The entire centre of the Thargoid fleet was gone, evaporated by the unbridled power of the energy bomb.
Orborn Zorr wiped the blood out of his eyes. It gave the lazy strobe light of the shattered bridge a strange red hue. Coming more to his senses he began to check, first himself then the ship. Head wound; they usually looked worse than they actually were. Even a small cut would bleed badly. What else? A couple of cracked ribs. Again not too bad just don't breath in too much and he'd be fine. Right, Scrapes and bruises and ouch! A surprise twisted ankle, how novel. OK so, nothing life threatening, what about the ship?
The status display was a sea of red. Roughly half the crew were missing, injured or dead, injured personnel were being hurried to the med tubes for repairs. Zorr sighed, what he wouldn't give for a 12 hour Med tube moment right now. Wishful thinking aside, back to the job at hand. The nanite systems were concentrating on hull integrity first. That had bottomed out 66%. Not advisable to be flying at full power on that, but considering one of the engines was nothing more than hot honeycombed slag at the moment. Top speed was now at best, a quarter of top speed normally, so that wouldn't be a problem. The one remaining engine was in stand by mode and appeared to be in remarkably good nick considering. Restart would take a minute or two, time enough to give the rest of the Hammer a once over. Shying away from what didn't work, he decided to concentrate on what did and how it could be improved. One shield generator and 4 turrets were still operable but starved of power. Running a quick calculation he believed that with the starboard engine he could comfortably run life support, damage control, the 3 small turrets and maybe squeeze out 25% shielding with a little rerouting. Getting the one remaining white cannon powered up however seriously broke the maths. Best not to push things.
Seconds later the remaining engine finally cycled up. With the influx of power Orborn was able to get a better idea on what was going on outside. With the centre of the Thargoid fleet decimated, the previously dominant left flank was now over stretched and locked in a life or death struggle with the newly reinforced Red storm fleet. The weakened right however was cutting its losses and making a break for the Tibecia station with the centre and right of the galcorp forces in very slow pursuit. With the Thargoids flying at top speed, there was no way the fleet could engage the rear of their formation until they slowed to annilate the station. Either way the Hammer was out of this battle. "OK that's the best I can do" Zorr thought "time to inform the boss." Orborn turned to see the shattered shell of Udians bio-interface staring back at him. Shrapnel from the bridge had torn jagged leering holes in the bio mesh dome as dark orange blood seeped from the cracks at its base.
Orburn raced as fast as he could, over to the remnants of the interface. If there was a life left here to save, then he would have to move quickly in order to save it.
Chapter 25 (A chance meeting)
======================================
Mima was standing in one of the plush state rooms of the station when she felt the cold barrel tip of a Mk2 Force Pistol press unyieldingly against the base of her skull. Up until then the improvised escape had been going really really well. She had waited for the guards to be distracted by the station wide report of the Kirin returning to system. One swift kick had toppled the door of the brig she had been eating out for the past couple of days. Admittedly the rib shot she had received from the one guard, she didn't manage to drop the door on was annoying but the recharge speed of his woefully maintained service issue handlaser had given her the vital seconds she needed to subdue him.
Stripping the bodies, loading them in the cell and replacing the door would not only buy her time but also weapons and the uniform she might just be able to use to bluff her way onto the hangar deck. Making her way down the corridor that led from the cells, she kept her left arm high to mask the orange stain that was lazily spreading down the lower top half of her military gray disguise. First door, fine. First lift, so far so good. Then suddenly she appears to become the meaty filling in an intergalactic space war sandwich. Klaxons wrang through out the station warning of a Thargoid invasion force sending troopers running around like headless chickens looking for that jaw breaking, meat biscuit of a commander. Who appears to have completely disappeared. "Well, No surprise there." She thought.
