The Key

  Chapter 32

  The ear-splitting scream of ripping metal screeched throughout Redemption as her hull plates buckled and twisted under the immense strain of the Ta'Reeth weapon. Her powerful engines strained to the breaking point in an effort to tear free, threatening to rip Redemption to pieces as they surged against the impossible force that held her still.

  "Captain, if we don't shut down the engines, they will overload." Angel flickered in cadence with the whine of the engines, growing bright then dimming by the Captain's side.

  "Foresight doesn't do you any good if you're dead." Captain McWilliams checked his readings. "Fire all weapons at that thing." he ordered. Particle cannons fired, followed by particle beams and railguns. Redemption continued to fire as several hundred rounds erupted from her weapons systems, each aimed at the heart of the enemy. Everything disappeared into the black hole at the end of the Ta'Reeth ship, never touching the twisted and scarred hull.

  "Fire the nuclear ordinance." Jason watched as a half dozen nuclear warheads exploded in the mouth of the Ta'Reeth weapon, and disappeared inside of it, without any discernable effect.

  "Captain, I'm detecting..." Angel started to say as Olcai’s fourteen orbital weapons platforms fired simultaneously. The particle beams slammed into the Ta'Reeth battleship amidships, sending flame and hull plating erupting into space as the vortex surged and died.

  Redemption surged forward before her engines overloaded, throwing the crew against bulkheads as a child would throw an unwanted, broken toy.

  "Status report!" Captain McWilliams shook the stars out of his eyes, and wiped the blood from his forehead as he picked himself up off the deck. The bridge crew steadied themselves one by one, each pulling themselves back into a position to fight.

  "Captain, we are free of the Ta'Reeth weapon. Olcai's orbital weapons platforms are active and have disabled the Ta'Reeth battleship. They are engaging the rest of the armada." Angel shimmered and then disappeared completely, leaving only her voice. "We have sustained significant damage sir. Our engines are off line. Shields are non operational, and the forward weapons are not responding. There are hull breeches on decks four through seven, and eleven through sixteen. The affected decks have been sealed off sir. We are also experiencing fluctuations in our power grid. Repair drones have been dispatched to shields, engines, and weapons."

  "Use the thrusters to turn us broadside." Jason ordered as he adjusted his onyx visor. Redemption turned slowly, a wounded beast trying to move, bringing her available weapons to bear on the enemy ship.

  "Fire at will."

  "Yes sir." the weapons officer curtly replied before firing a salvo at the wounded ship. Particle beams cut through space before slashing deep into the wounded heart of the enemy. The beams tore through armored hull and into the unprotected corridors of the Ta'Reeth ship, incinerating everything it touched. Soldiers and technicians alike exploded into a bloody mist as the particle beams and railguns reached for the heart of the living ship.

  The great black spirals that covered the hull writhed like the tentacles of a giant sea creature. Sections of the arms cracked and finally broke open, releasing hundreds of fresh star fighters into space. Hundreds of the tiny black specks swarmed towards Redemption. She sat motionless in space with her shields gone and her defenses all but exhausted, her particle cannons tracked the fighters as best they could, killing maybe one out of three.

  Needles of coal black bone danced around Redemption, stabbing her with the venom of searing plasma. The globules burned into the ship's ablative armor, threatening to expose her crew to the frozen vacuum of space. The fighters moved quickly, taking advantage of the wounded areas of the ship, quickly turning Redemption's hull into an unrecognizable mass of twisted, burnt metal.

  "Captain, the Ta'Reeth battleship is regenerating itself." Angel's voice fluctuated in pitch from alto to bass as she informed the Captain of the problem. Olcai's weapons cycled and fired again, ripping a hole deep into the enemy ship. Blood and sinew vaporized from the heat of the planet's particle beams.

  "Get the engines working!" Jason yelled and slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. Without shields, weapons, or engines, he knew that his ship and crew were going to die very soon. Even with Olcai’s weapons platforms in operation, without Redemption being able to function, death was a certainty.

  "Captain the engines are now at thirty percent." Angel’s proclamation came none too soon, as the Ta'Reeth fighters intensified their attack, and the battleship began to move.

  "Target that monster with the nuclear weapons. Helm bring us to a safe distance." the Captain ordered as the ship began to move. The enemy fighters mercilessly pounded away at Redemptions hull. Great chunks of armor melted from the punishment of the Ta'Reeth plasma cannons. The onslaught melted the armor, and fused several particle cannons and particle beam emitters into massive lumps of slag.

  Dozens of fighters swarmed around Redemption, firing mercilessly on her bow, blowing fighter sized holes in her unprotected hull, and sucking hundreds of her crew into space. Still, Redemption began to accelerate, crushing a handful of fighters that refused to move out of the way. Her weapons continued to fire on the Ta'Reeth battleship, and as many fighters as they could, as she clawed for the all important distance between them.

  Redemption raced toward a safe distance, so that she could use her nuclear weapons and not be killed in the explosion. The Ta'Reeth fighters accelerated to match Redemption's speed, and unleashed a maelstrom of plasma on the failing ship. Two of the bone armored fighters came around and faced Redemption, attacking directly at the bridge. Hundreds of balls of superheated plasma tore away the ships armor before the two fighters slammed into the bridge. The bridge crew died instantly in the explosion, except for the Captain. A bright blue forcefield snapped instantly into place and protected him from being crushed by the fighters or pulled into the vacuum of space.

  Jason knew that his bridge crew had felt no pain. They died so fast, that there was nothing to feel. Whether it was the crush of the fighters, the explosions, or the cold vacuum of space that killed them, it didn't actually matter. They were dead.

  Jason forced himself to access Redemptions systems through his visor. Most of his options were gone. Power was failing. Angel was off line, and his engines were now gone.

  Silently, Captain McWilliams realized that he had no options left. Before he could convince himself that there was another way, he accessed his weapons systems. Fortunately, one was still available. It took Jason a moment to analyze his sensor data, and aim his weapons. If Angel was available, she could have done it all in the space of a thought, but she was not there.

  Gently, Jason nudged his thrusters enough to line up his shot and then fired. Four nuclear warheads screamed out of Redemption's heavy railguns in quick succession, and slammed into the Ta'Reeth battleship, just as its gravity well generator came online.

  The gravity well swelled at the bow of the ship, just as the ship erupted in a blinding galaxy of light. Shockwaves shot away from the center of the ship, destroying the remnants of the Ta'Reeth armada and throwing Redemption like a rag doll. Redemption slammed into the shockwaves, crushing and twisting on impact as she hurled headlong across the Olcai system. The battered ship finally came to rest just inside the Olcaina debris field.