“Welcome. Glad to have you aboard the Columbia, officer Strauss.”
Ludwig stepped out of the shuttle and into the battleship’s docking bay. It was much more cavernous than he’d expected. It also seemed a tad over-glossy. Gold finish bounced artificial light all over the room; he had to shield his eyes for a moment to let them adjust to the brightness.
“Excuse me, sir,” said someone behind him.
Ludwig turned and took a step back out of the way as the rest of the two-dozen junior officers exited the shuttle. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s hard to see.”
Arthur Vosen, the ship’s captain, stood in front of the gathering with his hands clasped behind his back. His head high and a grin on his face, he waited for the men to fall in line. “Watch those sloppy salutes,” he said. “We’re standing inside the best steel Liberty has to offer.”
When it had quieted down, Captain Vosen nodded to the shuttle pilot and turned around towards the elevators. “Right. With me now. Quickly, please. There’s plenty of time to admire what Liberty taxes can accomplish while we’re moving.”
Ludwig followed like a drooling puppy, intent on soaking everything up. He wished he’d brought a camera. To step foot inside a Liberty Navy battleship was a privilege few even dreamed of.
As they walked, the intercom came to life. “Docking with gate, code Z-21. Destination: Alaska.”
The thought excited and chilled Ludwig at the same time. His career as a Navy fighter pilot patrolling New York had taken him to the edge of Zone 21, though he’d never actually been inside the mine field or near enough to see much more of Alaska’s gate than a vague outline against the Sirius horizon. Like everyone in Liberty, he knew the mine field existed for a reason. Even despite the safety net of a battleship, the idea of finding out with his own eyes what lurked inside Alaska was not a pleasant one by any means.
The group funneled one by one into the bridge overlooking the LNS-Columbia’s bow. As they traveled through the wormhole created by the jump gate, the impressed murmurs of the junior officers were fixed on the Columbia’s massive hull. That changed soon enough. Everyone fell silent when Alaska zapped into existence.
Ludwig’s brow furrowed and his jaw came loose. The whole place looked like it had come out of an industrial swamp. Murky bluish-green clouds floated noiselessly towards the windows. Ice crystals and strange organic material flickered off the ship’s shields like dust. Ludwig recoiled at the thought of what the gaseous mixture would smell like.
“Gentlemen,” said the captain, “this is Alaska. Your superiors saw fit to send you here because they want you all to know the terrain your extended patrols will be delving into. I, on the other hand, agree to these ‘tours’ so that each and every one of you may see with your own eyes exactly what we are… up against.”
An officer in the back Ludwig recognized as his wingman Mark Knight stepped forward and cleared his throat. “We all know you want one of us to ask, so I’ll take your bait, sir. What exactly do you mean by ‘up against’?”
“Well,” said Captain Vosen, “this is the best part, you see, because I can always rely on them to give us an answer at the snap of my fingers.” He raised his wrist com-link to his chin. “Reduce solar shields by fourteen percent.”
At first Ludwig didn’t know what the captain meant, but the muttering of his comrades soon drew his attention to the light trails of purple in the distance through the windows. The tiny, translucent ships were almost impossible to see, but once spotted they were unmistakable.
“Nomads,” someone whispered.
It didn’t take long for the alien craft to realize there was an enemy ship in their midst. Their engine trails turned to small dots as they made 90-degree turns and sped right towards the Columbia. Some of the junior officers comforted themselves by standing behind chairs or counters, as though objects made out of weak metal would protect them from the nomad laser fire.
“You needn’t panic,” the captain said. “Our shields can outlast nomad fire indefinitely.”
Like rain, streaks of violet careened into the Columbia. Spots where the lasers hit turned white and dispersed into nothingness without accomplishing so much as a scratch to the ship’s hull.
“Look well, gentlemen,” said Vosen. “While this ship we stand in can outlast the nomads, your fighters and bombers cannot. The only way to defeat a nomad is to outmaneuver him. You have to be a bloody good pilot, or you’re toast.”
Ludwig watched the aliens in silence. The truth was that he’d known about the nomads for quite some time. Most non-civilian pilots in Liberty knew about them, too. That said, it was something else entirely to be eye to eye with a nomad Assassin fighter. He prayed his time here on the LNS-Columbia would be the last time he ever had to be.
