The Dark Harrs

[Misha_Gottlich]

---

Name: Taden Harrs: "The Dark Harrs"

Origin: Unknown, Liberty Space

Age: ~50

Current Home:H3 Clinic, The CORE

---

Taden Harrs (AKA: The Dark Harrs)

---

The Past

It's the exciting climax of the Nomad Conflict. The battle rages around the Nomad shipyard. Small single pilot fighters and bombers flit between capital ships, dodging fire from alien gunboats while chasing the screaming engines of the Nomad Fighters. Taden Harrs stands rigidly on the bridge of the LSF Syracuse barking orders at his well trained crew. The Syracuse was in top shape and on point, dishing out heavy damage to one of the Nomad Cruisers under construction while her multitude of turrets rained laser death on all alien vessels within targeting range. The combat was intense and Taden was in his element at the command podium.

Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the Syracuse trouble is gathering. The small team of Infected insurgents that has been slowly infiltrating the crew over the port stops on the long journey from Liberty to the outer-rim systems. Now, this group of saboteurs gathered just ahead of the engine bay. They all huddled in a tight group around a complex metallic device that was emitting a faint white light and humming. As the light intensified, so did the humming, until it was a nearly deafening whooshing roar surrounding a blinding light. Then there was a concussive CLAP, knocking all of the alien terrorists flat on their backs in the pitch blackness.

Back on the bridge, totally unaware of the gathering Infected in the pits of his ship, Taden Harrs is in the middle of commanding the crew to begin targeting the next alien cruiser when the deck begins to shudder. Its subtle at first, and Taden thinks it must just be heavy blaster fire, but it's soon apparent that is not the case. The slight shudder slowly becomes a violent shaking of the entire ship, and some strange white light seemed to be coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Then, CLAP... Darkness!

Taden stood at the command podium staring in disbelief... The battle was gone! There was nothing on the outer monitors and view screens but distant stars and the blackness of space! "WHAT THE F*** JUST HAPPENED", he shouted and was met with blank stares and shrugging shoulders. Half a second later, an engineer barreled through the door onto the bridge.

"Captain!", he cried out, "I don't know what happened! Comms are out all over the ship! There was a bright light and a loud noise from the engine bay and then we were all knocked flat on our asses!" The man was hysterical and yelling almost incoherently.

"SUNS HOLEY FIRE!" Harrs yelled as he spun away from the command area and charged down the hallway to the lift. He had to find out how his ship had gotten somehow teleported away from the most glorious combat Taden had ever been in! He got in the lift and punched the keycode for the engine bay. When the lift pod began moving, Taden's personal communicator began trilling. He slapped the comm-bud on his neck and said, "Whats going on?"

"Mutiny, Captain" came the whispered answer. "That man that came in yelling jumped up as soon as you left. He took the bridge hostage with two other crewmen... One of them was the ensign on the comms." The man paused for a moment and Taden held his breath. Then he continued, "I'm hiding in the bulkhead. It was damaged when they were fighting. I'm sorry Captain."

Taden keyed his comm, "Dont say that, you did good Number One, I'm proud of you." Taden thought for a second then spoke very deliberatly so as to be well understood, "You need to get to your personal interface in your quarters Geoffryy", from there you can enter the second command line for the ships self destruct sequence,"

"But sir!", Geoffryy interrupted, "Blow up the ship!?"

"Quiet you nitwit! You'll give away your position! We have no idea how many of these Infected bastards have gotten onboard, but we can't allow them to take control of the ship!" Taden was still speaking in a slow, controlled manner. "We need to destroy the ship. A general alarm will sound when the sequence is initiated and the crew should be able to safely evacuate, but we've got to do this quickly before those alien sympathizing scum take control and reprogram the damn computer!" By the end of his speech, the emotion was too much to hold back and practially shouted the last command at his second in command.

"I understand", said Geoffryy

"Good, get it done and get your ass of the ship! Taden out.", and with that he raced down the hall out of the lift pod strait toward the engineering bay. When he arrived he immediately noticed the smoking hunk of metal that must have been some kind of experimental teleportation device. It was useless to ponder, so he quickly approached the control console and began to input the destruct command. As soon as he entered the command the ships red-alert alarm went off. Geoffrll must have made it to his comm unit safely.

Taden turned to head toward an escape pod when he heard an ear-shattering BANG and his right shoulder exploded with pain! Blood splattered out from the front and back of his shoulder where the bullet passed through shattering his shoulder joint. Harrs fell to one knee and drew his sidearm in one fluid motion. Even with the pain in his shoulder he placed a shot right into the sternum of the Infected insurgent that had come in while he was setting the self destruct. The alien host fell backwards and Taden struggled to his feet. He would have to hurry if he wanted to get out before detonation. He stumbled out of the engine bay into the hallway toward the fighter hangar. He was hurriedly hobbling toward the escape pods when a screaming mad Infected crew mate leapt out from an adjoining bulkhead. The madman was hissing and spit was dribbling off his enraged face as he knocked Taden to the floor with a thick thump. Taden struggled to get out from under the slobbering Infected, but the turncoat stabbed a fist-knife deep into Harrs's leg. Taden screamed out in pain and clubbed his assialant over the head with the butt of his firearm. The man slumped unconscious and Taden heaved himself free. He struggled to his feet and started limping towards the relative safety of an escape pod.

