Dawnbreaker Episode II: Shattered Worlds/Part 12

CHAPTER 34

Rattler pulls back on the stick, having managed to destroy another turret.

A message comes through his comm: "All fighters, get clear of the Uberweapon, The Dragon Awakes!"

Rattler recognizes the message, and hits the afterburners. The last of the Confed fighters clears the Uberweapon just as the TCS Kyushu fires her Phase Transit Cannon at the Uberweapon's engines. It rips an enormous hole in the Uberweapon, but to their dismay, the ship somehow began regenerating.

Rattler, as well as every Confed pilot in the battle, starts throwing every swear word in the English Language out as they see their hard work repaired in minutes.

"What the hell kind of ship is this thing? It even survived a frakin' PT shot!"

"Cut the chatter Knight 7. I want a weapons and fuel check. If anyone's running low, gas up and load up. This is gonna be a marathon battle." Rattler says, then turns his attention to the newly arrived Mothership. The design is similar to what he saw in the simulated world, but more menacing. Getting an idea, he aims his Rapier at the Mothership. The rest of the Black Knights follow.

The two men charge the bridge, Ty294 quickly targets the nearest one, firing several shots into its face. One of other monsters flings a strange blade like object which Ty barely dodges. After the last of the beasts falls to the floor, their bodies suddenly fade away.

"Is that it?" The Assailant thought, but before the words could leave his mouth, they appeared behind the two men, and lifted them off the floor by their necks, with in-human strength. Gasping for air, the Assailant activated his flamethrower, burning both him, and his captor. He then jumped onto the back of the alien holding Ty.

Patten and his men are aboard a modified, heavily armed gunship equipped with cloaking technology. The gunship lands aboard the Mothership in a hangar, and Eagle Squad jumps out, with the gunship providing covering fire. "Go, go go! Get to cover!" Patten shouts. "Carter, flank right! Julia, flank left! Markus, supressing fire!" Blaster rounds fly all around Patten's head as he jumps over a pair of crates and rolls to the next stack, throwing a plasma grenade in the process. The grenade lands next to a barrel that is apparently filled with some type of fuel, since it explodes, killing several creatures. The gunship is still giving support, cutting swathes through hostile troops with repeating plasma cannons. Julia, flanking left, catches a few troopers by suprise, killing them with a few shotgun blasts. Carter, flanking right, catches more hostiles without cover, mowing him down with his assault rifle. Patten charges forward, plasma swords ignited, jumps over the cover protecting the last several troopers, impales one while knocking another down with a scissor kick, rapidly spins, shooting a third in the head with his Magnum, impales the trooper on the ground, and diagonally cuts the final trooper diagonally in half, all in less than 10 seconds.

"Hangar secured! Eagle Squad, move forward!"

"Yes, sir!"

Rattler barrel rolls to evade fire from an anti fighter turret, and opens up with his Particle Cannons, destroying said turret. The rest of the Black Knights pour fire into various points on the Mothership's hull. The Mothership takes aim at the TCS Kyushu, and fires a massive green bolt of Plasma energy. The Dreadnaught's shields flare as the Plasma blast strikes.

Over allied comm channel: "TCS forces, I think you might appreciate some help," a voice says. Suddenly, a gigantic fleet of NEF vessels exit hyperspace just behind the Kyushu. The Atlantea opens fire with EPB weapons, creating massive scars on the Mothership's hull. Firestorms launch fusillades of missiles, aiming specifically for turrets. Decimators and a previously unseen type of battleship, the Devastator-class Battleship, which is normally reserved for planet defense and major offensive actions, fire their Heavy MEV cannons, trying to aid in the destruction of offensive turrets. Hundreds of Hornet-class Heavy Fighterbombers swarm around the Mothership. "Gold Flight, this is Gold Lead, arm plasma torpedoes and try to take out their heavy turrets to provide cover for the fleet!" one squadron commander orders. The battle aound the Mothership has now begun in earnest.

Meanwhile, Eagle Squad continues to move through the ship towards the bridge, eliminating all resistance they encounter.

