I jerked awake with possibly the biggest headache I’d ever had. Looking around the room, I shook my head. What in the hell was going on?
“Damn,” I said, “that was a strange dream, though I have to admit that holo-gram of Rommie was sexy as hell.”
A large shimmering beside my bed turned into Rommie. With a giggle she said, “Why thank you Captain John Thomas.”
I almost fell out of bed when the image, I only thought I had dreamed, appeared next to me.
“Shit!” I said, then immediately apologized. “I thought that you and everything that happened was just a dream.”
“No sir, it was most definitely real. I have analyzed everything that has occurred since all five Captains appeared. The removal of them has eased the amount of critical energy build-up. The return of the weapon to Captain Reynolds’ reality has lessened it even more. I am afraid that the last four need to be removed soon. They are also causing a buildup, though slower.” Rommie said.
I sighed just like my luck, now I had no choice in the matter. Plus, I had a feeling that the next few weren’t going to be as easy as the last.
“Have you been able to effect repairs,” I asked Rommie.
“Yes sir, though if I might suggest? Since you created the ship, perhaps you should make it stronger? I had thought that the material you made it from was strong. They had managed to direct more than one energy weapon to the same spot,” Rommie said.
I nodded as she told me all her ideas. A moment later, I was onboard the shuttle/ship. I looked over the ship, the length, the engines, the power units, then finally the weapons.
I looked toward Rommie. First, I changed what the ship was made of, making it three times stronger. I then doubled the power of the engines, tripled the power and spread of the energy and physical weapons. For some strange reason, I lengthened the ship by twenty feet, adding a small sleeping room.
“Alright, I hope that will help us more when we go against these Magog in Hunt’s universe.” I took a last look at my place then closed up, thinking of orbit we were there instantly.
I then reached for Hunt’s Gauss gun, like before a huge portal opened, I felt the ship accelerate. I also watched the portal close behind us as we moved faster through the tunnel.
Less than a minute later, we shot out of the tunnel, almost in the middle of a battle. A large ship was being attacked by what looked like a swarm of beetle-like ships.
“This is the transport Hung’va, we are under attack by a swarm of Magog. I leave this last message for my mates, we will self-destruct in several sec’tons,” I heard a voice say from the com.
I growled as I watched the Magog slowly ripping the ship apart. “We have the power to take them?” I asked.
“All power units are at ninety-eight percent,” Rommie reported.
“Good,” I said, “go to stealth, take out as many as possible.”
I watched as Rommie fired our energy weapons, destroying at least a hundred. This, of course, had the Magog stop their attack as they realized that they had a serious threat facing them.
The hesitation was all I needed, Rommie fired again, taking at least another hundred. Now the Magog were trying to locate where in the hell this new threat was. They were firing at both places the ship had been, most of them moving away from the other ship.
“Alright Rommie, if I remember right, they have something like a galvo-resonant scan. Can they detect us with it?” I asked.
“No sir,” Rommie said, “their scans pinpoint a certain type of particle. Our stealth renders all light waves and particles from all visible spectrums.”
I nodded my head as I let what she had said sink in. A moment later, I actually understood.
“Might I suggest that we destroy the rest before they call for reinforcements,” I told Rommie.
A few moments later, several beams left our ship, leaving the rest of the Magog swarm as debris.
“Open a channel to the other ship,” I told Rommie.
“Channel open,” Rommie replied.
“To the ship that was attacked by the Magog, are you able to move?” I asked.
“Not sure who this is, if your intention is to take my ship I advise against it,” the male-sounding voice came from the com.
“Understood, do you need assistance out of this area?” I asked the other ship.
“Yeah, that might help, though I have a long way to go,” the voice said.
“Send me the coordinates, I should be able to get you there fast,” I told the other ship.
“OK,” the other ship said as it sent the star-coordinates.
“Might I suggest you secure everything before we go,” I advised the other ship.
“OK, I’ll let you know as soon as we are ready,” The other ship said, then disconnected.
While we waited, I went over everything on the ship. “Are you sure that the trans-warp actually works?” I asked Rommie.
“Yes sir, everything that you described to me is working at optimum levels. I have already plotted a course to the coordinates. It shouldn’t take more than a minute,” Rommie told me.