Once Taden reached the lift pod and punched in the hangar level the ship gave a shuddering heave. Taden was tossed up nearly to the ceiling and crashed back down, jarring his bleeding leg. When the lift pod doors opened, Taden spilled out into the hallway like a heavy sack of sand. He struggled up onto his feet and was just starting to move toward the escape pod wing when he noticed the strange lack of action. There was no commotion, no scrambling crew mates trying to get into escape pods before time ran out. Taden stopped for a brief moment to check a wall comm display... "HOLEY Mother of the Stars!" he exclaimed. The countdown timer was a good ten minutes further along than he though it should be! He must have fallen unconscious when he smashed back to the ground in the lift pod. He had only minutes before the ship would detonate! No wonder there was no rushing bodies hurrying to the pods... they had already left minutes ago!

Taden's eyes widened with panic, his heart began to race along with the thoughts in his head. He had to move as fast as he could or he was not going to make it out alive. He pressed on as fast as he could, half limping, half dragging his bleeding leg behind him. As he turned the corner to the escape pod wing his eyes met a scene of pure chaos. Cargo, supplies, weaponry, and even deceased or unconscious crew members were scattered about the floor. As he stumbled forward, looking for an unused escape pod, Taden's foot caught on something hard, jarring him to the floor. He looked down and saw the half open lid of a field med-kit. His heart jumped. Taden reached out and painfully pulled the hardcase over to himself. He quickly flopped it open and began rummaging through the hectic mess within. Eureka! Taden pulled his hand out clutching a med-stim epidural. He wasted no time in jamming the business end into the thigh that was still slowly hemorrhaging blood. A slight wave of euphoria washed over him, but he couldn't let it slow him down. He reset the med-stim and administered another dose directly into his wounded shoulder and cried out in agony as the crushed bone encountered the sharp lancet of the epidural. Taden gritted his teeth and shoved himself to his feet. It was clear that there would be no escape pods left for him to use, so gripping the med-stim in one hand and supporting most of his weight against the wall with the other, Harrs made his way back towards the hangar bay.

By the time he reached the hangar the powerful anesthetic was allowing him to move with a bit more ease, and he was definitely going to need to move. The hangar was another calamitous scene with wrecked Starflyers and Defenders littering the hangar bay floor. He had almost given up hope when Taden spotted an intact Starflyer turned on its side near the far side of the hangar. He shuffled his lame leg over debris and around sparking machine parts and eventually made his way to the overturned ship. Other than being on its side, the tiny ship seemed to be in good condition, and when he keyed the cockpit latch it swung slowly open with a satisfying hissss. Taden was strapping himself into the sideways cockpit when a thought struck him. Who was going to open the hangar bay doors? Years of tactical and practical combat experience flashed through his mind and Taden slammed the hatch shut while keying on the ignition and weapon systems.

The light fighter roared to life around him and he mashed both the throttle and the trigger down as hard as he could. Hot flames spat out of the engine behind him and hot lasers spewed forth in front. The Starflyer skated across the hangar bay floor sending sparks and bits of debris showering in all directions. Laser fire pulsed into the hangar bay doors and Taden struggled to keep them trained on the same spot through the violent acceleration towards his target. As he neared critical distance, Taden thumbed the fighters weapon controls and a Catapult missile flew from the tiny ship. With a massive explosion it impacted the bay doors exactly where he had been training the laser fire and with a tremendous whoosh of decompression the hull was breached. Continuing to spray lasers in an attempt to widen the gap as much as possible, Taden pushed the little bullet of a ship at maximum velocity strait at the whistling hole.

SKREEEAANCH! With a horrendous tearing metal sound, the Starflyer shot out of the minuscule breach in the hangar door. The impact tore off all the stabilizing fins and ripped a giant gash in the main engine. The thrusters sputtered and died out. The tiny ship was spinning uncontrollably with no way to change speed or direction. Taden took a deep breath and administered the last dose from the med-stim straight into his neck. He could feel the drugs from the first two epidurals really kicking in and he was about to start drifting in and out of consciousness, when at a distance of less than one hundred meters, the Syracuse went critical.

The blast drove Taden into his seat with a force over 15G! He blacked out immediately. His craft was nearly ripped apart and if the engines had been active they would have also gone critical and blown Taden into space dust with the rest of the crew left behind on the doomed Syracuse. Instead, the tiny craft was rocket propelled into the unknown blackness of space. Tumbling with no engines, life support barely active, and electrical systems on the bare edge of functional, Taden's limp, bleeding, comatose body hurtles through space on a collision course with destiny...

---

The saga continues... ... ...

---

---