“Transmission to all Navy pilots within range of Norfolk, do you copy? This is Godfather, over.”
Ludwig switched channels. “Copy, Godfather. This is Hitman-two-six, do you read me?”
“We read you, Two-six. We have a breach of Z21. Perpetrator is under the call sign ‘Yankee Scourge.’ Probably a smuggler, but be advised he’s likely armed and highly dangerous.”
“Copy that,” Ludwig said. “En route.” He engaged his cruise engines and tore off towards the south-bound trade lanes. Everything was set up before he even arrived; the trade lane engines had been given clearance in advance by HQ. Ludwig’s Avenger shot straight and into the lane without him ever having to disengage his cruise.
“One,” Ludwig said to himself. He passed the second lane on the way to the Texas jump gate. “Two.” A split second before blasting past the third lane, he undocked, wobbled to the side of the trade lanes for a moment, and sped off towards Zone-21.
The mine field slowly came into view. It started as a cloud of gray debris, and then the ominous forms of individual spikes loomed out of the haze. Ludwig squinted out of his cockpit, trying to find the small gap in the field that was the path to the jump gate. He could only pray he was on the right course because, if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t live long enough to know about it.
“Godfather, this is Hitman-two-six. What is the last reading on Yankee Scourge’s position, over?”
“Two-six, our short-range sensors on Z21’s gate indicate the suspect is attempting to dock.”
“Roger that, Godfather. Shall I engage?”
“Fire at will, Two-six. Over and out.”
As soon as the Avenger cleared the mine field his sensors picked up the ship. “Yankee_Scourge” flashed in red on the screen. Ludwig locked on and drew within scanning range. He saw the results on screen for just the blink of an eye before the smuggler disappeared into the gate’s abyss.
Ludwig gawked at the screen. It took him a moment to realize he was sitting still as the smuggler got away.
“Godfather, this is Hitman-two-six,” he finally said. “My scans read a Pirate Transport. Suspect wields Outcast weapons and is carrying… food. Repeat: He’s apparently smuggling four metric tons of food, over.”
The channel with HQ stayed silent for a moment before opening up again. “Copy,” said Godfather. “Engage and destroy at once.”
Ludwig blinked. Had he just heard that?
“Wait, what? He just docked with Alaska. Is that an order to pursue?”
“Confirmed, Two-six. Time is of the essence.”
Ludwig shook his head. “Godfather, you’re aware the suspect is only carrying food, over?”
“Copy, Two-six. Over and out.”
Ludwig continued shaking his head. Part of him felt enraged, the other scared to the point of soiling himself. His hand shook so much that it took a moment to engage the cruise engine and head to the jump gate.
___________________________________________
It sensed the ship. Immediately it changed course from a rather arbitrary patrol around the corona of Alaska’s star and swam through the gloom towards the human-built jump hole. The mindshare’s overpowering will coursed through it like ever-momentous energy. Anger flooded its neural network. There were humans here now. There were feelings to make sense of… defilers to free.
The nomad’s weapons charged up as it drew closer. This hostile was large and bulky, built for a beating. Much agility was necessary in designing the destruction of this vessel.
There were other strategies at its disposal, too. First and foremost, it knew of the fear these humans harbored for it and its kind. To rely on that fear was to aid in victory.
Accordingly, the nomad released its emotions unto its prey. Visions of light swam out and into the human’s mind, but what he saw was not the treasured light of the Keepers; rather it was one of his approaching liberation. He saw in his mind the spark that would forever eclipse his life with a shower of heat and disorganized metal.
*** Defilers… darkness. ***
*** The light, the music… We dance. ***
*** Defilers… no dance. ***
_________________________________________
Ludwig felt the chill. He was starting to hyperventilate in his mind. Every second he spent alive in Alaska was a second granted to him by the devil himself. He’d patrolled in Alaska many times already, but it was always under the wing of pilots more experienced than himself. Human craft were outgunned and out-piloted by nomad craft just… by default. Adding outnumbered to that equation was not a recipe for survival.
