Ghosts of the Past...

[Dab]

Luciaden walked out of the room, stepping over the body of the dead Vahkari.

Such a stupid race. He thought. The Vahkari hadn't even been able to tell who it was that shot its masters. The only thing they had going for them was their size and strength. Nothing a few shots in the chest couldn't defeat.

He made his way to what he thought was the hanger bay. Pausing inside the shadows behind the door to the vast room. Wherever he was, it was definitely a space station. He could see the stars through the air-containment fields.

Great, just as I'd hoped. He looked to the right and spotted his old commando shuttle. Made with some of the darkest crystals that could be found, it was nearly invisible to the black of space. And with extensive anti-sensor equipment. But it had its drawbacks. The crystal used was very fragile, so they had to rely on small size and speed. Barely bigger than a based fighter, it had just the cockpit, engines, and the extra room for the anti-sensor package.

He heard footsteps coming. He stepped a little farther back into the shadows. It was another Vahkari, carrying a huge computer, probably for a ship. He silently walked up behind him and followed it in, his light footsteps couldn't be heard over the Vahkari's heavy footsteps.

As they neared the ship, he stepped out from behind the Vahkari, and shot at the techs moving around the the small ship. One shot hit the back of a C'tan and his gas sack exploded. the wounded C'tan fell to the floor, its tendrils flailing uselessly around. The other techs scattered.

He made a dash for the ship, left open from the technician's observations. He jumped into the seat and pulled the canopy shut. Laser blasts were coming at him as he lifted the ship off the floor. Just missing a large bolt that struck the floor right where the ship had been. Turrets were appearing out of the walls, an inter-defense system obviously.

He drove the ship out of the hanger bays, still sliding the front of the ship in that direction. He slammed on the accelerator, blasting his ship away instantly at hundreds of kilometers and hour.

He was just about to hit the Warp drive lever when a bright blue cone appeared in front of him.

3 C'tan Frigates came through. Long, sleek, ships with broad wings studded with laser batteries. He knew those wings could move about the ship independently, constantly changing the ships profile, and the pattern of gun blasts. Looking more like a luxury vessal it was one of the deadliest weapons he had yet to see.

He immediately began a downward spiral, changing his direction away from it. Unfortunately, in that direction there was a gun platform. Its weapons already blazing away at him. He began a loop back towards the base, changing it to a spiral reverse towards the frigates again.

It came to him that the frigates had yet to find that he was an escapee. Within a few moments however, they would get a call from the base informing them of the situation. He drove hard at the frigate group, aware that their guns would swivel towards him at any moment.

They won't have their own people doing the laborious tasks, such as maintenance. He thought. They would certainly have some lesser beings aboard the crew.

He stretched out towards the middle ship. Looking for anything simple-minded enough to control. He found one, near the engine compartments. Its thoughts were too fuzzy to identify the race, but it responded to his mental demands. He saw in his mind what the being saw. Ah, perfect. He was standing near the energy core. Which supplied the weapons with the energy necessary to fire. He used the being to program a backfire into the weapons systems, so that when they were fired, the energy would double back and feed back into the energy core, forcing an overload. Hopefully it would result in the destruction of the ship.

Almost to the ships now. If he could make it past, he could escape. If they fired, the blast would destroy the middle ship, but he might be caught in the blast himself if he got too close. And there was always the chance of one of the others scoring a direct hit on his ship.


...


Almost at the last second, the three frigates opened fire on him, the middle frigate, however just sat there for a few moments. Then he could start seeing a bright glow of heat on the bulkheads of the engine compartment. Then a blast of fire came out the engines, starting a chain that fed up towards the front of the ship. Fire exploded out of viewports, and parts of the ship flew out. A large chunk the size of a building flew off towards the ship to its port side, bashing through the armor. and gouging a hole where the piece stuck. Just as he thought he was safe, another blue glow appeared ahead and below him.

A dreadnought, a much heavier defended ship than the frigate, but lacking in firepower came out.

It was too sluggish to be able to get in his path as he rocketed away from the exploding frigate. Just as he pulled back the lever he felt a small touch on his mind. Subtle and weak, but there. The touch was like another of his species. Then it was lost as the lever reached its full-back position and disappeared as if it had never been there. The warp drives left no evidence of departure, as if it had just vanished.

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