Almost an hour later, the other ship called. “Alright, we are secure, we are prepared for the six-week trip.”
I smiled as I looked at Rommie, “tractor them as close as possible,” I told Rommie.
“I have them, bringing them in now, all ready sir, all systems green,” Rommie said.
I heard a wind up from the engines, a huge portal opened before us, then we shot into it.
I could hear the other ship screaming over the com., then we started through the trans-warp conduit. Less than a minute later, we emerged a great distance from a blue-grey world.
“We have arrived sir,” Rommie told me.
“Open a channel to the other ship, I asked Rommie.
“Com is open,” Rommie replied.
“Is this close enough or do you need to be closer?” I asked.
“Uh, uh, uh,” came from the com. “A little closer, how? It was only a very short time.”
“We are not from here,” I told the other ship as we rapidly closed on the planet. “If you see High Guard Dylan Hunt, please tell him we are seeking him.”
“For what you have done for us we will. You should know that you are now probably the number one threat to the Magog,” the other ship said. ” I am afraid that they will be seeking you. Though at the moment, that remains to be seen. Watch yourselves out there. “
“We will,” I said as we shut the stealth down, then went to warp, almost flashing out.
I walked to the data input board then started to type rapidly. I stopped suddenly as I realized that I could do this far faster. Looking at the screen, I watched as almost all the data appeared at one time. Rommie’s eyes went wide, “Well, that certainly saves a lot of time. Yes, I see, I have set the sensors for the Andromeda,” Rommie said.
Far out from where we were, nearly on the opposite side of the Galaxy, another swarm of Magog arrived. The leader of this section of Magog, looked at where we had destroyed the first swarm. Scanning the area, the leader and a great many, couldn’t believe the complete destruction of their ships.
A strange and extremely powerful energy weapon reading was scanned from every destroyed ship. Immediately, the leader contacted the hive mind. [We have arrived at the site of the swarm; all ships are destroyed.]
From the hive-like mind came the feeling of shock, [how many enemy ships were destroyed] the mind asked.
[There are none here, all the swarm ships are showing a very powerful energy weapon that destroyed them. There is also an unknown propulsion energy, the readings are far above the instruments to measure.] The leader thought.
[Gather what you can, return with these readings. We must prepare, if this is truly a threat to the Spirit of the Abyss.] The minds said.
This actually worried the leader. They had lost swarms before, though never without some of the enemy being destroyed with them. Then there was the possible threat to the Spirit of the Abyss. The leader shook more. Leaving his second in charge, the leader’s ship streaked out of the area.
The second’s eyes were large. Something bad was happening, the fact that the leader left didn’t bode well. Then there was the complete destruction of the swarm.
The second continued to take readings then, finding that there had been a transport ship here. Where had it gone? From what it saw, the transport had nowhere the amount of power it would take to destroy a swarm.
A few moments later, they received orders to follow the strange power readings that the leader had detected. The thing was that the trail went out for a long way beyond their sensors.
I and Rommie were heading back out, towards where we had saved the ship. We weren’t far from it when Rommie appeared, “I am detecting another group of ships like the first that we destroyed. Shall I observe a defensive posture?” Rommie asked.
“Yes, perhaps we can find Dylan if we follow them,” I told Rommie.
It was almost ten hours later when Rommie woke me up, “Sir? I have the group of ships approaching a much smaller group of ships. I am afraid that all the first group have activated their weapons.”
“If they attack and the small group is in trouble, start taking them out,” I told Rommie.
“Yes sir, all weapons charged, all missiles are ready. I have a full complement,” Rommie said.
I knew I should have just attacked, though, I had seen the Magogh actually by-pass small groups. Less than an hour later, almost a thousand Magog ships started to fire on the small group.
“Alight, take as many as you can with the first volley,” I told Rommie. She started to fire, huge amounts of the Magog ships then started to vanish. We’d taken almost half when they stopped their attack, turning back toward where we were. Rommie had moved the ship, then started to fire missiles. There weren’t more than a hundred left when they started to attack the small group that had tried to move away.