Ludwig turned off his radio. “Godfather,” he whispered to himself, “I’m terrified as hell, over.” He chuckled and advanced into the green cloud.
The pirate transport wasn’t visible to the human eye, but Ludwig could see the red icon through the cockpit. He switched his outgoing signal to the local channel.
“Pilot under the call sign ‘Yankee Scourge,’ you are hereby ordered to cut your engines and standby. You have 30 seconds to comply, or I will use deadly force.”
The radio crackled. “Say what? Who is this?”
“This is Liberty Navy officer Ludwig Strauss. I have direct orders to stop your ship at all costs. 20 seconds remaining before I engage.”
“Woah, buddy, what’s going on?”
Ludwig rolled his eyes. It was a common smuggler ploy to keep talking to law enforcement in order to stall time. Low and behold, the smuggler had not yet cut his engines, either.
Ludwig said nothing until he figured another ten seconds had gone by. “Ten,” he said into the radio. “Nine.”
“Woah, come on now, are you crazy? What exactly do I need to cut my engines for?”
“Stop your engines or I’ll fire! Your life isn’t worth a few tons of food. Now for God’s sake, stop!”
Ludwig waited, but not long. “Firing cruise disruptor.” He halted his own cruise engines and launched the missile 2.2 clicks out from the target. The moment the launcher discharged, he jammed on his thrusters and shot straight forward. Although large, jagged, spiky icicles got in his way, they weren’t large enough to stop an Avenger at full throttle. Ludwig blew through them like a buzz saw. The transport was too large for its thrusters to carry it away from the scene at the same speed Ludwig was moving towards it, so it was more or less disabled. The Avenger closed in at a rate of 70 meters a second. He charged his shield busters as well as another disruptor in case the smuggler tried to start his engines again.
“Engaging.”
Ludwig flew his Avenger straight for the transport’s rear. He compressed the trigger on his shield busters… and then something strange happened: The cockpit went purple.
Ludwig blinked, and as quickly as the image had come, it was gone. Startled, he looked down on his computer terminal to find that an additional hostile had been registered. He started to shake again.
The nomad circled the two ships, trying to prioritize targets. The weapon array on board the larger one was consistent with a neutral variant of humanity. As it had earlier noted, it was almost certainly not a ship built for combat. It was less threatening than the other ship, so the logical next step was to change targets.
At the time the smaller ship had come within range, it had been flying in a pattern consistent with pursuit after the larger ship. Presently, it floated off to the side, having been temporarily caught off guard by the nomad’s telepathically-induced hallucinations. Indeed, there was much fear present. The nomad examined the pilot’s brainwaves and determined quite quickly that the pilot already had knowledge of the Keepers. This pilot had knowledge of those who sought to bring Light unto the world, and yet at the same time he seemed determined that these same saviors were enemies.
This made things quite simple. An enemy of the Light was an enemy to all. It broke off from the larger ship and opened fire on the smaller one.
“Christ!” Ludwig shouted. By the time he’d realized the lone nomad intended a fight, his shields were already gone. He broke off from the smuggler in a barrel roll to the left. The move was effective in momentarily evading the nomad’s aim, but the last on-target laser sliced off the turret on the top of the Avenger’s dorsal fin. Ludwig took advantage of the fact that nomads had no explosive ammunition and dropped two mines behind him before thrusting off another 50 meters, engine killing, and snapping around.
Although the nomad swerved in-between the mines almost effortlessly, it afforded Ludwig just enough time to regain some shield. He charged up his Vengeances and let loose.
It felt a twang of anger – or annoyance, more like. The element of surprise was gone, which meant the difficulty scale of the fight had just gone up considerably. The human’s weapons achieved low damage, but they fired at a rate more frequent than was desirable in a fight.
It ducked and weaved, letting ice formations take the brunt of the human’s firepower. That tactic succeeded until the human used an explosive material projectile to blast all the ice in the nomad’s immediate radius. Blue laser fire slammed into its nose. Disoriented, it turned and withdrew into the clouds for a new analysis of the situation. The human craft, meanwhile, set course for the larger ship once more.
The song had to continue. It readjusted course and flew parallel to the humans. The larger ship had gone ahead a little, but it appeared to be slowing down again due to the smaller ship’s cruise-disrupting abilities.