Ty294 grabs one of the aliens in an arm lock, but the alien uses it's claws to shred at Ty's legs. Ty falls to to his knees with a cry of pain, as the alien spun around intent on decapitating the Merc, when a blade flew through the air and struck the alien in the chest. Ty gets to his feet as the creature pulls the blade out, and throws the blade back at the Assailant. The Assailant ducks to avoid it, but as he stands up again, the second alien punches him in the gut, sending him flying across the room. The Assailant slowly gets up, blood spilling from his mouth...

CHAPTER 35

As the NEF fighters join the fight, Rattler quickly returns to the Excalibur to refuel. The flight deck is a hive of activity as techs scramble to rearm or refuel fighters. A Hornet light fighter covered in carbon scoring and missing part of its starboard wing barely manages to land safely.

"Commander!" One of the techs approaches the pilot as he waits for his Rapier. Rattler turns to face the tech. "We got a trooper transport full of marines prepping for launch. Think you can cover their approach to that monster?" "Which one? The Uberweapon or the alien ship?" "The Alien ship sir." "I'll make sure the ground pounders get to play. Besides, Sgt. Apone's got a bad case of Cabin Fever from what I heard."

Rattler gets back into his F-44 Rapier II, and closes the canopy. A Confed shuttle pulls up beside him. The catapult system grabs his fighter, and shoots him out through the airlock. The shuttle follows soon after, with about as much grace as a brick with engines. After several minutes, the trooper transport lands in one of the alien ship's hangers, and Confederation Marines proceed to secure the hanger.

"By the numbers ladies! Let's go! The Corps ain't payin' us by the hour!"

Just as Apone and his Marines reach the door, some of the troops who had boarded the Mothership before them run into the hanger. Apone stops one of the soldiers.

"I'm Sgt. Apone, Confed Marine Corps. Give me a sitrep!"

"Private Jenkins, NEF. This thing's on a collision course with the Uberweapon. We gotta get out of here!"

"God dang it. And we just GOT here. Load up Marines, we're bugging out!"

The NEF soldiers board the Confed Shuttle, followed by Apone's Marines, and the shuttle leaves.

Rattler sees the shuttle leave the hanger shortly after it arrives, and asks the pilot about it.

"This thing's gonna ram the big gun thing out there sir."

The Shuttle makes its way back the Excalibur.

"Apone's gonna be in a bad mood for weeks now..." Rattler mutters.

Eagle Squad, returning to their gunship, also leave the Mothership and head back to the Leviathan, awaiting further developments.

Ty294's gun runs out of ammo. Covered in blood, he charged at one of the beasts, ramming his gun into his skull. The creature grabs the gun from Ty, and kicks the merc into the main bridge window, fracturing it. The Assailant ducked an attack from the second alien, and kicked his legs out from under him. He then drew his mandalorian wrist blade and started stabbing it into the beast on the floor. The second alien picked the Assailant up, and threw him over next to Ty. He looked at Ty, his vision blurred with blood, the Assailant was unsure whether the Merc was alive or dead. He looked up to see the alien again, looking down at him. He waited for it... He knew his life was about to end. Suddenly, the room went dark. The Assailant looked out the window to see the mothership, piloted by a positively gleefull looking Gatekeeper. The Assailant smiled at the sight. He then turned back to the alien, summoned all the strength left in him to kick the alien away, he slid off the console into a kneeling position, facing the window. He grabbed Ty's arm, and raised his wrist launcher at the window. "To the ends of the universe..." He fired the rocket and was sucked out into space with the mercenary, right as the two ships collided, the shockwave propelled the two away from the colliding ships as everything went black...

CHAPTER 36

The Assailant opened his eyes and looked around the room. He was in a medical bay. Ty was next to him, as was the Gatekeeper. Rattler and O'Neill were standing in the room. He sat up.

