Desmond Gray - How he came to be. (Part 2)

[Desmond Gray]

John, Desmond's AI he built himself, had been flying the ship for a while now while Desmond had caught up on some much needed sleep. He had told John to wake him up when they reached Omicron Zeta, "Sir, wake up." Desmond doesn't respond. "Sir! Wake up!" John says louder through his speaker on the control panel and at that time Desmond wakes up alarmed, "What!? Who's attacking us!? Wait... Oh, are we here already?" he said as he rubbed his eyes and stretched, he didn't get enough sleep.

"Yes sir, we're here. We are about 60k away from the Omicron Iota jump hole." John had already set a waypoint to the jump hole, he started calculating their odds of survival if they were caught by the Nomads. The numbers didn't look good. He decided to tell Desmond, "Sir, if we get caught our odds of survival are 3,720 to 1." Desmond smiles and lets out a small laugh, "Never tell me the odds John. We'll make it but, just in case I have oxygen in the cargo hold that should last until somebody finds us." Desmond was nervous though and John knew it. They both knew, especially Desmond, that this IS a suicide mission but he was determined to hit the Nomads where it hurt. As they get closer to the Iota jump hold John picks up some strange readings on the scanners, "Sir, I'm picking up 2 strange objects on the computers. Large stationary objects, they look like weapon platforms of some kind, I advise you to be careful." Desmond was scared that whatever it was up ahead would kill him before he got through but he had faith that he would make it through. He was great at dodging incoming fire.

"John, keep those cruise engines on and drop some countermeasures if they try to disrupt us. We're going to go through that jump hole as fast as we can."

"Yes sir."

They finally arrive at the jump hole only to be shot at by two massive Nomad weapon platforms. The missile alert on his ship starts to beep and John, remembering what Desmond had told him, dropped some countermeasures to avoid being cruise disrupted. The weapon platforms had some strong turrets, one hit took down a quarter of the shields and as they got hit it would rock the ship like no other, making it hard to keep steady as he tried desperately to dodge all the incoming fire. "Damn it! These things are strong!" Desmond said frantically as he did the best dodging he could do when suddenly John took control of the ship and jolted towards the jump hole, making it through.. "John what the hell do you think you're doing?!" "I'm keeping you alive is what I'm doing so I advise-"
Desmond, clearly angry at John's attempt to help says, "I don't care what you advise, I advise YOU to let ME control the ship." Before exiting the jump hole John takes the ship off autopilot and at that time they reach Iota only to be greeted by another weapons platform already barreling down on them they get hit only a couple times and already the shields were down. Desmond takes control of the ship and kicks in the cruise engines while dodging incoming fire.

"John, get our shields back up but don't use all of our batteries." And John did so.

They make it away from the third weapon's platform. "Weird place this is..." He notices a planet in the distance, "John, know anything about that planet."
John scans the planet, "Not much besides it's name sir. That's GX-1, nothing is known since it wasn't studied. I'm pretty sure only the nomads know about it."
Desmond thought that the planet was pretty important to the Nomads but didn't think too much of it, instead he was worried about what he could blow up with the bomb in the cargo hold. "John, scan the system and find me a target."

John scans the system and finds some sort of Nomad power station near where they were. "Sir I've detected a Nomad power station not far from here, about 50k away. That would be your best bet but it's surrounded by Nomad mines." Desmond shrugs and says, "Well I've dodged a lot of mines before so I don't think I have anything to worry about." John then sets the waypoint for Desmond and they fly to it. About 5 minutes of flying and they arrive, "I can't see a damn thing in this nebu - WOAH!" and just like that he almost died by nearly missing a mine. "John why didn't you tell me there were mines!?"

"I did sir, you never told me to alert you when you got close." Desmond sighs, "Smart ass." There must of been thousands, no, millions of mines all around him and his ship. One false move and he would be spare parts for the Nomads. He was dodging the mines with ease thinking, "Well this isn't a very good defense, I'm easily dodging these things." He must of dodged 500 mines before finally making it to the power station.

"Alright John this is it, let's get close and drop that bomb." as they get closer John remotely activates the bomb, "Sir how long should I set the timer?" Desmond thinks for a moment, "Set it for 7 minutes. That should give us enough time to make it out.... by the way, are you sure that this will put the nomads out or will it just be a slap in the face?" John calculates for a moment, "It's hard to say for sure sir. They ARE a highly advanced race after all." He had a point, nobody really knew for sure how to totally get rid of the Nomads for sure other without killing off almost all of the human race. "Well I guess we'll find out. Drop the bomb John."

"Cargo bay opening... Bomb is dropped and set. 7 minutes until detonation, I advise you to high tail it out of here." Desmond takes one last look at the massive power station before kicking in the cruise engines and making it through the mine field once again.

"Three minutes sir." John says as Desmond cuts the cruise engines. "Sir what are you doing?" Desmond turns his ship around towards where they dropped the bomb to get a clear view of the upcoming explosion, "I want to make sure it will go off." John says nothing, they were out of the blast radius anyways. Desmond waited for what feels like forever. "One minute." John says and then adds, "How do you feel sir?" Desmond was expecting that question and had an answer already though he didn't really know how he felt, "I feel great, after 20 years I finally get pay back."