*** The light, we see… ***
*** Defilers lurk… Defilers… resisting… ***
It charged back into the battle, making short work of the smaller ship’s shields once more. This time, the human seemed to be ready. He manually recharged his shields as soon as they’d gone down and broke off the chase, turning towards the nomad.
At full thrusters, both craft bore down towards the other, hammering away at the other’s hull. The human’s vessel was far less maneuverable than the nomad’s, which served quite an advantage in this contest. The nomad dodged most of the incoming fire and leveled almost all of its own against the enemy. The human’s shields evaporated yet again, and this time his ship suffered additional damage.
Sensing one of the human craft’s wings floating away from the ship to which it belonged pleased the nomad. It felt warmth rejuvenate its thoughts, just the morale booster it needed to take down an uncooperative desecrator.
*** We dance… ***
*** Defiler… must be free… ***
__________________________________________
The mental terror that the nomad had at its disposal was enough to leave Ludwig weeping in panic all by itself. The fact that the nomad was actually attacking him just made things harder. The nano bots could only repair so much – there weren’t even close to enough to undo the damage suffered to his right wing. Even though spacecraft rarely had to take aerodynamics into account, in a cloud as dense and enormous as this one, there was enough gaseous mass to affect the way Ludwig’s ship flew. With one of his wings out of commission, the Avenger performed like a wounded insect, wobbling to and fro as it turned to face the nomad ship. Ludwig didn’t know how he managed to hold back the tears in his throat, but he imagined part of it had to do with the fact that he was unable to make himself think about anything but survival at this point. The smuggler was gone from radar. If he died here, it would all be for nothing.
Ludwig stared at the faceless nomad fighter. “Come and get me.”
They charged in a straight line, but only for a moment. Ludwig decided to try something different. He waited for the nomad to kill his shields and used the last of his battery to give them one final boost. Instead of continuing to joust, however, he released three nuclear mines and let go of the stick, allowing the Avenger to tumble headfirst into an elongated icicle.
It worked. The shield stayed firm and bounced the Avenger off the ice and into the opposite direction. The nomad apparently didn’t see such an unorthodox strategy coming, perhaps because it was a long shot to even call the move a “strategy” in the first place. In any case, Ludwig knew it had worked because the nomad’s ship registered damage on screen. Quite a lot of damage, actually. According to the computer, the nomad’s hull was at eight percent functionality.
____________________________________________
*** Darkness, silence… ***
*** … (Confusion)… ***
*** The mindshare…? Lost! ***
*** No dance… ***
That had not gone according to plan. It recoiled from the series of explosions not remembering even the faintest sliver of what had just happened. All it knew was that it hurt. The darkness threatened to ensnare everything. The mindshare was… hiding. Distraught and hopeless, it lashed out at the minds of those it could just scarcely sense. Hallucinations were its only defense. There was no Light to cradle it anymore.
It floated, waiting for the final lashing of the darkness that so closely loomed. But nothing came. The Light it still clung to was faint but alive. Alive! The Light had not yet been extinguished.
And it would not be – not ever. It would return to the source, rekindle its connection, and it would be back here to burn the darkness away. The defilers would know no rest for the sins they committed.
*** The music… will continue…***
________________________________________________
It took a long time for Ludwig to steady his breathing. He couldn’t believe he’d lived to see himself celebrating the defeat of a nomad. He watched the translucent purple ship sink back into the clouds towards Alaska’s star, trying to decide if he should follow it or not. Eventually he realized it was utter foolishness to follow a nomad anywhere simply because it was likely that, wherever one nomad lurked, more would lurk as well.
“Godfather, this is Hitman-two-six. I attempted to engage Yankee Scourge but was forced to break off by a lone nomad vessel. The nomad has been disabled, but my ship has taken severe damage. I have no shield batteries or repair bots and must return to base at once, over.”
“Copy that, Two-six. We’ve blockaded all known exits out of Alaska. Yankee won’t make it out of there alive. Return to base, and first round’s on us. Over and out.”
Ludwig breathed a sigh of relief and started back for the New York jump gate.
Anyone may feel free to leave comments. Thank you for reading.