Patten and the rest of Eagle Squad walk into the med bay of the Leviathan. He salutes the brave men who he fought beside. "Well done, gentlemen. No other hostiles are in sensor range. It seems as if we have won... for now. We fought a good fight. It was an honor to fight by your sides. Well, it seems that the only thing left to do is search for survivors among the wreckage. You are all welcome to stay here for the moment. Contact me if you need anything." Patten walks out of the med bay, heading back to the bridge of the Leviathan. Looking out the windows he whistles and says, "Well it sure was one hell of a fight."

The Gatekeeper rises and turns to the Assailant.

I have one thing to say. After all that we have been through, I don't believe you ever told us your name. If you don't mind me asking, what-" Before he can finish his sentence, he looks up.

"Wait..." A grim expression appeared on his face.

"...I sense Kane is still alive..."

The Assailant, ignoring the Gatekeeper, turned to the Mercenary and extended his hand, "It's been an honor serving with you."

Ty takes the assailant's hand and grasps it firmly.

"Same to you stranger. Tis a shame I won't be collecting that quadrillion credit reward though. Ha ha!"

The Gatekeeper walks out of the room. "All of this... Everything I went through for them... Not even a thank you... Still, serving with Legend was a great honor. Perhaps I can learn from this. Learn to forget what the human race has done to me... That would be nice. Perhaps Legend would be open to forging some sort of alliance. I could help his forces grow stronger, as he could help mine. I'll be sure to ask him tomorrow. In the meantime, I'd better return to the- Oh. Right. There is no Uberweapon to return to. I'll just construct a new one. Better than the others. A TRULY invincible warship! With built in defenses on the inside. Just in case... And I'll concoct a little gift for Patten. He could use a game changing warship of his own..."

Rattler and the rest of the Confed Pilots stand at attention on the Flight Deck of the TCS Excalibur as the leaders of the various faction leaders finish their visit. Captain O'Neill shakes their hands.

"It was an honor to fight by your sides," Captain O'Neill says to the gathered leaders. The Assailant nods, while Deathstrike approaches Rattler.

"I still say you're useless, flyboy." She says.

"Maybe sometime I'll tell you about this big furball I got into in the Lylat System and Vega Sector. You'd like it, lots of nasty creatures and explosions and guns. Not to mention a blue furred fox with a staff taking on a big, nasty monster."

Deathstrike blinks at the mention of a fox, then gives the Terran a feral grin. "Don't get yourself killed then flyboy. I won't be there to pull your useless hide out of the fire."

"Don't forget to duck," Rattler shoots back at her as she returns to her master's side.

Ty294 chats briefly with Patten before sharing some laughs with Rattler and O'Neill. He moves past Darkon, who seems a bit... distant, before facing Deathstrike.

"Nice fight back there." Ty said to her. "I suppose we'll never know who would have won."

"You ran away coward. We both know I would have won."

"Excuses. Always excuses for you Sith. Remember, your master had to come rushing in to save you. Let us leave it at that."

The Mercenary faces the Gatekeeper.

"It's been a pleasure fighting with you friend. I've been with yah for the long haul. You pay good too. Ever need help with anything short of saving the universe again, I'll be there for yah... for a price."

As they board their shuttles, the Confed crew snaps off a salute. It had been a rough fight, but the Expeditionary Fleet had survived. Now, they had to focus on finding a way back to the Milky Way Galaxy, and their own war against the Kilrathi. But that is a story, for another time.

The Assailant grabs the Gatekeeper's arm, "One more thing... Where's my ship?" "I landed it in hangar bay 157. It's still there, untouched."

The Gatekeeper starts to walk away, but then he turns, pulls out a comlink, and says a few words in an unknown insectoid language. He then turns back to the Assailant.

"You humans are weird." he says. He then walks out of the room, and out of sight, just as his comlink crackles to life, and someone replies back in the same insectoid language. They continue to exchange words until he is out of earshot of the Assailant and the others.

The Assailant stands in the doorway and gives one last salute to everybody, "May our paths someday meet again." He winked at a surprised O'Neill, turned, and walked down to the hanger. He sat in the cockpit of his ship and said to himself; "Though I hope to God that they won't..."

THE END