"10 seconds... 9.... 8.... 7.... 6.... 5.... 4.... 3.... 2.... 1..." No explosion.... He should of at least seen a small glimmer of light coming from the nebula with how big he built that bomb. "John... What the hell is going on?" John didn't even know, "I'm not sure sir... The bomb should of went off but I still have a reading on the power station. I am getting some weird readings on the scanner though." Desmond was about to say something when out of nowhere a Nomad Battleship and dozens of fighters appear out of nowhere right in front of him, "Let's get out of here! John! Keep those countermeasures ready and help me dodge these guys!" He kicks in the cruise engine and heads for the Omicron Zeta jump hole. With dozens of fighters on his tail shooting everything they have at him, the weapon platform that was shooting at them before was holding fire, probably because of the Nomads behind him. They make it through the jump hole and again kick in the cruise engines, the Nomads were right behind him still. "John! Closest jump hole!" John scans the system and finds a jump hole that was undiscovered by them, "I found a jump hole sir but I'm not sure where it -" Desmond, still dodging the best he can says, "I don't care where it leads we're going!!" John sets the waypoint and Desmond makes his way there as best he can.

"Shields down to 50 percent." John said. They were still far from the jump hole, Desmond wondered if this is how he would die if this ship would be his grave or the cold depths of space. "Shields at 25 percent." Desmond concentrated and told John, "Use those shield batteries!" John complied and used what they had left over from before. "No more shield batteries sir, we still have 65 nanobots left though." Good, Desmond thought. "Damn these fighters, do they stop!?" As soon as he said that more appeared in front of him out of the same nebula he was heading into, "Great... I spoke to soon." As he he got closer one of the Nomad fighters shot off a cruise disruptor and even though John let go of some countermeasures it didn't matter, the small missile had hit them and disrupted their cruise engines. "Sir, their disruptors do not seem to target our countermeasures. Probably because they're an advanced race and -" Desmond turns the afterburners on, "Quiet John, let me focus!" Now that his cruise was down he could finally shoot what was in front of him. He armed the guns, targeted one, and when in range let it have everything he had. It only took a few shots to kill one due to his powerful weapons he made himself. He targets the second one and while doing a barrel roll destroys another. He had made enough room to pass through them and make it into the jump hole that they were guarding just outside the nebula.

They make it through to the other side only to be greeted by yet another nomad force, this time a cruiser. Desmond tries to kick in the cruise engines but his attempt was useless, the cruiser had already shot off a disruptor. With the cruiser barreling down on him the Nomad fighters that were chasing him make it through and quickly pick up in the pursuit. "Sir shields at 25 perce -" A missile hits them and dislodges their shield generator off their ship. "Sir... Shields are gone." Desmond had to think quick or else everything he came here for will be for nothing. "John! Our mines! I forgot all about them! Let some go see if we can't get any." John activates the mines and lets them go one by one. The Nomads were now getting hit by mines that seemed to do a lot of damage to them. One gets taken down by a mine, then two, then three. Desmond sees that the mines are working as the hostile ships on scanners blink off one by one until they get smart and aim for his mine dropper. With only a few shots the last defense they had is now gone. Desmond tries to dodge with every move he knows, barrel rolling, strafing, everything but nothing seems to be working.

"Sir our hull is taking a beating. If this is our time I just want to let you know it's been an honor serving you Desmond." Desmond took note of it and says, "You too John. You too." Desmond continues to dodge left and right, up and down before finally hearing the emergency alarm for the engines beep in and out. John chimes in, "Sir, they've taken out our engines. I'm afraid we're now stuck." Desmond was a bit worried, "It's ok we still have our thruster and -" Another missile hits them. "Sir... We just lost our thruster." The ship slowly comes to a halt and gets surrounded by what seemed to be an infinite amount of Nomad ships. They weren't shooting anymore but instead just studying him.

"John... What are they doing?"

"I'm not sure sir but they're not shooting at us anymore."

Desmond sat there wondering what weird and torturous experiments they must be thinking of conducting on him. He sits and waits for them to just destroy him or for the cruiser to tractor his ship into one of the bays and take him back to their home, but instead something different happened. The nomads then just disappear out of sight and off scanners. Desmond was confused yet relieved, "John, what the hell was that about?" John was just as confused as Desmond was. "I'm not exactly sure sir. I think they figured that letting us suffer is better than an instant death." Desmond looked around and noticed he didn't recognize anything about this system.

"John, where are we?" John does a quick scan, "We're in the Omicron Minor system. This was the location of The Order's home base before it was destroyed 20 years ago in the Nomad war. There must be a bunch of ships sitting in space here much like we are." Desmond was determined to not end up like those ships and pilots. He thought of ways to fix his ship then he remembered the nanobots, "John! The nanobots! Will they fix our engine?" John instantly says, "I'm afraid not sir, they are meant to fix the hull. Not the engines. We're stuck, like I said before." Figures... The Nomads must of known that which is why they went for his engines and thrusters. "Right... well, get those nanobots on our hull and see if they can fix the important stuff like leaks from the oxygen lines and your scanner. As long as we stay alive we have a chance of survival."

John releases the nanobots and does some calculations, Desmond takes notice and curiously asks, "John, what are you doing?" John hesitates and finishes his calculations before responding with something Desmond really did NOT want to hear. "Sir our chances of survival went from 3,720 to 1 all the way to 59,215 to .56." Desmond sighs and replies, "Well it's better than zero. Send out a distress signal, maybe somebody will be able to pick up on it and find us. How is our long range transmissions?"

"Our long range transmissions are gone. There's no way anybody out of this system will be able to hear us. They might be able to pick up on the distress signal but even that I cannot say will happen. You have enough oxygen to last you 72 hours." Desmond knew that was not a long time and if nobody found him he'd suffocate here for sure. Desmond says calmly, "Alright... send out that distress signal and pray somebody finds us." John was confused, "Pray?" Desmond smiles and says, "Just a figure of speech John." John sets up the signal and sends it out almost immediately and adds, "Now we pray." Desmond laughs softly as he leans back in his chair and falls asleep.