One wrong turn and there she was, standing in the commandeered commanders quarters with the broken shell of a Thargoid robot fighter merrily blinking its homing beacon at her. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. The one person she didn't want to see and here she was practically standing in his living room. Well at least he wasn't there. Shlock-click went primer bolt of the Mk2 Force Pistol. "Your remarkably quiet, it must be all that fat insulating your creaking joints." The pistol barrel came down with a smart rap on the back of her skull. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt her, just give her a splitting headache.
"Less of your lip young lady, now if you would like to keep your head I would suggest putting your hands on it. We have a ship to catch."
======================================
Chapter 26 (Blossom of Destruction)
======================================
The force orb formed around what was left of Hammer of Sorrow, reflecting the green laser beams of the Thargoid fleet around it like a flood lit disco ball. The ship was invisible now, eclipsed by the ever expanding light. It was as if an artist, hatefully eyeing his own failed creation had in a moment of fury, brushed his palm over this still wet galactic canvas.
Robot fighters, warships, battleships and charriers were smeared into oblivion before the unstoppable wave of elemental force. Force fields flashed, held for a moment, then failed as the wall of energy overwhelmed them. Ship by ship, battle group by battle group, they all succumbed to its irresistible power of the relentless energy arc that swept away everything before it. Weapons, ships, crew and even the laser fire itself dissolved back into the raw base elements that formed them. For over twenty nine kilometers in every direction it was the same. Nothing remained alive. It was all turned to a gigantic orb of interstellar dust, that sparkled in the distant sunlight of Tibecia. The entire centre of the Thargoid fleet was gone, evaporated by the unbridled power of the energy bomb.
Orborn Zorr wiped the blood out of his eyes. It gave the lazy strobe light of the shattered bridge a strange red hue. Coming more to his senses he began to check, first himself then the ship. Head wound; they usually looked worse than they actually were. Even a small cut would bleed badly. What else? A couple of cracked ribs. Again not too bad just don't breath in too much and he'd be fine. Right, Scrapes and bruises and ouch! A surprise twisted ankle, how novel. OK so, nothing life threatening, what about the ship?
The status display was a sea of red. Roughly half the crew were missing, injured or dead, injured personnel were being hurried to the med tubes for repairs. Zorr sighed, what he wouldn't give for a 12 hour Med tube moment right now. Wishful thinking aside, back to the job at hand. The nanite systems were concentrating on hull integrity first. That had bottomed out 66%. Not advisable to be flying at full power on that, but considering one of the engines was nothing more than hot honeycombed slag at the moment. Top speed was now at best, a quarter of top speed normally, so that wouldn't be a problem. The one remaining engine was in stand by mode and appeared to be in remarkably good nick considering. Restart would take a minute or two, time enough to give the rest of the Hammer a once over. Shying away from what didn't work, he decided to concentrate on what did and how it could be improved. One shield generator and 4 turrets were still operable but starved of power. Running a quick calculation he believed that with the starboard engine he could comfortably run life support, damage control, the 3 small turrets and maybe squeeze out 25% shielding with a little rerouting. Getting the one remaining white cannon powered up however seriously broke the maths. Best not to push things.
Seconds later the remaining engine finally cycled up. With the influx of power Orborn was able to get a better idea on what was going on outside. With the centre of the Thargoid fleet decimated, the previously dominant left flank was now over stretched and locked in a life or death struggle with the newly reinforced Red storm fleet. The weakened right however was cutting its losses and making a break for the Tibecia station with the centre and right of the galcorp forces in very slow pursuit. With the Thargoids flying at top speed, there was no way the fleet could engage the rear of their formation until they slowed to annilate the station. Either way the Hammer was out of this battle. "OK that's the best I can do" Zorr thought "time to inform the boss." Orborn turned to see the shattered shell of Udians bio-interface staring back at him. Shrapnel from the bridge had torn jagged leering holes in the bio mesh dome as dark orange blood seeped from the cracks at its base.
Orburn raced as fast as he could, over to the remnants of the interface. If there was a life left here to save, then he would have to move quickly in order to save it.
