The Hierarchy of Now and Forever Ch. 09

"We can only hope," John said, frowning as he saw that, on the main screen of the bridge, the Vornash ships were turning to go.

"Once they warp away, should we resume course to the-" Shey started.

But before she could finish the sentence, Albert jerked his head up from the helm console. "Captain!" He shouted. "My mass detector is going crazy. Shey, can you get a look on this?"

Shey swung herself around in her seat, her blue fingers flying across the sensor's board. Her eyes widened and her jaw slowly dropped as she looked down at her screens. "No. No. No!" She whispered, her voice full of horror, her eyes widening. She turned to Captain Tangent, but John was already shouting the order.

"Shield's up! Red alert! Scramble fighters, all wings!"

He didn't need to know precisely what it was.

Anything producing that response was enough.

The Excalibur swung around and the fighters started to jet from their launch bays, sweeping out and darting around into a defensive formation. On the screen, John could see that there was Delta-V's fighter, twisting and zooming around the nose of the ship. John frowned - and saw that the Vornash ships were reacting fairly predictably. Their shields were coming up and they were coming around. Energy spikes showed on their HUD displays, indicating that their main weapons were coming online. Shey, her hand on her earpiece, turned to him.

"Captain, ahem, your new diplomatic contact is asking, politely, what is going on. "

"Send then our mass scan," John said. "And-"

The need for information was rapidly rendered obsolete.

Space rippled and a Kruul destroyer emerged - about a quarter of the size of the Excalibur. It was joined by another, the two dagger shaped vessels drifting about five hundred kilometers apart. Then three more emerged, all within the same few seconds. They formed a claw shaped formation and their shield were up, their weapons spitting rads. John leaned forward in his seat, beginning to plan out what it was he was going to do...and then two Kruul cruisers appeared, to either side of their destroyer formation. Each one was the size of the Excalibur and looked as if they had been made entirely out of blades, forming into an X-shape around a spear-tipped center. Their weapons glowed as brilliant green specs of light, and their fighters began to fill space, chips of green light that fanned out and around them.

A fleet of Kruul ships.

"Prepare to bring us into the SOF!" John snapped.

The destroyer's claw shaped formation expanded outwards on plumes of toxic green plasma thrust. The ships swung wide enough to remain out of the range of the Excalibur's guns, but as they came to several points around them, glowing green beams of light connected each of their blade-tipped wings, forming a vast net of shimmering energy around the ship. The whole Excalibur shuddered and sparks exploded from Albert's console. He threw up his hands to protect his face, hissing and turning his head aside. "Shit!"

"Shey, what are we looking at here?" John asked.

"Scanning - trying to determine what it is, exactly. I- wait a second, a hail's coming in!" Shey flicked a single switch.

The screen flickered as the hail came in. The Kruul Admiral that glowered down at John was massive and scarred, his tusks fierce, his nose blunt. His hair was graying - and John recognized him immediately from his history books. Not only had the Kruul sent a fleet, they had managed to drag Admiral Slaughter out of retirement after he had crushed the rebellions of 2152. "Captain Tangent," he rumbled, slowly. "Surrender immediately or we will open fire. The slave pens are ready to accept your crew - and we shall show you the mercy of our death arenas...you have five minutes to contemplate your doom."

He clicked off.

"The death arenas are mercy?" Eugene muttered.

"It's better than the Tormentariums," John said, then turned to Shey.

Shey looked grim. "Those beams are a mass net, Captain...they're keeping us pinned, no deeper than tier one. Unless we take those beams down..." She turned to him, her eyes meeting his. "...we're dead."

TO BE CONTINUED