“What they hell! You’d think they would know that they were defeated,” I told Rommie.
“From the information I have, they never stop, they think that their god will protect them. We will have to destroy all of them, to stop them.” Rommie said.
I sighed, then nodded, “alright, let’s finish this.”
Onboard the lead ship, the second in command sent a message. “Leader, we have encountered an invisible threat. None of the scans can detect it. I die knowing I did all I…” the message went, then stopped short.
With that, Rommie started to use all the energy weapons, the number of ships rapidly diminished. I looked at the huge field of floating debris, though necessary. I still had a really bad taste in my mouth.
I heard cheering from the small group of ships. “Who may we say has saved us?” Came a voice over the com from the ships.
“A friend, please tell High Guard Dylan Hunt if you see him that a friend is seeking him out,” I told the other ships.
“We will friend, we will,” the other ships said, then pulled away.
“Sir?” Rommie said. “I am detecting the energy of the Andromeda ship from them. I’d say it was a few weeks ago.”
“The problem is that the slipstream that Andromeda uses is almost one twentieth as fast as the trans-warp. Though not as fast, it still makes the Andromeda a lot harder to find,” I advised Rommie.
“Hmmm, I see your point, well having those tell him we are looking for him. Plus, the destruction of so many Magog should attract him, don’t you think? Rommie asked.
“I am hoping so, plus I hope that with so many Magog destroyed. It will also help to rid this reality of a rampaging, warlike race,” I told Rommie.
Rommie was nodding as I signaled her to start going in the direction the small group of ships had come from.
For a while, we didn’t seem to encounter any ships, then the destruction started to appear. Tens of thousands of ships were now debris, along with even more bodies floating in space. Well, more like many parts of many bodies.
I tried not to get mad, angry or enraged as I looked at the carnage. In my opinion, I had done this reality a service destroying as many as I had.
I shook my head, if I started feeling like this, I was going to be here a hell of a lot more time than I had. I mean, as I remember, this was actually nothing compared to the total number of them that there were. No, this was nothing for the Magog they could replace these in what? A few weeks? I felt like nothing I did here would actually make a difference.
Rommie appeared a moment later, “I have a weak reading on the Andromeda. It was actually through here not more than a few weeks ago. I am projecting her path, including her slipstream entrances.”
“Good,” I said, “hopefully, that will enable us to find her a hell of a lot sooner.”
“I concur”, Rommie said, “The sooner we return it, the sooner the Earth is safe.”
Now then, we just have to move onward to find Andromeda.
Almost two days later, the leader returned, his ship coming out of slipstream. The meeting he’d had with the hive mind had actually left him worried. This was a condition he was unused to, that and… A few moments after he arrived, he received the message from his second. “Leader we have encountered an invisible threat. None of the scans can detect it. I die knowing I did all I,” the second said.
A check of his tracking showed it had come from deeper into the Nietzschean unity. They were formidable though not completely. His race was starting to cut them away piece by piece.
A shake of his, the leader set a course for the slipstream, he needed to find his command. With a slight turn, the leader’s ship accelerated into the slipstream.
With what they considered a smile, the leader entered the slipstream. That smile slowly started to erode the closer he got to the slip-stream exit. If his second had tried to gain control, he would have him spread and flayed.
Almost to the exit, the leader started to worry more. Not only wasn’t the second answering, none of the swarm was. Finally out, the leader only went a few thousand more miles, his mouth open at the destruction. The entire swarm of a decent size, not a single ship was left. There was nothing but a hugely massive debris field.
With an almost uncontrollable shaking in his body, the leader again contacted the hive mind. I have arrived at the location of my swarm. They are all destroyed, there are no survivors, no enemy ships.
[Send what readings you have, compare them to the last set.] Came the hive mind’s thoughts.
[I started that as soon as I arrived. I also had a very disturbing last message from my second,] (“Leader, we have encountered an invisible threat. None of the scans can detect it. I die knowing I did all I,”) [I received nothing after that, if this is true, we have a deadly threat.] Came the leader’s thoughts.
[This we are well aware of. Use every scan at your disposal, perhaps your systems can detect this new threat. Our spies have not indicated that the Nietzschean unity nor any other of the groups have this amount of power.] The hive mind’s thoughts said.
[I will do all I can to discover who and what this new threat is. Glory be to the Spirit of the Abyss.] The leader said.
[Glory to the Spirit of the Abyss. We will contact you soon, remain vigilant, we will be delivered to the glory of the Spirit of the Abyss it is our destiny.] The hive mind said.
We hunted following the slipstream, though it seemed as if we were on a wild goose chase. Every time we seemed to get close, the trail faded too almost nothing. It was a few days later that I noticed that there was an odd pattern starting to appear. I had Rommie act upon it. We actually got within a day, then it faded again.
We had back-tracked quite a ways. We were where we had gotten the strongest trail from. Again, we started to follow what I thought was the trail from Andromeda.
Both I and Rommie were ready to celebrate when we came upon the Andromeda in orbit around a blue planet. I had started to contact it, when I saw several explosions coming from the planet.
The worst thing I saw though was the enormous fleet of swarm of Magog ships. They were coming around the back side of the planet. I watched as Dylan and the Andromeda put up weak shields, then proceeded towards the advancing Magog swarm fleets.
I wasn’t sure if my interacting with the swarms here would make a difference, though something was better than nothing.
“Rommie, charge all weapons, arm all missiles, I want to destroy as many as I can,”I told Rommie, clenching my fists.
“Sir,” I heard Rommie a few moments later, “can you destroy any with your mind? I noticed that you did that while you were on your planet of earth.”
I started a moment, watching as at least two hundred ships vanished in front of us. I also noticed that the Magog were starting to overwhelm the Andromeda.
I remembered this from the show. The Magog had invaded the Andromeda, killing four thousand crewmen as they tried to evacuate.
“Not going to happen,” I said in a whisper. I then had Rommie destroy everything closer to the Andromeda. “Rommie, can you extend our shield around the Andromeda?”
“Affirmative, it will delay recharge on energy weapons,” Rommie informed me.
“It’s alright just keep firing as much as you can,” I told her as I watched as more and more swarm ships were destroyed. Problem was they kept coming and coming from the back side of the planet.
We had kept firing, though I could see that the energy weapons were taking longer to fire. I noticed that Dylan’s ship was also low on energy.
“Can we move at all?” I asked Rommie.
“We can, though not sure if we can extract Andromeda with us,” Rommie responded.
“Do it, doesn’t do to destroy this many, then die,” I told Rommie.
Onboard the Andromeda, Dylan Hunt was almost in shock. Here he thought he would be able to destroy a great amount, then escape. He hadn’t realized that there were nearly as many as there were here.
Then there was the fact that the ship was intact. Add to that, there were so many Magog ships that were now debris.
Rommie had analyzed the shield that was now covering them. It was by far the strongest that he’d ever seen. Then, too, there were the weapons, the shields and the weapons seemed very familiar.
Rommie appeared a moment later, “Dylan, we seem to be caught in some type of attraction force. I am unable to break away from it, it is almost comparable to the force of the event horizon.”
Dylan started to move his hand with a finger extended, “as soon as we are free get us out of here. I have heard of something like this, though the weapons are very familiar.”
“We are moving away far faster than the Magog can follow,” Rommie told me.
“Good I said release Andromeda and..” I started, then stared with my mouth open when Andromeda entered a slip-stream.
“Follow them Rommie,” I said.
“Unable to comply,” Rommie said.
“What!? Why the hell not?” I shouted.
“At the moment we have insufficient power for even warp. The extending of our shields taxed the engines. At present we are at twenty percent, barely enough for life support, shields and sub-light engines.”
OK, I thought, then I felt my anger start to grow. Then I felt it start to surge higher.
“Warning, warning, body energy output reaching ninety, ninety-one. Internal temperature starting to rise,” I barely heard Rommie say.
Between clenched teeth I said, “I know shut up!”
I had turned toward the viewscreen, feeling my power climbing higher than I’d ever felt it. All I could see was red as I stared at the Magog that were trying to catch me. “GO AWAY!” I growled, then was surprised when every Magog ship all the way to the planet vanished. That’s when I discovered I had pushed WAY too far, then I faded to the floor.